Letters To and From a Stranger
By: g0ldensnidget, a.k.a. Snitch
Author's notes: I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo *deep breath* ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Truly, I really, really am sorry. I've been in a slump lately. Anyway, this is what I could do, so sorry...
(Letter XVI)
Dear Harry, 8/11/96
Eh. I'm afraid your description of me is rather off. I don't have light hair. Not anymore, at least. I used to have this really light shade of brown, but it's darker now. Not so dark it's almost black, but still, dark brown. My eyes are also brown (sorry to disappoint you), a light kind of brown with some darker streaks in the iris.
I suppose you could say I'm tall – not very tall, but not short either. I'm medium height. I'm also not fat, but neither am I thin. I have this kind of slightly-wide body structure that I inherited from my mom. There are some other things I'd rather have inherited from her... her eyes, for one thing. She's got these really pretty dull-dark-green eyes. Not that I don't like my brown eyes (that I inherited from my dad), but green would have been cool. My face-structure is all my dad's side. The eyes, the eyebrows, the nose, the chin... people always tell me I look a lot like my grandmother, his mother.
Only my hair is my mom's - curly, really thick, quite frizzy at times. I can only wash it so many times before it all falls out. It's that hard to tame. Usually I just let it be, hardly even brush it out; it just takes too much time. If I ever do brush it out, it takes like 10 whole minuets, and then I'm left with this huge mane of fuzzy brown hair... not a pretty sight. I put it up in 2 braids every night when I go to sleep; that way, it doesn't get knotted up too bad... but by the next morning, it's so curly it's practically dreadlocked... But I've learned to live with it. Just about.
Now, as for hobbies. My first hobby would have to be writing. Seriously. I write like there's no tomorrow. First off, I keep a diary. So there. I write every day, nearly. And then, I write to you. Actually, you're also almost like a kind of a diary (no offence intended). Only, you answer back. It's really nice. And third, I have my stories. They're what we call "fan-fiction". Basically, they're just stories that are related or based on, or sequels to a TV series or a movie, or even books, and they're written by fans. Hence: Fan-Fiction.
So, I've got a few stories. Mostly Lord of the Rings stories. Lately, the book have taken the high road. Ever since the movies came out, people have been clamoring at book stores to by the books. I myself only asked for the book after seeing the second movie 3 times. I write a lot of fanfiction. It's really just what keeps me going, at school and in life, knowing that in a few hours I'll be free to read other stories, and write my own. It's basically a moral-booster. I just really love to write. Also, reading, television, and music take up my life.
So. My school, neighborhood, and friends, huh? Ok. Here we go. Prepare to wash out your head when you finish this letter, Harry. I go to one of the local junior high schools. 10 minuets by bus/car, about half an hour by foot from where I live. Just middle school, so only grades 7, 8, and 9. Which means the school is constantly overrun by overenthusiastic 12 and 13-year olds midgets – I swear, the kids are getting shorter by the year! – who have no idea what they're in for in 2 years. I hate 9th grade. More-or-less 4th/5th year at Hogwarts, but you don't have to deal with Geometry, Algebra, Chemistry (ok, you've got potions), Biology (ok, you've got Herbology), and sports (quidditch is fun). Also, literature, language arts, Bible, geography, civic rights, and history. Ok, you also have history. But GUESS WHAT??? Transfiguration and charms sounds much more fun that Algebra!!!
My neighborhood. I live in a small town, not really a city. We only have small shopping centers, which really aren't much of a place to actually go shopping, if you want something other than groceries or fast food. Pretty boring if you ask me. We don't have a cinema, nor many clothes shops. A few electronic shops, a supermarket, a salon, a burger-place, a pizzeria, and a new gym lately. But that's all.
My friends. Here's a summary:
Margarita: she's more or less Russian. I think her grandparents are all from Russia, anyway. She's a kind of dirty blond, and her eyes are green-brown. She's really pretty when she wants to be, and also quite nice, but she can also be a bitch. Oh, and she never returns loans. I swear, she probably owes me 20 shekels. She's really tall and very thin, though she fails to see that. All teenage girls do. So do I. Only thing is, I'm not really that thin. I had a check-up at the hospital, and I weigh like 54 kg's. The doctor said I'm between 'good' and 'fat'. Umm, back to Margarita. Her birthday is 24/7 And her favorite colour, for now, is pink. I say for now, because once it was blue, and I think also purple. So. And we all call her Marga for short.
Gan: yes, that's her real name. It means 'garden', remember? It's not that strange a name, considering the fact that her father is a gardener. So. Her mother died from womb cancer. I didn't pry, so I'm not exactly sure when, but Gan was around 6 or 7 or something like that. She had ... ah, I don't remember what it was called. Some disease. When she was about a year old, and she lost most of her hearing and all of her sight for a year. Sad, I know, but she can see now, and she has hearing aid. Only problem is, she needs some existing hearing cells? nerves? to use it, and by this summer vacation, doctors think she'll lose what cells/nerves she still has. So she'll be completely deaf. But I'll still be her friend. I really see Gan as a friend for life. I love her, and she trusts me. I can see it. We do have our ups and downs, but we get over them and I know we'll always be friends. She tells me a lot of things she doesn't tell our other friends. I know.
Sometimes I think I understand her a lot much better than her other friends do. Not because I'm also deaf or lost a parent (which I hope never happens) or anything, but really. Sometimes, she gets kind of depressed at school, so she goes and sits on a table in the corner of the classroom, and she sits there looking all tired, but she doesn't cry. At least, I've never seen her cry. So everybody comes up to her and says "What's wrong?" and "Why are you sad?" and all, and she hates that. It only makes her more upset. At first, I used to do it too, but after the first few times she told me to go away, and she just needs some time to think for herself. Alone. So now, I don't come over to her. I don't ask anything, just catch her eye and give her a small smile, and sometimes I even to mime her a joke, or point out a funny thing.
