Marauder crack

Bad Omens

"The Daily Prophet" announces it. It's not on the cover. Just a brief column in the event section. No big headlines, but Albus Dumbledore knows there will be. I think there will be. That is only the beginning. "Attack on Muggles forces ministry to intervene." Reads point by point, slowly, weighing each word, trying to scrutinise the details to know more. A night attack. A muggle house. The daughter, while she went out to take out the garbage. "The Daily Prophet" does not say how they were found but between the lines - aggression, held against their will, tried to kill them, post-traumatic shock- Dumbledore can read exactly what happened.

He can almost see it.

The attacker waiting in the shadows. A girl barely sixteen years old. A spell that cancels her screams, although it leaves her throat in a horrid shriek. He throws her against the ground. The soil is moist. She has no voice, but she screams. It lasts a few minutes. Another spell to hold her against the ground. She keeps screaming. The attacker is covered. And he hates her. And he then discards her body.

It is short and brutal. Leaves a trickle of blood dripping down the inside of the underwear of the young woman. Then the dark, dark wizard works his black magic and the blood disappears.

A wizard. Attacking Muggles. "The Daily Prophet" cites sources from the Ministry of Magic. "The officials in charge of the investigation do not harbour doubt on this point, although the identity of the aggressor, it is taken for granted that he used magic in her attack and that it is not just from a sorcerer, but from a highly talented sorcerer ".

Of course, great and dark talent.

Dumbledore has no doubts in that regard either.

He keeps rereading, leaning back in his chair. He paces the office, trying to unravel a mystery that surpasses him. There are only a few days left before the course starts and his duty is to give these children a place where they are safe from the hatred and war that looms over their heads. After all, those little ones are the future. If there is hope, it depends on them.

If there really can be what is called a future to fight for.

From the window of his office, he has the best views of the garden. Many floors below, young Lupin rests against one of the oldest oaks. Reading. Waiting for the new course. Oblivious to something that will soon be impossible to ignore. In a way, Dumbledore envies him.

Hogwarts prepares for a new year. Albus Dumbledore prepares for something else.