𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔹𝕝𝕒𝕔𝕜 𝕊𝕙𝕖𝕖𝕡

18- Garden of Novels

"Used to be a shooting star
When did I become so dark?"

The very concept of love could cure one's aching heart, or it could make the ache worse. A lonely person might find comfort knowing that one day, one day they could find something as beautiful as other people already had. However, another lonely person could be hurt thinking about what they could have or could have had. Love's power reached all, whether or not they liked it.

Love had the power to induce the deepest anxieties and to cause tidal waves of hurt. Confusion surrounded the subject; how did fate decide what one would feel?

Andromeda really didn't care how fate decided. All she knew is that she'd like to knock on fate's door and slap it in the face for giving her the short straw.

Her mother had started this lovely train of thought with a simple letter. It shouted--not literally--about how this wedding was her duty to the family and it whispered in undertones about what would happen if she didn't get married.

The letter hadn't changed her opinion on anything though. She was still determined to get out of the betrothal somehow. Not only did she not want to get married to Alexander Carrow because he was Alexander Carrow, but she had too many people she didn't want to let down.

She wouldn't be able to handle the disappointed face of Henri, who had been her cheerleader for a little over a year, and she couldn't imagine her life without her. Even though she didn't know them very well, Jack and Ted seemed extremely sad when she told them of her new engagement. So, there were two more people she thought about constantly when debating if breaking off the engagement was worth all the pain.

Yet, most of all, Andromeda didn't want to let herself down. Marrying a Carrow would go against everything she believed. It would compromise her beliefs. If she did end up saying "I do," she felt she'd also lose a part of herself, and there were already far too many parts lost to give up another one.

She ignored the ache in her heart instilled by fate as she threw the letter into the fire of the Slytherin common room. The last thought she had that night was of burning the hurtful words her mother wrote and how much satisfaction that brought her.

...

Libraries were supposed to be a place where one could study at peace with themselves, maybe with a few friends, spending the day bettering themselves as students. Someone should let Alexander Carrow know of this notion though because Andromeda had the feeling that he didn't know she wasn't to be pestered in the garden of novels.

Sitting at a table in the middle of the library, Meda tried to focus on the words in front of her on the Charms textbook while Carrow didn't stop talking. It was getting to the point where she was getting worried Madam Pince would kick them out of the library.

"Then, my father, to nobody's surprise, charmed my dear mother right off her feet," Alexander said with a satisfied smile. "Not literally, I mean, he could have charmed her to fly if he wanted to because he's just fantastic at magic-"

"No offense, but I really don't care if your father is fantastic at magic," Meda snapped, annoyed she couldn't block out his voice longer than she had. "My father is also a fantastic wizard, but you don't hear me boasting about it."

"That must be because my father is just better at magic than yours," Alexander replied snidely.

Andromeda didn't make it a habit to go around bragging about her family simply because they were nothing to brag about. However, she really wanted to kick Carrow's arrogant arse onto the ground, and at this point, she didn't really care if that meant she had to brag about her family. It wasn't as if she was claiming something that was untrue, her family members were all really talented at magic. Perhaps that is what makes them so terrifying.