Episkey My Heart

Orphan

Aster Potter was not an ordinary child.

Ordinary children didn't make things explode when they were upset. Ordinary children didn't make their own hair grow back up in one night after a particularly nasty foster brother shaved their head bald. Ordinary children didn't end up on the roof after one single jump while running away from a bad foster parent belt. Ordinary children didn't have snakes as their best friends. Ordinary children  didn't have lightning bolt scars on their chests that simply never healed properly.

So no, Aster Potter was not an ordinary person and she didn't think she'd ever be, no matter how hard she tried. But, while running away from the other kids at the Orphanage who had just decided to play their favoritism game of 'Aster Hunting' she wished, not for the first time, that she was indeed normal. Because maybe then her parents would have wanted her then, wouldn't have left her on the doorstep of the orphanage with nothing but a blanket with her name on it and maybe, just maybe, if she were normal the other kids wouldn't hate her so much.
Getting out of breath after running for what felt like hours, but was just a couple dozen minutes, Aster leaned against a wall knowing the others would find her any minute now and she'd probably arrive at the orphanage later with more than a few bruises to show.

Honestly, the rush from being allowed to walk from the orphanage to school and back like a big girl dimmed considerably once she realized she'd be walking with the other children who hated her. Or more accurate that she'd be running away from them while they threw whatever they could at her back and taunted her about her 'freakness'.

"Come on, I just saw her there!" The disembodied voice of Eric Capri came followed by the footsteps of his merry band of bullies, he was the dumbest and oldest of the kids from the orphanage who attended her school, making him their impromptu leader.

"I don't know why we have to run after her every single day! She doesn't even cry anymore." Alice Danvers whined in a breathless tone of voice. She was two years older than Aster and just a year younger than Eric, she was also the meanest when it came to insults and wouldn't give it a rest until Aster was a crying mess.

"I... don't... know... how... you... can... talk... and... run... like... that." Joey Green butted in, his breathing coming out in desperate puffs, he wasn't the most athletic child and if it wasn't for peer pressure he wouldn't bother to chase after the Potter girl at all. He didn't like or dislike her, but he did hate running.

"Shut up! Both of you, she'll hear and hide." Eric snapped, making the other two quiet down immediately, neither wanting to be on his bad side.

After a few more seconds of waiting for the inevitable, Aster saw the other children arrive at the entrance of the alley she was currently in. They looked into the alley, straight into her eyes, for all of one second, making Aster blood run cold and her eyes automatically drop to glare at her own feet, lest she make them even madder by looking directly into their eyes.

But then they kept running.

It was as if they hadn't even seen her! She looked up shocked when she realized the footsteps weren't stopping or getting any closer. She waited a few more seconds expecting their pea sized brain to realize they had run past her, but they never did. How they missed her she wouldn't know but, God, was she happy they did.

Reasoning it was best not to try her luck anymore today, she decided against leaving for the orphanage just yet. Eric's gang would probably assume she was heading back when they didn't find her and she would try to avoid meeting them for as long as she could. So, with that in mind, Aster Potter started to walk deeper into the alley, further apart from her bullies and, unbeknownst to her, further apart from the muggle world.