He walked through the ashes of the charred bodies on the ground - his dark silhouette like Death itself. Yet, though born in darkness and death, a light dwelt deep within his soul.

  The heat of the massive energy wave shimmered in the air. The wind blew small fkes of white ash through the sky like snow, and the smell of burnt flesh permeated everything.

  He held the body of a girl pressed tightly against him. She was the only one he had been able to save from the pyre. For the child's mother, however, it had been too te.

  He approached Luna, who stood there as if frozen. Carefully, he pressed the little girl into her arms. She drew the small body close—wanting to whisper soothing words. But her voice failed her.

  An older woman approached slowly, trembling all over. Her gaze drifted over the scorched remains of those who, only minutes before, had cheered her own daughter’s death by fire... then back to Tom and Luna....

  When Tom noticed her, he walked toward the small, old woman with an icy stare.

  "By God! I beseech thee, my Lord! Harm me not!", Trembling, she had fallen to her knees before the young man, her hands folded as if in prayer.

  "M... My.... My daughter is one of the women who were burned," her voice quivered as the words left her mouth. Deep wrinkles lined her narrow face - bearing witness to a life of hardship and deprivation.

  Tom stopped abruptly.

  The old woman gathered a little courage. "And the little girl in the arms of the young maiden there is my granddaughter," she pointed toward Luna and the girl she held.

  "What is thy name?", Tom asked with a firm voice.

  "Matilda Smith.....", She paused briefly. "My daughter Katherine - God have mercy on her soul..... she.... she was innocent."

  For a moment, Tom thought she would weep now - that she must weep. But she did not. Simply because her eyes had no tears left. They had seen too much in one lifetime. Too much to even be able to cry anymore.

  "What year is it?", Tom asked in the archaic tongue of that time.

  The old woman hesitated a moment before she answered. "1460, in the Year of Our Lord."

  Tom’s eyes, as well as Luna’s, widened in shock. They had traveled nearly 500 years into the past—half a millennium separated them from their old life. A cold shiver ran over his body; Luna felt the same as she heard the old woman's words. The little girl in her arms began to sob quietly.

  "I want my Mama. Where is my Mama!"

  Luna whispered soothing words to her - trying her best to comfort her, careful to ensure the child did not look over at the pyres where those lives had been lost.Those who were righteous, and had not attended the execution, had hidden in their houses. No one dared take even a single step out of their door. For the Devil, shrouded in dark robes, had entered their small town and turned everything to ash.

  "My Lord!", the old woman broke the moment of silence. Tom looked at her again.

  "There be others yet who stand accused of witchcraft."

  "More?", Horror etched itself into his eyes.

  "Show me where they are held captive!", he called out determinedly.

  The old woman stood up with effort; with a gesture of her hand, she pointed toward the city wall.

  "Yonder is the Witch Tower, where the poor souls are questioned. In the dungeons below, they are held until judgment be passed," bitterness y in her voice, but also anger. That impressed Tom. She had lost her child, yet remained steadfast and showed no weakness.

  "Moon," he whispered to Luna, signaling her to follow him. For never—never would he leave her behind here alone.

  Slowly they walked through the narrow and muddy alleys. The half-timbered houses on both sides stood close together. The wood, marked by wind and weather, did not diminish the beauty of the houses; it made them look beautiful in their own unique way. Some had carvings and ornaments, but most were pin. Everything seemed so strangely peaceful - as if the flow of time had stood still. That death and destruction reigned here was impossible to imagine at this sight, the thought crossed Tom's and Luna's minds alike.

  "What is thy name?", Luna breathed softly to the girl, to distract her a little.

  "Barbara," the girl whispered, breathing heavily. Burn wounds marred her small face. Her hair, covered in soot and ash, hung dull over her narrow shoulder.

  "What a beautiful name," with a smile, Luna brushed a strand of hair from the girl's face.

  "My name is Luna. That means Moon."

  "Moon. That sounds very lovely too," the girl whispered softly.

  "We are here! Yonder is the Witch Tower!", Matilda called out to Tom and Luna.

  The Witch Tower had been built directly into the city wall. Something dark and heavy emanated from it - as if it were a silent witness to what transpired behind its walls.

  Luna handed Barbara over to her grandmother, who immediately clung tightly to the old woman’s familiar body. Then she stepped toward Tom. It was silent. Not a sound came from within the tower.

  With his wand drawn, he took a deep breath and opened the heavy gate, which groaned and creaked loudly.

  "Thou stayest here, Moon. I shall do this alone."

  "No. Tom Riddle," she addressed him deliberately by his full name. "I will go with thee, whether thou wilt or not."

  He looked at her intently. In her aquamarine eyes y a deep determination. He nodded to her, then stepped into the dark and stifling interior of the tower....

  Slowly they climbed the wooden steps higher and higher....

