Kathleen Riddle: Diary of A Witch
Chapter 7
Morning Glory
I woke up still sleepy. I was cozy and warm in the heap of sheets and comforters on the large bed. I looked over, and my little clock sat on my nightstand. It read eleven thirty in the morning; I slept very late indeed! I got up, and stretched. I looked around, making sure I wasn’t still dreaming, and found a cute little outfit on a chair near the window. A purple shirt, and a white eyelet skirt hung loosely on the back of the chair. I dressed quickly, and found my way to the portrait hallway.
“Good morning child!” Yelled the man. “Did you sleep well? You came through here early this morning in the arms of Lucius. You were fast asleep.” He laughed.
“Good morning! Yes I slept well, thank you.” I laughed too, picturing myself being carried down this narrow hall, and up four flights of stairs.
When I found my way into the little dinning room, everyone was sitting around the table and talking.
“Mum, can Crabbe and Goyle come over today?” Draco asked.
“If it’s alright with your father.” She looked at Lucius.
“I suppose. You three can teach Kathleen here how to ride a broom.” He said noticing me walk in.
“Good morning! Did you sleep well?” Narcissa asked.
“Yes, thank you.” I smiled at Draco. I couldn’t wait to ride a broomstick on my own!
Around noon, the two boys appeared with their fathers at the door. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle went towards the back of the house, and the men went into an office.
“Come on Kathleen,” Draco said with a smug smile. “ And we’ll teach you how to ride a broom.”
I followed, and he led us through the middle door. We walked through a living room, and a sunroom, and out double doors onto the back deck. Draco found his way to a shed in the far corner of the large yard, and opened the door. Four broomsticks were lined up against the wall. All but one was in excellent shape. Draco handed me the old one.
“Okay, first, you lay it on the ground, and say up!”
“UP!” I said firmly, and the broom shot into my hand.
“Good,” Draco mumbled. “Now get on, and kick off really hard.” Note that I had changed into jeans before we rode the broomsticks.
I swung my leg over, and fastened my grip on the stick. I then let out a deep breath and kicked hard off the ground. I soared into the air, and the wind whipped my hair back and forth. It was the most amazing feeling ever; I felt weightless, and free! I was having a jolly good time until my broom began to jerk, and tried to buck me off. I wouldn’t let go, and it shook even harder. Without warning, it began flipping and turning, rolling, and wildly jostling. Then, it took off. I flew in a straight line, leaving the manor far behind me. The wind burned my face, and I wanted to get down. The speed was to great, and I was up too high to jump. So, I held on.
I don’t know how long I flew, but the broom began to slow up, and descend. I saw a tall, slapped together house in a field, some way in front of me. It wasn’t until I reached the house that I realized that I was going to crash into their shed. I held on, and sure enough, I went through the wood, and everything around me crashed. I felt the heavy wood on my legs, and warm liquid on my arms. I was dizzy, and my arm hurt severely. I heard voices from the other side of the shed, and soon enough, they were tearing at the wood on top of me.
When the board above me was taken away, a red headed, freckled boy stared back at me. Then there were two! I was sure that I had hit my head. They got me completely uncovered, and a stout woman was standing there with her hand across her mouth. One boy picked me up and got me out of the mess.
“Oh dearie! Are you alright?!” The woman asked.
“Uh, I don’t know.” I gave a lurch when I tried moving my arm.
“Fred, bring her in the house. I think she’s broken her arm.
Fred, I’m guessing, carried me softly into the house. The other boy was quick on his heels. He carried me over to the couch, where a little girl was putting a pillow down. He placed me carefully on the sofa, and brushed the hair out of my face.
“That was some crash!” He said, sort of impressed.
“Yes, I dare say, your lucky to be alive!” said the other.
“What’s your name?” Fred asked.
“Kathleen Riddle.” I rubbed the back of my head where a bump had risen.
The woman walked back into the room with a bottle shaped like a human skeleton, and a cup.
“This is Skele-Gro, it’ll fix your broken arm. It will hurt, but it’s the only way.” The woman said as she poured me a glass of the liquid. As she poured, the substance smoked. She handed me the cup, and told me that I must drink it all. I tipped the cup to my lips and tasted the medicine. Of course, it was awful, and it burned my throat. I looked back up to her and she said,
“I’m sorry, dear.”
I drank the glass little by little, and my arm began to tingle into a flaming heat. It burned like fire, and felt like knives were stabbing into my arm. I finished the cup, without a tear, and gave a satisfied, “Humph” as she took back the glass.
“Good girl.” She said. “My name is Molly, and this,” she pointed to the boy perched on his knees beside me, “is Fred. Standing there is George. Ginny here is my only girl.” She put her arm around her. “I have four other sons, the youngest being Ron. He’ll be starting Hogwarts this year.”
