Disclaimer: It all belongs to J.K. Rowling.
Okay, this is mostly AU, but it will be further explained in the story. Thanks for reading!
Clichéd Dysfunction
When people hear the phrase, "dysfunctional family" many explanations come to their exceptionally twisted minds. Some might think of a father with a chronic anger problem. Some might imagine a drugged up mother. Who knows? Maybe someone would come up with some sort of torrid love affair that affected the rest of the family tragically. Funny. It truly is funny to me. I mean, I understand that the average person has a very unoriginal imagination, but honestly! You would think they could come up with more than just the average cliché.
Things like affairs, or abusive fathers and husbands are what get the attention. That's the kind of stuff they put on soap operas. Everyone just eats that up. The kind of thing that makes a stay-at-home mom cry, that's what they put on television programs. They don't actually care if someone is truly going through something as horrid as these clichéd examples, they air what will excite viewers.
Look at Britney Spears. She's been on tons of tabloid covers, for the single reason that readers will pick up a copy to see the details on her detachment from her kids. To be honest, I feel bad for her. She's only human. Everyone makes mistakes, but not everyone's mistakes are plastered on a magazine. There are probably much more messed up people out there than her. Yet, she's the one who gets ragged on, simply because she's a used-to-be popstar. It's sickening to me.
I'm no popstar, I know that. I'm a girl like any other…well, the fact that I studied at a school for witchcraft and wizardry, sort of sets me apart from the rest, along with being a war hero. But that's really not the point. My small family is incredibly dysfunctional. But am I on television? Nope. And it's not just because a middle-aged mom wouldn't want to hear about me. Hell, they'd probably love to hear my story. An seventeen year old girl just about to start her final year at school, finds out her parents just died in a tragic car crash. She must give up her schooling for her six year old sister, juggling two jobs to pay the rent. Oh yeah! That would attract loads of viewers.
My Hogwarts years were the best of my life. I actually made friends. I loved Harry and Ron so much. They were like brothers to me. Every adventure we embarked on, every person we saved, it was all done together. We were The Golden Trio. We stood by each other, no matter what happened. That bliss ended though. I suppose all good things come to an end at some point.
When I found out about my parents, I had to leave Hogwarts immediately. I couldn't bare to see the pitying looks on my friends faces. It would kill me. So I fled. Just like that, I left the wizarding world for good, and I haven't been back since. It's been two years now. I barely know what's going on in their lives. I regret my hasty leave sometimes, but then I realize I would've had to go eventually. I couldn't just leave my sister. She was only six years old at the time.
I'm still subscribed to the Daily Prophet. Apparently Harry and Ginny just got married two weeks ago. I sincerely wish I could've been there. There was no way though. They probably have forgotten about me anyway. I have two jobs, I couldn't have gotten a free moment if I tried in any case. I miss them so much. It kills me, truly, to not hug Harry, or fight with Ron…I even miss Ginny, and all the times she tried to fix my hair!
Jessabell, my sister, is eight now. I love her so much. Giving up magic was worth it. She deserves to have as normal a life as possible. Without my parents, I don't know if that's too much. It'll be so hard. I can't afford to buy her Abercrombie jeans, or some such nonsense. But I'll try. I'll try so damn hard to make things good for her. I'd die for her, just like I would've died for Harry and Ron back in the Hogwarts days.
The last face I saw in the wizarding world was one of a man I never got the chance to know. The brooding professor, also known as The Greasy Bat of the Dungeons. The look on his tired face was one I'll always remember. Concern. It was shocking. I'd never seen him concerned for anyone. Perhaps it was a trick of the light. I didn't get the chance to find out. I was too busy running away from him. Him and McGonagall both actually.
They were Headmaster, and deputy Headmistress at the time. Crazy stuff. I remember his smooth, silky voice informing me of the car crash that changed my life. It was so stupid! The war was over! That was supposed to be the end of the deaths! We weren't supposed to lose anymore people! Yet I did. But it wasn't to a herd of heartless deatheaters. It was to a drunk driver on a curvy street on a dark night. Nonetheless, it didn't matter how. All that matter was that it did. It did happen. And I had to deal with the consequences.
I left without a goodbye to my friends. I still, to this day, wonder who ended up telling them of my parents' deaths. It was probably McGonagall. Snape would do anything to avoid talking to Harry and Ron. More Harry, really, but it doesn't really matter. That was how I left. I left two concerned Professors in my wake, one who I'd previously thought had a heart made of stone.
I still wonder what went down. Do Harry and Ron think about me, as much as I do them? Does Ginny still laugh when thinking about her attempts to calm my hair? Does Professor McGonagall still think I had the potential to be the head of Gryffindor eventually? Is Snape still a complete bastard when teaching his classes? All these things I wonder, yet I'll never know. Never.
Should I continue? I think it has some potential…Please R&R!