  Always expecting a guardsman to charge toward them at any moment. But the tower, it seemed, had been abandoned by the soldiers. In the upper rooms were tables and shelves where yellowed books and parchment rolls were piled. The icy wind blew through one of the open archways, plunging the room into coldness.

  Quietly they descended into the celr vaults. In the brackets on the walls, torches provided a little light. Tom went first, followed closely by Luna. Even before they reached the dungeons, a hellish stench of blood, decay, and excrement met them.

  Luna began to gag. Tom, too, struggled not to retch up the little food they had consumed that day.After a brief moment, they managed, as best they could, to keep their stomachs settled and continued further down the steps....

  Arriving at the bottom, Tom opened the heavy wooden door.... it was unlocked. The guards, by all appearances, must have fled the tower in panic when Tom’s magical outburst had id the town center to ruin and ash.Cautiously they entered the first room. Here, too, torches flickered on the walls, providing a clear view.

  A wooden table with two chairs was all this room contained. They crossed it quickly. As they stepped through a connecting door into the next room, a scream escaped Luna. Tom held his breath, his heart beating faster....Everywhere on the floor was clotted blood. From the ceiling hung heavy iron chains ending in manacles, which were likewise stained with blood. A long wooden bench with shackles and a crank at the side stood in the center of the room. Beside it, a rge wooden armchair with strange-looking metal screws attached to the armrests....

  Everything smelled of death and blood. While Tom examined the thumbscrews on the chair, Luna walked slowly about. An iron statue, looking almost like a sarcophagus from ancient Egypt, had caught her attention....

  Cautiously - heart pounding - she approached....

  Blood seeped out from beneath the statue....

  Though she did not wish to go closer, she did so nonetheless. She stopped right before the metal sarcophagus, tilting her head....

  Two open slits gaped in the head of the statue....

  Eyes - human eyes - hollow and dead, stared at her from within....

  As if hypnotized, she opened the door of the sarcophagus...

  In that moment, Tom turned to her. "LUNA, NO!", he screamed with all his might, and in less than a second he was at her side as the door swung open and a human body, drenched in blood, slumped out....

  Just in time, he had seized her slender waist and whirled her away. "Don't look!", he commanded her again and again, loudly. "Don't look. Just close thy eyes!"

  Her whole body trembled. He lifted her up and ran, pressing her tightly to him, back up the stairs and out into the open. There he sank to the ground with her - not a second too te. She began to retch violently, propping herself up with her thin arms on the muddy ground; only stomach acid came up. As the retching subsided, he handed her a goblet of water, which he had summoned with a silent spell. That the old woman and the girl saw it was of no concern to him. They had already seen what he was capable of on the market square....

  The girl limped slowly toward Luna and Tom and sat down beside Luna. She stretched out her small hand and patted Luna’s back comfortingly.

  "I require thy help!", came the forceful voice of Tom, who now turned to Matilda.

  "My help?", she squeaked, almost fearful. "With what?"

  "The prisoners down in the dungeon. I require a helping hand so they may be freed as swiftly as possible. And since my companion is presently unable to do so, it is thou who must assist me," he replied soberly and calmly.

  The old woman crossed herself.

  "Thy God cannot help us now," he snarled contemptuously and went back into the interior of the tower toward the dungeon. Old Matilda followed him only hesitantly.

  As she entered, she faltered. "I cannot!" she cried out in despair. "By my soul, I cannot enter the pce where they tortured my daughter and my granddaughter!"

  Tom drew in a sharp breath. "Then wait above with thy granddaughter. I shall bring the prisoners up, one by one, alone. But then, it is upon thee to care for them. Art thou capable of that?"

  Fearfully, Matilda nodded to him before he finally disappeared down the stairs.

  Luna remained sitting, her hands propped on the ground. Something in the depths of her pure and bright soul had died - and something dark was born, the likes of which she would never have believed possible. For the first time in her young life, she could imagine casting the Killing Curse...

  The thought of Tom or her father, or one of her friends, being tortured to death down in that dungeon, or burning agonizingly at the stake, alive...

  Quickly, she banished this darkness back into the deepest depths of her being.

  Tom, meanwhile, had reached the dungeon below once more. His dark silhouette came to a halt beside the dead man who y drenched in blood upon the floor. Into the Iron Maiden, as the Muggles called that instrument of torture, they had thrust the poor fellow. Its interior was lined at the front and back with long, sharp spikes that bored into the body as the door closed, causing the victim to bleed to death in agony. These were not men who had done THIS. These were those dark creatures from their own holy book whom they cimed to fight. Yet it was THEY - THEY were those demons risen from hell to destroy all life. To destroy the work of their holy creator -innocent human beings.

  Tom shook his head and walked on. He entered a long, dark, and narrow corridor. On both sides were the dungeon doors to the prisoners' cells. With a flick of his wand, all the doors opened.

