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AMARA ARELI SMILED AS she tucked her recently one-year-old daughter into bed, making sure she was well protected against the chilly autumn air. It was late in the evening of October thirty-first, and Amara was waiting for her husband to return from his mission.
Amara's smile turned to a frown when she checked the clock for the fourth time that night.
Nine-thirty. He should be home by now.
It wasn't until early in the morning of November first when Castor Areli returned to his wife and children, his heart full of grief.
"There you are! It's almost five in the morning, where were you?" Amara questioned accusingly. When she noticed her husband's vacant but troubled expression, she asked, "Cas, what's wrong?"
Castor sighed heavily, walking over to his wife and pulling her into a hug. He was relieved nothing had happened to her or their children.
"Cas, you're scaring me," she said, pulling away to look up at him. "Did something happen?"
Castor looked down at his wife and swallowed the lump in his throat. "It was him, Mar. He got James and Lily. They're gone."
Amara let out an involuntary gasp and her eyes filled with tears. "No," she said, shaking her head. "No, they can't be. I just got a letter from Lily earlier today! She can't be . . . they can't be . . ."
"It happened a few hours ago, we got there as soon as it was over," Castor explained, trying hard to stay strong for his wife.
"What about Harry? Is he okay? You didn't say anything about him," Amara urged.
"He's okay, Hagrid took him," Castor assured her. "Somehow he was able to survive the killing curse. Voldemort disappeared."
That information confused Amara. How could anyone survive the killing curse? It was irreversible and unable to be blocked by any shield charm.
"I don't know how it happened, but they said Harry's being taken somewhere where he'll be safe," Castor explained when he saw his wife's distressed look.
Amara nodded solemnly, wondering where the son of her best friend was being taken. If Harry had nowhere else to go, she would have gladly volunteered to take him in, but she knew that Albus Dumbledore had other plans. He always did.
"What are we going to do?" she asked, "Somebody must have tipped them off, otherwise Voldemort wouldn't have known where they were. That means somebody betrayed the Order."
"I know. That means they could betray any of us. We have to keep them safe," Castor stated, referring to his family.
Amara nodded her head in agreement. "We need to move away from Godric's Hollow as soon as possible," she said, and with a wave of her wand she conjured up a few boxes that began filling themselves with the Areli family's belongings.
Castor did the same, and soon the whole house was packed neatly away in three cardboard boxes that Amara had placed the undetectable extension charm on.
By noon that day, Amara, Castor, and their two children were in a Muggle taxi driving away from the house that had been in Amara's family for centuries, no matter how much it pained her to do so. She knew it was the safest thing for her family to do.
