two worlds

PROLOGUE

summer before the Tri-Wizard Tournament
going into 6th year

strange
adjective
meaning, unusual or surprising in a way that is unsettling or hard to understand.

it is a term that is frequently used to describe Ophelia Montgomery. it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but when was being labeled strange ever a good thing?

Ophelia Montgomery. daughter of Holland Montgomery and Lianne Montgomery neé Alarie. Holland, her father, is a British wizard who graduated from Hogwarts in 1973, and Lianne, her mother, is a French witch who graduated from Beauxbatons in 1974. her parents had her at the ages of 22 and 21, respectively. Ophelia (or Lia, as most people call her) is currently 16.

if you asked Ophelia, she would tell you that she had a fairly normal life. or, at least, as normal as a sixteen-year-old witch's life can be. yep. you heard correctly—or, to be more precise, you read correctly—a witch, and a very powerful one in most people's opinion (okay, maybe she contributed to that opinion... but you can't blame her for having a strong opinion of herself).

anyway, back to the strange thing. Ophelia wasn't so much a bad strange as she was a confusing strange. apparently, and these are the words of the medi-witch, not mine, "Dyslexia and ADHD are muggle mental illnesses, so she shouldn't have either unless she's closely related to a muggle. And even if she had some muggle in her, her magical core would have removed any traces of either illness and protected her from them". Yeah, so either something is wrong with my magical core or... well, I'm not sure what else. The entire situation was fucked. i am fucked, because what am I supposed to do with ADHD and dyslexia? do you know what it's like to struggle with reading? a first-year student could read faster than I could. so you can see my dilemma. i can't sit still, and it takes me forever to read a proper sentence.

Ophelia couldn't help but notice her mother seemed guilty about something during that same appointment (the one where the healers said there was something wrong with her, in case you forgot). she didn't know what it was, but it seemed important enough to cause her to tell Ophelia to hurry and grab her belongings so they could leave. She rushed them to the hospital's floo station so they could go, at a speed Ophelia had never seen her mother walk before. her mother was never rushed. Lia has never, and I mean never, seen her mother rush in all her years on this planet. She used to tell her that people could tell when you rushed and that "We are never late, everyone else is just early." i'm guessing it was something Grandma told her, but she's lived by it ever since.

i think i can safely assume something said during the appointment must've triggered this... reaction. i may also have forgotten to ask about it. so imagine my surprise when, while out for a walk, mind you, some lady approaches me with this lion, goat, snake hybrid thing and starts talking about feeding me to her pet personally i wouldn't call that thing a pet, but to each their own, i suppose). because, believe me, I've seen strange things, i am strange, but this... this is beyond anything i've ever seen. ever.

so i did the only logical thing i could think of.

i ran.

(583 words)