Tea

Sixth Year

Prologue

This is the first of my Drinks series and it won't be too long. Inspiration for this is very lazy. It will come slowly and the chapters will be short. Hope it won't be too bad...

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The fear chokes me.. Strangles me and I try to scream and swear and kick and scream some more but I can't... I'm not weak.. I swear on my life I'm not weak... Maybe a little... But not so much.. I can't do it though... It's paralyzing and enabling me to move all at once and I comply to it's every beck and call even though I'm so damn proud... I back away shaking.. My whole body shivvering like a dry and wrinkled leaf that's holding onto the twig for dear life in the wind... The life of a perfect little girl that gets the best grades and polishes off her four-scroll essay until the wee hours of the morning presses down on me.. On my pathetic existance and I fall.. It seems to be a fucking cliff right there and I just fall.. And I can almost taste the pain and the sound of the back of my head hitting the cement... I don't even know if it's cement... I'm an inch above the ground and in another mili-second I'll probably die...

But I wake up...

Oh shit I had homework! No. False alarm. There's no school. I felt my whole body shake violently as I got up to close the fucking window that some asshole left wide open in the middle of the night. That asshole was me.

It was late summer-almost-fall. The bloody windowsill was already covered in a light layer of warm raindrops. I closed it and wiped the cold sweat off of my forehead with the sleeve of my night-gown.

This is pathetic. The sardonnic thought in my mind grinned and bounced around baring short sharp little teeth. It was five in the fucking morning and I was wide awake curled up in a ball on my bed. And then I remembered that I leave to Hogwarts tomorrow. Well today. The thought comforted me and calmed my psychotic brain. That place scared me and tempted me all at once. It was like the love I never had for it. Just a desperate need to get away from this inane Muggle world. It's been almost a sinful sanctuary for it's students. People like Ron got caught and got what they deserved. People like Fred Weasley on the other hand. Never. Ever. Ever got caught. Never got in trouble. But did everything that they possibly could to cause it. With the flaming auburn hair and dancing blue eyes and completely crazy laughter. Adrenaline-infused and rebellious Fred and his brother always managed to walk on water, come out clean, do the impossible... Get away with murder - almost. And freckles. Fred had freckles. So did George but Fred's were more distinct. The kind of freckles that you just wanted to... I cut off the rest of the thought for my own sake.

My head felt heavy as I slowly stood up and walked to the shower tugging off my night-gown. It covered everything. It was long sleeved and it went down to my ankles and had the ever-so-round neckline that actually met my neck-line. I furiously ripped the old thing while trying to take it off. Then my panties. Those were white and they too covered everything. I didn't own anything lacy or revealing. I didn't DO lingerie. Well I didn't until the last week. I got my birthday money and bought some clothes. Some clothes I knew Fred was bound to notice...

The water was hot. So scorching that my normally pale skin turned a rather curiously spotty shade of pink. I sunk down to the bottom of the bathtub and leaned my head back as the water washed away plastic smiles and magic words like 'please' and 'thank you' and lies. I couldn't charm the gas tank that heated the water to our Muggle house. I couldn't use fucking magic outside of school. So I waited until the water ran cold. And even then I didn't leave the shower. I was just too fucking tired.

I finally decided to get out. Wiping the steamed but strangely cold mirror with my hand I stared at my reflection - deciding that I needed extencive plastic surgery. Or better yet just die. Curl up in a tiny little ball and evaporate into a momentary puff of lavender-scented smoke. Curly/bushy brown hair, of course more on the bushy side. Dark brown eyes. Thick lips. A nice straight nose. High cheekbones. A gently rounded chin. A face sadly closer to round than elegantly oval. An ex-buck tooth. Nothing special. Never anything worth a second glance. Never ever. I wanted to cry, but realized that it was over-rated and femenine.

No more of this good-girl shit. No more extra-credit assignments. No more studying 'till I dropped. I didn't need this. I didn't need the stress. My marks wouldn't have to pummel down to a fail just because I decided to NOT to do the extra fifteen inches of essay. All I needed was him. And tea. Yes. Right about then - a cup of tea would do me good.

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There you have the Prologue (note the capital 'p'). Not the most exciting thing I've ever written - yet I hope you guys will like it. Please don't flame, criticize if you absolutely have to. Flames really hurt. No matter how much anyone says they don't care.