Author's Note:
The Houses Competition (or THC) Round 6
House: Slytherin
Class: Ancient Runes
Category: Drabble (up to 1,000 words)
Prompt: [Action] Floating
Word Count: 988
Disclaimers/triggers: Mentions of drowning and injury.
Beta Love: Thanks to Tea and Charlie for looking over my story!
Note: Some stylistic grammatical "voice" due to first person storytelling. Lilly refers to Petunia as "Tunie" similar to how she calls her sister this nickname in the books.
My Inner Light
It sounds crazy, but magic saved my life.
I know what you're thinking. "Lily," you'd probably say, "how can you, at eight years of age, still believe in magic? None of the other children do."
That might be true. The kids in my year aren't very friendly to new kids, and only a few believe in Father Christmas, but I think that's more because this town is going through what Daddy calls a "labor action." Me and Tunie only transferred in last year when Daddy got a new job and we had to move away from London. Daddy works for the union. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but Mummy says it means that he's really good at shouting at bad men who hurt workers, and that he's working with a bunch of others in town to help the people who work here stop being hurt by their bosses and get paid better.
Even though I'm glad Daddy helps people, it's still hard to give up the only life I've ever known. Me and Tunie were really broken up about it. We went on a big trip to the coast before we moved. I think Daddy and Mummy were trying to make us feel better about having to leave. The water was so cold, but the beach was warm, and I've always been a crack swimmer ever since I was little. Daddy always says I float like a duck.
I'd never swum in the sea, though.
Tunie was wearing this two piece thing she begged Mummy to get her and sunning herself on a towel and she wouldn't play with me. Even though she's only two years older, she thinks she's so grown up. She even had Mummy put the hair curlers in and painted up her nails.
"C'mon Tunie!" I'd whinged.
She'd pointed to her perfect golden curls and glared at me enough that I turned around and pouted off to the water.
"Don't go too far, Lily, dear!" Mummy said. Daddy was putting lotion on her back.
I remember it like a perfect picture in my head, maybe because what happened next was awful, or maybe it's just a happy little memory I get to keep despite what happened. I still don't know. That's why I'm writing it down. Daddy always says writing things down is a good way to figure things out, so that's what I'm doing. I'm not quite ready to write about what happened, so I'm going to write about my magic first.
Magic, to me, feels like when you're drinking something fizzy. Mummy says that "odd things" would happen around me as a baby. Things moved around, but she was tired a lot when I was little, so she couldn't be sure. The first thing she saw happen was when she had me out in the back garden, and she noticed that I was staring at one of the garden beds she'd just put seeds in. When she came over to see what I was looking at, a green shoot popped out of the ground and she let out a cry of surprise.
"You were so proud," she told me later.
Knowing I could do that even back then made me feel like I was floating. Their praise, their approval was everything to me.
So I've always been magical, and that's what saved my life…when…it happened.
I was at the beach, and I went around a little bend, because there were a bunch of rocks and tide pools with fish and sea creatures inside. I wanted to catch something slimy and put it on Tunie's back as payback for not coming with me because of her stupid hair.
Only, the rocks were slippery and I fell. I remember flashes of sky, rock, and pain when I slipped and tumbled down into the sea. Then…nothing.
The water was so cold that it shocked me into breathing, but I was floating underwater. I couldn't figure out which direction the surface was. I tried to move, but it hurt so much, and I was choking. I closed my eyes because they got so heavy, and I went very still.
Then, magic rushed out of me in a burst of light. I was suddenly floating not in water, but shining air. A fizzing, golden bubble floated around me, and I spewed up all that water, which luckily sunk out the bottom. I floated for a while, feeling safe and warm. I could feel my body rising, then, and as I looked up, I could see the sky above. The magic burst apart into tiny little sparks as I hit the surface, but I was going fast enough that my whole body shot out like a dolphin. Then, I hit the water and swam to the shore.
The sun was setting when I finally crawled back on the beach. I was exhausted, but somehow I still felt oddly good, like there was a new muscle I had finally used.
Mummy and Daddy were really worried when they saw me shivering with cuts and scrapes all over and they carted me off to hospital. Even Tunie was really nice and let me have some of her gum. They said that they'd been searching for me for hours. They told me that they'd begun to worry I'd been washed out to sea.
I probably would have, too, if it had not been for my magic. Because of that horrible day, I can use my magic to float. I can swing back and forth, then let go, and slowly float down like I'm moving underwater. I sometimes worry that if I don't use it enough, I'll lose the ability, so even if it bothers Tunie, I'm not going to stop. I don't care if people stare. This inner light is part of me, and for as long as I live, I will make sure it grows.