A/N: This drabble in the collection is written for the 20 drabbles 20 prompts challenge with the prompt 'mirror'. All the drabbles will be centred around Charlie Weasley and under 1000 words. Also written for the Family Boot Camp with the prompt 'seeing'.
Summary: Katie will always bring out the best in Charlie.
Words: 427
Enjoy!
)O(
Whenever I look in a mirror, it reminds me: I am not normal.
There is not a part of my skin that is not burned, scarred of freckled. To the touch it feels impossibly hard and smooth; the hairs on it have learned that growing back is futile. The sun has blazed on me for enough time so as to make me blend in with my earthen surroundings. To look at me while I am working outside with a dragon would surprise most who didn't know me; they would think the dragon was training itself, alone.
Ah yes, that awful word, 'alone'. I seem to spend too much time in its company. My involuntary camouflage act as a shield against others, those who can only see the foreground in a person. They ignore whatever is not immediately obvious, that which hints at a history too interesting for them to process.
And who could blame them? The shell of a body I inhabit is dark, hardened, scaly almost. Even I can scarcely believe it is human.
A few days ago, I met someone who changed that. She saw me, the whole crazy-dragon-loving me and didn't question it. We spent some time together, just talking and strolling in the garden. I'm not even sure what we talked about, but it felt...natural. I didn't have to force my words out or struggle to say something meaningful when I was with her. She didn't even mention my scars, maybe because she had some too. She treated me as if I was normal and yet, she acted as if she wasn't.
She may have found out a lot about me but I am still in the dark about her. Why did she decide I was the one she wanted to talk to, out of all the people at the wedding? Why did she have sadness in her eyes despite the smile on her face? Why did I have a feeling that I knew her even though I'd never seen her in my life?
I hope to find the answers to those questions, today. Now as I straighten my shirt and prepare to meet her in a park, I have a sudden feeling that I want to know everything about her there is to know. I want to heal that sadness, and maybe she can heal me. After all, scars are a sign of endurance against the odds.
When I look in the mirror, I do not look like a normal person. When I look at Katie, I know that I am one.
)O(
Fin
Thoughts? Opinions? Ideas for the next one?