She has really curly hair, and it's kind of a dark blond, and lighter at the bottom. She has these beautiful blue eyes with some orange (I know. I suppose it's actually brown, but next to the blue it looks like orange.) and cheeks that sort of stick out, in a really cute way. She's a hippie. All the time she's writing on the table 'Peace n Love' or in her notebook or on the wall in her room. Her whole family's really hip. She has an older sister, Bar, and a younger brother, Israel. Her mother's name was Anat, and her father's is Guy. She never wears tight jeans or shirts that show if she's thin or fat or if she has any breasts (which I know for a fact that she does – I've seen her in a bathing suit.) She wears these huge baggy shirts, or T-shirts that she cuts at the neckline so that one of her shoulders is exposed. She looks perfect that way. And she wears All-Star shoes. I love her.
Ya'af: I have no idea what's the deal with his name. It's weird, even by Hebrew-name standards. Means something about flight, I think. I don't really know what to say about Ya'af. He's my best-opposite-sex-friend. He's a pretty good friend – usually. Sometimes he just lets it all out, and just shouts and screams, and that's just really annoying. He's always been short, but he's growing now. And he's soooooo thin. It's disgusting. Once he shaved his head (he got a haircut) and he looked like shit. But it's been like a year and a half since that, so his hair's grown out. A lot. Too much. We've been making fun of him on account of that, and each day when he and I say bye at the end of school, I ruffle his hair. But I think he's gone to get a haircut. I wish he wouldn't. He looked kind of cute with all that hair. Not that I have a crush on him – I really don't. We were boyfriend and girlfriend once, last year, for, oh, maybe ... two weeks? Something like that. But we broke up, and then we stopped being friends altogether. But we're friends now again, and we sit together in class. The one thing that annoys me most about him is that we were born on the same day – 14.6.89. It's really annoying. And he was born half an hour before me. I swear. 7 o'clock. I was born at 7:30, or something. It sucks.
Reut: probably my best friend, along with Gan. She's really cute, but that kind of depends on who you ask. I like her. She shares my passion for Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, and Disney movies and songs. The only problem is that she also watches soap operas, mostly Spanish ones. It's impossible. But I love her all the same. Also, she's got a few friends that have taken making my life a living hell as their personal hobby since 7th grade. I don't let them, though. I just ignore them. Even if someone talks to me about them, I just put on this blank look and say "Who?"
Na'ama: well. Na'ama is something else. She's really a strange person, when you think about it. Quite obsessive about fantasy books (even more that I am); loves Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. She's pretty aggressive... our whole friendship is built on teasing, hitting, name-calling, and mutual annoyment. But that's just the kind of person she is. She's pretty fat, but she's got her own style of dressing and behaving, so that kind of distracts you from her weight. I hardly notice it anymore. She's crazy about snakes, dragons, and wolves, based on fantasy-book characters. Also loves weapons, but just for the show of it. She's currently trying to persuade us to buy her a dagger for her birthday. Sometimes I have no clue where she's coming from.
I've got some other close friends, and some other not-so-close friends, but I don't feel like writing much about them just now. Write back soon!
-Rose.
ps.
Sorry for keeping you waiting on this letter; it seems that Crescent had a fight with another owl in the forest (never knew there were much owls there... go figure.) so he's been grounded for a bit. I thought of taking him to a vet, but I'm trying to keep him a secret, so that nobody finds out about you and me writing. And anyway, after a few days of resting – I made sure he got plenty of water and found some uncooked meat in the freezer, so... – he seemed pretty ok. So.
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Author's Notes: once again, I'm so sorry for posting this so late. But I've had a hectic few weeks now. 2 weeks in Japan. 1 week of school, homework, plus catching up. Then a 3-day school trip. Anyway, I know that's no excuse, cos I've had a few spare moments, but I've had to dedicate them to some, uh, different things. So, sorry.
Reviewers' response:
Raven Dragonclaw – yeah, I know what you mean. I've had to catch up with homework this weekend, so sorry this came out late...
LJ – heh, sorry, in my opinion, the movies are, to put it bluntly, crap. Sorry, this is just my opinion. Dan Radcliff doesn't look ONE BIT like Harry Potter. His hair is straight. Harry's is supposed to be messed up, sticking up every-which-way. Harry's eyes are green. Dan's are blue, people!! But Emma Watson does rule. She's a great Hermione.
melissaL – Japan was a blast!
Sirius' Diamond – Woohoo! Thanks!
Amiana – yes, you should be jealous, cos he missed school. But, if he fasted, then you should not envy him. At least you got to eat. Plus, he had extra workload, I'm sure. And he had to plead for forgiveness; at least you have your dignity.
ps, sorry about your dad... unemployment is a bitch here, too.
Princess Phoenix – aw, well... as for Rose being asked on a date and running screaming for Harry... not gonna happen. Unless, by some misunderstanding (or miracle; take your pick) I get asked out. Also, not gonna happen. I don't know what it is about me. Am I that ugly...?
ginnymanytounges – yes indeed, The Beatles, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Princess Bride all rock. Love them. Also love Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Anime. Heard of Gravitation?
Tw2qut4u – wow, sorry for your sister... Japan was great!
bluehoax – ummmmm.... headless chickens squawking... how should I know?? Anyway, d'you like how I look? ps, yes, Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp are HOT!!!
Topaz Waters – yeah, school is a bitch.
Fireblade K'Chona - *bows.* thank you, thank you all! ^_^