I scream into the
wind and laugh
As the words slap me in the face
I would gladly
trade a lifetime of convenience
For an honest day or two
August 19th, 6AM
As I woke the next morning I noticed that Hermione had gone back inside. The sun had not yet risen and the sky was gloomy and overcast. I quickly got up, grabbed the pillow and blanket I had used, and headed back toward the Burrow. I walked slowly at first until small drops of rain began to trickle down upon my head. I was nervous when I thought of facing the Weasleys again but I knew that I would have to get it over with sometime. My clothes were dirty from lying on the ground all night and I needed a shower badly.
The Weasleys and Draco were sitting around the kitchen table when I entered through the backdoor. All of them looked up and greeted me warmly while Molly quickly dished up a plate of breakfast for me. I sat down next to Hermione and thanked Molly profusely for being so kind. My mind sighed in relief as I realized that yesterday's outburst had already been forgiven and forgotten.
"I was wondering," I whispered to Hermione hesitantly, "if you might have some clothing I could borrow. All of my clothes that I brought are dirty and I don't know when I'll get a chance to wash them." Molly heard me and immediately leapt from her chair to grab my backpack.
"I'd be happy to wash your clothes dear," she said with a smile.
"Thanks," I replied with a grin and I watched with a little bit of fear as she walked out of the kitchen with my backpack in her arms.
"I have a set of clothing that you'd probably be able to fit into," said Ginny, "I have a lot of my old clothes from school and the sizes should be about right. Just come up to my room after your shower and you can pick something out."
We ate in silence for a while longer until Ron reached across Hermione's lap to hand me something. It was a wrapped package that was the size of a small book. I eyed in warily before taking it from him.
"What is it?" I said as I turned the package over in my lap. Everyone at the table seemed to glance back and forth between each other as if they were trying to decide who should say what. Finally Draco spoke up.
"Consider it a belated birthday present," he answered and I couldn't help but laugh.
"Well," I said, "if this is a belated birthday present then you still owe me seventeen more." Everyone at the table chuckled nervously and I just kept staring at the package until Hermione nudged me in the side.
"Go on," she said in frustration, "it won't bite."
"Not hard at least," George yelled from across the table. Draco rolled his eyes and went back to eating as if he had lost interest. Although I was sure I could see him watching me out of the corner of his eye.
"Alright, alright," I said, "I'll open it. It better not blow up at me or anything though. I read about that Weasleys Wizard Wheezes place." Everyone chuckled once again and then the table became quiet as I slowly and carefully unwrapped the package.
"O come on and hurry it up," Ron whined. Hermione smacked him on the shoulder and all was quiet once again.
It was Christmas and I was five years old. I just finished opening up all my presents and now it was Daddy's turn to open the present I had made for him.
"Hurry up Daddy," I said with a sigh of frustration. Daddy just smiled at me and went back to slowly opening his gift. Once he finally had it fully unwrapped he opened up the box and lifted out the lump of clay that was supposed to look like a puppy. He laughed in delight.
"I love it baby," he said as he gave me a strong hug, "It's just what I wanted." I looked up into Daddy's eyes and they had changed from the pale green that they normally were to a bright, twinkling emerald.
"Then why did you take so long opening it," I asked with a frown. Daddy chuckled and lifted me onto his lap, the lump of clay still held tightly in one hand.
"Because honey," he replied, "you're gift was the most specialest in the world and so I opened it real slowly and carefully so you'd know how special it was to me."
"Daddy," I said with a smile, "there's no such word as specialest." Daddy's smile became even bigger and then he gave me a small wink.
"Sure there is hon, I just made it myself."
"Uh Oh, she's doing it again," Draco's voice called out from across the table.
"Doing what?" Hermione asked. Draco just shook his head and went back to his breakfast. Everyone looked at me and waited for an answer.
"Just remembering," I said with a smile and then I pulled back the last bit of wrapping paper and gasped in surprise. Tears began to fall from my eyes, landing softly on the leather cover of the book I now held in my hands. I was surprised for a moment that I still had any tears left in me.
The book was nothing special to look at. It had a black leather cover and was hardly an inch thick. On the cover, in gold letters, were the words "The Potter Family & Friends." When I opened the cover the first photo was the picture of my father and myself that had been taken out of my old album. The next picture was the picture of my mother and then the other photo of my father.
After those three pictures the album became much more interesting. The Weasleys had filled the remaining pages of the album with magical photos that were moving. There were photos of my father at school. Many of the photos contained pictures of my father with different members of the Weasley family and some even had Draco and Severus featured in them. There were many people in the pictures that I recognized but hadn't met yet and some people that I did not recognize at all.
