A R C A N E | Harry Potter Story | Rewrite of Metanoia

.1.

The door slammed behind Jamie as she collapsed on her bed. Her eyes traced her ceiling. It was white. She'd always hated white walls. Having only been living in the college dorms for a week now, Jamie had no time to redecorate. Instead, she'd been living in a room that felt more like a dentist's waiting room.

Her phone buzzed with an alert of a missed call from her mum. After reading the weather warning for incoming storms, she switched her phone off, squeezing her eyelids tightly to stop feeling so dizzy. She'd call back later — she wasn't in the mood for a lecture about how she ruining her future with useless choices for her education. Jamie heard that enough from herself.

Some part of her was grateful that Kit wasn't home. Jamie liked her roommate well enough but their endless enthusiasm wasn't what she was looking for right now. She didn't need to hear how it was perfectly fine to be overwhelmed and eventually she would feel better. The devil worked hard but Kit Andrews worked harder.

Jamie needed something to do. She checked her phone and blue light engulfed her face. Squinting through the sudden glow, she made out the numbers 20:30. The swimming centre would be closed by now so she couldn't even drown her worries in water that may or may not have tiny children's piss in it.

If she was being honest, the thing she really needed was to talk to Liisu, the one person she could be herself around. She nearly did it. She nearly pressed the call icon, even if it was just so she could hear that lilting voice answer.

But she didn't. It wasn't fair to either of them.

With a sigh, she switched off her phone. There was only one thing for it. She made her way to her open suitcase.

Under all her clothes, she'd buried a CD player. It was sort of stupid to still have it, even when she could get something with much better quality on her phone. But her nonna had given it to her so the cd player stayed. Along with an impressive collection of CDs, Jamie also had audiobooks. A LOT of CD audiobooks. She liked them but in a situation like this, only one could bring her proper comfort.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

She'd gotten into the series when she was eight. The last movie had finally come out and the world had been taken by storm. Somewhere in London, a small girl didn't know any of that though. She was opening a book that she'd bought from a charity shop that day, enticed by the colourful cover. She had no clue how much it would stick with her.

Jamie flopped down on her bed, closing her eyes to listen to Stephen Fry read.

"Mr and Mrs Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much..."

She wasn't sure how long she sat there listening to the book, unmoving. It slid into nighttime and Kit wasn't back yet, so she didn't get interrupted either. She just listened.