The Serenade of Persephone [tom riddle]

Chapter sixteen

Lucretia Tonks had grown accustomed to a life far from the poison of war. At least mentally, because there were numerous times when she would feel her stomach grumble from lack of food or her hands bleed, mixed with the sweat from hours of work in her uncle's fields during the summers. Her family and herself had to make do somehow, and even though the English countryside was not so fertile, it was enough to sustain them.

Her family lived in a small wizarding village near Oxford with a population of at least five hundred residents (there were more, but during the war, most of them lost their lives). Lucretia had spent half her childhood with her grandmother, as her parents worked as farmers and livestock breeders for most of the day. Her grandmother was very old, and now the only way she could be of any use was by raising her young granddaughter.

She had the girl to care for herself and the house on her own, teaching her that she need to be an independent woman, that would not need the guidance of others to survive; let alone when her grandmother would be buried six feet into the ground. And just like that, from a very young age, she learned household chores and thus became skilled at knitting, cooking, cleaning, and doing everything a grown woman would do. She did what her mother or grandmother would do, except they could not actively participate in family matters.

Did she like this life? Under different circumstances, she would not have loved something like this, but the ideal for a woman of that era was to be proficient in household matters and impeccable in everything.

Could she defy such a principle? Certainly not, and not if she truly wanted the best for her family either. So she learned to align herself with that principle as best she could.

Lucretia was a proud girl, maybe not with many talents, but she had the basics and the essentials. Boys from her village sought her hand, and boys from neighboring villages came to West Lothhart just to meet her and ask her for marriage. Even, some of them would pledge her with wealth that any girl would die for to have. However, she was always steadfast in her opinion, I will only marry out of true love. And if it never comes until the end of my life, then I will gladly embrace death, she had once told her family.

The reputation of an unacceptable yet prodigy redhead girl with onyx eyes from a province in Oxfordshire spread far and wide, and over time, even when she was at Hogwarts, the letters she received outnumbered those sent by her own family. It had become tiresome, and these men certainly had nothing better to do than to constantly bother a student several years younger than them.

You live in a utopia with those books of yours, her mother would say every time she caught her with a romantic novel in hand. She was a lover of literature and poetry, and it was her only way to find solace on days when she was not in charge at home. In other words, when she returned to her teenage self, she could behave like any other child her age. Those moments allowed her to break free from the demands and expectations of her environment and simply be a girl that is enjoying her adolescence.

Lucretia: What is love? 'Tis not hereafter: Present mirth hath present laughter.

Mother: Have mercy on me, you dreamy child.

And so her life went on. She had a critical family that, out of excessive love, sometimes acted blindly and manipulatively. She had to learn to navigate within it, whether in one way or another.

"It is like living the same nightmare of June," the girl from Hufflepuff sat at the table— her outer beauty is a composition of the most refined characteristics of human nature. Her long flowing hair cascades gently like those in a Botticelli painting, creating a canvas of dreamlike beauty. Her face radiates an angelic glow, with soft features reminiscent of the sculpted depictions of ancient gods. Lucretia Tonks was undoubtedly an outstanding woman.