Anadil's Gift
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| xxx | A day before Lottie’s birthday, she received an owl. It was a gray day, much like every other day in November. Basked in a shroud of pale sunlight and gazing dazedly out the tall windows like a spectating doe, Lottie ignored her breakfast in favor of thinking. She did this often, throwing away tasks in favor of retracting into her mind and wandering for a bit. She thought about school, her upcoming test in Charms, her sister’s failing grades, her brother’s mysterious comings and goings. Her birthday was a bit of an afterthought, slotted starkly between images of her last Quidditch match and the upcoming winter break. When her birthday finally appeared in the pool of fleeting thoughts, it took over, spreading into her mind like a drop of ink in water. She would be fourteen this year, nearly muggle driving age and even closer to the agreed-upon age of adulthood. It felt too sudden, like just yesterday she had bridged the gap between preteen and teenager, and now she was suddenly another year closer to the end of childhood altogether. She could be such a drama queen when she was thinking. Her thoughts were a split second away from spiraling out of control when she was interrupted by a heavy brown package hitting the table in front of her. Pulling it close, she looked up in search of the source. There were far too many owls to track just one down, swirling through the Great Hall like cicadas in the summertime. Scrunching her brows, Lottie’s eyes drifted back to the package in front of her. A card was taped neatly onto the side, cream-colored and stained with a faded ring of coffee. Lottie tore it off, flipping it open. Inside, it read, “Lovely Lottie, please get a hobby.” This was at once clarifying and confusing for Lottie. At the very least, she knew who had sent this. Only one person called her Lovely Lottie, and she was currently traveling the world with her theatre troupe. Anadil Winfield had never been known for her subtlety. The message was a bit unclear, though. Curiosity eating away at her, Lottie finally gave in and flipped the package over, tearing softly at the paper to reveal a small brown box tied shut by a baby blue bow. She uncurled the bow slowly, allowing the flaps of the box to pop up. And inside, buried by an obscene amount of bubble wrap and tissue paper, was a camera. It was an old model, small and quaint, but it sent strange shivers down Lottie’s spine. She pulled it out with utmost care, cradling it in her palms like it was made of glass. All of her housemates who had been watching curiously went back to more interesting things, but Lottie was fixated on the tiny artifact in her hands. She peered through the viewfinder, admiring the way the entire room became summarized into such a small square. She didn’t even know how to use a proper camera. She had used magical cameras, charmed to do all sorts of things that seemed to make the task of taking a picture so much easier. But there was something about this camera, so raw and intricate and beautiful, that made Lottie strangely emotional. She recalled sitting on the lakeside a few weeks prior, watching the strange boy beside her draw a lovely pencil-sketch of the landscape, and feeling oddly jealous of this unique ability to capture the world in such a small box. She wanted it so badly she ached with it, to be able to see something and copy it. The product would not be as good as the real thing, but it would allow her to stop feeling as though the world was passing her by. And this small little present, clearly secondhand and old, was the perfect thing for that. Anadil had no way of knowing that Lottie had wanted this, as Lottie herself hadn't even known she wanted it. Still, it seemed Anadil could still read her mind from miles away. Lottie swelled with a profound love for her eldest sister as she clung to the small camera. Perhaps things were not as they once were, but perhaps that was okay. | xxx |
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Anadil's Gift |  |
| ✦"You better start walking. Love takes miles."✦ STA 8 │ EVA 8 │ STR 6 │ WIS 6 │ ARC 6 │ ACC 7 |