Another Year at Hogwarts

I sat at the dinner table playing with the food on my plate. Around me, I could hear the hazed sound of my parents and sister talking. Even though hours had passed since I read that article about Tom and Jade, I still felt completely depressed.

“Violet?” Mother’s voice rang.

My head snapped up and I stared up at my mom.

“Are you okay honey? You haven’t even touched your food,” Mom said as she glanced down at my plate.

“Um…yeah,” I weakly answered. “I—I’m just not that hungry.”

“But you haven’t been eating anything for the past few days,” my dad commented from the other end of the table.

“I’m fine,” I repeated. Before the two of them could say anything else, I quickly changed the subject. “So, what’s the surprise Aunt Helena has for us?”

The word ‘surprise’ quickly caught Karen’s attention and she immediately stopped eating to look up. She, like myself, loved Aunt Helena’s surprises. “Surprise?” Karen repeated. “What surprise?”

Mom let out a heavy sigh before looking to Dad. “Well, we might as well tell them,” she said with a small smile.

“Well,” Dad began, “your Aunt Helena knew that we weren’t doing anything this summer, so she bought us four tickets to visit her in England!”

“What?” I gasped with widened eyes.

“OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!” Karen squealed as she jumped out of her seat. She began bouncing around the room screaming with excitement while my parents watched and laughed. “OH MY GOD! WE’RE GOING TO ENGLAND!”

“Yep, we’re heading there this weekend,” Dad smiled.

“Oh my God, oh my God! I—what am I doing? I—I have to go pack. I have to pack everything!” Karen said frantically. Suddenly, her green eyes widened even more as she turned to me and slowly said, “This is where Harry Potter was film! What if we meet Draco Malfoy?”

I winced at the sound of his name.

“Oh, I would die if I met him. He’s so cute!” Karen squealed.

“His name’s not Dra—“ I stopped. “H—his name is Tom Felton. And besides, they’re not real. They’re just fictional characters from a book,” I pointed out.

My mom laughed. “Be careful what you say about Draco around Violet, Karen. She used to have a huge crush on him.”

“Well,” said Karen while placing her hands on her hip, “I call him then!”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “You can’t call him! He’s not an object that you can put your name on and claim. Besides, he’s a total a—” I quickly stopped before the swear word came out of my mouth. I quickly recollected myself and said, “He’s a git.”

Karen scrunched her eyebrows together and stared at me. “He’s a what? A git? What’s that?”

“It means he’s an unlikable person,” I replied.

“Well,” smiled Karen, “he can’t be a ‘git’ because I like him.”

“Okay girls, calm down,” my dad laughed. “You two shouldn’t be fighting over a boy. But anyways, after dinner, you two should go pack some things—”

“I don’t want to go,” I interrupted.

The dining room fell silent and everyone looked at me.

“Honey,” Mom said as she reached out and cupped my hand. “What are you saying? You’ve always wanted to travel to England. Not to mention, you’ll see your Aunt Helena, and you love seeing her!”

“Yeah, and with that new found accent of yours, you’ll fit right in!” Dad joked.

“I don’t want to go to England,” I said firmly while looking Mom in the eyes. “Can’t I just stay home?”

“No,” responded Dad.

“And why not?” I questioned while turning to face him. “Are you scared that something’s going to happen to me again? Are you scared that I’m not responsible enough to take care of myself while you guys are gone?”

“Yes, I am,” Dad replied. “Just look what happened to you last summer, Violet.”

“That wasn’t my fault.”

“I’m not saying that it was! All I’m saying is that I would feel better know that you were with us. I don’t want anything to happen to you again, Violet. Not to mention, we’d be in a different country. If anything were to happen to you, your mother and I—” Dad stared across the table at Mom. He swallowed hard before continuing. “Your mother and I don’t want to go through this again.”

I looked back and forth at my parents unsure of what to say. I knew they’re worried about me, but I also knew that I did not want to go to England.

“Can’t we go somewhere else?” I asked. “Anywhere—we can go anywhere in the world. I just—I just don’t want to go to England.”

“Why?” Karen pondered.

I stared back blankly at Karen. From the corner of my eyes, I could see my parents staring at me as well, waiting for an answer. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a logical reason to give.

“I just don’t,” I said while rising out of my chair. I then left the room.

I was lying in my bed when I heard a knock at my door. I placed my book down and stared at the door as my mother came walking in.

“Hey, did I wake you?” she asked as she came and sat down.

I shook my head. “No, I was just reading. What’s up?” I asked while sitting up.

Mom looked down at her hands, and I noticed her playing with her fingers. She tends to do that before having a serious conversation.

“Violet,” she began, “are you—are you anorexic?”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Um…no,” I replied.

“Then are you suffering from depression?” Mom asked while looking up at me.

I smile weakly. “Um…is this a joke?”

“I’m serious, Violet,” Mom said. “It’s okay if you are. But if you are depressed, you have to tell me or your father. We can get you help!”

“I’m not depressed!” I exclaimed. “I don’t have an eat disorder either.”

“Then what’s wrong with you?” Mom exclaimed. As I looked into her eyes, I could see tears beginning to form. “You haven’t been yourself lately. And I know that the crash you had last summer has had an effect on you, but I don’t understand why it has effected you this much!” She reached out and held onto my hand. “Please, just tell me what’s wrong.”

I stared back at Mom with my jaw tightly clenched together. With all my might, I did my best to hold in my tears. I wanted to tell her. I wanted to tell her everything that happened, but I knew I couldn’t. She already thought I had some sort of eating or mood disorder. If I told her I fell through some Universal Portal and ended up in Harry Potter’s wizardry world, she would think I was crazy!

However, I knew I had to say something to please her.

“I—I’m scared,” I stuttered. Mother immediately straightened up as I said this.

“What are you scared of?” she asked.

“I—I’m scared that something’s going to happen again,” I said. “It’s stupid, I know. But because of what happened to my parents…” I trailed off and lowered my gaze.

“Oh, honey,” Mom said as she reached out and pulled me into an embrace. “Is that why you’re so reluctant to go to London? Because we’re going to have to fly there?”

Though that wasn’t the main reason, it was partially true. Because of how my real parents passed away, I guess that was why I was so afraid of heights, so afraid of flying. It reminded me of my parents, and the chance of dying the same way they had scared me.

“But you know,” Mom said as she pulled away from me, “you’re going to be all right.” A small smile was on her face as she wiped away a tear that had unknowingly slipped from my eyes. “I understand that what happened with your parents was a tragedy. But you have to remember that what happened in the past is in the past. History will not repeat itself.”

With those last words, Mom kissed me on the forehead and headed out of my room. Before she closed the door, though, she stopped and turned back to me. “I’ll talk to your father about you not going to London is that’s what you really want. But just remember Violet: You are stronger than this. You can’t let what happened in the past control the rest of your life.”

With that, Mother closed the door.