tHeRe iS No foOT tOo sMAll tHAt CaNnot LEaVe aN iMpRinT oN tHiS world.

Prologue

Psychology says humans all think and behave the same, which I completely agree with. People do not realize the accuracy of this statement. When I was little, adults would tell my class that each one of us were special, but if everyone was special, then is anybody special; instead, I would have told my younger self that there is a special plan that everybody takes part in. Here is one of the most imperative parts that I contributed to in that plan:

Like everything, it starts with foundation. At the ripe each of four, I told my father I wanted to see the world; however, I did not want to see the world for adventure, for travel, for sightseeing, for meeting new people, for learning, for new experience, for any reason like that. Thanks to, again, psychology, I wanted to see it because of the simple thing that all humans have in their DNA. It's called curiosity. The desire to know. I wanted to know what was out there beyond where I lived. Cliché much? I guess so.

The world is big. At least, that was my father's four-word response to me. I will never forget those words because that was the only wrong thing he had said in his life. His words did not have any other take on it; they were too close-minded. So, I reworded it for him to the world is like an overcrowded room. Because of the vast number of things crammed into a limited space, it seems infinite. Let's start with a single house in the suburbs. If the plot of land had no house, then that plot of land would look quite small. But when you put a house on it, then boom, there are three floors of exploration plus the backyard, any shed, any pool, etc. And then, when in the house, it enlarges because that house has rooms. Even in each room, there are nooks and crannies to be looked at that could hold hidden things. Every corner, every closet, every drawer; every little thing. Parents do not even know what's in their children's bedrooms. I think about that a lot. When I pass houses that I see every day, it feels like I am part of that house. In reality, I have no clue what the inside even looks like, or even the backyard.

Let's imagine a neighborhood without any houses. There's not much to explore. All there would be are trees and shrubbery. Now, let's zoom out even more. I know every street by its name in the ten-mile radius of my house. I know that the Java Cup is on Bay Grove five miles due east and Highland's Market is in Jocks Square approximately 7 miles toward the city. But if I just went fifty miles from my house, I would be utterly lost. It's strange how you can know something so well, but at the same time, know just the surface of it. Everything gets bigger the closer you get to it. That was the first lesson he taught me.

Despite being lost, I bet, I would know someone who knows someone who knows someone. Eventually, we would find some relationship like my friend's aunt's cousins father-in-law is their mother's coworker's fiancé's stepbrother. That's why it's called a small world. The people. When I look at my friends, I think of the things that I will never get to know not because they are hiding things from me, but there are things that happen to them that they do not feel are important. The amount of information in the human population is beyond imaginable. Each person has not just a story, but thousands of stories that could be told. So not only is the dimensional space unimaginably seemingly large, but the space between our ears is infinite. That is why my whole adulthood was trying to travel; to see just how big the world really is. Let's not get caught up too much. We have to start at the beginning.

Wednesday, August 31, 1960 in St. Mungo's Women's Wing

On a humid summers night, Druella Black was groaning in agony as she was laying there waiting to push out her fourth child. She had been in labor for a grueling five hours; five hours of pain and misery. In the beginning, the contractions came every hour or so, and then later, they became more and more frequently to the point that every ten minutes a new one had started. Not only did her pregnancy make her feel as if she was burning on fire, but the weather, too helped contribute to Druella's misery. It had yet rained in London for three weeks, which made the air ever so humid and sticky. That plus the August heat did not add well for a pregnant woman in labor.

It was around 8:30 p.m. when the sun had, finally, gone down, so thankfully the hospital was starting to cool down, however, the contractions still continued. To pacify, the healers had started placing charms that would lessen the pain, but so far, the baby seemed to display alike traits of stubbornness as her mother. She evidently rejected the plan to leave her mother's warm womb, but Druella, being an expert at stubbornness, made sure that this baby was going to come out. The healers placed more charms to speed up the delivery by quickening the dilation process, and then, her cervix was completely open at ten centimeters meaning it was time for Druella to start pushing.

"Druella, you're ready to start pushing. I'm going to count down from ten, and when I get to one, you can stop to take a breath. Ready?" the main healer asked.

Nodding, Druella replied "Yes, I'm ready"

"Push…ten…nine…eight…seven…six…five…four, you can do this…three…two…one. That was amazing. Now breathe and we'll start in the next ten seconds." With that said, Druella's eyes bulged out from the healer's comment. How was she supposed to continue this every ten seconds until a baby popped out?

While all of this was going on, in the other room, Cygnus, her husband, was trying to keep the children occupied. Including his children, he was also parenting for his sister's child since she was helping his wife, Druella. The little ones had been sitting around in the waiting room from the start of when she went into labor causing them to become grumpy and bored; not a combination any parent wanted to deal with. On top of that, not quite grasping the reason of why it took so long, the children consistently complained impatiently about their situation.

Walking up to the chair her sister was in, Narcissa, the youngest of the children, poked her sister, "Bella, I'm bored. Can you play a game with me?"

"I'm tired and there's no games around," her older sister mumbled. Andromeda, the middle child, glared at Bella signaling to her to change her response.

She kindly added, "Cissy, we both would love to do something. What do you want to play?" "Hide and seek" Narcissa replied happily.

Trying to get out of the situation Bella stated matter of factly, "Mother and Father do not want us to be a bad influence on our little cousin and" but Cygnus cut her off saying, "Only this time will I let you behave in this manner. Do you understand?"

"Yes, of course," Dromeda quickly replied while Cissa nodded. "Now, Cissa and I will hide while Bella, you can have fun and count to 200."

"No. If I'm playing, I'll count until 50 and you best be ready."

"Fine then. Close your eyes and don't cheat, Bella."

"No promises. One, two, three, four, five … forty-seven, forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty. Ready or not here I come." Looking around the room, Bella immediately spotted Narcissa, but not wanting to ruin her fun and more importantly wanting to make Dromeda lose first, she acted like she was completely oblivious. Looking under chairs and behind the door, she searched for the middle child. After looking for some time, Andromeda was ultimately found behind a table in which Bella had already searched around.

"Andromeda! You cheated!"

"No one said we weren't allowed to move."

"It was a given. Every time we play, we're not allowed to move. Do I need to remind you every time?"

"I guess so. Besides, you still haven't found Cissa."

Bella whispered making sure Narcissa didn't hear, "Yes I have." With that, she added her infamous smirk she had inherited from the Black tree.

For a few more minutes, Bella faked searched around the room for Cissa who stayed in the same spot not daring to move like her older sister did. Once she was found, she announced that it was Andromeda's turn to seek. The game continued, but fortunately for Cygnus, at some point they all had grown weary and had fallen sound asleep.

Only a second from the clock ticking to midnight, a sudden outburst of cries was expelled from the room in which Druella had been in, waking everyone up. After the unsettling sounds, it grew quite for a split second. Faintly, there were cries for air and then all of hell's gates let loose when oxygen had reached the baby's lungs. This was the cue to go into the delivery room. Gathering all the children, who were anxiously waiting to meet the baby, Cygnus cracked the door open to make sure Druella was covered. Once the nurse approved, he opened the door wider, letting the rest of the family in. Walking to his wife, he gently picked up the crying baby. Apparently satisfied, the baby stopped her screaming and stared at her father with immense fascination. As Druella placed the hat on the baby to keep her warm, Cygnus noticed that her blonde hair was notably bright as it lay on her head. Her blue gray eyes, much like her cousin, Sirius, stared deep into her father's making their first father-daughter connection.