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The sky hung low over the slums again today. Ash-grey clouds lay heavy above the rooftops, as though the entire sky were pressing down on the village.
The boy crouched by the lake, choosing stones. After running his fingertips over a few, he picked up the flattest, smoothest one. Its chill seeped into his palm. He swung his arm, and the stone skipped across the surface twice, then a third time, before quietly sinking. Circular ripples spread, then soon settled.
His father was not there. He was either drunk or out getting drunk. One or the other. There were no other children his age in the village, either. The boy was alone. That was why he liked this time. A time when no one called for him, and no one hit him. For the brief moments he spent skipping stones, the world was quiet.
The wind carried a different smell now. Damp and cold. The boy looked up at the sky. The clouds had grown darker than before. They were closer to black than grey. Within seconds, raindrops began falling on his face, one by one.
The boy stood, still holding his last stone. As he headed home, the rain grew heavier. His shoes sank deep into the mud with every step.
The house came into view. And there, the boy stopped.
The door was open.
The door was always locked. Whether his father went out or he did, they always made sure to lock it. An unease he could not explain brushed the back of his neck. Without realising it, the boy let the stone fall from his hand.
He moved forward slowly. As he crossed the threshold, something crunched beneath his foot. He looked down at shards of broken glass. A liquor bottle.
And there was his mother.
His mother lay on the floor. Blood from her head had spread along the grain of the floorboards, dark red. She did not move. There was no sound of breathing, not the slightest stir.
"Mum."
His voice cracked. Calling for her again, the boy ran to her. He did not even feel the pain as his knees struck the floor. He gathered her into his arms.
She should have been warm. As she always had been.
But she was cold. The skin beneath his fingertips, the shoulder against his cheek—everything had gone deathly cold. That single sensation told the boy what he could not undo.
The world collapsed around him. His vision blurred, and a sob tore from deep in his throat. The boy wept, clutching his mother. His shoulders shook, and he could barely breathe. No, please, no, he repeated, but the body in his arms gave no answer.
To his father, slouched in a chair, the sound was nothing more than an irritating noise. He scowled, hiccupping over and over. Then he picked up the liquor bottle rolling about at his feet—the very bottle that had cracked his mother's skull.
The bottle struck the back of the boy's head.
His vision reeled in a flash of white, then blurred. Something swelled inside his chest, something he could not distinguish as pain or grief.
Just as his father turned away to sit back down, something black began seeping from the boy's body.
It resembled smoke, but was heavier than smoke; it resembled shadow, but was darker than shadow. In an instant, the blackness engulfed the room. There came the sound of walls splitting, windows bursting, and then a single, brief scream.
In less than a minute, the house was gone without a trace.
Rain poured over the wreckage. Amid the debris, where bloodied water pooled, a boy lay collapsed, holding a woman's body in his arms.
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Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes Field Report (Excerpt)
Case Number: Unknown · Classification: Unclassified Anomalous Phenomenon
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No structure remained standing upon arrival at the scene. Debris was scattered over a radius of approximately ten metres, and the walls and roof had buckled outwards as though an explosion had occurred inside. No evidence of a Muggle fire or explosion was found.
The body of one adult male was identified at the centre of the wreckage. The skin was pale, entirely devoid of blood coloration, and the pattern of external injuries was inconsistent with ordinary physical trauma.
One female and one boy were found at the edge of the wreckage, in an area of pooled rainwater. The female was also deceased, but, unusually, her body retained its blood coloration and bore no other damage. This condition is difficult to explain given the scale of the surrounding destruction. The boy was unconscious, his arms wrapped around the female.
The circumstances established thus far suggest the involvement of an underage individual. However, the phenomenon appears more consistent with a spontaneous, uncontrolled magical outburst than with controlled magic. Assessment by a superior is requested.
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