  Most of the inmates were more dead than alive. The stench of decay y like a heavy cloak, stifling in the air. He could hardly breathe, struggling not to retch.

  Some who had not been so badly brutalized rushed out immediately. Their hands folded as if in prayer - their gaze as though they were facing an angel from the heavenly realm.

  An old man, trembling all over, fell to his knees before him, murmuring soft prayers of thanks over and over. A young woman, heavily pregnant, had tears running down her battered face. She, too, had her hands folded, incessantly whispering quiet prayers.

  And once again, Tom had no words for what presented itself to him... because there simply were none. NOTHING on this earth—NOTHING in the seven heavens of the Creator above him - could describe the suffering and the subsequent deliverance and rescue of these people - NOTHING!

  When the prisoners had already run up toward their freedom, he used a silent spell once more to levitate those who no longer moved, or were generally too weak to walk, up to the surface.

  Only then did he make his own way back into the saving fresh air of the cool autumn day.

  Luna and Matilda were just busy caring for the tortured as best they could, while little Barbara sat quietly on the ground, watching the activity.

  Tom drew in the fresh air deeply with his eyes closed as he finally stepped outside. When Luna noticed him, she hurried to his side and pulled him close into her arms.

  "What do we do now?", she breathed softly.

  He sighed. "It will be a long day, Moon. And an even longer night. I will have to pce all the inhabitants of this city under the Imperius Curse. For the dead must be buried, and the wounded from the Witch Tower must be cared for. Afterward, I will manipute their memories so they can no longer remember either of us, nor the destructive power of sun magic. Only then will thou and I be safe from persecution in this time," he concluded wearily. For it would cost him a great deal of strength. That much was certain.

  A little apart from the people, he sat down against the cold city wall. With eyes closed, he tried, as he so often did, to concentrate on the power of the earth beneath him and the forceful energy of the sun above him. Luna had sunk down silently beside him and did the same.

  "Something is wrong with the earth here. I can feel no energy - no life," he murmured, more to himself.

  "I feel nothing either," Luna whispered. "The sky - then we must focus on the pure and undefiled power of the heavens, and that of the sun," she whispered again.

  "It must be because of the horror that has happened here day after day. It blocks the element of earth," Tom mused, trying to concentrate intensely on the sun.

  The wind suddenly picked up, blowing through his night-bck hair. "Servant of the Sun," a soft murmur echoed in the air. Tom snapped his eyes open. "Didst thou hear that as well?", he asked Luna.

  "No. What?"

  "Never mind. Let us continue to gather strength, for we shall sorely need it."

  And then he felt it.... a gentle wave of light, as bright and clear as the sun itself, glided through his body—letting him feel that incredible power once more.

  After a while, they returned to Matilda and the prisoners.

  "I will help thee.... with the Imperius," Luna whispered softly.

  "Hast thou ever cast it before?", he asked, looking at her inquiringly.

  "No. But I know that I can do it," she concluded firmly.

  He nodded. "Then let us begin...."

  Midnight had crept silently onto the world’s stage, singing its eternal song of death and the sorrow of men. A clear, starry sky y over the nd. The night wind blew coolly over the ash - covered city.

  Luna had meanwhile conjured two long, bck cloaks with hoods that could be pulled deep over one’s face if necessary.Finally, it was done! All the remaining inhabitants of the city were under the Imperius and had set out with torches to bury their dead.

  A silent moment for old Matilda and little Barbara. A mother, a daughter, had left this world forever.

  The girl buried her small face against her grandmother. Luna and Tom stood silently a little apart. Too much for a child, Luna thought in silence. Too much to perhaps ever be able to ugh again.

  "Children are sometimes stronger than one believes," Tom breathed softly. He had read her thoughts. Luna smiled gently and rested her head on his shoulder.

  Suddenly, old Matilda colpsed at her daughter's grave, weeping bitterly.

  "Died miserably at the stake for something she never did," Tom whispered angrily.

  The images - those images of the burning - he would never forget. And when he one day returned to his own time, some things would change. He swore that upon his life. And if not... then he would see to it right here and now, in this time...

  The night passed, and a grey sky moved across the world. The nd y there, cool and desote.

  Tom had managed to manipute the memories of the people. Just as he was about to point his wand at Matilda to alter her memory as well, she reached out her hand toward Tom and clutched his wand firmly.

  "Thou hast saved the life of my granddaughter when no one helped. And surely thou wouldst have saved my daughter and the others if thou couldst have. Fear not, therefore, that I shall tell anyone of thee and thy companion," she concluded with a calm and firm voice.

  A thin sense of respect for the old woman rose within Tom. Normally, Muggles—especially those of this time - feared men like him, feared a wizard. But she accepted it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

  He lowered his wand and looked at her long and intently. Luna approached them with two bck horses. "We cannot leave them here, Tom!", she breathed softly.

