Lost and found (Marauders Era)

Prologue

        You didn't lie to the dark lord. It was one of those unspoken rules that his followers learned rather quickly. Even though many of them had never seen him, they still ended up dead anytime anyone dared to utter something that wasn't the complete truth. Ella Williams had seen it happen plenty of times and had witnessed it firsthand. Her own husband was killed while doing this.

      And yet here she was, trying to come up with a way to lie to him without losing her own life, and costing her children their lives. She couldn't just leave his ranks, that was out of the question. She was in his inner circle, he'd be able to find her, make her watch while he killed her kids, and then he'd kill her.

     He didn't know about her children, and the goal was to keep him from finding out about them. The only issue is there was now nobody to keep an eye on them, and they were only toddlers. The twins were 5, Ivy was 4, and Rose was three. She could hire a sitter but her house was being watched at all times, the kids had never even been outside. Ella didn't want the dark lord to use them like he did with everyone else's children. He'd turn them to spies, and she wanted a good life for them.

     Ella reflected on the time she had been an innocent teenager. When the only thing she had to worry about was who had a crush on her, and if all of her homework had been completed. It had been a simpler time. Now her husband was dead and her children would be too if she didn't do something about it. Eventually Ella came to the conclusion that she would find somebody to adopt her kids.

     It took a couple of months, but eventually she was able to find two people who would adopt them. It was a shame, but she was going to have to split the girls up into groups. The woman she had spoken to had picked the two girls she had wanted, taking One of the twins and her 4 year old leaving Ella with Lavender, the other twin, and Rose

      It put Ella in a predicament, she needed to find another person to take them and quickly before her time that she used to "mourn her husband's death" was up and the Dark Lord showed up himself. So she mailed a friend of hers from school, Janet Alberich, who nearly immediately agreed to adopt them. Ella only had one request, and that was to erase their memories of each other. Janet didn't want to but reluctantly agreed before taking them in.

       Now that the children were safe from harm, Ella could relax. Or so she thought.

***

      He came one day, without warning. A swarm of death eaters broke into her house, grabbed her by the hair and dragged her out into the front yard. Lord Voldemort himself stood in front of her. She was kicked down by one of the men holding her, forcing her into a bow. Ella felt her heart pounding in her chest and her breathing became shallow.

     "My dear Ella," The Dark Lord said smoothly, "did you really think you could hide them from me?"

      "I am sorry my lord," She whimpered, the grip on her hair was too tight. At this point she probably wouldn't have any hair left when this was over.

      "Give me a good explanation as to why you did this? They would have grown up well among our ranks."

     "I felt like they should grow up away from some of the horrors we see, my lord," Ella said, a plan forming in her mind.

     "Cruicio."

      Ella screamed and writhed on the ground below his feet. Her body felt like a million needles were piercing each nerve individually. When the pain stopped, it started again. This happened six times before Voldemort finally decided to stop, and address her.

      "We are performing justice on the world, slowly but surely. We will hunt down all the mudbloods and make the wizarding world great again. But alas, death is not a good thing for a young child to witness now would it."

     Ella remained silent.

      "We could use them in the future though, now couldn't we? They would make useful spies if we can recruit them."

     "That's right my lord, they're purebloods at heart, they will know what we stand for and stand by it," Ella said, hoping these words were true, or else she would lose her life.

     "This had better be true, dear Ella, or else there will be great consequences that follow."

      And just like that, he was gone.

      The death eaters followed suit, leaving Ella kneeling in her front yard. Her body shook as she sobbed uncontrollably, unable to even calm herself down. She had just given up her children as tribute to the dark lord even though that was the one thing that she was trying to stop from happening. But she was alive, and it that moment it was the only thing she cared about.

      "Merlin help us all."