In Her Eyes

Prologue

It had only been a week since the defeat of the Dark Lord and all the Ministry of Magic's Auror's are continuing to hunt the leaderless Death Eater's.
Three Auror's snuck up silently on the rural cabin they had been ordered to investigate, the harsh cold breeze unable to penetrate through their cloaks, the weather had been surprisingly warm tonight especially this far into the Scottish Highlands, however the wind came with a vicious bite.

Dawlish entered first, heading up the set of stairs while Moody scouted the outside of the cabin, noting all the open windows and doors as Shaklebolt began to navigate his way through the first floor of the dark, damp house.

Once Moody had cleared the perimeter several times he stealthily moved into the house at the same time that Dawlish came down from clearing the second floor and they found Shaklebolt in the kitchen, his wand illuminating the ghastly scene on the floor.

From the smell alone it was obvious they'd been there for days, a tall man with flaming red hair laying on his back with unseeing eyes wide open and cradled in his arms... an infant.

"Merlin's beard." Dawlish whispered under his breath, his hands covering his nose from the smell of the decomposing bodies.

The infant was minuscule and from simply looking at it they could assume she was just a year old and a quick scan of the cabins kitchen showed influence of her poor drawing abilities. "This is her daughter?" Dawlish asked the other men, none of them taking notice of a shadow slowly descending the staircase.

"Yes, and her husband." Shaklebolt replied, struggling to keep the pain from his voice at the depressing sight of the child nestled into her fathers side, it looked as though she would have taken after him too just by looking at the mop of red curls on her head. The shadow began making its way around into the kitchen, the darkened house making it nearly impossible for anybody to notice... except for Moody with his magical eye.

He whipped his wand in the direction, wordlessly lighting it up, the others turned as well to find the shadow was a dark wooly blanket with unicorns on it that were enchanted to hop around. The men stood awestruck as the small blanket covered the child in the dead mans arms, "She's alive!"

"Prepare for immediate transportation to St Mungo's!"

Shaklebolt wrapped his large hands around the child and tried to remove her from her fathers side and was startled when the child woke up and screamed loudly, "No!" Her tiny fingers clutched onto her fathers robe, "No! No!"

"It's okay, little one!" Shaklebolt tried to calm her but was unsuccessful, having little experience with children.

"No!"

"Shaklebolt, pick her up! You'll compromise our position!"

"She won't let go! I don't want to hurt her!" He could tell she hadn't eaten for days and was beyond weak and didn't want to pull too hard on her.

Moody let out an impatient growl as Dawlish made sure their position remained uncompromised, "Just transport them together, the nurses can deal with it when we get there!"

The men prepared to leave with little Alastriona Breen, who was malnourished and severely dehydrated, her body and clothes a complete mess from spending days on end in them but still she refused to release her father from her weakening grip.

Barely holding consciousness with her small heart struggling to pump blood around her nearly frozen body, she was transported to St Mungo's hospital where she was finally pried away from her fathers lifeless body.