𝔚𝔞𝔯 𝔬𝔣 ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔱𝔰 // 𝔍𝔞𝔪𝔢𝔰 𝔓𝔬𝔱𝔱𝔢𝔯

THREE || The Whomping Willow

Estella

The first week of school is always fairly easy, but the second is when homework really starts to be piled on. After spending hours in the library studying my brains out, it's a huge relief when I finally leave and begin my way outside to go on a walk and spend some time alone.

Expand your friend group. Bellatrix's words haven't left my head since she spoke them nearly three weeks ago. I've not expanded my friend group in the slightest, because I like my friends and not really anyone else.

Vanya is a good, loyal friend, I always listen to her problems and let her talk everything out, but I hardly ever do the same. If I have an issue, or a problem, or am struggling, I flick through my collection of Muggle cassette tapes and just listen to the music, problem solved.

Mattheo is also nice to hang out with, he's funny and makes any situation enjoyable, he's also a bit of a psycho; last year at his mother's funeral he kind of, er, took a picture of himself next to her casket with a Polaroid camera I got him for one of his birthdays, he was holding up some gang sign in the picture and keeps it up on his wall. He's still a good friend though.

Sirius is, well, he's Sirius. A bit like Mattheo to be honest, but more crazy and carefree. Regulus is a bit more uptight, but he has his "Sirius" moments too. I consider Sirius a whole personality.

A warm afternoon breeze sends my skirt and hair rippling in the wind as I walk around the grounds. I stare at the green grass beneath my feet the whole time, still stuck on how to make more friends, or whether not to at all.

I hum a quiet tune as I travel around the castle, it's calming me and helping me clear my head.

After about fifteen minutes, I stumble upon a root in the ground, my foot gets caught and I trip over it, falling to the cold ground and scraping my knee on the hard content of earth.

"Shit," I groan, watching blood blossom over my formerly smooth skin. Just as I'm about to heave myself to my feet, something rigid and strong strikes my back and I scream in pain as I'm thrown across the lawn, next to a tree trunk.

I inhale sharply and wince, trying with great difficulty to stand again, when a different branch thrashes me again with even more force than the previous. I'm shoved to the ground again, I let out a cry of agony, and then thinner branch wraps around my waist and seizes my body.

Screaming in terror at this bloody tree, I fight hard to get the branch off me, I kick and thrash and pull, but it wont release me.

"Help!" I cry as I'm thrown to the ground once more and the branches, oddly reminding me of fists, continue to beat the hell out of me.

"Estella?!" I hear someone yell my name, but I'm too distracted to see who it is, so I scream,

"HELP ME!" to whoever it is that's over there.

"I'm coming." I try to prevent the heavy branches from getting to me, but they do not stop, like they're protecting something with it's life, willing to do anything, even take my life.

The boy runs over and grabs a long branch from off the ground, he sticks it toward the tree and instantly, it all pauses, not hitting nor attacking me any longer.

I lay on the colder-growing ground, blood streaming from multiple places, including my head, bruises everywhere, and breathing choppy and unevenly, shutting my eyes tight as possible, keeping myself from tears at all costs.

"Shit," the boy approaches me, I felt humiliated; I just got beat up by a tree. "Oh god, that's blood." he breathes. I attempt to sit up and see who it is, the voice sounds familiar.