Scribbles of an Angel.
StoryGirl.
The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.
-George Elliot
A pale hand, light freckles scattered over the skin, one prominent on the ring finger ran across the page, a pink crayon in hand. Its owner hummed softly to herself. Blue eyes, framed by fluttering eyelashes, glanced down at the page, happily noting the skipping bunny that Abe had taken care to pencil in for her. She tucked a strand of wispy blonde curls behind her ear, blue eyes darting around to rest on her eldest brother, seated below the apple tree in their backyard.
"Al!" she called, the boy immediately looking up to the sound of her voice. Nervously, giggling softly, she looked at him, identical blue eyes meeting.
"Yes?" he called back, pushing his glasses further up onto his nose; the book paused in his lap. "Is something wrong Ariana?"
She glanced down, noting that all of her crayons were there, before shaking her head, and returning to her picture. A thick red crayon now in her hand, she scribbled in the outline of a flower, using a smaller green crayon for the stem. Biting her lip, a hand clutched around the end of her floaty blue dress, she divulged into the package on the table, retrieving a purple crayon due to her efforts. The bunny bow-tie was the next to be scribbled upon, a light smattering of orange, clashing with his purple pants. The multiple eggs he held in his ever-important basket became a mixture of red, green, and yellow, the biggest scribbled in a dark blue.
Ariana glanced up again, smiling as the cawing bird flew overhead, its wings flapping majestically. Blinking, she returned to her picture, a hand reaching not for a crayon, but for an apple slice that she had retrieved from Albus earlier that morning. She bit into it, smiling as the juice dribbled down onto her lips, the apple slice returning to its plate, her fingers wiping the juice away from her already-sticky chin.
A brown crayon now in hand, she bit her lip again, scribbling hard on the rock that the bunny had nearly crashed into. Strands of her hair falling into her face; she pushed them back impatiently, placing the brown crayon back gently inside the package.
Pausing in her colouring, she fell back against the chair, finishing what was left of the apple slice. Albus looked up at her, pausing in his reading to send her a quick smile, brown hair falling into his face as he bent down again to start reading once more.
Ariana sat back up, picking up a turquoise crayon, and began to colour in the sky, the sun already coloured in at the left-hand corner of the page. Half the page complete, she picked up a red crayon and coloured in the small building Abe had drawn, a small figure in the window. She smiled as the figure started to wave, hand flapping up and down happily.
With only the grass to finish, Arian reached for another apple slice, the last one on the plate. Placing it in her mouth before any of its juice could drip down onto the ground; she chewed it thoroughly, feeling the crunching in her mouth. At the thought of apples, she glanced up at the tree where Albus was sitting under, seeing two or three already-ripe apples hanging from the branches.
Green crayon now in hand, she finished the grass off quickly, becoming a deep shade of green, with a few speckles of lighter green scattered through it. Smiling happily, she bit her lip once more, a purple crayon now in hand, as she concentrated hard on writing her name at the bottom of the page.
A-R-I-A-N-A.
She stood up from the chair, dress falling around her knees, and, paper clutched tightly in her hand, walked over to where Albus was. "Here," she said, once she had reached him, holding out the paper. "This is for you."
Albus smiled up at her, taking off his glasses and placing them in his pocket. "Come sit, then, Ari. NEWTS are too hard anyway, for me to concentrate on them for this long. I need a break, and you've provided me with one."
Giggling, Ariana compiled, folding her dress under her knees as soon as she had placed herself on the mushy ground, the dirt still damp from last night's rain.
"I don't want you to leave me, Al. What'll happen when you and Abe are finished with school, and go off and get real jobs, and leave me all alone with just Mummy?" Ariana glanced up at her brother, tears already filling her blue eyes.
Albus gathered her to his heavily-cloaked side, placing his arm around her, the single emerald ring that lay on his first finger glittering in the weak sunlight. "We'll always be there, Ariana, I promise. Abe and I love you to much to let you go, silly!"
She giggled softly, nestling her head onto his shoulder. The wind rising up against them, the sun slowly descending to make it into night, Ariana dozed off, her peaceful snores filling the air, smudges of multi-coloured crayon decorating her cheeks and face. She mumbled something as Albus settled her down gently on her bed, before rolling over and clutching a weathered grey bunny to her chest.
Albus smiled from the doorway, the picture still in his hand. He glanced down at it, noting the multi-coloured baskets of eggs that the bunny held in his hand. This was going to go up on his wall, he decided, then and there, so that, once he did get a real job and didn't see Ariana that often, he would have this picture, these scribbles of an angel, to remember her by.
And, decades later, the same Albus, although greyer and with a now-broken nose supporting his half-moon glasses, deep in thought; glanced up at that piece of paper tacked to his wall.
The scribbles of an angel.
His angel.
AN: Big thanks to TheRedRoseFairy for being an awesome beta! :D