Chapter 2: The Girl in the House of 1313

Noises….

Orphans shouting…

Cries….

Is there anything to cry for…?

Peace and quiet…. Is it too demanding to ask for what I rightfully deserve?

Ayumi is lost in her own negative thoughts when a huge pain in the neck hurriedly comes inside her room.

"Snap out of it, Yuyu, why so dreamy? Are you dreaming about your precious little school again, Ms. "Extraordinare"?" haughtily says Elle, the orphanage director's daughter. "I heard from my mother that you didn't do well, except for that mixing disgusting stuff together class, I suppose, in that school. She was thinking that maybe you should just have to stay here after all. You know, it's quite impossible for someone like you to be anything but…insignificant!"

"It's called Potion class, smarty pants. And what about you, Elly?" replies Ayumi, "I heard from my little friends that you don't do so well in school either. Cheerleading and dating might sound perfect and ideal for a girl like you… but perhaps you have make yourself look stupid by falling every single class. No one, especially boys, likes dumb girls."

"Watch it, Yuyu, with one word, I can make my mother deports you to the worst place that you can ever imagine." Says Elle as she reaches and grabs Ayumi's collar. Pulling her closer, face to face, Elle says each word clearly and slowly.

"How about you watch yourself first, dearest friend?" smirks Sonia as she quickly puts her wand right at Elle's throat "Mark my words, with a little spell of mine; you'll be death within 5 seconds. And all I have to say is that you threaten to expose my real identity with violence and threats. If you value your life, then let me be." Her eyes are flashing with anger, and they warn her enemy that she keeps her words.

Speechless, Elle releases the collars and angrily exits the room. She stops and shouts "You will regret this, Ayumi Amoure". The threat ends with the loud bang of the door.

Jealousy… when will she stop tormenting me with her jealousy? Out of anyone, perhaps and ironically, Sonia understands Elle the best. Elle is the kind of person who believes in magic, on the other hand, Sonia doesn't think luck or magic exists. Sadly, it is Ayumi who got the Hogwarts letter of acceptance. She can't deny that strange things happened to her but acknowledging herself as a witch is too much of an event for an 11 year old kid to take all at once. Still shocked and baffled, Sonia turned for help.

Then…she caught Elle's eyes. Hurtful eyes. At that moment, Ayumi knows that she has, perhaps, touched one of the darkest parts of a human's feeling: triumph in one's misfortune. Yes, thinks the 11- year-old Ayumi, she has everything while I have nothing. So why should I be not lucky? This is a sign, showing that I am not inferior, in fact, with my power, I can be superior.

Superior? Laughs Ayumi, who was I tried to kid at that time?

Ayumi stands up and goes to the bathroom. A fight with Elle always wears her down, even if she has it every single day. After briefly washing her face, she looks into the mirror. Swollen eyes with dark circles underneath, messy hair that are carelessly braided with most of them now fall and cover her forehead and the left eye. Thick glasses. Who was I tried to kid at that time? Asks Sonia to herself once again. No beauty, no talent, no real identity.

She is accepted into Hufflepuff – "the house of unexceptional" says the rumor. Without even touching her head, just hovering inches away, the Sorting Head proudly says "Hufflepuff". She remembers, at that moment, she knew that her faith is determined. She, indeed, belongs to somewhere. Sonia revisits the days when she wishes she could be in Gryffindor – the brave, Ravenclaw- the intelligent, or even Slytherin- the house of evil. Anywhere but Hufflepuff, where it is the house of the hardworking and loyal- the qualities of all humans possess.

She doesn't really care about her subjects in class; she chooses whatever class that sounds easy and interesting. Potion is the only class that she cares about. Mixing this and that with precise carefulness and measures. It demands good memories and patience: probably the only two skills that she has. It also demands procedures and orders: the two things that she loves. Orders and procedures make life easier, less complicated, and less chaotic.

Ayumi always prefers quiet and peaceful life. People who care too much are great annoyance. She prefers to be alone, doing what she does best: following instructions with interest. Potion class is the only class that satisfies her needs. She finds peace there, even if she is the only one in the Advanced Potion class, alone with the Slytherins.

Professor Kirkpatrick, her Potion teacher also as the head teacher of Slytherine, fair enough to say is not biased, even if he sometimes favors his students more. (Who can blame him really?). No one besides his students ever sign up for Advanced Potion class. Not Gryffindor, not Ravenclaw. So it was a surprise when he sees a Hufflepuff walks into his class and sits in a corner. Attentive is she and also quiet is she. He has lost count of how many times he has to stop his students from bullying the girl. But he still keeps the numbers of how many times the Hufflepuff girl, Ayumi Amoure, surprises the whole class. She can make the most perfect potions that even seasoned practitioners can find no faults in them.

