"June 6th 1997. I came home from travelling ; I'd heard of Professors Dumbledores death and wanted to see how my parents were doing. Even in Rome, I'd heard..rumblings.
Those weeks with Celio had been blisfful, short and when they hadn;t been kissing at the Trevi fountain,they'd been in the libraries ; swapping newspapers. News had filtered through ; it always did.
"I came home, I remember being so mad at the fact that the wheel on my suitcase broke. It was a gorgeous summer day, and I wanted nothing more than to see my parents and persuade them to take me into St Erth for a cone. I didn't notice the fact that the azealeas were dying. I didn't notice anything until I walked into the living room and saw it was empty."
Her stomach clenched at the memory, and she ran her hands up and down her arms to find the heat she needed.
"The walls were white and everything was empty. The scuff marks on the skirting board were pristine. Even the markers on the doorjamb here we'd been measured as we grew was gone."
"I went upstairs and I found a wand. Then another. Mum and Helen's," she explained softly " I waited for just under a month. Didn't dare use my wand, and Mum had cancelled the electricity and milk. So it was just me.
They didn't come back and I left. I didn't have anything worth fighting for in the wizarding world."
"Some mornings," she said shakily "some mornings I wonder why I wake up at all."