𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐲 | 𝐝.𝐦.

one

The story unfolds in a quaint cottage, stowed away in the corners of the earth.

Usually, the forest would be swathed in mellow stillness and silence. The only sound you could hear was the crunch of leaves from the wild deers and sometimes the laughter and ruckus from the house.

A family lived in this cottage. They were just beginning their lives and had chosen to isolate themselves from the bustle of the city life, mostly because they did not wish to involve themselves in the recovery of the war.

They deemed themselves safe from the aftermath of the war if they did so, hoped to themselves that if they had no contact to the real world, the people whom they were running from wouldn't be able to lay a hand on them.

The idea was foolish and they knew it would only work for a fleeting number of years. They couldn't possibly raise their children in the depth of the wild. It wouldn't work. But when the young couple had first gotten glimpses of their new home, they couldn't care less about the impending future.

Despite their desperate efforts to clean their tracks from the wizarding world, the ministry still had their ways to trace the immature couple's every movement.

They had done their part in the war to stand along the good side, but the past actions of the young deatheater was still ineffaceable, and nevertheless, he had to atone for his mistakes - the blood that he had shed, the lives that he had stolen.

Betty couldn't remember the events that followed, or even the events that happened before that. She only remembered a floral handkerchief, lots of tears, her mother's sobs of despair as if she had just been widowed, and the shabby elephant she clutched to her chest - it had given her more comfort than anyone could in that moment.

She was only five, her mind hadn't been fully developed, pieces of the puzzle were still left missing, hence the foggy memory.

She did, however, treasure the fragments of her father before he was taken away from them. She remembered a rather rugged-looking man who was always wearing a wry smile, though it never could conceal the ghost of the past still lurking behind those pair of ivory brown eyes.

On that day, Betty remembered feeling entirely alone and lost because her mother was still mourning the loss of her husband, though he wasn't exactly dead. She just recognised the fact that he would never be the same when he returned no matter what words of reassurance left his lips.

Multiple things had changed since then as the rhythm of life and the torment of growing up went on.

They had abandoned the tiny cottage in the midst of the forest, a new habitat for the wildlife, Betty's mother supposed. She was advised to move back to civilisation so she could provide a living for the family, her earlier dream tarnished.

Though their family was supported by family friends like the Weasley's whom Betty had never met before but knew to be kind souls because of the help they had presented her family with.

With that, Betty was forced to move along with time, and her mother had grown to be stronger, more unyielding, to face the difficulty of raising three and facing condemnation for falling for a death eater all at the same time. The absence of her father had gradually became less prominent in their family.

Betty, too, was forced to follow the footsteps of her mother in order to protect her and her siblings against her mother's past. She remembered faintly, once getting into a tussle with a bunch of infuriating boys who had bullied her and her sister for her father's past.