Unmasked

A little girl no older than six with long auburn hair and bright violet eyes landed on the hardwood floor with a soft thud. As soon as her feet touched the ground she was gone; out of her small room, down the stairs, and out the front door. Six years old and she was running for her life. Six years old, this child wasn't even old enough to wield a wand, yet she was running for her life. Flashes of earlier events sprang back into her mind, but for now she bent her head low as her little legs took her as far away from that house as possible. Still, no matter how far she ran the screams of her parents echoed in her ears.

It was five in the morning and the sun would be up soon, but there was nobody around for miles. Nobody to hear the painful screams of her parents as those evil people cursed them over and over again, nobody for little Ember Moretti to run to for help. Even if there wasn't anyone else within spitting distance she knew of a small town eight kilometers south of where she lived. Muggles lived in the town, but they had accepted her family with kindness and had treated them as their own. However, there was an old couple that ran the bakery who she knew for a fact would help her out.

They were Mr. and Mrs. Ricco, and over time they had become sort of surrogate grandparents to Ember whose own grandparents had died before she was even born. From time to time she would stay with them for the weekend so that her parents could have some alone time and many times they had stayed in the house behind the bakery with the couple to help them out. She just hoped more than anything that she'd be able to make it, but she was already growing tired and she knew she hadn't even gone very far for when she looked behind her she could still see her house.

Determined to get there she pushed herself further with one last burst of energy. With the moon still out it was chilly outside. The upside was that she wouldn't overheat, but the downside was that if she passed out she'd freeze to death. So she ran as fast as she could, but her fastest was no help as the last bit of energy in her began to drain.

Then just like that she collapsed to her hands and knees panting heavily as she tried to catch her breath. When she looked up Ember knew she could see the outline of the village, but she had no strength to run. It was the sound of a werewolf off in the distance that gave her the boost of adrenaline that she needed to at least walk the rest of the way. With shaky legs she stood up as she began walking towards the village.

Just then the sound of something running towards her made her take off as fast as she could once more. She knew she shouldn't look behind her, but curiosity got the best of her. Glancing behind she saw one of the men who had come into her home and killed her family. Except that he wasn't a man anymore. No, he was a monster, a foul creature with no sense of self control, a werewolf.

A gun shot rang out through the night at the same time a scream was ripped from her throat. The bullet did little to harm the beast so the one who shot him jumped at him and feebly tried to wrestle the creature. It was much too strong for him when he too screamed, but in pain as the werewolf bit into his arm releasing the venom that would turn his opponent into one of him.

Another gunshot caused the werewolf to stumble back from the now bleeding man as he fell to the floor. With one last growl the creature turned and took off into the night. It was then that the weight of the day's events began to take their toll on Ember. She saw the edges of her vision blur before going completely dark as her eyes closed and her body fell limply to the grown.
- - - -
It wasn't light that awoke the young witch, but boisterous laughter close by. Cracking one violet eye open she saw four pairs of eyes staring at her slumped form sleeping in one of the many seating areas on the Hogwarts Express. She heard the glasses one whisper to the others, which made them all quiet down as they stepped into the compartment closing the door behind them. Not caring too much for being social she scrunched herself into the corner and kept her eyes closed listening to the four boys' conversation.

"Who do you think she is?" One of them whispered.

"Ember Moretti," said another obviously having read the name on her trunk above the seats, "Sounds Italian."

After that nothing else was said about her, yet she felt eyes on her the whole time. Wanting to see if she just being paranoid, and genuinely tired of being crunched up against the window. Ember sat up straight stretching her arms up with her eyes closed. Hearing the delicious sound of her back popping she settled back in her seat with her eyes wide open now.

"Oi! You're awake. We didn't bother you, did we?" The one who asked wore thin framed glasses over his green eyes and had a mess of black hair. Ember just shook her head no as she wasn't the talkative type, nor was she very social.

"You don't talk," another one asked. This one had striking grey eyes with long silky black hair. She didn't respond to him either just stared at the three in front of her blankly, which they too stared back waiting for some kind of response. She hadn't even noticed the one sitting next to her.

"Okay...," glasses boy said awkwardly scratching the back of his head before holding out his hand, "I'm James Potter." All she did was look at his hand then him as if saying, what am I supposed to do with that? A bit put off by this he pulled his hand back.

It was the one with grey eyes that spoke next. "I'm Sirius Black, and the mouse looking one over there is Peter." Ember nodded her head in acknowledgement.

A voice from next to her startled her as she looked over to see another boy with shuffled brown hair and deep brown eyes. "Remus Lupin," was all he said barely even looking at her.

Sighing she figured it best to just humor them and introduce herself. "Ember Moretti," she said in her strange accent. Those two words seemed enough to please the boys as they began talking to her fervently, at least James and Sirius did. Peter stayed quiet as he stared out at the window, while Remus continued to stare at his sneakers. This was definitely going to be an interesting train ride.