Harry Potter throwback: Old moments and deeds

With Potter series, you find moments- small moments in life-

Like that immensely satisfying moment when I made a lengthy board game (on a giant chart paper) over several days and played it at length with my friends and cousins, earning myself the pleasure of watching them ogle at me with awe-struck eyes

- Like that serendipitous moment when I realized that my very first Potter reading was on a bus while returning from college, gratifyingly similar to Rowling's first seeding of the HP idea during a train journey

- Like that moment of duty-related pride when I succeeded in turning my very reluctant sisters into HP manias

-Like that moment of familial joy when I gifted a COS book to one of them and a handmade HP album to the other on their respective birthdays

-Like that moment of creative fulfillment when I inked down my own version of the final book weeks before the release of Deathly Hallows 

-Like that moment of insomniac fanaticism when I left my house a little after 4 am in order to pick my copy of Deathly Hallows

-Like that moment of extreme involvement when I set up a Facebook page (Harry Potter flows in my blood) and took it past 4,50,000 fans

-Like that moment of mindless dreaminess when I dreamt that I was sitting inside a cab with Voldemort sitting on the front seat, wearing a bunch of keys on his ears (as those keys were keys to his Horcruxes)

-Like that moment of extremism when I went to Goa with a bunch of people I had met on Facebook pages and knew them mostly through their nicknames (like I was 'Chocolate Rats', named on the lines of 'Chocolate Frog')

-Like that moment of irrepressible literary urge when I penned down HP fan-fics and even promoted shampoo products like Garnier by making Snape as its mouthpiece 

And sigh, like this moment of reminiscence when I look back fondly at those -bygone years and bygone deeds and write this long post to t2

Regards

Ritesh Agarwal

Ginny's Rainy Evening

It was raining outside. Ginny Weasley Potter peered out of the window and saw how the clouds seemed to have bulged up. The sun had been pushed to the corner and would surely sink into the horizon in a clandestine manner, with nobody witnessing its decline today. It was nearly time, her husband should return from office any moment now.

She pictured his bedraggled form, water dripping from his hat and he shaking off the drops from his hair. Ginny blushed at the thought. It has been close to a year since she had married the Boy Who Lived, but she still felt nervous at his presence. She suddenly recalled with a chill how she'd run away at his sight in her first year at Hogwarts.

A few drops of rain flew in with the wind and she trembled at their touch. The pinkish glow on her face made a brilliant contrast with the grey background outside.

The rain gradually picked up speed and the wind started to wail. She shut the window but the rain kept knocking at the glass pane accompanied by the rattling of the wind. Ginny walked across the room and sat beside the grate. The flame shivered, as if chilled by the weather. She folded her knees and inched in closer. The warmth of the place was addictive. She noticed the black currents of ashes that ran along the sides of the walls. She had spent many an evening at this place drinking Butterbeer with Harry. Perhaps today it would be another of such evenings. She blushed again, overcome by the joy of the thought. Her checkered blue frock looked pretty on her. She tugged at it as the temperature of the air dropped further.

There was a crackle suddenly and the fire changed colour. She stepped back partially surprised but recovered soon as the revolving figure of her husband began to take shape.

A face, grinning from end to end, rotated before her in circles till it slowed down and her husband winked at her, seemingly in a joyous mood. He clambered out of the grate, brushing off the soot and let out a couple of coughs to clear his throat. Then turning around, he held his wife in a gaze and gave her that long, knowing smile.

She returned the smile but her eyes crinkled and she covered her face in shyness. Today, she was blushing unusually and Harry noticed the change at length.

"Ginny, what's the matter?" he said with a grin. "Anything the matter with you?" He surveyed her with the admiration of a man in love. She failed to suppress a giggle.

"Oh Harry, don't look at me like that." There was entreaty in her voice and seeing this Harry broke into a chuckle.

"Hey Ginny, anything the matter," he shook off more soot off his hair and said with a giggle of sorts. Taking a step towards her, he made an attempt to seize her beautiful arm but she retreated babyishly and scurried out of the room.

"Ginny, why are you behaving oddly today," he called back after her.

"Am I?" she answered back in between fits of giggles. "Okay listen to this then. You need to start taking diaper lessons, Harry. I am pregnant."

Harry swam out of the room and seized her in his arms from behind, planting a soft kiss on the back of her head. His eyes danced around and the muscles of his face worked furiously. But the words he spoke got drowned by the roar of the cloud outside. The long dark night had just begun for them.  

-Written by Ritesh Agarwal

3rd July, 2016

Dumbledore’s final evening by the window (Harry Potter fan fiction)

The breeze smelt of salt as it blew in through the windows of the Hogwarts castle. A withered-looking Dumbledore stood facing the forests at his office, gazing with wearied eyes into the vastness that lay before him. His eyes, bordered by white and frail eyelashes, appeared dreary. They longed to sleep after having borne the world for so long. Something was gnawing inside him. He lifted his burnt fingers to caress the wooden edge of the window. This corner had been his refuge all these years, allowing him the solitude he needed during troubled times. Now, he stood there once again, one final time, gaping into the huge void that sprawled ahead.

'Harry would be ready in an hour,' he mused. The journey to the cavern wouldn't be free from perils. Was he right in putting the teenager into such a situation, he reflected dolefully. A pang of guilt seared across his heart that was already heavy with the pain of saying goodbye to this place. It was going to be his final day at the office, he knew it. His heart still ached, though, for Severus. He would have to lay his life for the love he never got.

At that moment, a bird darted across the room and perched upon his shoulder. It nipped him on the ear angrily with its beak, sensing a premonition of things to come.

'It's okay, Fawkes. I have to move on, now', Dumbledore said in a grave voice, stroking its spine in a tender, fatherly manner.

 It was getting windy. Not the best weather to fly towards the sea, he reflected. Dumbledore struggled with his beard which flew across to hit Fawkes on its face. It snapped at it, then softened a bit and dropped tears of lamentation.

Dumbledore heaved a sigh, inspected his watch and rose with steely determination. 'Time to set to work, Fawkes. And I hope you'd be a little more polite with the next Headmaster.' He beamed at it one final time before draping his cloak and striding out of the room. The large oak door swung shut behind him and the bird sunk back behind the shadows of the lonely walls.   

-Ritesh Agarwal

22^nd June, 2016

ritzy182000@gmail.com

55 word story: The cycle of life

Image source: google images

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