It’s been 8 months since the “it” happened and right now… I'm doing ok. What I mean by ok is that I am in the process of moving on. To this day, I still have no information about what happened. The Ministry has no leads on who did it and I would not be surprised if they were doing anything about it. This is my family’s murder we are talking about, it’s not someone who just did the wrong spell or something like that. This is my family’s murder we are talking about! It just makes me so frustrated, they don’t even have the slightest idea of who did it! It would be different if they were trying and they had no idea because they did not find any evidence, but at least they were trying.

It was a rainy day on May 16th, 2010. I just finished up cleaning up my new room when all of a sudden I heard a knock on my door

“Come in,” I said, putting a bunch of boxes in a corner of my room. My door opened and my godfather came into my room.

“Cleaning again I see,” My godfather said looking at my room “What is this? Your fifth time this month?” 

“I think so,” I said. To keep my mind off my family’s death I have been cleaning my room at least once a week. 

“ Well, they just opened up your house if you want to go by and see if you want anything.” My godfather said. For the past 8 months, they have had my house blocked off because it was where my mother and father were killed. Now that I can finally go into my own house, do I want to go? Do I want to go to the house that my parents were killed in? This house was the place I grew up with my siblings, that place is where I have all my memories. Willow? You ok?” my godfather said touching my arm slightly which makes me snap out of my thoughts. “If you don’t want to go that's totally fine”

“I want to go,” I said. I at least owed it to my family to go back to our family house one last time. One last time to go see a home that was once filled with a happy family with happy memories.

Once we have disappeared from my godfather's mansion I find myself standing on Turnberry Lane, my old street. The old street where I remember playing in the street with my siblings and the neighborhood kids. As we walk slowly to my house, all I can think about is all the memories that keep coming back to me. My godfather slowly takes my hand and stops walking and faces me. 

“We can stay as long as you want. Whenever you are ready to leave we will leave.” he said, “I know this is hard for you Willow, and I'll be with you the whole time.” I took comfort in his words as I smiled a little bit and squeezed his hand. We walked up to my house and stood in front of the house. I always thought my house was the prettiest house on my street. My house is a big historic mansion that was built in 1965 with 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. There are two big bay windows, one in my room facing the village and one in the front room facing the immaculate front yard. My mother always loved to take care of that yard while us kids played outside, now, the yard looks like no one has touched it in like 100 years. We walk up the long driveway toward my house, I run my fingers along the fence that leads up to my house. As soon as we reach the steps to the porch I stop and take a deep breath before slowly climbing up the stairs.

I stop at the front door with my hand on the doorknob. All I can think about right now is my family. I take my hand off the doorknob and look around at the porch, I start to have flashbacks to memories that I had with my family. My father sits on the chair, the one that rocks back and forth reading the paper, my mother sits next to him with my littlest sister Mollie reading a book to her. My other little sister, Anastasia, comes running out from the house with one of her little projects in her hand. In her hand was a little wand that she had made out of paper and cardboard. She had painted it a light brown and it had vines running all around the wand. In a way, it kind of looked like my mother's wand. By this time, my older brother Hugo was already at school in Grand Ridge Charter Academy, my father went there for like a year before he met my mother and changed school to the one that I am in now. When I finally come out of my thoughts, I see that I have moved by the swing and picked up my sister's wand that she made the day before she disappeared. How did she disappear? Was she kidnaped or did she go where and disappeared? Either way, she was kidnaped, but how?

“Willow?” my godfather asked me, “Willow? Are you ok?” I guess I didn’t realize that I was staring at the wand. “Yes,” I said, putting the wand into my pocket. Of course, I am going to keep this, this is the only piece of her I have left before she disappeared. There’s probably a lot of little things in her room that I could take, but for some reason, I feel attached to this.

Once we finally get inside, I am overwhelmed by the fact that I was in my house for the first time in 8 months. 8 months since my mother and father were killed in this very house. The house looks almost the same as when I left it, perfect. Nothing out of place, everything clean, everything perfect. I am standing in the front room just looking around the room, there's the big chandelier that hangs from the ceiling and the staircase that leads up to the second floor. I can see our large living room off to the right, usually, there would be the morning sun streaming into those bay windows making the room feel bright, but today, because of the rain, it is dark and gloomy. I wish right now that I could just see the light streaming through those windows. The living room was the “family room in our family”, and not just because it’s called the family room. This room is where we would do everything together, family meetings, game nights, just sitting and talking. We have done everything together in this room. 

“Wow,” my godfather says, “This house hasn't changed one bit.” I honestly wished it changed, like everything was destroyed when my parents were killed because it would make this a little bit easier. But, the house looks like they knew what was coming, they didn't try to fight or anything like that. I run my fingers past all the pictures of our family looking at them one by one, we all look so happy. We were so happy back then, and now there is a dark cloud hanging over me and my house. 