  "When we return...", she paused briefly, and Tom understood immediately. What would happen if the townspeople did remember the events after all? Then little Barbara especially would be in great danger.

  "Very well. We shall take thee and thy granddaughter a part of our way. We will help thee find new lodging so that thou canst build a new life far from this city," he looked at her expectantly.

  Matilda did not know what to say. Never before had anyone cared so much for the well-being of her and her granddaughter. And so, she gratefully accepted the help.

  Dressed in their long, bck cloaks, Luna and Tom mounted the horses. Tom took old Matilda onto his horse, and Luna took little Barbara. And so they rode along the narrow alleys toward the city gate.

  As they finally left the city walls behind, the heavens opened, and the rays of the sun kissed the cold earth awake. And the further they moved from the pce of death and ash, the lighter and clearer the air became - as if the world were beginning to live and breathe again.

  They rode back into the forest; somewhere hidden there, according to the old woman, y a small inn.They had been traveling by horse for half a day now. Barbara, sitting before Luna on the horse, had leaned against her and fallen asleep. Matilda, too, struggled with leaden exhaustion after the horror of the past day and night.

  The sky above them was now azure, and occasional clouds drifted across it. Eventually, the dense conifers revealed a rge, old house.They stopped their horses in front of the inn. Tom helped Matilda dismount, and Luna helped the little one. Behind the house were several stables, including a pigsty, betrayed by loud grunting that elicited a soft ugh from Barbara.

  "Moon, thou and the others wait here. I shall settle the matter of lodging for the next few days with the innkeeper alone...", then he strode purposefully into the inn.

  Inside, it was empty. And, considering the innkeeper at the counter with his rge beer belly and dirty clothes, it seemed surprisingly clean. Beside him was a young woman, apparently his daughter, drying a pte with an old rag.

  "What wantest thou!", the innkeeper barked at him rudely.

  He headed toward the innkeeper. Without a word, he flicked his wand and pced both under the Imperius.

  "Listen!", Tom hissed coldly. "We require two rooms for several days. But only the best. Is that clear? Furthermore, the little girl and the old woman need a warm bowl of soup, bread, and salted meat! Fresh water as well. Now see to it that the two of thee get it ready!"

  Innkeeper and daughter nodded as if on command and hurried to the task.

  Tom went back out, took the reins of the two horses from Luna, and led them around the house into the adjacent stable. Then they all went inside the warm inn.

  They did not have to wait long before the innkeeper and his daughter came down the stairs.

  "The chambers are prepared, exactly as thou hast wished, my Lord," he now purred sweetly. "And the food my daughter shall bring up presently."

  "Very well," Tom rasped quietly. And without paying the innkeeper further heed, they followed his daughter up to the rooms.

  The rooms were also reasonably clean, so Tom was satisfied.

  "Then thou shalt sleep here with thy granddaughter, and I with my companion next door."

  Galntly, Tom held the door open for the old woman. She, however, only hesitated. "How? Thou wilt sleep in one room and share a bed without being man and wife?" For a moment, her features slipped.

  Luna had to giggle, and Tom swallowed briefly before regaining his composure. With hands csped behind his back and eyebrows raised, he replied. "Certainly. Although I introduced her to thee as my companion, we have already entered into the union," he concluded confidently. And essentially, he was not even lying. They had entered the union... even if without a ceremony.

  Now Matilda, for her part, raised her eyebrows. She couldn't quite believe him, but let it rest. They were both practitioners of magic. Perhaps it was custom there to share a bed without a wedding. Besides, he had saved her granddaughter's life; who was she to judge. So grandmother and granddaughter went into their room, and Tom and Luna into theirs.

  "In that bed we cannot sleep, Moon," he rasped in disgust. "Look how filthy the straw is.", Luna nodded and yawned tiredly; she just wanted to sleep, not even feeling hunger.

  Tom summoned the small tent and conjured cozy bnkets and pillows inside. A warming charm, like during the night in the forest, was not to be missed.Then he handed Luna a little something to eat, which she gratefully declined. The food was also conjured. For who knew how they would tolerate the food here in this unclean time.

  Luna made herself comfortable inside the tent, while Tom erected protective spells outside Matilda's door and then their own... one could never be too sure.Then he also retreated into the tent with Luna, where both quickly fell into a deep and dreamless sleep, while the sun still shone outside.

  AUTHOR'S NOTE:ATTENTION – IMPORTANT:Historical records suggest that the "Iron Maiden" was not actually used in the early Middle Ages. According to my research, the first documented case occurred on August 14, 1515, to execute a counterfeiter. However, since this scene with Luna and this particur instrument of torture pyed out repeatedly in my "inner cinema," I decided to include it in the story anyway, even if it is not historically accurate for the year 1460.