Starlight

Chapter 1

A.N/ I AM FINALLY GETTING MY SHIT TOGETHER GUYS, BE PROUD OF ME!!!!!! I was having a huge personal issue called depression, anxiety, insomnia, and EDNOS. BUT I AM BACK AND WITH A DARKER SENSE OF HUMOUR. send help, please. So welcome to this jumbled bit of my brain, hope you enjoy! Also, I tried so hard to be serious, and then it turned kinda cracky. But I continued to make it kinda serious. I would be sorry, but I can't bring myself to care.

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When I woke up, it was to the sound of tapping at my window. It was still dark out, and since they always wake me up at the asscrack of dawn I knew it wasn't the next day. So what the hell was tapping on my window at 'Too early o'clock' in the morning.

As I look through the bars on my window, a bird is hanging out, just standing outside on my window sill. My head hurt... (Maybe I shouldn't have hit it that hard to see if this was a dream) why was there a bird outside my window, much less an owl? Also... was that a letter on its leg because if so, someone should contact PETA as I am pretty sure that qualifies as animal abuse. Actually, someone should call child services, as what my parents do qualifies as child abuse..... I wonder which one people will report.

Probably the bird.

Most definitely the bird.

Mrs Meyers - who lives beside us and watches what happens to me through her window as she sips morning coffee - hates children. She's a teacher... I believe it is self-explanatory. If not, here is the short of it. She wasn't large on children because they pranked her day in and day out. They never stopped and I think she almost quit because of them.

Anyways, back to the bird. As I am unable to open the bars it can't come in like I think it wants to, I can open my window so it can give me the letter. Or scratch out my eyes with its talons and I am not sure I know which one it will choose. But I risk it anyway, because, hey, my life is already shit, it can't get much worse.

So I open up the window and the owl sticks its leg - the one holding the letter - out to me. So I untie the letter as carefully as possible because one of us is already hurt, the other one doesn't need to be. The owl nips at my finger, but it didn't do it in the 'I am hungry and you look tasty' kind of way I was expecting. It was... affectionate for lack of a better term.

So opening up the letter, I read in a whisper to the owl, as it seems like something I need to tell someone. No one else cares for me, other than this owl... I live a very sad existence.

So I read to my newest friend, the owl, the contents of the letter, which read:

Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry

Miss Cassiopeia Bay
The attic
14 Privet Drive
Little Whinging, Surrey

Dear Miss Cassiopeia,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins September 1. We await your owl no longer than July 31.

Yours sincerely:
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress

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.

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Sounds like exactly the type of thing I will not be informing my parents of. They didn't like anything that wasn't their cookie-cutter perfect. They got along blindingly well with the Dursleys. Like a house on fire. That I wished they were collectively stuck in. How do I lie again? Hmm... I will just tell them that a prestigious school had accepted me, it's a boarding school, in Scotland. No charges, just free. I entered into a draw and won. If there were charges, well I had no problem stealing a bit of the money that my parents should have been spending on me. I also chose to ignore that on the letter it said exactly where I lived, which creeped me out a bit, but I was generally ok with it; it wasn't like someone would try to murder me in my sleep right? Nah, too many locks on my door, they would kill my parents over me. It would take them 3 minutes to get past all the locks, and that's precious time that they could be killing people over opening a set of locks. Maybe I need to see a therapist. I know they say to put yourself in someone else's shoes to see how they feel but I am 100% sure they did not mean serial killers when they said that.

Cassie, get back on track! Okay, the lady wants a reply, she gets a reply.

So I write on the back of the letter, and send it back, asking if I could get some help getting supplies.

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A week later I heard my mother yelling at me.

"Cassie!" The ever-annoying voice of my mother called me, and her voice was coming from the direction of the front door. When I told my parents earlier they had been overjoyed, and when my mother asked me where I put my acceptance letter, I had said I had misplaced it; when in reality I had sent it back with my acceptance and now it seemed that the professor was at the door explaining to my mother what type of school I would be going to. My mother was on a rampage now. "-absolutely refuse to allow for my daughter to go and join some freak show!" My mother must have slammed the door in the professors face. All I could think of was the world of pain I was in for. I was snapped out of my thoughts by my mothers screeching. I knew I was gonna get it later, my mother would tell my father, then they would tell me what a disappointment I was, then refuse to give my food for the next few meals and lock me in my room after they had hit me around a bit. "I refuse to listen to you, you can't rule my life!" I said even surprising myself with those words, I had never fought back, ever. 

Then my mother roughly grabbed my arm and brought her face close to mine and said, "I can control your life until you move out, you little ungrateful bitch. Until then, this is my house and my rules and you will obey me." She said with such menace that I never thought possible, and when she spoke I could smell the sherry on her breath. 

I decided then and there that I would go to that school no matter what, and my parents weren't going to stop me; nothing was. It could kill me or get me killed, but that was okay, death was better than another day here in my personal hell. Heh, I might actually die trying... the irony of that was not wasted on me.

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I had hidden a duffle bag in my room when I was little, for this exact purpose. I was going to leave, finally be able to live. It also helped that my owl friend showed back up, we were what could be called, bros, now and it was the current highlight of my life. So being out from under their watchful gaze, I packed up my bag with everything I would need. My parents had let me out to go to the washroom and they were too drunk to lock my door again. The only thing I didn't have was money and my passport. So I snuck into my parent's room and stole my passport, never know when I might need it. Then I proceeded to creep into the kitchen, avoiding the creaky floorboard. I grabbed my mothers purse and fathers wallet and grabbed 2000 pounds. I grabbed as many light-weight non-perishables as I could fit in my duffle. I then locked the door as I walked out of the house and started to run to the nearest train station which was 10 miles away. 

After about 2 and a half hours, I had finally arrived. I was covered in sweat and was breathing fast, but I had arrived and it wasn't even midnight yet. My owl flew beside me until I arrived. He then left in the direction that I presumed to be London. I knew we were going to meet up again. The till was still open, but the next train for London didn't leave for another hour. So I went and bought my ticket for 55 pounds (the man at the till didn't even look twice, but then again, judging by the glazed look in his eyes, he was high). I sat down and waited for my train to show up. Once the train got there, I put my ticket in the scanner and got on. 

As I watched out my window at the passing scenery, I wondered what my life was going to be like now. The longer I looked out my window, the longer I realized that I didn't care, as long as I got to feel this free.