There was one photo of Harry standing next to a huge man who I assumed was Hagrid. Every once in awhile Hagrid would reach over and lift Harry over his shoulder while Harry seemed to silently laugh with delight. Another photo had Harry standing next to two men who would intermittently ruffle his hair and tickle him. I recognized one of the men as Sirius Black from the photo I had taken from the Dursleys. The other man I assumed was Remus Lupin. Toward the back of the book I paused for a moment on one page. Everyone seemed to notice and they all craned their heads to see which photo had caught my attention.
I flipped through the rest of the book quickly and then went back to that certain photo. This picture was of my father and it seemed to be the only picture in the book that featured an older and more mature Harry Potter. It was the photo in which Harry Potter looked the most like James Riddle. The rest of the pictures were of Harry Potter and in them he was always laughing, smiling or joking around.
This photo was definitely James Riddle. He stood stiffly with a serious and sullen expression on his face. His hair had already begun to gray and his eyes were pale green instead of the bright emerald color of Harry Potter's eyes. It was also the only photo where he had the scar. Not the neat looking lightning-bolt scar, even though that was still there. No, in this photo he also had the ugly and jagged scar running from his ear and down under the collar of his shirt.
Standing next to him in the picture was a tall, old man with a long white beard. He had half moon spectacles and his eyes would twinkle for a moment until he looked at my father and then the twinkle would completely disappear. After awhile he would look out at me and the twinkle would return once again. My father never looked at the other man in the photo, his eyes remained fixed in the direction of the camera and he never seemed to move. If the old man didn't move every so often, the photo would be easily passable as a regular muggle photograph.
"That's Dumbledore isn't it?" I asked Hermione coldly.
"Yes," she replied and then turned away. Everyone at the table was trying very hard not to look in my direction but if I looked up fast enough I could see them giving me short glances. I carefully pealed the photo off the page it was pasted to and glared at it for a few minutes. The corners of the photo began to curl as I gripped it tighter and tighter, my gaze firmly affixed on Dumbledore.
This was the man who ruined my father's life. This was the man who took away my father's happiness. This was the man who made my father kill. This was the man who let my father die countless times. This was the man who took everything away from my father, even his humanity. This was the man who took away MY chance at ever being happy. This was the man who forced my father into a world of loneliness and despair.
I would never forgive him. I could never forgive him.
With that final thought I grasped the top of the photo with my two hands and ripped it down the middle. The Weasleys looked at me in shock. Draco just gave me his trademark smirk. With great care I pressed the half of the photo that contained my father back onto the page in the album. The image of my father seemed to almost sigh with relief as he glanced over to where Dumbledore used to be.
The half of the photograph that contained Dumbledore was not as lucky. I set it down on the plate in front of me, crushing it slightly beforehand so the only thing that could be seen was Dumbledore's head. His eyes completely lost their twinkle as I glared at it furiously. I suddenly felt a familiar rush of heat starting at my feet and flames soon appeared around the outside of the crumpled mass. Dumbledore eyed the flames fearfully and soon he was gone, replaced by a pile of ash.
I looked up to see five very shocked expressions and one huge smile. Draco seemed to find the situation horribly funny and soon his small chuckling turned into loud laughter. Fred and George soon joined him while Ginny and Hermione appeared to be frightened and Ron was obviously flabbergasted.
"You just set Dumbledore on fire!" he exclaimed in shock. I didn't reply to him. Instead I just stared down at the pile of ash once more and poked it angrily with my fork.
"What are you going to do now?" Draco drawled as he studied the fingernails on one hand thoughtfully, "Are you going to eat him next?" Fred and George stared at me expectantly and everyone else looked disgusted by the mere thought.
"No," I answered, "but I was thinking about flushing him down the toilet." Fred and George burst out laughing once more, Draco raised an eyebrow and Hermione was properly appalled.
"Jenny!" she exclaimed, "That's an awful thing to say." I looked over at her and gave her my best Draco smirk.
"It's a good thing I didn't tell you what I planned on doing before I flushed." There was silence once more and then another burst of laughter. This time even Ginny couldn't keep back her giggles. Ron was periodically snorting until Hermione nudged him hard in the ribs.
"Jenny?" a voice came from the doorway. I looked up to see Molly Weasley standing there with my backpack in her arms.
"Is something wrong?" I asked. I could tell by the expression on her face that something was bothering her as she shifted nervously from one foot to the other.
"I was pulling out your clothes so that I could wash them and a few things fell out of your bag," she said slowly as she walked toward me, "I was wondering if you could tell me where you got them."
"What things?" Ron asked. Molly reached into the bag and pulled out the photo of Sirius Black and the two small sticks that I had taken from under the loose floorboard at the Dursleys. Everyone, even Draco, gasped in surprise.
