The Tale of a Fiery-tempered Witch

Chapter One

“Ugh,” I groaned as the sound of the headmistress waking me up early in the morning was annoying as heck.

“Wake up, you horrible little girl!” She yelled once more as I glared at her and got up.
“What is it now?” I asked, holding my head from the headache she gave me from waking me up so early. I hated mornings as well as early risers. Oh, how much I hate that devil of a headmistress.

“Mr. Snape came and asked for you. Hurry and get your lazy bum off this bed and get ready,” she ordered as I rolled my eyes at her.

“If you don’t leave, how will I get ready,” I retorted as she gave me a snide remark before she left and closed my door. After she left, I lied back to my bed and slept again.

It was a few hours later that I woke up again and stretched myself. Sleep was pure bliss to me. It’s a bit weird that headmistress didn’t go crazy on me and then wondered if that ‘Grudge’ guy was still here. Shaking the thought, I started to change my clothes. It was until I heard the door creak open that I forgot to lock it. Thinking that it was the headmistress, I continued dressing myself until I looked up to see a horrified ‘Grudge’. If eyes could bulge like in the cartoons, my eyes would be like that. And within an instant, I did what my common sense told me. Close the door and yell! I didn’t even care if he wasn’t out yet, I still closed the door on him and hearing an obviously painful ‘thump’ made me even less care.

“How dare you go into another girl’s room without knocking!” I yelled while he struggled to get out. “Get out!”

“If you… don’t… stop closing… the door… on me… I could… leave,” He told me through intakes of the many times I slammed the door on him. I was still fumed and continued to slam the door a few more times until I heard some commotion. I stopped slamming the door on him, enough for him to escape and immediately slammed the door one more time with a big bang and locked it.

“Don’t you ever come into my room again!” I yelled one more time and then continued to dress myself. “What bad luck I have!”

After trying to calm down, I opened the door one more time and took a peek. When I saw the ‘Grudge’ near my door, I scowled at him as he did the same to me.

“What do you want?!” I yelled to his face, still angry at him from what just happened.

“Have you forgotten?” He asked and sighed then continued, “I’m supposed to go with you to buy your supplies for Hogwarts.” I rolled my eyes as we walked downstairs together.

“Your headmistress told me we can leave immediately without telling her. She’s busy taking care of other kids.” He spoke once more as I stayed silent.

I looked over at him and saw that he was holding his arm and then looked away.

“It wasn’t my fault he was hurt. He was the one that suddenly came into my room without knocking. Ugh, I’m still furious with that ‘Grudge’ for doing that,” I thought with as much rage as possible that I could muster.

“It was not my fault that you did not lock your door,” he suddenly said. I glared at him and stepped on his foot. He scowled and looked down at me.

“You wretched little…” The Grudge started but I kicked him in the groin.

“That’s payback for peeking on me,” I spat.

“I have no liking to a girl like you as well as there is nothing much to look at,” he said, without any hesitation or embarrassment. How dare he!

“How dare you!” I stopped my tracks and looked up at him straight in the eyes.

“I have no interest in such girls like you, mind you being younger than me by twenty-four years,” he said so calmly.

“You’re no good either,” I muttered under my breath. He seemed not to mind my words as we went outside together. “So how we gonna get to that place? Car, bus, train, or what?” I asked.

He suddenly took my hand as then a strange sensation went through my body, and it wasn’t even in a good way. My body felt like the weight of the world just squished my body down, yet I felt airy at the same time. Ugh, how much I felt like puking.

“We’re here,” I faintly heard the ‘Grudge’ say. I looked up at him and scowled.

“What was that?” I tried not to yell, afraid if I did I would puke.

“I apparated us to Diagon Alley,” he answered as I looked at him questioningly.

“Apparate? You mean transporting?” I asked as he scowled.

“I don’t have time for your idiotic questions. We’re just here to get your things and then I’ll take you back to that home of yours,” he answered as I froze when he said ‘home’. I had no home and the orphanage wasn’t a home. It’s just a building for unwanted kids like me. Yeah, I have no home, and the word ‘home’ doesn’t exist in my dictionary. None at all.

“What’s wrong with you? Let’s go. You’ve wasted my time enough as is,” he told me as I rolled my eyes and walked beside him. I looked around to see people dressed in Halloween costumes, not that much to say actually. I saw kids gawking at brooms and such that sometimes I wonder if they’re sane. This kind of reminds me of that movie “Halloweentown” except there were no pretty goblins and such.

“We’ll get your robes, books, and such first before we get your wand,” ‘Grudge’ told me as I nodded, not caring. The word ‘home’ was in my blasted mind that I couldn’t really see what was surrounding me. It was until I bumped into the ‘Grudge’ that I found myself staring at his black beaded eyes. Something about his eyes looked… so familiar, as if, I knew it from somewhere.

“Are you going in or not,” asked the impatient ‘Grudge’. I shrugged the feeling away and scowled.

