Authors Notes:

Disclaimer: This has been written for the International Wizarding Schools Challenge. I do not own the Harry Potter Universe or any of the recognisable characters or locations mentioned henceforth.

School: Ilvermorny

Theme: Lumos

Prompt: "You're my very own prince charming," she said. [Speech]

Year: 7

Words: 2639

A Light in the Darkness

"All I'm saying is its people like you that give us a bad reputation," Kara pointed out as she sat in the front seat of the blue and white car rolling down the dark, empty street.

"It's not my fault there's a stigma against it," Barry countered from the driver's seat. He reached down with his left hand and plucked a doughnut out of the box sitting on the centre console of the car, "I just like doughnuts. What's so bad about that?"

"You'll rot your teeth," Kara grumbled, sitting back in the seat, adjusting her badge as the seat belt became caught on it. She glanced out the window at the houses lining the road. This was the section of their beat she hated. Little Whinging. Every time she drove through this neighbourhood, she couldn't the help the eerie feeling of melancholy that settled over her. Maybe it was the houses, how they were perfectly identical to each other, with no variation. Hell, most of the garden beds were mirror images!

"You still love me." Barry winked at her, and Kara sighed, rolling her eyes at her boyfriend. They'd been dating for a year now, and she had a pretty good idea that he was getting ready to propose to her. Keeping the ring box in his underwear drawer while he showered was probably not the best idea he'd ever had.

"Yes, you're my very own prince charming," she said with a smirk.

"Officer's Ashford and Sullivan, we've received a 999 call about a possible B&E in your area. Location: Number 4 Privet Drive. A caller reported hearing voices from within the property, but the owners are in the US on a business trip." Officer Adam's voice echoed over the radio. Kara picked up the receiver and held it to her mouth.

"Officer's Ashford here, we'll check it out."

"Be careful." Adam's voice went quiet, and Barry turned the car down the next street: Magnolia Crescent.

"If it is a break in, the perps probably long gone," Barry said.

"Maybe… Maybe not…" Kara replied. She checked her gun holster and satisfied that it was still firmly secured, returned her eyes to the road. Barry turned onto Privet Drive, another road full of cookie-cutter houses, and Kara started counting mailboxes. It didn't take long for them to pull up outside Number Four.

The house was as the dispatch said, dark and seemingly empty. There was no car parked outside, and there were no lights in the windows. The front door remained closed. The partners quietly got out of the squad car and advanced up the driveway on foot.

"Looks like a false alarm," Barry said.

"Then why call the cops?" Kara replied. Barry didn't have an answer for that, so Kara tried the door handle. Locked. She pressed her ear to the keyhole and closed her eyes. It took a few seconds for her to pick it up, the voice was incredibly soft, barely audible from outside, but it was there. Kara could barely make out the words, but she did catch what she thought might have been, 'hungry', 'cold' and 'freak'. Kara's stomach twisted, and she leaned back from the door.

Kara had seen a lot of things in her five years as a cop. Drug Trafficking, high-speed chases, even child smuggling and rape. But the one case she hadn't caught was a juvenile one. Those were usually reserved for the Detectives. She had a feeling that streak had just ended.

She grabbed her radio and whispered into it, "Call was good. A person is in the property, possibly a child. Preparing to enter." Swallowing the bile that rose unwittingly to her throat, she stepped back and gestured to Barry. He kicked the door right on the handle, the lock snapped, and the cheap wood swung open.

Kara was the first inside, torch illuminated and in hand. She hadn't drawn a weapon yet, but she had a feeling she wouldn't need to. The voice had stopped, vanished as if it were never there. A window in the kitchen was open, most likely the reason for the 999 call. The house itself was clearly empty and had not been visited in several days. In fact, nothing seemed to be out of place at all. Every vase, every ceramic plate was completely free of dust. The floor had been recently mopped and vacuumed, and nothing was moving. Not at all what you expected from a breaking and entering case.

Kara and Barry cautiously made their way into the house, looking around every corner, every sofa for their vanished infiltrator. But the kid, if it was a kid, wasn't to be found. Barry made to mount the stairs, then stopped suddenly, shinning his torch towards a cupboard beneath the stairs.

