1I am screwed! I was screwed the day she died, the day he left, the moment I blacked out, and the day I met him! After she died I knew that there wasn't anything else that the world could throw at me to make things worse. I was dead wrong!
She had cancer. She was a resident of Salem Hospital, up in Boston where we lived. "We," meaning my brother Danny, Mom, and myself. My mom, Elizabeth Parker, was definitely my hero. She spoke her mind and and could practically read mine! But when Mom was hospitalized Danny and I were left at home to fend for ourselves and visit her every chance we got. Danny was a year older than me at 17, and a "year wiser," as he said. I have to admit that I looked up to him because he was always so confindent that everything would turnjust fine. But then one day, out of the blue, Mom died. Doctors say that she died in her sleep peacefully. To me, it looked like something more had happened. There were red marks on her wrists, they said those marks were from IVs. Her blankets were disheveled; they said she might have been having a nightmare. I asked if that meant that she didn't go peacefully. They just looked at me like I was the one who needed to be in the hospital.
So, a couple weeks later, after the funeral, after all the grief began to fade, we were shipped off to live with dear old Dad, Andrew Parker, who worked at the American Embassy in England, representing the American magical community. We hadn't seen our dad in five years. He never visited; however, occasionally he sent a birthday card when he remembered. Danny and I waited at the front entrance of the airport for nearly two hours before our dad finally showed up, chatting on a cell phone as if he were headed into a deli instead of picking up his "long-lost" kids two hours late!
"Hey kids, how've ya been?" he asked cheerily, then added back into his phone, "Yeah, I'm still here."
"How do you think? Our mother just died!" Danny said with disdain while hauling mine and his own suitcases into the trunk.
"Hey, Princess!" He gave me a hug that I never returned.
"You're two hours late, Dad!" I said. But he completely ignored me.
"No sir, I was not calling your princess, sir." I pulled away from him and went around to the back of the car where Danny was. I rolled my eyes and was close to tears.
"Go ahead and get in the back and try to get some sleep," he suggested. I nodded as my eyes began to droop. I sucked in my lips and started to bite at them. "Stop that!" Danny said tapping my mouth. I smiled. I climbed in the back seat and quickly dozed off.
When I woke up we had arrived at Dad's apartment building. Danny and I dragged our bags across the parking lot and into the main lobby. It didn't feel right. We didn't belong here, in the middle of all these muggles. I felt restricted and small. We piled into the elevator which carried us to Dad's 29th floor condo.
"Well go ahead! Find your rooms," Dad said, his cell phone temporarily put away in his front coat pocket for easy access. We hadn't stayed with Dad since I was 6, but I quickly turned down that hall and into my room. Danny stared at me.
"What?" I asked.
"I…" he began.
"Down the hall, fifth door on the left!" I said. My room looked exactly the same as I remember it. Pink, striped wall paper and a Care Bear bed-spread. Dad had bought it for me the first time we came to stay with him, right after Mom and Dad divorced. Anger rushed through me and I ripped the bed spread on the mattress and threw it out my window. I snapped out of my rage and realized that I had no other blanket. I walked down the hall to Danny's room.
"Um…can I borrow a blanket?"
Over the next couple of days Danny's feelings became apparent. Danny hated Dad. He would yell and rant about how he never tried to help Mom and that if he did maybe she would still be here and we wouldn't have to put up with each other. I expected all that out of him. But then Danny began to act very strange. He would disappear every night and stay out until maybe even the next night. He'd come home smelling of dirt and blood. Once I found blood on one of his shirts while I was washing clothes. I became very worried.
Then one very hot night around the 10th of June, Danny and Dad had their biggest fight yet. Danny exclaimed that Dad didn't care about either of us and that he is never home because he can't stand us. Dad tried to defend himself but Danny barely let him get a word in edge-wise. He finally sent Danny to his room.
After the screams had subsided I went to go talk to Danny but I came to find him with a broom and an open window. Before I could say anything he had jumped out and flown off. I didn't yell after him because I didn't want our dad to hear it. I ran down the hall and dug my own broom out of hiding and quickly jumped out the window after him.
I don't remember much after that. There was a dark clearing and Danny yelling at me for being stupid enough to follow him. Then everything went blurry and I screamed. I saw something but I can't remember what. When I opened my eyes, my head throbbing, Danny was gone and I passed out. When I woke again I saw the bright light of St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. I looked around to find my dad pacing back and forth, talking on his cell phone. He looked at me and his eyes widened to find mine open. He quickly hung up.
"You're awake!" he said, mouth agape.
"What happened?" I asked.
"You followed Danny and passed out in the middle of the woods," he said gently. I took another look around the room and became confused.
"Where is Danny?" I asked firmly.
"Uh…we haven't seen him for a week."
"WHAT?" I sat up and threw the thin blanket off of me and swung my legs over the side of the bed. "We got to go find him!" I got up and looked in a mirror. My once blonde hair looked almost brown with grease and oil from lying in that bed for a week. I didn't care; I threw it into a bun and then noticed my eyes, which were now bright blue with tears.
"No."
"What?" I asked in disbelief.
"You're not going anywhere," my father said firmly.
"Well then you go find him!" I demanded.
"No, sweetheart, you need to get back and bed and rest." He pushed me towards the dirty old mattress.
"NO! I am not going to turn my back on my family! I refuse to forget Danny like you're apparently willing to!" I turned to walk away.
"Katrina Marie Parker, I am not turning my back on him!" he exclaimed. I was amazed by this statement and my jaw dropped.
"You already have!" I yelled at him. He continued to look at me in shock. "You turned your back on us a long time ago!" He shook his head. "YES! Did you know that I'm a seeker?" His face dropped for a lack of words.
"Yeah, and last year my quittich team won the regional championship! I had to quit because of Mom. Did you know that Danny was going to be Head Boy at Salem next year?" He closed his eyes and took a breath and mouthed the word 'no.' "I didn't think so!"
"I…" he began.
"And did you know, that if you had actually had come to visit Mom and maybe, just maybe, helped us with the medical bill, instead of leaving that to us, she might still be here!?" I cried. "I DIDN'T THINK SO!" I walked toward the door, tears streaming down my face. But all of a sudden I felt a massive pull and I was flung across the room and into the bed. I tried desperately to move but my muscles tensed. I looked up to him, his wand pointed at me and his face in a state of terror. He quickly replaced his wand in his pocket.
"Like I said, you aren't going anywhere," he said calmly. "In fact, you won't be coming home with me either." A confused look came over my face. "I have asked the Minsiter of Magic to recommend a host for you for rest of the summer until you begin term at Hogwarts on September 1st." He spoke to the floor as if ashamed of what he was doing.
"What? You're going to dump with some stranger?"
"I will be taking you in two days."
"Why?"
"I can't take care of you like I should. I am far too busy."
"See this is what I am talking about, just throwing me out instead of trying to taking care of your child!" I exclaimed, still not being able to move.
"No, that's not why. I want you to be safe!"
"So send me back to Salem. I'll live at Becky's or Carla's! I don't want to go to Hogwarts anyway!"
"Hogwarts is a very respectable school with one of the finest headmasters in history!" he insisted.
"I DON'T CARE!"
