the Dress; long forgotten in the cupboard

House: Hufflepuff

Prompt: Purple dress and Forgotten

Category: Bonus Story

Words: 1213

Seem to be going through a depressest streak, don't I?

Disclaimer: well what did I say last time?

An elderly Newt Scamander cleaned out one of the cupboards in the house he lived in. It was just him living there now; as Tina had died a few years back and his son, Michael was married with kids. Though, they did come and visit every now and then.

Newt didn't have many creatures now either, as he had to sell them because he was getting older, less mobile which meant it was harder for him to look after them. He still had a few, though.

Then Newt pulled out a small purple dress -toddler size-. Newt gasped as he saw it: he'd forgotten about this! But, it also brought bad memories to the surface. He and Tina had brought this dress for their daughter: but she died of cancer before her first birthday.

At remembering his baby girl, Newt felt tears form in his eyes: having their child die had destroyed him and Tina, but more particularly Tina. Tina had changed a lot after that; she would spend more time alone, sometimes she would go to great lengths to make sure Newt was the one who checked on Michael: and a few times, Newt had found Tina fast sleep in her office with her face wet, which suggested she had been crying.

Newt was angry at himself for forgetting his daughter, but could anyone blame him? So many bad things had happened, that he tried forgetting them all. And if forgetting his daughter meant being a little happier, then he would.

Newt didn't put the dress away when he finished cleaning, he put it on a chair in his room, so he wouldn't forget about it. This proved to be a bad move, as Newt had nightmares about his daughter:

A forty-seven year old Newt had just finished feeding his animals, when an extremely upset Tina came running towards him, carrying their daughter, Juniper.

"Tina, what's the matter?" Newt asked. He looked at his watch to make sure she wasn't upset at him for being late to pick up Michael.

Tina said sounding as upset as she looked, "You know how little June is sick? Well she had gotten a lot worse!"

"What? No! come on, let's get to the Hospital ASAP," said Newt quickly putting down the bucket he was carrying.

They both ran back to the house: though Newt was a bit ahead of Tina as she had to be careful because of June. While he waited, Newt grabbed a coat for both of them, then they went to St Mungo's via the floo.

They went straight to emergency when they arrived at St Mungo's, and June was seen first due to her age. While they waited Newt sent a message to Queenie asking if Michael could stay the night as something had come up. When Newt and Tina had been at the hospital for almost seven hours, the doctor sent them home saying she would contact them in the morning.

True to her word, the Doctor did visit in the morning, but with bad news; June had died of cancer overnight.

Tina and Newt had been shattered; Tina had taken it worse though. For the next week after the doctor visited, she locked herself in her study and wouldn't come out. It was very hard for Newt to convince her to go to June's funeral even! But he managed it. It had been a hard time for Michael then too: he had been told his sister had died and his mother had locked herself away, leaving only his father for support.

Newt woke up when he got to there. He sighed as he poured himself a drink of water: why did these memories have to come and bother him? Couldn't they leave Newt alone? Before going back to sleep, Newt took a dreamless sleep Potion so that he wouldn't have any nightmares come and bother him.

The next morning; Newt went and visited the graveyard and he took flowers for his mother, Tina and June. Then he stayed there for a while praying for forgiveness. Newt didn't know how much time he had spent at the Graveyard, but he did know he had spent enough time there for Michael to arrive and start to worry about Newt; as Michael was coming around to Newt's for lunch, and he was there, and was starting to worry by the time Newt got back.

After finishing lunch, Michael asked, "Pa, what's the matter? Something seems to be bothering you."

"Nothing's the matter, Mich," replied Newt. Michael gave him a knowing look; but Newt wouldn't budge.

Michael left soon after that, but not before going to the toilet.

Michael visited again that week, and he wanted some photo albums of Newt and Tina to show Rolf, his son. Newt did think it was odd he had only just decided he was going to show Rolf them now -as Rolf was fourteen- but he didn't say anything.

Two weeks later, it was coming up to Newt's birthday, and Michael, Rolf, and Tara (Michael's wife) had come over to stay. When Newt had woken up, got dressed and had breakfast on the morning of his birthday, Tara said, "Newt, we have something to show you."

"What?" asked Newt.

Michael said winking, "It's a surprise."

Michael, Tara and Rolf led Newt up the stairs to one of the bedrooms, and when Rolf opened the door, Newt saw the room had been painted purple. The walls and wood work was purple the purple dress was in there, and there were photos of June, him and Tina.

Michael explained, "I noticed you have been down recently, then I saw June's purple dress and I worked out that you must have forgotten you still had the dressed, and it brought up those bad memories. So, Tara, Rolf and I decided to make a shrine for June so none of us; wouldn't forget about her."

"Michael, Tara, Rolf, thank you," Said Newt starting to cry.

Tara said, "Glad to help and make you feel better, Newt."

Then the four of them had a hug. Rolf said, "Daddy showed me photos of June: and I wish I could have met her."

"I wish you could have, too. Then you would have had an Aunty," said Newt.

The Rolf spoke again, "Tina looked so happy back then, why did she change?"

"When you lose someone close to you, it's hard, Rolf. And it was especially hard for Tina to lose June: she kind of lost herself I guess," said Newt.

Then Tara interrupted, "Come on! let's go and visit the graveyard, we still have heaps to do today!"

Everyone nodded, then they went to visit the graveyard. They left fresh flowers for June, Tina and Newt's mother, then they went for lunch at Newt's favourite restaurant; which was in Diagon Alley.

After that they visited a few shops, then they returned to Newt's house: where he opened his gifts and placed chess with Rolf, Michael and Tara.

When Michael, Tara and Rolf went home that night, Newt thought to himself, 'this certainly has been one of the best birthday's I've had in a long time!'

But before going to sleep that night, Newt made a vow to never forget about June, again.