If This Isn't Love (Fred Weasley Sequel)

Wednesday, January 3

I didn't even bother to celebrate New Years Day with Mom.

How could I? I was too upset, and quite frankly, I do not believe that suddenly Hogwarts is so just so unsafe for me. Greengrass was hardly a threat, it was more of Umbridge and I can still handle her.

Why is Mom dragging me into this? I would've been fine staying at the Grimmauld Place all break if I had to.

The place itself is so dark and dreary for even someone like Professor Snape. How on Earth did Mom manage to obtain such obscenity like this?

The beds are creaky, the floors just barely intact. In other words, my Mom can afford better. And that's saying something.

I especially hate the wallpaper and colors. Green and black seem to be the theme for this house, and unreasonably so. When I think cottage, I think cute little beige house in the middle of a flowery patch of forest.

This has got to be the opposite. A dingy, sunless dwelling in the middle
of nowhere with hardly any flowers does not seem very ideal.

If we didn't know how to light candles, we wouldn't be able to see our hands in front of our faces. There's a small window in the front of the house in the kitchen, right above the countertop. It hardly lets in any light.

And I'm going to be living here for how long?

My owl, Toad, has been replaced with an unrecognizable one. My usual feathery black owl's doppelganger is a fat, hostile barn owl. Yuck.

"What happened to Toad?" I ask Mom when I'm not in a mood.

"Don't worry, dear, a friend of mine is taking great care of it at the house."

"Is this the same friend who's helping us arrest the Greengrass's?"

"Goodness, no," she says, chuckling. "If you must know, his name is Benjy Fenwick."

I ask her more about him but all she tells me is he nearly got blasted to death in 1981 and is so incapable of defense he's only used for house elf's work. She thought she was being kind to him by ordering him to watch after the owls.

What a menace. I stomp to my room after that to continue what I was doing before- organizing my clothes yet again.

When I get in the shower, I am still shocked at the icy water. Surely whoever lent Mom this house could afford some hot water?

Immediately after rinsing out my hair, I get out and cast a drying spell before I freeze to death.

I am not happy here.

Not even when I'm outside, peacefully reading on the porch.

I wish there was a town nearby. Maybe they'd sell books or other things for me to do. I also wish this was a better looking cottage so I could take pictures. That's not an option though.

At night, the room is so quiet I want to cast a "Confringo" spell on the wall to make a custom window. I'm sure even that would fit in to this house.

The bed creaks are annoying. Every time I get on it, off it, or when I move an inch.

"Nox." I'm ready to end this horrid day and go to sleep.

~~~~
In the morning, Mom asks me if I want any coffee and I decline. It's not good for my growth.

I ask myself what am I going to do today?

Oh, right. There's nothing to do. I am bored out. of. my. mind.

So when Mom announces she got me a few textbooks plus my old ones to practice my magic, I am overloaded with ecstasy. You have no idea how awful it's been without this.

If I can't go to Hogwarts, I might as well study hard anyway.

And that's what I do.

For weeks on end, I take out my textbooks and practice, but on a looser schedule. For one day, I'll practice DADA (real DADA), or maybe I'll feel like learning how to correctly feed a plant for Herbology or sometimes I'll want to cast more nonverbal spells.

I might as well focus on my combative magic for whatever's to come.

To be honest, I haven't practiced any real magic until I was 16. I'm 17 now and tons more powerful, but I've wasted my entire life.

It's time to learn how to be a proper witch.

~~~~
Published 5-15-20