Disclaimer's Notice: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters featuring in the books or the films. They belong to J.K Rowling and her wonderful mind. Only the plot and the plot alone is mine…
Chapter 1
Machines beeped everywhere as a little brown-haired 9-year-old girl slept lightly next to her ailing mother. After four years of battling man's most incurable illness the woman was worse for wear. In a room down the hall the little girl's father also slept albeit soundly while her grandparents were safeguarding their house. The New York traffic, ever active, bustled as bright yellow taxis honked at passers by.
The girl stirred; her hand clamped firmly onto her mother's, her head resting on the bed beside her. Even though she was sleeping in the most uncomfortable position imaginable, she felt safe, her mother was with her. Thursday night, this night, was her turn to watch her mother. Father and daughter alternated nights as her mother insisted that a single person couldn't stay awake forever. The little girl, who was keen to be near her mother even if it meant staying awake the whole night, wholeheartedly agreed. The woman's husband reluctantly granted the little girl's wish and allowed his daughter to have the Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday shifts while he caught up on lost sleep in a room down the hall.
On Sundays, both would watch over the woman all the while keeping each other company. Many-a-time however, the little girl would fall asleep. Two sleepless nights was something that even grown-ups had difficulty in achieving. Plus, she always had school the next day and despite both her parents' insistence, she would refuse to go home. Instead, she would bring her packed school bag and uniform to the hospital where it would sit on the side table awaiting its requirement the next morning.
Time passed…seconds, minutes, and hours…if asked she wouldn't be able to tell you how long she slept for before the most awful thing imaginable happened the machines began to beep faster. With each passing beep, her perfect world began to crumble in a way that she could never have imagined. They were calling her to face the greatest challenge of her life…
"Beep…Beep…Beep…" The sound was eerily soothing, she lay there and half awake listened to the machine that beeped with each breath the woman on the bed took. She thought of her father, his troubles, his turmoil as he watched the only person he ever loved fade away slowly and painstakingly. With these thoughts in her mind she barely noticed the machine begin to beep faster as her mother coughed. The doctors had warned them that due to the cancer that had now spread from her breast to her lung, she would not be able to lie flat on her back. If she did, her lungs would fill up with liquid and would have to be drained immediately to prevent her from drowning in her own bodily fluids.
At the sound of her coughs, the little girl lifted her head and looked at her mother's sleeping form. A white 'Chanel' headscarf was where beautiful bushy locks once were. Her once buttermilk skin was pale, marked with scars left by countless unsuccessful operations. Her warm loving eyes that could stop any amount of tears with the slightest blink were for now closed as she slept. The coughing fit subsided but the little girl remained wary; standing up and giving her mother's hand a tight squeeze she removed herself from the chair and headed towards the bathroom. Flipping the light switch, she positioned herself in front of the mirror. Her mother had been in this hospital for so long, the little girl knew the room and bathroom like the back of her hand. Patiently waiting for the fluorescent bulbs to steady as they flickered on and off, the little girl placed both hands on either side of the sink. Thinking of past events she sighed as the light finally flickered for the last time.
Looking at herself in the mirror, the bags under her eyes were more visible than ever, evidence of many sleepless nights spent watching over her beloved parent as a guardian angel would watch over her ward, but she didn't care. She would have sacrificed anything to be near her mother…anything…everything
She pulled her crumpled baby blue polo shirt down and hitched up her dark blue jeans. Taking off her shoes she re-arranged her socks and sat on the toilet seat. Stretching her toes she replaced her tan coloured loafers and made her way to the door. Sighing, she flipped the light off all the while quietly pulling the door closed behind her; returning to her mother's bedside she noticed something was not right…
The woman had somehow managed to slip down the bed so that she was lying horizontally. Her breath was now coming in short sharp rasps as she struggled to breathe all the while the mucus filling her lungs at an alarming speed. The girl noticed this and took her mother's hand. Gently shaking her arm, the girl tried to wake her mother so she could lift herself up but another coughing spasm broke through drowning out her words. This one, unlike all the others in the past sounded like a deep hacking cough. The little girl was about to fetch the nurse when the hand she was holding suddenly tightened around hers and held it in a vice-like grip.
She began choking and coughing, the child struggled to reach the alarm but alas, her arms were too short. With that option gone she tried to lift her mother's 31-year-old body up so that she could breathe, but again her size failed her, she was not strong enough. Standing on the chair that she was only moments before sitting on, she shook her mother's shoulders again and again trying to wake her up. Still coughing and wheezing the woman opened her eyes and looked at her only beloved child.
"Take care of your father pumpkin. He's all you have now. Promise me that you'll never turn your back on him…promise me that. Alayna…" the woman gasped her child's name with her final breath. It was something little Alayna would never forget.
"I promise Mama…just don't leave me, I love you, please! Mama, please…no!" cried the child.
The woman tried to smile so that her daughter would remember not the tubes, the needles or the scars, but the woman underneath all that…the woman who loved her, as deeply as only a mother can. As Alayna's mother's eyes rolled into the back of her head her eyelids closed and her hand fell limp still clutching her grief-stricken daughter's.
Alarms went off and nurses came running in followed by the woman's frantic husband. Looking at his beloved wife he ran to her side and lifted her limp body up. Seeing that her heart would beat no more he placed her gently back on the bed. Looking at his daughter, the realisation dawned upon both of them simultaneously. His knees gave way and he sank to the floor. Taking his head in his hands, he began to cry. The little girl, unused to seeing her father cry, rushed to his side and collapsed next to him. Tears began to spill over onto her face as she turned her father's face towards her.
"She's gone…" whispered the girl quietly, tears silently streaming down her face.
The man stood up suddenly and looked again at his wife before throwing his head back; he bellowed up to the heavens the one word that was coursing through his mind.
"No! No! No! She'll wake up…she has to wake up…" he screamed into the air.
"No Daddy" said the child in a barely audible whisper. "She's gone…she'll never wake up…not ever…"