My Family Portrait
A\N hope you enjoy. The song Family Portrait (as mentioned in the story) is copyrighted to Pink.
James was listening to Family Portrait by Pink on his sound system as he unpacked into his new room in his new house. He was quite excited about moving in; it was soo different from where he used to live. The neighbourhood, the surroundings and everything was different.
James went around, looking at the few pieces of furniture that was already there when he moved in. One of such furniture was a chest of drawers. He opened the first drawers: empty, and then he opened the next, also empty. There was one more drawer and he wasn't planning to open it, but he did, and to his great surprise, he found a piece of parchment.
He excitedly picked it up and as he unfolded it, he saw that it was tear-stained. The song had ended, but it was set on repeat so it started again. He picked up the parchment and started to read:
Mama, please stop crying,
I can't stand the sound,
Your pain is painful,
And it's tearing me down
She looked up at her mother, sad and depressed. "Mama, please, stop crying." She begged. She had been doing this for the entire week. This is soo exhausting, thought the young girl, sob, sob, and sob. The cries continued.
I hear glasses breaking,
As I sit up on my bed,
I told dad you didn't mean:
Those nasty things you said…
Her dad, she missed her dad. Her mother, her father and she used to be the definition of the perfect wizardingfamily. She was the over-achieving, seemingly-perfect daughter, her naughty though completely "adorable" brother, her dad with the stable auror job, and well, her mom was a great cook, who loved her family, perfect. Or so they used to be... but then it all changed. And just recently when not much else could be done, her mother started to blame her dad for all of their problems. And then, he left.
You fight over money,
'Bout me and my, brother,
And this I come home to,
This is my shelter…
Before she would fight with her husband, but now she just fought with herself. Minerva was quite tired of it, but she had no choice… it wasn't just about her anymore, it involved her brother also, sometimes she wished he never existed, it would make running away so much simpler. But now, now that he was… existent, she couldn't just leave him.
It ain't easy,
Growing up in the Great War,
Never know what love could be,
You see…
The Great War… it wasn't exactly the "great" war; Minerva knew that there would be wars much greater. She knew, though she also guessed that she probably wouldn't be alive to face that. Samuel had agreed with her. She liked talking to Samuel, he was smart… he knew a lot, but he was also brave, and she knew that he would do anything for him.
I don't want love to destroy me
Like it has my family…
Her parents had "loved". But that didn't work out very well for them, why would it go well for her? It wouldn't, that is what she had convinced herself.
Can we work it out…?
Can we be a family?
Promise I'll be better,
Mommy I'll do…anything
She had tried; she had tried everything, everything within her reach to make everything the way it used to be… she already had exceedingly good marks at school. She had gotten nearly all Os during her OWLs (she was not as good at transfiguration); she was the class topper for potions and charms, including being the wonderful seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
She had then finally decided that it was because she wasn't pretty enough. And she most definitely… wasn't. There were girls in her year that would obsess more about their looks then about their studies, about their friends… about their life even!
Can we work it out…?
Can we be a family?
Promise I'll do better,
Daddy, please don't leave
Daddy please stop yelling,
I can't stand the sound,
Make mama stop crying,
'Cause I need you around
Her dad had left quite a while ago, and she couldn't stop wishing he hadn't gone. She had tried to stop him, she really had… she had done much to stop him. She had done better; she had been a perfect daughter.
Before he had left though, he wasn't the perfect father. He would scold her all of the time, her and her brother, mostly about the strangest topics… Minerva decided that it was because he was under a lot of stress. She would never admit, not to anyone, that her father was a bad man. He wasn't, as a matter of fact, he just couldn't control the rage that Minerva's mother felt, and so he would also just shout back at her.
But, when he finally left, Minerva knew that she needed him. That she needed him to make her mother stop… needed him to "stabilise" her family.
My mama, she loves you
No matter what she says it's true
I know that she hurts you
But remember I love you too
But now, she knows that there is nothing she can do, it was finished, her family is a mess and it was over…
I ran away today
Ran from the noise, ran away
Don't wanna go back to that place
But don't have no choice, no way
She wanted this to be documented. Not because she was special, but because she wasn't. There were thousands of others whose families were being destroyed due to the war. Too many others were in the same situation as hers. She asked me, Samuel, to write this for her, but only after she left… which she has now done.
She told me she would never come back; she told me that she was going to go to the central city, the wizarding world near London. I truly hope she does well there; she had gone through a lot to get there. I wish I could've gone with her, not because I feel I need to get away from my family, but plainly because I will miss her…
~Samuel J. Cook
James was moved. He felt quite uncertain how to react to the piece of text he had just read. "Mommy! Daddy!" he then shouted. His parents ran into his room, quite startled. "What's wrong, honey?" asked Ginny slowly, she didn't want to startle him any further.
"This thing," James replied, and shoved the parchment in their direction, "read it." Harry took the paper and read it aloud.
A few days later, it was posted in the Daily Prophet, right on the second page and Minerva McGonagall almost cried when she read it. She truly did miss Samuel; she truly did miss him.