Chapter 15 – The Tale Of Adaline

FW

"I - I saw you."

Fred's eyes went wide as the information registered in his brain; his breathing accelerated.

"You saw him?" Leah's eyes wide.

George nodded. "The moment you touched the box, he was suddenly sitting there, next to you. It was just for a moment, but I definitely saw him."

Leah looked from George to Fred. Fred immediately understood and reached his hand back to the box. When they slowly lowered their hands, they watched George, but he just shook his head when they touched the small chest again. Sighing they pulled their hands back.

"It's okay." George reassured. "At least I saw him. Now, look inside." He ushered her, waving his hand to the chest.

Leah slowly opened the box and looked inside. On top was a picture of her, Addie and Nan, only a few weeks before Addie passed away. Fred and George quietly scooted closer and looked with her at the photograph, as she traced lines over it, over her nan, over Addie. She passed the photograph down to Fred as she picked up the next photograph, of her Nan with her grandfather. But what none of them noticed was that every time she touched the faces on the photo, their ghost appeared in the corner of the attic, and with a blink off an eye they were gone again.

"Who's that?" George asked pointing at the photograph.

"My grandfather, I never knew him. He died before I was born." She said as she gave it to George. She looked back in the box, and it was filled with letters, all addressed to her. She took out the letters to find one last thing on the bottom of the chest. She pursed her lips and frowned as she held up the bottle at eye level, cloudy white liquid floating in it.

"Merlin!" George gasped as he saw the small bottle. Fred looked up from the second photo and his eyes went big as he saw what she was holding.

"What? What is it?"

"They are memories." Fred said, inspecting the bottle closer.

"Memories?" She squinted her eyes at the liquid.

"Yes, we can extract memories with our wands. You can look at them with a pensieve, but we don't have one." He said frowning. "We tried to make one, but haven't succeeded, yet."

"Minnie!" Fred cried out. "Minerva has one. I heard Harry and Ron talking about it a few summers back. Dumbledore had one, so I assume it's still in the headmaster's office."

"Fred says there is one in Minerva's office."

"I'll send a new Patronus to Minnie." He stood up. "Uhm, Leah? Did that come from the chest too?" He asked pointing to a little rolled up piece of parchment. She picked it up curiously and rolled it open, reading it aloud.

My sweet little LéLé

If you have found this box, it means I died before I had a chance to tell you.

I know you have a lot of questions, but please read my letters before you watch the memories. If what the seer has told me is true, a young wizard named Weasley will be sitting right next to you, only visible for you to see, for now.

All will become clear when you read and see everything I have left you.

Please forgive me.

I love you with all my heart.
Addie and I will both be watching over you.
Until we'll meet again.

Nan.

FW

Leah stared at the letter for quite a while, her eyes starting to sting from unshed tears, but refused to let them fall.

"Leah?" Fred's soft voice came next to her.

"I – I need a moment." She jumped up and sprinted down the stairs, leaving the stunned twins behind.

"Fred, you better go after her." George pointed in Fred's general direction. Fred stood up quickly and ruffled his hair before he followed her down. He started to panic when he didn't see her, but since he was still here, he knew she was close. Then he spotted a small light coming from bathroom, the door ajar.

"Leah?" He asked, not pushing the door open.

"Can you give me a minute?"

"Of course, love." He stepped back and slides down the wall to the ground and he waited. He heard her sniffle softly and a few minutes later the door opened. Leah looked down with a sad smile.

"You didn't have to wait here."

"I know." Fred said standing up. "But I didn't want you to be alone."

"You're amazing, you know that?"

"I try." He grinned. His eyes went soft as he studied her face, his hand coming up to cup her cheek. "I wish I could hug you."

"Hm." She hummed, letting her eyes fall shut. "Me too."

"Should I get George? He is the perfect substitute." He joked half-heartedly.

"In some ways." She said opening her eyes again. "But I'll know." She smiled up at him, a smile that made his stomach flip, a smile that made his breath hitch. He wanted to tell her, to tell her what she did to him, what he feels for her, but he couldn't not as long they didn't know if they could bring him back, really back. Instead he asked.

"How are you feeling?"

"Besides overwhelmed? Angry. That she didn't tell me, prepare me. That she knew about you but didn't do anything to stop it, to stop you from dying."

"Somethings –" He said as he traced lines over her cheek. "can't be avoided. And she was a muggle, what would she have done?"

"I don't know, but she should've done something!" She sighed exasperated, before looking him in the eyes and whispered. "I would have done something."

His closed his eyes and sighed as he leaned his head against hers... "Merlin, I want to kiss you so badly, right now!"

She chuckled lightly, knowing exactly how he felt. Her eyes sprung open when the stairs creaked behind Fred. George was standing there uncomfortable, bouncing on his heels as he looked everywhere but her.

"I hope I'm not interrupting."

"Yeah George, I was about to have a full-blown make-out session with the ghost of your brother, who I can't even touch." She snorted sarcastically, stepping away from Fred. Fred and George started to laugh loudly making the tension ebb away. Even though George couldn't see Fred, it still felt like he was caught doing something improper.

He slides next to Leah on the stairs back to the attic. "Do you ever get embarrassed?"

"Yes, but not easily and if you don't care what other people think, then what does it matter?"

"I like your way of thinking; we had that same mentality in school." He grinned.

