Flowers for Harry
By Olympus – 117
A story I had written bout' a year ago now ... Crappy but, hey! Thought I might as well post it. Depressing and ... slightly weird. Tell me what you think :)
It is bitterly cold in the cemetery. From somewhere beyond the wrought iron gate, church bells began to ring, their chimes echoing throughout the frozen landscape. It had snowed the night before leaving a thick layer of snow that blanketed the graves.
An old lady makes her way into the cemetery, slowly shuffling forward, her walking stick leaving deep gashes in the snow. Her nose is slightly tinged with pink from the cold and her breaths come out as white puffs of smoke.
She walks past the numerous gravestones, some cracked, and others faded from age, not really paying attention to any of them. She only had sights for one headstone. It was new, or rather newer, than all the others. The white slab of marble stuck out from the snow like an elegant stone flower.
The old lady sniffed as she read the small black words engraved into the marble:
Harry James Potter
1981 – 2018
A husband, A Father, A Friend
A Hero to All
The Boy Who Lived
The old woman knelt down on her knees in front of the grave and carefully, her movements slow and jerky, she reached inside the pockets of her robes and drew out a small assortment of flowers. Yet each flower in her hand was unique, none quite the same as another.
One by one, she placed the flowers at the foot of Harry Potter's headstone.
The first one was small, but shockingly bright sunflower whose petals seemed to instantly brighten up the drab and grim air of the cemetery.
The second flower was a rainbow rose, its petals multicoloured and shimmering in the morning sunlight.
The third was a maroon daffodil which in contrast to the other bright colours bought a sense of clam to the arrangement.
The fourth one was a bottle blue anemone which instantly radiated a beauty and mystery, the old woman smiled knowingly at that one.
The fifth flower was a lively green magnolia, bewitched so the petals constantly moved as if blown by a gentle breeze.
The next two were almost identical except one rose was a deep crimson while the other, a soothing amethyst.
The old woman halted for several seconds before placing the last one down on the soft snow; the white lily almost blended in with the ground weren't it for the other eccentric flowers behind it.
A small grin crept into her face, but it was instantly turned into a look of haunted sadness as she remembered the person sleeping underneath the cold snow.
Without another look, the old woman turned away, heading back to the direction she had first come from.
Without warning, a gust of wind blew into the cemetery, blowing the old woman's woollen beanie off. She cursed and bent down to retrieve it, as she was doing so, her hair, still flaming red after all these years, cascaded around her face.
The snow blew around the cemetery, disturbing the eccentric arrangement of flowers that she had placed down at the base of the headstone. Suddenly it lifted one of the flowers from the snow. The white lily flew up into the air, the old woman made a small noise of distress and attempted to grab it as it flew past but failed.
She watched as it floated up into the breeze and disappeared.
The old woman sighed and made to pull out her wand and conjure another flower when another gust of wind blew though the cemetery, except, this time the wind was oddly warm and seemed to make the cold suddenly vanish.
The old woman's eyes widened when, drifting down in perfect peace though the air, like a beautiful snowflake, was the white lily. She held out her hand and the small flower floated down and settled into her hand. She looked up at the breeze still swirling around the cemetery.
"Thanks Harry," whispered the old woman, before returning the lily on the snow, surrounded by all the other flowers.
For the first time in years, Ginny Weasley truly smiled.
Okay, for some of you who - scratch that, most of you - that might not have gotten who the flowers were from: ...
The sunflower – Luna, obviously. The rainbow rose – Teddy Lupin. The daffodil – Ron, The anemone – Hermione. The moving magnolia – Neville. The two roses – the crimson one – James, the amethyst – Albus. The lily – well ... Lilly. Ginny didn't bring a flower.
Thanks for reading :)
Review?