Mancora, Peru.
1982.
Minerva and I look up and smile
As he returns to us now
Three drinks carefully balanced
One on top of the other in the air next to him.
Winking at me, twirl of the wand, and they glide through the air to us.
Slipping back down beside me, the three of us quietly enjoy the sunset:
Butter yellow
Cherry red
Orange sorbet
Streaks of violet.
After a time, Minnie reaches over, into her bag.
Our eyes meeting, she smiles, "I brought something for you."
"Oh?"
"I know - I know the way in which the two of you were forced to flee. The circumstances you found yourselves in -"
At this, I reach my hand out for his and squeeze it tightly.
Those darkest of days -
The worst days of our lives -
Beside me, I can feel his grief rolling off in palpable waves
He'll hold it in for now
But later, when we're alone together
I know he'll break down
He'll wait till I'm asleep
Slip out of bed
Tear himself up for the millionth time over what happened
Blame himself, rake himself over the coals.
... I'll force myself awake if that's what it takes
And I'll be there to hold you when you put yourself through hell
I'll pull you back out of your personal Purgatory.
As if sensing my thoughts, he gives my hand a light squeeze.
Clearing her throat, Minerva wipes away a tear, "I think of you, all the time. I think of all of you. Of your whole generation, of how cruel and unfair our world's been to you."
That's us ...
The Lost Generation
A cheated generation
The Marauders Era kids
The kids who pranked, and partied, and loved
The kids forced to grow up too fast
The kids that were manipulated
Scattered or
Killed or
Broken
... That's us.
"I felt - I thought that if I could bring you even a little thing, perhaps it would help in the smallest of ways."
And with that, she pulls out a small photo, a photo nestled in an intricate silver frame
Sighing, she slides it gingerly across the table towards me
At the sight of it, I gasp -
James, Mary, and I.
James, Mary, and I standing together and grinning from ear to ear
Beaming, really
James, Mary, and I posing on the grassy grounds of Hogwarts
I watch, enraptured
As the three of us giggle and shove one another playfully,
Our figures moving around the picture as though we haven't a single care or worry in the world.
We didn't
Not then
Not yet.
And now, as I watch, James winks at the camera and pulls an eye-poppingly fat toad out of his pocket, sneaking behind Mary as he lays it to rest in her hair
She screams, and thwacks him, and the two of them begin chasing one another around as I fall to the grass laughing
... We're so happy, and we're so ...
So ...
"So young," I gasp, tears streaming down my face as I smile
Fingertips lightly brushing at the photo
"... We're just so unimaginably young!"
"... Spring ..."
Minerva pauses now, her voice cracking as she fights back tears,
"... Spring of '73. I took this photograph - took it your last day as second-years."
Beside me, I feel him lean towards me, towards the photograph
As he does so, he wraps one arm protectively around me and murmurs lightly,
"You look ... you look so incredibly adorable here, darling."
A kiss on my cheek
A tether linking me through space and time
As I continue to stare at the photograph,
Completely lost in the sight of the three of us dancing around and giggling.
YOU ARE READING
Coiled (Book 1 of 2)
Fanfiction"This is our story: Reggie, Evan, and I." A Marauders Era story that follows the reader (FMC), Regulus Black & Evan Rosier through their last year at Hogwarts into the First Wizarding War. This is book 1 of 2, and contains the first two parts of th...
