Chapter I
"Pumpkin butt we're going on a trip, grab your shoes!" My father yelled up the stairs of our home.
I got bored when I was at home without any friends so I had begun to practice with the little bit of magical ability I had in my pure-blood veins. When I heard my father yell up the stairs I immediately perked up and all of the objects that I had been levitating in the air fell to the ground with a thud.
I ran down the stairs giddily missing the last step and falling into my fathers open arms. "Be careful, we don't want to take a trip to the hospital on our way do we?" I shook my head in excitement and walked out the front door with his hand in mine.
"Now when we pass the gate-"
"I know dad, no magic. You tell me every time." I quickly dismissed my father's precaution. He took many trips into the Muggle world and he always took me with him. He called me "his mini suitcase," because I went everywhere with him. The trip was business related but he always made it fun for me as well. Last time he took me to a zoo filled with Llamas and Tigers. If it had been the wizarding world I would have used my magic to connect their cages. That, in my opinion, would have been an attraction to see!
My father was a very important man, or so he boasted. He went back and forth between the wizarding world and the Muggle world to debate "politics." It was quite boring to me but afterwards he would take me out for ice cream. I didn't bother asking him about what he talked about with the Muggle people. Last time I got more confused then I had been previous to the question.
"Dad what's that "economics" thing that you were talking about?"
"Economics is how we progress. It's distribution, marketing, and consumption-"
"Tell me when I'm older." I succumbed to my small vocabulary.
When we arrived at the department we were greeted by Meredith; the Ministers secretary. She was a young women with bright blonde hair and long legs. There was no question as to how she got her job within the ministry.
"Hi sweetie, how are you?" Meredith greeted me at the entrance. "Good, wish their weren't so many Muggles around though… they kind of stink." My father quickly seized my jaw with his hand and Meredith gave him an interesting look. "What on earth is a Muggle, sweetheart?" I was going to explain but my father quickly intervened. "Oh, you know kids today. Always making up things in their minds'" Meredith laughed and quickly excepted the excuse.
She took me to her office where we played games and talked about nonsense. I was most interested in her "calculator" as she called it. It was really good at math, almost as good as a Goblin.
Today's trip was just as boring as usual. I sat in Meredith's office while dad went into talk to the prime minister of the Muggle world.
"Meredith, what exactly does my dad do?" I asked her out of the blue. She looked up from her "keyboard thing" and smiled sweetly.
"Your daddy's one of the many ambassador's of foreign relations, though I'm not sure which country he's in charge of…maybe Scotland… he looks Scottish." -I gave her a blank look- "Oh, right you probably don't know what an ambassador is. He works in between countries to keep peace." She reevaluated.
"Oh, that's really boring." I decided out loud and she nodded in agreement.
It was dark when my father and I left the Ministers office. He was toeing me behind him quickly as we walked down the dark avenues. He didn't like the look of the neighborhood that we had somehow got ourselves lost in. We were always cautious in the Muggle world; mostly because Muggles didn't take to kindly to people like us. They often thought we were cult members because of the way we dressed.
Since we had to be so careful about people seeing us do magic Floo powder and brooms were prohibited on our weekly trips. The only way we could get through the Muggle world was on our own two feet.
My father took yet another wrong turn into an ally and ran into three men, he immediately apologized and turned around afraid to have upset them.
"Ayo, giv' me yer money." One of the men taunted my father.
"Sir, I have no money that you would want." My father answered honestly.
"I'm not gonna' ask yeh again." I saw the strange glint of metal shine from the stranger's hand. Then I felt my father pull me behind him with a harsh tug. I didn't have the slightest clue as to what was going on, but from the look inside the man's eye I assumed nothing good was about to happen.
"Sir, I'm just walking home with my daughter. Please excuse us." My father was giving the metal object a worrisome look. "I'm not gonna tell yeh agin'" The Muggles finger moved and my father quickly reached to grab his wand out of his jacket. The Muggle impulsively jerked the metal and caused a loud bang from the instrument. My father clutched at his heart and stepped back until his back hit the wall. He slid down defeated and let go of his heart as if his hand were the heaviest thing in the world.
I ran to him and knelt beside him. I couldn't understand what was happening.
"Daddy?" I whispered so low that the men behind me couldn't even register that I had spoken.
"Sweetheart I need you [cough]" -he covered his mouth as he spat out wet liquid- "Don't forget to love the walls, okay? And Be sweet braveheart."
-I crooked my head.-
"Have you gone AWOL?" He laughed breathlessly and then went silent. He fell to his side and rolled over to his back on to the cold pavement. I didn't understand a word he had just spoken or why he was lying so still on the ground like that.