“Me, too.” I mumbled politely.
“Right. Fred, go send an owl to your father. Tell him of our adventure, and to come home.” Fred got up, and walked out of the room.
I laid there on the sofa, and endured the pain. Ginny spoke to me a little, and George told me some stories of his and Fred’s adventures.
“One time, Freddy and I blew up that same shed you crashed into.” He laughed, obviously remembering the time.
“Oh, George, when are you and Fred not blowing something up?” Ginny asked also laughing.
She went on to tell me that frequent explosions could be heard from the twins’ bedroom. We sat there for a little while before Fred came back in the room, and sat back down beside me. He looked at me and smiled. He showed me a daisy he had picked and put it behind my ear. I smiled back at him, only to flinch at a stabbing pain from my arm. George pulled a blanket from the chair behind him and draped it over me. I thanked him, and we talked until I drifted off.
I woke up and the windows were black. I sat up too quickly, and a wrenching pain shot through my arm. I let out a groan, and Molly came in, a younger red head followed her, I supposed that he was Ron. Behind him was Lucius. I smiled a bit when I saw him, but he looked very unhappy. Whether he was unhappy with me, or with the predicament, I wasn’t sure. I felt tears coming to my eyes, and my throat tighten up. I was scared, and in pain, and Lucius was mad at me.
“How are you feeling, dearie?” Molly asked in a soft, motherly voice.
“I’m, uh,” Lucius was giving me a look that I was perfectly fine. “I’m alright now.” I lied. It seemed that Lucius just wanted to leave.
“Well, come one then, and we’ll go.” Lucius said, confirming my assumptions.
“Well, alright. Her arm is broken though, you’ll have to walk her home.” Molly said, obviously not believing a word I had said.
Just then, a taller red headed man walked in. I guessed that he was the man of the house. He came in and smiled at me, then asked to have a word with Lucius outside. Molly gave the red headed man a disapproving look, but he just shot a “Give it a chance” sort of look. Molly, turned back to me and began checking my arm over as the men closed the door behind them.
“Is that your husband?” I asked.
“Yes,” Molly said, giving a girlish smile. “That’s Arthur.”
“So, are you excited about starting school?” She asked. At this, Ron sat up in the chair he was sitting in. I looked to him, and smiled.
“I’m not sure. I don’t know anything about it.” I knew that when I said this, that Ron would be introduced into the conversation.
“Well, Ron can tell you all about it. His brothers have told him everything he’ll need to know.” Molly said, looking to her son. “Ron, tell her.”
“Well,” He got up, and moved neared to me. “Hogwarts is somewhere deep in the mountains, and it looks like a castle. There are four houses, and a sorting hat tells you where you’ll stay. Everyone in my family has been in Gryffindor, it’s sort of a tradition.” He smiled quickly and went on. “The other houses are Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. No one really cares for Slytherin though.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Well, “ Molly eyed Ron carefully, and I saw Ron rethink the way he said what he really thought about the Slytherins. “Some of the students sorted into that house tend to be a bit,” there was the look again, “rude.” He had obviously passed the test, because molly took her glare off of him. “Anyway,” He continued, “the houses have a competition every year. They play matches of Quidditch against one another.”
I went on to ask him what on earth Quidditch was, but before he got around to explaining what the seven players did with the four balls of which I had already forgotten their names, Lucius and Arthur came back in. Arthur had a fantastic grin on his face, and Lucius just looked beaten, and ready to go home.
“Lucius has agreed to let Kathleen stay the night, due to the fact that her arm is broken, and not yet fully healed.” By this time, the twins, Ginny, and another boy that looked a lot his father, were standing in the doorway that Molly so frequently came from. They all gave a happy, expectant, jeer. I saw that they were unsurprised, and this was very much planned. They calmed down as their father went on, “That is, if she wants to.” Now all eyes were on me, and I was overwhelmed with the sudden attention. As I saw they still awaited an answer, I said,
“Oh, right, uh, yes, yes I’ll stay.” The children gave a jeer again, and everyone was smiling, but Lucius. He walked over to me and knelt down.
“If you want to come home, just send me an owl. I’ll come for you around noon tomorrow. Sleep tight.” He smiled weakly at me and walked out the door. I felt terrible that he didn’t event thank them for keeping me. So I thanked them instead.
“Thank you Molly, Arthur. I really do appreciate this.” I smiled at them as I spoke.
“Oh goodness,” Molly said waving it away. “It’s our pleasure. We quite enjoy having guests.” At this, she walked to the doorway where everyone stood. The boy I hadn’t met yet came and sat down beside me.
