9 A very long way...

We didn't stay in that cabin long, my father grabbed what must have been a go bag. After double checking the contents, he took a pair of keys and said "Follow me love, we can't stay here."

The next few months of my life were the most stressfulI I had known since my time in Afghanistan. Our family was constantly on the move. My dad would switch cars twice a week, and houses or apartments at least every two weeks. Because he was tricking muggles out of their stuff, we had to watch out for the bobbies as well as the death eaters.

Neighbors noticed quickly when a Polynesian man would stay in the house next door, making it extra difficult to lay low. Dad would pop away occasionally trying to look for news about Regulus. From what was said I gathered, the low death eaters on the totem pole had no ideas about the prophecy. They were however aware of how big a target was on the back of my family. Every dark wizard was on the lookout for my dad.

"I think there must be a bigger target on our backs due to the lethality of my father's methods. James Potter and Frank Longbottom are in the order and using stunners against terrorists.' I thought to myself.

Training had been going poorly for me, I had almost no time to myself. Adding to that I had no regular access to water besides my baths. I was trying to get some practice in during one particular bath but every time the water started moving weirdly, my parents would pluck me from the water. Regular wandless magic had no progress whatsoever - I couldn't even pull off a lumos.

I had been using some simple words. My parents were clearly disappointed that my first word was neither mom or dad. One day when during the bath, I got frustrated that they took me out of the water. I reached toward the tub and angrily said "Water!"

It was the day I knew he would come for us. Halloween 1981 - I was 15 months old. I was in a panic all day frustrated with myself for my lack of preparation. We were currently hiding in a house in Chiswick, a suburb of London, where the house was apart of a long line of homes smashed right on top of the other. It was getting to be evening, and all day I had been asking for water and when no one was looking, pouring it in my crib. Under my soaked mattress was a substantial puddle. 'Now I just need to make sure my parents don't notice and dry the bed before that maniac gets here'.

I had been focusing on my hydrokinesis knowing any real progress on wandless magic would take more time then I had to spare. I was in my crib with my parents downstairs talking about where they should hide next, father relying on mother's knowledge of her home land.

Hearing a pop of apparition outside I screamed at the top of my little lungs. My piercing scream brought my parents into combat mode. Mom rushed up the stairs while my dad tried to apparate to my bedroom but was blocked by a newly erected ward. I could hear my father curse and charge up the stairs after my mother when I heard the words "Bombarda Maxima" right outside our home.

The subsequent explosion tore open a hole from the outside, the damage from the curse completely ruining the living room, the stability of the second floor, and the entrance way.

"Go get Arthur and run, I'll do what I can. I love you both." Turning from his place on the street my father replied with an explosion curse of his own.

The street in front of Voldemort and his two lackies exploded, sending shrapnel in the air like an IED. With a sinister and cruel laugh Voldemort transfigured the cobblestone in front of him into a wall, protecting himself and his flunkies from damage. My father wasn't done yet and quickly cast "Evanesco" vanishing a section of the wall and using the previously made shrapnel to send a spike through the abdomen of the death eater to Voldemort's right.

"Fools," Voldemort hisses "he isn't one of Albus' flaming chickens so don't expect stunners," he laughs, sending a gout of flame in my father's direction.

Flames licking at his heels my dad rolls to the center of the street, and shoots a flame of his own at his three adversaries.

Meanwhile, my mother reaches my room scooping me up, taking me to the hallway where I can see the savage fight in the street through the hole the explosion made.

It looked like dad had already managed to take out one of the dark lords followers. I could see him in the street with cobblestone shard in his stomach and his head turned the opposite way on his body. Voldemort and his other followers were working in tandem, the death eater casting explosion curses and the dark lord transfiguring the shrapnel and sending it to my dad.

It happened suddenly - my father was too slow standing from a roll to get out of the way of a explosion and was sent flying. Voldemort seized the opportunity and sent a bone-breaking curse, destroying my father's leg from ankle to hip.

"Tom!" My mother shouted causing both the dark lord and my father to turn in her direction. My dad saw opportunity in the distraction and casted a diffindo charm arcing to Voldemort's neck only to be intercepted by the body of his last follower. The death eater was severed in two, the remnants of the charm leaving a cut on Voldemort's face.

Voldemort swirling on his toes ducked a follow up curse and screamed "Avada Kedavra!" Green light struck my father and he crumpled dead instantly.

Casting a spell with a hiss and healing his face completely, a handsome dark haired murderer turned to my mother and I.

"You should be proud of your husband you filthy muggle." Voldemort said with a laugh. "Few have ever been able to lay a scratch on me. I have been waiting for such an auspicious day to meet your family. Did you think you would be hard to find?" He said walking nearer to my mother, who was standing with a defiant look in her eyes. "Your fool husband left his blood just laying around." A vicious smile marred the handsome face. "I have known where you were from the moment I destroyed the mind of the young Black traitor. Their whole family has suffered from his betrayal, I made sure of it." Voldemort gloated as my mother backed up until she was back in my room.

I desperately reached for the water that I knew was soaking my mattress. Fear, sadness, pain, and a blinding rage, guiding my magic enhanced hydrokinesis.

"After I am through with you I might pay the Potter and Longbottom brats a little visit." He said with a smile that freezed when he saw the glowing of my eyes. "Avada Kedavra" he shouted again pointing his wand at me as I launched a trident of solid water piercing him in the chest neck and head. My mother, too slow to dodge the blow, turned to shield me from the spell when she collapsed to the side, still holding me in her arms.

I was alone, my new family was destroyed. It was my fault because I thought I could take the loss of my parents so Harry wouldn't have to. I didn't know how much I would come to love them. Or how much my weakness hurt them. I wailed on the ground holding my mother's face in my tiny useless hands as Voldemort's body burst to ash and his shade rocketed out of the room and into the night.

I stayed there vowing vengeance until my senses heard the siren of police cars in the distance. I knew I had to move, kissing my mother on her forehead and closing her eyes. I moved to the stairwell after grabbing Voldemort's wand and snapping it in my tiny hands with strength that should not be possible for a child so young. I went down the stairs on my small legs and walked into what was left of the living room. Seeing the phone on the far side of the room from the explosion, I quickly walked over and dialed my grandmother's number. Leaving the phone off the hook, I walked into the street to my father's body. Kissing his forehead and thanking him for always fighting to protect us, I took the wand I had used for my first spell in this new world.

Stashing the wand under my shirt and tucked in to my nappy, I walked back to the phone and sat down and cried. When the police and then the aurors found me, I was balled up crying while my grandmother was shouting for her son.

After a short conversation Dumbledore was brought before me. Not looking at anyone I just said "I want Tutu." When they asked me questions I just said "NO. I want Tutu!" until my grandmother arrived and I was put on a plane headed for Hawaii.

Looking out the window I knew I would be back. That murderer was still out there, and I knew I was a very long way from vengeance.