"When you were down." George said, like she had just gone to the loo or make some tea. "I put the letters in order, there were dates written on the back." He turned to her, the letters in his hands. "Do you want to do this now or...?"

"Let's see what the first one says." She walked closer and George handed her the top letter. She sat herself against the wall and leaned back, before she tore open the letter, the twins sitting on either side of her.

FW

Mother's ghost

My dear LéLé

The first time I found out there was something different about me, I was about 17 years old. It was the first time someone close to me had died. My mother had passed away a couple of weeks prior and I was still in a grieving period, just going through the motions. The first time I saw her, I was sitting on the train on my way home from school when her face flashed in the window. I didn't think much of it, so I shrugged it off as grief.

The next time, a few months later. I was dreaming; I was younger and was sitting on the swing set in the garden as she pushed me. When I woke up, she was standing the corner of my room, a smile on her face before she disappeared. Again, thinking it was grief and tiredness, I let is pass.

The moment I realised it was more than grief, more than me trying to process her death, it was almost a year later. I was eating dinner with my father when she appeared at the table sitting in her usual seat. It was then when she spoke to me.

"I'm so proud of you, Adaline."

I nearly chocked on my food as my father lectured me own my table manners. I excused myself and hid in my room, but my mother soon followed and only spoke a few sentences to me.

"It runs deep in our family, but it was not me, nor it will be you. A set of identical twins will be born at the beginning of May 1977 when the last snow falls. One of them will have more power than to only just, see."

After that she disappeared, leaving me in the dark room, all by myself. It took me years to see her again, already knowing the answers when I did finally saw her.

After that, I started looking, researching. I went to psychics, mediums, anyone I could find with a gift to the supernatural. But all of them were fakes, just people hustling money from strangers. I wish I could say I found answers sooner, but I didn't. My father passed not even two years later, but I never saw him again. Being an only child, I inherited everything, including this house.

A few months after his passing I met your grandfather in Antwerp, where I was following a lead after I found out my grandparents migrated from there. We married after only a few months of dating, but he was the love of my life. Even though I was happily married and ready to start a family, my search for answers didn't stop. I travelled through all of the UK, even went to France, The Netherlands, Belgium.

It was three years after my father passed, that everything changed. The moment I met Cassandra Trelawny.

"More power than to only just, see?" Leah frowned at the letter. "What does she mean by that?"

"I don't know." George said looking over her shoulder to the letter. "Do you want to continue?"

"Yes, I need to know more." She said putting the first letter back in the envelop.

"Are you sure?" Fred asked, looking a bit worried.

"Yes. And I'm fine, if it gets too much, I'll let you know." She offered him a small smile. So, George handed over the second letter. When she folded it open, she started reading out loud again. Her voice the only noise that carried across the attic.

FW

Cassandra Trelawny

It was Cassandra who found me, a seer. She found me in the summer of 1952 when we were at our summer flat in London, she said she had a vision of me and that's why she came to see me, one thing she normally wouldn't do, but here she was standing in the middle of Regent's Park, wearing strange looking robes, grey messy hair with twigs stuck in it.

Of course, I was sceptical at first. After all the frauds I met during the years…
She told me I was pregnant with a boy. I was surprised because no one knew but me. I didn't tell anyone yet, not even your grandfather because the pregnancy felt off... but I didn't believe her. She said, I would miscarriage in three days, when I'm in the tub bathing. I waved her off and walked home.

I tried avoiding going into the tub, thinking if I could avoid it, it wouldn't come true. But on that third day there was a storm and the rain had me shivering from top to bottom. Your grandfather filled me a hot tub and he lowered me in, trying to warm me up. He was just going down to make some tea, when the pain started, and the water turned red. I was in shock, crying. I quickly pulled out the cork and let the water drain out before your grandfather came back up.

The next morning, Cassandra was standing in front of my house, waiting for me to come out. She placed her hand on my shoulder and said, "I'm sorry." We walked in silence for a bit, strolling down the park we met.

"I know what you can see." The seer whispered as we rested on a bench. I was stunned to say the least, more shocked. "I can help you uncover the truth, the truth about your family."

She didn't tell me where she was from or why she was dressed in weird clothes. It took me years to find out who she really was, what she was. But it didn't matter to me at the moment. I just wanted to know more about what was happening to me. After she had the vision of my miscarriage, she had two more of me. One of me birthing a healthy baby girl and the other… she didn't call it a vision, she called it a prophecy.

The truth is…

There is magic in our family, old magic. Going down our family line for centuries. It runs only through the veins of the women in our family, passing it down from mother to daughter.
But nearly not everyone in the family had Visus Mortuus, the sight of the death. It could skip several generations, so the history, the lore about the sight slumbered down. It is said that our ancestors pushed down their abilities, being afraid of them. That's why so little had the sight anymore, they didn't believe, wouldn't believe. Only the people with truly open minds could receive it once again.
My mother never had it, nor my grandmother. I was the first one in over four generations. So, what my mother told me, that evening in my room, she only found out after she died.

But Cassandra knew, she had a vision, a prophecy about twins that were going to be born with the last snow, one of them being born with immense power, with magic the family hasn't seen in decades. She couldn't see faces or names, just twins in a crib and above them a bright crescent moon, shining between the snowflakes.

.