“You can take whatever you want Willow. This is your family’s stuff.” my godfather says putting his hand on my shoulder, “Just maybe don't take the whole house because I don’t think that will fit.” I had to smile at this joke. Of course, I wasn't going to take my whole house, that would just be too painful. I pick up our family photo and put it into my backpack carefully so it would not break. All I can think about is how could someone do this to my family, one day we are smiling and we are one big happy family, and the next day, everyone has disappeared and I am the only one left standing. 

I finally made my way to the kitchen, my mother's favorite room in this house. I can feel myself tear up as soon as I step into this room, I have so many memories with my mother in this kitchen that it's overwhelming. The kitchen is the biggest room in the house, with a huge island right in the middle of the room. I remember all the times I would sit at one of the bar stools while my mother cooked one of her famous meals and just talked. Talked about anything and everything, but the thing we mostly talked about was magic. Like who created magic, who in the family has magic, if I will ever have magical abilities? My mother was always the best at talking to me about my worries about magic, I was always worried that I didn't have any magical abilities till I was invited to Crystal River Academy. I must have started crying when I was thinking about my mother because my godfather came over to where I was at the other end of the kitchen and hugged me and said,

“It’s ok Willow… it’s ok….” We stood there for like 10 minutes while I cried, “Shh…..” my godfather says. When I finally stop crying, I step away from him and look up at him.

“I’m sorry…. I didn’t even realize that I started crying..” I said. Don’t say sorry Willow,” he said wiping tears from my face, “I miss them too.” At this time, I didn't want to admit it but I did miss them, a lot. I walked out of the kitchen and toward the stairs so I could go get my things. The only thing I wanted to do was go to my room so I could pack up my room, I did not want to see my sibling's rooms. I make my way slowly down the hallway to my room, looking around at all the pictures that we have. We have a lot of pictures in this house, which I am now realizing that it is a good thing we took so many pictures.

Once I was almost to my room when I stopped suddenly at my brother's room. He and I never really got along, but there were little moments where we were best friends. We always loved each other, even though we never really showed it to people. I guess it was just a big brother little sister type of thing where the big brother always teases the little sister. I spotted one of his uniforms in the corner of his room, I went over and picked it up. He must have forgotten it when he was packing, or he left it on purpose. I slipped the uniform over my head, it almost fits me which is a little surprising. The uniform is soft and really comfortable, it makes me feel like I am actually with him. After putting on his uniform, it makes me realize how much I miss him. Over the past 8 months, I have only really really missed my parents and my sisters. I've missed him too, but I think I was just hiding how much I missed him from myself, he is my older brother after all.

“I loved your brother,” My godfather said, “he always had something to say about this world. Your brother was a smart person Willow.” 

I know” I actually did know this about him because he would always be the one to help me with any homework that I had. Somehow, he always got the answer right, and always helped me with the question so I would get it right. I sighed quietly and walked out of his room, I didn't want to spend another minute in that room not because I wanted to be rude, but because it hurt too much to be in that room. It hurts because he is not here anymore, they are not here anymore, so honestly being in this house is hurting me.

“I want to get my books from my room and go, it’s hurting me to be here,” I said walking past my godfather and heading to my room not even stopping at my sister's room.

“Ok Willow, whatever you want,” he said following me to my room as I pushed open my bedroom door. It looks the same as it did when I left for school like the rest of the house was. I look around my room, to look for some boxes or something I can use to carry all the books I have. I can only fit one-third of the books I own into the backpack that I brought, I don’t want to break the pictures I have in my backpack. Then I remember a spell that I learned that would pack all these up for me. I start to grab all of my books and lay them out in piles on the floor.

“You want help there?” my godfather said laughing a little bit.

“Sure.” I didn't really need help, but he wanted to help so I’m going to let him. Within 5 minutes, we have all my books laid out on my floor and on my bed. After seeing all my books the way that they are laid out, I sure do have a lot of books. I say the spell and all the books started to swirl around the room and then all of them disappeared. 

Very good job Miss Granger” my godfather said in his professor's voice. He was the one that taught me that spell, so it was probably really rewarding for him to see it done.

“Thank you, Professor Black,” I said laughing a little bit as I grabbed my backpack, “You taught me well.”

“ I still have so much to teach you though, a lot more,” he said, leading me out of the room and out of my house. 

We walked down the driveway and back out to the street before I stopped suddenly.

“Can I ask you something?” I said as I looked up at my godfather

“You can ask me anything Willow.” 

“Why did the house look so perfect?”

“What do you mean?” he said looking at me with a confused look.

“The Ministry said that my parents started fighting before they were killed, but the house looks nothing like they did anything,” I said, “It seems like they knew what was coming.” At this, my godfather stared at me for a little bit and then put a hand on my shoulder and led me away from my house. I didn't know what just happened, but I know for sure that he knew something he didn't want me to know.