Chapter One
Hesperia Potter was a blessed child, whoever was good to her received good fortune. Everyone flocked to her and cared for her. Those that did horrible things to her would end up having bad fortune.
It soon became a fact that she seemed to be drenched in a holy light.
She never did things wrong, even when she would do unexplainable things around her relatives it would be towards cleaning wounds without touching them or fixing broken vases and other fragile pieces her cousin would break. Her hair, such a deep auburn hue, always fell to the back of her knees. She could make dying flowers spring back to life. She could heal wounds that were on animals as long as they were not life threatening, she spoke to a woman that no one else could see, one who she claimed was Mother. If anyone tried to hurt her, they would have worse done to them, unmeasurable pain where they would have to ask for forgiveness in order for them to have the pain stop, but Hesperia would merely smile at them and tell them there was nothing to forgive.
While her aunt and uncle, and cousin, had learnt to never physically abuse her they would still verbally abuse her. They would still force her to do the chores and she still did stay in the cupboard under the stairs, but she had a proper twin sized mattress, and the room was more decorated to fit her style than just sitting there with empty shelves. She had twinkling lights that were strung up on the ceiling and fake plants that were on the shelves. She had to make her own clothes, with old fabric that Aunt Petunia would buy from a thrift store, and through the years she had gotten a natural talent towards being a seamstress. Everything backfired for her abusers.
She was making breakfast for Cousin Dudley, and it was his eleventh birthday.
He was complaining in the living room about having one less present than last year.
Aunt Petunia was blubbering about them stopping at the toy store and buying two extra toys to make up for the mistake. Hesperia dismissed him, even though she had a complicated relationship with her family in which she tried to justify most of the time, she had to admit that he was giving her a migraine by all his whining. She had to focus her attention on making his breakfast the specific way he wanted it to be or else he would make sure to turn his tantrum towards her.
Dudley came happily into the kitchen, appeased, and plopped down in his chair.
It groaned a little bit from the sudden burst of pressure added upon it.
Hesperia scooped up his food onto a plate and went over to him, barely sitting it down before he began to grab at the pancakes and the bacon with his bare hands, ignorant towards the fact that he was old enough he should have the ability to use utensils. He wouldn't even be using them even if it were his own mum telling him to use utensils too.
"Happy Birthday, Dudley," Hesperia whispered, Dudley brought his hand up and waved it as though to dismiss her. His hands were coated with bacon grease, along with pancake syrup. She sighed and turned on her heel before she scooped some more food and put them on the plates for her aunt and uncle, knowing they would want their meal now.
Once she sat the plates down, Hesperia went over to where the last remaining scoop full of food was for her. She was thankful that she was allowed to eat when the rest of the family were eating, they had learnt their lesson when they tried to starve her too many times when she was very little only to find that when they tried to eat their bodies would reject the food. They ended up having to feed Hesperia the proper amount of food she was supposed to have for them to be able to eat too.
She waited until they had finished their breakfast before sitting down and eating her food.
It had cooled down a good bit, but it wasn't ice cold.
She even had a glass of strawberry milk, her favorite type.
She was in charge of making the grocery list and she had to get most of the groceries at the grocery store when she went with Aunt Petunia, so it wasn't unexpected she would end up putting a few of her favorite items on the list. As long as she put all of Dudley and Uncle Vernon's' favorite items on the list then all was well and the Dursleys were appeased.
Once she was finished with her own meal and cleaned up the kitchen she went into the cupboard and pulled out a pretty dress she had recently sewn together. It was a short sleeve, rounded neckline, dress that fell at her knees when it came to the skirts. The dress was in tiny print, of daisies with a background of a light yellow. She pulled out her favorite hair comb and brushed out her hair, sometimes hating how she would have to sit there for a while to brush it out.
The cupboard opened and Aunt Petunia was standing in front of her with her hands pressed against her hips, one of her eyebrows arched up. The bird-looking woman with sharp and shallow features, long neck that didn't suit her, and watery blue eyes that were in an odd shape, was wearing one of the most popular dresses that were being sold in town. If any of the other women in Surrey were wearing this dress then she would wear the dress too, even if it were very unflattering on her. Her hair was styled awkwardly too, done with hair products that made it look worse instead of better.
"Come now, to the zoo. Stay out of our way, like always," Aunt Petunia declared, motioning the red-haired girl in front of her. Hesperia flinched when she went outside and the woman went out next, shutting the front door and locking it as though there were actual items in the house someone would want to steal. There were better houses to steal items from.
