A Different Halloween

Chapter 15

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Petunia knew Vernon wouldn't listen to her concerns, Vernon never listened to her, Vernon wouldn't be listening to anyone ever again. This fiend was worse than any Halloween monster that Hollywood had invented, he'd laughed while mercilessly torturing Vernon until her husband was foaming at the mouth. A green light hit her husband and Vernon Dursley was no more. The creature had repeatedly asked Petunia where the Potters were and her continual denials of that knowledge ended Vernon's life. They now appeared ready to accept that she genuinely didn't know where her sister was hiding, that didn't mean her ordeal was over.

From the instant they were rudely awakened in their bed, Petunia had known deep within herself that she was going to die. That Severus Snape was also in their bedroom with this animal told Petunia that fact, she couldn't be left alive to identify her attacker. Petunia was all screamed out, a calmness seemed to be creeping over her mind. She had accepted she was going to die but had an opportunity to save her son and maybe take this bastard with her, Petunia would be eternally grateful to Lily for Dudley's life.

Voldemort was attempting to make the best of a bad situation. "It would appear you are telling the truth and your sister didn't trust you with her location. Nevertheless, we can still use this situation to send her a message." His wand tracked to the loudly crying child in its cot, only to see the mother throw herself in front of it.

"Not Dudley, not Dudley, please not Dudley!"

"Stand aside you silly girl...stand aside now."

"Not Dudley, please no, take me, kill me instead..."

Severus was well aware it was incredibly risky to interrupt the dark lord but it was also glaringly obvious that Petunia had recognised him. Should she be left alive to deliver the dark lord's message, then Severus was as good as dead. James Potter would take it personally and Lily would kill him on sight, even Dumbledore wouldn't be able to save him from the redhead's wrath. Trying not to let his voice shake too much, Severus spoke out. "My Lord, a dead sister sends its own kind of message."

Voldemort paused for a second as this woman begged for mercy before firing the killing curse at her. He then turned quickly to his servant. "Interrupt me again Severus and you will experience first-hand just what kind of messages my wand can administer."

Severus had noticed the faint glow that left Petunia and entered her child's body. He briefly thought of risking his life to bring this to his master's attention but his well-honed sense of self-preservation quashed that thought ruthlessly.

Voldemort whirled back around, determined to shut the crying brat up. "Avada Kedavra!"

Severus felt himself flung off his feet and smashed into the bedroom wall, he barely had time to register the dark lord was blown to pieces before the force of the collision saw him losing consciousness.

The mild notice-me-not and silencing charms the attackers had placed around number four Privet Drive were blown away by the magical backlash, so were all the windows, a large portion of wall and a fair bit of the roof. Within moments, the nosey neighbours of Privet drive were out their beds and gawking at the ruin that used to be number four. As multiple 999 calls were made, one brave soul risked his own life by diving into the house to rescue the crying child. The entire house appeared in danger of collapsing at any second and the other bodies that he saw there would just have to wait until the emergency services arrived. The child was safe and that was enough of a miracle for one night.

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