The Last Horcrux

Eileen's Diary

Oakley liked Aunt Pepper and Aunt Spider. He liked the boat ride to their island home and their spindly house that clung to the side of a cliff over the sea. He liked the food they served - funny little sandwiches and cauliflower pie and trifle. The two old ladies doted on him and surreptitiously passed him sweets he was not supposed to have. Aunt Pepper took him out to the goat shed and let him feed corn to the baby goats. Oakley liked their rough sandpaper tongues on his hand and the way that they butted their heads against his stomach. Aunt Spider sat with him before the crackling fire and taught him how to play Go Fish with a worn set of Muggle playing cards.

By the time they got home dusk was falling. Moony made a huge bowl of popcorn for dinner and they all settled down in front of the old TV in Moony and Sev's bedroom to watch a movie called A Christmas Carol. The movie was very old, so old it didn't even have color in it. It wasn't particularly interesting to Oakley as there were no trains or planes or animals. Just a bunch of people talking. After a while he slipped away and went downstairs through the kitchen and out into the snowy garden.

Dandylion was waiting for him with a sprig of holly stuck into his hat.

"Where's my Christmas present?" the gnome demanded in a grumpy voice. Oakley dug into his pocket and produced the battered sugar plum fairy he had saved out from his aunties' house. It was wrapped in shiny purple paper. Its wings, bent at a funny angle, flapped feebly.

Dandylion took the treat and nodded with approval. In his tiny hands the bonbon looked like an oversized quaffle.

"I see you're getting a new washer,'' he said conversationally. He pointed to the old washer where it sat by the back gate, ready to go out to the alley and be taken away by the binman.

Oakley nodded, not terribly interested.

"Out with the old, in with new," Dandylion observed. He shook his head. "That's always the way with you humans."

Oakley looked over at the old washer. In the low light it looked like some sort of prehistoric beast, heavy and hulking.

"There's something in there," said Dandylion solemnly. "Something important."

"Is it .....treasure?" asked Oakley. Moony had read him a book about pirates and he had been hunting for hidden treasure for weeks.

"Not exactly treasure.... No..." said Dandylion. "But.... something....significant. Something you might not want to lose track of."

"What is it?" asked Oakley.

"Look and see." 

Oakley went over to the old machine. The street light far above cast stark shadows of the trees across it. It looked menacing. Oakley shivered.

"Go on," coaxed Dandylion. "You're a brave boy, aren't you?"

"I am a brave boy," thought Oakley, mustering up his courage. He moved closer to the dark metal object. It loomed above him. Where would something important be hidden? He got up on tiptoes and peered into the wash tub. Nothing there. He inspected the rusty steel washboard, put a finger on its chilly metal edge. He had forgotten his jacket and he was cold.

"Look underneath," Dandylion suggested.

Oakley squatted down. He bent his head to look under the bulky machine. The washtub sat in a metal framework made of heavy steel. He inspected the underside of the tub. He saw something attached to the bottom with tape, yellowed and brittle with age. It easily pulled away when he grabbed it.

It was a small glass vial corked with a rubber stopper. Oakley shook it. Inside was something long and thin. It looked like a piece of bone.

"Oakley!" Papa's voice was sharp. "Are you out here?"