the gentle moon / george weasley

anything but gentle to her

There is a small house on a hillside just north of Galway. The sun hadn't fully risen yet, so it was still a little dark. A light was shining through a window of a bedroom on the top floor, the curtain was partly open, and a few posters and a Gryffindor banner were visible on the wall. The walls are a light blue color, and the floors are old wooden planks that are covered with overlapping rugs. There are plants strewn about the room, as well as two big bookcases piled high with muggle novels and school textbooks. There are empty potion vials scattered around a desk, along with scribbled parchment and a few mugs with coffee stains at the bottom. A black dog is sleeping at the foot of the bed. The room appeared messy, as if someone had taken everything apart in search of something. A girl is resting in her bed, wearing a shredded tee shirt and with a fresh wound on her shoulder. Another light turned on just below her window, and you can see a woman digging through the kitchen for towels and bandages, as well as the sound of a kettle crying. The woman appeared exhausted. She was dressed in her sleeping robes, and despite appearing to be in her thirties, she had grey bits in her black hair. Just a few moments later, you see the woman enter the door to the upstairs room, her face contorted as she looks at the girl in agony.

August knew that when she opened her eyes, a new day would start. And even with her eyes closed she could feel her mother's presence in the doorway, she presumed she was holding a tray of tea and bandages with a sweet smile on her face like she always does. But she also knew that under that smile, dark bags lingered beneath her mothers eyes, because she knew her mother hadn't slept.

August had one of her nights.

Her dog Jet, who had not left her side all night, nudged her face with his snout to get her to open her eyes.

"How do I look?" August gave a half smile, finally opening her eyes at her mother.

She knew by the way the corner of her mouth almost fell, that last night was a bad one.

"Like always, you look like my beautiful daughter." Jade, her mother, said gently, placing down the tray of tea and pushing the dog off the bed, and began assessing August's wounds. "Professor Mcgonagall said you can miss the first day," Jade told August, wiping one of the more deep wounds on one of August's shoulders. "You shouldn't get on the train today, you had a long night."

"I'm fine mum," August mumbled into her teacup looking around the room. The sun was flooding in through the window now, making her blink quickly.

"Does this hurt?" Jade asked, taking her hand away from August's shoulder.

"No, just the sun's too bright." August gave her mother a weak smile and petted Jet, who sat in front of her.

August, Jade and Jet spent the majority of the morning on her bed, as Jade attended to her daughter's wounds. As books and clothes flew from one side of the room to the other and into her trunk she rethought her decision to go back to school today. She was to catch the train to Hogwarts in just a few hours. So August sat, staring at herself in the mirror across from her. August didn't get her mothers dark hair, but rather light brown hair. It was long, with thick bangs that covered her eyes. She has a scar that covers the right side of her face, starting at her eyebrow, over her eye and then ending on her jawline. She has freckles and dark brown eyes. She gets those from her mother. She's wearing an old, brown knitted sweater with white embroidered flowers on the collar. There are a pair of corduroy slacks next to her on her bed, as her mother healed a few scratches on her legs.

Usually, she'd wake up with one or two cuts that couldn't heal on their own and a few unpleasant bruises, but maybe from the stress of school starting the day after a full moon made it a more stressful night. "Maybe I should put on some make up for today." August said, causing her mother to sigh.