34Halloween
It was dark cold evening in Number 4, Privet Drive . The excitement of the young fat child was easy to hear through his excited squealing. All the pictures in this particular house showed a chubby happy fat young boy, his equally obese father who seemed to eat twice as much as his mother, who was a dark haired skinny woman. Looking at the countless family portraits in the room nobody would suspect that there were actually two other children living in the house. These two little children currently squashed in the cupboard under the stairs because they had been ordered to go to bed early were not able to find sleep. Their uncle Vernon had told them they would only disturb Dudley's perfect Halloween.
A few years ago on this very day their parents had supposedly caused an accident in which they had both died. While Harry, the small thin boy with unruly black hair and a scar on his front believed his aunt, Satia, his little twin sister with pitch black hair and green and blue eyes knew that they were lying. She could not figure out how she knew it, but she did.
"My little Dudders! Oh please just look at you! Such a handsome little Ninja Turtle!" Aunt petunia gushed clapping her hands. More like a pig squeezed in a turtle suit the little girl thought although she could not see him with her eyes she knew exactly how he looked in it.
"Oh! Look at the time; we really must be going otherwise all the other children are the first at getting the sweets." The little chubby boy let out a horrified squeal at that statement.
Satia wondered again why they were not allowed to go outside to collect sweets too. It was so unfair! When she had heard Mrs. Figg, the crazy old cat lady from next door, talking about Halloween she had secretly wished that she would be allowed to go dressed up as a witch. When she had suggested it to her guardians at breakfast they had the most curious reaction: Uncle Vernon became completely red like a tomato and screamed at her that witches did not exist. Petunia almost fainted and Dudley just stared at his parents. Harry had asked again if they could dress up too and come with them but aunt Petunia had told them again to forget that because they would just get in trouble and they did not like that. Dudders was also allowed to go to a "nursery school" as her aunt had called it where he could play with other children and he came back every day telling his parents about the adventures he had with the other children there. When Harry had asked if they could go too because they would like to play with other children, uncle Vernon had scoffed and said:"Why would they want you there? I'm not spending more money on you which you are not worth!" So while Dudley was allowed to enjoy himself they had to help Petunia with the household. Which menat that Petunia ordered them to do this and that and they were expected to do this for her.
Suddenly the door of the cupboard was ripped open by their fat uncle with his horrible twitchy moustache. "You will stay in here the entire night and if you do not you will not get any food for the next few days. Do you understand!" he pointed his fat index finger at the two four year old who nodded terrified. They knew that he was not making empty threats. One time he had completely lost his countenance and they had gotten a beating. Satisfied with their frightened faces, their uncle slammed their door shut. Trying to sleep she started to breath deeper and listened to everything around her. She could hear the boasting of Dudley as the entire family walked out of the house.
She could hear her brother's breathing evening out which meant that he was actually sleeping. Unfortunately as much as she tried Satia was not able to get comfortable enough to sleep. Something was keeping her from falling asleep and it completely annoyed her. Perhaps she could sneak out and watch all the other children going from house to house. But uncle Vernon hat forbidden urge to stand up and go out to look at the other children was getting stronger and she was not able to resist any longer. Careful as to not wake her already sleeping brother she slowly opened the door and carefully sneaked out. At first she was looking out of the window trying to see something, but unfortunately the fence blocked her view of the street. She could hear multiple voices chanting "trick or treat" and "thank you", but it was impossible for her to see anything. Maybe she could sneak out further and peak around the fence to see more. Forgetting her uncle's warning she opened the front door and silently crouched to the fence. Carefully looking around the corner of the fence she saw the most beautiful sight. Every house and garden was decorated with carved pumpkins, bats and spiders. Some had scary faces and others friendly ones. The candles in these pumpkins were the only light sources on the street and they were emitting a red and orange warm light creating. She could also see many children dressed up as ghosts, bees, witches, ninjas and skeletons. But what surprised her most was that even many adults were dressed scarily and she could not help but follow a family that drew her attention. There was a big dark haired man dressed as a clown who was standing next to a blonde motherly looking woman dressed as a devil with two blinking red horns. The two children, who seemed to be about her age, dressed as a witch and a ghost, were smiling brightly at their parents. The man was patting his son fondly at the shoulder and was directing them to the next house. Unable to stop herself again she followed them as carefully as possible. Maybe she could see how a normal family worked because she had a feeling that something was wrong with hers. She followed the family several houses not looking where she was going but careful not to be detected.
Her gaze firmly on the particular family she suddenly bumped into something and fell backwards on the ground hurting her hand on something sharp, lying on the cold, hard, grassy floor. Suddenly remembering her uncle's warning she looked up at the person she had run into but was completely speechless. The huge man she had bumped into had the best costume she had seen so far. He looked absolutely terrifying as he was towering above her, had chocolate coloured skin which had two symmetrically darker fields above his eyebrows and two between his cheeks and his mouth. He was very tall, but the most spectacular sight was his small horns, which seemed to grow out of his head. Two smaller ones where on his front, two bigger ones on his sides. As he moved his head looking at her she could make out more small horns on his head.
He looked like a devil! She knew that a devil had horns because aunt Petunia was forcing them to go to church every Sunday "to get rid of their freakishness" and she knew the stories about the devil. But this one did not frighten her, because she knew it was Halloween and he must have been a really good at disguising and she could feel that this man was not a danger to her. Not that she had met many strangers. He even wore a cloak like a monk and he had the kindest eyes she had ever seen. They were green and brown and sparkled as if they had small stars in them.