From the way that the Muggles were staring at my father, I had this feeling that something bad had just happened. The Muggles looked as though they had been petrified. They gazed in fear at my father as he lied on the ground. I looked down at the man at my feet. His eyes, the green one's that we shared, were sightless. He stared up at the black sky blankly. His pale skin was translucent white, and sweat lingered just above his brow.
Looking down at my father reminded me of my Grandfathers funeral. I couldn't remember much but I could recall the likeliness that he shared with my father at this moment. The stiff way they looked up as if they could see heaven open it's gates above. I didn't see a heaven though, all I saw and heard were the three Muggle men. They were clearly intoxicated, and wavering in the darkly lit alley that we were in.
"We got ter get ou' of here Jake, we got ter get ou'!" The man with the strange metal contraption yelled. His voice was laced with a drunken slur and from where I knelt his eyes looked red.
"Dude, why'd you have to go and kill him man. We just wanted his money!" His companion, Jake, yelled at him. His hands were shaking at his sides and when he turned to speak I noticed he had a large birthmark on his face.
"Yeh saw him! He was pullin' somethin' out of 'is coat, I thought it was a gun man!" He yelled back at Jake.
The third friend who had stayed silent up unto this point walked to my fathers corpse. The third man strangely enough was dressed fancily, as if he had just been at a wedding. He pulled out my fathers long Elm wand out of his coat pocket. "It was a stick man. Fuck, it was just a fucking stick!" He threw my fathers wand at him and it landed right at his forehead and then ricocheted to the floor.
"Man, how was I suppo' to know, could hab' been anything!" The third man continued to go through my fathers pockets, I allowed it, what could I do to stop it? I was hoping for the most part that I had turned invisible so they couldn't do the same to me as they did my father. It almost appeared as I had until the second companion singled me out.
"What are we going to do about the little thing?"
"Man, I couldn' go 'n' kill it." The man with the metal said.
"I wasn't suggesting that you go off and do that!" He smacked him clearly over the head. "I mean it could go running to the police, or fuck man what are we going to do?" The third man pulled out my fathers bag that was filled with his golden Galleons. He poured the money into his hand and then cursed it to the ground. "He doesn't even have any real money man!" He shouted at him. All three of them cursed together.
"Little thing, what's yer name?" I didn't answer him.
"Guys, maybe it can't talk." They all seemed relieved at the idea of it.
"Of course it can talk, I mean, it can walk right?" Jake became the voice of reason.
"I don't know man, my niece can walk but can't talk yet."
"Hey little thing, can yeh talk?" I still didn't answer him.
"Looks like were good man, just leave it here. Let's get a beer!"
They all walked away satisfied and without one look of remorse for the actions. I waited until they were out of sight and walked over to my fathers wand and put it back in his hand. "Ok they're gone, you can come back now." He didn't move. "Swish your wand, come on dad, they're gone!" He didn't move. "Wake up, wake up!" -I pinched him.- "Ok dad, come on your not funny. I'll clean my room, I'll eat the green stuff, just wake up!" I shook him, and to my misfortune his head sloped to one side smacking against the cold wet pavement.
I didn't fully understand what had happened, but as the minutes seemed to go by he appeared to look more and more like Grandpa.
Cold, Pale, and Stiff.
I got to my feet and shook my head violently. I paced back and forth and hummed trying to get the remorseful thought's out of my head. "Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry." I begged myself and turned back to my fathers body. "What do I do, what do you want me to do?" I screamed at him.
My father raised me all on his own without anyone's help. I had never met my mother, my father said she was sad and went on vacation to get happy. I wasn't stupid, I may only be ten but people don't go on vacations for a decade. What I didn't understand though, was what did being sad have to do with anything? My father said he would explain it to me later, but I guess I wasn't ever going to find out now.
I pinched myself again to stop myself from thinking to deep on the matter. I didn't want to cry, my father detested it when I cried. "Plenty of things to cry about, not enough to smile for." He always said. He was always looking on the bright side, even if he had to fictionize it into reality.
"There's always a silver lining."
"I don't see a silver lining, dad."
"Then grab your pencil and make one."
I sat down next to my father and embedded my fingers in his red locks and combed past the snarls. I was hoping the spell would ware off and he would wake up by morning so I could go home. He wasn't dead… this was just magic; awful, dark, evil magic.
I eventually found myself falling asleep on the ground next to my father. I huddled up against his chest and imagined that I was at home sleeping in my bed peacefully.