What's a Mom to do?

The explosion of light could be seen for miles. The Order watched in horror. Death Eaters started screaming around them, grabbing their arms. Several began to Apparate out of the field. Quickly the Order and the Aurors began to try and round up those Death Eaters that hadn’t fled yet. In the chaos, Minerva McGonagall, Arthur and Molly Weasley, Charlie Weasley, Remus Lupin and Neville Longbottom stood staring in the direction of the explosion with horror on their faces. None of them moved for what seemed a very long time.

Almost as one the entire group took off at a run in the direction of the explosion. Molly had tears pouring down her face. Three! Three children, no five! She couldn’t lose five of her children. They reached the edge of the clearing and as they tried to run forward were thrown back by an invisible wall of magic. Frantically, the group started working their way around the wall, testing for weaknesses in the magic. After a while, they began working on trying to bring down the wall of magic.

Several hours passed. Aurors began helping, brought there by Tonks. Soon the entire wall was being worked by members of the Order and Aurors and everyone else willing to help. No one knew what had happened. They couldn’t see a thing. The wall seemed to go in a large circle close to a mile wide. It was solid and nothing they did seemed able to penetrate the magic. Only three people could have the sheer power to create a force that strong, Albus Dumbledore, who had been killed the year before, Tom Riddle, Lord Voldemort who by all indications was also dead, given the reactions of the Death Eaters and Harry James Potter whose status was unknown.

The wall of magic would indicate that he was still alive, but in what condition? What of the team of fighters that he had brought with him: Ron, Fred and George Weasley, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape the last two having worked diligently at being spies for the Order after the fiasco at Hogwarts the year before? The last two were instrumental in getting Harry close enough to Voldemort. The twins were to set off a distraction using some of the Weasley Wizarding Wheezes stocks to cause chaos enough to make the Umbridge event seem tame by comparison. Ron and Hermione were there because they were going where Harry went, end of story. They were there for him for seven years and it certainly wasn’t going to change now.

Finally, they broke through the wall. Ironically, it was the weakest member of the team, Molly Weasley, driven by her desperation at having over half her children in danger that pushed her way through. The rest of the Order followed through rushing towards the uncertain scene.

What they found when they got to the Riddle mansion was something no one expected to find. The outskirts were littered with the bodies of Death Eaters. The bodies of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy were the first found, holding hands at the edge of the yard to the house. They appeared to have been fleeing the area. They drew nearer to the house and found almost nothing. When they entered the front door, cautiously, wands drawn, they were greeted with the sight of three small red-headed children sliding down a large banister. At the foot of the stairs stood a small brunette girl with her hands on her hips scolding the three boys telling them they were going to be injured. At the top of the stairs leaning against the wall was a small boy, smaller than the other children, his hair a platinum blond, a sneer that looked out of place on so young a child but appeared to be masking a look of longing.

The three young red-heads looked up at the gasp of shock from Molly.

“MUMMY! We looked all over for you!” yelled on of the twins. The three boys flung themselves at her each grabbing her for a hug.

Molly stood in shock. Her hand covered her mouth. Slowly she knelt down. She heard the gasps and whispers of the other Order members as they made their way into the house.

The little girl came forward. “I told them they shouldn’t be sliding on the stairs. They could have gotten hurt.” Molly almost smiled at the adult sounding voice, so similar to the adult girl from just hours before. She looked up at the others who had entered the building. Minerva was doing her best to keep others out.

“Kids, I need you to tell me what happened here,” Molly tried to keep the quiver of fear out of her voice. She was scanning the room but couldn’t see Harry, Severus or Vol…You-Know-Who.

“I don’t know Mummy,” said her little Ron. “We woke up in a big room upstairs. We didn’t know anybody. But there was a bunch of kids and a big man that looked like a snake. He was still asleep though. He wouldn’t wake up, so we decided to play.”

“A bunch of kids?” the question was asked by a worried Remus who was scanning for any sign of Harry.

”Yeah. There was the funny white haired boy over there; he said his name is Draco. That’s a funny name for a kid isn’t it Mummy? And that girl there said her name in My-knee and two other boys. They wouldn’t talk to us. They are dummies,” This came from one of the twins.

The little girl sighed. “My name is Hermione Granger m’am.” She held out her hand. Molly looked at the other adults in confusion. The blond had started down the stairs when he was being talked about and was now standing in front of the group.

“My name is Draco Malfoy,” his voice was sneering. “And my father is going to make you sorry you made fun of me.” He paused for a moment before moving to kick the shin of the twin that insulted his name.

“Mummy? Why are you so old?” the other twin asked. Molly hadn’t yet been able to determine which was which. It had been so long since she had seen them this young. She looked up at her husband.

“It is a long story son,” he knelt down beside his wife. The boys looked at their father with confusion.

“Daddy? What happened to your hair? It’s all gone!” There was a muffled snicker from behind.

“Like I said, it is a long story. We need to know what happened first son. Where are the other two boys you told us about?” He was starting to get worried. There was no sign of Harry.

“Oh, they are poo-poo heads! We left them upstairs. They wouldn’t do anything,” Ron said this with a pout on his face.

“They are upstairs m’am. I’ll show you,” Hermione held out a hand. Molly slowly stood and took the little girls hand in her own. She was far too stunned to think about scolding the young boy for his language. The child-Hermione lead the way up the stairs, Remus and Tonks were following silently.

The room that Hermione led them to was at the end of a long hallway. Molly couldn’t hold back another gasp. Lying in the center of the room, dead, was the Dark Lord, Voldemort. Pressed against one wall, shivering and wrapped around himself was a small black haired boy, in the corner in almost the same position was another raven haired young boy. She couldn’t tell which child was her Harry as she couldn’t see either boy’s face and they both wore miniature robes almost identical in appearance.

Very softly she spoke “Harry? Severus?” two heads slowly lifted themselves. They showed identical looks of fear and confusion. One face with black eyes and hair, the other emerald green and a bright red scar above one eye gazed nervously at her.

The little girl holding her hand whispered “They have been like that ever since we woke up. Are they okay?” Molly wasn’t sure.

She looked over her shoulder and saw Arthur and Remus behind her. “I think there are too many people here. Can you guys take the other kids back downstairs? And even though…” she waved at the body lying on the floor, her eyes averted, “try to keep the others out until I can get these two to come with me.”

Remus looked like he wanted to argue. A light touch from Tonks on his shoulder and another glance at the two terrified boys and he gave a slight nod, taking Hermione’s hand in his own. The group slowly made their way down the stairs to wait for Molly Weasley to bring the other two boys along.

Confusion reigned in the house below. The Order had their hands full trying to keep the Ministry workers out of the house. Minerva, Remus and Arthur were busy trying to figure out what had happened to turn the team into a group of children who all appeared to be about five years old.

Upstairs Molly was having problems of her own. As the others left the two boys both seemed to shrink back further than should have been possible. They were almost at opposite ends of the room. Between them and her lay a body of a monster that the whole of the wizarding world was waiting for confirmation was dead.

Slowly she began to move towards the two terrified boys. Her mind was racing trying to figure out what had happened and how she was supposed to deal with this situation. She didn’t know how to deal with these two obviously frightened children with the body of a monster behind her. Her own fear pushed aside, she skirted the body and positioned herself in front of it and in between the two children.