Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments)
Assignment #4 - Geography (Canada)
Task #3: Quebec - Write about someone being disowned, or otherwise leaving their family.
Further prompts are at the end.
Word Count: 412
The definition of an orphan is a child whose parents are dead, but sometimes, they think that being an orphan means so much more than that. It means not having people to support you and protect you. It means having to seek love in those other than the family you are born to. It means being lonely. It means having to grow up too early, too quickly.
Childhood should be carefree, shouldn't it? Or are the only people who think children are carefree the ones who've forgotten their own childhood?
Sometimes, they hate their family.
Sometimes, they wish that their family was normal. Two parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, pets, maybe, all of whom unconditionally love them. Support them. Protect them. Don't hurt them.
But then they wonder if families like that actually exist. Perhaps all families are made, and not born. Either way, it is always their birth-families they leave behind, and not their made-families.
When they arrive at Hogwarts, it is more than just a school, to them. It's home. They learn there, yes, magic and knowledge beyond anything they could've imagined, but they also grow, find or make their own families, go after what they want, live, for the first time.
And then something happens. Some mistake that they make, that ends in death; some disaster that occurs, that makes everything fall apart. They grieve, and then they move past it, and life goes on, but some part of them is lost, some innocence, some youth. They make their decisions, their choices, that shape who they truly are. Sometimes, they get second chances. Other times, they don't. Sometimes, they survive to try again, to improve, to change. Other times, they don't. Their lights burn bright, then die out, a mere blink of the eye in the larger scale of things. The universe owes them nothing. It has already given them everything, after all. The only way it will remember them is if they do something worth remembering.
History repeats itself, again and again, the same story told with only minor variations, though most times, the stories go unremembered, because history is written by the victors. But Hogwarts has seen it all, remembers it all. Orphans, both literal and figurative, drift through her walls. She gives them what she can, what they need, and sometimes, it is enough.
They are orphans, students, youths, witches and wizards, learning the way of the world. But they are also children. Hogwarts's children.
Writing Club: September
Record Collection: 24k Magic - That's What I Like: Write about someone going after what they want in life.
Time Machine: Emotion: Grief
Showtime: The Next Right Thing - (emotion) Grief
Adam Sandler: You Don't Mess with the Zohan - Write about someone with a new identity
The Ultimate Martial Artist: (word) strength
Scamander's Case: (emotion) lonely
Film Festival: (word) normal
EnTitled: The One with the Tiny T-Shirt - Write about someone moving on
August Auction: Hebe
In Memoriam: Sirius Black - Write about an adoptive family
Build a Better Breakfast: Cinnamon: (theme) grief
Pick a Wick: Hot Fudge Brownie: (genre) family