scarlett - james f. potter

scarlett

I had begun to think things were alright.

Dear Scarlett,

It's your father. I received this today. Is this a cruel joke?

The silver ring that never left Xavier's thumb was in the envelope. I looked around, thanking that the Black Lake was some-what empty today due to cold weather.

I took the ring out, exhaling shakily. My chest began to rise up and down at quick pace. I examined it, noticing the few scratches around it from being an old ring. My mother gave him the ring and told him to never take it off, she never explained why to me and Xavier never wanted to tell me.

I started to feel pain, anger, disappointment. I closed my eyes, seeing Xavier crying on his bed at grandpas. I saw my mom, he was looking at her and she was the one who took his ring off. I saw him having conversations with someone whose back was always facing him.

"Excuse me"

I jumped at the sudden voice, dropping the ring on the ground, I quickly bent down and picked up, turning around and seeing a boy similar to Sirius, except he was a Slytherin, considering the sweater he was wearing.

His nose was different than Sirius, but their eyes were exact. Their hair had the same fluff and they seemed to be similar in body shape too, except the boy in front of me looked a bit more lanky.

"Hello?" My greeting was more of a question. I wiped away the tears that I was unaware of and gave him a smile.

"I left a book on this bench. Did you take it?" He scoffed, giving me an attitude.

"Ah, so you're the one who charmed 'Little Women' to look like a regular book about Alchemy" I chuckled, taking it out from my bag. I found it on the bench when I got here. I thought about taking it back to the library and hoping the owner would go there to find it.

"Thanks" He muttered, grabbing my book and walking away after saying. "Don't tell anyone about this"

"What's your name?" I yelled out, expecting an answer. Instead, he walked away back into the castle, not looking back once. "Weird"

I sighed and looked at the ring again, focusing on more important things.

Why? Why was this ring being sent to my dad? Why was it being sent in the first place? My dad provided shit context to the whole situation, automatically blaming me.

I put the ring on my finger. It was a bit loose, but it looked nice with the strange number tattoo that seemed to go up in numbers throughout the years.

Six. I asked my mom what it meant when I first got the number one on my hand. I woke up that day, brushed my teeth and thought that Xavier had pulled a prank. I was also five when it happened. She didn't explain shit to me, she just said 'very weird' and went about her day. Every couple years the numbers would go up. I was always curious, I had asked my grandpa several times, he only tried his best to rub it off. No explanation, ever.

I was pissed now, I felt like my whole life was a secret despite it being my own. I don't know anything about how I became myself.

I loved my mom, but she never wanted to tell me real things. It was always her and dad fighting, then she would ask me to sleep with her while my dad was on couch. She would speak about how she should've never married him, that alcohol was his true love and that no one, not even us, can compete with that. She showed me disappointment and the reality of things at an age that I shouldn't have known and kept the things that were important, a secret.

I set the ring on my lap, putting my gloves on and grabbing the ring to put back in the envelope along with the letter.

The Scotland temperature dropped as the night got darker and the halls were getting quieter. I looked up and noticed the moon was slowly peaking.