A/N: I don't own Harry Potter
This is for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Assignment #10 Photography -Task #3 - Landscape: Taking a walk? It wouldn't be complete if you didn't get a photo of the beach, or the mountains near your home, right?
Write about being in a picturesque setting.
Word Count: 527
To Ginny, the chicken coop was the most beautiful place she'd ever seen. The way the light filtered down through the slotted roof. It reminded her golden threads hanging down. She used to dream about climbing up one of those sunbeams. She smiled at the memory.
"I was such a kid," she laughed, sitting down on the straw covered floor. She loved the smell of fresh straw. It had a sweetness, an earthiness she couldn't find anywhere else. She knew that would be her amortenia smell, not that anyone loved her like that. She brushed a tear from her eyes.
Around her, the chickens clucked softly. She couldn't see which ones were speaking. She imagined it was one of the large red feathered hens. They always seemed to follow her around, since she had been old enough to sneak into the coop herself. She leaned back against the wooden wall. It was splintery in places, with wooden knots here and there.
She took a deep breath of the earthy scents and looked around. She always came here to clear her mind, when things seemed too hard, when things seemed to real. It never felt like just a place for the chickens. To her it felt like magic, like a part of her. She closed her eyes, listening to the chickens, listening to the insects humming outside.
She sighed, opening her eyes and rising to her feet. She walked among the nesting chickens. She traced her fingers over the window frame, over the small drawings she had carved into the soft pale wood. She smiled, a bittersweet looking smile.
"The most beautiful places are always those that people don't realize," she whispered. Luna had said those words as they'd boarded the train. Slowly, Ginny made her way to the open door frame, she leaned against the wood. There was a spiderweb in the top left hand corner. She couldn't see the spider and wondered if the chickens had eaten it as a snack.
She walked down the ramp leading into the yard. The metal fence sparkled in the sun. The whole ground was covered in straw and bits of seeds. Ginny fought back the tears. This might be the last time she saw this place, this refuge. Tomorrow, she was leaving for her sixth year at Hogwarts. Snape was headmaster, the Ministry had fallen, Harry was gone, and she had no idea what horrors waited for her within the stone walls of the school.
She placed one hand against the door frame. The wood was warm beneath her palm. She took one last lingering look inside. Watched the chickens ignore her.
"I will be back, if nothing else, I will come back here," she vowed, before wiping the tears from her eyes and heading back inside the Burrow. She knew no one would ever understand the beauty of the chicken coop, no one would ever understand her tears over such a place. She would make it home, she would make it back to watch the light stream through the roof, and dream of the days when she used to daydream about climbing the golden threads into the sky.