My memory of my mother's first reaction to me after my birth was a thunderous, haunting wail. I remember as clear as a cloudless day, her voice screaming: "What's wrong with her eyes!"
It was a scream of disgust, and a bone-rattling horror. Her face, clear, aristocratic, was pulled into an expression of loss, pale-blue irises glittering with tears. I could tell that she already knew what was wrong, but was daring someone to speak, to tell her why her child had strange eyes, why her child was-
"Mistress Greengrass," the midwife said with an ignorance of a young girl who had not experienced the prejudice side of this world, "I believe your newborn daughter is a werewolf, the eyes are usually like this for a few months before gaining their natural color-"
My new mother jerked, flinging me towards the end of the bed. I hit the covers with a thump, dizzy. I remember looking up at her, to see her posture was tight, eyes wild. She opened her mouth and screamed at the top of her lungs, "Get it away! I DON'T WANT IT! GET THE BEAST AWAY FROM ME THIS INSTANT-" She looked down at me in all my baby glory, with my eyes watering from the loud noise and a wail on my tongue, then her expression crumpled and she dissolved into tears.
The midwife stood still, expression slack and her jaw hanging open. A nurse a curtain over picked me up and threw a glare at the midwife before striding towards the door. I watched the scene through blurry eyes over the nurse's shoulder.
"Wait! Madam Lucretia, stop please," Cried the midwife, "Mistress - the baby! What am I to do with her? What is her name? Please, Mistress Greengrass!"
The nurse holding me, Madam Lucretia, stopped short and watched as my mother gathered herself, and voice shaking, said, "Leave it with my blood-traitor brother. Have him name it."
The midwife's hopeful expression morphed to anguish, and she nodded her head silently, striding towards us and taking me from Madam Lucretia. She cast one last look at the prejudiced woman behind her, shook her head and exited the room. I watched my mother, face to the window, brown hair disarrayed, with tears rolling down her cheeks and dripping from her chin.
The door closed before my eyes.