“I’m Percy Weasley, one of seven. I’m the eldest that lives at home. The other two both have jobs now. Bill’s the eldest. He works for Gringotts, the wizarding bank, and Charlie, oh Charlie, he’s a dragon tamer.” I was impressed by the jobs at which they had acquired. Percy went on telling me what he wanted to do when he got out of Hogwarts, but was interrupted by the twins making fun of him for wanting to work in a cubical for the rest of his life.
“Working for the ministry has its perks you know.” Percy said indignantly to the twins.
“Yeah, and you do the same old thing every single day. Such a bore, if you ask me.” Fred said back to Percy.
“Agreed,” George nodded his head. “I’d rather be my own boss rather than work for some one who thinks their jobs makes them better than the rest of us. Plus, we’d get fired the first day; we’d pull a prank, and they’d get rid of us.” George and Fred laughed a while, and then blended into the living room with Ginny. Ron came over to me and we spoke of Hogwarts, and the houses.
“I hear that Harry Potter will be going to Hogwarts this year.” Ron said in a sort of awe.
“Harry wh-“ I was cut of when Molly came in to announce dinner was ready. I hadn’t realized I was so hungry until I smelt her wonderful cooking. I ate like I had never eaten before. Before long, I was stuffed full, and very sleepy. I walked sheepishly into the living room, and laid down on the sofa.
“Oh no dear, Percy is sleeping there. You’ll be sleeping in his bed.”
“Oh, no, Molly that’s fine! I can sleep here! I wouldn’t want to take Percy’s bed.” I said.
“Kathleen, I don’t mind a bit!” Percy said. He came over and put an arm around me and said, “Ginny’s going to loan you some pajamas, and your going to sleep in my bed.” When he smiled, his mouth didn’t touch his ears like Fred’s did, but more polite and modest, like Molly’s. “Now,” he said. “Let’s get you upstairs.”
“Perc, carry her, those stairs will make her sick if she try’s climbing them herself.” Molly said with a little smile on her face.
I looked at Percy and blushed. I felt like a princess. I wrapped my good arm around is neck, and he bent down to sweep my feet up. When he had a good hold on me, he started for the stairs. Molly was right; the stairs would’ve made me sick. They weren’t like the stairs back at the manor. They turned this way, and that. It was like they had followed a snake up the stairs when they built the house.
Percy turned into a room on the second floor. It was decorated neatly with scarlet and gold bannering, and bed linen. The word, “GRYFFINDOR” was written in scarlet on the wall above the bed. Percy was obviously a very neat, and organized person. I could see him working in a cubical. He put me back on my feet, and left the room so I could change into the purple pajamas that Ginny had loaned me. I looked more closely to the room now. A dark truck sat at the foot of the queen-sized bed. It had Percy written on it in black cursive. I guessed he used that for his clothes when he was a t Hogwarts. I looked out the window, and saw a beautiful field. The moon was full, and there was a very large owl flying towards the house. I suppose it spotted me, because it then proceeded to fly straight to the window. I shoved the window open, and in flew a very old looking owl. He landed, more like flopped, on the floor. Percy knocked asking if I was okay, and I told him to come in. When he saw the owl on the floor, he just laughed.
“This is Errol. He’s ancient, as you can see.” Percy said as he picked Errol up off the floor.
“He looks like a feather duster!” I exclaimed, laughing.
We laughed so hard at the sight of the great grey bird that we were left helplessly out of breath on the floor. Percy, who had laughed harder than I, sat there with his head in his hand looking at me.
“What are you looking at?” I teased.
“How the bloody hell did you crash into our broomstick shed?”
This sent us into another fit of laughter, and didn’t end until Fred came in to see what was so funny. He laughed too as we spit out what was so funny. As soon as we had caught our breath, again, Fred helped me up, and ignored Percy’s hand when he reached out to him. I sat on the bed, and looked over to Fred as he sat down next to me.
“How you feelin’ Kat?” He asked me.
“Alright, Freddy,” I replied, smiling. “How you feelin’?”
“Pretty sleepy. Here, get in and we’ll tuck you in. You’ve had a long day.”
I got between the sheets, and Fred threw the covers over my face. I laughed as he pulled them back to where he could see me. Percy was walking out the door.
“Night, Kathleen.” He said, and he was gone.
Fred leaned down, and kissed my forehead. “Good-night. If you need anything, I’m just up the hall there.” He pointed out the door and towards the left wall. “Night.”
I sat there in the dark, listening to Fred’s footsteps up the hall, and the owl softly snoring. I pondered over Percy’s question. How did I manage to crash into they’re broomstick shed? That would have to wait, because sleep finally decided to slap me in the face.