Manhattan
"That's just gross." Alex Russo was eyeing her parents, who had been preparing to share an intimate moment, with mounting disgust.
"Definitely." Justin, her brother, agreed. "Can't you two take it to the bedroom or something?"
"Justin!" Alex slapped her brother. "I occasionally walk in that room. I don't want to have to worry about…ugh! I'm scarred" Alex rolled her eyes at her parents and walked off towards the kitchen.
"Sorry, kids, but we thought you were out seeing a movie." Theresea apologized while disentangling herself from her husband.
"Yeah," Jerry added, "what're you kids doing back so early?" Jerry eyed his daughter with a healthy level of suspicion.
"Well, we would have, if somebody hadn't needed to use the money mom and dad gave her for movies on a new pair of shoes!" Justin glared at his sister with pure venom.
"What? Oh, honey, what have we talked about? You really need to cut back on the spending." Theresea got up and walked towards her daughter.
Just then, the door crashed open and four wizards wearing full black robes with skull masks walked slowly into the room.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Jerry Russo." The lead one started. He looked over quickly at Alex who was reaching towards her wand and shouted "Don't even think about it." Alex stopped.
"Dad, who are these…" Justin started but was quickly silenced by his mother.
"What is this? Payback? You'll never get away with this. You're leaderless and powerless. When Albus gets wind that you're acting again…" but one of the Death Eaters, a female, started laughing.
"Dear, dear, Jerry. Do you honestly think that the Dark Lord would be gone forever? He's back, my friend. We're back. And we decided to pay you a little visit. How's that sound?" The rest of the Death Eaters were spreading out around the apartment, blocking exits out of the room. Jerry desperately looked around, trying to find some way to get his family to safety. He was fairly confident he could have gone toe-to-toe with any of them. Possibly two when he was younger. But four fully trained killers all the while trying to keep his family safe was too much to ask. Alex was too young to be expected to contribute. Theresea couldn't do any magic. Thankfully, Max wasn't here. The only one who could help at all was Justin, and he wouldn't last more than five minutes in this kind of fight. He'd have to knock one out fast, start up a fight with the other three and hope Justin could keep the third one occupied long enough for Jerry to take out one of his opponents and then pick up a fight with the last two. And then he'd just have to hope he could either outlast them until help arrived or try and run for it. If he could knock one out quickly. If he could hold his own against two of them. If Justin realized what he needed to do. Just too many damn ifs.
"What do you want? Money? My silence? You've got it. You've got anything. Just, please, don't" he raised his wand and sent a curse headed right at the woman. She deflected it and closed in to start her duel. Justin, following his father's lead, pulled out his wand and started battling the wizard nearest the doorway. Within a few seconds though, the Death Eater hit Justin in the chest squarely with Avada Kerdavra, suddenly ending the boy's life.
Theresea screamed and rushed for her son, but she too was quickly cut down. Alex stood mouth agape, wand loosely held in her hand. The Death Eater nearest the door looked at her, leveled his wand, and ended her life too. He looked over and saw that Jerry had been overpowered by his three comrades.
"Well, Jerry, this is it. Your family's dead, and you're about to join them. Guess you picked the wrong side, eh?" The woman cackled. The male who was responsible for the three kills so far walked over towards the counter and looked down at a picture. "Hey, uh, Alecto…who's this boy?" He handed her the picture.
"Oh, Amycus, you've done well. Looks like there's one more Russo to deal with, hm? What's his name, Jerry?" She taunted at the wandless and badly injured Russo.
"Don't you hurt him you-" But what exactly she was never came out, for Alecto had decided to end his tirade with a simple killing curse.
"Now then, the Dark Lord wants all of the Russos dead. This is standard procedure work here. I'm going to go report our work to the Dark Lord. You three stay here and clean this mess up. Make it look like an ordinary Muggle killing. We don't need any unwanted attention. When the boy gets home, kill him, then come and join up with me. Amycus, you're in charge." And with that, Alecto Dissapparated back to her master.
Elsewhere in Manhattan – an hour before the Russo's murders
"Yeah, Theresea, I can watch Max for a few hours after practice today. No, really, it's no problem. Oh, you're certainly welcome. I'll see you later today then." Jake hung up the phone. Though they weren't related, Theresea had known Jake so long that she actually felt like an aunt. Though he was only 19, and thus only a few years older than their eldest son, Justin, he had always helped look after the kids, especially their youngest, 12 year old Max, whenever they needed.
Jerry, her husband, didn't really like him though. Jake didn't much blame him for that either. It's not that he was a bad guy. He wasn't. He just happened to have the job of a bad guy and work for other bad guys. Jerry suspected that he killed people, and, though Jerry was wrong, it wouldn't be a completely unwarranted suspicion considering Jake's line of work. Jake was a smuggler of dangerous and otherwise illegal magical objects. Most of them Dark, and all of them exceedingly dangerous. On the side, he sold illegal items to eccentric wizards who needed just a bit of mystery for their new mansion ("Oh yes, this is a dragon egg"). His main export, however, tended to be through a collection of very Dark wizards, smuggling them cursed items, illegal animals, charmed Muggle artifacts, and anything else his patrons might need. Jake's rationale was that they'd probably pay a very bad man to get the items anyway, and it was better for a morally ambiguous wizard like Jake to end up with the money than a very Dark wizard.
He had never really had any formal wizard training. Jake spent a few years at Hogwarts before dropping out, after his parents had died. He knew from an early age that his future wasn't going to lie in some sort of real job. So he spent his time there forging enough contacts, both with his now patrons and those who would go off to become members of the Ministry, which certainly helped when he got himself into trouble.
Still, even though the job sometimes demanded (encouraged?) it, he tried not to kill anyone if he didn't have to. Occasionally, if he really needed the money, he might take on a job of "encouraging" someone to pay their loans on time. He had little stomach for the work, but money was money.
He supposed that he could see Jerry's point. If Jake ever had kids, he'd really rather not have any of his "co-workers" hang around them either. The only real reason Jerry tolerated Jake, other than Theresea's insistence that deep down he was a good boy, was that Dumbledore vouched for him, and Jerry practically hero-worshipped the man. Jake had no idea why, but Dumbledore had kept in touch, even after he had dropped out of school, even going so far as to get him off a few charges when he was caught smuggling illegal items into Britain. Dumbledore was even there at his parents' funeral. He really wanted to see Dumbledore again, but one of the reasons he was in America now was that he was slightly wanted in Britain, both by the law and the underground.
He sighed and walked up towards the window. No point in going down that line of thinking. Much as he'd like to go to Hogwarts again, to visit, of course (he couldn't imagine not seeing the Russos for too long), it simply wasn't going to happen anytime soon. Then, as he looked out the window, he saw the most amazing sight – a figure of silver was flying quickly and determinedly towards his apartment window. Quickly, he opened the window to let the thing into his tiny, dark apartment (okay, so money might be a little tight!).
"Jake, this is Albus Dumbledore. I know I haven't been in touch as much as I'd like lately. However, I have a request to make of you – Voldemort is back. I ask that you trust me on this and not the Prophet, which will certainly be disassociating itself with both this theory and me in short time, giving Voldemort free reign to regain a foothold. I have a favor to ask of you. I need you to get to the Russo residence immediately. I fear Voldemort will move to eliminate them quickly. Be on your guard. Contact me as soon as you have secured the family." With the end of the message, the Patronus vanished.
"Guess I'm picking up Max a little bit early." With that, Jake set out to pick up the boy and then swing by the Russo residence a little earlier than they expected.