She walks to school with a lunch she packed
Nobody knows what she's holding back
Wearing the same dress she wore yesterday
She hides the bruises with the linen and lace
Lucy walked to school with her lunch tucked safely under her arm. Ever since Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had started fighting she had started making the lunches for herself, her brother, and her cousin. When she walked into school she heard some of the latest gossip from the fifth graders.
"That Lucy girl is weird."
"I heard that her brother is a criminal."
"Doesn't her brother go to that school where they teach criminals."
"Yeah! And her cousin is that big fat kid."
All the school talked about her like that, like she was something stuck on the bottom of their shoes. Ever since Harry had gone off to Hogwarts (which certainly wasn't a school for criminals) and Dudley had gone to Middle School it was torture at school for the little 8-year old Lucy. Slowly, Lucy walked to her class and took her seat in the corner.
The teacher wonders but she doesn't ask
Lucy put up her hand when Mrs. Carstairs asked who did their homework, but she quickly put it down when she realized her sleeve was rolling down, exposing the disaster from the night before. Uncle Vernon had slammed the door and walked out. Lucy had been with Dudley in his room, something that had become usual as the fights grew daily. Lucy had always found comfort in writing and when Aunt Petunia had come to sit with them in Dudley's room, she had grabbed the nearest pen and wrote all over her arm in an attempt to feel better.
It's hard to see the pain behind the mask
Bearing the burden of a secret storm
Sometimes she wishes she was never born
She had always been a good actor. Whenever she got in trouble at home, she would pull a face and get out of punishment. But now that she only had Dudley to comfort her, she felt so alone and forgotten unless she was with him. Everything was a big, fat secret. She always masked her emotion so no one would ask about what was wrong.
"I wish I was never born," Lucy sighed as she walked home.
"Ah Luce don't say that," said Dudley, falling into step beside her on their walk home.
"Sorry," Lucy said, "I just wish I could see Harry again." Lucy sighed as a group of fifth graders rode by on their bikes and shouted insults at the two of them.
"Why don't you shut it! I'm older than you anyway!" Dudley shouted at the retreating backs of the fifth graders. The two then walked home in silence. Only to be greeted by shouts of anger and smashing glass when they got home. Lucy dodged a flying glass angel as it made its way to certain smashing.
"Get up stairs," growled Uncle Vernon. Lucy stumbled upstairs to Harry's room, which was serving as her room, and fell on her bed, welcoming the dreams and letting them flow over her.
Through the wind and the rain
She stands hard as a stone
In a world that she can't rise above
But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place where she's loved
CONCRETE ANGEL
Lucy was able to do anything when she was in her dreams. But one dream she loved more than anything. She was at Hogwarts with Harry, everyone loved her and she was kind to everyone she met. Lucy got her Hogwarts letter on July 7, 1993, a day that would be known as the day she died.
"You're a no good freak like your brother!" Uncle Vernon had shouted at her.
"Don't listen to him," Dudley had said when they had retreated to his room. But that night when Lucy was writing in Dudley's room, Uncle Vernon stormed in and shouted at her until she burst into tears that seemed not to know how to shine.
"Don't cry you little fool," Uncle Vernon had roared at her as he hit her over and over again.
Somebody cries in the moon of the night
The neighbors hear but they turn out the light
A fragile soul caught in the hands of fate
When morning comes it will be too late
Lucy sat on the floor. She had no energy to cry because the pain was too much. A puddle of blood surrounded her as she sat on the floor. It was fresh blood, her blood. Dudley had seen Uncle Vernon hurt her, but whenever he tried to help, Uncle Vernon brought his fist down on him instead. Lucy had cried and cried, but the hurting just got worse.
"Please don't be dead Lucy," Dudley said as he knelt by her side, hoping that she was alive.
"I'm an angel," Lucy said as a faint smile graced her lips. Those words took so much strength that Lucy died right there and then, the day of her birth was the day she died. That smile stayed on her lifeless face as she died, that smile had killed her.
Through the wind and the rain she stands hard as a stone
In a world that she can't rise above
But her dreams give her wings
And she flies to a place where she's loved
CONCRETE ANGEL
The next day Aunt Petunia and Dudley went to Hogwarts to tell Harry what had happened. After the police came and arrested Uncle Vernon, Petunia had sent Dumbledore a message. They hadn't waited for a reply, the letter had explained that they were coming immediately so that they could tell Harry themselves. Petunia had asked Mrs. Fig to summon the Knight Bus so they could get there easily. When they got there they walked into the Great Hall and whispers soon surrounded them. They didn't wait for anyone to greet them, instead, Aunt Petunia said what had happened to no one in particular.
"He killed her last night," Aunt Petunia burst into tears and choked out the last words of despair, "On her eleventh birthday!" No one in the Great Hall knew what to say, they didn't even know them. Suddenly, to the surprise of everyone in the Hall, Harry got up and hugged Aunt Petunia, who continued to sob uncontrollably.
"Why did he kill her?" asked Harry, who had tears glistening in his green eyes.
Petunia hugged him harder, "Because she got her Hogwarts letter."
Harry looked at her and began crying, "Magic killed her." And this just made them all cry harder.
A statue stands in a shaded place
An angel girl with an upturned face
A name is written on a polished rock
A broken heart that the world forgot
Harry stood beside the grave.
He stood in a shaded corner of the graveyard. Lucy's name had been written on the headstone that stood next to her parent's graves. A small angel had been carved into the concrete because Dudley had said that Lucy knew that her last words would kill her, but she had said them anyway.
Lucy was a true angel.
After the funeral Harry had quit Hogwarts, he had packed his bags and left. His friends were shocked that he had quit Hogwarts, only Ginny understood. After he had saved Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets, he had confided in her that he had a sister who was badly mistreated by their Uncle. That was why she understood what was happening. They had gotten married the day before, on what should have been Lucy's eighteenth birthday. Petunia, Dudley, and Harry had moved to Godric's Hollow following the incident, and Ginny had agreed to buy a cottage in Godric's hollow, but she was still confused as to why Harry loved the place where his parents had died so much.
"Time to come inside, Harry," Ginny shouted from their house beside the graveyard.
"Coming," Harry yelled back. He stared at his sister's grave and transfigured a circle of lilies next to the headstone. Ginny had taught him how to conjure flowers so he could do something nice for his sister's memory. He loved Ginny and the best thing about her was that she understood what had happened that day in July.
Through the wind and the rain she stands hard as a stone
In a world that she can't rise above
But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place
Where she's loved
James Sirius Potter stood by his Aunt's headstone. Little Albus was tugging on his sleeve, complaining that he was hungry and his hunger was only increasing with the delicious smells wafting from the little cottage. But James had insisted on showing the new baby Lucy their Aunt's grave and telling her the story that would never become hers like it did her namesake. Finally, Albus retreated to the cottage and the four year old James was left alone with his newborn sister.
"It all started on a cold October day that started out like any other….." started James as he told his baby sister what had happened that night, in so much detail that the baby cried throughout the whole thing as if she knew what was coming.
CONCRETE ANGEL
Little Angie sat in the shade of a large tree, rocking her new little brother to sleep as she told him the story of their father's aunt.
"…and that's the story of Daddy's Aunt Lucy." Angie finished, smiling down at her new brother who was wrapped in a blanket so white it matched with the snow floating around them. "Grandmum said that losing someone close to you breaks you, but Mummy says that so many people die there's nothing to fret about. I hope we learn the truth someday. But not the hard way." With that, she walked to the small cottage on the other side of the hollow, her feet making no print in the fair snow. She had her magic to wipe them away.
The very same magic that had killed her father's aunt so many years ago.
