Effervescence | h.p.

i | ii. a silhouette's intrusion

Three sets of quick feet and the sound of their steps were resounding throughout the quaint cottage. All three adults were running to aid the sweetest, most pure little girl they had ever met. One set belonged to her father, one set belonged to her only godfather, and the final set belonging to her favorite red-headed godmother.

Lily gently placed Harry on the floor as quickly as she could so she could race up the stairs after her husband and her honorary-brother. Before she did, however, she made sure to reassure baby Harry that he was safe and she loved him very, very much, as well as his father and godfather.

Harry, barely able to hear his mother's sweet voice, was unaware of what she could have been saying to him before she disappeared after everyone else that could protect him. He began feeling the stress that had been radiating off of the adults just moments before they left him in the living room. He silently cried, scared that by making noise, he would make his presence known to the dangers that entered the safe, homely cottage on this late evening.

Racing to the play room at the end of the hall, Sirius firstly noted the closed door that he had previously kept open when he had left to allow Lily and James to enter earlier into the hour with Harry. Quietly, but as quickly as he could, Sirius approached the closed door, which had light emanating from underneath it. There was no noise coming from the room after that initial, terror-filled scream, which had seemingly reverberated throughout the home.

Not even the little girl's small, labor-filled breaths could be heard from outside the door.

Nothing at all.

Sirius pressed his ear to the white door, attempting to hear any possible threats from outside the room. He also tried desperately to hear his daughter's non-existent giggles, some way to tell that all of this was her way of showing she could be mischievous like her fathers and godfather.

But none came.

All at once, Sirius, James, and Lily rammed into the locked door to break into the room. The door should not have been locked, Lyra being too short to lock it and she had known not to close doors unless she knew someone could aid her in opening it, should she find herself unable to reopen it once closed. Due to their combined effort put into breaking the door all at once, they all stumbled into the bright room at the same time with the same momentum.

Looking around at the mural-painted walls, it could be assumed something bad had happened, if the screaming wasn't tell-tale enough. Picture frames containing moving photos, which held fond memories for all who had been included, were now broken with glass covering the floor underneath.

The toys from the wooden hope-chest were littering the floor, creating a battle-field of sorts. Avoiding toys on the ground while assessing the damage inflicted on the room proved to be a challenging, daunting task for the adults to participate in.

The most simplistic, but the most painful sight for the three parents was the small tea table that had been reduced to splinters in the center of the room. The small plastic tea cups had been thrown around, as if a child had participated in a temper-tantrum and thought the most damaging utensils were the small, pink and blue cups.

The only things left in the room were Moony, Padfoot, Flower, Prongs, and the small figure of a crying girl, hidden in the closet.

"LY!" Sirius exclaimed, while bringing his sobbing child into his strong arms. "Baby, what happened up here?" Sirius asked, while tears that had filled his eyes threatened to fall. He told himself he had to stay strong in front of his daughter, but with her next words that had been completely unexpected, his mental notes washed away and his warm tears ran like free animals in a meadow.

"I-it was h-him, Papa. T-the one e-everyone is afraid of! H-he just appeared by t-the window, a-and he — he — " she was cut off by her own gasps for air, which needed to fill her deprived lungs.

Sirius tried to calm his daughter, while reassuring himself at the same time. "Shhh. It's okay, it's okay. He's gone now and he can't hurt you. It's okay, we're here now and he won't ever get near you ever again. Do you understand me?" He replied, with a tone of finality and sternness at the end, as a way of enforcing the last part of what he had said. She simply nodded in understanding while trying to take his advice and thinking over his promise.

"Honey, can you tell us what happened? We can only make this better and easier for you if you tell us what happened and what he said to you, okay?" Lily said, after a few minutes of silence that had been covered by the little girl's horrified sobs, which had been subsiding.

Sirius, who is still in possession of the crying child, reassured and reinforced Lily's statement with some words of encouragement for the girl. "Puppy, Aunt Lily is right. You have to tell us what happened in order for us to help you and to protect you. Do you understand? Do you think you can tell us what happened?"

"He . . . he said t-these funny words . . . " she finally stuttered out.

"Do you remember what they were?" James encouraged, feeling helpless as to how to aid in the girl's comfort.

"T-they were . . . um . . . I-I think they were like . . . 'uh-va-tha ke-da-vera,'" she sounded out, shakily.

All three adults were stunned into silence. They knew Lyra might be a target of Voldemort, but they didn't think he would be able to get to them. Especially not on a night with so many possible witnesses to any evil-doing that might occur at his hands.

Lily, being the first one to break herself out of her own head, which was full of scared, nervous thoughts on how someone could become so evil, recomposed herself and spoke gently again with the girl. "Did he say anything before that, honey?" She gently asked, hoping Lyra wouldn't say the dreaded words she feared more than the killing curse.

"He said something a-about how only he c-can truly live f-forever."

After another long duration of silence that had fallen over the three anxiety-filled, middle-aged adults, James piped up, trying to lighten the room a little bit. "Hey, how about we make a few cups of hot cocoa while we wait for your Daddy to come home. How does that sound? Sound good to you, baby Moonfoot?"

All she did was nod, allowing a small smile to graze her lips while her Papa and her Auntie laughed lightly. They all looked back one final time as the damage that had been inflicted on the room before running down the hall, laughing like nothing bad had just happened.