Prologue:
"Alexa! Hide!" Mommy whispered urgently to me, as she shoved me roughly under the bed.
The door to the room was kicked open, and I could see Mommy's feet being lifted off the ground.
"Traitor," a scratchy voice said.
There was an explosion, and Mommy fell to the floor. She lay limp, her blank eyes facing me.
I whimpered, tears rolling down my cheeks.
I saw someone's feet start to walk toward the bed, slowly.
"Alexa?" The scratchy voice said as if it were inside her head. "Come out."
When I didn't move, the bed was levitated up into the air, and I stared up into the face of evil.
Voldemort.
A twisted smile formed on his gray face, and he pointed his wand down at me.
I crawling over to where mommy lay, still on the floor.
"Mommy? Mommy wake up?" I said between sobs, shaking her.
At this, Voldemort laughed. Then, with a swish of his wand, he levitated me so that I hovered in the air.
"Where is your daddy, Alexa?" He rasped out.
The way he said my name frightened me.
"I don't know" I whimpered.
"Really?" He asked, an ugly smile forming on his face.
I suddenly felt a searing pain in my whole body, and I couldn't breathe.
"Then I suppose you are of no use to me, Alexa."
The pain in my body went on and on, for what felt like days. Voldemort laughed as he cast spell after spell upon me. Not anything that would kill me, just torture me.
"Please, don't kill me." I gasped out, after a while.
"Kill you? No. I'm not going to kill you." he breathed out in his hideous voice.
With that, I felt a pain worse than any other pain I had ever experienced in my life. The pain was in my left eye, and in my left leg. It lasted only a few seconds, but it left me completely breathless.
I was dropped to the floor. Voldemort vanished.
It was only when a Dumbledore and a group of Aurors arrived that I even noticed my leg. It was gone.
They had found me, in a puddle of my own blood, shaking mommy and pleading for her to wake up.
I was taken to St Mungo's Hospital, but they could not restore my leg. Somehow, Voldemort had made sure I could never have it back.
Something had been done to my eye. It felt cold and was green. I also saw only black, gray, and white out of it. But I could see bright colors out of it when I looked at someone. They were surrounded by one color or another. I didn't know what it meant. They didn't know what was wrong with it.
I had been tortured, and my mommy had been killed in front of me. That's all I could think about for a long time.
I don't know how long I stayed at St Mungo's Hospital, but eventually, they let me out to go live with my Aunt Cora.
THREE YEARS LATER:
I walked alongside Aunt Cora as we arrived at King's Cross Station.
My Hogwarts letter of acceptance had arrived 2 months prior, and I had been thrilled. It had been the first day in the last 3 years that I had actually felt truly happy.
Aunt Cora had been thrilled too. I think she was tired of taking care of a "damaged freak" as she always called me.
Truth be told, I was just as, or more excited as her to be getting away from life with Aunt Cora for once. I may be damaged and I may be a freak as she always called me, and I may be gloomy and quiet too, but at least I wasn't like Aunt Cora; Bitter, Cruel, self-centered, and always angry for no apparent reason. It had been hard living with someone like that.
I pushed my cart full of school supplies and boarded the train. It was had a few children looking for compartments on it, but most were already seated. Many of the children who saw me gave me strange looks upon seeing my wooden leg, and different colored eyes. Some even gave me frightened looks. I looked down, trying not to let it bother me, and tried to find a completely empty compartment. There were none, but there were quite a few with only one person already inside. I decided on a compartment with a blond haired girl who was reading alone.
My left eye could see a purple cloud surrounding the girl. I saw the cloud, and then my left eye went back to seeing in its normal black and white colors. Over the years, I had gotten to know what each color kind of meant. I couldn't always be sure though. I didn't usually pay any attention to what color each person's cloud was. I only bothered if I was planning on speaking to them at all. People with a purple cloud around them were usually mysterious, childish, sad, artistic and a bit arrogant.
They eye was a gift and a curse. It helped me really see what a person was like before I even knew them. It also made people incredibly nervous around me, especially if they knew that not only was this eye a different color, but it saw the world differently.
"May I sit here?" I asked politely. She looked at me, and then down at my leg.
"Uh, sure," she said, and then went back to reading.
I sat do and remained silent.
A moment later, a kind looking boy entered. The cloud of color around him flashed in my left eye quickly. Blue. Which could mean smart, calm, sensitive, intuitive and not easily angered. But, he also had a yellow mixed in.
"Do you mind if I sit here? Everywhere else seems to be is full," he asked, motioning at the seat opposite me.
"Of course." I smiled at him. "I'm Alexa," I said, holding out my hand.
He shook it shyly. "Remus." He said simply, smiling. He glanced at my left eye, and then down at my leg, but didn't say anything.
He had kind looking brown eyes, and his face had two scars running from his right cheekbone to his jaw. I felt comfortable around him, and he didn't seem as frightened or disgusted as most other children were of me.
We sat in a comfortable silence.
A black messy haired boy with glasses popped his head in. "Are these seats taken?" He asked.
The cloud was yellow around him. Energetic, optimism, easy-going, humor, and Courage.
It also had some orange in his cloud. Attraction, youthful, happiness, stand out, and outgoing.
I shook my head no, in response to his question, and looked down at my lap when he did a double take at me. He hesitated, as if wanting to leave on second thought, but then he seemed to shake himself.
"Oi!" He yelled over his shoulder. "In here you two!".
He took a seat next to Remus, and two other boys followed him in.
