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Chapter Forty-Five
Esmerelda woke up and got out of bed to get ready for the day, it was early bur she wanted to have some time before the craziness of the day started, she cuddled Morgana for a few minutes before dragging herself to the bathroom to get washed and dressed for school.
Before long she was sat in the hall, eating the daily porridge, also known as paste, they served. She leaned her head on her hand and used her spoon to play with her food. She was bored and lonely, yes she knew Lily had turned out to be an evil bully but during the times when they were friends she had being good company and now that kind Lily was gone and Esmerelda was left alone. She did eat her food because HB was walking around and looking at her suspiciously so she eventually forced some of the paste into her mouth. How a magical school could make food taste like cardboard was amazing to her but she was glad when it was finished, not having to eat anymore. She put her bowl in the wash pile and then made her way to potions.
"Today we are going to be doing a free style potion, I want to see how you are all progressing, so you all have an hour to make a potion of your choice, you may begin" Miss Hardbroom told the girls and Esmerelda tried to decide which potion she should make, she didn't want to make one that would get her bullied again for being a teachers pet, so she tried to think of something less impressive and decided a translator potion will work well. It wasn't one that was to hard and it would still impress HB without the potions teacher wanting to put it on the daily news because she had done something so amazing.
The girl chopped her ingredients, concentrating and making sure she was following the instructions correctly, she didn't want a detention with HB because the woman didn't like her potion so it was important she made sure she was doing it right.
An hour later and her potion was a tan colour, the colour it was meant to be. She heard Miss Hardbroom tell the class to stop working and then she started walking around to inspect the potions, reaching Esmerelda she looked at her, making Esmerelda fearful, HB had a way of making you scared even if you didn't do anything wrong. Esmie gulped as the woman looked at her, standing over her.
"And what potion have you made Esmerelda Hallow?" the woman asked her and Esmerelda blinked, telling herself not to say something stupid.
"I made a translator potion Miss Hardbroom" Esmerelda replied. Miss Hardbroom looked at her curiously and then nodded.
"Very well, please demonstrate" the woman told her and Esmerelda smiled and put a spoon in her cauldron, getting some of the potion and then trying it, it tasted funky like all potions do, well most of the ones she had tried did but then she was speaking.
"Me llamo Esmerelda, tengo trece anos" Esmerelda said in spanish, finding herself naturally knowing the languauge even though she had never studied it before. She smiled as she had been slightly worried her potion would fail and HB clapped, meaning she must be impressed.
"That was a flawless perfomance Esmerelda, top marks" Miss Hardbroom replied impressed, Esmerelda smiled, until she caught sight of her classmates faces and her smile dropped, she had done it again, shown herself as a show off. Esmerelda sighed as she left the lesson, trying to avoid eye contact as she made her way to chanting.
Chanting made things for her worst, she wasn't gifted with an extraordinary voice by any means, but unlike some of the students in her class who were tone-deaf, Esmerelda could at least hold a tune, she could sense glares on her as she chanted, as if it was her fault she wasn't completely tone deaf.
Esmerelda hated that she was knowledgeable at times, but she also found herself getting angry about it, if the other girls studied more they would be up to her level but the fact was most of them couldn't be bothered and just expected to be naturally gifted in everything, Esmerelda sighed, if they knew how much she studied it would shock them to the core.
Lessons were awful for the blonde, she tried to do something wrong, and she tried to be at the same level as the other girls, but it just didn't work and she would somehow get full marks no matter how she tried.
She was therefore glad to be finished with her lessons, that was until HB walked towards her and told her the head of years had a meeting, Esmerelda sighed. She hated these long boring meetings and she didn't get the point of them, Miss Cackle didn't change anything anyway but she made her way to the office and saw the third and fifth year heads of year were already there.
"Hello Esmerelda, take a seat we were just about to start" Miss Cackle said and Esmerelda sat down, able to tell by the faces of the other pupils they didn't want to be there either.
Esmerelda did not know how long they sat there speaking about things that were wrong and needed to be fixed, but it was quite a long time once everyone had spoken, Miss Cackle nodded and Esmerelda wondered if she had already forgotten the suggestions. If she listened she didn't show it because things at Cackles never changed, even after the meetings.
"Right well we best wrap it up, don't want any of you to miss mirroring home do we?" the woman said and Esmerelda smiled properly for the first time that day, it was mirror day and she could speak to her favourite people. She rushed to the mirror room but there was already a queue and Esmerelda decided to do a bit of reading as she waited.
The line was moving slow, which was normally how things went were on a mirror day, Esmerelda didn't mind though because very soon she would be speaking to Ethel and Sybil so she couldn't be mad at people for taking their time. She put her book away when she was next in line and when the green belted girl came out she practically ran in the room.
She sat down, and held up the card with her sisters names on, waiting eagerly for them to appear, the mirror as always changed from reflective into a call but her smile dropped as she realised who she was looking at.
"Good evening Esmerelda" Mrs Hallow said as she said hello to her daughter
"Mother….." Esmerelda said with a sigh. She didn't know where Ethel and Sybil were so she decided to casually ask.
"Is everything alright mother? Where are Ethel and Sybil?" Esmerelda asked, trying to not ask to desperately.
"In their rooms I suspect" Mrs Hallow said before she narrowed her eyes confused "Esmerelda it is the third Thursday of the month" Ursulla replied as if it should be obvious why she was there and Esmerelda sighed. Her mother always mirrored her once a month to ask up on how her schooling was going so they could sort any problems that might occur. Esmerelda normally hated the calls as they were just boring with her mother rambling but today, she needed to talk to her sisters, she had had a bad day and her depressed mind needed something to cheer her up.
"Oh sorry mother I forgot that is all" Esmerelda replied, sighing in her head, knowing her mother did not like sighing.
"Yes mother, I am studying daily" Esmerelda told her mother as she asked if she was still doing her daily studies, she didn't know why she thought she wouldn't, she knows what her parents expect of her.
"Good because you are a Hallow and I expect perfection Esmerelda" her mother told her. Esmerelda looked at her, stifling a yawn. Perfection came with a price, she didn't sleep much as she studied so much.
"Of course mother, nothing less" Esmerelda told her mother, even if she wished people did not always put so much pressure on her, sometimes she felt burned out because of it and she wished she could have a day where she had fun, but being a Hallow would not allow that, she had to focus on her studies.
"And I don't want any more of this silly fighting" Ursulla went on and Esmerelda nodded, even if it had not being her fault last time.
"Of course not mother, don't worry I know what is expected of me" Esmerelda told her, feeling the pressure get to her.