Between Crown and Heart - Book 1

12 - 'Payals'

From now on I had four days until my departure for Hogwarts. And I was very, very, very, very, very excited! I already started packing! And all in all I had three bags and two handbags! The books already took two bags!!! Well, and then I had to pack my clothes with the books for place-saving. The third bag was for various other stuff which was left over, like my teddy bear (yes, I have a teddy bear, which accompanies me on every journey) and then of course girly stuff. Then there were two handbags, the first one was for Snowflake and the second one for Royalty. Though, I had alot of bags and alot of weight with me. And considering that I had to fly to London firstly to get my train from there, they definetely will ask me for paying more at the airport because of my packages.

Right now I was playing with Royalty in the garden in the afternoon. I blew soap bubbles and Royalty tried to destroy them. It was so much fun and moreover it was soooooo cute to see that little boy backing away when a bubble burst apart! I wondered how big Royalty will get. At the very beginning, when we first met, he was half my under-arm big and now he is an one third of my total (!) arm big! I think he will grow up very soon... maybe to early... to be on my side during the war.

"Galaxy!" I was in my thoughts when my mom was already in the garden.

"Yes ma!" I looked up at her from the ground.

"I have something for you." She held two silver chains with little ringing bells in front of me and gave it to me.

"This ancle bracelets belonged to my grandmother and she passed them on to her daughter, my mother. And when I was nearly 18 she passed them on to me. And now I am passing them on to you, as my daughter. It is a symbol in our culture for virginity, pureness, safety and adulthood. When a girl is getting 18 she gets those 'payals', keeping her safe from the whorehouses, where the whores wear those ancle chains too but they are half long of the shin bones and they have more and much bigger bells, to have a more seducive influence on men while the whore dances in front of them. And when you don't wear them, well it is more likely to replace these small chains by those whore chains, or easier. So it's a hope of a mother and a silly try to keep her safe from getting a whore or rather as I prefer to say, keeping her safe from the bad, cruel world and praying for her to find her love."

I was very surprised because I never expected something like this, and moreover that my mom and I would have such a type of talking between us in which we talk about whores and love. Still abit thoughtfully I wondered why my mother gave them to me and not to Sonja.

"What about Sonja?"

"She had them before but she decided to don't keep them, instead to give them to you... But moreover, finally she found someone she loves very deeply. She said to me that they both feel something more."

"What?!" I stood now in front of her.

"Who is he? Do you know him? Do I know him? Will he come to visit us?" I bombed my mom with those questions.

"You should ask her on your own. And now put them on!" Still shocked that Sonja told mom first and not me I reluctantly put the 'payals' on. Feeling the cold and smooth touch of the metal at my ancles I started to walk to hear the beautiful noise of the bells whenever I took a step.

Stopping in front of my happy mom I hugged her and said: "Thank you, ma."

"You are my daughter, come on!"

"I will miss you", and then I started crying out of nowhere.

"Shh! No my sweet little baby. Don't cry. Everything will be alright. It's just school. And you always wanted you be at a boarding school."

"Yes, I know! But not that far away! It seems to me that I will have to go to the very last courner of the universe! And you can't even visit me! I can only see you at the holiday breaks. That means every 4 months!! How terrible!"

"Sshh! It's just for 3 or 4 years!" That fact caused me more to cry. Royalty was curving along my legs to comform me too.

"I'm so scared ma! It seems too much for me. I will fail! But there is so much expected from me!" My mom hugged me all the time and stroked my hair motherly.

"You are just going to school! And they can't expect from you very much! That would be unwise! Because you can't learn in only one year what you should learn in 4 years! It's too much! And I know that Professor Dumbledore knows that very well!" I stopped crying and looked at her.

"Didn't he tell you?" I asked shocked.

"What?"

"That... I..." searching for something else than the fact that I will end a war.

"... I will be extra tested, every month!" I lied to her and she believed me.

"What? I think I have to talk to the headmaster about this."

"No! No, mom! I will do this on my own. I can handle this, afterall, you gave me those 'payals' ... you know? Grown up and that stuff." I smiled weakly at her and jingled my ankle to hear the ringing bells. She smiled back and kissed my forhead.

After she dried my face with her hands from my tears she said: "Fine. Just clean everything up because I will make us pizzas and you know they don't take much time until they are ready!"

With that she went back in the house and I fell to the ground. My back to the house for the reason that my mom couldn't see me crying.

"I couldn't believe that Dumbledore didn't tell my mother about the war. How could he even hide this very important fact? From my MOTHER!! Thought he that my mom wouldn't allow me to attend Hogwarts then?" I sobbed and felt only then that Royalty tried to shove him between my chest and my tucked up knees. I let him between them and held him against my face. He touched with his little paws my face several times but I keept on crying.

Suddenly I heard him spitting like a little lion in his puberty vocal change that I startled up and faced him with my tears strained face. He was looking very angry and jumped off my lap and bit me in my sleeve and started pulling me inside our home.

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Here is the picture of the 'payals':

http://ambellleut.blog.com/files/2012/12/11443970-md.jpg