I poured the cereal into a bowl for my little brother Roy; he was a sweet kid who deserved the world. Shame he didn't have it.
"You are drunk all the time! You have two choices, Logan: in or out of this family!" I could hear my mom yelling at my father, but we all knew she wouldn't do through with the threat.
"Spoon, Lilith." Roy demanded in his cute way and I handed it to him.
My mom walked into the kitchen banging the door, she was positively fuming until she laid her eyes on us.
"Sorry, Lil." It was the thousand time she had said it to me, but just like the other times it didn't make me feel any better. She ran her hand through Roy's golden locks. "How are you, baby?"
My mom got on her knees, so her eyes were level with Roy's.
"Fine, mommy." Roy threw himself in her arms.
I smiled at the scene. That made me feel better.
My mom was the best of the best; her only problem was that she fell in love with my deadbeat father. She had long blonde hair and green eyes, she was a muggle lawyer despite her pure blood, she was kind and lively.
"And you, baby?" My mom got up from her knees with Roy still on her arms "Ready to go back to school next week?"
I bit my lip. As always I hesitated to answer that question; I loved Hogwarts, but I felt so guilty for leaving them alone.
"Don't give me that look, Lilith." My mom said sternly "We'll be fine. Tell her, Roy."
"You go and get smart." Roy said decidedly.
"I'm already smart." I huffed offended.
My mom mother and Roy laughed.
"Lilith, get me another beer." My father yelled from the living room, getting us to shut up in a jiffy.
I got his beer and ventured into the living room towards the man on the chair in front of the TV.
"Thanks, girl." He didn't even look at me, just got his beer from my hands, but I guess that was still better than when he would look.
It wasn't like he beat me bad or anything like it, he slapped when angered and when he was pissed verbal abuse was a second language to him. I should just be grateful he seemed to like Roy better than me.
"Everything ok?" My mom asked as I walked back into the kitchen and I just nodded.
"I'm going for a ride." I let my mom know as I walked out of the house and got my bike.
I could feel the weight lifting from my shoulders; the house was clouded by that weight. I felt better just leaving.
I went to the park near my house and bought an ice cream sandwich wondering what would be like to just leave, just take my broom and fly away and I knew that I would never do it. It would be easier if my whole family was awful, I was no self-loathing person, I would leave, but I had my mom and brother, and my mom loved my father.
I guess technically I was a pure blood, mom is pure blooded and so is my father, but he is a squib and for that my mom doesn't practice anymore, solidarity and crap like that.
I'm Lilith Lockhart; in one week I would be a seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a Hufflepuff to be exact.
I rode back home in my bike, we ate dinner just the four of us and then we went to sleep.
Two days later a latter came from my best friend, sadly his latters were the best part of my summer.
Locki,
How is my favorite girl in the world?
I know I promised to write every week and I didn't last week, but I came to James' house to spend the rest of summer vacation and I got a bit ill, nothing to worry I'm already better.
How was your week?
James, Sirius and Pete say hi, they are all here with me. Sirius and James are being idiots again and when they are not is Quidditch all the time. Pete's favorite subject to talk about is you and you break his heart barely acknowledging he exists.
James' mom seems to think we are dating and wants to meet you, sorry, just pray she doesn't tell my mom or we will never hear the end of it.
Write me back, crazy bird.
Remy (just for you: the stupidest nickname in existence).
I answered right away.
Remy (I like the nickname),
Summer is great! I can't believe how much Roy has grown, but my mom doesn't seem to believe how much I have grown. I don't think I have changed, do you?
My dad is always working, but we have dinner together every night.
Forget about my family, I miss my best mate! You know you need more friends when your best mate is the mysterious tall and shady Gryffindor.
See you in three days!
Kisses, Locki.
I waited a day to send it so it didn't seem like my life was as empty as it really was and then I sent Athens (Remus' owl) on her way.
I woke up three days later eager to go back home to Hogwarts.
"Morning, Lil." Row jumped from his bed to mine.
He was sitting criss-cross, but I made sure to pull him down so I could hug him close.
"I'll miss you, Roy" I hugged him "Tell me you'll be ok without me?"
"I'll be fine, Lil. I'm big and strong." The kid told me.
"Sure you are, kiddo." I messed with his silky locks "Now out so I can change."
"Wait till I get out! Wait till I get out!" Roy yelled with his little arms in the air and I laughed.