"Where did you get those?" Draco asked as he stood up and walked around the table to get a better look. Molly held the sticks out for everyone to see and Hermione grabbed the photograph.
"It's Sirius," she whispered, "where did you get this photo?"
"Never mind that," Draco interrupted, "where did you get Harry's wand?"
"Is that what that is?" I asked, "I didn't know what it was when I found it at the Dursleys so I just took it along in case it proved to be important."
"Is that where you found the photo also?" Hermione asked while she gently ran a finger over the tattered image of Sirius.
"Yep," I replied, "they were up in Harry's bedroom." Draco grabbed the photo from Hermione and looked at it for a moment before looking up at me with a frown.
"Where?" he asked, "We went over Harry's bedroom at least a hundred times and never found anything."
"They were under the loose floorboard," I answered. Hermione shook her head fiercely.
"They couldn't have been," she stated, "we checked under the floorboard and we even stuck a flashlight inside to make sure we didn't miss something." They all stared at me and waited for an explanation.
"I swear that's where I found them," I said firmly, "I just shoved my hand underneath and they were right under there." Everyone seemed to think about that for a moment.
"When was the last time you guys checked under the floorboard?" I asked nervously. I was beginning to form an idea of what happened in my head but didn't want to alarm anyone until I knew for sure. Fred and George were the ones to answer to everyone's surprise.
"Last year," they both said at the same time.
"What?!" Ron exclaimed, "You two went back there again after all this time." Fred and George looked at each other sadly.
"We just wanted to check in on the place," answered Fred softly, "We usually stop by there at least once a year."
"No harm done," George answered in the same whisper. Hermione gasped in surprise.
"You know what that means?" she hissed. Everyone glanced at each other before staring back at her. Everyone that is, except me because I knew what conclusion she had come to and it was the same one that I had come to mere minutes ago.
"It means," I interrupted softly, "that Harry came back." There was a small uproar around the table.
"You're saying he came back since last year and put that stuff under the floorboard?" Ron asked skeptically.
"That's what I'm saying," I answered with a shrug. Hermione seemed to think for a long moment and Draco seemed to be deep in thought at the same time.
"But why would he come back after so long and put that stuff under the floorboard?" Hermione asked muttered, "It just doesn't make sense."
"He put it there so Jenny would find it," Draco cut in as he took the pieces of Harry's wand out of Molly's hands and put them into mine. I just stared at him in confusion until he added, "You said you wanted an adventure and you said you enjoyed searching for the truth," he explained, "So Harry made sure that you would receive both of those things after he was gone. Think of it as a parting gift."
"But I didn't want him dead," I hissed angrily. I grabbed the pieces of wand and pushed the broken ends back together to see if they fit. Besides a few small pieces of wood that had broken off and probably become lost under the floorboard, the pieces fit together almost perfectly. I gripped the two pieces together with one hand and held out the wand in front of me, trying to imagine what it would be like to use it.
Without any warning a golden glow burst out from my hand and filled the room with a beautiful light for two or three seconds before disappearing. Everyone, including myself, stared down at the hand that held Harry's wand anxiously.
"What do you think that was?" I asked as I looked away from my hand to glance at everyone. They all shook their heads except Hermione of course who was already deep in thought.
"Open your hand," she stated firmly and then leaned forward along with everyone else so that they could get a good look. I slowly opened my right hand which held the pieces of Harry's wand, except there were no longer pieces of wand in my hand. Instead of the pieces I now held a fully formed wand which appeared to be nearly brand new.
"Bloody hell," Ron whispered as we all stared at the wand. Hermione smiled at me and said, "Go on, give it a wave." I eyed the wand nervously and then cautiously held onto what I could only assume was the handle. I closed my eyes for a moment before waving the wand in front of me.
Nothing happened at first and Hermione let out a small noise of disappointment before gasping in surprise. Out of the end of the wand leapt a huge golden stag. It walked around the room warily for a moment, not seeming to notice when it stepped through the kitchen table to stand in front of me. I held up a hand to pat it and it quickly disappeared, leaving a light golden mist in its place. I looked up at everyone and couldn't help but laugh as they all open and closed their mouths like a bunch of fish.
"I'm guessing that wasn't supposed to happen," I said with a chuckle. Draco just shook his head as Ron, Hermione, Fred, George and Molly just stood there dumbfounded. Ginny was the only one who spoke.
"I don't think anyone knew what would happen," she explained. We sat in silence for awhile longer. No one seemed to know what to say until Ron's voice interrupted the silence.
"Holy shit!" he exclaimed, "That was Prongs!"