Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and Tom Riddle/Voldemort, Augusta Longbottom, and Sirius Black are © JK Rowling.
In Color is © Jamey Johnson and his label.
Annalisa, Conri, Rupert, Faolan, Maria, Aurora, Italia, Holly, Nicola, and Alicia are © me =)
Oh and Amberly Hall, Odette Spalding, and Valentine McGreggor are also (C) me.
Yet another songfic for my part of the Harry Potter Universe. I heard this over the radio the other day and Alicia, Conri, Rupert, and Annalisa came to mind. I heard this song when it came out for the first time a while ago but only now did this actually dawn on me XD Obviously this song isn't absolutely perfect for this considering Annalisa's grandfather is deceased so just try to change the words around haha I would change them here but I don't want to doing anything illegal.
So I had to go over this about 3-4 times because I wasn't really happy with it. I feel better about it now so I'm posting it before I change my mind again XD
This is a SPOILER for one of the future parts of my Harry Potter fanfic. This will appear in a chapter but without the song. Enjoy!
Annalisa lay on her back in her bed at her mother's home. It was barely a month after her sixth year had ended; about a month since Dumbledore's death and funeral. Her ear phones sat comfortably in her ear canals, blasting soft melodies and harmonies from Valentina McGreggor, an Irish witch who was an actress and singer. Annalisa stared up at the white ceiling blankly; her ankles were crossed and her toes were pressed against the dark oak footboard of the bed; one hand lay under her head while the other rested on her flat tummy.
So much had happened in the last couple of years and she had lost more than she thought she ever would. Things were becoming increasingly real and frightening for her. Even though there had always been the threat that Voldemort would return, she had never thought that she'd gain and lose her father or Dumbledore. She never thought she'd be the one suffering or that she'd watch her mother slowly fall apart or her brothers slowly grow apart. As selfish as it sounded, she never thought those things could happen to her and her family; those things happened to other people.
Aurora was still suffering from Sirius' death, like they all were. But she was taking it the hardest. He was the one man she'd always loved and promised to spend the rest of her life with. She had that unfairly ripped away from her. Normally Aurora was attentive and happy but now she was quiet and distracted in moments of silence.
Annalisa nibbled her lower lip absentmindedly as she thought about her family and friends. Everyone around her was suffering from something. When she was sure people would turn their backs on her because of her family history, they had only grabbed onto her tightly. She was so engrossed in thoughts about her friends that she didn't notice the door to her room open up or Italia walk in.
"Annalisa?" Italia called softly and smiled a bit when Annalisa didn't respond, too absorbed in her music and thoughts. Italia went to her niece's bed and sat on the end of it.
Annalisa started when she felt someone sit down on her bed next to her feet. She sat up, ripping her earphones out of her ears as she stared at Italia.
"You scared me…"
"Sorry. Hey, Holly and her family are coming over with Nicola and her family. We need more chairs but all the spares are in the attic. Your mom is still sleeping and I'm cleaning. The boys are setting up some beds. Will you get the spare chairs from the attic for me?"
"Yeah, sure…but why don't you just use your wand to conjure some up?"
Italia gave her a sheepish look. "I will when I find it…" she admitted as she stood up and left Annalisa's room. Annalisa smirked and shook her head slightly. Her aunt Italia was probably the only witch that she knew who misplaced her wand constantly. Italia was beautiful, intelligent, and unique but she was a very forgetful person sometimes.
Annalisa took her CD player with her as she left the bedroom after grabbing her beaten up black and white converse lace-ups and headed over to the attic drop-down ladder. She looked up at the hidden door with a string that dangled just above her head. She sighed softly and bent down to slip her shoes on without tying them. She then straightened up and grabbed the string, stepping back and pulling the ladder down. Once it was secured and locked, she climbed up the ladder carefully, enjoying the old creaking it made as she took each step in stride.
She slipped her CD player in the back pocket of her dark skinny jeans and put the head phones back in her ears. She looked around the dim attic, looking for the chairs and finally she spotted them. Yanking her shoulder length hair back into a high pony tail, she walked over to the cushioned fold-up chairs. She grabbed four of them and moved them but when they left the short cabinet, some papers and books fell to the attic floor with a thud. Annalisa jumped in surprise and stopped. She stared at them for a few seconds when she realized that the papers were photographs and the books were photo albums. They were old by the looks of it and some of the photos that were facing up where black and white.
