Ironwood (HP Next Generation FanFiction)

Chapter 3

"No my sweets." I say pointedly and return to my toast.

"I didn't mean to read it?" Louis groans.

"But you did." I sigh, feigning some hint of sympathy.

"Alright fine. Bigger issue; who forgets their kid's birthday?" Louis deflects and it sparks the anger in me.

"My mum forgets. And so does my dad if you needed to snoop so badly. They forget everything not immediately important and that includes but is not limited to my birthday. Bigger issue; invasion of privacy."

"Sometimes you're actually the worst Louis Weasley." Scorpius pouts having missed out on the other sweets as well. "Have you ever in the history of Albus and I knowing Aiko heard us talk about her family?"

Albus answers while Louis flounders and Hugo shakes his head after his own careful consideration, "The answer is no. You never have." Hugo, Albus, and Scorpius all give Louis irritated looks.

"Look it's just really bloody weird that your mum would forget your birthday. My mum would never-"

"Because your mum cares! She thinks you're important and special and worth her time. My mum doesn't-" I stop short and seethe.

"How does a mother not care?" Louis scoffs and something in my will breaks.

"She just fucking doesn't." I burst and am instantly embarrassed. Pushing my plate and tea cup away I get up from the table and quietly run-walk out of the hall wandering as if on autopilot down to the fields beside Hagrid's hut. On last minute I decide to sit in the gardens surrounded by the tall stalks of summer wheat and half-grown giant pumpkins that were already almost the size of me.

I couldn't say why it was so meditative all I knew was the surroundings along with the crisp breeze calmed all my particles.

Talon found me almost as soon as I sat in the middle of the pumpkins asking permission to go on the hunt that I promised him. I send him off to it and take a deep breath. No one had questioned me about my parents since 1st year and I had been grateful for it.

My mum and dad weren't bad parents. Hayato and I never needed for anything. We're kept healthy physically. They're just both emotionally absent. Mum more so than dad. It was strange to anyone else but it is my life. Birthdays and whatnot were just days. Mum and Dad didn't even celebrate their anniversary. They went to more annual meetings than anything else.

They weren't bad parents. Just not typical parents. I guess.

Thinking about it was getting me wound up so I took a deep breath and laid back against a conveniently deformed pumpkin and closed my eyes letting the chill of the breeze seep into my skin giving me pleasant goosebumps. I focused my senses on specific things; the sound of the trees rustling in the wind, the smell of the lake mixing with the aromas of the garden, I busied my hands with a dead vine loose in the dirt within reach. Immersed in picturing my breaths travel from my head all the way down to the base of my spine and then down through my toes.

Pleasant. Pleasant. Pleasant.

"Excuse me."

I screamed. Jumped up to my feet but twisting my ankle in the process.

"Damn it all to hell." I moan, bent over and balanced on one foot while I cradle the other.

"Sorry. Sorry." Strong thin arms snake around me just under my arms and hold me steady. I look over to my assaulter and scream again this time I fall straight on my butt and let out a yelp.

"Who the bloody hell are you?" I massage my injured ankle.

"Sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you." The girl in her Durmstrang coat scrunches her face in concern. "My name is Asta. What's your name?"