Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JKR, various publishers of the HP series. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I think the song is credited to Frankie Valle, and I have no idea who owns the movie Truly, Madly, Deeply. A trailer from the movie inspired this fic.
Chapter 5 – Good-Bye
A week later, nine members of the Advanced Guard assembled outside Harry's bedroom window. However, it was in broad daylight and they seemed to wear muggle clothing. Harry made a last minute check of his bedroom to make sure he didn't forget anything. Uncle Vernon had the rug moved out of the house and Harry had been made to clean and wax the wooden floor that was left. Sirius sat quietly on Harry's trunk and watched the young man pace the floor as he reviewed his last minute reminders.
Finally, the doorbell rang, which was immediately answered by Uncle Vernon. Two sets of light footsteps was heard coming up the stairs. Seconds later, Remus and Tonks knocked on the open door to Harry's bedroom. Sirius stood up and forced a smile at the two grown wizards. Remus seemed to smile back in Sirius's direction, but he turned immediately toward Harry, "Ready? We'll walk to Arabella's house with your stuff and fly to the Burrow tonight."
"Isn't it going to look suspicious with the crowd downstairs?" Harry inquired.
Tonks said, "No crowd, Harry. They'll be watching us, but we're the only ones walking to Arabella's."
Remus nodded, "If they do their job properly, nobody should even know they're there."
Harry nodded and went to pick up one end of his trunk. As he did, Sirius patted him on the back. Remus picked up the other end. Harry held Hedwig's empty cage, now cleaned, in his other hand.
Outside, as they walked past the edge of the driveway, Harry looked back at his bedroom window. He saw Sirius looking out. Sirius wiped a tear from his cheek with the back of his hand.
-----ooOoo-----
Author's Notes:
Hope you enjoyed my short fic. I wrote it in two days, trying to get rid of the song in my head and (swooning) of Alan Rickman's voice.
Thank you for reading. Please leave a comment, or at least leave a note to say you read it. If you didn't like it, please tell me why. Tell me what's in your heart, your first gut reaction.
6/24/04 Update FFN has changed their upload procedure so that the story can be formatted, so I reloaded every chapter of this story. Since I wrote it, I've been able to watch the movie a couple times and I was pleasantly surprised that I managed to capture the gist of the story from just the trailer.
Fantome: After watching the movie, the rolled up carpet scene, to me, is a metaphor of getting rid of worn out and old (but comfortable) memories/baggage/ways and discovering something beautiful underneath.