Prologue
Castle Dimitrescu
Brăila, Romania
November 1st, 1981, 00:00
It was a cold and wet night at Castle Dimitrescu when Alcina Dimitrescu, the mistress of the castle, came home from a successful night of hunting. She hung her cloak to dry by the roaring fireplace in the entrance hall and made her way through the castle to her chambers. She moved into her washroom and began cleaning the blood from her face, when a sound caught her attention. A loud whining drew her into her study.
One of her many monitoring devices that tracked powerful sorcerers had been set off. It didn’t take long for her to discover that one of the worst dark wizards of all time had just been defeated.
“Odd,” she mused. “I wonder who managed to bring him down…”
She examined the device to discover the last known location of the wizard (Godric’s Hollow? What the hell was he doing there? ) and turned on her heel. She quickly changed into a warm cloak and disappeared in a flash of fire.
Almost three thousand kilometers northeast, Alcina reappeared in the back garden of a small, devastated cottage. A wall on the upper floor was blown out with masonry littering the yard. Clearly, there had been some sort of fight, but she had no clue who lived here…
“What in the world…” she muttered.
She couldn’t see a body anywhere, but picked her way through the rubble to get a closer look.
“What on Earth happened here?” Alcina asked.
Stepping carefully onto a sturdy looking pile of firewood, her answer was the sound of a sobbing child, an infant at that. On the floor, near the crib, was the clearly dead body of a young, red haired woman. This presented more questions than it answered.
“Oh my…”
She gingerly reached in to comfort the child. She held him close, making comforting sounds.
“What happened here, child?” she asked him, though she knew he couldn’t answer.
She waved her hand over the boy, casting a thorough healing charm. She was so focused on the child, she failed to hear the sound of someone Apparating behind her. Ensuring that the boy was healthy, she knelt down to poke her head in the open front door. She saw who she assumed was the father, lying dead on the stairs.
“Back out of there slowly,” she heard a slow, drawling voice demand.
She sighed and did so, not wanting harm to come to the child.
As she rose to her full height, the child held protectively against her breast, she gazed down at the man. He was tall and thin, with black, lank hair and a hooked nose. He wore simple black clothes, featureless beyond a silver clasp securing his cloak around his clothes.
“I wonder what you intend to do here,” she mused. “As I’m sure you can tell, I am half-Giant. I doubt you know many spells, if any, that can harm me.”
The man glared at her, “Who are you and why are you here? Come to loot the house?”
Alcina rolled her eyes.
“Please, I’ve no need to loot anything,” she replied. “And what of you? Come to finish your master’s work?”
The man’s flinch was barely perceptible, but she noticed, “What do you know about what's happened here?”
Alcina was about to respond but was interrupted by another CRACK!
The two turned to see another man. He had black wild hair and dressed in a black T-shirt with a phoenix on it and jeans. Immediately, the two men had their wands trained on each other. There seemed to be history between the men as, without another word, they began aggressively flinging spells at one another. Sparks of green and red lit up the night.
Am I being ignored?! Alcina thought. She certainly wasn’t used to that…
She sighed and moved to put the child back in his crib for now. She needed her hands free.
“What are you doing here, Snape?! ” the new man shouted, his rage evident. “What have you done?!”
“I’ve done nothing, Dog,” Snape snapped, deflecting a particularly powerful curse. “Where were you?! You were supposed to be such good friends with them. Why weren’t you here?!”
This caused a roar of fury to emanate from Black as he exploded the ground around Snape, who barely managed to put up a shield charm to save himself.
Alright, Alcina thought, that's enough.
In a flash, she had Black around the neck and Snape underfoot.
“THAT’S ENOUGH!” she snapped. "I am Alcina Dimitrescu, and I am here to investigate Voldemort's defeat, not to play nanny to grown men squabbling like children! So I ask now: who are you and how did you know this family?”
“How dare-?! Get off me!” Snape struggled under her.
She raised the struggling Black in front of her, glaring.
“He seems disinclined to cooperate,” she observed, with a fanged smirk. “How about you?”
After a moment, Black sighed, barely able to hold back his tears, “My name is Sirius Black. The grease stain under your foot is Severus Snape. This house belongs to my brother, James, and his wife, Lily.”
His eyes were red from his tears as he broke down.
“Please, just let me see them, I have to check on my godson.”
She dropped Black, allowing him to mourn his friends. He ran into the house, his pained sobs very audible to her. She sympathized, having lost her own family decades ago. She glared down at Snape ( He really is greasy… ).
“If I let you up,” she began. “Will you behave?”
Snape grumbled but said nothing.
“I asked you a question, little man,” she said. “I expect an answer.”
She lightly increased the pressure of her foot on his chest.
“Agh! Yes, fine! Just get off me, woman!” he snapped.
She slowly let him up.
“Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” she said. “I want answers. What happened?”
