AUTOPHOBIA - G. WEASLEY

Summer, 1992: Family

✯ CHAPTER SEVENTEEN ✯

❝He said he's my cousin, Dad.❞

August 2nd, 1992.

IT WAS SUNDAY and somehow Estella had woken up bright and early, which was completely unusual for her considering she loved a good lie in, especially on Sundays.

She checked the clock next to her bed -- it wasn't even six o'clock yet. Estella considered grabbing her book and reading it for a little while to help her get back to sleep, but after a loud grumble of her stomach she realised it was probably hunger that had woken her up, and decided she would quietly go downstairs and get something to eat.

It wasn't that Remus would be mad at her if she woke him up, it was just that she genuinely didn't want to -- not when he was already in such a permanent tired state. So, opening her bedroom door very slowly, she tiptoed down the stairs to the kitchen, being very careful not to wake her Father up.

Even at such an early hour in the day it was light outside. Sun shone brightly through the kitchen window as Estella started pulling out bacon and eggs, placing them down on the stove just like her Father had taught her and setting the oven to the perfect temperature.

She waited patiently for them to cook, listening to the birds chirp and sing melodically as the pan sizzled. It wasn't until she heard a tapping on the window that she stopped paying attention to her breakfast and turned around.

A large and beautiful Eagle owl was sitting there, on the window sill, with a letter wrapped between it's legs. Estella approached it carefully, opening the window slowly to allow it to deliver the letter properly, and it was then that she realised who the owl belonged to.

Draco Malfoy.

But why was he writing to her? She couldn't think of any reason why he would -- he hated her. Who would waste ink and parchment on someone they hated? Estella certainly wouldn't.

Still, curiousity getting the better of her, she took the letter without hesitation, watching the owl fly away into the horizon until it was just a mere speck amongst the clouds.

After a minute, she opened the letter, forgetting that did she in fact have other things to worry about -- like her food. The parchment Malfoy had sent her was clearly finer than your average parchment -- you could tell just by looking at it -- and the ink he had used was a deep, dark green, rather than your usual black.

She read the letter, in her head:

Dear Estella Black,

Shit, was all she could say to herself. The last name.

You're probably wondering how I know your name, but I'll get onto that in a minute. I have more important things to say first.

Estella's eyes widened. She continued reading, nervously.

I don't know if you've had contact with Potter over the summer -- (she hadn't, this is something that had genuinely been worrying her) -- but if you have, I'm going to ask you to try and stop him from returning to Hogwarts.

Aha! It all made sense now. Malfoy was sending her this letter so that she would stop Harry from coming back to school, and he would finally be free from the Hogwarts halls like Draco wanted. Well -- it wasn't going to work.