In 1865, a young girl by the name of Alice Liddell went missing from outside of her home in Oxford, England. Left in the care of her older sister, Margaret, no one could understand how the seven-year-old had disappeared so suddenly. Yet, after multi...
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THE STORY OF WHAT HAPPENED IN HERBOLOGY had spread around the castle by word of mouth and it seemed to be kept alive the same way. By the end of the week, people were forming their own opinions of Alice, whether they had been present for the incident or not. Plenty were deeming her insane, and maybe the rumours of Wonderland being a dark place didn't seem that far off. However, Percy had never been one for gossip and found it irritating that many wouldn't stop talking about Alice when it didn't even pertain to them.
He had been sitting in the library, hoping to complete an essay for Transfiguration when the students around him, joked about Alice. If she was hearing voices in her head, they were trying to figure out just when she would snap and be sent to St Mungo's. It was cruel, even if it was an attempt at humour.
"Say, Percy, don't your brothers hang out with that girl?" one of them called over. "You better tell them to watch out, they might end up getting hurt if she decides to go fully mental."
"Maybe they've gone completely looney themselves, after all, they chose to be her friend."
Percy gripped his quill, crushing the top part of the feather in his hand as he tried to ignore the ignorance surrounding him. However, as they continued to interrupt his work time, he finally lost it.
"I suppose you all feel better about yourselves after making fun of her?" he questioned out of irritation. "How mighty you all must be to make fun of the girl when she's done absolutely nothing to any of you. I can't say I'm surprised though, the lot of you have a knack for going after those who can't defend themselves and who better not to defend themselves than a person who isn't even present to do so. And perhaps that I should inform you that many people hear a voice in their heads, it's called a conscience. Something that you all clearly lack since you don't know right from wrong."
Completely silenced by Percy's rant, the group had nothing to say as they were only left to watch him gather his things before he left the library. Even Percy couldn't believe how much he had managed to say in one breath. Normally, if someone was breaking the rules, he could recite the rule they were breaking, offer a scolding or a small lecture, but never had he felt the need to go off in such a manner.
He had to admit though, it felt good. He had meant every word that came out of his mouth at the time too. Yes, he found Alice to be rather odd, but not enough that she was deemed mentally unstable to spend the rest of her life in St Mungo's. And his brothers certainly weren't guilty of mental instability by association, no matter how big of pests they could be. Things were different since Alice returned, Wonderland sounded like a strange place, but it was all real. Alice had proof of it, so maybe the voices were real too and maybe they meant something.
Just maybe.
On the other side of the castle, Alice was attempting to escape the stares and whispers from others in the castle her own way. After classes, she escaped to an empty corridor near the owlery, sitting in the middle of the floor. At one point, she grabbed the bottom of her feet and rocked back and forth, completely deep in thought. It was rare that Alice felt anger, but she couldn't deny as another student threw around the word "institutionalised" during Defence Against the Dark Arts, that something resembling anger stirred inside of her.