Professor Kirkpatrick is a man who can see great potentials in students, and he even admits to Professor Gillian that Ayumi is his best student. The Potion Professor knows that if she is more serious in her studying, it is no doubt that she can be the smartest witch of her generation. His statement is soon spread around the whole school, and then it becomes the hottest gossip of the year. The Slytherins are not happy with the news. The thought that their head teacher accepts another student from another house, especially from an unexceptional one, is well, unacceptable no matter how you put it ("It's an absolute nightmare" says one Slytherin).

Ayumi Amoure, the smartest witch, what a grand name!

A grand name indeed. How many times must she suffer from the impact of the name? Everyone in the school has a badge that has "Ayumi Amoure, the greatest witch…." With her normally emo face and "… or the stinkiest witch" with Sonia's head being attached to a rotten egg (Sonia is used to it, she always is the rotten flying eggs target whenever it comes to Halloween). She remembers people sneering, snickering at her whenever she walks by.

Get used to it, thought Ayumi, get used to it. She did get used to it. After whole lots of secretly crying in the girls' bathroom at midnight with the comfort of Moaning Myrtle, that is. The ghost turns out to be a very attentive listener and comforter if she wants to, although most of the time Sonia is forced to listen to the whining of the ghost instead. They don't call Myrtle - Moaning Myrtle for nothing. She moans a lot.

Right now, sitting in a noisy room and remembering about Myrtle, Ayumi starts to wonder, what will happen if she dies unexpected? Would she die with a sour look on her face? Would she just start wondering around the neighborhood where she dies? Would people start calling her Annoyed- faced Ayumi and try to avoid her? Would she be….forever alone? Would she….

Her thoughts are cut short when she felt the house shakes… An earthquake? How is that possible? Oh, Ayumi moans, I should have not start thinking about death… The shake last for five seconds, then stops. The house becomes silent, no sound, no cry, nothing.

Ayumi starts to worry. The earthquake is not very strong, and it lasts for a really short time. There has to be noise right now. She slowly walks to the window and looks at her neighbor's house. They seem fine, she thinks, nothing seems to happen.

Then what happened here?

Ayumi takes her wand out and quietly walks down. Shakily, she also grabs her flashlight. She is not willing to be expelled. Sonia determines to use spells under dire circumstances.

Only under dire circumstances.

She comes downstairs. "Who's there?" she asks. Then Ayumi feels a huge blow coming towards her, hitting her against the wall. The pain is indescribable. She gives out moans as she tries to stand up. She falls and sees her blood flowing. Hard. This is ridiculous, she thinks, I just stabbed my leg with a candle holder. Oh no, I'm bleeding…

Ayumi is a weak girl to begin with, and she has an extreme fright and panic whenever she sees blood. Needlessly to say, the best solution she can come up with is to faint. However, this time, she will not faint. She is determined not to faint. As she's resisting her urge to do what the mind and body wants her to do, she hears the two strangers' conversation.

"Great job, Lupin! You just knock her off" – said a voice, trying not to laugh. "Laughing while I'm struggling, is this humane?" thinks Ayumi.

"Ron, this is not my fault! This is my first mission for the Order after all! Ouch, stop hitting my head" said a young and hoarse voice.

"Who's your Ron? Call me Mr. Weasley!" demanding the first voice, "She seems to be unconscious. Let's bring her back to my house. By the way, what do you want for breakfast?" Sonia feels someone is picking her up and carrying her away.

House? Breakfast? What is this? A planned kidnapping? Why the heck can this happen to me? Oh god, I'm going to faint. I can't stand this anymore..oh…g…o…..d

Ron Weasley carries the young girl on his arms. He looks back at the young Lupin, who is looking extremely dumbfounded. "Well, come on! You don't want me to leave you here, do you?" he shouts, "such an amateur. You can't be an Auror if you continue to have that look on your face!"

Lupin hurriedly runs to Weasley. He sheepishly says "I was just thinking about what I want for breakfast!" "Still a kid" replies Ron.

Ron Weasley looks down at the young girl. He murmurs to himself "Bloody hell, she looks just like her. Harry will be so shocked when he sees her."

Suddenly, he senses an uneasy and dark aura surrounding them. Ron hurriedly tells Lupin to erase their trace. He walks fast, faster than usual. He has to be quick. The enemy might have sense what's going on. When Lupin catches up with him, Ron screams: "Accio Portkey!" A boot immediately comes and flies to Ron's hand.

Ayumi's neighbor, who is awake after a long series of screaming and crashing from the next door, looks out from the window to see what's going on. The next morning, he swears to his wife that he sees two men disappear in the middle of the night, carrying a young emo girl, who lives in 1313. His wife dismisses whatever he sees and believes it is all due to the stress from work that makes him into a sleepwalker. Besides, she says: "Harold, you are too stressful. Don't you remember? There is no house 1313. At least, not anymore. It was burnt downs decades ago."