Hey everyone! I'm new at fanfic so please feel free to give me tips or advice that I can use later for the next storys. Also sorry that this first chapter is super short but I promise they will get longer! I own none of the characters besides Miley they belong to JK Rowling.
It is a warm June day when Miley Pierce rolled out of bed to see a head peeking out of her neighbors window. Nobody has ever lived in that house for as long as I can remember. It's pretty scary, complete with cobwebs on the windows and cracks littering the concrete porch. Nobody has stepped foot on that porch since I can remember. It has always been something my friends dared me to get close to or somewhere I skipped on halloween for the fear of being taken. I don't understand how someone could live there all these years without being seen. But now I am getting a better look at it, I realize that the house doesn't have cobwebs or even cracks on the porch. How this could be, I don't know. But what I do know is that I have to investigate. I slide out of my pajamas and into a worn pair of ripped jeans and a tank top. As I'm pulling on my checkered vans, which are almost completely brown considering I've had them for almost a year, I hear a clang coming from my neighbors house. This sudden noise makes me jump and I falls backwards, hitting my head on my bed frame. I rub my head, trying to feel for a bump but come up empty. I remember the task at hand and burst out of my room, down the staircase, and into the backyard. My mom isn't home, she never is. She's always working. But that's what she has to do to pay the neverending bills that sit tucked away in the cookie jar where she obviously hopes I don't see. After dad left for the army, the jar kept filling. But we know he will come back alive. Dads a fighter and always will be. But that is the least of my concerns now. I run up the ladder to the old treehouse I refuse to tear down, even though it violates numerous codes of safety. I look out the molding window and see a green yard just over the fence separating my lawn and our neighbors. I know I have looked out this window before but never seen the grass as green as this, let alone grass at all. I wonder what is going on when I see a boy about my age walking out the door to the house. I duck under the window but catch a glimpse at my mysterious neighbor. His walnut hair glistens as he tilts his head towards the window where I sit. I take a quick peak noticing the scars on his face and hands. He isn't looking at me anymore so I whip out my phone and angle it towards the boy. When I look to take a picture the reflection through my phone shows only dead grass and what I previously thought of the state of the house. I place my phone down and look back out the window. Now the boy has somehow gotten a chair and is sitting in it reading a book. I strain my eyes to see the title but it is tilted away. I don't think I can see much more so I pull out a book of my own to read too till something happens. It isn't until I hear a knock that I look back out my window. I look back to where I was looking before but the boy isn't there. He isn't anywhere actually. I survey the yard when my eyes stop on the fence. He is sitting on it smiling and waving. I don't know what to do so I wave back. Shock seems to shower his face and he falls of the fence. I rush down out of my treehouse and try to look over the fence. Obviously I can't see anything since the fence is about three feet higher than me on my tippy toes. So I yell over the fence,
"Hey are you ok?" Silence is the only return. He seems to have vanished until I hear in a small but strong voice,
"Yes." I don't know what to think so I grab a lawn chair and drag it over to the fence. This allows me to pull myself up so I have a clear view over the fence. The boy is curled up in a ball on the ground. I cautiously tap on the wood and smile. He looks up at me and quickly shifts to a standing position. He is taller than I imagined but probably only a head taller than me because he too can't see over the fence. I decide asking him a straightforward question is the best option,
"Hi I'm Miley what's your name and, if you don't mind me asking, why were you trying to hide from me?" He looks a bit startled but I can tell he is going to reply by the way he scrunches his eyes,
"Hello Miley I'm Remus. I assure you I wasn't trying to hide from you I was just startled." This response makes butterflies fly into my stomach but I swat them away. No time for crushes from british mystery men, I need answers. I'm already baffled as it is, I don't need things that will take away from my overall goal.
"Remus, that's an odd name, when did you move here?" Remus's face forms into a smile and a small laugh escapes his lips. I realize quickly that he may be insulted by the name thing so I try to fix it,
"Not that that's a bad name, I actually like it, but I just… well, I've never met someone with that name and-" He cuts me off, and thank goodness because I didn't know where that sentence was leading to,
"No no it's ok and for your question, I go to school in england for most of the year but come here for the summer." This doesn't completely answer my question but I figure it will do since I didn't want to scare him away. Then I remember the book,
"What book were you reading?" This question seems to take him longer but he answers with the same sure voice he had before,
"A book I need to read for one of my lessons." I look down and my phone and realize it is almost time for me to go so I say goodbye and watch as he disappears below the fence as I walk away. I put the chair back in its spot and walk inside before my mom comes back from work for her lunch break and has a panic attack.
