Chapter 2 Clearing out One's life
After a night filled with screams, silvery death eater masks, green light, the stinking smell coming from that threatening cauldron, the feeling of Voldemort's finger pressed against her scar and Cedric's face, dead eyes staring into the sky at that horrible graveyard, (a night just like any other, really) Holly was awakened by a rustling noise outside her window. The image of the Weasley's flying car popping up in her head first, but when she opened her eyes, she saw her owl, Hedwig, sitting just outside her window, behind her the uprising sun against rose coloured clouds, a letter tied to her claw.
Holly jumped out of bed, nearly falling back into it, at the touch of the cold wooden floor against her bare feet. On tiptoes she hurried to the window, letting the snowy white bird in. "G'morning, lovely, got a letter for me?" Hedwig landed swiftly on her table, stretching out her claw, so that Holly could take the letter. When she had succeeded, she took several owl treats and put them in the big owl cage: "Thanks Hedwig, for delivering this. You must be tired." Hedwig blinked affirmative while pushing its head against Holly's caressing fingers, then flew over into her cage, were she ate some of the treats and quickly fell asleep.
Holly watched her beloved owl come to a rest and finally took a look at the letter she had received. It was yellowish parchment, her name written in green ink. Dumbledore!
Eagerly she opened the letter, nearly ripping it in her trembling hands. The message was short, merely a notice:
Dear Holly,
Tonks will come and get you on August 1st at 12pm. You will probably not come back to Privet Drive, be prepared.
-A. P. W. B. D.
Holly turned the parchment in her hands, expecting some more information on the backside, but it was just blank.
That was all? Holly sat down by the table, reading the short note again. August 1st, that was today. But who the heck was this Tonks supposed to be? Holly had never even heard that name before. Maybe they were some kind of security? Holly tried to remember everything she ever heard or learned about that secret organisation called The Order of the Phoenix. It wasn't much, really, she just knew it was founded by Dumbledore and they fought against Voldemort and his followers the last time he had been striving for power, nearly 14 years ago. And they had that very well hidden headquarter, where Sirius lived at the moment and all the members of the Order met and worked together under Dumbledore's guidance.
Anyway, today was the day. She was leaving this dreadful place she'd been forced to call "home" for so many years behind. 12pm. That meant she had only a couple of hours left to pack all her stuff, that lay scattered all over the small space that was her room. Had been her room. And to inform her aunt and uncle about everything.
The next two hours were spent trying to get everything she needed or wanted to keep, even though it wouldn't be needed anymore, sorted on top of her bed. Everything she wouldn't take with her, she stuffed into a big black trash bag, she found downstairs in Petunias realm, the kitchen. Finally, she stood back, taking in everything. Her room had never been tidier. Exhausted, she slid down the wall until she sat on the cool wooden floor, but now she was glad about the chill, since she was quite heated up from all the sorting and tidying she'd done. After taking several calming breaths, she decided to take one last shower in this house and to brush her teeth, but before, she brought out the black trash bag and dumped it into the big dustbin that stood there.
After finishing her shower, she chose a white top and dark shorts from the few muggle clothes that actually fit her (Hermione and Ginny had bought them for her last year) and started to pack everything she'd collected on the bed into her school trunk. Without success. There was no way of fitting all her belongings into that (though not small) trunk, that clearly was only supposed to hold her school stuff, not everything she owned and held dear. She sighed and gave up. Whoever this Tonks was, they would need to help her.
Whilst coming to that conclusion, Holly locked her sleeping owls cage and lay her wand on top of her otherwise bare nightstand. Downstairs aunt Petunia was quite audibly rummaging in the kitchen now, apparently starting with the day and preparing breakfast. A quick glance at the clock at her wrist told Holly, that it was nearly 9 o'clock. That would have been quite late for the Dursleys on a normal Tuesday morning to get up, but uncle Vernon's firm had their annual plant shutdown this week, and since school holidays had started as well, and aunt Petunia didn't actually work, everybody was home and could sleep in.
At the sound of her aunt working in the kitchen, Holly's stomach finally woke and made a quite noticeable growl, demanding her to eat. Since she had to talk to her aunt anyway, Holly thought it was about time to do both, combined. Slowly she walked down the stairs into the dining room where the breakfast table stood still deserted. She could hear her uncle upstairs, on his way to the bathroom and could even make out her stupid cousin Debbie, who was just above the dining room, still in her room, getting ready for the day. That always involved a lot of time and make-up, as if all that junk could somehow make her look pretty. Holly never understood why so many girls her age did this to their faces every day, especially since most of them, like Debbie, looked worse after. The layers Debbie put on her face only made her look like Miss Piggy from The Muppet Show.
Holly went into the kitchen then, greeting her aunt who, as usual, completely ignored her niece, and began to lay the table, helping Petunia as good as she could. Holly often asked herself, if her aunt had always been this way: discontented, thin lipped, passive aggressive. She would have felt sorry for her, had she not been such a mean bitch to Holly. Actually, she felt sorry for her anyway. Holly would never want to spend her life in such a way.
When everything was ready and uncle Vernon impatiently waited on his chair, her aunt and Holly sat down in their usual places and started breakfast. Nobody ever waited for Debbie, she always took too long smudging her face with all that expensive stuff.
Halfway through the meal, when uncle Vernon lay down his newspaper, Holly eventually took the chance and spoke:
"Uncle Vernon, aunt Petunia, in fact, I have some really important news." She waited for them to react in any way, but nothing came. The two just shared a quick glace with each other, Vernon returned to his toast and Petunia kept stirring her cup of tea. Since nothing whatsoever came, she continued:
"It is good news, for you and for once also for me. You remember my godfather? The one who was in prison wrongly convicted for a crime he didn't commit? There will actually be a trial next week, and when he is spoken innocent, which he will, he offered me to live with him. So, I guess you're finally rid of me." At her last words, Holly looked down to her plate, still waiting for any reaction.
After some moments, which felt more like minutes, her uncle spoke:
"How can you be sure this… man will not be found guilty?"
"Because several people will be questioned with a special sort of drink, you see, a potion, that makes you only speak the truth, even if you don't want to. No one will be able to lie, to say something about him, that's untrue. At the end, truth will come out, he will be free again."
She looked directly into her uncle's tiny piggy eyes, as he stared at her, as usual unable to speak at the mention of magic stuff, like this potion.
"There is more. I will be collected today and brought to him and my friends to stay for the rest of the summer. So, this is likely my last meal with you. I will leave at midday."
Her aunt and uncle still were perplexed. They'd stopped moving at the mention of magic and hadn't started yet. At that very moment, Debbie decided to make her appearance. She sat down, grabbing some toast and jam and asked bluntly:
"Why's everybody so weird? What's up with you, fell into a trance or something?" Debbie snipped her fingers in front of her mother's face.
At the sound of her daughter's voice, aunt Petunia slowly came back to life again. Absentmindedly she shook her head.
"No, my dear, she just told us that she will leave at midday to go to her godfather. She won't come back."
Debbie scowled: "What's that supposed to mean?" She stared in Holly's direction, so Holly explained everything again, quite disturbed at the oddness of the talk. She had thought they would break out in celebration as soon as she'd told them, but apparently that wasn't the case. After Holly had finished, Debbie joined her parents' silence. That was too much for Holly, she gulped down her last sip of orange juice and headed towards the stairs, up to her room, where she intended to stay until that Tonks showed up.