Challenge: Fire the Canon's Character of the Week Drabble Competition (week 3) on HPFC
Characters: Owen Cauldwell, Laura Madley
Prompt: Must involve Diagon Alley
Word count: 198
The war was over, that was what the Prophet said.
It was won by Harry Potter and his friends on the night that the younger students had been evacuated. People had actually seen the Dark Lord's corpse, before some magic had rotted it away to nothing.
"You wouldn't think so," Owen whispered to himself, staring at what remained of Diagon Alley. Despite being fifteen years old, he clutched his mothers' hand like a lifeline, as though afraid letting go would cause him to fall into the same state of wreck as the wizarding district.
"Hush, Owen," she whispered back, but he barely heard it. He was having trouble keeping a hold on reality as the few visitors to the stores brushed past.
There were no unbroken windows. Glass littered the street. Paint flaked away, scratched from the walls. The closer to Knockturn Alley he got, the worse it was. No one wanted to repair the preferred shopping place of Death Eaters. Honestly, it felt like dementors still explored the area.
The cold fell away, though, when a familiar voice called his name. He turned away from the wreck, smiling faintly.
Laura didn't even know how she helped him.