Title: Taking Control
Rating: T
Pairing(s)/Character(s): Hannah Abbott
Warnings: eating disorder
Disclaimer: Don't own 'em - not making any money off 'em. Dern it.
Word Count: 712
Summary: Hannah could take control.
Notes:
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry: Major & Minor Arcana - Write about a character experiencing an event which is shocking and sudden (at least, to them) and forces them to rethink entire segments of their lives, in relation to the meaning of the card.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry: Speed Drabble - Prompts Used - steady, power, control
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry: Chocolate Frog - Plimpy - Silver - Write about someone being teased for being overweight.
If You Date Challenge: Prompt Used - 13. Time Goes By
Ultimate Battle Competition 2: matching accessory pack
Hannah did her best to ignore the cruel taunts.
"What did you eat last night, tubby? A Hippogriff?"
"You sure look like one."
She swallowed painfully and covered her stomach with her hands. Was she really that fat? She knew she wasn't as skinny as Susan, but she always thought she looked fine.
According to everyone else, though, she was tubby. And as time goes by, she knew she would get even tubbier.
She turned away from everyone that laughed her. It was time to take control of her weight. She had the power to look however she wanted. If she wanted to lose weight, she could. No one and nothing would stand in her way of being who she wanted to be.
So, she began not only watching what she ate but also exercising. She knew she should be sweating the weight off, but she didn't seem to be losing anything.
Hannah willed her tears of frustration away as she read her weight. 'Only half a pound lost? What am I doing wrong?'
Maybe she wasn't being strict enough.
She took a deep breath and decided to work extra hard on her exercising and be even more careful about what went into her mouth.
It was summertime now, but by the time she returned to Hogwarts, she would be a whole new person.
And it worked. Slowly but surely she was getting skinnier. Her clothes were getting so big on her that she went to get them magically altered in Diagon Alley. Secretly of course. Her mum and dad wouldn't have understood if she told them.
She ignored how sick she felt most of the time. It didn't matter. She was beginning to look just like Susan did. It would only be a matter of time until she got to the weight she wanted to be at.
When she got on the Hogwarts Express to return for her fourth year, she immediately sought out her best friend.
They exchanged hugs and when Susan pulled away, she had a funny expression on her face.
"What?" Hannah asked.
"Are you feeling okay? You look a bit ill."
Hannah smiled hugely. "I feel great. Never better actually."
Susan nodded and they found an empty compartment. They enjoyed a simple conversation and when the food trolley came, Hannah explained that she had a big breakfast so she didn't want a snack.
Susan nodded, still eyeing her with a strange look on her face.
And after a couple of months of doing this, Hannah was a pro when it came to making it look like she ate when she didn't, so she easily avoiding suspicion during the opening feast by moving her food around her plate.
Things were great for the first couple of months. And then on Halloween, Susan walked into the Great Hall, excited to see who would be Hogwarts' champion. She knew Cedric Diggory entered his named and hoped he was picked. She couldn't think of a person more suited to the title of 'Champion' than Cedric.
As she walked towards the Hufflepuff table, she was hit with a wave of dizziness and stumbled slightly. Cedric had been behind her and he caught her before she could fall to the floor.
"Are you okay?" he worriedly asked as he did his best to steady her.
"Yeah, I think so."
And just as Cedric let go of her arm, another wave of dizziness hit Hannah and she found herself tumbling to the ground as everything went dark.
When she woke up, she looked around. She knew she was in a hospital room by the sterile white walls but didn't recognize it as Hogwarts' hospital wing. 'St. Mungos then.'
When the healer came in followed by her parents, she quietly listened as they demanded to know when she stopped eating. How did she get so dangerously underweight? Why did she do this to herself?
Hannah knew she had to be honest, not only with her parents and the healer, but with herself as well. Fainting opened her eyes to the dangerous path she was going down if she didn't stop it. She needed to figure out why she began thinking like this and how to like herself better.
She needed help, and she knew it.
