ᎠᎬᎪᎡ ᎻᎪᎡᎡY

The Box

I found it in the attic.

The war ended two months ago. Which war, you ask? The war between good and evil. The war between dark and light. The war between an army of highly trained murderers and a school year of slightly bruised, inexperienced teenagers. The war between Voldemort and I.

At least, that's what the press was calling it. I myself would never call it my war, in fear of sounding shallow and self-centered. And it really wasn't my war. Sure, I might have played major part in the outcome, but so did Ron, Hermione, and the others members of Dumbledore's army and the Order of the Phoenix. I had help every step of the way, as I had told the reporters on numerous occasions. However, the press will be the press, and the press never listens.

After countless hours of interviews and photoshoots, I was ready to get away from the world for a bit. I needed some space. The first place that I could think of where I knew the pesky reporters would never find was Grimmauld Place. Of course, if they still managed to force the location from one of the house's secret keepers, they'd be able to get inside. But Ron, Hermione, Ginny and I all agreed that the terribly creepy Dumbledore dust bunny would send them running for the hills as soon as they forced their way inside.

We were all staying in Grimmauld Place - that is, Ron, Hermione, and myself were. Ginny had begged Mrs. Weasley for hours on end to be allowed to come with us, but after a very heated row Ginny had finally given up, yelling obscenities all the way up the stairs to her room. Hermione's parents, on the other hand, had been very open to letting her stay in Sirius's old house, as long as she had given them her word that she and Ron would be sleeping in rooms on other ends of the halls from each other. She had gone to Australia a few days after the war had been fought, hoping to find her parents and restore their memories. She succeeded, and even if Mr. and Mrs. Granger were a little miffed that Hermione had shipped them off to Australia without their consent, they were overjoyed to have their daughter back.

Even with Kreacher's continuous cleaning, the old house still wasn't rid of all of its long settled dust and horrific magical artifacts quite yet. We still had to tackle the attic, which we were planning on doing tomorrow. Once we finally cleared the disgusting space we were going to make it into Kreacher's new bedroom as a thank you present for the house elf, but it was going to be difficult. I think I saw a rat as big as my head scuttling around up there the last time we checked it out.

I had gone up to the attic one more time before the big job, just to see what we were dealing with. Ron and Hermione were sleeping downstairs in their very separate rooms, so I had to be careful to skip the one creaky step that could wake the dead. Kreacher tried to rush to my aid the minute I had set foot on the stairs, but I had to order him to walk away quietly and not apparate.

When I had finally made it into the dark attic with its mountains of old furniture and wardrobes filled with strangling robes, I had felt a strange pull from the corner of the room. It was subtle, almost non-existent, but it was definitely there. So, being the curious and brainless wizard that I am, I went towards the pull, completely disregarding any thoughts of danger.

It was in a crumbling cardboard box.

The lid of the box disintegrated in my hands, revealing stacks of old leather-bound books and piles of jewelry. My breath caught in the back of my throat as I read the front of one of the books.

Lily Potter.

I flipped open the worn cover and thumbed through the yellowing pages, my mouth dropping open as I saw line after line of slanted, elegant writing. All of this - every page, every word - had been written by my mother.

I sat down heavily in front of the box, clutching the book tightly in my shaking fingers. This was my mum's journal. She had written her thoughts in these pages, touched the words with her fingers.

With anticipation filling my heart, I opened my mother's last mark left on this earth...and began to read.

So that's the end of the first chapter! I am soooo sorry that this is so short (it's not even 1000 words 😖). I don't want to give too much away, but the chapters following this will probably be a little bit longer. I know that they'll at least hit 1000 words, maybe more. I hope you guys enjoyed this, and if you did you should...VOTE, COMMENT, SHARE! And if you didn't like it...you could do those things too 😂