Daughter of a Monster (A Marauders' Era Story)

Prologue

Prologue

It was a stormy night, the wind howling, causing the house to shudder. Rain sounded like bullets against the tin roof. The storm rocked the small house in the woods so badly that it was a wonder it didn't get blown away. Lightning proceeded to light up the sky, startling the young girl that sat, huddled on her bed in the corner. She visibly shook, tears pouring down her face. Desperately, she wished that one of her parents would walk into the room, but she knew her wish wouldn't be granted. About twenty minutes ago, before the storm started, her father and mother ran out of the house, arguing. When they first left, the young girl was able to hear their muffled voices, but when the storm hit, she failed to hear them at all. While she was worried, her muscles were as still as ice. She could find the courage to move, no matter how hard she tried. All she could do was sit there and shake, not knowing when she'd see her parents again.

It was then that the girl heard a loud thwap sound from the downstairs level of the house. The girl, curious to see if one of her parents entered the house was startled back into reality when lightning lit up her window. A squeak resonated from somewhere in her throat and more tears poured down her face. Clutching her teddy in her arms, she rocked herself back and forth.

"Honey," her mother's voice shook her out of her thoughts.

Before she knew what was happening, her legs catapulted her from the bed and into her mother's arms. What the girl was too young to notice, however, was the strain in her mother's face. The worry that swirled behind her usually calm eyes.

"Honey, we need to go," her mother said hurriedly.

Detecting the urgency in her mother's tone, the girl looked up. Then thunder sounded, loudly, and the girl yelped and hid herself in her mother's embrace. The mother picked up her daughter and dashed down the stairs and, before leaving, grabbed a poncho from the closet and threw it around the little girl's shoulders. The mother ran like the wind, her child in her arms, crying loudly.

"Mommy," the girl hiccuped. "Where are we going? Where's daddy?"

"Shh, sweetie. We're going someplace safe. Somewhere that we won't need to worry about the storm," the mother cooed.

The mother took them to a clearing in the woods, outside of the invisible barriers of magic energy surrounding the property of their house in the woods.

"Hold on tight, darling," the mother said. "Don't let go."

The mother held onto her daughter just as tightly as the girl had been holding onto her teddy bear moments before. An image of a large, stone house on a hill flashed through the mother's mind. In the meantime, a loud, menacing noise ripped through the air, and it wasn't thunder. No, it was much more feral than that. It came from the beast that was barreling through the woods towards the girl and her mother.

"Mommy!" the girl screamed, seeing the wolf-like beast.

The mother looked behind her, her eye's widening to the size of saucers. Again, she snapped her eyes shut, thought of the house on the hill, and yelled, "Don't let go!"

And, with a snap as loud as the thunder, the girl and her mother disappeared.

Miles away, two adults, a man and woman, came running out of a house on a hill to greet the two visitors that just appeared on their property. The woman was standing in the doorway of the house. The man was holding a long stick in his hand. If any normal person saw that, they probably would have laughed, but the woman who was facing it knew it was no laughing matter.

"Anthony! It's me!" the woman cried, holding her crying daughter in her arms.

"Aria," the man whispered, lowering the stick. "What are you doing here?"

"M - my husband," the woman cried. "H - he tried t - to kill her. T - tried to kill our daughter! I - I can't t - take it anymore! P - please help!"

She collapsed to her knees, still clutching her daughter in her arms, afraid that she would disappear if she let her go.

The man, Anthony, called back to the woman in the doorway, "It's Aria! Come help!"

The woman ran to her husband and took the now-sleeping child out of Aria's arms. Quietly, the woman took the young girl into the house, lying her down on the couch in the living room. Meanwhile, the man helped Aria to stand and hobbled with her into the kitchen of the house.

"Do you have any place to stay?" Anthony asked Aria who was staring blankly at the table before her.

Silently, she shook her head.

"You can stay here until you do," Anthony forced a small smile.

Stray tears fell down Aria's face as the faintest hint of a smile appeared on her face. She mouthed a "thank you" before her shoulders shook from the weight of the previous events. The other woman came into the kitchen and placed a blanket over Aria's shoulders in an attempt to comfort her.

"We'll help you," the woman said softly. "Don't worry."

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Author's Note: Hello ladies, gentlemen, and those of unknown origin! This is a work of fanfiction that I have added my own characters to, one of them being the main character. More familiar characters will come in the following chapters, yay! I'm really excited for this. Writing the marauders is a bunch of fun and I'm happy to share this with you. Thank you for checking it out! This is the first fanfiction I have published to this site, so wish me luck! Enjoy your read, I'm open to suggestions and would love to hear your feedback! :)