Songbird ; Fred Weasley

Seventy-one

"I want to use the swing set first." I said as I held my older brothers hand while we crossed the road.

"How do you not get nauseous?" Daniel asked. "I haven't used the swing set since I was nine."

I scrunched up my nose and looked at him.

"I don't ever want to be nine then." I said. "Do you miss using the swing set?"

Daniel laughed but shrugged.

"No. I don't like being nauseous."

When we reached the playground, Daniel let go of my hand and I ran right towards my favourite swing set.

"Daniel, push me!" I shouted, and I heard Daniel groan but he was only joking.

He walked over and I swung my legs back and forth as he pushed me.

Higher, and higher... and higher.

Until suddenly no one was pushing me.

"Daniel?" I asked, but I didn't get a response. I was still swinging high in the air, and when I turned to turn and look at my big brother, I fell off the swing and landed face first in the sand.

My face was hurting. My body was hurting, and my hands were scratched up.

I started crying, looking around for Daniel, but he wasn't here.

One minute he was, the next he was gone.

I looked around frantically, crying and calling out his name, but I was all alone on a playground with no one in sight.

I didn't know where I was.

When I got to my feet, I ran to the playhouse and dropped to my hands and knees, crawling through the door.

I curled up in the corner and I just cried, waiting for someone to find me, because I just wanted to go home.

-

Tears streamed down my face, and I dropped the picture into the box full of Daniel's stuff.

Everything came back to me.

That day and all the memories that came before that day. It wasn't a lot of memories because I was only six when he disappeared, but now I had all of this love for a brother I didn't even know until today.

And I could feel in my soul how much I missed him and how much I grieved his disappearance.

I can't breathe.

My mind had completely suppressed every thought of him, even his existence for eighteen years and now that I remembered everything, I was also filled with devastation of losing a brother in that way.

-

I marched down to Robards's office, knocking once before pushing open the door.

My boss looked up from having just taken a bite of a sandwich, and he looked at me with wide eyes.

"Cahira, what are you doing?" He asked, putting his sandwich down before standing up. "You don't walk into my office without me telling you to come in."

"I'm sorry, but this is important." I said, hugging the file of my brothers disappearance close to my chest.

After I cried it out in the attic, I got dressed and told Fred a short version of everything, before I travelled to the ministry.

"You're on maternity leave." Robards pointed out. "And it's Christmas morning. You shouldn't be here."

"Happy Christmas." I said before throwing the file onto his desk. "I need this investigation reopened."