Placing the chairs back against the cabinet, she kneeled down onto the dusty attic floor to pick up the mess she made. She slowly began to look at the free pictures as she picked them up, her grey eyes studying the grey, black, and white photos. She sat on her bottom and folded her legs in front of her. Her brow furrowed slightly as she went through each picture. They were aged and yellowed around the edges and the yellow even tinted the actual photos.
About twelve of them were of a pair of twins from the ages of infancy to eleven years old. They were an attractive pair but there seemed to be something wrong between them. In the oldest picture, they were just newborns, maybe three days old. They seemed detached, the girl shrinking away from her brother. Someone had written on the back of it but it was just the date: January 4th, 1930.
In the next picture, dated a year later on their birthday, they were sitting on two women's laps. The girl looked happy, grinning from ear-to-ear while the little boy seemed quiet and distant. That seemed to be the regular moods of the two in the next nine pictures, all dated annually. The two kept a distance from one another and the girl seemed happy and amiable while the boy seemed dark and almost dangerous.
The pictures were ordinary, obviously taken with a Muggle camera.
I said, Grandpa what's this picture here
It's all black and white and ain't real clear
Is that you he said, yeah I was eleven
Times were tough back in thirty-five
That's me and Uncle Joe just tryin' to survive
A cotton farm in the Great Depression
There was a gap between the ages of eleven and fifteen. Annalisa had no idea why and searched the photos to see if she could find them but she came up with nothing so she moved on.
The next picture of the two was when they were fifteen, at least that's about the age they looked. The girl stood away from her brother again, standing next to a stone pillar in a beautiful and familiar courtyard. She wore a dark skirt and a grey long-sleeved shirt with small colored lines that circled the wrists, hem, and neckline of the shirt. Annalisa couldn't tell what color they were but she could see the emblem on the girl's shirt; it was a Ravenclaw House emblem. The girl also wore white knee-high socks and dark Mary-Jane shoes. She was smiling, with a hand on her hip as she laughed at something and fiddled with her hair.
The boy stood off to the other side, looking bored as he leaned against a stone wall. He wore a similar shirt and dark slacks with dark Birkenstock shoes. His arms were crossed and one leg was swung across the other, his foot resting on its toe as he glared at the photographer. His hair was darker than the girls and much shorter. And on his chest was the Slytherin House emblem.
'Could it be?'
The two siblings were like night and day. And they both looked so familiar to Annalisa.
And if it looks
Like we were scared to death
Like a couple of kids
Just trying to save each other
You should have seen it in color
She moved onto two other pictures; school pictures. It was their graduating pictures from the looks of them. They were headshots and Annalisa took in every detail and contour of their faces. The girl was moving a bit and even touched her hair once and applied more lipstick to her full lips as Annalisa watched. This one and the one taken in the courtyard were magical because the people in them moved. The girl was once again smiling that dazzling smile, her light eyes twinkling brightly. Her dark hair was styled in the Marilyn Monroe style; curled short, parted on the side with a sweeping bang, and glamorous. Her lips were stained some sort of color but Annalisa couldn't tell what color.
'Probably red,' she thought as she studied the young girl's face. She was beautiful and very familiar. She was wearing her black witches hat and her black school robes as well because she was wearing something black. And then it hit Annalisa…this was her grandmother at the age of seventeen. As she flipped the picture, her realization was confirmed; written in feminine handwriting: Alicia Doirrean Riddle, Seventh Year, February 1947.
'But then that means…' she picked up the other school picture of the boy.
He wasn't smiling and he looked bored, almost irritated, as he sat there, staring blankly back at Annalisa. His eyes were lighter than Alicia's and his hair was darker and slicked back, parted on the opposite side of his sister's and he too had a sweeping bang. And as she flipped the picture over, her eyes widened. It was the same feminine handwriting from Alicia's graduation picture; Thomas Marvolo Riddle, Seventh Year, February 1947.
'This is him…it's Voldemort at the age of seventeen,' she thought in surprise.
He didn't look the way he did now. He was handsome despite his annoyed expression.
This one here
Was taken overseas
In the middle of hell
In nineteen forty-three
In the winter time
You can almost see my breath
"My Lord, I haven't seen these pictures in forever," a voice said from behind Annalisa.
Annalisa jumped and her head snapped towards the voice sharply. "Oh geez, Grandmum, you startled me!"
"Sorry 'bout that," Alicia drawled teasingly as she went to Annalisa's side and dropped down into a sitting position next to her.
Annalisa watched her grandmother take some pictures from the floor. Her aging hands slowly moved through the photos. She then took the school photo from Annalisa, looking down at her younger self.
