MENDING || Marauders Era

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𝙲𝚁𝚈𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙸𝙽 𝙰𝙽 𝙾𝙵𝙵𝙸𝙲𝙴

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Head low, tears falling onto the ground. The Professor behind the desk looked up, confused as they saw the blonde girl silently shaking. "Miss Gaunt?"

"It's so hard." August whispered. Her voice quivering as she looked up. The Professor standing from her desk and stepping over.

"What seems to be the problem, dear?" Professor McGonagall asked her softly. The girl met her eyes and even more tears fell from her eyes. The woman brought her close, squeezing her softly.

"I saw them." She whispered. The woman helped bring the girl towards her chair in front of her desk and helped the girl sit down. The girl leaned into the woman's touch, "In detention- cleaning. I saw my mother, Nicholas... and my poppa." As she remembered looking into the eyes of her father, more tears fell from her eyes. "My family has never been the same since." Her voice cracking as she remembered the once happiness she had in her childhood, then it turned gray. 

The woman guiltily looked down at the woman, realizing she had made the girl in that detention. "Oh, dear..." She whispered rubbing back soothingly. "It'll get better."

"But it hasn't!" She cried. "My brother tried to keep everyone together... but my mother was cold! Then I got into Gryffindor- and... everything changed." She said with her voice cracking slightly. 

"Thing's happen dear... Even if we don't like the things, they happen for a reason." She said kneeling down in front of the fourteen year old. "These things make you stronger. They happen to make you become a better person."

"I was only eight... and my dad died. Right before my eyes..." She said looking at the woman. "I didn't get a childhood like my friends... I didn't get to play ball outside, I didn't get to draw in the drawing room of my home... I had to wear dresses, learn how to waltz, play the piano for hours on end, I had to grow up." She said mocking her mothers words.

The woman pitied slightly, and August couldn't help but shiver at the many times her mother whispered things at her... not comforting things either. "People in this school believe that I live my best life!" August said standing up slightly, the woman tilting her head as she listened to what she was saying, "But I'm not! My mother is cold... she isn't what people believe she is or was. Then Nicholas blocked me out the year I was sorted... and I was all alone." 

She said as her voice turned into a hoarse whisper. "Except for at Hogwarts."

"And why is that?"

There was a silence, but August looked up at the woman before walking towards the window behind her desk. Leaning against the painted frame where she looked out the glass stained window, tears resting on her cheeks as she admired the courtyard outside. "Hogwarts is the first place where I can call it home." She said looking out. "The house I grew up at is definitely not the place I can call home. But Hogwarts has an- aura. Where I can be myself... from time to time."

The woman looked at the girl curiously, as she put her words into sentence. Being rather poetic and sweet with her honest words. Something the woman hadn't seen often in Hogwarts students until their sixth and seventh years.

"It has been the one place where I feel more comfortable. I've met all sorts of people, half-bloods and muggles, where I don't have to act so rude to them. Not insult them to my family's faces... I could be a better person here." She said whispered the last part. "For the past four years, I have been happier than ever. Even after my poppa's death. This place just makes me feel so... at home that I feel that I don't need to worry about my dreadful mother at home. Or the worries of events outside of school... I feel at peace." August slowly turned around and met the woman's eye, "Hogwarts is a safe haven to myself and many others."  

The woman was blank but had many things going through her mind as she listened to the girl. "But it still has things that are needing to be discovered... and said. So I still can't trust this castle." She said looking at the woman, "Yet." 

The woman nodded and smiled softly. "How are you feeling about the trophy room incident?" The professor asked her softly and August looked down.

"I think I just need time." She whispered before looking at the professor and taking a breath. "Yeah, I've had six years to get better... but my poppa died right before my eyes." She sighed, "And my mother just told me to get over it... That isn't exactly a positive way in getting better after seeing your father die right before your eyes at the age of eight."

"I will be dismissing you from your classes for the next week." The woman said stepping forwards and placing her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Before you leave to the train, come here and we will have another talk."

"But my detention- and all my classes..." 

"It's already been sorted." The woman said softly, "Wipe your tears, dear." 

August sheepishly chuckled before wiping her tears and giving a thankful smile to the professor before heading towards the door. But Professor McGonagall made her pause and look at the aging woman, "I will always be here to listen when you need it." 

"Thank you, Professor." August said smiling before closing the door softly. Sighing she stood outside of it before pulling the cloak tighter around her body, pulling the hood over her body, she made her way out of the castle doors.