Pura (James Potter)

-4-

August 4th 1975

Pura, for the first time in a long time, was confused. She wasn't a bad person, she thought. She had always tried her best to be there for her friends and family, in Care of Magical Creatures she always handled everything with care in fear of hurting something, she'd direct the first years in the direction of their classes; often finding herself late to her own classes as a result. So she couldn't understand why she was currently lying on the floor of her living room trying to shield herself from the seemingly never ending blows of her father after he found her kissing someone.

It wasn't her first kiss, her first kiss was just before the Christmas Holidays in third year with her best friend Regulus.

They both agreed that they would remain best friends forever no matter what happened, but wanted to experiment and see if they got the so called 'sparks' you're supposed to feel. They didn't. It was a nice kiss, though it was rather messy and awkward, so awkward that after about three seconds they burst out laughing and couldn't stop, promising never to do such a thing again. Staying true to their word, the whole ordeal seemed to have brought them closer.

This lead to Pura confiding in him like she hasn't with anyone before, she told him about how she wasn't the favourite in her house. About how when she did something wrong her mother would scream at her, sometimes even hitting her. She told him about how she made sure Remus Never knew, she wanted to protect him, their parents loved Remus with all their heart despite his resentment towards them for their blatant favouritism. So the one thing that Pura and her parents had ever agreed on was that Remus wasn't to know. Pura didn't want to think of how angry and upset with he he'd be if he knew how pathetic she was.

Regulus held her as she wept, the first time she had cried in front of anyone that wasn't Remus, he had offered her a place in his own home. At the time be thought it was a good idea, he knew that his parents were often cold toward his brother for who he was friends with and what his house was, but Sirius-much like Pura- had never let his sibling know the full extent of the damage that was being done as a means of protection. So Regulus made her promise that if it ever got to much, that she would floo straight to his home. And she promised.

Right now she was contemplating his offer, her father was shouting insults at her as she lay shaking on the floor, shuddering from the endless kicks being the own her way mixed with the occasional curse. Listening to his words would only further the damage, but she couldn't help it, she listened to how he called her a disgrace, a disappointment, how he knew that Remus would never be found kissing someone of the same sex as she had.

Pura had kissed a girl, and she didn't dislike it, she didn't see it as a problem just because they were both girls, they were still people who were attracted to each other even if at the point it had only been a spur of the moment thing. Yet Pura enjoyed it and why that was such a problem to her Father was beyond her.

Was it odd? Was she truly some kind of monster because she had fancied a girl? Is this why her parents hated her so much? Was she really such a disappointment?

Thoughts like this had been plaguing he mind for years, about why her parents didn't like her and why she was such a disgrace, but they have all come crashing through the barriers of her mind, spiralling into one great cloud of self doubt and loathing.

Sometimes Pura agreed with her parents, they were adults after all, they knew better and adults tend to act on reason so surely this was one of the reasons they have neglected her so.

A sudden flashback of when she was making her way to flying lessons in he first year popped into her head, where she had been hit with the Knockback Jinx by her DADA Professor and ended up with a broken ribs. Where the pain was too much, where she passed out within minutes of Regulus dragging her to the hospital wing. That's all she wanted to do now, just past out and let the pain go away, to never wake up. Maybe then she wouldn't be burdening he parents anymore and they could live happily with the son they always wanted. A proper family.