after dark || James Potter

A.D. 1:6

The rest of their fourth year passed by in a blur, and Lucinda could barely recall anything that isn't with regards to her revisions for their exams or studying about Animagi.

Her only consolation came with the fact that she was sure she aced her exams. As to the animagi part of her worries, she was still pretty unsure about everything. Which, of course, simply wouldn't do, as any information overlooked could possibly lead to her best friend turning into some half-human half-animal hybrid, and land him in a cell in Azkaban.

That, ultimately, was what led her to bring everything she could about the topic with her back to the orphanage she called her home for two months a year. Course, she charmed everything so that it'd look like ordinary school notes if someone other than her were to look at it. Because, knowing the kids she lived with, they knew nothing about personal space and always looked for something to taunt her with.

She could handle it, of course, as she's handled everything they threw her way over the years. It never used to be more than the usual insults and tripping, and the occasional jabs, until they grew old enough to realize that the brunette was different from the rest of them. They didn't know what exactly it was that made her different, but just the fact that she was being sent to what they believed to be an exclusive boarding school when the rest of them were sent off to the local public school was enough for them to single her out even more than they already did.

There was one particular group of mean kids that always took everything a little too far. Sure, the rest of the kids that stayed in the orphanage never missed the chance to taunt her or sneer at her in some way, but they were never as bad as the group of five boys who never missed a chance to make her suffer. It started with insults, then with tripping and painful elbow jabs, then beating her up any chance they could, and then pushing her head into barrels of water until she was on the brink of suffocation.

The last one was a fairly new addition to their tricks, sad to say, as that was what she was experiencing now. She just forced herself to get through it, as she always did.

"I bet you're just counting down the days until you get back to that fancy-shmancy boarding school, huh? Unless, of course, you're as much a freak there like you are here," the biggest and most burly of the group hissed into her ear, as he was holding her head by her hair. Winston was the so-called 'ring-leader' of their little group, and also her main tormentor. Mostly, the other boys were just there to laugh at his stupid jokes (which were not funny at all, if you asked her), or to help him in beating her up, or just as look-outs so they wouldn't get caught.

She closes her eyes, fighting to keep her face blank. She would never give them the satisfaction of seeing her hurting because of something they've done. Although she wasn't brave enough to fight back this time around, she would do everything in her power not to let them feel like they've won.

"Think you're better than the rest of us, don't ya? Well you're not," he spat, "you're nothing but scum - even worse than the rest of us."

He pushes her head back into the big barrel of water they had by the alley next to the compound. He doesn't let her up as quickly as he did the first four times, and Lucy couldn't stop herself from gasping for air as she felt like her lungs were giving up on her. She thrashes around, her body going in overdrive trying to get her head to the surface.

She sees black spots forming on the edges of her blurry vision, as her eyes were open even under water.

This is it, then, she thinks, this is how I die.

Thomas, one of Winston's lackeys, was the one to get the bully to stop. "Win, I think that's enough," he says, "we wouldn't want her death on our hands."