A Hex Of A Whole

Chapter 1: Shadows Into Light

All my life, I have known no light. The one person who I have been in the presence of is the one who claims that she is my mother. She taught me to walk, and to speak, and to fear. It is because of her that I know that I can cry. She brings me food, and she teaches me magic that I never see, because I have lived my life under a hexed blindfold that no matter how hard I try I cannot remove. While I wear it, Her voice is the only one I can hear. And Her voice is terrible to hear.Though there is not a mark on me, at least that I can feel, I am hurt beyond repair, for words dig far deeper than blades or curses ever can. But She only speaks the truth. That I am worthless. Useless. That I fail at the simplest of spells. I will live my life in the cold and dark and damp, hungry and alone.

I hear the quiet footsteps that mean She is coming. By instinct I curl into a ball in what I have always believed to be the corner of the room. If I am too close to Her when She enters then I can expect punishment. The door creaks open, and as She does every visit, tells me,

"Oh, get up. I don't understand why the floor is so appealing to you." 

So I do, because there is nothing I can do but obey. Roughly, She pushes a tray of  what I assume is food into my hands, then I hear footsteps and the door shutting. I sit down on the floor that is like an old friend of mine after all these years, and feel along the tray to get my meal. Oh. Just a cruel joke. The tray has nothing on it but a stone and a few crumbs. Not knowing what else to do, I keep holding it, until She comes back and takes it from me, mutters something and hands it back to me. 

"Stupid girl. If you had any sense you would have transfigured the rock. It's so easy to do, I've taught you, but you have the memory of a dust ball."

But I didn't have a wand... I think to myself, but of course I don't actually say that, because I know what will happen if I do. Suddenly, She rips the tray out of my hands and throws the rock, which is now stale bread, at my face and stalks out, but not before hissing her birthday message to me. 

"You are thirteen years old today. Act your age, you curse. If it wasn't for you I could be doing whatever I pleased. Instead I am trapped in this stupid place, and it's all. Your. Fault."

The door slams and leaves me alone again in the dark, to eat my lump of bread and dream of the impossible word that is my only wish. Escape. The thing I can never do, as long as I am in the dark and living in fear of Her anger. So I return to my corner, and sleep, and try to forget my hunger.

What I count as a week passes, with more of the same. Failed magic lessons, insults, stale bread made from crumbs and stone. More darkness, more corners. The hope of escape that I get on every birthday fades as always. I have spent my life in this room, save the first five years of it, which I can not remember, no matter how hard I try. I do not remember light, or laughter, save the cruel laugh of Her whenever I fail at a simple task, or a time when I was happy and unafraid. And then one day She stops coming. For what feels like around three days,  I receive no food, though luckily I have a bucket filled with the water that drips from the ceiling. On the fourth day, the most unexpected thing that could possibly happen, that thing that I have been hoping for for as long as I can remember? It happens. My blindfold loosens and falls to the ground, and I hear voices that do not belong to Her. 

"I can't believe that she was our Astronomy teacher for eight years, Minerva! And she was doing this right under our noses!"

"Yes, Remus, I am as shocked as you. But right now, the priority is this girl."

And then the door is opened and blinding light floods in, and there are people, actual people, coming in and carrying me out of the Room, and I don't want to say a thing because surely if I do this dream will end and I will wake up in the Dark. And I hear voices as people try to see what's happening.

"She doesn't go here, does she?"

"I've never seen her."

"What do you think happened to her?"

And a beam of bright light falls across my face, and it blinds me and I cannot stand to think that soon I will wake up and this will all be gone. And it's coming. The dark is beginning to surround me again. And I despair as the dark comes, because for a moment, I hoped it might be real.

A/N hehehehe... is it a dream? Or is it reality? I guess you have to wait and see... ROAR. Wait... accidental rhyme. Heh.