Cancer. Six letters. Two syllables. One word that can strike fear into your heart. Cancer. It's what my mum has. I had known something was wrong the minute I stepped off the Hogwarts Express. There was something in my parents' faces that wasn't right, that wasn't normal, almost like they were struggling to hold in a darkness that threatened to overwhelm them. And then when they sat me down at the kitchen table that night, I knew. I knew there was something wrong with Mum by the way Dad kept looking at her – like he was longing to do something, but he couldn't, and it tortured him. Apparently, she's had it for a month, but they didn't want to tell me in a letter, they wanted to wait until I was home before they let me know. And it kills me to know that I was off at Hogwarts, having fun with my friends and learning spells and being surrounded by magic, while my family was at home struggling. I know that Petunia resents me for it too. And suddenly, I want nothing more than to be with Severus and to go to the park and to pretend that nothing has changed since the time we were nine years old.
