Obscure

Crazy Hair Lady

As I wandered through the labyrinthine that is the MACUSA headquarters aimlessly on rounds for Mr Graves, I couldn't help but let my mind wander. A few days had passed since Mr Graves had hit me, things were reasonably ok considering, he hadn't so much as looked at me. I worked a few more shifts at the bar, Martha was quickly becoming a close friend of mine. She just had this thing about her, I could hear her laugh from across the club and instantly my mood would be lightened. She was just so nice and bubbly, we already had so many inside jokes and quirks - I had never had that with someone and honestly I couldn't pick someone better to experience this with. I don't know what I did to deserve to meet her. Credence had made himself scarce since the incident with Mr Graves, I didn't tell him about that because that would have shattered his little heart but it was almost as if he could sense something was not quite right. 

"Miss, what floor?" Oh, I must have made it to the elevator already. 

Before I could even open my mouth to reply a rather flustered, angry witch muttered a floor to the goblin at my side whilst dragging a rather befuddled and dazed wizard behind her. The wizard's blue coat caught my eye and I turned to look at the pair as the wrought iron elevator shuddered into life. 

"Victoria!" the little witch gasped pulling me into a rough hug. As she pulled away I studied her face gasping also as I realised who she was. 

"Tina!" I squeaked, "How have you been lovely? It's been a hot minute huh? And who's your friend?" the young witch rocked on the balls of her feet exhaling and looking at the wizard whom looked away and clutched his suitcase closer to his chest awkwardly. 

"Oh, uh... I got demoted. And this is Mr Newt Scamander - and he is far from a friend." she blushed and shuffled her feet avoiding my gaze as she talked about the demotion. 

"Aw sweetie! Come here." I opened my arms and held her, "You know if they demoted you they sure as hell don't deserve to have someone as awesome as you working for them, ok?" I pulled back and held her at arms length "Ok?"  

"Ok," she sighed as we were ushered hastily out of the elevator by the rather irritable goblin. "Thank you for your kind words Victoria." I smiled warmly. Newt who thought he had been forgotten about  tried to slowly walk away, his back to me. I laughed.

"Mr Scamander!" I ran at him and back hugged him giggling as he let out a far from manly squeak. "It's rude to leave us all on our lonesome Mr! I'm Victoria Nott, pleasure to meet you!" he turned to face me, never quite meeting my eyes with his gorgeous ones. 

"The pleasure is all mine miss." he stuttered, he had a noticeable British accent unlike me who had masked my own from a few months of being in New York. Newt shuffled uncomfortably  and I took a minute to appreciate the sight in front of me. His brown hair tumbled clumsily over his face in loose, fluffy curls. His face was splattered perfectly with beautiful freckles. Speaking of which his face was perfect. I didn't think even I could recreate this. He intrigued me so much with his sweet smile and avoidance of eye contact. 

I giggled happily as he extended his hand to shake mine and did so smiling at me. I was so happy to have met someone so interesting! I swatted my brown curls out of my face. 

Wait.

I didn't have brown curls 10 minutes ago. I had a sleek black bob. 

Oh Merlin. 

Newt and Tina gaped at me as if I had sprouted a second head - fantastic. You see I can explain this, I promise. 

When I was born a metamorphmagi, my parents were far from ecstatic. They hid me away, ashamed their daughter was such a freak. They didn't care for me and quite frankly I don't know how I would've made it if it weren't for my older brother Arthur. He looked after me when no one else would, nursed my wounds and bought me glasses when that happened. I was never taught how to control my metamorphing powers . I taught myself as best I could with the occasional input from Arthur. Despite our efforts I never learnt how to fully control my powers. Whenever I felt a strong emotion my body would morph to match my mood. 

For example, in 3rd year of Hogwarts Peter Smith - the bully of the year pushed me into the Great Lake. As the skittish little girl I had a rather irrational fear of the large body of water and thrashed and screamed my little lungs out. Unknown to me my hair turned pure white and got very very short and spiky -standing up at all kinds of crazy angles. Peter rather unfortunately decided he should get the whole school to refer to me as the "Crazy Hair Lady" for the rest of my time at Hogwarts. Honestly I think he should get plus points for creativity and originality - Shakespeare himself would be proud... not .

Evidently as I had just found out brown, cropped and curly hair meant I was happy - I had never felt happy like this before. 

Newt cleared his throat and stared at me in amazement, Tina however just looked baffled. I dreaded to think what I looked like now.  I squeaked, unable to make any intelligible sound and hurried past them, breaking into a run heading towards Mr Graves' office.