Harry Potter One-Shots

Chapter | 1

Contest #2: Chapter 1 

    Monday, October 31, 1981

    A darkness settled in Godric's Hollow that Halloween night, the likes of which hadn't been seen in many years. The only remnants proving what had happened that night were spilled from a child, a trick-or-treater that happened to hear the last, dying, words from Lily as she begged.

   "Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead ----- " The child reported to the witch, stuttering about while tears spilled out; the kid had no idea that his words would lead the world into celebration, not mourning. "Not Harry! Please ... have mercy ... have mercy... "

    "Are you absolutely certain?" The witch prodded the Muggle, shaking the scared kid's shoulders as other wizards searched the vacant house for details about what had happened that very night. The child only managed a small nod, frightened.

    Sighing, the witch took out her wand, clearing the poor child from every haunting memory of the shrieks uttered by Lily Potter; freeing him from nightmares he would, no doubt, have in the future. "Go home," she told him, turning on her heel and meeting up with her husband as he came out of the house.

    "We must inform the Stoch family," The wizard nodded towards his wife, "they will want to be the first to know of this fortune." Together, they apparated.

    However, they were mistaken in their friends, and walked directly into harms way - delusions clouding their minds about the prestigious and ancient Hufflepuff family's allegiance as they knocked on the front door.

    Inside the mansion, a girl, small for her age, paced about her room, too afraid to step foot outside. Terrified, she clutched her stuffed badger closer to her quivering frame as the sound of shattering glass filled her ears. They were being tortured downstairs. She was sure of it.

    "You lie! You lie! You lie!" A woman's screeches shot across the hall to the room that Helena was in as she howled at the 'guests' that had been tossed into the young girl's home. As the girl quivered in fear, she recognized the screecher as her mother. 

    There was a piercing scream, one that hurt even the girl's ears three halls away from the horror taking place in the ballroom. "Please! Please! I tell you the truth!" A new woman's voice bellowed, one that young Helena Stotch couldn't recognize through the broken nature of it. "We thought you would be joyful!" The woman cried out.

    Cowering in fear, Helena tucked her badger under her nighty and clutched him tightly to herself as she slid under her four-poster bed, joining the broken toys and dust bunnies in the dark, praying that her mother would not come for her next.

    "Don't hurt her," a new man's voice wavered in fear as Helena clamped her tired eyes shut, it had to be nearly dawn by now, but they were interrogating people again. For what, Helena didn't know. She only knew that they were searching for something - a family, a precious object, a reason to make themselves more important. "Please - Margarette! Please, don't hurt my wife!" The screams were louder now as Helena whimpered, slinking further and further under her bed.

    That was all her mother cared about. Status. Helena wasn't quite old enough yet to comprehend why her mother craved such attention in these dire times, but she was old enough to realize that Margarette Stotch was a bad person. Despite the fact that they were mother and daughter, she was able to see past it. 

    "How dare you call me by that name, you filthy bastard!" Helena's mother yelled, voice taking a higher octave. "Crucio!"

    The screams ensued well into the early hours of the morning, echoing around Helena's wood paneled room and inside her very mind. "I-I," the woman was broken off by yet another mournful scream of agony, "I pro-promise. Ple-please, please!"