(*claps for iowa-tarheel!*
I'm sorry for my absence. High school...*cocks gun*)
It was happening again, like all those years ago at the Quidditch Final, playing out before her eyes like a scene from a recurring nightmare.
Tents and buildings aflame, gleaming like torches in the night, sending smoke and glowing embers pouring into the sky. Jets of frenetic scarlet and poisonous green streaked joyously across the space, seeking out targets like rabid hunting dogs.
Hermione was sprinting through the field with her wand in one hand and her daughter's wrist clutched tightly in the other. The Disillusionment charm she'd placed on the both of them was beginning to wear off, she could feel it, but she kept running, praying all the while that they would make it out.
They'd taken her husband from her, but they would not take her child. Not while she lived. If she could get Victorie to the portkey in time...
Another streak of light and an explosion that nearly threw her off her feet.
"Mama!"
She felt the warm trickle of the dying charm down her neck in the same Victorie's hand slipped from her fingers.
"VICKY!"
She turned back, but a collapsing tent separated them before she could grab her little girl. A crowd of panicked people further cut them off.
"Mama! Mama!"
"Accio Mudblood!"
"MAM-AAAAH!"
"NO! NO, VICTORIE!"
Hermione scrambled to her feet and ran to where she'd seen her child being dragged along the ground by the summoning spell. She rounded a flaming pile of debris and saw a masked death eater standing over Victorie, wand raised.
"Diffindo!"
"Expelliarmus!"
Her cutting charm hit him dead in the face, sending him reeling, and her wand flew end over end out of her fist. She dove for it and by the time she grabbed it, the Death Eater had recovered and was aiming for her.
His mask had come off, revealing a pale face with a large, ugly cut on his cheek. He glared at her with bright green eyes beneath long lashes, and his unruly hair was harshly shorn and mangled, but she'd recognize him everywhere, anywhere.
Except for the fact that he was supposed to be dead.
"H-H..Ha-Harry?!"