"Kara…" Kara walked over to see what he'd found, and stopped dead, almost losing her grip on the torch. The cupboard had a small grate in the door, with slates barely wide enough for air to fit through. The door had three bolts on the outside. Kara let out a strangled cry and latched onto the door, pulling the pins free with more force than was strictly necessary.

Kara pulled the cupboard door open, and her nose was instantly assaulted with the smell of old faeces and urine. Forcing back a gag, she reached into the cupboard and pulled on a string hanging from a roof. A lightbulb flickered on, illuminating the tiny space, which had no less than eleven spiders that Kara could count, scuttling over the walls. In the corner was a bucket, and lying on an old camp bed, with no blanket and only an oversized shirt to keep him warm, was a tiny sleeping boy with black hair, cuddled as tightly as possible into a ratty old pillow. Kara's heart broke at the sight, and tears that started sliding freely down her face.

"Dispatch get the Detectives down here. We've got a child abuse case. And it's a big one." Barry called into the radio.

"Back up is on route to your location. Standby."

Kara reached into the cupboard and lifted the tiny boy out of the darkened space. He didn't wake, and she held him close to her chest as she stood up. She glanced at Barry, who had moved down from the stairs to stand beside her. He too had glassy eyes, and his free hand was clenched in a fist. Kara ran a hand through the boy's hair, and he snuggled unconsciously into her shoulder.

"Mummy… Knew you'd… save me…" He murmured in his sleep. Kara choked back a sob and clutched the boy even tighter.

"Come on honey, let's get you out of here." That's when she heard the sound of a shotgun pulling back.

Instinctively, she spun around, placing her back between the incoming bullet and the sleeping child. She felt a set of hands push her into the stairwell, and she twisted just enough so that she landed on the shoulder without the toddler clinging to it. She winced as the step cracked under her weight, a splinter embedding itself in her skin. The shot discharged, followed by a second 'bang!', two simultaneous grunts of pain, a child's scream, and two thuds.

Kara, using every ounce of willpower she had, pulled herself and the now very awake young boy in her arms behind the open cupboard door. It wasn't the best cover, but it would have to do for now.

"Shh, Shh. Honey, I need you to be quiet now," She begged the squirming child. Forcing her hand not to shake, she pointed to the badge on her shoulder.

"You see this? I'm the police. I'm here to help. But I need you to be quiet for just a second so I can do that, ok?" The boy looked at the badge with wild green eyes, his face pale and his entire body shaking like a leaf. Then he looked into Kara's blue orbs and seemed to calm slightly. He nodded his head slightly, before burying his head back into her shoulder and weeping. With his head removed, Kara had an uninterrupted view of where she and Barry had been standing a second before. But now Barry lay on the floor, blood pooling from a gunshot wound to the neck. He had pushed her out of the way… a split second… they should've heard… sloppy… left the door open… he pushed her… oh, God…

The boy wriggled in her arms, and a drop of water ran down Kara's arm. A tear. Snapping back to reality, and calling on all her training at the police academy to help her focus, she grabbed her radio.

"Shots fired! I repeat shots fired! Officer down and civilian child in play!"

"Stay calm Kara, back up is one minute away…"

Kara drew her gun and, not looking at Barry, glanced around the cupboard door.

The man lying in the doorway was incredibly fat. Literally. He looked like a hippopotamus on two legs. He had a large bushy moustache, thinning blonde hair and his face was a bright shade of purple. He lay on the ground, a double-barrel shotgun discarded a metre away, clutching at his side, where blood was very visibly leaking through his shirt and onto the floor.

He wasn't looking at her.

Kara, making a split-second decision, flung herself around the cupboard door, gun pointed right at the man's heart and kicked the shotgun away.

"Police! Put your hands above your head now!" She yelled. The fat man turned towards her, and his eyes latched onto the boy in her arms. His face went from pain, to rage in a split second, his pupils dilating and his fists clenching.

"Get outta my house!" The man screamed. Kara gripped the pistol tighter. The boy pulled his head free and swivelled to look at the man. In an instant, he started violently shaking again and buried himself deep in her chest.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" he mumbled frantically.

