The end of summer brought with it deep seeds of anxiety and fear for Allison. She sat in her room the night before her departure to school, curled in the corner of her small bedroom, eyes wet with shed tears. She rubbed her eyes.
The last two months had been miserable. Allison spent the hot days either at the local park, sitting on the swings for hours, or in her bedroom, staring at the large pile of letters perched on the edge of her trunk.
She started receiving them only a few days after the start of the summer. They are all from her friends, delivered through her window by owl and all remain unopened.
On several occasions Allison went to open one, just one letter and read the words written on the parchment but always stopped. She couldn't bear to be reminded how alone she was.
Allison leaned her head against the wall, staring up at the ceiling, a tear sliding down her cheek. She wondered if her parent's were going to drive her to the train station or if she was going to have to take the bus again.
My family.
Allison felt her stomach clench at the mere thought. She didn't have a family, not really. When Allison first received her letter from Hogwarts, her mom and dad were indifferent, maybe even pleased. Allison was over the moon with joy. Finally she knew why she was so different from her peers, why she felt she didn't belong.
At Hogwarts Allison had friends, family even and could relate to everyone there in one way or another. She was finally, finally happy and at peace. But that changed when she returned home for Christmas and her parent's indifference took a turn for the worse.
In the time that Allison was at school, her parent's attitude toward their only child became that of anger and disgust. They started to look at her as different, a freak even. And they had no problem expressing that.
Another tear slid down Allison's cheek at the memory. That was four years ago and her relationship with her parents only got worse. In the last two months, Allison had had little to no contact with her family, regardless of living under the same roof. Each pretended that the other didn't exist.
Allison's heart ached for some kind of compassion from her parents but no matter how much she wanted it, no matter how much she prayed for it, she didn't received it.
Curling up on the floor, huddle in the corner, Allison closed her eyes, holding back sobs and fell asleep, waking only when the sound of her fathers bellow roused her. She jerked awake, heart thumping as her dad yelled up the stairs for her to get downstairs.
Getting to her feet, Allison rubbed the sleep from her eyes and stretched the knots from her back. Slowly, she made her way downstairs, dread pitted in her stomach. She found her mother and father in the kitchen. A smell of bacon filled her nose.
But of course, there was only breakfast for her mom and dad. They both looked at her when she walked in, eyeing the state of her clothes and hair.
"Try smiling once in a while," Allison's father sneered, "might help people like you a bit more."
Allison chewed her lip, aware that that was the most her father had said to her in two months. She looked to her mother, who sipped coffee from a large mug. She looked at her daughter over the rim of cup, her brows knitted together.
"You're not coming home," she said softly, in a way that made Allison's stomach somersault.
"What do you mean?" Allison whispered.
"We talk to that-that school of yours," Allison's father said through bites of egg, "they agreed to keep you there over al the holidays and summer months. You won't be coming back here."
Allison's jaw dropped to the floor. She didn't understand, not right away. Was she being dumped on the doorstep? Were her parents abandoning her, right then and there?
"I suggest you gather everything you want," her mother said, choosing to stare at her plate of food instead of her daughter, "we will be throwing anything left out tonight."
Allison stood there, lost for words, blood pounding in her ears. She stood for so long, unmoving, that her father looked up at her, a mixture of irritation and anger evident on his face.
"You can go now," he grunted, "pack your stuff. A taxi will pick you up in an hour."
Feeling truly alone, Allison walked numbly back to her bedroom, closing the door softly behind her. She looked at her room, where she had spent almost the whole of her life in and couldn't imagine not being in it anymore. Heaving a sigh, Allison gathered her spell books, school supplies and clothes, putting them neatly in her trunk. She took her wand and stuck in her pants pocket and checked under her bed and in her closet to make sure she wasn't missing anything.
Allison stood back and noticed the letters. She picked them up, held them in her hands, before putting them in her trunk too. Finally, Allison opened the bottom drawer of her desk and withdrew from its belly a small black box.
Staring at it, Allison considered what would happen if she had the tools with her. It wasn't something she wanted to continue with during school but she had been relying on it to keep herself sane for the last month and a half.
Allison heard her father yell for her again, demanding that she get her butt downstairs and out the door and she placed the small black box and its contents in her truck, along with the rest of her life, packed away in only an hour.