"I know you." Harry bit his lip and stared at Marcone across the living room. Hendricks sat between the two of them, watching Harry closely. Gard and Murphy were outside, contacting Monoc. Michael had taken Charity and the children over to her mothers' home. He, Charity and Molly would be back as soon as they had the younger ones settled in.

"Yes, you do."

"You uh-" Harry frowned and it was clear he was trying to put together some random bits of thought. "There was a wolf. Or sort of a wolf. Huge. Bigger than Mouse, even. And you- you were kind of cool." The young man blushed and looked away.

"Thank you, Harry." Marcone smiled at him. "You did fairly well yourself, that night."

"Well, yeah. But I'm a wizard. You're like...Batman."

Marcone wasn't sure how he would have responded to that. He'd had the thought before, of course, in some loopy moments after fights but no one had ever said it out loud. Luckily, he didn't have to respond, as that was the moment the house was attacked.

There was a deep well of silence, as though all sound was sucked away and then everything rushed back in, an explosion of color, light and sound that had physical force. Windows shattered, splinters of glass flying everywhere and Marcone dove for Harry, trying to protect the boy. Hendricks beat him to it, dragging both Harry and Marcone down to the floor, shielding them.

When the noise stopped, Hendricks waited a second and rose, patting down Marcone quickly, checking for wounds as the man tried to wave him off.

"I'm fine. I'm fine. Check Harry." Hendricks shifted his attention to the boy. Harry had already risen from the floor and was running toward the front of the house.

"Dammit." Marcone pushed off the floor in one smooth move and ran after him, catching him in the hallway. "Stay back!"

"Murphy's out there!" Harry tugged, realized Marcone had a good grip on him and threw his hand out at Marcone, yelling "Forzare!" as he did. The magic caught him, swatted at him like a giant hand and sent him skittering into the far wall behind him.

Marcone's head spun nauseatingly but he staggered back to his feet, snarling. Harry wasn't any smarter as a child than he was as an adult. He followed Hendricks' quickly moving form down the hall and out into the front yard.

Silence, broken only faintly by shouts from near by neighbors and the tiny wail of sirens. Hendricks was crouched over Gard's still form, checking her pulse. Murphy was several feet away, pulling herself up against a tree. Mouse was nosing her, growling and whining. Marcone could see the dog was bleeding, favoring one leg as he tried to help the woman up. The yard was a ruin, what wasn't still smouldering was black and twisted, chunks of earth ripped from the ground.

There was no sign of Harry.