GRACE • • • TWO
goodbyes that turned out to be hellos
I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and stretched. I bowed down and grabbed one of the boxes that were stacked in my room. With my eyes only half open, I started walking down the dim hallway. I yawned. I had never really enjoyed living in this house. It was much too dark for me and too gruesome. You got used to it, but now that I was about to move into a light apartment with gigantic windows, this felt like a dark hole. Suddenly I felt the box tug and I loosened my grip from the small shock. The box didn't drop, but it just flew out of my hands. My dad stood in front of me, with his wand in his hand. He had made sure all the boxes flew down out of my room and started to go downstairs.
'You are a wizard, Sirius, use your abilities,' he said in a cold voice.
'I wanted to carry it so it couldn't hit something and break,' I snapped back and looked at the floating boxes with my eyes squeezed shut. The box I was carrying had contained all my glass and fragile objects. My father didn't even look at me and just made the floating boxes go down the stairs, walking after them. I looked over my shoulder to my room, which was rather empty except for the posters on the wall that I had put on with long lasting sticking charms. I felt more sentimental than I had expected and for a moment it was hard for me to turn around and walk away, but then I felt stupid. I forced myself and started walking. I was going to enter a new part of my life, on my own. Yeah, that didn't make me feel much better. I hated to be alone. I had sometimes wished I could share the apartment with anyone, but my friends all preferred to stay at home. I finally walked after my father downstairs and grabbed my coat from the coat rack. I put it on and could just see my dad packing the boxes into a bag on the back of my motorcycle. I had put an enlargement charm on it, so it easily fitted. I felt a proud feeling warm my chest when I saw the motor standing in front of me. It was a black racing type and it was brand new. Of course, I would have to make some adjustments so the bike could do more than only drive, but I had gotten it and that was what mattered now. I zipped my leather jacket and turned around to my family. They had all come to stand outside. Regulus looked rather sad. I had proposed him to help me unpack, but he had said he had something else to do. I could imagine what sort of thing was more important than seeing your older brother off.
'Ehm… bye… mom, dad,' I mumbled. 'See you later I guess, I will send a message when I arrive,' I said, though at that moment I realized I didn't have a owl of any of that sort so I wasn't even able to. It was going to be some getting used to that I wasn't at Hogwarts or at home. I would have to cook for myself and all other sorts of difficult stuff. Regulus walked forward and at first I thought he was going to help me anyways, but then, he hugged me. Regulus was just a few inches smaller, but I was pretty sure he was going to grow past me and I didn't like that at all. He had always been my younger and little brother. I hugged back in surprise, but I felt very relieved that at least someone here would really miss me. My parents wouldn't for sure or they were doing a very good job at concealing it.
'I'll see you around, Regs,' I told him. 'Just don't do anything stupid, okay? Don't get yourself killed.' Normally I would have said this while laughing and joking, but right now there wasn't even a small smile perched on my lips. I was completely serious. Regulus looked up at me and nodded slowly.
'You too,' he said mumbling and I swear I could see a small tear in the corner of his eyes. An immensely sad feeling rushed over me. I didn't want to see him cry. A lump formed in my throat and I nodded. I turned my back before I got emotional myself and sat down on my motor. I put on the helmet, waved at them and then drove away. The wind swept against the helmet and in a few seconds, Grimmauld Place 12 had completely disappeared. It wasn't a very long drive. It was on the other side of town, rather close to the city centre. I drove through London and looked around, feeling rather cool and pleased with myself. I hadn't forgotten the tears in Regulus' eyes, but I was doing a really good job at trying to forget it. I didn't want to feel sad and besides, my parents were a lot better to that perfect brother of mine than they had been to me. He would be safe, they wouldn't let him get hurt. I realized that was the only thing I had ever felt grateful towards them for, except maybe for this motorcycle. It was bloody amazing. A laugh left my mouth as I turned a sharp corner and the long black hair that wasn't stocked under my helmet swooped. I would have loved for it to last longer, but I was at my new house in no time. I stopped my motor and looked up. It was a small flat with several apartments. Down here, I had my own garage, it wasn't that big, but it was perfect for my motor cycle. I searched for the keys in the pockets off my jeans and opened the dark blue garage door. It was still completely empty. I parked my motor inside and then closed the door behind me. There was a door to the stairwell in here and this time I couldn't carry my boxes up with magic. Though this time I would have loved that since I had to walk up six stairs to get to my apartment on the third floor. There was no lift, unfortunately. I sighed deep and started the climb upstairs.