“All right! Don’t let your buns get all heat up,” I told him and entered the shop.
I heard him mutter something but didn’t really care what he said. I looked around but nothing interested me, so I waited for the ‘Grudge’ to instruct me on what to do. A lady suddenly popped up from the back of a kid that was around my age.

“Oh hello, I’ll be right there after I finish with this one,” The elderly woman told me as I nodded and tried to find a place to sit.

“Since it will take a while and I want to get these errands over with, I’ll get your books and such. Stay right here until I get back,” the ‘Grudge’ told me as I nodded, not really caring.
The lady was taking her time; and after a long while, it was my turn. She told me to come over and tried to strike a conversation with me.

“I’m Madam Malkin, nice to meet you, dear. Now if you please, can you stand on top of that stand there,” She ordered nicely as I nodded. “Hm… is this your first time here?” I nodded.

The woman kept on jabbering on and on that I had to clench my teeth in order to hold my tongue. I had other things in my mind and irritation is the last thing I need. After a while, she finally stopped talking and concentrated on measuring me and making sure my robes fit. Feeling my mind starting to ease, the door to the shop opened and the ‘Grudge’ came in with a handful of books and other materials. My brows furrowed at how much I had to carry when I get back to the orphanage and the thought of those dastardly kids and that headmistress would do to them.

“Here’s most of the stuff you need,” the ‘Grudge’ told me as I frowned.
“I’m carrying all of that?” I asked as he gave me the ‘what-do-you-think’ look. I sighed and rolled my eyes.

“Well, you’re done,” the woman said joyously as I just nodded at her.

I jumped off the stand and came towards him and brought my hands out to carry them. The ‘Grudge’ then gave me the look of ‘what-are-you-doing’ as I rolled my eyes and pointed at the books. He smirked and as he dropped the books on my arms. The heaviness of the books almost made me fall forwards.

“What are these? Bricks?” I snarled.

“You wanted to carry them, did you not?” He asked smugly. I glared at him and just started walking out the shop.

“Where to next?” I asked, wanting to get this over with.

“Ollivander’s to the left,” he answered as I tried to walk with the books at hand. I tried to glare daggers at the ‘Grudge’ but my neck started to hurt when I turned.

“Is the school paying for this?” I asked as he stopped his tracks.

“It’s coming from your headmaster’s pocket. Seems he cares a lot for his students,” he told me as I frowned.

Caring? Was there such a thing? I didn’t think much of it as I shook that thought away. We walked for a while as I forgot about my arms aching from carrying the books and such.
“What’s… Hogwarts like?” I asked as I was rather curious. School… I never went to school, and I wondered what it would be like.

“You’ll know when you get there,” the ‘Grudge’ answered as I sighed, getting annoyed by his obvious snooty attitude.

Suddenly, he took the books right out of my arms. And of course, I looked at him curiously and found out why. In front of Ollivander’s, there stood ‘Gandalf’ standing in front of the shop and waving merrily at us. After that, I was sure the ‘Grudge’ was a butt-kisser. ‘Gandalf’ started towards us and greeted me in such a happy tone. I was rather freaked out by it; but nonetheless, I nodded at him and greeted back.

“Did you wait for us here, Dumbledore?” The ‘Grudge’ asked as ‘Gandalf’ smiled. Does he ever stop being jolly?

“Not that long actually. I came to get ice cream earlier, but I think I came a bit too early, didn’t I?” He answered.

“Can I just get what I need to get here?” I asked as the two men looked at me.

“But of course, dear. We’ll wait for you out here,” said ‘Gandalf’.

“We?” The ‘Grudge’ questioned, noticing that it wasn’t just him that had to wait for me to finish whatever I was to do in the wand shop.

“Yes, of course. I was thinking to take Miss Scarvings to get some ice cream. Kids do love sweets…”

I zoned off after that and just left to the shop. When I entered the shop, the door’s bell jingled. I looked around to see that the place was cramped and what used up all the space were the boxes. I walked over to counter and was about to ring the bell until a creepy old man suddenly came out of nowhere.

“What the hell?!” I yelled, feeling my heart beat fast.

“Please mind your words, young lady,” the creepy old man told me as I glared.
“Words shouldn’t be minded if they are true,” I retorted.

The man eyed me a bit and sighed. He looked up and down at me, which made me feel quite violated in some way. And without a word, he left and disappeared in the back full of boxes. I didn’t know what to do, so I sat on a very dusty and rundown chair. Hopefully, it wouldn’t break. With only a few seconds of sitting, the creeper came back with a box. He looked over at me and signaled me to come over, and I did.

“Try this one,” he told me as I looked at him questioningly and held it. He looked at me and waited for me to do something. For a few seconds, he finally spoke up, “Just lightly flick the wand, please.”

I did but then it made a whirlwind-like slash. My eyes widened at what just happened and then looked over to the old man. He shook his head and thought for a bit. Meanwhile, I put the wand back in the box. I didn’t want to kill myself with it. And a few seconds later, his eyes lit up and disappeared once again. Darn it, these magical people scare the hell out of me.