Selenophile // Marauders

|66| Summer 1976 - Part I

1st of July, 1976

Riley knocked on the door of house '23' and waited for it to open.

"Ethan!" a voice from the house called but the door didn't open.

"What?!"

"Get the door!"

"No! You get it!"

"Maybe it's Riley—"

"I'll get it!"

Riley laughed as she listened to the two fight and the door was finally opened by Ethan. He had changed a lot. His hair looked messier and he was much taller.

"When will you stop growing?" Riley teased and they hugged. "You're almost as tall as that tree in the woods!"

"Oh, shut up! Just because you're short—"

"I'm not short! I'm taller than Penny and almost taller than my mum!"

The two of them went to the garden where Penny was. She hadn't changed much. The same blonde hair, braided into two braids. Her hair was longer than usual.

"You're so lazy Penny, honestly," Ethan said.

"I'm not the one who basically ran to the door when you heard it was Riley—"

"So! How was school?" Ethan said louder and Penny grinned.

"Er— fine," Riley lied. She didn't want to explain all that same stuff. Besides, they didn't know anything about magic. They didn't know their best friend and cousin were magical. "How was yours?"

"The best year ever without that bitch wandering around the school..." Penny said.

"At least your birthday is coming up," Riley said excitedly.

"Ooh! Yes! We'll finally be 16," Ethan said. "20th of July!"

***

The next day, Riley left home early with her ukulele in her hand. She grabbed her bicycle and rode until almost the end of the town. The town was the same as she remembered. The same old people and the same old drama. She knew almost everyone there.

The weather was warmer than usual. She left her bike right outside the entrance of the cemetery.

She took a deep breath and took a step into the graveyard. It wasn't very big, considering only people that lived in Pine Road were buried there most of the time. She looked at the names on the stones.

"Vance Troy."

He was very old when he died. He had lived a full life, with the people he loved, with his kids and grandkids. Riley knew his granddaughter: Tessie Troy. She was a kind girl, a year above Riley. Everyone in town had attended his funeral.

"Cassandra Olsen."

Ms. Olsen. She was a teacher at the school in town, a literature teacher. Riley never really liked her, she found her annoying. Everyone did in town. She always kept complaining about how the town was very dirty and was never cleaned. But everyone was devastated when she died because of cancer. Nobody deserved that.

"Melanie Dillman."

Her aunt. Her caring, loving, aunt. She was the first person Riley lost that made her truly devastated, and she hoped she was last, but she wasn't.

The memories came flushing back.

"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.

Riley blinked her eyes repeatedly and slowly sat down in front of Aunt Mel's grave. She cleared her throat.

"Er— hi," she said. "I haven't come here for a long time, I know. But— the truth is that I couldn't bring myself to come here. I'm not crying anymore because you're gone, I moved on. If you were here you would tell me to go and have some fun with my friends or— or maybe you would try to cheer me up. So I guess that's my job now..."

"Mum misses you, she really does. She needs to talk to someone and I can see that. I understand that she doesn't want to talk to me because she doesn't wanna bring me down even more... Maybe if we didn't go to have ice cream that day— you would've been alive, wouldn't you?" she said quietly. "But it's dumb of me to even think of what would've happened when the reality is that you're gone... I miss you Aunt Mel, and I wish you could've seen me grow up like you saw Ivy grow up. I'm 16... Ten years since you've been gone..."

She placed a small flower on the soil and stood up. She moved a bit to the right and read the name.

"Eric Spade."

She sat down.

"Hi, dad... I wish I could actually see your face making funny faces at me right now to try to get me to laugh but all I see is just soil staring back at me," she said as he voice broke. "I actually don't have much to say... The only thing is that I still remember the day I came home to see what had happened..."

"But— at least you're with Ivy and Aunt Mel now, right?" she asked with a sad chuckle. "You were gone too early. It's not fair. I'm still in denial because I've thought about why they would do this to you but there just is no reason... It doesn't make sense, you were innocent. I mean, you didn't even know of magic if it weren't for me and Ivy being witches... It was too sudden."

"And now, the bad thing is that it is even worse. The war is even worse. I don't feel safe, and nor does mum or anyone else. I just wish we were still together as a family."

She wiped her tears away and took a picture out of her pocket. It was a picture of them as a family.

"I found this in my room. I wanted to leave it here..."

She then wiped her tears and left to go to someone else. And she found who she was searching for in the first place.

"Ivy Spade."

She slowly sat in front of the grave, on the grass. She just stared at the stone for a bit, silent.

"Hi— I guess," she said quietly. "I don't know where to begin, I really don't..."

"Everything feels wrong and I can't really cope with anything anymore. The only person who's left from the family is mum, and me... I just wish we had more time together, V. It's unbelievable how I knew you my whole life and you knew me for just a bit more than half of your life."

"I miss you, V, more than I can express right now. And nothing is going good, not even the smallest bits. Not even exams, the war... And the worst part is that I don't know how to move on from these things. I try to stay strong, mum is so strong. I don't really understand how she's holding up but, she is. I probably won't get a passing mark in Potions which means I won't get to be a healer nor an auror. I have no idea on what's waiting for me."

"I just wish you were here. I wish I could get annoyed at you because you would tell me that crying was OK. I wish I could come and complain about school or these idiots at school. I wish I was able to listen to you talk about how hectic and tiring the hospital was... I miss you, V... Everybody does."

Riley let the tears fall. She wasn't going to hide them anymore.

She then got her ukulele. She played a few chords but then stopped. She got up and left the cemetery.