Disclaimer: All things Harry Potter and all things that you recognize from somewhere else; do not belong to me. However, Amalin and perhaps some other characters that may appear in future; are mine.
Hard to Let Go
Whenever I couldn't count on my parents to understand, there were always my friends. Though I had few of them, the ones I did have I cherished greatly. My greatest friend of all had to have been Galie, short for Galandra. Her parents like mine believed in giving their children 'original and creative' names. Basically, Galie was in the same boat I am when it came to having weird parents.
I had already told the rest of my friends the lie I had concocted about moving to Scotland because my mom had always wanted to live there and that my dad grew up there as a child and always told her about how beautiful it was; making her want to go there even more. It was easy to lie to them. Most of them had only been recent acquaintances. However, lying to Galie, that was a whole other story. I was never able to lie to Galie. She was my best friend. She knew everything like when I was sad or happy and mostly when I was confused and felt alone.
It was the same for her. I remember in the third grade when I had this puppy love crush on a boy and she couldn't hide from me that she and him had been secretly seeing each. I just knew. It's not like I was mad at her for it. God, she was my best friend and like I could ever hold anything like that against her. I was just glad that she was happy.
But, this time I knew that whether truth or lie, she would know I was leaving her and that she wouldn't be happy. Of course, I wouldn't be exactly peaches and cream either but, by now the fact that I had to leave regardless of the fact that she was my best friend and I never wanted to leave her, had begun to sink in.
That's why it hurt so bad to find Galie waiting for me that morning. I knew I would either have to lie and have her only understand that I was leaving her, or tell her the truth and have her think that for the past eleven years of her life she'd been friends with a nutter. I'd decided to go with the truth. Either way I'd hurt her and at least this way I can feel somewhat less guilty of leaving her because I'll have known I was telling the truth. And in her own special way she'd know what I was saying was the truth but, she'd never believe me or understand what I was going to tell her.
"Hey Galie" I said with a disheartened tone to my voice.
This gave away to Galie that something not good was definitely up.
"Hey, what's wrong and why are you letting strange people in your house?" she asked.
The movers had come earlier that morning. My parents as well had decided to go along with the whole 'moving' lie and the movers were there to take our stuff away. "Besides" my mother had said the night we were figure out what we were going to tell everyone, "why not get out and SEE the world!" To which my father eagerly agreed with her. "God," I thought "It's like they were deprived of a honeymoon after their marriage and now they have to show their LOVEY-DOVEY BULLSHIT to the WORLD!!!"
"Am?" Galie looked at me concerned. Since I had come outside, I'd made no eye contact with her and had, in fact, been in my own little world, staring a hole through one of the boards that made up the porch floor. I couldn't even muster up the strength to answer her questions. I needed to get away from home to my comfort place that only the two of us knew about.
"Want to go for a horse ride Galie?" I said sounding on the verge of tears.
Galie knew the meaning of this question and knew exactly where we were going. "Yeah Am. Let's go."
Like I said before, Galie knew me best. Whenever I wanted to talk, I would ask if she wanted to go for a horse ride. We would ride the horses into the forest and there was my comfort place, a little fort in the middle of no where, where I was able to be with my best friend and tell her everything that ailed me. Galie, sensing urgency in my needing to tell her something rushed with me to get to my comfort place and away from home.
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I had been so deep in my own little world, it hadn't even registered that we were at the horse stables until Jared, the horse keeper, had hailed to us and had already asked me twice which horse I wanted to take out today. Finally on the third time he had asked me, I heard him and asked for the horse named Lightning in a hushed tone barely more than a whisper. Galie was now beginning to worry even more about me.
We saddled up the horses and mounted them. "This could be the last time I ever ride you; Lightning" I said in my head as we took off for my comfort place, almost as if I could telepathically talk to her. It was almost as if Lightning had understood my thoughts because she eventually slowed down to a gentle trot that was so unlike her usual flying runs. I was glad because it allowed me the time to spend with her some of our precious last moments. Galie and her horse had both slowed down as well. It was these times that made me most thankful for friends and I would remember them always.
