Out of the Past, Into the Future (a Harry Potter fanfic)

1 - Halloween

Chapter One

31st October, 1981

Godric's Hollow

It was Halloween. Children dressed as spiders and witches ran around the wet and windy streets as they tried to charm sweets out of their neighbours. Almost everybody out on the square was in costume. So it was not highly unusual that a man in a long, dark cloak glided across the pavement.

"Nice costume Mister!" a small boy cried cheerfully. He was dressed as a pumpkin and wore a large grin, probably due to the large bucket of sweets that he was carrying.

Twisting ever so slightly that he was directly facing the boy, the man lowered his hood by just an inch – just so the boy could see his face - and the boy's features immediately shifted into a look of panic and fear. The man's hand twitched towards something hidden in his cloak. But he seemed to think twice and the boy ran away, terrified.

The cloaked man was by now approaching the far end of one of the streets that came off the square. He made less noise than dead leaves as he moved forwards towards the light in front of him. Shining out like a beacon, was the house he had anticipated reaching for so long. It seemed to be waiting for him, guiding him to the place he’d searched for all year. He didn't even need the exact house number and directions from the Secret Keeper - anyone who was in on the house's secret could see it from a mile away - as the street was so dark and the house's lights were on and it's curtains open.

The houses had the living room lights on but as the curtains weren't drawn, the scene inside was clearly visible. A man was playing with his baby son, but this was no ordinary game. Puffs of different coloured smoke were issuing from a stick that he held. His son was thoroughly amused - he wore a big smile, showing off his first teeth, and blue pyjamas, and was laughing as he tried to catch the smoke which kept slipping through his pudgy fingers.

The man's wife entered the room, and said something to the husband - but the man watching could not hear the words, and nor could he guess them either, as her long, vivid red hair covered her mouth. She was the lucky one in all of this, the man outside thought. Well, apart from him.

The boy was picked up by his father, and handed to his mother. She took him away, out of the room, presumably to bed. He was still smiling and waving a pudgy little fist at his father. Smiling back at his son, the husband dropped his wand on the sofa and laid back, stretching and yawning tiredly. He looked exhausted. Neither he or his wife had noticed the cloaked man watching them yet.

The cloaked man pushed open their gate, pausing for only a second when it creaked slightly, then continued, smiling wickedly. The man inside had not heard him - or seen him. He reached the door and blasted it open with the thing that had previously been hidden inside his cloak - a wand.

The husband jumped up from where he had been lounging and sprinted into the hall. He began to yell at his wife, who was almost halfway up the stairs and staring at the scene unfolding in front of her eyes, with her mouth open, shocked.

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run!" The man yelled at his wife. "I'll hold him off-"

His lips moved, and he appeared to be yelling something else, but the clocked man couldn’t hear him, he was so focused on his task, no, his duty. He watched the wife wheel around and charge up the stairs with the baby. They couldn't escape, not from up there. He would – and could - get them later. The cloaked man turned the wand on her husband. He almost laughed. Hold him off, indeed. He didn't even have a wand.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

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A/N

And the story starts...

I’m going back through this and editing it, so I should let you know that if you’re reading for the first time, I do update quite slowly. I love writing, and I love you guys who read it {reading your comments is amazing!} but I’m afraid school comes first and it always seems to take up SO much time! I really do apologise, as I know how it feels to be waiting on a story… anyway, I really love it when you guys comment and vote, so please, please do!

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Jenny xx