enigmatic || potter

1.00 | the prologue

the prologue //
October 31, 1981

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The coffee shop on the corner of Elm and North in Cokeworth, England was always the perfect place to just sit and think, which was exactly what Jessica Powell was doing on the evening of October 31, 1981. The fire was cracking merrily, the leaves rustled in the wind on the street outside, and there was a steaming cup of coffee in front of her. Overall, she felt pretty relaxed, what with all the crap she's had to deal with lately.

In the past three years, she's gotten pregnant twice with one abortion and a beautiful daughter who has no idea of her failure. She's gotten engaged to the father of her kid, only to come home last week to find her fiancee on the couch kissing another person (he had always warned Jess that he had commitment issues). She has no job, no home, she's running out of money and food, and she's in the midst of a war.  First, her father was murdered by death eaters, then, two of her best friends were kidnapped and killed, and now her beautiful baby girl is in danger.

A few months after Elara was born, Jessica had received news that there was a prophecy made about her. Hearing the prophecy nearly shook the woman to her core. The girl would have power. Power beyond any physical abilities like strength or skill; Elara would bear the power of knowledge. Knowledge, beyond school, beyond anything you could ever find in a book. It was knowledge of time. She would become the occulus temporis, the eye of time. The girl would either protect the chosen one, or she would destroy him; she would be the key to winning the war, and then she would disappear. Jessica had no idea what an eye of time even was, much less what they were supposed to do.  And what was that last part? Why would Elara disappear? Jessica was a resourceful woman, but the answers to these questions were beyond her and pondering upon them only filled her with pure, unbridled rage.

Looking around at the tiny café that her family used to own, many memories came back to her. Most were her parents throwing tea cups at each other when they were angry (before her mother left, of course), but a few were quite nice. She had met her best friends here; she had found out that she was a witch here. She used to meet up with Lily here, talking, laughing, and gossiping for hours on end. Jessica and Severus used to drink coffee or tea almost every morning over the summer from the time they turned eleven up until they were fifteen, when Jessica's father died and they had to sell the coffee shop.

Just at that moment, a large tawny owl tapped on the window outside. Jessica could faintly make out her name written in curly letters on the front of the envelope.

31st of October, 4:00 AM
Jess,

I'm hoping this gets to you some time soon, and yes I'm writing at 4 AM. I haven't been able to sleep much since I found out you left. I'm not mad, I regret everything, and I miss you. I miss spending Sunday afternoons after graduation drinking coffee on your balcony. I miss Harry and Elara playing together while we did "grown-up stuff". I miss us trying to stay mad at each other after a stupid fight over something like the right answers to the arithmancy homework. I miss finding your socks under my bed in our dorm and I miss seeing the dent I made in your wall after that one time James and I tried to floo to your flat. I miss my best friend so much that I'm going mad without her.

Oh, James is awake now too and he says he misses you as well. Oh, now he's saying you should come over for dinner tonight and I agree. Although he would like to see his goddaughter, he said not to bring Elara because he wants to talk about "grown-up stuff" and it's "going to take a while to discuss". He also said that he'll make arrangements for the Weasleys to watch her, but he can't contact them until a normal hour. We think this would be really great if you came. Plus, we have some very, very important news.