One was short and had straw blond hair and two large front teeth. He sat next to the boy with glasses and looked down at his lap, his hands fiddling nervously. He had a red-to-yellow cloud. Survival oriented, Intelligent, Humor, Childish and a dishonest nature,
The other boy had black hair, longer and smoother looking than the one with glasses. He looked at me up and down raising an eyebrow. He glanced at the boy with glasses, and then seated himself in the only free spot, next to me.
His cloud was the same as the boy with the glasses, but it had more orange, and it also had a bit of black in it. Black meant bold, rich, power, elegance, and evil. Normally, I would be frightened by seeing this color cloud. But, the boy mostly had the yellow and orange, and only specks of black. The color faded as quickly as it had appeared through my green eye.
The boy with the glasses held out his hand to Remus beside him.
"I'm James. James Potter."
Remus shook James' extended hand. "I'm Remus Lupin. It's a pleasure to meet you, James."
James looked over at me expectantly, his eyes lingering on my one green eye, and then glancing down at my leg.
"My name's Alexa Carrington," I said quietly.
James looked over at the blond haired girl beside me, who was still reading, and appeared oblivious to the group of all of us.
"And what's your name, love?" He asked her.
She didn't look up from her book, remaining silent.
"Shy?" He asked her laughing. "Fine by me. We'll call you, let's see.." He looked up in thought.
"Shyly" Suggested the boy next to me.
"Yes!" James exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "Very nice to meet you, Shyly." He said to her, and the other two boys laughed.
"This here's Peter Pettigrew," James said, gesturing towards the blond boy. "And that right there is Sirius Black." James motioning to the boy beside her.
Peter looked up upon hearing his name, forced a smile, not looking at anyone, and looked back down at his lap.
Sirius nodded his head at Remus in greeting and then turned to me. His gray eyes flickered to my green one and down to my wooden leg.
"What's wrong with your leg?" he asked bluntly. "And whats up with the different colored eyes?"
There was silence for a moment. It was the first time someone had actually asked me, and I didn't know how to respond. I didn't want to tell him the long, horrible truth.
"Uh, I was born like this." I lied.
"It's kinda, creepy." James said, then realizing what he said he quickly added, "And kinds cool at the same time." It didn't sound genuine, and I felt a little hurt.
"Thanks," I said quietly.
"Say, can you show us the whole thing? How far does it go up?" Sirius asked me.
I assumed he was speaking of my leg, and lifted up my skirt hesitatingly to show them. The wooden leg went up to the middle of my thigh. It wasn't like a normal wooden leg. It was magical, blending right in with my skin. I also had a little feeling in it. That was how I could jog.
They all gasped when I showed them, even the blond haired girl who was now paying attention apparently. I suppose they had never seen someone without a leg before.
"Gross!" Peter yelled out. It was the first sound I had heard come out of his mouth.
I felt my face get warm and quickly covered up my leg.
"You say you were born like that?" Asked an incredulous James.
"Yes," I said simply, looking down not meeting anyone's gaze.
There was a long moment of silence, and then James and Sirius started to play a game of Wizarding Chess, and I watched on in silence. I had never seen a game of Wizarding Chess before, and it was quite interesting.
Remus read a book for the remainder of the trip, and Peter and I watched the boys play. James won the first round, and then Sirius won.
Finally, the train stopped and there was a voice in the air that told us all to leave our baggage on the train to be collected.
All of the children got off the train and were greeted by a very large man named Hagrid who led us to boats in a lake.
Remus and the 3 other boys stuck together, and got on one boat, talking excitedly.
I followed the blond haired girl who the boys had dubbed "Shyly" onto another boat. She didn't seem to care that I stuck to her like glue. I didn't even know her name, but she didn't seem scared of me like the other children did.
Two other girls, who looked to be around my age got on the boat I was in and gave me disgusted looks, giggling behind their hands. I ignored them.
Both of their clouds surrounding them weren't completely any one color. They were mostly orange-ish. Attraction, stand out, wealth, youthful, and vain, would be what I would place in them. But I couldn't be very sure.
The boats all had lanterns on them. I could see across the lake that there was a mountain with a huge castle on top. The boats moved of their own accord toward the mountain, and we soon arrived at the castle. We all got off the boats. I had a bit of trouble getting off, but I was helped by the blond haired girl. She didn't say anything, she just helped me out. The two other girls sniggered, and she glared at both of them.
"Thank you," I said gratefully. She didn't reply.
Hagrid led us all to the castle doors. He opened the doors, stepping aside so we could all enter. We were all led up a long winding staircase, where we were met by a stern, yet kind faced women dressed all in black, wearing a large pointy hat on her head.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," the women said. "My name is Professor McGonagall. Please follow me." She turned and led us a huge stone and marble entryway into a tiny waiting room.
Her cloud was a mix between red and blue, but I didn't put much thought into what it meant. I was too nervous.
"Now," she said, turning back towards us all. "Before you may join the banquet, you will first be sorted into your houses. There is Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. All of which have great qualities and people. The sorting hat will determine where each of you belong. You will be sorted soon, so get ready" she said, and then left.
END OF CHAPTER 1.
I hope you liked this! Please tell me what you thought, and leave feedback. And any suggestions on how I can improve will be taken gratefully, not insulted-ly. Yes, I know that's not a word.
Also, I'm looking for a good beta for this story if anyone's interested. I want Constructive Criticism.
Thank you so much! The next chapter SHOULD be up next Sunday.