You With the Red Curls, You with the Watercolor Eyes

Chapter 1~Della

"Get up! We've got to go!" My sister's voice shouts at me  through the thick oak door. 

I groan and roll over to avoid the bright morning light coming through the curtains. Today's the day. If it's a good or bad thing, I'm not sure.

I slip off the messed up bed and dig through my closet for something to wear. Since I was little, I have always been expected to hold myself to certain standards when it comes to my appearance. I slip on a black top and pants. I pull on my black converse and pull my long blood red hair up into a knot on top of my head. I've no idea how I got it, since both my parents are blonde and so are my siblings, but alas, there it is, growing from my scalp.

I hear pounding on the door again and yell back, "I'm up! Relax, Juno!" My older sister, Juno, is tall and slim like our mother, with platinum blonde hair and shallow gray eyes. She is very beautiful, definitely the prettiest of our group of siblings. 

My own bloody red hair hangs in thick curls around my face. Juno tells me I am pretty, but I don't really believe her. My round face makes me look young and childish in stark contrast with my high cheekbones and long, thin nose. My dark green eyes also add to this effect, taking up far to much space on my face and are made even more prominent by my long, dark eyelashes and thin eyebrows. In general, I don't think I'm pretty. The only thing I have going for me is my intelligence, which just drives people away more.

I have practically no friends. My one true friend is a girl called Elizabeth, from my old school, Beaxbatons School for Girls. My parents sent me away to the boarding school in France for three years before deciding I should be with my siblings at Hogwarts. I don't even know why they sent me away in the first place. It could have been for any number of reasons, whether it be because I don't look like them, or because I wasn't wanted as a baby, or maybe it's because they think I'm crazy. I hear hear voices, practically constantly. They insistently whisper nothing, and everything at the same time. My mind is practically never at rest. I don't even know what it's like to have complete silence in your head. I long for the feeling.

But enough moping around. Juno is right, I'm going to be incredibly late if I don't hurry. I throw my new black school robes into my trunk ad neatly stack my books on top of them. On a last minute whim, I throw in my diary too. I like going back and reading my old entries and trying to analyze what my thought process was at the time. 

I grab my satchel and tuck a book and a quill into it so I'll have something to do on the long train ride. 

Finally, I run out of my room and dash down the stairs to the kitchen and grab an apple. My trunk and other belongings will be taken down by the servants who raised me more than my own parents did.

I find Juno and my other siblings, Draco and Celia, sitting in the dining room. Juno is seventeen, myself and Draco are fourteen, and Celia is ten years old. Draco and I are twins, though we could not be more different. He leans towards being loud and talkative, popular to an extreme. I am on the opposite side, hardly talking to anyone, focusing on my education and hardly attracting friends.

"Took you long enough," Draco says bitterly. He is not pleased at all that I will be attending Hogwarts with him and Juno now. Celia is still too young. When he found out, he practically had a fit that I was going to mess up his whole life. Maybe I will. I mess most things up.

"Lay off," Juno scolds him. At least I know she'll have my back at school. But it probably won't be much use, since she's a seventh year, and Draco and I will be three grades below her, in fourth year. 

"I wish I was going," Celia pouts. 

"No, you don't. Enjoy being home while you can," I tell her, standing behind her chair and braiding her pale blonde hair back so it exposes her angular features so much like my other sibling's. 

"Quiet, all of you." I turn my head to see my mother standing in the door way and scowling at us. "Your father is not in a particularly good mood, so I'd recommend treading lightly. The Dark Lord, praise his name, is becoming increasing insistent that the missions be completed swiftly."

That is another possible reason why I was sent away, I clashed too much with our father and his work. Our family hosts the Death Eaters often, and I have simply never been fond of them. I find them brutish and annoying, strutting about the manor house like they own it and not my family. In all actuality, they really do, since my parents were foolish enough to offer it as a place of refuge for the Dark Lord and his followers whenever needed. 

I glance over to to the clock that hangs above the fireplace at the back side of the room. 10:13, it reads.

"We need to leave soon," I say.

"Yes, the house elves are just loading the last of your luggage into the car. I will be accompanying you three to the station with Celia to say goodbye. Your father is rather busy," My mother says. I force myself to take a bite of my apple and choke it back. I'm so nervous I don't feel like eating, and I didn't sleep almost at all last night, though that's nothing new. 

Within ten minutes I am sitting in the backseat of the limousine that will take us to London Station. My stomach churns. A single burning question throbs in my mind: Will I finally be safe at Hogwarts?

Author's Note~Hi guys!! My name is PokaPotFox. A huge, huge thank you to anyone who reads this! Writing is low-key a coping mechanism at this point... Lol. Leave any suggestions down below and I'll hopefully be posting again soon! 😘

~PokaPotFox13