The Other Daughter (Watty Awards 2012)

Imminent Death

Dedicated to Taylor Swift because she is an amazing person and a great singer. I love her new single "Safe and Sound" feat. The Civil Wars, and I can't wait for "Eyes Open" to be released as well

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“Hi, Hagrid!” Lily bounced up to the two. Lucy was staring at him, terrified. She had seen him before, she was sure of it.

“I’m sorreh.” He rumbled, “I thought you was Lily, you look very similar from the back.”

He was enormous, towering over even the gangly seventh years that looked like they had been stretched. His almost black eyes were peeking out from behind a gigantic bush that was his beard. The coat that almost reached to the floor was brown and looked like it was about fifty years old. There were pocket among pockets inside pockets, adorning everywhere on the coat, like they had been added when and where they had been needed and hadn’t been touched since.

“Earth to Lucy!” Lily waved her hands in front of Lucy’s face, “And she returns from the long and arduous journey that is blanking out.” Lucy snapped out of it and realised she had been staring at Hagrid while every other first year had been gathering around them.

“Ok, is everyone here? I do not want a repeat of last year, I left some people behind, and they decided to swim across the Black Lake. Not fun.” Several people emitted high pitched nervous giggles that sounded to shrill to be real. One girl looked positively petrified, and grabbed on to the nearest person to her as if they could save her if she cut off the circulation to their hand. Lily, on the other hand looked contrastingly confident. She muttered to Lucy that her father had told her that James was lying when he said that they had to cross the Lake on leaking rafts using just their hands. He assured her that they crossed in safe boats using magic. Lucy whispered back that it would be much more fun if they did cross like that. Lily looked at her incredulously.

“I like to swim.” Lucy explained, “We didn’t get to very often but when we did it was brilliant!”

The first years followed Hagrid along a path like a ragged flock of black sheep. A few shrieks were heard when some of the more wimpy girls had to go through a patch of mud.

“Which house do you want to get in?” Lily asked Lucy.

“I don’t really know, I think probably Gryffindor or Ravenclaw.” Lily hitched her robes up so they wouldn’t get muddy. “Oh… wow!” The girls turned a corner and they reached the shore or the lake. Bobbing on the surface were about twenty boats, lanterns hanging from a pole, lighting up the dark water and turning it yellow. “Bagsey this one!” Lily raced to the oldest, muddiest and most-likely-to-collapse boat she could find. “It’s so cool!” Lucy clambered in behind her, wondering at the nothingness beneath them. “Do you think there are things under the water?” she asked.

“Oh, yes. My dad says there are merpeople and all sorts down there, even the Giant Squid.” Suddenly the boats started moving out across the lake, rocking from side to side. Lucy grabbed onto the side. It’s not that she didn’t want to explore every inch of the Lake; she just didn’t want to explore it now. The boats turned as one, out of the cove they had been moored, and onto the main lake. It was massive. But what really caught everyone’s attention was the castle. It loomed out of the darkness, covered in tiny pinpricks of light, each a window. Turrets spiralled so high up; everybody had to crane their necks to see the top. As the boats slipped silently across the water, Lucy began to see shapes in the darkness; the cathedral shaped Great Hall, towers branching off and the tops of the trees in the great wilderness that was the forest behind the castle. The boats kept on heading straight forward to what seemed to be an intimidating mass of stone on the steeply sloping shore of the lake. Even Lily closed her eyes and gripped so hard around Lucy’s wrist the Lucy was sure she was going to lose circulation in her hand. Lucy guessed that they were probably not going die. The teachers wouldn’t have anything to do. She giggled. Faced with probable imminent death and she was feeling sorry for the teachers not having anything to do all year. She burst into laughter so loud she was getting glares from the rest of the terrified passengers of the boats. Hagrid was up ahead and the prow of his boat was just metres away from the impenetrable rock wall. Lucy glanced behind her and the first face she saw was that of none other than Scorpius Smug-as-anything Zeus Malfoy. He seemed to be the only other person in the convoy that wasn’t about to pee themselves. Lucy turned away from his infernal smile just in time to see the prow of Hagrid’s boat slice through the cliff like a hot knife through butter. Who thought of that phrase anyway? Soon the bulk of Hagrid and then the stern of his larger-than-life vessel disappeared and it was Lucy and Lily’s turn to go through into the unknown. Lily actually managed to tighten her grip on Lucy, so much that she could swear she could see her fingers going grey in the pale moonlight. First the prow, then the lamp disappeared, leaving them with a temporary darkness before they too plunged into the cliff.

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Everything belongs to JKRowling except Lucy

I didn't upload in about three week. I am so sorry, I had a massive amount of coursework and controlled assessments and loads of other really time consuming stuff. Then during the holidays when I thought I was going to get a week of writing, it turns out that we were going on holiday to somewhere with no internet. And then I had writers block (the bane of a writer's existence). So it has taken me three weeks to write this one chapter. To everyone who read to the end of that, have a cookie.

I am now a peskitarian (is that even how it is spelt?)

Ok i am going to give up now, I cant even remember how to spell 'spelt', is it 'spelt' or 'spelled'? I am having to use my twin as spell check and she is making lots of funny faces at me.

vote fan comment and try not to get killed by monster crabs or the raving lunatic that is my twin