CARA MIA - THEODORE NOTT

birthday

"Good morning miss seventeen."

"Shit, did I wake you?" I ask my sister since I'm up early to go practise quidditch.

"Yeah but It's your day, happy birthday."

"Thank you, but let's not remind anyone, okay?" I smile hoping she agrees.

"Jaida Brown." She knows not to add the Parkinson.

"Have to go, love you lots. Remember our deal." I rush out of the room so she can't respond.

When my head needs clearing I always find myself up practising quidditch on the field. Due to the high risk of the sport you can't really think about anything other than what you're doing.

What's on my mind right now, is the thought that it's my first birthday without my father. Usually on birthdays I would meet up with my parents and go for lunch all together. Now? Not even sure if my mum will remember what today is.

Having everyone wish me happy birthdays will be every time my father could be the one saying it. That's why I don't want Pansy to remind anyone.

Arriving at the field someone else had the same idea as me. I can't tell what colour jersey they are wearing from this distance so I stick to my plan and walk over.

"Morning."

"Oh it's you, good morning." I said oh because George is standing in front of me and that was a relief.

"George! Throw me my bat!" Looking up I see the same person I see in front of me. Fred realises it's me and the eye contact is held until he lands.

"Hi." I smile hoping he's not still mad.

"Hi." He grabs the bat and flies off.

George looks at me unknowing of what's happened and I stand there in shock. Picking my stuff back up I smile at George and walk away. A lump forms in my throat which I try to swallow back down along with blinking excessively to stop the tears.

Instead of walking back into the castle I walked across the field and into the forbidden forest. It's daytime so nothing bad should be in there and I still need to clear my head. Now, more than ever.

Finding a slight path in the dirt and shrubs I walk deeper with my hands free now as I left my gear at the entrance.

The sound of mythical creatures is looming all around me. Branches cracking and leaves shifting but nothing scares me right now. Tears start running and now I start running deeper and deeper.

After a while my legs feel like jelly and my lungs are about to explode. I sit down against a tree, my arms wrapped around my legs and my head down.

This is why I couldn't handle a relationship. One thing sets me off and then numerous things flood to my mind making it even worse. I check my pockets for my phone and realised I left it with my gear.

Standing up I try to find the path I walked in on, only for a bunch of dirt to be in my sight. Fuck. I've forgotten which way I got in. Not caring I pick a route and stick to it, not knowing if I'm heading deeper in or getting out. Now I realise why this place is off limits, even during the day.

Getting creeped out now I up my pace in the direction I hope is the exit. Behind me sounds like an army of things shuffling the leaves but I prefer not to look.

Although, the sound gets closer and sounds faster so I look behind in fear. Stopping dead in my tracks I see a massive spider heading straight for me. My legs still feel like jelly but I don't care, this is the fastest I have ever ran.

From the years I studied mythical creatures I'm pretty sure this is a thorn back spider. Which one? I could not tell you. But, red and white shading indicates it could be an ambusher.

This is quickly confirmed when it starts shooting webs at me to incapacitate me. Now I'm running in zig zags trying to avoid this. It's got to run out of webs soon.

Running out of breath, I fear my pace is slowing down. I feel a sticky sensation cover my entire body causing me to fall to the ground immediately. It hit me. I scramble to unleash myself from the web whilst watching the spider get closer and closer.

Thankfully, I get out in time but running becomes painful specifically in my ankle. This doesn't stop me from jumping down a cliff and hiding underneath it. Hoping that it's safe I sit down trying to catch my breath and notice purple marks where the web touched me. My knees cut up, arms bruised, and my ankle swollen.

Just when I thought it couldn't get worse everything around me becomes dizzy. Not like drunk dizzy, like as if my eyes are doing three sixties every second. Colours start to fade, and trying to focus my body looses complete function. Falling onto rocks everything turns black.