Aveline Potter - The Truth

Chapter 1: The Adoption

31st July, 1989

It was Aveline's 9th birthday. Maybe they'd let her out of her room as a gift. But when was the last time they'd actually given her a gift? She dreaded this day. Because she had a 'holiday', as they would call it, from her homeschool. Meaning the only person she could ever interact with decently wouldn't be coming. She hated her birthdays. It marked another year gone in this emotional torture. Her only connection to the outside world was her tutor and the books she sneaked in for her 'star pupil'. Aveline doubted that she was really her star pupil. Her other students must be smarter. They're treated as normal human beings. So they're much smarter than her, right? Although, her tutor was only a few months older than her. She was called a prodigy. How many students can a 9-year-old have?

Aunt Petunia was nice to her on her birthdays and gave an extra portion in her meals. She didn't see her Aunt often, but when Aunt Petunia slid the tray of food through the cat flap, she spoke in a soft and kind voice. Did Uncle Vernon beat her too? Aveline worried about what the men in her house did. Uncle Vernon was abusive. Dudley was destructive. Harry had major anger issues. How is a woman to survive? She read a lot of books on society that her tutor brought for her. She loved reading. It was the only way to spend time and get lost in an imaginative world without losing your sanity.

Aveline was sitting on the windowsill, staring at the sidewalk, as she painted her thoughts in her mind like an infinite one-stroke painting. She saw a car pull into the driveway. Harry, Dudley, Aunt Petunia, and Uncle Vernon got out. Aveline didn't know she was home alone. Dudley was laughing and pointing at Harry, saying something. Aunt Petunia was ushering the boys in. Uncle Vernon looked up. Directly at Aveline. So much detest in his eyes, it creeped her out.

It was Harry's birthday today too. He was allowed into her room once a week on Sunday, and unfortunately, today was Sunday. Sundays really are special, aren't they? The voices downstairs merged into chaos even though it was only four, well maybe three, people talking. The deep baritone of Uncle Vernon's voice and the high pitch of Aunt Petunia's voice often created quite a discord.

Aveline waited for Harry to come up and start complaining about his day, not caring about hers. She waited for him to come up and ask her what she did and start on about his own day without waiting for an answer. She waited for him to ask what she's doing on that stupid windowsill sitting like an ungrateful freak, when he has to suffer at the hands of Dudley and his newfound gang of bullies everyday. She waited for him to tell her how grateful she should be for the way things are and that she's safe from the outside world. But she didn't want to be safe. She wanted to be free.

So she waited. Fifteen minutes. Thirty minutes. An hour. She got tired of counting the time. There was no clock in her room, so she had learned how to tell time with the sky from one of the books her tutor got her. She was good at keeping track of time. She'd count the seconds and minutes and hours to keep herself sane without proper sunlight. She got tired of it. She decided to count the cracks on their neighbour's brick wall. A short one, on which a silver tabby cat was sitting. It had unique square patches around its eyes. Almost like it's got glasses. It was licking itself. Suddenly, it stopped. Straightened itself, almost unnaturally for a cat. And tilted its head up. It was looking straight at Aveline. She didn't find it creepy. She found it comforting. The cat broke the eye contact. Jumped off the wall.

It wasn't a cat anymore. It was a tall lady in an emerald green robe and a witch's hat. The woman was walking towards their house. Aveline lost sight of her, but heard the chattering downstairs stop, and the slight sound of a door opening and closing. She heard a click from her own door. It was the lock's sound. The same one it made everytime Harry unlocked it to come inside. Were they selling her? Were they setting her free? She doubted either on opposite ends of the Dursleys' morality spectrum.

She got up and turned the handle slowly. It opened. Aveline gasped. She was free. She tiptoed down the stairs, the last one creaking a bit. She had never seen the inside of the house. She gaped around, still on the bottom step, still holding the end of the railing. It was beautiful. It was so neat and tidy. She crept to the door of the cupboard under the stairs, which was Harry's room, as he'd told her. She peaked inside. She saw his eyes. Trying to see through the gap in the door, too.

"Aveline?" he whispered.

"Shh." Aveline put a finger to her lips.

She crept to the door of the living room. Peaked inside with as little of her showing as she could. She saw the woman sitting in front of our Aunt and Uncle talking about something she couldn't hear over her own rush of adrenaline. They were distracted. She could run. Where? No idea. Away from here.

She turned to the door but someone grabbed her arm from behind. Tightly. It hurt. Aveline gasped. She turned around. It was Uncle Vernon. He had a smirk on his face.

"Finally getting rid of you, eh? Go pack your stuff. Not that you have much anyways." He snickered.

He was wrong. She had a lot of books. She wanted to keep them all.

"What-" Her voice croaked. She cleared her throat. "What do you mean?"

Before Uncle Vernon could answer, the woman stepped forward and said, "I'll help her."

She took Aveline's arm. So softly, compared to the way Uncle Vernon grabbed it, it was hard to believe her touch was there. The two of them went up. The woman closed the door to Aveline's room and Aveline jumped slightly at the sound of the door closing. Was this a trap? Then the woman took out a wooden stick that looked oddly like the wands she'd read about in her fantasy novels. The woman moved her stick and the entire room tidied itself up. Then it all clicked in Aveline's mind. The last loop of her thought-painting.

"You're a wizard, aren't you? You're here because I'm one too, right? I knew it! I knew my powers were real."

The woman smiled. "You're bright for your age. Yes, dear, I'm a witch, and I'm here because you are one too. But that's not the only reason I'm here. I've been watching you. You're much more powerful than you know. I think it's best for you to live somewhere you can use those powers instead of rotting away in this..." She looked around in disgust and waved her arm to gesture the room "...prison. I'm here to adopt you, Aveline. To give you a new life. A life worth living. So pack your bags, Aveline, we're going on an adventure."

This was the best day of Aveline's life.