One of us - Marauders Era

1

"Have a good day at school honey, be good," Josephine's mum calls out as the small 9-year-old girl runs towards her best friend.

"What's wrong Millie?" Josephine asks, seeing the sad look on her friend's face.

"Chance is making fun of me again," Millie pouts. The little girl feels anger course through her but she pushes it down, her fear of getting in trouble with her mum and teachers stopping her from taking action for the time being.

When break time reaches, Josie walks towards the playground to see Chance push Millie and snatch her book from her. She storms over angrily and stands in between them.

"Woah, what happened to your hair?" Chance asks, Josie ignores him thinking it's another one of his pranks, but before she does anything he flings back onto the ground. It looked like he had been violently pushed back but no one had touched him.

The crowd of students that had formed around them backed away, fear etched on their faces while Chance ran away crying. Whispers and gasps surrounded her as Josie's anger morphed into fear and confusion. She didn't understand what was happening. The students gasped, staring at her, even her best friend looked terrified of her.

She ran out of the playground to the toilets. Looking in the mirror she sees her hair and eyes are now a dark green colour. The door opens to reveal a worried-looking teacher.

"What are we gonna do with her? This isn't normal"

"Well we can't just keep her in this house forever"

"I'm scared, Magnus"

Her parents were arguing while Josie lay curled up on her bed. Her hair and puffy eyes had turned a mix of yellow and orange. She didn't know what she did wrong, people were scared of her including her parents and brother. Her hair turns a deep blue and her eyes brim with tears.

2 years later

Josie sits at the kitchen table, schoolwork sheets and books scattered over the table while she twirls her light brown hair and daydreams. 

Since the incident two years ago, she had been homeschooled and forced to keep her hair in a hat on the rare occasions that she left the house. This meant she didn't have any friends and her only entertainment was her books and music. However, she was grateful that her parents and older brother gradually began to accept her like this and were no longer scared.

Her brother Jake was 3 years older and they got along surprisingly well. He was there for her and found her 'condition' strange but fascinating. Over these years they had experimented with it and found out that the colour her hair and eyes changed to was based on the emotion she felt.  After much experimenting, they also found that she could change it by picturing herself with a certain appearance and intensely focusing on it. Some of Josie's favourite moments were when Jake would get her to change her hair into a dark blue and they would play a game where she pretended to be a witch. As ironic as it was, she didn't tell her brother the strange and unexplainable things that had been happening to her. Once she accidentally dropped a plate when she was home alone, and it shattered all over the kitchen floor. She was terrified but when she turned back around the plate was fixed without a single scratch or crack on it. Her hair went from green to orange as she stood there stunned.

One evening, during dinner, there was a knock at the front door, and Josie's mother went to see who it was.

"Hello, Mrs Harper. Is it okay if I can speak to your family about your daughter Josephine?"

Josie looks at her father who just walked in. Not many people knew she existed.