"Ah, my last year at Hogwarts…That was a fun year. Well, as fun as it could be considering."
"Considering what?"
"Tom. He was already building his army by his fifth year. He had quite a few by our sixth year and even more by our seventh," she said matter-of-factly. "Of course many of the ones he has now weren't around back then. But their parents were."
That was my tail gunner
Ole' Johnny McGee
He was a high school teacher
From New Orleans
And he had my back right
Through the day we left
"We had also just come out of a war. Though it was considered a Muggle war, wizards and witches also participated. One German wizard was Hitler's own advisor. Secret of course, but he had thousands and thousands of German, Polish, Italian, and Jewish magical folk rounded up, tortured and killed."
Annalisa looked astonished and upset.
"One of my best friends, Amberly Hall, lost her brothers in the war; they had enlisted into the army and were killed in the last year of the war. Another best friend of mine, Odette Spalding, lost her entire family in the Holocaust. She was a Jewish Muggle-born witch and while she attended Hogwarts, they remained in Poland. They took the name Spalding to seem more…well, non-Jewish. It didn't work unfortunately. They were found hiding in a neighbor's attic. It was all very tragic. Then, when that war ended, another war began."
And if it looks
Like we were scared to death
Like a couple of kids
Just trying to save each other
You should have seen it in color
Annalisa continued to watch her grandmother as the older woman went through the pictures solemnly. She looked grim and sometimes a nostalgic look would flash in her eyes and she would give a small smile as she looked at the picture that brought back such a good memory. Most were pictures with friends from Hogwarts. Alicia pointed out people to Annalisa that she knew Annalisa knew of; Neville's grandmother, Augusta; Ron's grandparents; Sirius's parents.
It was a bit bizarre looking at pictures of those people when they looked so young and different. One thing was for sure: Augusta had a quirky sense of fashion even back then.
All through the memories she recited to Annalisa, she referred to Voldemort as Tom or Thomas.
"Why do you call him that?"
"Call him what?"
"By his name…Why do you call him Tom?"
Alicia frowned slightly and shrugged.
"He's my brother. As much as I despise him and want him to suffer for what he's done, he's still my brother, still a part of my family. He wasn't so bad when we were younger. I mean, there was something obviously wrong with him, even then, but it wasn't as bad. I think back on what would have happened had our parents stayed together. Would Tom have resented our mother for poisoning our father with a love potion to keep him with us? Would Tom have turned out the same in that situation? Or what if our parents had gotten a divorce but our mother hadn't died and had raised us herself? Would he have turned out differently then? Would he have lived a normal, quiet life? Would he have gotten married and had children of his own? Those questions constantly bother me. He could have been a great man if he hadn't gone down the road he chose. He would have been decent…But that's not how things went so I try not to think about what could have been."
A picture's worth a thousand words
But you can't see what those shades
Of gray keep covered
You should have seen it in color
Annalisa and Alicia lapsed into silence for a few moments. Alicia broke it by explaining that, after school, she and Tom parted ways for the last time. She then explained about her life after Hogwarts and before Aberto, Annalisa's grandfather. She had worked for the first two years at the Daily Prophet. While working there, she also tried to help Dumbledore stop Tom from doing more and more bad things to those around them. A picture of Alicia at Amberly's funeral and then more and more funeral pictures after that one surfaced. Alicia explained that all of her friends and their families had been killed off and she knew that it was Tom's way of 'getting back at her'.
Then, with the saved up money she had, she travelled the world, ending her extended vacation in Italy, where she met and fell in love with Aberto.
"In fact…" Alicia leaned forward, grabbing an old white photo album with lace and ribbons.
Alicia flipped to the front page and smiled gently as she turned the album towards Annalisa slightly.
Annalisa peered down at the Muggle color photo of Aberto and Alicia on their wedding day. They were standing in front of a cliff that looked over the ocean. It was a sunny day and the scenery was beautiful; but not as beautiful as the two people who were the center of attention on that day. Alicia and Aberto were holding hands and had them squished between them as they leaned into each other. Alicia was about a foot shorter than Aberto so the top of her head just skimmed his chin.
This one is my favorite one
It's me and grandma in the summer sun
All dressed up the day we said our vows
You can't tell it here
But it was hot that June
That rose was red and her eyes were blue
And just look at that smile I was so proud
Aberto wore a black tux with black dress shoes and a white button-up shirt under a black vest with a black bowtie. He was so handsome. Alicia was the epitome of elegance and beauty. She wore a cream colored dress made of silk with Belgium Chantilly lace overlay. The design was beautiful. It was a sweetheart design and the hem flirted with the ground.
