The Slytherin Princess

𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒽𝓊𝓃𝓉 𝒷𝑒𝑔𝒾𝓃𝓈

After fleeing the castle, we all separated to tie up our loose ends before everything started.
Hermione left to head home to her parents with plans to obliviate them and convince them to move to Australia for their safety, so they were out of the way of this war that was coming.
Ron headed home to the burrow to begin planning with the order and his family and Harry and I went completely off the grid for about 2 weeks. Nobody knew where we were. Not even the order, but it was time we both needed to come to terms with the task we were assigned by Dumbledore.

We made a quick stop at my home that lay empty and in the rolling hills of England. The once pristine gardens were now messy and unkept and there was an air of coldness surrounding the once vibrant property.
Their was an eery silence surrounding the home. Not a bird in the trees chirped. Not a breeze in the air. Just silence. 

I had walked through the entire house leaving Harry down stairs while I stopped in mine and my parents rooms to collect a few things.
I took a few pieces of my mothers jewellery collection; namely her favourite pieces that she wore regularly and items that myself and my father gave her.
A ring with a grey diamond in the centre that had been a family heirloom from my mothers side for generations and a bangle gifted by my father that had 'Forever yours and always mine' engraved on the inside. 

I took my fathers pocket watches and a few of his handkerchiefs.
I had so many memories of times when I had been upset or after I had hurt myself and my father would have always been right there at the perfect moment to hand me one of his white handkerchiefs with his initials sewn into the fabric. It was something he always had on him and something I would miss dearly.
I stood for a moment in their wardrobe, with tears rolling down my cheeks, clinging to one of the handkerchiefs, wishing more than anything that he would walk in with his signature smile. 
"Ma cherie, why are you sad?", he would say, as he blotted away my tears.

As I placed a few more items into my bag, I found a washing basket full of things that our elf Poppy hadn't washed before abandoning the property and I smiled, pulling a white button down shirt out of the pile. I slowly brought the shirt up to my face and inhaled, having to halt the sob from escaping as I did. 

It still smelled like him. The faint smell of cigars and scotch. 

I reached down and took the other two button downs that were in the pile, as well as a dress that must have been recently worn by my mother too before heading back down stairs.

As Harry spotted me descending the stairs, I took a final look around. 

It was a sad moment for me, feeling the place that once felt like home, now feel dead and eery, with the ghost of that fateful afternoon lingering within the walls. 
I stared at the closed door to the living room, knowing it happened right behind those doors. Bellatrix LeStrange had murdered both of my parents right past these black doors. 

"AB? You okay?", Harry called as I stood still in front of them. 

"It was this room..." I whispered, looking from Harry to the doors, "They were in this room..."

"Oh my god, Annabelle-", Harry whispered, more to himself than to me as the realisation hit him, "I'm so sorry... Do you- Do you want to go in?"

I shook my head. 

"No... This was their favourite room in the house... I used to come down after my lessons during the holidays and they would be sat on their chairs reading, or sipping tea...
Sometimes I would come down and find them dancing around the room to an old song, smiling at each other, so in love, even after over 20 years together...
I used to sit on the stairs over there and watch, wondering if I would have a great love like theirs one day...
Wondering if I would one day have a child that they would love as much as they loved me", I said with a sniffle, "This was their favourite room... But its ruined..."