I got dressed in light blue faded jeans and a red tank top, the converses were actually a gift from my mom two years ago and they were covered in signatures.
"Done!" I yelled down the stairs as I pulled my hair up in a messy bun.
"Shhhh, hunny. Your dad is asleep." My mom's voice was tender and caring when talking about my father again.
"Sure, mom." I dragged my trunk out the door and into the car.
"Next year I'm going too, right?" Roy asked eagerly.
"Do my ears trick me? You always seem so eager to have our room all to yourself!" I joked and he poked his tongue out at me.
"Don't stick that thing out if you don't want me to wash it with soap." Mom warned and Roy quickly shut his mouth.
We got to the King Cross station way to quickly and I felt my eyes tearing up at the prospective of leaving my family.
"Bye, mom." She hugged me tightly and gave me the usual warnings.
"Behave, eat…" Yada, yada, yada… "I'm sorry we can't walk you in , but I have to drop dwarf there at school."
Actually she just didn't like seeing what she was giving up for my father. I knew she would do it again in a heartbeat, but it must hurt.
"Bye, Roy." I hugged and kissed my little brother before getting out of the car.
Mom helped me with my trunk and I was ready to go. I waved and they waved back, soon I had disappeared through the masses of people and then threw the wall separating platforms 9 and 10.
The smell of magic was intoxicating with the thousands of wizards and witches running around…
"Locki!" I snapped my head towards the voice.
"Remy!" I run to the boy until I could jump up and wrap my arms around his neck getting my feet a good few inches off the floor.
"Missed me?" He laughed as he sat me on my feet.
I hit him in the arm and turned to greet the three boys that were sure to be by his side and I wasn't disappointed.
Pete stared at me a bit creepily to tell you the truth, but the plus side was that whenever he tried to talk to me he only stuttered and opened and closed his mouth like a fish so I could pretend to be oblivious to his crush on me.
James stood awkwardly as he didn't like me because I had my fair share of problems with his beloved Lily, but at the same time I had never done anything to him so he couldn't openly hate on me.
Sirius as always the good guarding dog followed James' stance.
"Hey, Peter." The boy pulled his famous fish move "Hi, Sirius."
While Sirius Black didn't bother acknowledging me, his best mate played the polite role as always.
"Lockhart." He nodded his head at me.
Since Lily Evans was Lily already, I was Locki, most people –like James- didn't even call me Lilith.
"Hi, Pretty Boy!" I sincerely like James and that was part of my problem with Lily Evans.
No! Not like I was in love with the boy or anything like it. It was just that he was nice and a good person and so desperately in love with and Lily Evans like to humiliate the boy in public. I also didn't like her because she was a know-it-all and a nark and liked blaming other people for her mistakes. Simply, Mss. Perfect wasn't really as perfect as everyone seemed to think, she was Mss. Phony.
I turned back to Remus.
"You will tutor me again on potions, right?" I tried to beat my lashes at him, but though they were fairly long they were too blond to be visible without some attention "I call dibs on Remus' brain if we have potions together!"
The Marauders didn't even acknowledge my attempt to be friendly; well, James and Sirius didn't.
I spotted my other friends as we walked down the train and went to sit with them as I wasn't allowed to sit with the Marauders as I wasn't one.
Kelly Thomas, Minka Ling and Julie Diggory were my best friends from my house and they were really nice most of the time, their only problem was that they were obsessed with the Marauders, the boy with the gray eyes. Except Julie, she was a Potter fan.
Yes, they were crazy giggling groupies, but I swear they had a good heart underneath it all.
"Hey, Locki." Julie greeted me with her bright green eyes and long light brown hair.
Kelly and Minka followed suit and hugged me tightly.
"How was your summer?" Minka asked.
"And Remus' ?" Kelly completed.
They always tried to get Marauder gossip out of me, but I never told them anything and they continued talking to me and that is how I knew they had a good heart deep down.
Also I didn't know that much Marauder gossip as I was only friends with Remus and he was the good one.
"My summer was good." I answered laughing at their question.
Minka shook her head at my indisposition to share, but they let it go and proceeded to tell me about their summer.
Julie and her brother Amos had spent their summer on beaches in Rio.
Minka was in Tokyo with her grandmother.
Kelly at her parents' house in Tennessee.
After a while Amos came to join us with his best friends Chandler Henderson and Luke Mint.
"Ladies." Chandler greeted and we all smiled at the boys.