Getting into the backseat, Hesperia folded her hands together and dismissed Dudley as he was eating some candy. His friends were going to meet him at the zoo, and he was more than thrilled with going to torment the animals.
Hesperia stayed away from them, though Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, seemed enchanted by her. He always went after her, with hearts in his eyes, and stood up for her whenever anyone messed with her. She thought it was awkward, she didn't really feel any true emotion towards the boys, especially the possessive boy who meant well for her.
The moment they arrived at the zoo; Dudley managed to get out of the car with agility that was still surprising to his cousin. She observed him as he rushed over to where his three friends were, all of them already having their zoo passes. They were dressed comfortably for the weather and of course, Piers noticed her before shyly waving at her. He quickly dropped his hand so none of the others would be able to see him doing that.
She stayed a few paces away from the boys, fiddling with the zoo pass that was in her hands, and noted how Dudley was automatically wanting a hot dog along with some popcorn and cotton candy. There was no wonder why he always had to go to the dentist to get cleanings and fillings done. Hesperia was still cavity free, partly because she never ate anything that could cause cavities like Dudley did. He was allowed sugar, she was not.
She wasn't upset with this at all.
If Dudley wanted to rot his teeth and if Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon wanted to let him end up with premature dentures, then that was their business. She'd just roll her eyes as he would throw another hissy fit on how life wasn't fair and how his parents never did anything for him.
Most of the animals seemed to stray away from the boys when they came up to the exhibit glass and instead went over to the girl. She was pleased and acknowledged them but motioned for them to go back to Dudley, in fear she would get an earful later if she didn't let Dudley have his time being the center of attention for the animals. They weren't too enthusiastic with having to be forced to entertain the others but one look from Hesperia and they wanted to do anything to make her happy.
The sun was beating down harshly, and the poor girl knew she should have put on a hat to shield herself from the sunlight. She reached one of her hands up and covered her face, making sure she wouldn't have the sun hit her straight in her eyes. They were sensitive to light, and she had to gradually adjust to it or else she'd be blind for a few minutes due to it.
They soon entered the reptile/amphibian room, and she sighed in relief at the cool air conditioning that was inside the room. It was quite dark, and the only lit things happened to be the exhibits that were filled with snakes and frogs and all other sorts of creepy crawlies. She didn't pay much attention to them, until she reached the section that was meant for snakes. She had always felt drawn towards snakes for some odd reason, having not realized it until Mother Morgana came to her in a dream and told her she could talk to snakes.
Of course, like any child, Hesperia didn't believe it until she was cleaning out the back garden flower beds that were around the bird bath fountain. A tiny little garden snake came crawling towards her and began to tell her how the great mother had come to it, saying it would find a new friend in Hesperia. Hesperia tried to keep the snake but learnt that wild snakes weren't meant to be domesticated by Mother Morgana, so she let the little snake go.
She slowly went up to the exhibit window, frowning when she saw that there was an exotic snake draped across the rock landscape that had been built for it. There was a good amount of the exhibit that had water too, but it just looked wrong to her. She brought her hand up and pressed it against the glass, noting that there were many smudges from people putting their hands onto the glass, either to touch it simply like her or to bang on it and annoy the poor thing (obviously Dudley and his friends were in the latter category).
"You poor thing, being trapped in there isn't good for you and your health," Hesperia whispered, no she hissed this, speaking in the tongue dialect of snakes. The large snake perked his head up and turned his eyes towards her, before slowly dragging its body towards her with very much interest. He could feel the presence of Mother Morgana around her, she was a good one.
"Yes, it is not ideal. I wish I were able to leave. I–"
Before the snake could continue, Dudley came over and began to taunt her, claiming only she would find friends in snakes. She should be put behind an exhibit and fed during a certain time period and be gawked at and humiliated. She hadn't even realized where her thoughts went while he had his speech until the glass of the exhibit came undone and he fell through. Her hands went up and covered her mouth, her green eyes widening incredibly.
The snake turned towards Dudley and began to crawl towards the pudgy boy, letting out a very vicious snarl, before climbing out of the exhibit and towards the automatic doors that led outside. Behind her Dudley crawled out right before the glass came back up, because Hesperia did not want to trap her cousin. She wanted the snake to be released.
She heard snickering behind her, and she turned her head, noting that Piers was the one who had snickered at the sight. She still didn't see what the appeal was when it came to having crushes on others. She felt bad for him slightly, for she knew he wasn't going to have his feelings reciprocated by her. She had more important things to worry about, it was also sad, but it was the truth.
