Harry Potter One-Shots

Chapter | 2

Contest #2: Chapter 2

   Saturday, August 4, 1983

    "Helena, dear," Margarette Stotch called from across the foyer as Helena raced around her room, making sure everything was in her small, white purse for their trip. "Are you positive that you want to go attend Hogwarts? Would not Beauxbatons Academy of Magic be better for you?" 

     Helena paused, reaching her hand into her pocket at pulling out the letter that she had received merely the afternoon before last. Beaming down at it, she unfolded the letter and let her eyes scour the crinkled pages once more in delight. She had been waiting two years for this letter. 

    Her mother and father couldn't understand why she had wanted so desperately to go to Hogwarts, but Helena knew she could never tell them the truth; she feared them too much. Franny and her husband easily could forget that fateful night when he mother had tortured them into the early hours of dawn, but Helena was less fortunate. 

    Her mother, Margarette, demanded Howard to keep Helena's memory intact; she wanted her to remember everything that had happened. Even to this day, Helena was haunted by those thoughts. 

   Tuesday, November 1, 1981: 

    Margarette gripped Helena's shoulders, peering down into her daughter's startlingly green eyes, they were being contrasted by the red rings forming around her pupils from her pitiful tears. "No need to cry anymore, deary," Margarette soothed her, wiping her cheeks, "They will forget by the morning, but - you don't want to forget, do you?" 

    The way Helena's mother dug her long, painted nails into her forearms told Helen what she needed to say. "N-no, momma," Helena's bottom lip quivered as she watched her father spare the two girls a look of angst. "P-please let me go!" Helena sobbed, tearing out of Margarette's grasp as her mother broke through the skin, drawing blood.

    "Sorry, momma didn't realize..." Margarette dropped her sentence, rubbing her daughter's arms in remorse, "Baby, I'm sorry. You know we only want the best for you, right?" 

    Helena dropped her eyes towards her feet, feeling ill as she took in her blood-coated toes. "Why?" Helena prodded, lifting her eyes onto her mother's steel grey ones. ""Why did you hurt Franny and her husband?"

    "Information, dear -"

    "Margarette, don't." Howard stepped forward, sending a silencing glare to his wife. This was information about the family that he did not want his only child to bare for the rest of her life. "We can't make her bare this disgrace, we must erase -"

    "Stop being a fool, Howard!" Margarette screeched in Helena's ear, causing her to cringe back, fearful of her mother's tone. "She's our daughter! She needs to be aware of truth - incase something happens. She must know why."

    Howard's gaze stiffened, but he backed down. His wife was right; they respected their own daughter enough to let her know the truth; to let her live in the truth - not a lie. 

    "Helen," Margarette called her daughter's attention, as it was wavering towards the damaged couple beside her, "What are we?" 

    "Hufflepuffs?" The small girl responded, not sure what the correct answer was, but fearing the worst if she were to answer it incorrectly.

    Margarette nodded, eyes alight with pride, "Yes! Yes, we are, my dear girl." Margarette nodded, patting her daughter's fiery hair. "And, what do they say about us?"

    "You might belong in Hufflepuff, Where they are just and loyal, Those patient Hufflepuffs are true, And unafraid of toil." Helena quoted the inscription that was embroidered onto her stuffed badger's foot. All her life, Helena had been brought up with a firm understanding of the Hufflepuff family.

    While the Stotch family was not directly related to the Hufflepuffs, they were distant relatives and it was very uncommon for a Stotch to be anything other than the humble and kind house. However, many people were wrong about the nature of badgers.

    "Despite the truth about them being humble and just, badgers were not always nice and loving. They are protective of their own - cunning when need be," Margarette explained to her daughter, biting her lip and holding back the tears that threatened to spill out, "We may seem sweet, but threaten our family and friends and you will be in for a surprise."

    Howard nodded, leaning down towards his daughter and laying a hand on his wife's shoulder. "We made a choice, join the Dark Lord and keep you safe, or be at risk for the rest of our lives,"

 ~~

    'They chose wrong,' Helena thought to herself as she sat on her bed, almost two years later as she held the clever little pages from the trusting school in her hands. Hogwarts trusted her. Hogwarts trusted her family. They believed that the Stotch family was pure of heart and just. But, as Helena glared down at the curved writing, she knew they were mistaken.

    'Perhaps the people at Hogwarts are fools,' Helena detested them already, and she hadn't even been there. Just by the notice she had received from the House Head of Hufflepuff, she knew that her parents had been great actors. 

        'Dear Miss Stotch,

    As the first letter you have already received has clearly stated, you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Congratulations  dear. I realize that this is all relative, but I fear I just can not contain my excitement to learn of you coming to our humble school! I am excited to see you grow into the marvelous young woman that I know you are destined to be, how could you not with such an amazing Mother? We, here at Hufflepuff especially, are looking forward to having you. 

        Love, your Aunt, Pomona Sprout.'

    Helena remembered her aunt, but only a little. She never visited and was always drenched in the stench of fertilizer and dragon dung. But, perhaps it would not be so bad. Perhaps it would be nice to learn more about her family from unbiased opinions like her mother and father. 

    Grabbing her bag, Helena set the letter on top of the nightstand and listened as her mother's voice carried across the hall.

    "Did you read that letter, Howard?" Margarette paced by the front door, waiting her daughter's arrival so they could go shopping in Diagon Ally. Margarette was afraid of staying anywhere for too long. Paranoia seeping into her bones more and more with other Death Eaters either being locked away or disappearing into thin air. They had met a few bumps in the road such as questioning Aurors and malicious rumors were spread about them. Somehow, they had survived so far. 

    "Yes, I did. Nothing seemed wrong with it, Margarette," Howard sighed, but despite his friendly nature, he too was feeling the Ministry's tight grasp around them. He too was fearful for their family. 

    "I told you," Helena's mother muttered, eyes darting around, hands shaking, "We needed to move ages ago - Romania, France, hell - even America would have sufficed!"

    "You don't think I have thought of that as well?" Howard countered, pinching the bridge of his nose and slipping his eyes shut in irritation. "That would only have raised suspicion, we have talked about this," He began to further contemplate their situation when Helena quietly approached, wringing her hands.

    Helena bowed her head and whispered, "Can I not go to Hogwarts anymore?"

    "Of course you can," her mother furrowed her brow, shooting her husband a look of concern, "Of course you can, baby."

yeah... I know this is really short - and, I need to get chapter 3 out by 10, or I will be disqualified (or something!) UGH! Procrastination is my fatal flaw >.e