The Golden Five: Year 1

PROLOGUE

Voldemort roared, "Stand aside, you silly girl! Stand aside now!" He stood only inches away from Lily.

Lily's hand found the side of Harry's face. She shakily stroked it. She could not let him die. Lily screamed, "Not Harry, please no, take me, k-kill me instead!"

A reptilian-like smile crept along Lord Voldemort's face.

"Not Harry!" She stared into his cold, dark eyes. Tears came running down her fear-struck face. "Have mercy . . . have mercy!"

The monster let out a screechy cackle. He shouted out, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Lily screamed as her life was taken from her. Her firm grasp to the crib limply came loose as she collapsed to the floor.

Voldemort peered into the crib. The two sibling's faces were beet-red from crying after awakening to their mother's scream. He first saw the girl, who had started crying for a second time when he had looked in. He frowned. "Disgusting thing. I might as well kill you afterwards. . . ." Voldemort then looked into the Harry's wide, unblinking green eyes. "At last," he mumbled. The Dark Lord raised his wand towards him, and cried out, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Several hours later, Sirius paced the room furiously, running his fingers through his shaggy black hair. He had only just gotten out from his outing. To try to soothe his frayed nerves, he knelt over his daughter's crib and smiled weakly as he saw Aurora playing with her stuffed black dog named Padfoot (courtesy of him). "Hi, Rorie. Whatcha doing?"

    She stared at him with a "Shouldn't this be obvious?" expression. He picked her up and swung her around before holding her close to his chest. "I need my baby right now. I love you, you know that, right? I love my little Rorie."

    She giggled and he took that as an "I love you too."

    Becca Crawley, his beautiful wife, breezed into the room and stood next to him, smiling brightly at their daughter. "Sirius, honey, what's wrong?"

    "I just checked in on Peter, Becca. He wasn't in his hiding place, he's gone." His heart beat wildly in his chest. "Something's wrong." Sirius, pushing Rorie into her arms, broke away from her and ran out the room with only one purpose in mind. "Watch Rorie, Becca!"

"Sirius, where are you going?"

    "I'm going to check in on Godric's Hollow. Something's very wrong, and I can feel it!" A faint roar of his motorbike could be heard.

She cried after him, "Sirius, Peter's our secret-keeper too! What if--" It was too late. Sirius was gone.

Sirius flew as fast as he could on the bike to Godric's Hollow. It was demolished. Rubble was everywhere and a Dark Mark was splayed across the sky. "No, no, no," he choked out.

There was James Potter, the best friend he ever had and his honorary brother, dead on the floor. He felt his heart rip into two and he knew that would never heal. "James," he croaked, dropping down to his knees. He grabbed his icy hand in two of his and a tear rolled down his face. Sirius fought the urge to break down and sob when he remembered about Lily, Harry, and Fawn. He had to find them.

He took the stairs up two at a time and stifled another sob as he saw the dead body of Lily Potter. "No, Lily!" Harry and Fawn were his top priorities, his precious godchildren, and he braced himself to find their bodies. Yet they weren't there.

He forgot how to breathe. Where were his godchildren? A loud and grief-filled voice startled him. "Sirius?"

He spun around on his heel to see Hagrid filling up the doorway, Harry in one arm and Fawn in the other. "Thank Merlin they're alive!" Sirius breathed, feeling the utmost relief.