How to Be a Pureblood

Chapter 3 | It's stupid to think someone will care for you always

It's stupid to think someone will care for you always

Be there for you all the time

'Cause one day you'll blink

And that's when you learn it the hard way

A Thousand Ways - Phoebe Ryan

TW: Nonverbal character (I'm keeping this in the triggers because if I read enough nonverbal character pov, I can go nonverbal, and maybe other people have that too. idk), mild ableism (?), anxiety attack, anxiety, sensory overload, mentioned child neglect.

 Rhiannon started writing the letter after dinner.

She wrote carefully, with bigger letters than she'd normally bother with. They made her look like a child, because she couldn't write as small as everyone else. But it was more important to make it readable.

Dear Mum and Dad,

She stopped, lifting the quill from the parchment.

She didn't know what to say. Sorry that I got sorted into Slytherin? Except that wasn't her fault. It was that stupid hat who kept saying that it was where she belonged, and that to put her anywhere else would 'waste her potential'.

She'd tried very hard to explain that she knew she didn't fit in Gryffindor, but she'd be fine in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff.

Mum would have sent that letter by now if she'd been a Hufflepuff. Rhiannon was sure.

She wiped angrily at her eyes, glaring at the wet smear of tears it left on her hand.

If she stayed here, everyone in the common room was going to see her cry. And she couldn't...she couldn't do that.

She pushed everything as quickly as she could into her bag before she ran for the stairs to her dorm.

It was such a stupid hat. It looked dumb, and she hated it!

If it weren't for that stupid hat, Mum would still... Mum would still love her.

Mum wouldn't be ignoring her, because she wouldn't be a... a stupid Slytherin!
She'd be normal and Mum wouldn't hate her and Ron wouldn't be ignoring her either!

The room was, thankfully, empty.

Rhiannon still grabbed the massive blanket from her bed and crawled underneath.

The blanket got stuck halfway, evidently tucked under the mattress, and no amount of tugging dislodged it.

She gave up with a sob, burying her face in the part of the blanket she had.

She wanted everything to go back to normal.

She wanted to go home.

She wanted to read books up in her tree until all the stars came out, and she wanted Percy to come out and find her with some dinner in a napkin because she forgot to come in and Mum forgot to call her again.

She wanted him to climb up in the tree with her and cast a quiet lumos spell with his hands, the only wandless spell he'd managed, and she could tell him all about everything she just learned, or the story she read and she wanted him to listen and not tell her to shut up because Percy doesn't like being told to shut up either.

She wanted to sneak into bed and pretend to be asleep, and she wanted Mum to remember to kiss all their heads once they were in bed but not before.

Except Mum didn't forget her letter, she didn't write it because Rhiannon was a Slytherin and Mum hated Slytherins.