It was raining; large drops falling against the ceiling and hitting her small window seemed to drown out any other noise she might've heard. It wasn't enough to drown out the ringing in her ears or her pounding heart.
She was sprawled out on the floor, still reeling from the hard smack to the face she received. Her mother stood over her, her neck and cheeks flushed with anger. She remained on the floor, keeping her eyes down, ignoring the stinging on her cheek. She could feel that she was bleeding, but she didn't dare move.
"How dare you..." her mother began and stopped, clenching her teeth as she began pacing, her heels clicking against the marble floor. "You disgrace this family, Selene!"
Selene didn't dare speak or move still, knowing any little thing would earn her another strike. Her mother was as fierce as she was strong. And just as impossible to please as her father. Selene was lucky he was not the one to have caught her. Was it really so bad what she had done? What was wrong with kindness? Compassion?
"Get up!" Her mother barked at her, ceasing her pacing to glare at her.
Selene quickly got to her feet, ignoring the way it made her head spin. Her mother took a step forward and grabbed her daughter's face, pulling her close. They looked nothing alike, save for the color of their eyes. Both were a vibrant shade of blue and cold like ice. They glared at each other, never breaking eye contact, almost as though they could communicate without speaking.
"I'm disgusted. Interacting with vermin will make you no better! Until you leave for school, you will never go unattended." She released her daughter and pointed a finger at her. "Do I make myself clear, Selene?"
"Yes, ma'am." Selene whispered, swallowing the lump in her throat. "I understand."
Her mother shoved her again, making Selene stumble, but she caught herself before she fell and kept her head down, waiting for her mother to leave. What would she do? She was a prisoner in her own home now, though she supposed nothing had actually changed. She'd always felt like a prisoner.
Once her mother had left, slamming Selene's bedroom door behind herself, Selene ran across her room and threw herself onto her bed, allowing the tears to flow freely. She knew something terrible was going to happen to that poor elf. Her family was horrible to him, cursing at him, beating him, ordering him around all day and night with no reprieve. Selene didn't even know if he ate or slept. He was so thin and bony. Then again she had never seen a house elf look otherwise.
She wanted to run away, but she had nowhere to go and no one to help her. How could she hide though, with the power her family held they could find her anywhere. She believed that.
Selene sat up, wiping the tears from her eyes, staring down at the blood smear on her pearl white pillow. Just a few more weeks and she could leave this place for almost a whole year. She would be able to taste freedom soon. It was hard to believe that in a few more years it would be over. Who knew what would happen when she had finished school. Her parents never spoke of their plans for her, but she knew it must include a husband and a few well-bred, pure-blood children.
And it's not that she didn't want those things for herself as well, but she was still young. And it should be her choice. But it didn't matter to her mother and father if she loved the man they chose for her.
Because she knew they did not love each other. They slept in different rooms and hardly ever spoke to each other unless it had to do with business.
Most times children grew up copying their parents, but Selene had known from the beginning she didn't want their life. She wanted her own.
Selene stood and walked over to her desk, sitting down and pulling out a sheet of parchment and her quill. No, she wouldn't run away. She was smarter than that. Instead she made a to-do list of sorts. Things she wanted to accomplish before her life was over. Her quill scratched against the parchment as she wrote, entirely focused on her task.
When she was finished she sat back with a small, satisfied smile, looking over her list. It was small, but everything she wanted was right there in front of her, waiting for her to reach out and claim it as her own. She stared at the last line, her heart feeling like it was being squeezed. It was the final thing she would do. The last revenge, if it was accurate to call it that. If her parents were going to dictate the rest of her life, Selene was going to fight until the end.
Once the ink was dry, she rolled up the sheet of parchment and carefully secured it in her drawer, mixing it in with all the other papers she had in there. She would hide it there until it was time to leave, taking it with her to Hogwarts.
With a smile that finally seemed to reach those ice blue eyes, Selene stood and made her way back to her bed, the words of the last line on her list scrolling through her mind, replaying over and over as she closed her eyes to sleep.
Fall in love.