With all my friends being obsessed with Marauders, we got along pretty well with other boys, but these were our favorites.
Amos and Julie instantly started arguing, this time about chocolate frogs.
"Schokolade?" Luke offered.
"Nein, danke." I answered with my extensive knowledge of German.
It was normal to exchange students to stay in Hufflepuff, other houses never wanted to take them. So much so that Chandler was from Texas, Kelly from Tennessee and Luke was from Munich.
Amos was finally done arguing with Julie so he turned to me and smiled brightly.
"How is my seeker?" He asked.
"Just fine, Amos." I smiled back "Are you up to the challenge this year?"
"You can bloody well bet on it!" He grinned. Us Hufflepuffs were loyal, sure, but good at sports? Not many.
I can say I was an above average seeker, the third year Ludo Bagman was a hell of a beater and Amos was an amazing chaser, but when it comes to Quidditch that was it for my house's talent.
"We need a good keeper. We could've gone to the finals if Blinch wasn't such an awful keeper last year." Amos started with the Quidditch talk and now there was no stopping him.
He went on and on until we got out of the train and into the carriage.
"Lily Evans three o'clock." Minka told me quickly just as we got out of the carriage.
Evans and her posse glared at us discreetly as they came over, all with their noses in the air and snob looks on their eyes. Marlene McKinnon was the tall blonde beauty she always was, Alice Lewis was a short pixie like girl with black (almost blue) hair and, of course, Lily Evans looked like a force of nature.
"Hello." She was obligated to greet us somewhat politely as she was dating Amos.
"See you guys later." Amos ditched us for the read-head and we shot catcalls after them as they went.
On our way to the table we passed by the infamous Marauders and I winked at Remy. We sat in front of Lyla Toffee and Tony Abbot, they were our star couple, had been dating since the end of first year.
"Really? Amos is sitting with the Gryffindors for the first night at Hogwarts?" Julie sounded disgusted "Traitor."
Julie didn't hate Lily for the same reasons I did, she hated the redhead because she was a Potter groupie, but still she made a good mate when I wanted to bad mouth Lily. Minka like Lily and so did Kel.
We listened to Dumbledore's speech and we dug in, we were enjoying our dinner when Amos caught my eyes from the other side of the Great Hall at the Gryffindor table, he motioned to a boy sitting alone at our table.
Connor Morgan was an unbeatable keeper, but since his second year when he was asked to join the Quidditch team he has refused. Amos wanted me to convince him to get on board with us.
I shrugged my shoulders (how?).
He gave me a meaningful look (use your charms).
I flipped him the bird.
"Ms. Lockhart!" Professor McGonagall protested from the staff table and once more I shrugged as my friends snickered at my misfortune.
After they let us go I said bye to my fellow Hufflepuffs and went to kill Amos Diggory.
"Miss me, handsome?" I went up to Remus, because where was Remus was James, James leads to Lily who leads to Diggory.
"Way to be a creepy friend, Lock." Remus rolled his eyes, but smiled at me all the same "But I'm flattered you came to see me."
"You wish! I came to get Amos." Amos was trying to hide behind Lily who was glaring at me "Tell me to my face now exactly what you want me to do with Connor."
"You misunderstood me, Lock. I say you should… persuade… the guy and there goes your mind to the gutter." Amos mumbled and I glared at him.
"Go fuck a donkey." I flipped him off again and turned to Remus "We need to talk, Remy. But now is not the time as I gotta go kick Amos' ass."
With a last smiled to my best friend I took Amos' arm and started dragging him away.
"Do you really think Connor would go for it?" I wondered out loud and Amos threw one arm around my shoulders looking proud of himself.
"Don't underestimate your assets." I stopped and punched him on the gut "Merlin, you punch hard for such a small girl."
"I'm not flirting with the bloke! But I will talk to him." I gave in a bit.
"That is all I ask." He looked so proud of himself at that moment it was funny.
We got to the kitchens and went a bit further, we stopped at a fake wall and pressed our palms to it and it let us in. The room was huge and with being in the deeps of the castle's basement the glass ceiling was so high up that the whole room was always naturally illuminated by day and by night we always had a view of the sky. In the summer the whole room acquired a warm yellow glow from the sun and I like to think that was the story behind the yellow in our emblem. The room also had an anti-echo spell so though it was big it didn't sound empty and the many white soft couches and chairs with fluffy rugs gave it a homey felling.
I was home.