all too well - Theodore Nott

chapter 4

"Selene, the Portkey leaves in five minutes. Move your ass." Her mother yelled from downstairs.

Selene rolled her eyes at herself in the mirror and then called over her shoulder, " Yes Ma'am'."

She finished tying the large green bow in her hair that was in support of Ireland before leaning back to observe herself. The Quidditch World Cup was today and Annie and Cas were meeting her there, which would be the first time she saw them all summer from having spent it in America.

Her eyes traveled against her will to the left side of her stomach. She grasped the base of the shirt she wore and started slowly lifting it. When she reached just below the scars that littered her stomach, her breath caught in her throat, panic rose in her chest and she squeezed her eyes closed. She took a deep breath and pulled the shirt up until she could see the deep scars carved into her.

She had grown up with the scars, having them since she was a baby but she never got used to them. She avoided ever looking at them when she took baths or got dressed. She hated being reminded of them. She couldn't remember the pain of getting them but she could imagine. And she winced at the thought.

Her mother was a Pureblood. A Pureblood who fell in love. Just simply that. Except it was not that simple because she fell in love with a muggle who had run into her right after she got out of Hogwarts. And he loved her. They got married in secret. Had Selene in secret.

But secrets are never a forever thing. They all come out eventually. And this one was no exception. Especially not this one. Selene's mother was tortured by her family for her decision. Not with spells directed at her by people she loved nor with knives or weapons to forever carve into her mom a reminder. Instead, they decided that her mother could always ignore those scars. So they directed it not at her but directed at the innocent people she loved.

Instead of killing Selene's dad, they tortured his mother to death in front of her. They forced Selene to watch too but she did not remember it at all. They also punished her mother through Selene. It was something that Selene never held against her mother but something her mother would feel forever guilty about.

They had taken the ring that every Parkinson got after the age of seventeen and dragged it across a fourteen-month child's stomach. They chose the stomach because it had enough space for the cut to be made. A place she could not easily ignore.

Her mother knocked on her door causing her to yank the shirt down and plaster a smile on her face, her face, "I'm coming."

Shouts and laughter met Selene's ears as she weaved through people juggling and selling merchandise with Annie and Cas by her side. A child screamed, chasing a butterfly and cutting across their path. Their Mother chased after them, calling them back.

"Let's stop here," Annie said dragging Cas and Selene over to a small opening between tents selling t-shirts and one selling figurines that could walk around.

Annie pulled out a small round tin from her jacket, giving Selene an excited smile, and unscrewed it. Inside lay green face paint. Annie grabbed the tiny brush that she had and dipped it into the paint.

"El," Annie said motioning her forward, "You first."

Annie was very artistic. When she and Cas met Annie in the Leaky Cauldron before their first year and told her about paintings moving, she had jumped up from her seat a dragged them from store to store, begging to see paintings they had hung up, even if they were in the storage rooms.

At school, when Annie was not talking with her many friends she was painting them. And not just them. Random people would walk by and she would claim that they had the perfect face to draw and start drawings of them that she would never finish.

Annie had a lot of friends because, unlike Cas and Selene, she was outgoing and people were drawn to her. She was like a little ball of sunshine that made everyone around her happy. Cas and Selene always felt overprotective of her even before she got petrified. She was one of those people that you never wanted to see get hurt.

"Draco Malfoy tried to talk to me today," Cas shivered crossing her arms over her chest.

"Who is that?" Annie asked, her face in deep concentration as she painted something on Selene's cheek.

"You don't know who Draco Malfoy is?" Cas asked shocked.

Annie shrugged, "The name sounds familiar."

Though Annie has a lot of friends she didn't know who anyone else was. Maybe it is because she grew up with no knowledge of the Wizarding World but Selene and Cas could swear that she didn't know who Harry Potter was until their second year.

"Well," Cas continued, laying back on the grass, her braids fanning around her as she picked at the grass, "He is this Pureblood supremacist and he came up to me and said something about my parents and I told him to go fuck Pansy and leave me alone. Sorry if that offends you, Selene."

Selene shook her head and smiled but her eyes were still concerned. Cas was a Pureblood. Dumbledore told her as much when he came to tell her she got accepted into Hogwarts. Cass was adopted when she was just an infant and she had no idea who her real family was. She did not want to know. However, she was still very sensitive about that topic. She didn't know anything about her birth parents. She didn't even know if she was from England.

"Done," Annie suddenly said, leaning back, "Here."

She took a compact mirror out of her pocket that seemed to have everything. Selene flicked the mirror open and tilted her head to see the Shamrocks that were scattered on her cheekbones, matching her bow, "I love it Annie, thank you."

"Love it enough to go get me something to eat?" Annie asked hopefully, raising her eyebrows.

Selene smiled and nodded. She got up and started walking through tents and past people holding signs with advertisements on them, trying to find something Annie would like. Suddenly another child ran by, this time a little girl chasing a snitch. She ran right into Selene's legs causing her to stumble back into a person behind her, making them spill their drink.

"Merlin, I am so-," She then caught sight of the person she ran into, "So not sorry." She finished glaring at Theodore Nott.

He sneered, wiping the drink off of his Bulgaria jersey, muttering curses under his breath.

Selene snorted, "Of course you are rooting for Bulgaria."

"Bloody Hell," He said, shaking the Butterbeer from his hands, "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

Salene crossed her arms, wrinkling her nose, "You look like you would be into violent things."

He shook his head, "Well if it makes you feel better I thought 'Of course she is rooting for Ireland' when I saw you."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Selene scoffed.

"You just said the same thing to me," He practically shouted, though no one could hear or was paying attention due to the noise from the crowds of Quidditch fans, "And I said it because of your hair."

"My hair?" Selene asked, defensively grabbing a chunk that was over her shoulder "Not every redhead is Irish, Nott.'

"I know that," He said, wiping his hands on his jeans and rolling his eyes.

"But I would be willing to bet that every Bulgarian fan is a dick head just like you." Selene spat turning and storming away, only stopping to grab some food for Annie from a vendor screaming into the traffic of people.

When she got back, Cas turned to look at her, "What's wrong with you?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Selene groaned collapsing onto the ground.