A Brother’s Last Doodle
July 1971
Harrie was standing in the living room of her house, looking down at the lifeless body of her brother. Shock and terror consuming her entire body. This can’t be. He can’t be dead.
She looked up at the giant box in-front of her, the one that muggles called a telly. The episode of the sitcom they were watching was still running. So, merely ten minutes ago Tommy and Harrie Riddle were sitting on their couch watching telly and having a muggle food called pizza. In ten minutes her whole life was turned upside-down.
She looked around, there was no blood, no wound, no weapon but SHE was there. Harrie knew it must have been her, she was magic and she could kill anyone , no matter how big, with a simple wave of her hand. Was she really the one who had murdered Tommy?
The last thing she remembered was picking the pieces of jalapeño peppers off the slice of her pizza and giving them to Tommy; they were just too spicy for her and Tommy loved them.
Harrie felt a giant lump creeping up her throat, tears were blurring her vision.
Tommy.
Her big brother, her best friend, the only family she had left; well, except for him.
Harrie’s eyes widened, realization appearing on her face.
Him.
Of course it was him. How could she not figure it out the minute she opened her eyes? She always experienced black outs when HE would get inside her mind and start controlling it. But why? Why would their father comeback into their lives after all this time and kill Tommy? Had he done something? Had he defied him somehow? No. Tommy knew very well how dangerous their father was. He would never do something that was to their father’s disapproval, not after …….
Harrie shook off these thoughts and sat beside her brother, moved her right hand in the middle of the air and stopped time, she had already wasted so much time being in shock.
She examined the body, hoping she could find a pulse. Nothing. She put her hand above his heart, not touching him. She closed her eyes, focusing very hard. And then, moved her right hand in the air again, the telly resumed the show, the time was no longer stopped.
Harrie listened for a moment. Nothing. Her attempt at restarting her brother’s heart was unsuccessful. He was really gone. Tommy was gone.
She was alone.
Harrie, however, did not get a chance to start crying, for, at that moment came a floating giant silver snake. Harrie recognized it as a form of wizard magic called a patronus; Tommy had told her about it. The snake stopped right before her and opened it’s mouth: - Be at Merlin’s statue in the Richmond park in twenty minutes. Echoed the voice of her father, though it sounded more… hissy than she remembered.
What? Harrie thought to herself. He wanted to see her? After he had just murdered her brother? His own son? Harrie shook her head, of course he did. Why wouldn’t she believe that he would? After what she remembered him doing . After…….
Harrie knew she had to go to her father, she didn’t have a choice.
If she was late, he would enter her mind again and start torturing her, ordering her hands to commit another murder or who knew what else. The least he could do was to force her to go to him; so, what would be the point of her not following her father’s orders?
Harrie stood up, her legs trembling beneath her. She knew she didn’t have much time, she didn’t know what he wanted to do with her or how long it would take; Harrie wasn’t even entirely sure she would even comeback to this house. She had to do something with Tommy’s body. She thought about burying him, after all it was the most common thing muggles did in the movies; she had no idea what wizards did with the body of their loved ones. She realized then, that she had no idea what had happened to the body of…..
But what if she wasn’t allowed to visit him? What if Tommy had actually done something to anger their father? She thought to burn the body, but where would she keep the ashes? No, what ever it was, it had to be small enough so she could have it on her.
Harrie looked around, something she always did when she needed inspiration, her eyes landed on Tommy’s body, he looked so peaceful, like when he was sleeping. She definitely didn’t want to disturb his peace. Harrie felt tears coming.
No! She couldn’t start crying now, she didn’t think she would be able to stop; and she had to meet their father.
With a flick of her hand, Harrie summoned something from the garbage bin, it was a small piece of paper with Tommy’s handwriting on it: “Going to take a swim before breakfast“ was all it said. There was a doodle of a jellyfish beside it. It was from that morning, Tommy wrote that note for her so she wouldn’t be worried when she woke up. Harrie smiled and rolled her eyes, their home had a private beach, she could literally see anyone who was swimming from her bedroom window; besides, she could see the past, if she was ever worried about where Tommy was, she could just look at what had already happened. But Tommy was quirky like that, he was obsessed with muggles and he wanted to live like them.
Harrie waved her hand again and Tommy’s jellyfish doodle appeared on her left wrist. It was called a tattoo, she had watched muggles do it with ink and needles on the telly. As best as she could tell, it was usually frowned upon in the muggle world, emo teenagers and bikers had them, and somehow they were considered low-lives. However, Harrie reckoned nobody would care in the wizarding world, would they?
Harrie changed into a pair of jean shorts and a white t-shirt that was two sizes too big for her. Tommy hated that look but she saw it on the telly and loved it. She put her long and curly dark brown hair into a bun, which turned out really messy, and put some of her necessities into a backpack. She sat down next to Tommy’s body and moved her arm over it. All of a sudden Tommy was no longer in his yellow and black pajamas, he was wearing a well tailored dark blue suit.
Harrie put her hand on Tommy’s arm and thought of the only cemetery she knew: The cemetery of their city, Maratea.
In a matter of seconds they were at the cemetery. Despite it being July, it was cold, she even shivered for a moment. Harrie summoned a hand carved mahogany coffin from the funeral home around the corner and elevated Tommy’s body, placing him inside. She looked at his brother’s beautiful face for the last time, closed the casket and put in the ground, all within seconds and all with just waving her hand in the air.
Harrie was ready to leave when she noticed that all the other graves had a tombstone. She waved her hand and a beautiful marble tombstone appeared on Tommy’s grave. Harrie looked at it with a sad smile on her face, swallowed the lump in her throat and disappeared.
The tombstone read: Thomas Oliver Riddle - a brother, a friend, a
protector. 1957-1971