The Wand
A thirteen-year-old girl with long, blonde hair lay awake in a small, dusty bedroom in a very old house. She was holding a thin, black wand and examining it in the scarce, early morning light that filtered in through the shuttered window.
She recalled, in her mind, the day she had found the wand, lying on the floor in the front hall of this very house.
That day had been a most peculiar day for her. She had woken up in her small bed in the orphanage to find the mistress whispering for her to get up quickly, that there was someone there to see her. It had been dark outside when she looked out the window as she was herded downstairs to find a young man there who had introduced himself as Remus Lupin. He had informed her that he was her godfather, and then he took her with him. She had gone willingly, knowing that wherever this strange man was taking her would be far better than that musty orphanage. The two of them had travelled all day, finally ending up in this place, where she had found the wand.
Then the man, Remus, had told her who she was, the daughter of Sirius Black, and of the day her mother, Bethany, died giving birth to her. That was a year ago.
As she traced the carving of the dog on the handle of her wand, she remembered picking up the wand, the sparks it had given off, and the way Remus had stared at her.
This wand had been Sirius's.
The girl set the wand on the bedside table and picked up, instead, the photo of her mother, waving and smiling at the camera. Remus had given her this. She remembered how she had stared at it, awed by the fact the picture was moving.
A noise startled her and she looked up to see Remus in the doorway. He acknowledged the picture in her hands.
"Ah yes, Bethany Black was quite beautiful, wasn't she?" He cleared his throat, staring fixedly at the wall for a moment, then his eyes flicked back to the girl, now sitting up. "Come on, Rose, we need to leave in a couple minutes to catch the train. Everything packed?" He eyed her trunk lying open on the floor.
"Yes I have everything," Rose replied, jumping to her feet and pulling a pair of jeans and a shirt out of her trunk.
"Okay, well hurry up and get dressed, I'll help you with your trunk on the stairs." He left and Rose quickly dressed, stuffing her wand into her back pocket and tossing any remaining items on top of her neatly folded cloaks and stacked schoolbooks.
She met Remus on the landing with her trunk. A flick of his wand and the trunk was floating at shoulder height.
Rose smiled, amused, as he guided it down the stairs and then followed him, careful to avoid trodding on his patched and frayed cloak that flapped behind him as he walked.
His gait was more tired today and he limped slightly. Rose was aware that this was because he had been out all night in wolf form as it had been a full moon.
A taxi awaited them outside the house.
Rose started to help load her trunk then stopped, suddenly remembering,
"Oh! I forgot my owl. I'll be right out."
She sprinted back into the house and grabbed Spade's cage from the kitchen.
The shiny black owl, Spade, nipped Rose's fingers affectionately through the bars as she hurtled through the house and back out to the street where she jumped into the back of the taxi and they were off.