Disclaimer: I own none of the characters that J.K. Rowling has described in any of her stories.

Disclaimer 2: This is based on no one I know. Coincidences are just that–coincidences!

Disclaimer 3: I obviously have nothing against fat people. Seriously. I was just annoyed that no one obese is every in Rowling's stories.

A/N: This is nearly complete. I'm going to submit this in daily installments, though, to give myself time to catch up and get a look at my feedback. Any questions, comments, and criticism are quite welcome! Wow, that was a mouthful.


Chapter One


Year One

Colleen was fat. And that is why we will follow her through this sad story of rejection and sadness, which may or may not have a happy ending. For those of you that desire a sweet story, BEWARE! This story is for the strong at heart; if you desire a sweet story that everything good that could possibly happen happens, then I would recommend searching on the summary search for a story about kittens and Hermione Granger/Harry Potter. This story tells of nonreciprocating love, tragedy, angst, and suicide. For those of you with weak stomachs, I would also recommend a different story, but not one about Hermione Granger/Harry Potter, because that isn't likely to be any better than blood, guts, gore, and suicide.

Colleen stuck the lollipop in her mouth and sighed contentedly. The perfect thing for moments of high stress. It was a nasty habit according to her mum, but who cares what she thinks? Who cares if she was now a third of the weight her daughter was? She may enjoy physical exertion, but her daughter hated it. She would rather stay inside all day, eating a bag of cheese curls, reading a book.

Colleen knew her mother wondered at that. She knew that her mother thought that her daughter was no genius; in fact, Colleen thought that she was quite the opposite. She was stupid. Maeve had even wondered aloud when Colleen got the acceptance letter to Hogwarts. "The girl can't do a damn thing! She's stupid!" She couldn't memorize large speeches, recite poems, and she can't certainly do small math sums. No, Colleen was the stupid, only child of Maeve and Tobey Kingsley, and she was the only one they could have. Tobey had, shortly after his wife's conceiving of Colleen, been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The doctor at St. Mungo's had remarked at how much of a miracle it was that Colleen had been conceived at all.

So it was now that Colleen lugged her suitcases through the Kings Cross Station, looking shyly at her feet. Children ran past her, shrieking and chasing each other, but there was a wide berth in front of her and a wide berth behind her. She was used to this–after all, she had been fat for a large part of her eleven years. She weighed more than women did in their forties, a fact she was not proud of. Her left hand held The Secret Garden protectively, and her weaker right hand lugged her cart behind her. That was another part of her downfall, according to her mother. She was a lefty, and she should in all rights be a right-y. But there were so many things wrong with her, according to Maeve. She talked to so many people about her deficient daughter, that word got around about what an idiot Colleen was. Someone had the nerve, in front of her, to ask her mother if she was a Squib. A Squib for Lord's sake! It was amazing how mean people could be.

She was already dressed in Hogwarts robes, which her mother had gotten bigger "to slim her waste." No matter if the English flag was made bigger by a billion and was wrapped around her, she would always look fat.

She stepped onto the train and sought out an empty compartment. Keeping her eyes down, she didn't see the boy directly in front of her. She kept walking and knocked him to the ground. She was inclined to help him up. When she did, she regretted it instantly; he was a tall, skinny boy. He was handsome by any standards. His nose was a little large, but his beautiful black eyes made up for it. His dark hair fell into his eyes. He reminded her (even now he had a big soppy grin on his face, after being knocked down) of a very happy Labrador retriever, only beautiful.

"Are you a first year?" Sirius didn't usually talk to strangers, and usually of large proportions, and in fact, why was he talking to her?

"Oh, um, yeah," she replied in a tiny voice.

"Oh, me too. My name is Sirius Black." Sirius–Dog Star! she thought.

"I'm Colleen, Colleen Kingsley."

He smiled at her, but a voice called to him from further down the train. "Sorry, 'd love to chat, but m' mates are calling me, you know," he told her, brushing past as gracefully possible and calling to 'James.' Colleen stood there for a few minutes, and then the train jerked her out of her reverie and she was forced to go into the empty compartment beside her.

She sat next to the window, looking out on the moors passing by her. The Secret Garden takes place in a manor on a moor, she thought. She watched as England passed her by and they headed towards Scotland. Thoughts rushed through her head. All of them had to do with that boy, Sirius. Stop! she ordered herself. She had a tendency to do things like that. Obsess. And she hated it. He would never like her, never, never, never...

Why was she even thinking about it? How could anyone even possess the thought of liking her? She possessed no attractive qualities.

Her thoughts, forced into that subject, went to the little creature hiding in her small bag that she had brought with her.

Opening the flap, her little pigmy marmoset, Nip, crawled onto her palm. The little monkey cocked his head at her, as if to say, "What took you so long?

"I had to wait until it was safe to bring you out," she told him.

The witch pushing a cart rolled by. The cart held so much candies and pastries that Colleen's eyes fairly crossed for a moment. She got up, fishing for galleons in her pockets. She found three and bought all that was possible to buy with them.

She gave Nip some Licorice Wands and some Pumpkin Pasties, but the rest was for her. Sipping

contentedly on her drink, she fell into a deep sleep until it was time for them to get off the train.

It was nighttime. Finally. She was now getting over the humiliation of having to sit on the stool in front of everyone and putting on that old hat. Right as the hat screamed, "RAVENCLAW!" she had jumped in shock, and the stool had broken from underneath her. There was a mumbled bit of laughter.

After all she had heard of Ravenclaw, she definitely wasn't sure that she should even be in this house. It was for people with intelligence. She lacked wits, that was sure.

Now done with The Secret Garden, she reached over her bed and grabbed The Fellowship of the Ring. Tolkien was a brilliant man, and she read his books once every. Every time she set a new record on how fast it took her to read. She was a great reader. She could read fast and she remembered names, dates, and places really well. It was the only thing at which she was good.

"PROLOGUE

1

Concerning Hobbits

"This book is largely concerned with Hobbits, and from its pages a reader may discover much of their character and a little of their history. Further information will also be found in the selection from the Red Book of Westmarch that has already been published, under the title of The Hobbit. That story was derived from the earlier chapters of the Red Book, composed by Bilbo himself, the first Hobbit to become famous in the world at large, and called by him There and Back Again, since they told of his journey into the East and his return: an adventure which later involved all the Hobbits in the great events of that Age that are here related.

"Many, however, may wish to know more about this remarkable people from the outset, while some may not possess the earlier book. For such readers a few notes on the more important points are here collected from Hobbit-lore, and the first adventure is briefly recalled..."

It is here that the heroine of our tale falls asleep, barely into the Prologue of her favorite tale, written by J.R.R. Tolkien.


For those of you who don't know about Lord of the Rings, which few there probably are, this is the prologue to the original Lord of the Rings trilogy. It's an awesome book. I totally recommend it, as with The Secret Garden. That story is about an ugly, spoiled, little girl that lives in India in a big house. Her parents, both English (her father is an officer in the army) don't pay much attention to her. But one day everyone in her household of servants, slaves, and family gets a disease and dies. She, the only survivor, goes to live with Lord Craven, her mother's widowed brother-in-law. She befriends the maid and meets the maid's little brother, a boy who loves animals. While by herself, though, she discovers a little locked up garden, the secret of the past to the dreary manor in which she lives, the Craven Manor. Great books, both, and I hope that you choose to read them, because they're classics. Lord of the Rings is a little harder to get into, but I guarantee that you'll catch on immediately to Secret Garden. My summary isn't near good enough for the book!!