Pence
Auryion bounded down the stairs of her grandmother's house on the
morning of October 28, 1967, where she had stayed the night before,
to find her parents already there. She ran up and hugged her mother,
"Morning mama," she said smiling.
"Good morning
and Happy Birthday!" her mom said.
Today was Pence's
seventh birthday, and she was very excited. Because Pence didn't go
to school yet, she really didn't have any friends to invite to her
party, but her cousins (mostly very distant and older) were coming
later that night.
"Now," her grandmother said,
standing up and walking into the kitchen and pulling out her wand,
"time for
breakfast,"
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It
was nine thirty at night, Pence stood near the edge of the timber
with her second cousins and her parent's friend's children. All of
them were over 14, but Pence had no where else to stand, because her
family had taken up the lawn chairs to play cards. A loud howl was
heard from the woods, making Pence shiver and step backwards a few
paces, and run into her second cousin Troy. He laughed,
"Oh,
are you scared?" Pence shook her head,
"No!" They
laughed, and one of the boys, Zack, said,
"I bet you
couldn't last five minutes in there without running out crying,"
he said grinning. Pence glared at him, then glanced at her parents
who weren't paying attention. She made up her mind and ran up the
sloping hill and into the timber about 30 feet. She smiled as she
heard the startled voices of the teenagers below
"Keep
checking your watches," she yelled down to them, "I'll stay
in here 6 minutes!"
Every time a minute passed, her
cousin Candace would yell how much time she had left. Standing up
there by herself was scary, but Pence knew she could do it…she was
seven years old now! After what seemed like forever, Candace yelled
that she could come down, that she was done. Pence grinned, feeling
very accomplished, and started down the hill. About halfway down, she
heard the crackling of leaves behind her. She turned around swiftly
to see a large, grey wolf with gleaming yellow eyes staring at her.
Pence made a move to run, but her feet seemed glued to the spot,
and she couldn't find her voice to yell for help. Slowly, she managed
to go backwards a step. As her feet hit a twig, the wolf growled and
started forward. Pence whimpered and kept moving backwards, going
faster and faster. The next step she took, she tripped over a tree
branch and fell backwards. The wolf took this as its chance, and ran
forward, growling. It jumped on Pence and started tearing at her left
leg. Finally, Pence had the ability to scream, and she did. She heard
people running up, and then yelling. Pence's world went black as she
felt the wolf sink its teeth into her
side.
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Chapter
1
Pence
woke with a start and sat up slowly. Looking around the whitewashed
dormitory, she saw that some of the other girls were also stirring.
Out the barred windows, she saw a cloud shifting away from the
nearly-full moon. This has happened before; sometimes, when the moon
is close to being full, Pence and some of the other girls there at
the clinic had trouble sleeping.
Pence had been at the
Lycanthrope Clinic and Orphanage in London, England, for about a year
and a half now. October 20, 1974, her parents and little sister had
died in a car crash back home in Iowa, U.S.A., leaving her to the
Ministry, as she now had no living relatives. The American Ministry
arranged for Pence to stay at the clinic until she was 17, legally an
adult, and continue her education in magic with the tutor at the
clinic.
She couldn't say she hated life in London, living with
other children that shared her condition, but she missed living in a
house and having a real family. Pence, being 15, was one of the
oldest girls at the clinic; most of the others were about 6-12 and
avoided her because she was older. She didn't care though; she had
never had any real friends anyways, so why bother?
The next day,
one of the healers walked Pence and some of the others down the snowy
streets, through the Leaky Cauldron, and into Diagon Alley to buy
books at Flourish and Blotts. Pence always enjoyed their trips to the
bookshop; she never had much else to do, so she would buy big books
to help pass the time until she turned 17.
Pence walked up to the
counter to purchase a new book; behind it was a young witch who
looked about 19. Pence handed her some money,
"Hey, how old
are you?" asked the girl as she gave Pence her change.
"Fifteen…" Pence answered quietly, wondering why this
girl was asking her age. The girl grinned,
"Ooh, just old
enough…" she grabbed a scrap of parchment and a quill and
started writing rapidly. When she was done, she handed the paper to
Pence, who could barely make out her scribbled writing,
"Party
on X-Mas eve, ages 15, 6:00 p.m. - whenever. Flag down the Knight
Bus; tell conductor you need to go to the Cummings party. Tell
your friends! (No muggles.)
-Lillet Cummings
"
Pence looked back to the girl, "Lillet", she
gave her another grin,
"You should come," she said,
"there's gonna be loads of people there…and we've got music
and alcohol…all sorts of stuff, it's gonna be great."
Pence
looked back at the paper; Christmas Eve was the full moon, there's no
way she'd be able to go…As another customer came up behind her,
Lillet tapped Pence on the shoulder and raised an eyebrow. She
thought about her longing to be with regular people her age, and how
she might never get a chance like this again. She quickly made up her
mind; she'd sneak out after dinner that night, then go to the party
and be back at the clinic before they went down to the basement to
transform…
"I'll be there," Pence said, stuffing the
paper into her jeans pocket.
"Brill! I'll see you there,"
Lillet said, as the healer came and ushered Pence back to the group.
As they trudged through the snow, back to the clinic, Pence thought
about how long the next two days would be, waiting until Christmas
Eve.
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Hey
there guys! Started writing this awhile ago…
This is a prequel
that tells Pence's life before Incoherent Memories. You don't really
need to read I.M. before you read this, so yea…Hope you like it!
Review pleasums!
