Secrets Of The Heir

VII. Remorse

It was past mid-night.

Cold air entered from a small opening in the window and filled the room. Medals were fallen from the screws loosely drilled into the wall, the bed was unmade for days. Posters had been scratched off the wall and a suitcase lay open in the corner of the room. There were a few weeks-worth of newspapers lying on the floor. The owl cage was on the floor next to the suitcase, owl had been out for days.

The boy was sat at the edge of the bed with a photo frame in his hand. The picture was taken on King's cross station the day he first started Hogwarts.

His sister waved at him as she moved in her place in the picture sending shivers down the boy's spine and filling him up with guilt.

Everyone was proud of him for what he had done, but he was still filled with guilt, he never thought himself capable of doing what he did.

"It was the right thing to do" everyone told him. It's what he told himself on sleepless nights like this too. But then, his conscience would reply, reminding him, "She was your sister, how could you?"

He placed the frame back under his pillow and laid on the bed, staring at the ceiling fan.

He moved around in his bed, trying to get comfortable and go to sleep, but he couldn't. So, he just lay there staring out the window. He was eventually able to fall asleep in a few minutes.

.....

The next morning,

"James, could you go wake Albus up? Tell him the bacon's getting cold." Ginny said to her son.

James wiped his hands and headed up the stairs to Albus' room.

He noticed the door was closed, so he knocked.

"Albus are you up yet? Breakfast's on the table."

There was no reply. James slowly opened the room and was shocked by the mess. Not that his room wasn't twice as messy, but it was Albus it was peculiar of him to even have a breadcrumb on his floor.

He walked to the side of his bed and pulled out the picture frame sticking out from under the pillow and he was hit with memories of his childhood.

Albus, James, Lily, Hugo and Rose on Albus and Rose's first day at Hogwarts, 2017.

It read at the bottom. He moved his hand over the picture, almost missing Rose then reminding himself of what she had done and was capable of.

James ran his hand through Albus' hair and whispered, "Albus, wake up"

Albus slowly opened his eyes.

"Mornin' Al"

"Mornin' James"

James got up and began to leave the room. Before he exited through the door he gave him a quick smile and said, "Get your butt down fast, we're almost done with breakfast I'm not leaving you any bacon, I'm hungry"

Albus smiled back at him and got up. He wiped the drool from the side of his lips as he walked into the washroom.

He stared into his reflection in the mirror. He realised he hadn't shaved ever since the incident, the hair had grown out and it didn't look pretty but he didn't feel like shaving right now.

He just splashed his face with water and went down for breakfast.

He took a seat opposite Lily, next to Harry. Everyone at the table greeted him with a smile and Ginny served him some breakfast. He didn't feel like eating either though, he just sat there playing with his food eventually unable to resist taking a few bites.

The doorbell rang, Ginny got up to answer the door but Harry insisted she sat down and he went to answer it instead.

Whoever was at the door was clearly getting impatient. They kept ringing the door and knocking too. Harry rushed to the door and opened it.

"Harriet, what's wrong?"

"Hey Harry, I need to talk to you.", The woman replied.

"What's so important I'm sure we can talk later I'm trying to enjoy breakfast with my family."

"I had to drive all night so I could get here as fast as I can, you need to listen to me."

"What's it about?"

"It's about.." She realised his family could hear him so she whispered the next part, "Rose."

Harry let out a sigh and closed the door behind him as he stepped out to talk to her.

"Enlighten me."