[Title: Prologue]
[Author: JamieRay]
[Music: Chris Daughtry _ September]
[Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply]
[Summary: She couldn't ever forget, the way the others did. So she would put it down on paper and tell the story, to all that would listen, to all that needed to listen, of their Hogwarts days.]
[A/N: Here we go again, I really hope this is the last time.]
'Everyone celebrated that day. From child to senior, witches and wizards and magical creatures of all ages celebrated that day. They rejoiced for the passing of the darkness that overshadowed them, rejoiced for the fall of the most powerful dark wizard of the age, rejoiced for the freedom of those so long oppressed by that darkness. They delighted in the bringing about of a new era, and so forgot the casualties.
There were so many casualties that day. Those sacrifices that were made for that era, those forgotten sacrifices, that without, the world today could not have been. The passing of lives so tightly intertwined that none could have ended without so affecting the other.
I stand here also forgotten, one of those few who helped bring about that revolution and yet could not rejoice. One who's life was so completely intertwined with those final casualties. As such the task of the passing along of their story befalls me. And so I tell the tale of three men and a coward and the women they loved and protected.
The story begins in that castle that was so like a home. Where five boys of eleven grew to be men and six young girls against all the odds were one. And the children of that forgotten generation who banded together and braved the storm that threatened to tear their world asunder.
This is the story of the men who took the world by storm and made our victory a possibility, and the women who stood by their sides and made that possibility a reality. And the boys that shook the castle walls with their laughter and their life. And the girls that walked those halls everyday through laughter and through strife.
And they lived, like a secret everyone knew existed, a bond none could break, a crazy game not one could understand, a silent trust, or unspoken words heard stridently. This is a story of Friendship, Betrayal, Loyalty, and Passion. A story of forgotten sacrifices made, and the people who built the foundations of the boy who lived. Those few lights that lit up the entire sky as they so quickly burned. The story of those who starred in the erroneously deemed trivial preface of Harry Potter's legend. The story of those who truly saved us.
I'd never seen myself as the story teller, until now as I sit here flipping through the pages of this album, watching our lives go by like a film that plays over and over again. It's a story that I realize no one really knows, a story that I've always know must be told, and though I never thought I'd be the only one left to tell it, here I am.
I'm not sure if there are any of us even left alive, or if it's just me, but if someone is still out there I pray that they too know to pass this tale to whoever will listen, and for those who aren't, I only pray that my account will do them justice.
Just as every person has their roots, every story must begin somewhere; every story has its roots, its origins, its beginning. This story, and the stories of all those that follow, begin somewhere, and sometimes I don't even know where that somewhere is.
It isn't a clear beginning like the storybooks we often read. It began somewhere within the walls of Hogwarts castle, when the bonds were first formed, and enemies were made. When the very first fights broke out, and the very first tears where spent for our loved ones. That is, at least, where it started for me. But I guess it started at different times for all of us.
The place that I will begin, is the place it all began for me. A time when I knew nothing of our world, when I knew only the protection of my parents, only the surface. It was time when I learned of wonderful things and terrible things, when I learned of a whole new world, a magical world. At the time when I received a letter, my Hogwarts letter.'
Diana drew the quill away from the parchment and reread the last sentence. And to think it all began with a letter.