Selenophile // Marauders

|18| Aftermath, Third Year

TW: DEATH!

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Riley quickly got out of the hospital wing with her head down, she quickly ran downstairs and went next to the lake. The weather was cool October weather. She climbed up to a tree that was right in front of the Great Lake. She took out the hairband that pulled her long hair up into a messy ponytail. She cast a silencing charm around her so that no one could hear her weeping.

She looked at the beautiful view of the lake. Birds chirping and the water making relaxing splash noises. She took her shoes off and sat in a criss-cross. She inhaled deeply, taking the breezy weather in her lungs and then letting it out, unlike her thoughts that scrambled with her head. She didn't like crying, she hated it. She thought she would seem weak and she didn't want to seem weak.'Crying isn't a bad thing Rey,' Ivy always said. Riley thought it was rubbish, but she was wrong. Maybe this was why she appeared cold...

"Hey, what's that up in the sky?" Penny, her muggle friend, asked.

"Is — is that a skull..." Riley said as she looked out of the window.

"Why is it there? Fireworks?"Penny asked but Riley had already run out of Penny's organized room and was running towards her own house. She ran through the whole town until she reached her home. She knew exactly what the skull meant. The door was open and the sun had already set. She ran into the house and saw people dressed in different-looking cloaks carrying someone. She couldn't see the person's face and she asked one of the people there.

"Wh—Who are you?" she asked worriedly.

"Riley!" Ivy shouted from upstairs and she hugged her tight.

"Ivy — Ivy who is that?" she asked quietly. "Who is that?!" she said, this time loudly, almost shouting.

"Sweetie," her mum said from behind as she stroked her long, brown hair.

"Mum... is that..." she stuttered. "Is that... him?"

Ivy nor her mum didn't answer back. Ivy hugged her kissing her head. Riley hugged her back and started crying.

Riley shook her head trying to make the flashback go away of that wretched day. She looked at the quidditch gloves on her arm and threw them away. She took the cape off and threw it away along with the rest of the clothes she threw off the tree.

"I wish you were here..." she said in between her cries. She was referring to everyone she lost in the past years of her life. Some older and some new ones. Her grandparents who they lost because of old age which she got over in some time. She accepted the fact that they were old and they passed. Her aunt, whom they lost in a car crash, died in front of her eyes.

"Aunt Mel!" Riley exclaimed. She was six-years-old and was talking with Ivy who was fourteen-years-old. She was their mum, Madelyn's, sister. Her full name was Melanie but she preferred Mel. It was a sunny summer day and Ivy was back home from Hogwarts.

"We missed you!" Ivy said. Her wavy blonde hair was all over her face.

"And I missed you, girls! Where do you wanna go today?" she asked with a cheerful voice.

"Can we get ice-cream?" Riley said.

"Yes! Ice-cream sounds nice!" Aunt Mel replied to Riley. She adjusted the mirror to look at Riley and Ivy but didn't check the road. Another car came from the opposite direction.

"Another car is coming—" Ivy warned her aunt, but her words were interrupted.

Crash. The front window busted into tiny pieces. Riley closed her eyes and shielded her head with her arm ad Ivy tried to protect her. Soon after they both opened their eyes but the third pair of eyes weren't blinking.

"Aunt Mel?" Ivy asked into the silent car which was now sideways. No answer. "Aunt Mel?"

"Auntie?" Riley asked with her squeaky voice. "Why are you not answering?"

Sirens were heard and ambulances came to save them. Police cars came as the man from the other car got out to help them. They learned that she didn't buckle her seatbelt which led to her death.

Riley could see thestrals because of that day. She never told anybody that, she felt weird about them, she just pretended she didn't know what was pulling the carriages. She cried more, for everyone... For herself and for her future. She thought of every piece of news she saw in the newspaper about muggles and muggle-borns being killed. She remembered every time someone referred to her as a 'mudblood.' By Snape, the other Slytherins, Sirius' mum... Her thoughts getting deeper and deeper and they were endless... Like a sea yet to be discovered that has creatures deep down that nobody knew about.

"Hello!" a sudden voice called. "What are you doin' down here?" James Potter asked. He was sitting next to Riley up on the tree. There was also Sirius and Remus standing on the grass, watching.

"Have you ever heard of something called 'personal space'?" Riley said as she wiped her tears away.

"I'm sorry for what happened earlier—" Sirius said from the ground.

"It's not your fault," Riley said as she jumped off the tree. "You're not like your mum."

"I don't want to be like her."

"Don't. She's scary."