"Careful where you are going, youngling." he said in a deep calm voice and in a strange accent while helping her standing up again. Satia decided that she quite liked his voice.
"What is your name, little one?" he asked looking carefully at her wounded hand. "I'm not little!" Satia protested. "I'm four!" She emphasized it with showing him four fingers of her left unhurt hand. He chuckled brightly at her and pulled out something of his cloak to sweep the blood of her hand.
"Do you want to see a Halloween trick?" he asked focusing his warm gaze on her hand. She could feel something tingling around her wound and watched in wonder as her wound closed as if nothing ever happened. Grateful she turned her gaze back to the stranger and murmured an honest:"Thank you!"
The horned man kneeling next to her smiled and answered kindly: "You are welcome, child." She could see that he wanted to say something else as he opened his mouth but was suddenly interrupted by a very shrill and angry cry of outrage which caused her to jump and tense immediately: Oh no!
"Satia Potter! What the hell are you doing outside! What have I told you about wandering about!" her aunt was crying from behind her. Looking ashamed to the ground Satia slowly turned around to face her "family". Uncle Vernon looked like he was ready to explode, aunt Petunia eyed the kind man suspiciously and her cousin was munching dully on one of his sweets.
"I just wanted to look how everybody looked" she desperately pleaded, but they did not want to hear anything and yanked her away from the man.
"Don't lie, missy. You are three blocks away from the house." her uncle shouted at her nearly causing her to tear up.
"I think we should all calm down." she heard the deep voice of kind man. "There was no harm done." But whatever he was trying it agitated her uncle even more.
"No harm done! The brat just destroyed her cousin's Halloween!" he exclaimed."Where is stupid Harry?" Dudley jumped on the Satia bashing wagon.
"Asleep." she murmured hoping that only she would be punished and not her brother. Before the man could intervene again her family dragged her along to their house. Neither of them was seeing how the man was looking after them.
Boa-Dur, the zabrak jedi had travelled to this particular planet to study the culture. As this planet was one of the many newly discovered planets, who were still in a pre-hyper-drive phase in this very little system, the jedi order was curious how they have developed so far. As he was a jedi scholar most adept in the pilar of knowedge and especially sociology he had volunteered. But never in his wildest dreams had he believed to run into a force sensitive child. It must have been the will of the Living Force. He knew that he had to be careful in front of the populous, but his research had shown that he could go out undetected, without disguise on the day called Halloween. At least in this country. The girl whom he had bumped into was very strong in the Force, that much he was able to sense, but he did not know to what extent. Luckily he had a blood sample that he wanted to check for her Midi-chlorian count. If his sense was any indication it must have been exceptionally high. Something was terribly wrong with her family. He had seen that she was the only, lonely child wandering around in night clothes while mentally projecting her fascination with a seemingly intact family. Therefore he understood that she had no parents any longer and if her tensing and her fear were any indication he suspected that she was no stranger to experienced violence. He had to find out more about her. This meant that he could give it a try to hack the systems of this civilization.
A few hours later in the small flat he had bought, Boa-Dur contacted the Jedi Council about his findings.
"Master Boa-Dur. Something interesting you have found?" the eldest, but smallest Jedi Master Yoda asked. Why are they always in the council room?
"Yes, Master. I have found a force sensitive child. Her Midi-chlorian count is over 25.000." He could hear the collective gasp of the council. Her Midi-chlorian count was higher than Master Yoda's. That was something interesting indeed.
"She is four years old, strong in the Force, but I sensed something else within her power."
"Something else you say? Do you know what it was?"
"I am not entirely sure. Master. It was not dark, just different. She lives with her mother's sister's family and her twin brother. I have checked the system and wanted to apply as her new guardian, but was rejected. There was a condition that she and her brother were not allowed to be removed from her family until the age of seventeen. I sense that there is a connection to happenings three years prior."
"What happenings?" Master Windu asked.
"Her parents were murdered three years prior on the exact same date. A day later the record says that she and her brother were placed with her remaining family. But there is no record on the person who did this and the system in this part of the planet is normally very meticulous. Checking the papers of three years prior, comparable to holonews, I detected countless sightings of owls flying during the day. These animals are nocturnal as they have difficulties seeing during the day. People in strange clothes were also seen celebrating. However there seems to be a collective oblivion about them now. I assume that there is a second species of humanoides on this planet and she is part of them."
"Assume you should not. That the family is her relative, have you checked?" Master Yoda asked interested.
"Yes, they are her family, but the girl's mother fell out the system at age eleven. There is no record of her education in a later date. A few years later her last name was changed to Potter which indicates that she had married, but there is not a single record about her husband or even a valid marriage licence."
"A hidden society of people among others would not be the first time on a planet." another Jedi contemplated stroking his beard.
"Masters, she is extremely terrified of her own family and I fear that she might become a danger to them and herself if she is not taught how to control herself soon." the zabrak jedi told them.
"Taking her as an apprentice, you want?" Yoda asked. "With your permission, yes." came the simple answer. "At least the basics of maintaining control. Maybe I can find out more about the mystery surrounding her."
After a collective silence among the council which Boa-Dur knew was silent mental communication, Yoda told him. "Training of her the council grants, but regular reports we require."
