For His Protection

1. An Old Friend

October 31, 1981

Soundless lightning lit up the night sky. Dead leaves swirled helplessly in the strong wind, giving the night an eerie feeling, which, as it turns out, was rather fitting.

Muggles seemed to be everywhere in Godric's Hollow, dressed in costumes depicting their favorite movie or television characters. Some were mythological creatures (mythological to them at least). A fair amount of witches and wizards were out and about too, she figured, and they wouldn't be wearing costumes. Halloween was the one night of the year that they didn't have to hide their wands or fashionable cloaks that seemed so strange to non-magical folk. They could be themselves without the fear of being seen. The muggles believed they too were just in costume. That was the beauty of it.

Serena Dane was walking through the streets that night, wearing her favorite long green dress, with lace for sleeves, her wand in hand. Her long, dark, wavy hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail that cascaded down the front of her velvet green cloak that she had received as a gift from a good friend long ago. She just wanted to get out of her flat and enjoy the brewing storm. She loved the feel of the wind hitting her face and blowing through her hair. It was calming. She had no idea that there was more than just the storm coming that night.

A group of small children ran past her on the street, nearly knocking her out of the way. She laughed as one of them poked the other with a toy sword and yelled, "Arghh!" Judging by the boys black hat, decorated with a white skull, it was safe to say that he thought he was a pirate. She loved watching the children play and have fun. It took her mind off the war that constantly surrounded her and off of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and his creepy band of followers. She didn't want to have to worry about anything tonight. So much death and destruction had befallen the Wizarding World over the past few years. She wanted to get away from all of that, even if just for a few hours.

She walked past the park and down a street loaded with houses fully decorated for the holiday. Every house where the lights were on was giving out candy. Everyone seemed so warm and friendly. The Wizarding World had been like that once. She missed it terribly.

Despite the impending storm, everything seemed so peaceful. But that was about to change.

It sounded like a bomb going off, followed by a choir of screams. Serena braced herself as the ground trembled beneath her. A deep feeling of dread surged through her body as she wondered what could have caused that noise. It had to be something pretty powerful for the ground to shake like that. It took her a moment to gather the courage to move forward, then she raced in the direction the noise had come from.

Worried parents were scrambling to get their children to safety, as she ran past them, and teenagers without adult supervision were huddled together in groups, trying to comfort each other. It was chaos in the streets.

Serena drew a sharp breath as she rounded the corner, coming to a dead halt. Her eyes widened at the sight before her. There was a house that she could not ever remember being there before, standing in the middle of a grassy field she could have sworn had been empty just a few minutes ago. The house looked normal, small and inviting, despite the darkness inside of it, and one noticeable imperfection. There was a gaping hole in the roof that looked like something had been shot right out of it. She glanced around frantically, hoping to see other witches and wizards in the growing crowd of curious onlookers, but there was no one. She glanced back up at the hole in the roof. There was only one thing she could think of that could cause a hole like that from inside a house. It was either a rocket or a spell, and the latter was the most plausible of the two.

Lightning flashed menacingly in the sky, no longer silent, illuminating the whole street She could see people start to back away from the house slowly. At first she didn't understand why, but then she saw it in the glow of the lightning. A shiver ran down her spine. It was the Dark Mark, a huge skull with a snake coming out of its mouth. It hadn't been visible in the dark sky before, which meant it had just been conjured. Someone was still in the house.