𝐶𝑅𝑈𝐶𝐼𝑂

𝟬𝟬𝟭

Even now, as broken as you may feel,
you are still strong.
There's something to be said for how you hold yourself together and keep moving,
even though you feel like shattering.
Don't stop.
This is your healing.
It doesn't have to be pretty,
or graceful.
You just have to keep going.

-Maxwell Diawuoh

~•~

"Crucio!"

That was the first thing Alexandra Merlin heard when she woke up. Normal children would probably be woken up by an alarm clock, or their parents gently shaking them awake. Unfortunately for her, Alexa was not exactly normal.

The second thing she heard was her mother's crazy laugh. Grunting, Alexa pushed herself up from the concrete floor. She curled up into a fetal position and let the pain surround her. She doesn't show any reaction to the curse, since she had gotten used to the feeling. However, that didn't lessen the pain any, if not making the curse hurt more.

After about five minutes of the Cruciatus curse being used on Alexa, her mother stopped and proceeded to kick her side and yell at her to get up and make breakfast.

The basement door slammed shut, and Alexa's eyes slowly peeled open. She blinked a couple times to get rid of any leftover sleep and her surroundings came back into focus. She was in a barren basement with multiple stains on the floor and wall, and a set of concrete stairs going up. There was no bed, only a small toilet and sink in the corner of the room.

She slowly stood up from the cold floor, and made her way over to the sink. There was a tiny mirror right above the sink which she looked into. It felt like her mother had put that mirror there to mock Alexa, as it was the only other thing in the room besides the sink and toilet. She often felt as if the mirror was put there to make her have to constantly look at how ugly she was.

Alexa knew she wasn't pretty. Her mother or as Alexa often called her Olivia, told it to her everyday. Olivia was never much of a mother anyway, and Alexa wasn't about to go around calling her something that she wasn't.

The redhead's cheekbones stuck out, and her arms were practically sticks. She had a new cut on her forehead from yesterday's beatings, and her whole body was covered in a rainbow of bruises.

She felt lucky that she was a metamorphmagus because that made it really easy for her to hide the scars and bruises littering her skin.

Her clothes didn't help make her look any less skinny either. She was wearing a black shirt that hung off her tiny frame, and sweatpants with the cuffs folded up about 5 times. These were the same clothes that she had been wearing for the past couple of months. The last time Alexa had eaten was four days ago, when Olivia had some leftovers from breakfast. She had to make sure that Olivia didn't see her licking the plate while washing the dishes, otherwise she would get an extra harsh beating the next day.

Alexa splashed some water on her face and arms, trying to wash the dried blood off. The water ran down her hands and into the sink slowly turning redder with every second. It almost looked like she was bleeding water, but Alexa wasn't bothered. She was used to it.

She changed her appearance to make her fit her clothes and make all the bruises disappear. Usually she wouldn't change her appearance, but her brother Lucas was coming back from Hogwarts and he didn't know about the abuse.

She quickly scurried up the stairs, not wanting to be yelled at again for not being up on time. Alexa started making breakfast for her mom, and lunch for both Olivia and brother. She plated the breakfast neatly and kept the lunch in the fridge.