Chapter 1: Loss is only another word for grief

My tears fell upon the dirt that I was digging up. 'She's gone forever,' was the only thought I had had since she had …died.' Dead; lost where she couldn't be found.' The words resounded in my head as I dug my spade into the earth.

Until yesterday my world was relatively safe. Until yesterday there had been no need for sadness, or tears. There was only me and my… mom… Just thinking the word was pain enough. She had protected me. She had kept food on the table, clothed me, told me bed time stories; but now she was gone and left me without food, money, or happiness. Her death had shattered my almost perfect world.

I stopped digging to wipe my eyes with the edge of my sleeve. I felt that I could cry till the world ended, but the tears stopped coming. I looked up with puffy red eyes and breathed in shuddering breaths. The air smelled of the expiring summer, since it was the last week of august. 'Mum's favorite time of year' I thought despairingly.

I looked into the hole I was digging, my mum's ….grave. It only needed to be about two feet deep, but I had lost track and it now appeared to be at least four. I could barely see over the top of it.

I reluctantly got out of the hole. I brushed the dirty blond hair out of my startlingly blue eyes. For the first time since my mum died I began to wonder what would happen to me. I had no family, or at least my mum had never talked about her family, and my dad had left us when I was a little younger than one. I began to think of what my childhood heroes had done in the fairytale books I was read as a kid. They all had fairy godmothers to help them, or a prince who would marry them. Except fairy godmothers don't exist and no one would marry an eleven-year-old girl.

I was startled out of my thoughts be an ear-splitting crack, and I turned around to see an old man who was smiling serenely and wearing a midnight blue bathrobe.

"Hello Miss Melville" He said striding towards me with a sparkle in his eyes behind half-moon spectacles.

To my silence he said, "I have come with your acceptance letter, as I am sure your mother has already explained. Where is Amy, I have wished to speak with her about something."

I felt a twinge of pain in my heart and could not bring myself to speak, because it was only with effort that I was not bursting into tears. Instead, with a shaking hand I pointed to the hole I had been digging.

"Oh, my dear child I am so sorry, this makes matters a bit more complicated. My name is Dumbledore, and I am the headmaster at Hogwarts, which you have heard about, right?" Dumbledore asked.

I shook my head, still feeling the urge to cry but I fought the urge and said "What is Hogwarts?" As tired and grief-stricken as I was, I still had a natural curiosity.

"Well it is a school for witches and wizards like you and your mother," he said,

"Surely Amy told you."

"She didn't because she wasn't" I said suddenly feeling agitated and angry." If my mum was a witch then she wouldn't have died."

"No being can cheat death, Annie" He said "It is a part of life, But certainly not the worst"

I couldn't take this man anymore; his words were salt pouring onto the open wound of my mother's death. Tears streamed down my already tear-stained face as I ran into the house and out of sight.

The last person James expected to see on that August twenty-sixth was Albus Dumbledore and, ironically that was who was at the door.

James had been taking a break from thinking about what Hogwarts was like and how humiliated he would be if he was in Slytherin, to help his mum with the celebratory dinner that would take place that night ,when James had gotten the door. Now standing in front of him was Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts was standing outside his door. James' first reaction was that he was a squib and he wouldn't be able to go to Hogwarts. He almost didn't hear Dumbledore ask if he could come in and talk to his parents.

James nodded and led the headmaster to the study where his mum and dad were situated with big smiles on their faces, 'Probably talking about what they'll do when I'm gone' James thought dismissively.

His mum told him to continue setting the table and he went to do so, wondering what the adults in the other room could possibly be talking about. He finally gave up and set down the hall to eves drop when he heard voices in the hallway.

"Of course we'll take Annie in," said Mrs. Potter, her voice sounded watery, as though she had been crying recently," We are her only family after all"

"I'm sure James will enjoy having someone his own age to talk to," Mr. Potter said, a little grudgingly perhaps.

He went back to the dining room and waited until his parents had said their goodbyes to Dumbledore. Then they came to talk to him. His mum's face was indeed tear-stained and his dad's face was stony.

"Dear we need to go pick someone up before dinner," His mum said, her voice was still watery.

"Who?" James said trying to hide the interest from his voice.

His Question was answered by a vast silence that ended with his dad's answer.

"Your Cousin" He said, barely trying to hide the dislike in his voice.