𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐃𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐓| 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐨 𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐟𝐨𝐲✔️

𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍|𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐒

MARA WILLIAMS

I had a dream that I was back in my old house, in my old life, with my mother pouring over her favourite leather bound book. All in Russian, her native tongue, I had never been able to read it myself, though she'd told me many tales of the beauty that lay within the confines of that faded green cover.

She looked older than I remembered. Worn. Beaten down by the hardships of life. Her jet black hair held a single white streak that fell over her face as she read. Foreign lines marred her face, like rivers of worry carving their way from her downcast eyes.

"Mother?" I said softly, as if speaking too loudly would shatter this illusion and I would be sent crashing back to the land of the living. Though I knew it wasn't, I wished that this could all be real, that I could smell her lemongrass scent once more, feel the comforting embrace of her warm arms once more.

She tore her emerald eyes from her pages but said nothing. She looked frightened, her once kind eyes were wide and fearful.
I watched in horror as a deep blue bruise began to blossom around her right eye. A single scarlet tear crawled down her cheek, from a deep slash that suddenly appeared above her brow as if carved by an invisible blade.

"Mum!" I cried trying to reach her but strong arms held me from her, they wrapped around my waist so tightly I could hardly breathe. My lungs restricted and ached with the absence of oxygen. A strangled shout stifled in my throat as I felt fire coarse thick and bitter through my veins.

I was watching her die all over again.

"Stop!" I screamed till my throat was hoarse and I could taste copper on my tongue. I thrashed against the invisible restrains as her lip split in two, blood dripping down her chin and spilling onto the pages of her book.
"Make it stop!...Mum!"

A dark figure emerged from the blackness behind her and I instantly felt sick, bile rising in my throat. "Leave her alone!"

He rested his bloody hands on her shoulders, his familiar cold countenance glaring back at me with just as much hate as I gave him.
"Don't you touch her!" I spat, he inspired an unguarded rage within me like no other could. "You did this!"

My tears choked my words. "You're a monster."

• • •

I slammed my book down on the table a little harder than I'd indented too as it earned a hissing hush from the librarian, Madame Prince.
I winced and mouthed a small sorry, which did little to quell the impertinence in her mousy face as I sat down quietly, flicking through the pages of the wisened book trying to find the chapter about the properties of Gillyweed.

Professor Snape had already bollocked me once today for not even knowing what the strange thing was, and that was traumatic enough, I wasn't about to let it happen again anytime soon.
I could still feel the embarrassment burning in my cheeks at the thought of how he'd belittled me in front of the entire class, even going so far as to compare me to Neville Longbottom. Harsh.

Gillyweed is a magical plant that, when administered orally, allows a the individual to breathe underwater for a limited time. It is said to resemble a bundle of slimy, grey-green rat tails.
When eaten, the consumer will grow temporarily gills, allowing them to breathe underwater, and webbing between the fingers and toes, allowing them to swim underwater with ease...

I closed the book. It was useless. I couldn't concentrate, not when my skin felt as though it were crawling. I sent a heated glare straight to the source as he sat down across the desk from me.
"Do you mind?" I scowled.