Place:	Date:	Interacting:
Reducio The Black Forest, Germany	Reducio Date - 1st October, 2023 Cinder’s Birthday!	Reducio Interacting with no-one

Outfit x

OOC Notes: Thread name comes from the first name for Anne Brontë’s book, “Agnes Grey”

Uncle Thomas

Grandma Marie

Cinder

When I was ten, almost eleven, my Grandma found someone who was able to look after the dragons for a week. My family then went to a little chalet in a secluded area of The Black Forest, in the south of Germany. We travelled there by port-key, on the ….. of October - just a few days before my birthday. For most families, going away during term time wouldn’t be possible, but, as I was homeschooled, “Every day was a learning day.”
Nothing much happened at the beginning - we went on daily walks, but nothing else. However, on the morning of my birthday, my uncle woke me up early. I looked at the clock. It was 5 am.
“Come on” he whispered excitedly, “Come outside.”
I followed him suspiciously out of the door, into the small clearing, where my Grandma and Aunt were staring straight into space.
“Grandma?” I whispered, “what’s going on?”
She turned around, and spoke in a normal, but awe-struck voice.
“This, Cinder, is a thestral.”
I blinked.
“Grandma, are you feeling all right?”
Now my aunt turned around as well, and she raised an eyebrow.
“There’s nothing there!” I said, extremely confused, “Nothing except the trees.”
My aunt and grandma turned to face each other, then my uncle said from behind me, “She won’t remember. She was too young, far too young.”
“What won’t I remember?”
My grandma looked sadly towards me, before replying, “Your mum’s death.”
I must have looked really confused, because my grandma continued talking. “You can only see thestrals if you’ve seen, and accepted a death that has happened near you. When I was younger, I was at Hogwarts during the war, so I saw death. It was a bully, he got squashed by a beam that fell. Your uncle saw his grandad, and your aunt saw your mum. We can all see them.”

It was later that day when the best event happened. My aunt and grandma had taken themselves off on a walk, to mourn my mum’s death anniversary. It was just me and my uncle left in the cottage, and he sat me down by the fire, and then sat next to me - on the floor, as was the tradition when we were giving presents. He passed me a rectangular wrapped parcel, but, as I went to tore off the paper, he held down my hands.
“Put the present down for a moment, as we need to chat.”
I put the present down next to me, and looked expectantly at him.
“This is the last birthday you will spend with us until you’re an adult. So, I wanted to make sure you had something special. Your Aunt is going to take you to get a wand, as there is a good little shop around here, as well as take you to a museum. Don’t ask me what it’s about, because I’ve got no idea. Grandma’s going to let you choose some clothes, as well as get a better desk for your bedroom back at home. But, I thought that you might prefer this, as something to spend your evenings doing. Although, it’s probably best if you don’t read in front of your Aunt and Grandma.”
He gestured for me to open it, and I did, to reveal a notebook. I opened it up, and the pages were filled with tiny writing, all written in a purple ink. I recognised the writing from other things I’d seen around the house at home - it was my mother’s.
I knelt up, and hugged my uncle tightly, before standing up, and running to the conveniently placed log outside.

WC - 608

Dearest diary,
I am going to start off by saying how weird “Dear Diary” is. I am going to call you Eloise.
Mum and Dad waved me off at the station today, and I walked with Spark into the train, until she found me a compartment with two other first years in it. Then she went off to sit with her friends - I think she went to see Thomas, who she thinks I don’t know about, but I’ve seen her letters!
Anyway, the two girls I was sitting with were really nice. The first one was called Lola - she was really nice, and extremely pretty. The second one was called Evadne- I still don’t really know how to pronounce her name, so I called her Eva.
Anyway, Lola’s dad is a wizard - he’s an auror. Eva’s mum and dad are dead, but her guardian, called Miley, is something called a “mechanic” (Eva told me how to spell it.)
Lola was sorted into Gryffindor, like me, but Eva’s sorting was weird. She took about ten minutes, and by the end, she was almost crying. However, she was finally sorted in Gryffindor as well, so us three are sharing a dorm. There’s two other people in the room, but I don’t know their names yet. I embarrassingly fell asleep as soon as we got up to the room, but I’m awake now, so I’m writing up this entry!
From Flame Blaze, aged 11.