𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐌𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 (OC x OC)

[003] CHAPTER 01 - winner

"packed my bags at fourteen."

Makayla

In one month, I'll be returning to Hogwarts. Honestly, I cannot wait. Each year has happened to bring us all some sort of danger, but I don't care. Being in danger constantly is more thrilling than being alone in this mansion all summer while the rest of my family are out of the country. Dobby hasn't been here to accompany me as much as I've been hoping for. He visits from time to time, but all he talks about is what it's like to be free. I'm not free—and I can't be offered Harry Potter's sock to get there, either.

I write about the previous day in a notebook while I wait for the rooster's crow. The house is silent, other than Mackarel and his siblings playing downstairs.

The ink in my quill is running out, so I go to dip the tip into the cup of black liquid, only to see that it's far too little liquid for me to be able to genuinely write about anything. I sigh and set my notebook down to the side, venturing downstairs.

I nearly trip over Mackarel as I enter the kitchen.

"Be careful!" I scold him in a whispering manner. I can't wake anyone up.

He scurries away as I make my way outside. The sun appears to finally be rising. Its warmth gives me a sense of peace and helps me wake up a tad. I use its light to guide me to the garden.

Closing the fence gate behind me, I walk into the greenhouse. I ignore a Deatheater that's experimenting on some flowers as I tend to my own crops.

I don't pick them, I only take a notebook and a pencil from a side table and summarize how they appear. Some people would call me a nerd, which is why no one but the Deatheater behind me knows about it, but I don't use the research for learning purposes, that's gross, I use them for painting. That might be more pathetic, which is why Louis, unfortunately, is the only one to know about my hobby.

"MAKAYLA!" I hear my father shout angrily from inside the house. What now?

I run inside and see our whole family crowded in the living room wearing their nightgowns, father holding Mackarel by the hair on his neck. His siblings crowd around my feet.

"What are you doing?" I shout in horror, "Put him down! You could—"

"Hurt him? We won't have him for much longer," Father reprimands me.

"What do you mean?" My throat strangles myself.

The idea of not having Mackarel with me eats at me inside. He's my best friend. When Dobby isn't here, Mackerel is the one to keep me company. Going to school sucks, but when I go to Hogwarts with Mackarel it seems worth it. I don't want to go to school and deal with my siblings laughing at me for no longer having a cat or people asking me, Hey, where's Mackarel? Where did he go? I'd rather shoot myself in the face with the Sectumsempra curse. Not that I know what that is.

"Your pet thought it'd be funny to ruin our couches."

I look at the couch and sigh. There are scratched everywhere. "That doesn't mean that we have to get rid of him."

He drops Mackarel on the ground. The moment that he reaches the floor, he scurries behind me. "Are you questioning my authority, Makayla?"

"He's a cat—an untrained cat. The only thing I'm questioning is your judgment."

Father starts slowly walking toward me, "What did you just say to me?"

"You have poor judgment when it comes to me because you can't accept the fact that you have me—a nobody—as a daughter—"

He slaps me.

It stings, causing my eyes to water.

"Don't you ever speak to me that way again," Father shouts in my face.

A tear escapes my eyes as I look up at him, responding coldly with, "Yes sir."

I walk up two flights of stairs to reach my bedroom, shutting the door as the cats follow me in. Pressing the lock on the door knob, I slide down the pathetic plywood, breaking down.

I can't go on another year with this bullshit. He is ruining my life one holiday at a time. It's time to act on it.

It's time to go.

I grab a backpack and a few cages that I can stuff the cats into. When I finish packing, the only stuff in my room are my bed and the cat hair that remains everywhere.

I had not planned on leaving Mafloy Manor, but Fa— ... No. He's no longer my father. Lucius Malfoy has not treated me like a Malfoy for years, or ever.

I count the cats in the cages. One... Two... Three... Four... Five...

Mackerel isn't in a cage.

I hear a whispered charm behind the door, then the turning of the doorknob. Someone walks in. It's my mother. She's holding my cat.

"You forgot him downstairs," she says, her voice quivering at the sight of the nearly empty attic.

I take Mackarel from her arms, putting him in a cage, "Thank you..."

"You're leaving...—"

"I can't stay here," I blurt out. "He is going mad."

"You won't want to forget this." She hands me the notebook from the greenhouse.

"How did you—"

"Whenever you're painting, you stare at the writings in it. I supposed it was what you used to know what to paint."

"It was... And is. I use it to paint my plants in the garden. I'm going to have to find a new greenhouse to put plants in when I leave."

"Are you going to say your goodbyes?"

I can tell that she wants me to, but I can't. Lucius has all of them wrapped around his finger.

"No. I can't... I don't want to."

"What about Nora?"

She had to say her name, didn't she?

"She'll be fine," I say, my voice struggling to stay stable as much as I struggle to zip my suitcase up. "I'll still be going to Hogwarts. I'll see her in 7th year."

"She'll see this as you abandoning her."

"She'll see this as whatever he wants her to see it as. Everyone will."

"I won't."

I sigh, not realizing how shaky my voice is until I release the breath. "I hope we'll see each other under kinder circumstances, mother."

"Me as well."

I put the notebook in my backpack, which I put an invisible extension charm on, and whip it around my back. Then I take the multiple cages and turn back to my mother.

"I love you, mum."

"I love you, too," she says.

I teleport to the first place I think of, not letting her finish saying Happy Birthday.