Looking at Dudley, Hesperia quietly prayed that Dudley would get cleaned before Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon would appear. She prayed to Mother Morgana, the one who came to her in her dreams when she felt despair, for the boy to be cleaned off. She opened her eyes; her hands clasped together and saw Dudley becoming cleaned off and his eyes becoming dull before he shook his head and asked what happened to the snake in the exhibit.
Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon came over, the both of them having decided that they had enough time in here with all the creepy crawlies. They wanted us to get something to eat before Dudley's friends' parents would come to pick their children up. They took them to the concession stand and they all grabbed what they wanted to eat before eating their late lunch. Dudley was blissfully unaware of what had just happened to him in the snake exhibit and instead was happily eating his lunch and proclaiming how much fun he had (it would have been better without Hesperia, even though she knew he was thinking this but wasn't able to say it aloud).
The rest of the day was spent with Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia believing that the birthday party was a roaring success, which it was. Hesperia on the other hand was too busy thinking about that snake and hoping it was able to travel where it wanted to go. She wished she could have had the chance to find out what the snake wanted to talk to her about but once again, Dudley had made sure to ruin things for her. She couldn't have a good time or any time away from him, even when it came to going to public places like the zoo.
The two weeks that followed Dudley's eleventh birthday weren't anything that was special, nothing that warranted their excessive need to remind their niece she was nothing more than an irritating pest. No matter how many times they thought they could get rid of her, or have her do something to cause herself pain, something or maybe someone had managed to keep them from doing what they wanted. Their son would end up having night terrors for the longest time, and it had spurred enough of a reaction from them to know not to test their luck.
Hesperia had just finished breakfast once again, putting way too many spoonsful amounts of food onto a plate when it came to Dudley's portion when the sound of the mail going through the slot in the front room signaled the mail was here. Hesperia sat the plate down in front of Dudley and went directly towards the pile of mail that was sprawled out on the carpeted flooring. She crouched down and picked up the pile of mail, not really paying attention to what was there.
As she sat each envelope down onto the table in front of Uncle Vernon, in order to know what he wanted her to throw away, she paused when the last thing was addressed to her.
Miss H. Potter
The Cupboard Under the Stairs
4 Privet Drive
Little Whining
Surrey
Hesperia craned her head to the side, and went to open it only for a grubby, fat hand reaches out to grab it from her. She widened her eyes when Dudley howled in pain and dropped his hand, where there was a nasty rash spreading across his pale hand. He cried and sniffled and Aunt Petunia began to seethe. She might as well be foaming at the mouth. She was grabbing medical supplies so she could tend to the wound, while Uncle Vernon went to grab the envelope next.
The same thing happened to him, allowing Hesperia to wonder if it was enchanted to make sure it could not be destroyed. It would make things a lot more senseful, especially with her being able to do unexplainable things, satanic things in her aunt's opinion. She had heard her more than once praying to Mother Morgana, if Aunt Petunia hadn't been too scared of gossip, she was certain the woman would have had a Holy Man come to perform an Exorcism on her.
Hesperia opened the envelope and pulled out two crisp papers, ones that were in old school parchment and written in by a quill in obsidian ink. The first thing she noticed was it happened to be an acceptance letter from HOGWARTS: SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY. The letter informed her she would be attending the school on September 1st and that her birthday was the last day they would be accepting students in their first year or else they would have to wait another year in order for them to attend Hogwarts. The other thing happened to be a letter with supplies for school and directions to head to the Leaky Cauldron. Only those that were magical were able to see the bar, and once inside they would be able to get to Diagon Alley–the place they would get their school supplies.
Aunt Petunia growled as she went to take the letters from her, but second guessed at the last minute. She seemed to have realized if she touched the papers, she would end up having rashes on her skin too. She had already taken care of her son and husband, and she groaned before ushering them out of the kitchen so she could talk to Hesperia.
"I was hoping this day wouldn't come. It's the second worst day of my life. The first of course having you on my front doorstep. I couldn't care less about your mother dying, but she just had to get pregnant and have you and then die. Then I get a letter in the basket with you saying that I would need to take care of you…" Aunt Petunia muttered as she was sitting across from her niece.
In the corner of her eye, she could see Dudley trying to eavesdrop through the frosted glass kitchen door, but his large and silhouetted figure was easy to spot. She almost snickered when she saw Uncle Vernon grab him by the ear and yank him away from the door. He most likely didn't want his son to hear about what his late aunt was really, and what his cousin was.