"You should be sorry, freak! You should be arresting that… that… freak of nature! Instead, you break into my house! You… you must be one of them… one of the freaks!" And in that moment, Kara felt a single burning thought seer itself into her brain. It came from her heart. A heart that was desperately trying to tear itself apart. A heart being held together by adrenaline and sheer force of will. Kill him. One shot. Self-defence. That's all it would take. Kill this piece of filth. He abused this boy… he… he… Barry… Her mind flashed to the ring box hidden in the underwear drawer. To all the times they had laughed together at the doughnut shop Barry loved. To their apartment… She took a deep breath and lowered the gun.

Then the sound of sirens filled the air, and three squad cars skidded to a halt on the street. Doors were flung open, and a dozen men and women dressed in blue and white ran up the driveway.

"POLICE!" Detective Abby and her partner Jarrod were the first inside. Abby was on her knees, pulling the man's hands behind his back as he continued to shout about Freaks while Jarrod pulled her into a fierce hug. She broke down, the damn coming loose as the adrenaline faded away. She sunk to her knees and Jarrod went with her. She balled into his shoulder, her body shaking with sobs. And she held the tiny boy in her arms as tightly as she could. Refusing to let him go. She heard calls of "Ambulance! We need medical help now!" But barely processed them. All her attention was fixated on the boy still shivering in her embrace. It was the only thing she could let herself focus on. If she thought about anything else… She kept her eyes trained on the boy as Jarred allowed her to bawl, arms wrapped tightly around her. She thought Abby or someone else might have replaced him at some point, but she couldn't be sure.

Hours later, when Kara finally cried herself to sleep, she and the young boy she'd rescued, who refused to even budge from his position in her arms, were driven by ambulance to Royal Surrey Hospital. Officer Barry Sullivan was pronounced dead at the scene, having sacrificed himself to protect his partner and a young child.

Ten years later, Kara Ashford stood on Platform Nine and Three Quarters, waiting for her surrogate son Harry to return from his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry was the bright spark at the centre of her life, the only thing that pulled her through the aftermath of Number 4 Privet Drive. After the shooting, Harry had stayed attached to her hip, refusing to even leave her side at the hospital. She was perfectly fine with that arrangement, as she didn't want to let him out of her sight either. A background check revealed that young mister Harry Potter was the only son of James and Lily Potter, both of whom had died under mysterious circumstances. Harry had been left with the Dursley family – his only family relation – by persons unknown. The extent of the abuse Harry had endured was horrifying, to say the least. The boy, who had been three when Kara and Barry had rescued him, hadn't even known his own name, merely responding to the name 'Freak'. Kara had quit the force and taken over parenting for Harry, devoting everything she had into being the best possible mother he could ask for to make up for all the horror he had been subjected to in that… place. She hoped that somewhere Barry, Lily and James Potter were smiling down on her.

"Mum!" Kara was broken out of her thoughts by the sight of Harry rushing towards her, his owl and trunk in hand. She bent down, and he threw himself into her arms, owl cage banging against her back. She squeezed him tight, and they stayed like that until Harry started coughing.

"Mum… can't… breathe!" Kara reluctantly let Harry go, and he immediately started heavy faux breathing.

"What's got you so excited?" She asked him, ruffling his hair and picking up his trunk.

"You're never going to believe it! Sirius Black, you know the murderer?"

Kara's eyes went wide, "Harry, what did I tell you after the giant bloody snake! Please tell me you didn't take on a murderer!"

"I didn't! Black is innocent! And he's my Godfather!" Harry launched into a tirade about the adventures he'd had that year that weren't safe to send via letter as they walked to the car. Just as they were about to get inside, Harry grabbed her arm, and she turned to look into his vibrant green eyes.

"When I was making the Patronus… I thought about you. About what it was like to have a mum who cared for me and loved me… and it made me realise that I never thanked you for rescuing me from the darkness. I… I don't want to think about what might have happened if I was stuck there for ten years. You were my light in the darkness. And I just wanted to say thank you, for everything that you never had to do for a kid you didn't even know…" Kara pulled Harry into another bone-crushing hug, tears running down her face.

"You did just as much for me honey. You were the only thing that got me through it, losing him, and for that, I'm eternally grateful. We're each other's light, and we'll always be there to chase away the darkness, no matter how much there is, or how hard it fights back."

"I love you, Mum," Harry whispered.

"I love you too sweetheart. I love you too."