Snape got to his feet and brushed the dirt from his clothes. He glowered at her and turned away.
“They went into hiding to keep their child safe from the Dark Lord,” he said. “But it seems he finally caught up to them.”
He turned away from her, having nothing more to say. She scoffed at his attitude, but left him be, moving over to the house where she heard raised voices. There was a choked sob as Sirius exited, the boy cradled possessively in his arms. Behind him was another man. He was disheveled and scarred; his eyes were red.
“Who is this, Black?” she asked. “I only found the child and his parents’ bodies.”
The stranger approached her, “Madame Dimitrescu, my name is Remus Lupin. I was a friend of Lily and James as well. I’m also executor of the Potters’ legacy.”
“Please, hold Harry. I have to check something,” he handed Harry to Lupin.
He took the child and they watched with confused interest as Sirius’s form melted away and reformed into that of a great, black Wolfhound.
“When the hell did he become an Animagus?!” Snape demanded as Sirius the Dog began sniffing around.
Alcina glared at him, “Hush you. You’ll wake the child.”
Snape was clearly not used to being spoken to this way. Despite the tragic circumstances, Remus couldn’t help but chuckle at this.
Alcina thought for a moment, rubbing Harry’s back gently with her first two fingers. She watched as Snape made his way into the house, coldly stepping over James Potter’s body walking up the stairs. She could see him through the blown out wall of the nursery. Snape sank to his knees at the sight of the dead Lily Potter. He held her close as he sobbed.
“He’s certainly a complicated man…” she observed.
Remus nodded, “He was once good friends with Lily and hated both James and Sirius.”
She looked down at Harry, snuggled warmly in Remus’s arms and sleeping soundly.
“What on Earth could have led that monster to come here,” she asked Remus, “and why would he spare the boy?”
Remus shrugged, “Who knows what was going through his mind.”
She tensed as they were pulled from their musings by the sound of heavy boots approaching. Looking to the source, they saw none other than Albus Dumbledore accompanied by a hairy man almost as large as she was whose name she couldn’t place. She made sure to show that Harry was alive and relatively unharmed, but put a finger to her lips.
“Headmaster,” Remus greeted.
The large man let out a choked sob as he took in the state of the cottage, Dumbledore patted him on the arm in comfort.
“Madame Dimitrescu,” he greeted. “I must say, you are not who I was expecting to find here. I’m curious of your intentions.”
Remus handed Harry off to the large man who’d been gazing longingly at the boy.
“You’re not the only one who monitors potential threats, Dumbledore,” she answered. “I’ve been keeping tabs on Voldemort,” she ignored the large man’s quiet protest at her use of his name, “for ages. When my monitors went silent, they pointed me here. I had to see exactly who had defeated the snake. Imagine my surprise to find no body and no evidence of any kind outside of what you see.
“I arrived to investigate, found the boy, and was immediately held at wandpoint by that man,” she pointed at Snape, in the cottage. “Then I had to break up a fight when one Sirius Black arrived.”
“Sirius contacted me by Floo and I came right away,” Remus put in.
“Sirius was here?” Dumbledore asked, his usual calm demeanor only breaking away slightly. “Where did he go?”
Alcina gestured out into the village, “He turned into a dog and ran off that way. He seemed worried.”
“Strange… Sirius was meant to be the Potters’ Secret Keeper,” the headmaster said.
There was a loud thud as Snape had seemingly jumped out through the blown out nursery wall to join them.
“If that’s true Headmaster, Black betrayed them. He attacked me the moment he arrived.”
Remus rolled his eyes, “Really, Severus?”
“Sirius couldn’t’ve betrayed Lily ‘n James, Professor Dumbledore, sir,” the large man argued. His eyes were swollen from crying. “Ain’t no way.”
“Under different circumstances, Hagrid, I’d be inclined to agree,” Dumbledore said. “But he was their Secret Keeper. We have to take all possibilities into account.”
They heard barking from a distance as Sirius galloped back to the cottage, skidding to a halt as he noticed Dumbledore and the large man. He looked a bit guilty as he shifted back into his human form.
“Hold Harry,” Hagrid growled, passing the child back to Remus and moving to grab Sirius.
Dumbledore raised a hand and Hagrid stopped.
“What happened, Sirius?” he asked calmly. “How did Voldemort learn where Lily and James were?”
Sirius’s eyes were red and he fidgeted nervously.
“It was Peter,” he said. “I don’t know if Voldemort forced him or if Peter turned on us, but… Peter was the real Secret Keeper.”
“LIAR!”
Snape drew his wand on Sirius, its tip glowing harshly, but Alcina flicked it out of his hand. It flew into the distance. She glared at him.
“Behave.”
Even in this quite serious situation, Alcina noticed the corner of Sirius’s mouth twitch at seeing Snape be treated like a naughty child.
“Sirius, tell me everything you know,” Dumbledore instructed. “I was under the impression that you wanted to be the Secret Keeper.”
