Spring Break 2019

Katrina had never asked for any of this. The things that had happened to her should never happen to a barely 11 year old. The pain and hurt wouldn't just last right now, it would haunt her for the rest of her life. Tragedy, suffering, agony, mourning, these were all words that had meant nothing to the Gryffindor only two weeks prior.

Yet, here she stood in her new simple black dress. It had long silk sleeves and a high collar. There was nothing interesting or special about this dress. On the lioness' feet was a brand new pair of simple black flats. Her entire outfit was brand new because no 11 year old should own a black funeral outfit.

Katrina had received a letter two weeks ago. This was the first time anyone had sent her anything. The letter had been dropped along with hundreds of others. There may have been a few letters bearing bad news that day, but Katrina's would be the only one with tragic news, the only one with life changing news.

Dear Miss Katrina Walker,

I am the terrible bearer of news. I have just been informed that there was a fire in your childhood home. Your brother Liam is missing, but there is no proof of his death. Your parents however, were found dead. We have arranged a funeral to take place during your spring break. You will stay with your Aunt. Sadly your Aunt will not be able to take care of you this summer. Therefore you will stay at Hogwarts for that time.

Sending condolences,

Anonymous

Katrina's parents were dead and her brother was missing.

"Kat, you can't hide forever," a snobby voice pierced Katrina's silent crying, "The funeral is in a few minutes, don't you want to greet your family?"

Katrina came out from the bathroom stall to see her red faced Aunt glaring at her. Aunt Macy hated Katrina, she though the young girl was a waste of space and hated that she ate so much. The entire week had been horrible. Katrina had spent the time alone in the dusky spare room drawing. Hour and hours of silent art, if she made any noise her Aunt would go off on how annoying she was and how she was such a spoiled brat.

"Kat, you must stop crying. You are wasting my fancy mascara," she whined. It wasn't fancy, it was the two dollar stuff that her Aunt had 'gifted' to her half used and mostly dried out. Katrina hadn't even known how to put the black goo on so it had been lopsided and a mess. But her tears had caused it to run down her face.

Katrina walked up to the sink and wiped the streams of black from her face, the funeral hadn't even started and her eyes were already red and puffy. I am not going to cry any more. I will not cry at the funeral or ever again. That will be my testimony to my parents. With this vow ringing in the first year's ears, Katrina left the bathroom and her Aunt who was reapplying her makeup that she had bought from the money she had received from Katrina's parent's will. It was actually supposed to be Katrina's but in her Aunt's words 'you are too irresponsible'

The funeral was horrible. It began in a cemetery Katrina had never been to. A bored sounding person read a basic ology that took about five minutes and included almost nothing about her actual parents. Instead it was about how much the family would miss the monthly money that her parents provided so they could pay off their debts enough to stay out of jail. There was nothing left of her parents but ashes, and those were carelessly tossed into the wind at the end like morbid confetti dusting the tops of nearby gravestones of people whose families cared enough to buy a memorial of them.

Everyone traipsed off to other things, supposedly there would be a gathering after, more like a party from what Katrina had understood. A party to celebrate her parents death. But this was not in a respectful way.

It was only as there was no one left in the graveyard when Katrina realized they had no intentions of coming back for her. They had already forgotten the child of the parents who had died. Katrina pushed back tears and followed the sounds of joyous yelps and idle chatter.

"What are we going to do with the child?"

"We could just give her to another family,"

"But who?"

"I don't know. Are there any orphanages?"

"I can't take her"

"Well I don't want the spoiled brat!"

"Me neither, her parents said she was a witch!"

"Like, evil magic and stuff?"

"Yeah! I heard that too!"

"No wonder why she is so scary, and she never talks!"

"She can stay at her witch school over the summer, right?"

"That's right!"

"Phew, I don't think any of us want to take care of that creep,"

Katrina stopped in horror. That was her family That was all she had left in the world. They hated her. They thought she was a spoiled brat. That thought she was an evil witch. They thought she was a creep. It was all the young girl could do to keep in her sobs, she had make a pact with herself that she would never cry.

The girl slinked past the group of horrible relatives and got in her Aunt's car. At least this way she wouldn't have to listen to them talk about her. Besides, they wouldn't leave her behind this way.

Katrina found her sketchbook and began drawing a picture. It was an intricate drawing of her parents smiling and waving. The memory that would never be. Instead, the last memory of her parents was their frightened faces as Katrina entered the Leaky Cauldron alone. They had been too scared to join her then, they never realized that there would be no time to make up for that.

Choking back the tears she had promised would never fall, Katrina drew and drew. "There she is!" A loud voice screamed from outside the car, her older cousin flung open the car door and snatched the sketchbook from her hands.

The whole family came over and flipped through her drawings.

"You were right she's definitely a witch! There is no way she could draw this good!"

"There's her magic witch school!" There was a loud ripping noise as her precious work of art was torn from her book and torn to pieces.

Katrina watched in quiet horror as each of her pieces was torn from her prized sketchbook and crumpled or stepped on. After several minutes of them ridiculing the only thing she was good at, they moved on to another topic, leaving the destroyed book on the ground.

Leaving the only thing she had left from her family, Katrina got out of the car. No one noticed as she left the graveyard behind. Katrina took with her 40 euros from her Aunt's wallet. Katrina took the bus back to King's Cross Station so she could return home. Not to her home, but to her school that was the only steady thing left in her life.

Katrina left behind everything. She left her dead parents, she left her brother, she left her family. She left any chance of a normal life. Everything would be different from now on. But at least she had herself. She hadn't changed. Or had she?