Amber's Memories

Amber was sitting on her knees at the window and looked outside. The sky was dark, the branches of the trees were waving wildly, she heard the swoosh of the wind and the rain drops knocked on the window.

It was quite stormy outside and it didn't seem like it would let down anytime soon.

Amber pouted. Her parents had promised her yesterday they would go outside today, watching the ducks at the pond nearby and having a picnic there. But now they said they couldn't. It would be too dangerous.

She agreed that it didn't look that comfortable outside to have a picnic. However, her father Angus had left the house earlier to go and feed the sheep. So it couldn't be that bad, right? Why wasn't she allowed to go with him then at least? Sheeps would have also be alright to watch and pet. She just wanted to go outside. She felt like being trapped indoors...

Her mother Catherine approached her from behind.

"Amber, darling, isn't boring to look out of the window all the time?"

Amber didn't turn around, still pouting. Catherine sighed and sat beside her daughter.

"You know, we could always have our picnic in the living room."

"That's not the same."

"I know, but sometimes we have to adjust our plans a little bit. And we could make your favorite meal - or bake cookies."

Amber started to wriggle a little bit and her mother grinned. Her daughter could never resist cookies and Catherine knew that all too well.

"Chocolate cookies?" Amber looked at her mother, her eyes started to sparkle.

"Sure! And some vanilla ones for your Dad."

"Alrighty!" Amber finally smiled and climbed down from the bench she earlier sat on. Together they went into the kitchen and started their baking session.

The distraction was successfull. While mixing the ingredients together, not ones looked Amber outside the window.

As soon as they were finished, Angus entered the house. Amber immediately grabbed a plate with light cookies and ran with it to her father.

"Dad, look what we made for you!" With a bright smile she proudly showed them her cookies which some of them were shaped oddly.

Angus lay down his wet jacked, knelt down to be on eye height with his daughter and smiled.

"They look yummy! What shapes did you make today?"

"Can't you tell? They are sheeps!" For Amber it was of course obviously and she did wonder how her father, the shepherd, couldn't see it right from the start.

Her father chuckled and ruffled her hair.

"Of course they are! And they are all for me?"

"These ones here, yes! The rest we need to share."

Amber left him the plate and returned to her mother who was preparing their picnic spot. A blanket lay already there and together they brought plates, glasses, orange juice and cookies.

The family settled down and they started their picnic while talking, sharing cookies and playing some games.

After a while, Catherine looked out the window.

"Look, Amber, it's finally sunny again!"

Ambers shot around to the window and seeing the sun and blue sky made her eyes shine. She looked at her parents.

"Can I? Can I?" she asked eagerly, almost jumping up on her feet already.

"Sure! Let's get going!" her mother laughed and Amber immediately stood up and rushed to the wardrobe, putting on her blue rubber boots and yellow rain coat and was out of the door before her parents even were able to get up completely.

Outside it still drizzled a little bit, but Amber didn't care. She saw the puddles near her and decided to jump in them, water splashing everywhere. She only came to a halt, as she noticed the rainbow in one puddle with a lot of rocks. She looked up at the sky and spotted the rainbow.

Yes, outside was way better than indoors! It had rainbows!
But she also learned that sometimes indoors wasn't that bad too. Especially if you were with family - and had cookies together!
Maybe they could do it again.

So, the indoor picnic tradition on stormy days was born.

Like every year at the end of August -- the muggle town, Grassmere, near the farm of the Llyods, held a apple harvest festival.

The festival was quite popular, as there were different apple dishes to savour, some apple-themed games like apple bobbing and, of course, harvesting the fruits.

Amber was just picking apples with her family, her basket almost full. She was about to put another red apple in it, when her basket was suddenly gone. As she looked around, she saw Owen, a fellow muggle classmate, running away with her basket in his hands.

"That's mine!" she exclaimed and followed him.

However, he was faster than her and almost out of reach. Frustrated, she ran behind him with all her might, wishing he would just stop -- as Owen abruptly tripped over a tree root, and face-planted.

Being distracted for a moment because she thought she had seen the root move by itself, Owen took the chance to pick himself up. He grabbed the basket, ready to run again.

"No, they're my apples!" Amber shouted angrily. She did make an effort to pick the most beautiful apples -- some for her family, and some for the sheep at home. So how dare he take them from her?

At the same moment, suddenly some apples started to fly around Owen and hit him.

"Ow, what are you doing?" He screamed, holding his hands protectivly over his head.

Amber blinked in shock at the flying apples, as she heard a her mother, Catherine, call her name. The apples all fell to the ground.

Behind her appeared her brother and her parents. As soon as they arrived, Owen pointed at Amber.

"She threw apples at me."

"If she did, then you derserve it." Amber's older brother, Finn, stood in front of her, guarding her from Owen and giving him an angry look.

"But I didn't! And he stole my apples," Amber said, beginning to cry. She was confused about what had happened; she just wanted her apples back.

Her father, Angus, let Owen leave -- after giving him an earful, while her mother hugged Amber to console her.

When the family was alone, Catherine wiped the tears from Ambers face and smiled.

"You did it!"

"I did what?" Amber sniffled.

"Magic."

"Magic? I did?" Amber asked, still confused.

"My daughter is finally a magician," her father exclaimed, excited. He took her under her arms, and flung her around.

"A witch, Dad," Finn needed to correct him.

Angus put down his daughter and ruffled Finns hair. "Yes, of course. Witch!"

"What magic did I do?" Amber asked.

"The flying apples," her brother answered, excited.

Amber frowned. "But I didn't want to do that. It hurt someone. That's bad magic. And if it's bad, then I don't want to do magic."

Her parents looked at each other. Catherine kneeled down in front of Amber, and took her hands.

"You know that we talked about magic, and you've seen how we use it, right? Is that also bad magic?"

"No." Amber fidgeted, unsure. "Then do only I do bad magic?"

"Of course not, dear. Today, you're feelings controlled your magic. But with practice, you'll be in control and can prevent bad magic."

"How do I practice?" Amber asked, looking at her hands -- thinking about how it would work.
 
"You can get practice at school. And I'll also show you everything," Finn said, proud.

Ambers eyes began to sparkle, as she had heard already a lot about Hogwarts from her family. It had always intrigued her, hearing about Finn's lessons -- and other magical stories. It seemed to have way more adventure potential than even Grassmere.

Since she had magic...

"Can I now go with Finn to school?"

Her mother chuckled, and hugged her.

"I'm sorry, you have still to wait a few years. But until then, we are here for you and will work together to prevent bad magic. Deal?"

"Alright." Amber grinned, and hugged her mother back. She couldn't wait until the next few years were over, and she finally could go to school with her brother.

But until then, she would try to learn from her parents and brother all about fighting the bad magic, so no apple would hurt anyone again.