Sirius seemed to take a moment to gather his thoughts.
“It was my idea, Professor,” he said. “I knew everyone would assume I was the Secret Keeper. So, I suggested to James that I be a decoy and that Peter be the Secret Keeper. No one would suspect him.”
“A clever ruse,” Alcina approved. “Did you find any sign of him?”
“I caught his scent around the house, but nowhere else… They must have apparated onto their doorstep and Peter disapparated the first chance he had. Coward couldn’t have stayed to look after Harry…”
“I told you he was useless,” Snape sneered.
Sirius glared at Snape, but said nothing.
“Well, we have an idea of what’s happened to the Potters,” Alcina said, “but what happened to Voldemort? There’s nothing here.”
Dumbledore waved his wand, causing a glow to spread over the area. The others looked around, but nothing else happened. As the glow faded Dumbledore nodded..
“No sign of either of them…” he mused. “I highly doubt Voldemort is gone, but he’s certainly not here. Now we must decide what to do with Harry…”
“He’ll be staying with me, of course,” Sirius scoffed. “I’m his godfather.”
Dumbledore looked thoughtful.
“I’m not sure that’s wise, Sirius,” he said. “We have to ensure Harry will be safe and cared for but, to put it bluntly, you haven’t had the best track record of responsibility. I would suggest Remus, as manager of the Potters’ legacy but, preexisting conditions makes that a difficult ask.”
Snape snorted quietly, but said nothing. He knew better than to say anything in present company.
“The safest option, at the moment, would be his next of kin,” Dumbledore continued. “Lily’s sister is his next blood relation-”
“Absolutely not!” Sirius interrupted. “That woman and her husband are the worst kind of people.”
“We don’t have many options on such short notice,” Dumbledore said.
“Not them!” Sirius insisted..
“What exactly is your problem with them, Black?” Alcina asked.
Sirius took a moment to calm himself.
“Lily and Petunia had a falling out a while back,” he said. “Last I heard from her was at their wedding. There was a blow up between James and Petunia’s husband. They haven’t spoken since.”
“Loath as I am to admit it,” Snape muttered. “Black is right.”
Sirius blinked, “I’m sorry, what?”
“I will not repeat myself.”
“That and it was written in their Will that Harry be raised by Sirius and myself if something happens to them,” Remus said. “I just don’t know if this is something we’re ready for. We certainly weren’t expecting something like this so soon.”
Alcina was getting tired of this.
“I will take him in,” she said. “My castle is safe and secure. None of Voldemort’s followers would ever expect to find him in Romania. I have plenty of room for the two of you.”
Dumbledore nodded.
“That’s reasonable…” he said. “Thank you, Madame Dimitrescu. The Order will, of course, keep watch for any signs of Peter. If he is alive we will learn all we can.”
“Peter is an Animagus,” Remus informed the group. “He, James, and Sirius all became Animagi while we were in school. They did so to keep me company under the Full Moon…”
“That explains so much,” Snape remarked.
Remus looked up to Alcina, “I’ve been a werewolf since I was a child.”
Alcina smirked, “That won’t be an issue. I can handle your more feral side.”
She gazed at the house.
“This house should be demolished,” she said. “The dead deserve to rest in peace without disturbance. Black and Lupin, bring the Potters out and all of their possessions. We’ll move everything to my castle and bury them on the grounds.”
“Agreed…”
There was a rustling sound as Dumbledore pulled a satchel from the depths of his robes. He tapped the satchel with his wand and it grew to the size of a shipping container.
“Everything should fit in here,” he explained. “I’ve enchanted it with an undetectable extension charm. When you close the bag, it will shrink to pocket size. It’ll grow when opened again.”
While that was going on, Alcina waved her hand at the pocket of her traveling robes and massive shards flew out, forming a massive mirror. Dumbledore gazed at the mirror in awe.
“A Transmission Mirror, a very rare artifact,” he said. “I’ve never seen one.”
“One of the only ways to enter my castle grounds,” Alcina stated. “Pass through the mirror as you would through any open door.”
Remus placed Harry in his crib and began floating things into the bag while Sirius floated the Potters through the mirror. While the three men set to work, Alcina turned to Dumbledore.
“It’s paramount we figure out what happened here, Dumbledore,” she said. “The boy deserves to know everything. I need to know everything if I’m to keep him safe.”
Dumbledore nodded solemnly.
“I have theories,” he said. “But I’ll have to gather my thoughts before saying for sure.”
“Don’t keep me waiting, Dumbledore,” Alcina warned. “I have to make arrangements for a burial.”
Dumbledore left without another word; a quiet pop emanating where he stood. Soon after, Snape left as well. He hoped to not encounter the Countess for quite some time. Meanwhile, Alcina was left to assist in moving things to the castle.
No one noticed a large, ginger cat darting through the mirror into Alcina’s domain.