Chapter 2
Julie looked out the window of her room and sighed, scratching the armband on her wrist. She watched as her adoptive family played in the yard below. Jacob was chasing after his sister Anna-Maria with his new fake wand that would occasionally spit large water bubbles, thoroughly soaking Anna the seven year old. Andrew and Helen Adams, her adoptive parents, watched their kids with bemused smiles, holding hands on the deck, occasionally sharing jokes with one another, or their children.
It wasn't like they didn't include her in activities; they had always treated her as if she were really a part of their family. But on days like this, she wondered where her real parents were, and why they abandoned her. She wasn't even sure if she was a pureblood or a half-blood. For awhile she had searched the records, looking to see if any families had reported their children missing after the war, but she didn't find anyone who matched her description.
Summer was wearing on slowly for Julie. She would be attending Hogwarts this next term, after two years and Beauxbatons. Her parents were originally from England, but her father had been assigned an ambassadorial assignment to France for the past five years. It ended this summer, and they had bought a cozy flat with a couple acres of land just outside of Liverpool. She flipped open her new charms book, and tried to get some studying done before dinner.
--
"Moomm!" whined Jacob "I want to go to Hogwarts too!" her mother smiled, and pretended to pout.
"You want to leave your poor old mom all alone?" She sniffled "What ever would I do?" Jacob blinked, looking shocked, but ran up and hugged his mother around the waist.
"I wouldn't ever leave you alone Mommy! Don't worry!" she laughed, but crouched down and whispered dramatically,
"Even if giants came to gobble me up?" Jacob put on a brave face and pulled out his fake wand.
"I would clobber them!" he exclaimed with enthusiasm and a water bubble spurted out of the tip, soaking his mother. She burst into laughter and pulled out her own wand, casting a spell that made her dry in moments.
"Dinner time!" cried their Dad, and they all hustled into the small kitchen, and Julie came down from her room. Despite the beauty of the now setting sun, and the insects buzzing a harmonious tune, she seemed to be in a sour mood. She plopped down in her chair, looking downcast. Andrew raised an eyebrow at his wife, and she shrugged back. Magicking the food onto the table, soon all their plates were full of potatoes, carrots, and roast.
"So er," started her father "Do you have everything you need for school?" Julie nodded
"I've been trying to study Charms all afternoon," she said "The course seems a lot different than how they taught at Beauxbatons."
"I'm sure you'll do fine." Her mom said, and Julie made a noncommittal sound, eventually retiring to bed early for the night.
--
That night, she had the strangest dream. She watched a young dark haired man in a cabin, writing frantically on a piece of parchment. Julie wondered how his quill was still intact; he seemed to be trying to squeeze the life out of it. While writing, he still glanced at the crib to his right, where an infant lay resting. He took a moment out of his furious writing, to stand and walk over to the crib. He picked her up; looking at her like a new father looks at his brand new child. The baby opened its eyes, revealing bright blue eyes. It raised its small hand, trying to grab at some unseen thing. The man smiled, and held the child for a long while. After she had fallen back asleep, he gently put her back in her crib, and grabbed his cloak, glancing at the baby once more before he left. She tried to get a good look at his face before he opened the door, but she was unable to.
She watched as a young man stood up against a cloaked figure, yelling for someone, Lily? To run. She saw a young woman run with her baby, casting frantic looks behind her, until she tripped, sprawling onto the ground with her child. She was pleading and crying with the cloaked figure to leave her baby alone, but there was only a high pitched laughter. A flash of green light illuminated the couple, showing the abject horror on the woman's face, and the screaming child. Everything went quiet.
Julie sat up panting, her body covered in sweat. She tried to make sense of the uncharacteristically vivid dreams. Who were those people? Did those events really happen? Did the baby survive? She sighed, and ran her fingers through her hair. Maybe these dreams just came because she was nervous about attending her new school. Her long red hair was knotted and tangled, and she reached for a rubber band on her bedside table, when she noticed her wrist band and come off. She looked down at her wrist where the silvery scar lay, shaped like a star. It always emitted a small amount of silver light, so matter what charms or spells her parents had tried. In the end they had just give up, and given her a charmed wrist band that blocked all light. She traced the outline of the scar, the only symbol she had of her past, and was surprised when it flared to life, brighter than she had ever seen it before. She was surprised when the beam of light focused, pointing outside of her window.
She got out of bed and looked out the window, pressing her wrist against the cold pane of glass. The beam kept shining, all the way out to the woods by her house.
--
Julie trudged through the woods near her house, wand in hand, following the small light coming from her wrist. She couldn't help but be reminded by her dream, of the woman running away, trying to save her child. The high pitched laughter still haunted her ears, and she tried to block it out by humming a nursery rhyme. She felt a tug at her robe, but dismissed it as a twig catching on the hem. She was caught by surprise when a flash of bright light whizzed pass her ear. Cursing, she stumbled sideways, only narrowly avoiding the next spell being thrown at her. Remembering her parent's advice on being ambushed, she started running, moving in a zigzag fashion. She heard spells rushing past her every couple of seconds now. She tried concentrating on the light coming from her wrist. She ran through branches and bushes, scratching her arms, legs and face until she thought she could run no longer. Stopping behind a tree to catch her breath, she noticed she trees were not as thick as they once were. Looking once more at her wrist, she saw the light brighten once, showing the outline of a broken down cabin, then fade. She pushed herself off the tree, cringing at her sore muscles. She couldn't make out many details in the dark, but it was small. She found the door, and pressed down on the iron handle, easing it open.
"Lumos." she whispered. The inside of the cabin was humbly decorated. There was a bed in the corner, its sheets rumbled and covered in dust. A desk was place at the foot of the bed, with the crib next to it. The floors creaked when she walked on them, and everything had spider webs or dust on it. The room smelled faintly of old cheese and rotted fruit. She remembered her dream with the man with black hair, sitting at what remarkably resembled this desk, in this cabin. She went to the crib and looked inside, but found nothing of interest. The desk next to it however, held a sealed letter. She wiped the dust away from it, and picked it up, flipping it over. The addressee was "Remus Lupin". She stuffed the letter in her pocket, continuing to look around. There wasn't much else in the small space, but when she got back to the door she noticed a dust covered something hanging on a hook beside the old wooden door. She grabbed it and stepped back outside, shaking the dust loose. In the small amount of moonlight filtering through the trees she saw it was a red winter cloak, lined with rabbit fur. A small glint of something caught her eye on it, and she noticed the initials LE on the right hand side, right above where your heart would rest. She hung the cloak on her arm, and made her way in the general direction of her house.
--
It took her more than two hours to find her house again. No spells came whizzing toward her head on the way back, and when she finally cleared the woods, she saw her house. Thrilled at the idea of being back in her bed again, she raced all the way home, quietly re-entering the house, and making her way back up to the room. She stripped off her dirt and dust covered clothes, and threw the cloak onto a chair by the window. It hit the chair with a THUMP and a cloud of dust escaped it. Julie climbed back into bed just as the sky was lightening, making way for the early morning sun.
The letter could wait until morning.