𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘪 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 || 𝚐𝚘𝚕𝚍𝚎𝚗 𝚎𝚛𝚊

✧ Early Life ✧

Warning(s): Mentions of death and (extremely tiny) alcohol use (like I literally just say that somebody used alcohol, nobody's actually drinking it in full-on detail)

     Helena Potter watched as her mother began barricading the door after setting  Harry inside the cot. She heard loud sounds from downstairs and suddenly became frightened. But she was a brave young girl. She wouldn't throw a tantrum and make things inconvenient for her mother. As Lily backed up, blocking Harry's cot while tightly gripping onto Helena and stroking her hair, the door burst open. A strange, hooded man entered, brandishing a stick that Helena associated with bright sparks of color that her parents often played around with. However, this man wasn't here to play around, and Helena knew it. Helena didn't understand much, but she heard snippets of her mother's words.

     "Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"

     The tone of her mother's voice and the slight shake in her words were enough for Helena to understand that the man was bad. The man in question spoke in a cold, emotionless voice.

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

     Helena babbled quiet words of encouragement, causing her mother to take notice of her. Lily, keeping an eye on the man, gently set Helena in the same cot as her brother. Kissing her daughter on the head, Lily whispered to her.

     "Take care of your brother for me, okay? Promise that you'll never leave his side? Can you do that for mummy?"

Helena didn't speak, but Lily knew that her daughter would keep her promise until the very day she died.

     Moments later, Lily was hit with a bright green flash from the man's strange stick, and the man was turned toward Harry. Helena vaguely heard him mutter something that sounded like,

     "That, Severus, is a sign to choose a pureblood next time."

     Helena was too young to understand pureblood supremacy, so she didn't care. What she did care about, was her brother, who she knew was in grave danger. As the man raised his stick in Harry's direction, causing the infant to begin crying, Helena scooted in front of her brother. (That's unrealistic coming from an infant a bit older than one, but oh well)

     "No," she said stubbornly.

     'No' happened to be one of Helena's first words. If it were up to her father, he would've taught her every swear word in the book, but Lily thankfully took charge and taught her something helpful instead.

     "Like mother, like daughter," the man mumbled, moving the hair out of Helena's face to examine her carefully.

     The small action didn't settle well with Helena, who smacked his hand away.

     "No," she repeated.

     The man's face hardened as he shoved Helena aside and raised his wand again.

     "Avada Kedavra!"

     The green light flashed again, but this time, the strange hooded man got hit and burst into sparks before disappearing. Immediately, Harry began crying. Helena was watching him and the door at the same time

     Soon enough, a second man entered the room. By then, Helena was prepared for danger, so she attempted to hide her brother from view. However, this man was more interested in her mother than the twins. He let out a heartbroken sob, one that shook Helena's heart, and he immediately cradled the dead body of Lily Potter.

     "He promised!" the man wailed to seemingly no one.

     As Harry continued crying, the man finally took notice of the infants. Dropping Lily's body gently back onto the ground, he approached the cot and first looked over the crying young boy beside Helena before looking back at the curious girl. He lifted her up, and like the previous man, moved the hair out of her face to admire her eyes.