Disclaimer: All characters, settings and anything else recognizable from Harry Potter belong to JK Rowling, and we make no claim on her ideas. 51. Amycus Carrow
The rain thrashed down in torrents.
Alecto Carrow rubbed her hands gleefully. "Brilliant," she smiled, revealing all her crooked, stained-yellow teeth. Her brother, seven-year-old Amycus, shuddered. It was hardly a smile, merely a showing of her filthy teeth, and thin, tapeworm-like lips stretched taut.
Amycus shuffled after his older sister, who was now rummaging around for her broom. "Aha!" she screamed, making Amycus jump. "I've found it!" she pulled out a short, perhaps only two or three feet - a dirt-encrusted thick stick of a broom from a pile of who-knows-what.
Rainy days were the only times their mother let Alecto out to practice flying. Personally, Amycus thought his sister wasn't very good at flying – she had already bashed up four perfectly good brooms – but would never dare tell her that. Not only were the brooms damaged from flying, but also her terrifying tantrums.
"Come on, Amy!" Amycus sighed, but he had no choice. His mother had ordered him to go with Alecto on all her rides, as she turned a bit loony after an accident a year ago. He had to make sure they got back before the sun returned.
"Don't call me Amy!" Amycus shouted, as they sped off on Alecto's stick of a broom into the chilly night. He shivered again – he wished he had remembered to bring a coat.
They swooped through the air, weaving around the tall skyscrapers and over apartment buildings, occasionally banging into a window – Amycus received several bruises but nothing severe. He was thankful – after so many trips, he was still in one piece.
This storm was pretty big, as the huge droplets, seemingly as big as crystal balls, came hurling at him through the air. The thunder roared like a caged lion breaking free, and the lightning slashed through the dark sky like a golden knife. Alecto cackled evilly – adding to the whole sinister effect.
The rainfall gradually slowed to a drizzle, and the dark clouds brightened slightly.
"Er, Lecty?" Amycus stuttered. He was drenched from head to toe, trembling furiously.
"Yes?" she snapped, concentrating on avoiding a particularly tall building. Amycus winced, imagining crashing into the steel-made structure; it would cause a pretty severe bruise. "Shouldn't we be getting back now?"
"Shut up, Amy."
Amycus opened his mouth to retort, but quickly changed his mind after seeing the maniacal look on his sister's face. Her hair was tangled in knots, as usual, but it was also flying across her face in one piece. Bits of food clung to it, stale cheese morsels and the like she had filched from the dumpster. And under the dirty rag of hair, he glimpsed bloodshot crossed eyes, a couple of scars and bruises, and two tapeworms of lips. Her nose, pointy and dark, was oozing with mud-like blood, and as she laughed, it flowed into her open mouth. It stained her teeth scarlet, and she spit it out, showering blood down onto the pavement. It was a grotesque sight.
But the clouds were lightening, it was time to leave before they were seen and given a warning from the Ministry. Still, Alecto steered toward the opposite direction, toward the sea.
The sun was out of the clouds now. Muggles strolled the avenues, and a few curious ones were pointing at the sky, at the strange bird that so looked like two children riding on a stick. But Amycus wasn't paying attention to them. He was busy looking at Alecto's destination – the azure square of a sky above the shining blue sea, staring at the most bright, most brilliant, most wonderful thing he'd ever seen. He could hardly take his eyes off it, yet it blinded him. He hated it and loved it at the same time.
It was just so… Amycus couldn't describe it. All his life all he had seen was the dark, musty corner he and his mom and sister resided in, and the city during rain. Never once had he noticed colors. Now he did, but he was unable to decipher them. It was simply unexplainable. It was something he'd never known before.
"What's that?" he asked, interested, temporarily forgetting who he was talking to.
"What's what?" Alecto's head whipped around, her disgusting hair slapping his cleaner, but still dirt-smudged cheeks.
"That." He pointed to the wondrous arc.
"Stop making up lies, Amy, there's nothing there."
"Don't call me Am-" he automatically replied, but was cut off by a sharp sting on his left cheek. Alecto had jabbed a yellowed, pointed nail into his skin, piercing through so his pure crimson blood flowed freely.
"LIAR! LIAR!" she shrieked. The broom made a sharp turn and they were whizzing back to the corner of a house. "YOU ALWAYS MAKE UP THESE LIES AND EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THEM! HA! I'M MUCH SMARTER THAN THAT!" she was steering like a madwoman, bumping into all the buildings – bruising them harshly. But she did not feel it, she simply could not feel the pain it issued.
He knew he would never ask Alecto about shiny things again.
They made it home, in one piece, thankfully. Amycus, knowing Alecto's mental condition (though he didn't know why she had it so – she was a perfectly lovely girl when he was just born) decided to ask their mother about the strange, shiny thing he saw in the sky.
He decided on asking her after dinner, as she was happiest then, her stout body satisfied with food and wine. And she needed it today, of all days – Alecto had received a warning from the Ministry of Magic for flying in plain Muggle sight. As the cracked plates were put away, and Alecto was well out of sight, he approached her, "Mum, I saw something strange in the sky today."
"Mhm," she answered absentmindedly, as the china plate crashed to the floor, cracking in half. She picked it up and put it right into the drawer.
"It was shiny and light."
His mother suddenly tensed. The stack of plates she was balancing in her lone remaining hand smashed to the floor, falling to pieces. "Was it colorful?" she asked, shaking visibly.
Amycus wondered why she was trembling so. He guessed 'colorful' sounded about right. "I guess so, Mother."
She sighed, still stressed-looking. "It was a rainbow," she sighed.
"Rain-bow," he repeated, raising his head to look at her. "I like that word."
His mother sighed again, picking up a frying pan from under the faucet. Then, in a single movement, she swung the frying pan over and hit him right over the head. He stared at her dumbly.
"Repeat," she said sternly. "I will never ask about rainbows again."
Dazedly, he wondered vaguely what rainbows were, but obliged. "I will never ask about rainbows again."
"Good," she sighed. "I am so sorry; it just had to be done. Oh dear, this is the last time I'll ever do that! I can't stand it! I had to do it to Alecto as well, can you believe it? Your lovely older sister? She used to be top at school during first year, and she was a good little flyer, had to be on next year's Quidditch team, but she noticed the colors in the sky too, and oh, I had to, I just had to! You have to understand, don't you? Of course you don't understand! One day my husband - your Muggle father - hears a tale about leprechauns and rainbows and off he goes, never to be seen again. Oh," she wailed, wringing her hands, and running from the room.
Amycus stared after her. He wondered vaguely what rainbows were.
By Avindara Nirvene
