Upside Down

Chapter Three - Gone

CHAPTER THREE 

— Gone —

Astoria could not interpret was she was feeling. Was it happiness? Or was it anxiety? Half of her was filled with happiness and excitement. This was her opportunity. Her opportunity to have an adventure. Her opportunity to put herself into danger. Her opportunity to escape from her boring old normal life. But yet, the other side of her makes her uncertain, worried about what was happening. Why did Umbridge mention her house, her ancestors, her fountain? Whatever was going on Astoria was determined to find out. 

The past few minutes, Astoria was walking around with her parents, who were greeting every person they see, this started getting very awkward as Astoria was no good at social meetings. She finally decided it was enough walking around so she came to the decision to just sit on a couch by the corner for the rest of the evening and think about what just happened with Umbridge and the locket. After what seemed like forever, Astoria looked at her parents, they were still busy socializing with their colleagues. She sighed and finally her eyes landed upon a plate of pizza. 

Pizza wasn’t normally served in formal events, so Astoria taken by surprise walked over to the table and served herself a slice. Just as she walked back towards her couch she noticed Mrs Caraway suspiciously eyeing her. She tried her best to ignore it and brought the pizza up to her lips, she could already feel like she could taste it, her hungry stomach grumbled, she opened her mouth, just about to take a bit she noticed Mrs Caraway still staring at her with an evil smirk as if her evil master plan was just about to be completed. 

Astoria quickly took the pizza out of her mouth. It was uneasy for her to do so because Pizza was her favourite food and she hadn’t had it in ages. Her lips dry, her stomach yelled screaming for the pizza. But Astoria knew what a risk it was, what if it were poisoned? Mrs Caraway was up to something and she knew it. After a long moment of consideration, she finally builded up her courage and decided to talk to her. 

“Hey...um..I’m sorry about earlier when I said the Umbridge thingy” Astoria said in her most apologetic tone of voice. She didn’t really know what to say, and that was all she could think of when it comes to her mind. 

“Hello Astoria, it’s fine actually, doesn’t really matter” Mrs Caraway replied

“Why were you staring at me? Did you poison the pizza?” Astoria asked without thinking, the words just slipped out of her mouth. She gasped, stunned she did not know what to do next. 

“What are you talking about? What are you trying to accuse me of?” Mrs Caraway said in response in her sweetest smile as if she were a princess. 

Astoria decided why not just ask her right to her face? After all, if she were demonic Umbridge she wouldn’t be able to harm her anywhere near there. “Why did you stare at me when I was going to eat that pizza” Astoria asked again, this time in a strict demanding voice. 

Mrs Caraway sighed. “Well, I just wanted to know whether or not you liked the pizza. I made the chefs cook it especially for you because your parents told me you loved them.” Mrs Caraway said once again in her sweetest tone of voice. 

But Astoria knew she was lying, she could tell one when she sees it. “TELL ME THE TRUTH!” This time she yelled. The entire dinner fell silent, she could feel hundreds upon thousands of eyes staring at her. And then she looked at her parents. Disappointment was written all over their face. Astoria avoided them all and stared blankly at the floorboard. After 5 seconds everyone went back their conversations. Mr and Mrs Carter started heading towards Astoria. 

“Mrs Caraway, We’re terribly sorry about that.” Mr Carter said apologetically.

“Oh! It’s fine! You could’ve just told me your daughter had some mental problem of accusing people and demanding answers for why they were just looking at her, you don’t need to be ashamed of it!” Mrs Caraway said in a sarcastic tone of voice, she then looked at Astoria, giggled and walked away. Astorias mouth fell open, MENTAL PROBLEMS? Who did she think she was?