East Of Eden

The Prologue is citing the Holy Bible, the title and the inspiration are borrowed from a novel by John Steinbeck and the great movie it was turned into.

Thanks to Darkwing for beta-reading.

East of Eden
Chapter 2
Holding the dawn

Dumbledore touched the crystal orb with the tip of his wand. “Redde imagini de October 31st, 1981”

The orb began to glow golden. Then the picture of a room became visible.

Obviously the transmitter-owl had been sitting on a window-sill on the ground floor of a small house. They were looking into some kind of entrance hall.

With a start Harry noticed a man in muggle clothes, who was coming down the stairs boisterously. He recognized his father at once.

James was obviously going to answer the door, because he shouted “Haven’t I told you not to come by, Peter?” as he moved towards the entrance.

As soon as James had unlocked it, the door burst open. In came two cloaked figures with black hoods drawn over their heads and silver masks covering their faces.

 Death Eaters!

The first one immediately pressed his wand tip against James’ neck and hissed at him: “Where is your son, Potter! ”

James’ eyes bulged in horror.
Then, despite the wand at his throat, he screamed at the top of his lungs:

“LILY, TAKE HARRY AND RUN!!”

The Death Eater spun around and raced up the stairs to the upper floor, where he suspected Lily and the boy to be. Halfway up, he stopped and bellowed at his companion: “Finish him!” Then he continued his way to the second floor.

The remaining Death Eater turned towards James, who was drawing his wand.

“Expelliarmus!” the Death Eater shouted and send the wand flying across the room. James himself was thrown against the wall from the power of the spell.

 Two framed photographs fell down and smashed on the floor.
Dazed, James looked at the Death Eater, who was now slowly approaching him.

The other man muttered under his breath “My pleasure, Potter,” and with an uppercut that could have stunned an ox, he sent James into unconsciousness. He paused shortly. From the second floor a voice could be heard: "Stand back, silly girl!" A red flash illuminated the staircase. The black cloaked figure gave James a kick in the ribs for good measure, and turned to rush up the stairs in pursuit of his companion.
 

The image in the orb changed.
The owl had flown to an open window on the first floor, and Harry could see a living room now.

The walls were lined with book shelves. In the center of the room was a blue sofa, and next to it, a wooden baby crib.
A piano with an open cover stood in one corner of the room. In front of it lay Harry’s mother, struggling to get up from the floor.Obviously the first Death Eater had cursed her out of the way when she was trying to delay his inevitable attack. He was so focused on his task to kill Harry that he hadn’t even bothered to bind or disarm her.

 He was now leaning over the crib. With the high pitched laugh of a lunatic he placed his wand on he forehead of the little boy, who was sound asleep despite the turmoil around him.

 Voldemort didn’t notice his companion coming up the stairs behind him. The second Death Eater nodded briefly at Lily, who had her wand already pointed in the direction of the crib. At the same moment Voldemort cried out a triumphantly “Avada Kedavra!” they simultaneously cast their protection spell.

“Clipeus versus! ”

For a split second the air around the baby glowed golden, but then the whole room seemed to explode in green light.

Immediately  “Avada Kedavra!” boomed through the room again, and a second flash of green light followed the first one like an echo. An unearthly cry, which resembled the inhuman shriek of an animal in pangs of death, made the window pane quiver and burst.
 

Harry instinctively closed his eyes and drew back from the orb.
 
 

Eventually the sound had died down and Harry dared to watch again.

At a first glance the living room looked like a hurricane had just gone through it, but besides broken glass and splintered furniture it appeared to be empty.

Then Harry realized, that Voldemort was gone. His mother and the Death Eater were both lying on the floor, apparently swept from their feet by a great magic force.

 The Death Eater, halfway buried under a shelf, was the first to move. With a groan he got to his feet and peeled the silvery fabric of the mask off his face.
 

Harry gasped.

He was looking into the face of Severus Snape.

 It was the unlined face of a young man, almost still a boy. The hair was short, and the younger Snape was sporting a well trimmed beard, but the fierce black eyes and the hooked nose could not be mistaken.
He was bleeding from two deep cuts on his cheek and above his eye, where pieces of flying glass had hit him. Confused he looked around until he spotted Harry’s mother.

 Lily was lying limp on the floor under a white cover, which at the first glance could be mistaken for snow.
It was shreds of paper - ripped journals, sheets of music, unread bills and pages of  books torn apart by the collision of contrasting magic. The whole floor was covered with them.

“Lily!” Snape croaked and staggered through the chaos towards her.
 He dropped down by her side.

Lily’s face was white and parchment-like as her cover. Her eyes were closed and her mouth was pressed into a thin line. Blood was trickling from her nose and ears.

Snape stared at her in horror. Then he gingerly placed a hand on her neck to check the pulse.

“Gods, Lily!”

In response to the sound of his voice the child started to whimper weakly in his crib. Lily opened her eyes.

“Harry !”

A moan escaped her mouth. Obviously she was in great pain.

 ”Not Harry! What has he done to my child, Sev? ”

Snape got up without a word and went to the little boy.

The baby was bleeding badly from a deep wound in his forehead, just in the spot where Voldemort’s wand had been touching him. The whimper dyed down suddenly, and when Snape reached down into the crib, the baby didn’t  respond.

 “ SHIT ! ” Snape waved his wand over the child. “ENERVATE!”

 Nothing happened.

Snape took the wand between his teeth and placed two trembling fingers on the tiny chest of the child. He pressed the ribcage down hard four times.

“ENERVATE !”

 This time the baby stirred. Snape cursed again and touched the child’s bleeding wound with his wand. “Asclepio!”  The wound stopped bleeding and the toddler began to wail loudly in pain.

 “Bring him to me, will you,” whispered Lily.

“It’s all over now.” Snape said to the baby with a forced smile and pocketed his wand. Then he leaned over the crib to lift the boy up.
 

A roar rang through the room from out of nowhere.

“ NO! Don’t you dare to touch him!”

Snape turned towards the direction of the voice.
 

In the doorway stood James Potter, who had regained consciousness. His face was pale and he was holding on to the doorframe for support.

His wand was firmly trained at Snape.