It was nipped in at her waist but flared from her hips so that it looked as if she were wearing a bell around her waist. Where the silk ended, the lace continued; the lace came up over the neckline of the silk and covered Alicia's arms but stopped just below her collar bone and the edges of her shoulders, leaving her neck and the top of her shoulders bare. Her veil was soft but had volume to it; it was set in a sparkling diamond tiara that was placed in Alicia's styled and curled up-do. Her cheeks were rosy, her lips were red, and her sparkling eyes were a blue-grey.
They were smiling brightly and they looked incredibly happy.
"Oh you look so beautiful, Grandmum," Annalisa whispered as her fingertip barely touched the picture to trace the dress.
"It was the most exciting day of my life," Alicia admitted quietly as she gazed down at the photo, memories of her wedding swirling in her mind. Annalisa flipped through the pages of the wedding album, taking in every detail from her grandmother's wedding. This was the closest she would ever get to her grandfather, whom she had never met before and wouldn't until her time came. But she felt like she knew him and she knew she loved him and that he loved her and was watching over her and her family, especially Alicia and his daughters.
That's the story of my life
Right there in black and white
And if it looks
Like we were scared to death
Like a couple of kids
Just trying to save each other
You should have seen it in color
He was a handsome man with dark hair and dark blue eyes. He had tan skin and a muscular build. His smile was dazzling and brilliant. Annalisa could see Aberto in Conri and even in little Faolan and she smiled.
"What was he like?"
"Hmm…well, he was the best man I knew. Family oriented, loving, helpful…" her smile grew a bit wider, "and he was stubborn and impulsive and sly…but I loved him all the same. He was a good business man and had his own family business that he inherited from his parents. He had a strong sense of himself…I see that part of him in you."
Annalisa smiled sweetly and as she looked back down at a picture of Alicia and Aberto on their honeymoon in America, travelling the country. They were at the Grand Canyon in this picture. The deep canyon glowed a bright red color as the sun set on the horizon; the sky was purple, orange, red, pink, and blue with thin, vein-like clouds. Annalisa suddenly wanted to go there with George. And it dawned on her that she wanted to marry George and have a family some time in their future, hopefully before it was too late.
"Grandmum, what was it like back then? When you were my age, I mean."
Alicia sighed softly and thought on how to explain her childhood and young adulthood to her oldest granddaughter.
"Well, if it looks like we were scared to death back then, you should have seen it in color. It was much scarier in life…I think it feels about the same now. That lingering threat that everything and everyone you love can be ripped away from you in one second; the knowledge that he's out there, killing and torturing again…Actually, I think it's scarier now than it was back then because now he's going off of revenge and that's a powerful emotion."
A picture's worth a thousand words
But you can't see what those shades
Of gray keep covered
You should have seen it in color
"Hey, I asked for the chairs fifteen minutes ago!" Italia called up to them from the second story. Alicia and Annalisa both looked back at the square opening in the floor of the attic in slight annoyance.
"Oh hold onto your britches, Blondie!" Alicia snapped and Italia could be heard mumbling something about medieval phrases. Alicia turned back to Annalisa and smiled slightly. She stood up and went to the chairs, grabbing them and hauling them to the floor opening. She passed them down to Italia and then looked back at Annalisa, who had gone back to looking through the photos and albums. "Are you coming, Annalisa?"
Annalisa looked up and back at her grandmother. She shook her head slightly, giving the older woman a small smile. "I think I'll clean this up. I'll be down in a bit."
Alicia smiled as Annalisa went back to looking through the photos in her hands. And suddenly she felt sad, protective, happy, proud, and grim all at once. She knew Annalisa had a lot to face in the years to come and she'd have to make difficult decisions. Alicia just hoped that Annalisa never regretted any of it. She turned away from the teenage girl in the attic and carefully stepped down the ladder and onto the second story. She went downstairs and finished helping Italia and the boys with setting things up just as Nicola and Holly arrived with their husbands and children.
Yes, they'd all have to make a lot of difficult decisions soon and have to face things that should never happen to anyone but they would do it as a family, a whole unit against the evil that plagued this world.
So yeah, another songfic. I like doing these. They're short and sweet and have music! What more could you ask for? Annalisa is a bit jumpy, eh? Please review! -Siriusgrl88