 Post 1. Mention of Haddie, Hady, Mason, and others Mischievous Niffler
Kitty grabbed a large pile of clay and made her way back to her desk. She didn't know what she was going to make, but better be sure she had enough clay to make it in case it was something big.
What method should she use? No way was she going to spit on it. Spitting in front of everyone was disgusting and besides - it was the weakest of the three options. She wanted her familiar to be the best it could be - and that meant tears. But could she cry real tears?
Kitty had never felt happier in her life than she did in the past few months. If this class had taken place in Romania then it would have been easy. In Romania she had been scared, shy, and friendless - dropped off at boarding school when she was only ten. Her mom had always bossed her around at home, and Kitty did not know what to do when she had just been dropped off. She had been too shy to speak, and her voice had trembled whenever a teacher asked her a question. A terrible girl named Lilly several years older than her had bullied her savagely for her insecurity and later for her Gothic style. Lilly made her life a living hell. She invented storied about Kitty being an evil vampire, and had turned potential friends against her. Why she did this Kitty never learned. But why didn't matter, all that mattered was that she did and Kitty's happiness and grades suffered because of it. Several times teachers called her into their office to talk to her about her failures. Kitty begged her mother to take her home, but of course that didn't happen. Her mother wanted her to be a successful journalist, and she couldn't understand the terrors Kitty was going through. Often Kitty would stay up in her bed when all the other girls had gone to sleep. She would stay up and cry, true tears of sorrow and longing - longing to be with her parents.
But even in the bleakest of situations there is often a bright light offering hope. For Kitty that light came in the form of two married house elves - workers at the Romanian Institute. They were an elderly couple and sensed that Kitty needed a friend. After dark they would stop by her dormitory and comfort her, listening to her problems and trying to distract her. They were Kitty's first true friends outside of home. Leaving them was the only sad thing about leaving school for her. She loved them as much as she loved her own parents.
But then everything changed. Her mother got a new job and so they had moved back to Scotland. Over the summer Kitty got to hang out with her easygoing Muggle dad at the Thrift store. Then she had been enrolled at Hogwarts. During her first term her shyness had prevented her from making any student friends, but there were no bullies. No one tried to humiliate her just because she was shy, and no one attacked her for being Gothic. Her grades got better. And at the end of the term she had befriended the Grey Lady - who in Kitty's opinion was the coolest and most beautiful ghost there ever was.
And things had gotten even better in her second term. Her shyness began to wear off, allowing her to talk to other students and even to befriend some of them. There was Haddie, the awesome prankster who she had gotten into a food fight with. Then there was the friendly Garreth and the wickedly brilliant Mason, who were her partners in solving a Hogwarts mystery. There was Julia, the scathingly brilliant Ravenclaw who helped her to see that her true middle name was actually pretty cool and NOTHING to be ashamed of. There was Hady, the kind Slytherin who helped her in DADA and who unfroze her and Haddie at the Hag's place. And then there was Augustus Flume, the kindly and eccentric portrait who invited her to visit him whenever she wanted.
Only one bad thing had happened to her this term. Okay, almost being eaten by the Hag was technically much worse than being bullied in Romania - but it was not something that compelled her to cry tears of sorrow into her clay right now. If the Hag burst into the classroom right now, Kitty wouldn't cry - she'd run for her life! Besides, the Hag was hiding somewhere in the Forbidden Forest and would hopefully be captured soon.
Sometimes Kitty was afraid that her mother would move back to Romania, but that was not reality.
Kitty turned to see how her fellow students were coming along. It disturbed her to see that Haddie, Hady, and Mason were all crying. Olivia was also crying. She realized then that she had been foolish to assume that she was the only one who had deep pains and secrets. She had always assumed that she suffered more than they did, that they were happy and independent while she was shy and dependent on THEM for her happiness. Imagining that there were people who did not suffer and who were truly independent had given her hope and comfort - hope to aspire to be just like them. Seeing her friends cry now before even she could cry suddenly shattered that myth.
Then it happened. Tears rolled from her eyes and hit the clay, true tears of sorrow. The revelation brought sadness and freedom to her. She began to cry.
Last edited by Goblinfrog; 02-01-2016 at 03:06 AM.
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