Despite the vast world the JK Rowling has created out of her Harry Potter books, I - like many other Potterheads - always wanted an insight into the lives of the original characters we knew and loved.
Here's a collection of such oneshots that I have...
Author's note: Hi! Here's this month's Christmas-themed prompt- "A Magical Christmas"! This one is quite special, because this was a co-writing, and might I say that I wrote this with the most amazing partner, Abicore. Enjoy!
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At first I think it's tendrils of black smoke weaving around a vast landscape, murky as it was, it was vast.
But as the haze slowly dispersed the licks of black swaying back and forth emerged to be thick throngs of some kind of vegetation, and there were many of them, as far as the eyes could see. Their presence shouldn't have alarmed me but for their unnatural position, some licked against my bare feet and ankles while others towered above me, and they were as they were, swaying with little care of the world above, singing to a song only they knew. That's when I realised above was clearly where I was not. A silver light from a small school of fish flashed their scales proudly as they flit by my widening eyes. No, I was far from home, and this was my doing.
And there was another song. This was deep, mournful and cavernous. One that made the weeds frantic and the water vibrate ever so slightly, one that made me think I wasn't alone. I looked above me but there was nothing but dark, as if the moon and lake came upon an agreement to not bother one another. And yet, in the distance I see half a shark, half a boy aggressively tearing through the weeds, he was a beau of a girl in this school if I recall. My speeding heart slows down to a reassuring feeling, surely that must've been him all along? I try to call out to him but fluid fills around a strange jellyfish contraption pressed against my mouth. And yet for a second I see light, twin peaks in the distance winking in and out and yet getting larger ever so slowly.
It mattered not when I knew my sister lay dormant like a floating spec, maimed to a post up ahead, in a sudden drop off where even most the weeds didn't dare touch. My heart raced into panic as I swam to free her but not before an excruciating pain skittered over my side long before reaching my destination. It left an icy grip around my shoulders or maybe that was the thin-boned, unnatural fingers that draped upon them. Spinning back eyes of coal greeted me, so black like the depths of this lake. Her mouth glinted teeth as her angular lips eerily arched into a semblance of a smile. These were not the pretty creatures romanced in folklore of old, these were the nightmares that left human entrails above the surface for those unfortunate enough to edge too close to the lake.
Another sound came from behind, and another, and another from all sides. One stroke an incomparable fear, so eerily did it sound, like a child and mother in one, crying for each other. I wondered if selkies could imitate the sounds of their victims. More streamlined bodies, gaunt shoulders and elongated tails approached me as my wand slipped through my fingers, my sister was but a dream now, covered in smoky ink, and then all I could hear was my own song, a garbled scream and then a following chorus of wails around me as they dragged me deep.
*******
I jolted upright on the bed, gasping for air and trying to pry open my eyes, all while trying desperately to convince my half asleep mind that it was all but a dream.
But it wasn't.
What I saw was more real than it ever felt before. I was there, a silent witness to the coming of a dark, evil force. Every horror I've seen for the past three years flashed in front of me, and had it been any more concrete, I would have suffocated. My head throbbed with pain as I tried not to scream.
The sleeping figure beside me clearly sensed my discomfort. He laid a warm hand on my shivering one, which had an inexplicably soothing effect one me. His affirming words washed the nightmare away as if it were merely a driftwood caught in an eddy.
He held my hand with a certain tightness that was more pacifying than painful, and asked me if I was feeling alright. I could not open my mouth so I nodded, telling him not to worry. He pulled me into a heartfelt embrace, whispering in my ear:
"Merry Christmas, my love."
*******
The white blanket reflected the morning hues well like someone had casted a Lumos Solem. It would take a while to thaw just enough for us to open our door without snow tumbling in and eddies dusting our humble cottage. Nothing expressed the essence of cosiness like the syrupy sweet smell of hot chocolate and the zest of grounded cinnamon on fresh biscuits and a tree adorned with baubles and the famed yet miniature Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-bangs, unused, of course, that Bill reluctantly took from the grinning twins. Thick as thieves, he would call them.
I laid out the morning's meal, with a piece of bloody steak just the way Bill likes it. I could tell he was restless and that he missed his, no, our family. I knew he wanted to help his brother on the perilous mission he and his friends embarked on, all of whose whereabouts are unknown. He was perplexed, and I was worried for him. In the end, we were there to keep each other sane. He and I would take turns to fret about the war and what would happen if our secrecy was compromised. We spent our days living in fear as one-by-one, noble witches and wizards are going missing, only to turn up insane or worse, murdered. We sought solace in the one thing that seemed to have stayed constant, despite the turbulent times these were: the other's company. That was the only thing keeping us sane.
And even so, we sat on our oak dining table which shined with a finish of a mahogany glaze. The warm red tinged the room, Holly leaves scattered about the wall and mistletoes and even some stockings for muggles-know-what, and the fireplace expelled a very muggle-like soot. We looked to each other and smiled as our hands travelled around the shepherd's pie, turkey and gravy and even the scrumptious Yule log Mrs Weasley had delivered, to meet in the middle. We weren't just having a Christmas day for ourselves, no, we were having one for Cedric and Sirius, for Professor Moody and the delightful owl that camouflaged with the white on a day just like this. Today was not Christmas or a remembrance day, today was a moment we knew that our loved ones brought us here just so we could do the same for ours. Fight valiantly for the good. The armies were assembling. All we had to do was wait.