"I'm not going to sugarcoat it, I'm not the kind of person who sugarcoats things. Hesperia, your mother and father were a witch and wizard. They attended Hogwarts in the same year, and she eventually started dating him in her late years there. They married right out of school, and she became the lady of a noble and ancient house. She got to have a hot husband and fortune. She had everything handed to her in life and didn't have the courtesy to say thank you," Aunt Petunia spat, her fingers tightening down onto the table cover, which also was a terrible lace doily.
Hesperia doubted this, when it came to who was distant from the other.
She knew that Aunt Petunia harbored an unjustifiable hatred towards her own sister. She was the one who must have distanced herself from her sister, for it was obvious she wished she could have been a witch too. It was obvious she wanted to have been able to experience everything alongside Hesperia's mother. Instead, she ended up tearing herself away from her sister and destroying their sisterhood.
"She came to me when she was pregnant, you know? She wanted to have a better relationship, but she was making me look like the bad guy. I sent her away, good thing too, some maniac wizard was going after those freaks. I could have put my Dudley into harm's way, and I was not going to accept Lily back into my life until she apologized for all she had put me through. She ended up being killed by that maniac anyway, her and her husband. Then you got sent to me and I had to be the one to raise you and feed you. If only they hadn't used their weirdness on you then you would really know what you should be grateful for," Aunt Petunia ranted, her eyes seeming to have darkened even more. She was so lost in her anger, in a pettiness, that it was sad.
"So…I'm a witch. I'm really a witch, and I'll be able to go to the same school as my parents? I'll learn to be a good witch!" Hesperia whispered, not wanting to hear her aunt tell her she wasn't going. The woman pressed her lips together at the whispering, but she seemed to know there was no point in telling her she wasn't going because it was a lost cause.
"Yes, you will be able to go to that school. If I had my way, I wouldn't let you go, but seeing the address on that envelope lets me know they know more than I thought. We'll drop you off and then you can go get your supplies. Do not dare to speak of this in front of my child or let him see anything to do with your witchcraft. My child does not need to know of the disgusting blood in our family," Aunt Petunia decided, nodding her head a moment later as though to let Hesperia know she was pleased with what she had decided to tell me and how she acted during the whole situation.
Opening the kitchen door, Hesperia wasn't surprised when she saw that for once Dudley was in the living room. He was sitting in the chair that was closest to the kitchen door in hopes he would have been able to hear the conversation that was going between his cousin and his mother. Thankfully Aunt Petunia had mastered the art of gossip and was able to control the level of her volume. He was still as clueless about the envelope and its contents as before.
"Girl, go outside, and make sure to water the plants. We aren't supposed to be getting any rain for the rest of the week. There's a reason why we have the best front yard award on the street!" Uncle Vernon grunted from where he was sitting, his eyes were focused on the television screen in front of him. He was just giving her a random instruction so he could go and talk to Aunt Petunia most likely about Hogwarts and Hesperia being an actual witch.
"Yes, Uncle Vernon. Will do."
"Good, get on it."
Hesperia went out the front door and shut the door behind her.
She stayed still for a moment to make sure Dudley wouldn't get up from his spot and come lock the door so she would have to make her way around the house to the back kitchen door.
He always did this whenever the weather would be too hot or too cold, and she would somehow miraculously not be as affected by the temperature when the door was unlocked. She'd be brought into the house, and she would have normal temperature, which honestly freaked Dudley enough he didn't do it that often anymore. He could only deal with his freaky cousin for so long.
Heading around the side of the house, Hesperia went over to where the small garden shed was. She opened the door and pulled out the watering can before going over to where the faucet was to the hose. She turned on the water and poured the right amount into the watering can before turning off the water. She went back around to the front yard.
Crouching down in front of the flowers, Hesperia hummed softly as she began to water the flowers she adored. Her aunt and uncle thought making her do the landscaping for the house would be a form of punishment for her. Instead, she enjoyed the texture of the soil under her nail beds. She enjoyed wearing the floppy hats on her head and took pride in her gardening work.
As she focused her attention on the simple task of gardening, Hesperia did not know she would soon start her pathway to becoming a priestess for Mother Morgana.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: here's the first chapter of 'The Song of the Priestess'. Let me know what you thought. By the way, originally, I thought of Theo being her lover but what about Draco? Which of the two do you like better? I know it says Theo in the tags and summary but there's still plenty of time to change it. :)
as always: Harry Potter doesn't belong to me.
-it'semmynotemma