Harry Potter One-Shots

Chapter | Two

Contest #4: Chapter 2

     "Dear Journal,

     Regulus Black has disappeared once more. But this time, he has taken a chunk of me with him. I don't understand it, it doesn't make any logical sense. It had my name.

     My name.

     Why would he have something that I don't even.... All I can think about is the toy plane and the signature. He had said an 'old friend' had given him the toy... But, I did not know him at all until the winter holidays. Was it all in my head? Had I finally snapped? 

     I can't let this be just a figment of my imagination."

     Shivering, I slipped my journal closed. It was still rather early in the morning, the morning dew barely dripping off of the blades of grass that I was perched in. 

     I wasn't entirely sure of why I had pulled myself out of bed at four in the morning. But, as I wandered the dark streets, I found myself sitting in my spot near the pond, shivering as I jotted down my daily journal. 

     Regulus had been my only thought for the last nine and a half hours ever since the toy. How could he not be? I guess I assumed that if I waited by the pond for him to show up, he eventually would. However, it was almost seven now, and I knew my Mother would start to fret if she woke to find me gone with no note.

     Sighing, I sent the sunrise a small frown, picking my body up from the damp grass. He was not going to show. I was wrong to think he would. 

     Trudging back to my flat, I scratched the back of my neck, feeling deflated. I wasn't ready to give up yet, no, I was just beginning to crack open the mystery.

     Or, at least, I thought I was. 

     As the door clicked shut behind me, my Mother called from the kitchen, balancing a large, mixing bowl   against her hip while she stirred. "And, where have you been?" She rose a brow, lip puckering out smartly in annoyance. 

     "Just out taking a small stroll, Mother," I sighed, pulling off my light jumper, thinking about Regulus once again, "When we used to live here," I paused as Mother crumpled her brow, turning the corner to lay some pancake batter on the skillet.

     "What about it, Gideon?" She prodded as I let the subject drop for a little while, debating ways to tread lightly around the fact that she considers me highly insane. 

     Sighing, I lowered myself down into my chair at the table, rubbing my forehead. "Did... did I have very many neighborhood friends on this street?" 

     She lowered her eyes, flipping the frying cakes as she thought back to the time period. "Why have you been so interested in the past lately, Gid?" Mother chuckled a little, raising a brow at me while I prodded her, wanting to the answer.

     Waving her spatula around as she thought back all those years ago, she murmured a little and crumpled her brow in confusion. "You know," Mother hummed to herself, tapping her chin, "I honestly cannot remember, I can only remember moving in and moving out." 

     That sparked my curiosity.

     Sure, it wasn't uncommon that I couldn't be able to remember anything from the ages of one to seven,  obviously it was strange, but not uncommon. Yet, for my mother not to remember anything as well? It gave me a bad feeling that I couldn't seem to shake. "You can't remember?" 

     "Well, hun, you have to remember that it was such a long time ago, and, I've pretty much attempted to erase every memory I have about your father from my mind," she laughed a little with her words, but the way her eyes watered as she talked about Father made me even more so curious and concerned.