survivor | HARRY POTTER

-Prologue-

Edited: 3/1/19. January 3rd, 2019.

Evil was coming.

It was a plain and obvious fact that stared her right in the face, glaring at her with cold, red eyes with dark pupils reduced to violent slits. She felt it in the air whenever she dared close her eyes and try to fall asleep, an intruder of the night, slithering through windows and sills, a putrid fog of hate and fear, plaguing her thoughts and feelings and filling her to the brim with despair.

The chiming of the old grandfather clock on the wall unsettled her, a constant reminder of how little time there was until what was to come came to pass, of what was going to happen, of how much they would loose.

She knew people would die. It was inevitable. That's what war was. She knew that there was a ridiculously high chance that she would be the one to die, or maybe her friends, everyone she cared about. But she knew, no matter what, that she wouldn't let that happen. She would fight until her last breath to protect those she loved.

She didn't know how far into the future that war would be, whether it would be two years, six years, eight years, she just knew it was going to happen.

She knew.

She didn't know how, but she knew.

But as she stared into the mirror at her sunken expression, her usually bright eyes dulled and filled with sadness, her thick hair loose and falling over her shoulders, her black funeral dress hugging her body tightly, she realised that things would never be the same as they were before.

Jess came up beside her, her short hair down with the sides pinned back, wearing a similar black dress with a leather jacket over the top. "You okay hun?" She asked, placing a hand on Alyssa's shoulders.

"I will be. Eventually." Alyssa smiled a watery smile, her hand finding Jess's on her shoulder.

"Millie's waiting. We need to go." Alyssa nodded sadly as she grabbed her purse, shrugging a jacket over her shoulders and wiping a stray tear from her eye as she made her way out onto the grounds, her arm linked with Jess'.

So much had happened in those six years that had changed them, so much had happened that had made them entirely different from who they were before.

Alyssa always knew she had a difficult time accepting change, which was why it was remarkable that she was so different than she was before all of this started. She wondered what the old Alyssa would have to say if she could see her now. She highly doubted it would be anything good.

But as they walked down the sloping lawns, the damp grass tickling their ankles, the sky a stormy grey, she knew that this was the mark of something big happening. Something that would change everything. And the only way to survive it was to remember who they were before, embrace the change, and go back to the very beginning, before the war began.