Brothers from the North

By Licca

Prologue

Screams could be heard echoing through the abandoned village. The high-pitched screams of a small child of no more than one year. But no one was there to hear it. The black cloaked figures who rendered the house on the hill into ruins and sent the eerily green skull with the snake protruding from it's mouth into the air had long ago disappeared, and all of the villagers had done the same soon after that. Because Voldemort had marked this silent little village by killing two of it's inhabitants, leaving his mark behind, and no one would dare to go back to living there again for a long while.

Then a sound could be heard closing in from a distance, winding its way to the village along the road. A purring sound, coming from the engine of a sleek, terrain built car. And as it stopped, not even thirty feet away from the ruins, one could see its passengers.

It was two tall adults and a child, evidently coming from two different parts of Europe judging from their looks. The driver was a Slavic man, tall and wiry with raven, rough hair and pitch-dark eyes. His nose held the bend of a hawk, and with his long limbs and slender build, he closely resembled a vulture. And even though he had well used dimples, he was decidedly serious for the moment.

Next to him, sat a smaller woman, yet tall for her sex. She had shoulder length, dark blonde hair and a pair of intriguing green eyes. Her fair complexion and overall build suggested that she had Nordic blood in her veins, which was correct as she was born in a small wizard village in Sweden.

 Their child looked very much like his father with the exception of his impeccably serious face. Besides that, he was slightly round shouldered, a strain he had inherited from his dearly departed grandfather. Now, he was looking intently out the window, as if looking for something.

"You were right, Alexei," the woman hoarsely croaked. "It's the Dark Mark. What should we do?"

The man, obviously named Alexei, grimly looked at his wife.

"We have to get out of here as soon as possible," he replied. "There's no way You-know-who would leave anyone alive. And what if he comes back?"

Then the crying returned with a renewed strength and found itself a second part as the five year old in the backseat started to cry too. Alexei and the woman shared a look, and then glanced at their crying son.

"We can't leave it there," the woman said.

Alexei shook his head.

"I know," he agreed. "Stay here with Viktor, Elin. I'll see if I can find the child."

They were interrupted as the car door slammed shut and the patter of feet was heard running towards the ruins.

"Viktor, no!" Elin cried, then jumped out of the car, followed closely by her husband. "Stop!"

But the child didn't stop, and soon, he disappeared behind a ruined wall. Soon afterwards, the crying stopped. And when Alexei and Elin rounded the wall, the sight of their Viktor hugging a little boy standing shaky on his legs as if he had just learned how to stand and go greeted them. His little face was blotchy and red, blood were seeping from a jagged, lightning bolt-shaped cut on his forehead. But the thing that captured them, was his extremely green eyes.

Viktor looked at his parents, his big, black eyes huge and teary.

"He's scared, daddy," he softly said. "He doesn't want to be here."

The words freed them from their trance.

"Of course, Viktor," Elin softly said and walked over to her son and the boy. "But we have to go. Something bad has happened here, hon, and we cannot stay."

Viktor stared defiantly at his mother and managed to lift the boy into his arms, a huge accomplishment for someone his age.

"We have to take him with us," he seriously said. "He needs us."

Elin looked at her husband, who was smiling slightly.

"Of course, son," he gently said. "We will take him with us. Give him to me, and we'll go to the car."

Viktor nodded and staggered over to his father. He easily took the boy into his arms and carried him to the car, his wife and son tight on his heels.

Elin settled in the backseat of the car, taking the boy in her arms. Viktor sat down close to her, never letting the boy go with his eyes. Alexei took the driver's seat, and then quickly drove away from the abandoned village known as Godric's Hollow. And none of them noticed the huge man arriving to the place, or his frantic search of the ruins. History had been changed.

***

Hagrid ran over to Dumbledore and McGonagall, who stood at the Dursleys' porch, waiting for the half-giant.

"He was gone!" he shouted. "Harry wasn't there!"

The old wizard and his companion shared an unsettled look.

"Oh dear," McGonagall faintly said.

***

Far away from them, in a flying car crossing the channel in the protection of the dark, the small family who'd found Harry discussed what they should name the baby.

"What do you think, Elin?" Alexei wondered. "Something English perhaps?"

His wife shook her head.

"That his family was killed by You-know-who can only mean that he's after them," she said. "We shouldn't make it easier to find him by making him stand out. It's a good thing that you have dark hair and that I have green eyes. It makes it less suspicious. No, it's better if we name him something we could've named Viktor."

Alexei frowned.

"You're right," he agreed. "It's safer for him. What do you think of 'Vlad'?"

Viktor frowned and shook his head.

"No" he stubbornly said.

His mother looked indulgingly at him.

"What do you think he should be named then, hon?" she asked.

The child pondered the question.

"Harry," he finally decided. "His name is Harry."

His father smiled.

"Why not?" he agreed. "Henrik Vlad it is then. Harry for short."

Elin nodded and hugged her new son.

"Yes," she said. "Our Henrik Vlad Krum."