~**~**~**~**~
Because of our slower pace, we reached the fort I called my comfort place. It wasn't much, just your average tree house, with a place to tether your horse up at the bottom and a ladder leading up to the door of it in the high reaches of the tree but, it would always be something special to me; and Galie.
"What wrong Am?" Galie finally said to me in a concerned hushed voice as we sat side by side on the floor.
I let a tear leak from my eye and gently roll down my cheek. Galie was the only person who had ever seen me cry. My voice wavered with sadness as I spoke. "Galie, promise me you won't laugh if I tell you something and promise me that you'll know it's the truth."
"Am, I've always be supportive of you and even if you told me a lie, I'd know it in an instant. You know that." She said in her most motherly voice.
"I know but, if I lied to you this time, then you would never know the truth and you'd hate me forever."
"Now how can you say that?" she said giving me a hug that only friends can give.
"I need you to promise me before I tell you this." I told her trying to keep the waver in my voice at a minimum.
"Alright, I promise" she complied.
"I'm leaving Galie" I started. Galie's eyes grew wide at this but, sensing that there was more to come she said nothing. "I've told everyone else that I'm moving to Scotland with my family but… I'm not."
Galie stood up quickly and looked at me like she couldn't believe what she was hearing and took advantage of my brief pause. "WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, you can't just up and run away you're family will FRE-"
"GALIE" I shouted and she stood looking surprised at me. "I'm not running away" I tried to sniff back tears.
"Oh." Said Galie feeling embarrassed for the way she had reacted. "Well, then why aren't you moving to Scotland with your family?" she said putting her hands on her hips like she'd just caught one of her two younger sibling in the act of going through her closet.
"Just sit down again and I'll tell you. Speaking up to you, hurts my neck." With this I rubbed my neck and she came to sit down beside me again. "Now, please just let me tell you everything before going all parent like on my ass." I said smiling to relieve some tension before getting back to what I had to say.
"Anyway, as I was saying. I'm not going with them. I'm going to a school for magic." Galie opened her mouth to speak. "Before you say it Galie; No. I do not want to become a magician and the school is a school for actual magic and not just the illusions you see on television." Galie closed her mouth again just as I thought she would then gave me a confused look. "You know, you're not making this easy."
"Then just spit it out already!" Galie said, loosing her patience and waiting for me to explain about what I had previously said about the school.
"Alright Galie, I'm a witch. I'm to attend a school for Witchcraft and Wizardry called Hogwarts and I leave tomorrow bright and early at 11am from King's Cross station."
Galie couldn't have been more shell shocked. I only wondered whether it was the; me being a witch part that got her, the I'm leaving your life tomorrow part or the fact that for the first time in my life I had been straight to the point with her. I was always blatantly honest with most everyone but, I had never been that way with her. I always saw it as being rude but, she had always wanted me to be straight to the point with her and it just so happened that I chose that time to be that way.
I still felt guilty though. I had wanted to let my friend know in as gentle a way as possible and well, that didn't happen quite as I had expected it would. I knew Galie would look straight into my eyes to see if this was all just a cruel joke and when she saw that it wasn't, she was upset just like I thought she'd be and also just like I didn't want her to be. As her bottom lip quivered and tear started to gently roll down her cheeks, I returned the hug that only friends can give to her. And till it was beginning to get dark out and it was finally time we both had to go home, the two us just sat and cried, enjoying the last few precious moments we had together before it was most likely that we'd never see each other again. When we reached the horse stables, I promised her I'd send her word of me as often as I could and I had every intention of keeping my promise.
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AN: Ok… I know… Sad chapter… But, everyone, including Am has a heart and someone they care for deeply that they never want to lose. Well, hope you enjoyed this chapter. I promise next chapter will be more cheerful. It better be I don't think I would be able to keep writing if I kept get all emotional over my own work. Must be PMS or something. Well, till next time, R & R.