Spinner's Quarantine

The cell was dark and dingy, and lit by a single glowing candle on the bedside table of where a young woman was sleeping. She had jet black hair and a dark look to her. Upon opening her eyes she immediately covered her face to block the obnoxious bright light that was glaring beside her.

She clambered out of bed, blew the candle out, and walked towards the single window on the wall, directly in front of where she was sleeping. Looking out of the window through the bars, she stared at the display on the huge tower that was in view of all the lined up cells.

‘Five Twenty-Three,’ she muttered under her voice.

She slid out of her pajamas and into her uniform. In her left sleeve was a compulsory hole that was showing the tattoo she only received yesterday. The tattoo read “#00143 SE”.

Looking pleased with herself, she glided through her door with quiet steps. She stopped momentarily to close the door behind her and looked up towards the sunrise, wondering if anyone from other quarantines were doing the same at this very moment. After a few seconds she started walking towards the Barracks, down the twisted dirt road, which was towered over by huge shamrock green pine trees.

Yesterday, Gabriella Zest had turned 17 years old, and she was now a fully grown wizard. She resides in a quarantine just like so many other people; apart from some of course. Not everyone had decided to bow down to both the Ministry of Magic and the Muggle Governments decisions to keep people safe. Both have fallen, and been left hanging by a single thread. Wizards and muggles still live outside the walls, struggling to survive. Outside there were all kinds of dangerous magical and non-magical beasts, each one of them freely roaming the land. Black markets are run by the people who still live out there, and people will do anything for a kick now-a-days.

The muggles still don’t know about magic. Some don’t understand how this was still possible, including Gabriella. Not that she cared.

Within the quarantines people work just like normal jobs. except everyone works for the army. You join the squad the day after you turn 17 years old. Some soldiers guard the quarantine, and some go out to catch the food. You were paid in ration tickets, there was no currency anymore. Although, the ration tickets were treated like a local currency, including outside the walls. People sneak out the quarantines through holes they have managed to make in their cells, to go spend their rations on things that aren’t food; like dark spell books, muggle weapons and even things such as guitars and bracelets for entertainment. There’s a huge market for drugs like cocaine and heroin also. It’s not at all easy to grow and produce inside the quarantines, and a couple grams will sell for a few tens of ration tickets, and then they were spent normally with no questions asked. Although when people go to use their ration tickets normally, for food inside the quarantine, there was rarely any food to be taken. Everyone knows that the soldiers eat most of it themselves as soon as they catch it.

Gabriella finally stopped at the end of the road and looked at the huge entrance to the Barracks. Standing in an orderly queue inside the open doors was a small group of about 8 people, who lived in Spinner’s End quarantine and had also had their 17th birthday yesterday.

Gabriella walked through the slightly mossy stone double doors, and joined the back of the queue. She was standing in a high ceiling stone room. It was lit by bright blue flames in all of the corners. It’s a beginner’s charm, but it’s also a good and useful one.

It finally reached her turn. She turned to her right, and sitting at a small wooden table was an old man looking down at a sheet of paper. He looked up towards her,

‘Zest, Gabriella?’ the man asked. He kept his eye contact with Gabriella, as she struggled to look bold, and she replied,

‘Yes, that’s me.’

The old man looked down at his paper and put a tick beside her name. Again he looked up, this time he grasped Gabriella’s arm and spread it out so it was pointing straight. He peered at the tattoo, and then looked back down at his piece of paper, ticking off the section that read “Tattoo Marking”.

Continuing to stare at the paper, the man calmly asked,

‘Can you please remind me what house you have been sorted into?’

‘Slytherin,’ Gabriella replied, now looking more confident.

‘And what cell number do you reside in?”

‘Cell number 076.’

The man re-evaluated his sheet of paper and then looked up to Gabriella.

‘Thank you, Miss Zest. You have been situated on the West Side Tower to patrol the west area. This post will start today and continue indefinitely. We must ask you to keep your wand away until you have been asked to remove it. Please go check in with Doctor Dertra over to your left,” he pointed towards his right, ‘good day.’

Gabriella turned to her left and walked over to Dr Dertra.

He was a short man and quite chubby. He was almost bald, and the little hair he did have was a mousey brown colour.

‘Stand as still as you can’ he said in a squeaky voice. He checked everywhere around Gabriella’s body for any kind of of lumps, bumps, illnesses and anything she may have been hiding.

‘Good,’ he finally said gazing up at Gabriella with a straight face, ‘please go over to Corporal Reid.’

She couldn’t tell if he was being serious or if he was just simply tired of examining people all day, every day.

Gabriella walked over to Corporal Reid. She was a beautiful lady who looked like she was in her 30s. She had bright, curly, blonde hair that fell behind her shoulders and she was tall with a rather skinny figure. Her arms were crossed; in one hand was nothing, and in the other was her wand. She was standing still, scowling at the 8 or so people that were here aswell as Gabriella.

‘Please keep your wands away,’ she reminded us, ‘I don’t want anyone’s eyes being poked out,’ she sighed rudely.

‘What a stubborn ass,’ Gabriella murmured under her breath. Corporal Reid didn’t hear.

‘Please go to where you’ve been told to patrol,’ Corporal Reid said sternly, ‘I’ll be watching over you all and making sure you’re doing a good job.’

Immediately everyone went to their posts, wondering if the day would hold anything exciting.

*I believe this is going to be the end of the first chapter. I have rewritten it because I have decided I don't want the story to be in first person. Thanks guys! If you find any errors, please don't forget to tell me!*