Summary: Clarice Johnson was just a normal teenage girl. One small mistake of hers changed her life. Through the troubles of love, Clarice got what she wanted, but it never lasted. This is for Challenge Five: Revenge by HermyRox12 of Ravenclaw House.
Waiting. Waiting for the end that came too late. Waiting for what seemed to be the only thing I ever knew. But now it is too late. I should have followed my heart, not my brain. I thought he would be nice, but he destroyed me. It all started when I was a fourth year at Hogwarts. I was just a normal Ravenclaw, biding my time studying for my quiz in Transfiguration the following day. Then he came along.
He being the man of my dreams. Slowly, he walked up to my table in the library. He asked me what my name was. I told him I was Clarice Johnson. There was a Hogsmeade trip that Saturday. Nervously, he asked me if I wanted to go with him. Of course I wanted to, but I was young then. My dorm-mate, Lucy, didn’t have her permission slip in and I promised to stay with her. I also had to study for my exams the Monday after. I told him that I couldn’t, I don’t know why. I was to excited too speak, so my mouth just blurted out the rejection.
The look on his face showed disappointment and embarrassment. I couldn’t believe I just said no to the boy that I’ve wanted for what seemed like forever. He walked away breathing hard, sadness in his eyes. I ran up to my dorm and cried. What had I just done? I couldn’t talk to him ever again.
I took that attitude with me all the way through seventh year. I had a few boyfriends since then to get my mind off of him. His eyes were just too gorgeous, though. He wouldn’t leave my mind. My brain kept saying to let him be; he doesn’t want me anymore, but my heart told me to go after him, tell him what I really felt. I listened to my brain, and we haven’t said a single word to each other since that day.
He was going out with Mandy Hamleton at the end of our seventh year. They looked cute together. I knew we would never have one another, that it was over, but I still wanted him.
Three years later I read an article in the Daily Prophet that nearly made me faint. He and Mandy were getting married. At first I was enraged by this news. How could Mandy steal my love, steal the boy I was destined to be with? No, the man I was destined to be with. How could she take my future and put it in the trash?
A snowy white owl came to my house the next day and dropped off a frilly white letter. It was an invitation to his and Mandy’s wedding. The invitation had a white lace border, a picture of the couple, an engraved bell, and a note that read:
You have been cordially invited to the wedding of Mandy J. Hamleton and Charles F. Potter. The wedding will be held on July 29, 1944 at 439 Kildred’s Lane, London. We hope you will be able to make it to this exciting day as we reach this milestone in our lives. Please send a reply with our owl. Hope to see you there!
Yours truly,
Mandy & Charles
Mandy and I had shared the same dorm, so I figured that is why I received the invite. I didn’t know if I would go or not. I could just imagine how hard it would be to see the one I loved be married like that. I was brought up to be polite, so I went. For Mandy and only Mandy.
Her wedding gown was lovely. It was white and had white roses along her waist and down the sides of her dress. Her veil fell nicely upon her dark, chocolate hair, and her eyes sparkled in the sunlight. As she walked down the aisle, I knew that I would never marry. I simply couldn’t love again, now that he was gone.
It was an outdoor wedding. The sky was free of all clouds and the sun shone brightly. The area where the wedding took place was shaded by a grove of trees. The birds chirped and tears filled the eyes of all those who came. Their tears were of joy, while mine were of regret. Regret that I wasn’t the one up there, getting married. Regret that I turned him down in my fourth year. Regret that I haven’t talked to him since that day.
It was all Mandy’s fault. She knew that I wanted him. She knew that my goal in school was to get the courage to ask him on a date. She knew all of this, yet she still went for him. She still married him and took him from me. She knew, and she still acted. She would pay.
I would make sure that they couldn’t survive together. She would not make it through this marriage.
Now, how could I do this? What would happen so that they couldn’t be together? Death is too extreme so that wouldn’t work. Maybe I could talk her out of being married to him. Yes, that would work. All I have to do now is see what she doesn’t like in men.
A year and a half passed and I had all my information. I talked to her sister, brother, and parents. I talked to her friends, teachers, and previous boyfriends. Then I owled her to arrange a time we could meet.
It turned out that Tuesday from the following week at noon was open for both of us. We ordered our lunches, and we started talking. I casually asked her about Charles. What she told me gave me a surprise.
It turned out that she hated it when he would whistle while he read something, or Apperated everywhere he went. The way he always bragged about his Quidditch skills really got on her nerves.
I was delighted at this information, but I didn’t show it. I added that he has a short temper when he is around people he knows well. He gets agitated at the smallest things, and silence kills him. It turned out that so far what I said was true. I went on with how horrible he was and she took all of it in.
She was near tears when I gave her a hug and quickly changed the subject. I told her that I wasn’t thinking about what I said, and that it probably wasn’t true. She assured me that it was and we went to talking about flowers. It happened that we both prefer snapdragons to tulips.
It took a few months after that before she cracked. It was all over town that she and Charles were not holding together very well. He and his family fought against Mandy and her family until they finally couldn’t stand each other. A divorce came within three years of the marriage.
I waited a year before I made my first move. We both worked in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement as a part of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad. I asked him if he would like to discuss the importance of the capturing of Antonin Dolohov during dinner at my place around seven. He politely accepted.
A seven that night, he came to my house. We discussed different ways to suggest to the Aurors to capture him, and how he compared to the other out laws. We discussed what he had done and if he really needed to go to Azkaban. The influence that he gave to the world was also discussed.
For dinner I served lasagna, cooked carrots, fruit salad, and corn bread. Those were his favorite foods. Mandy told me this because she hated eating them and that bugged her about being married to Charles.
The dinner turned out better than expected, and every week we would discuss our job during dinner at one of our homes. Tuesdays and Thursdays seemed to work out best for us. Two years after this pattern, he asked me on a real date.
We went to Quidditch games, went out to eat, and sometimes other things we could think of. Finally, on Valentines Day, he invited me to go to dinner with him at a surprise location. I Apparated to his door that night; we hopped on his broomstick and flew over the city. Five minutes after we were in the air, he told me that he had forgotten his money at home. We flew back to his small house, and I waited at the door. He told me to come in with him.
I came inside, and dinner was already planned. I laughed and we ate a filling meal of chicken soup. He knew I loved chicken soup. We talked about everything under the sun, and then he brought out dessert. It was a banana split with chocolate syrup smothering it. On top of the whipped cream was a bright red cherry. I was delightfully eating my banana split when I bit on something hard.
I decided that I wouldn’t eat his desserts anymore. How could you mess up ice cream?! I spit the hard part into my napkin, and saw what it was. He put a ring inside my ice cream! It wasn’t an ordinary ring, it was and engagement ring. I almost fell out of my chair.
He bent down on one knee and asked me the question of all questions. He asked me to marry him. I didn’t even have to think about this one. The answer was as obvious as when he first asked me out. This time, though, I wouldn’t mess up. I shouted yes and gave him a hug. I was so joyful I started crying.
We sent out wedding invitations a week later. We would be getting married on June 2, 1951. Our wedding was small. Only friends and family were invited.
We were on our way to the wedding when the most tragic thing happened. He had caught Dolohov a month before our wedding. Dolohov was being escorted to Azkaban when he broke free on his way. Dolohov tracked Charles down. They had a duel in Charles front yard, and Charles lost. Charles only enforced the law; he wasn’t an Auror. He called the Aurors to the scene, but he got the credit for finding him. Charles put up a huge fight, but lost.
The battle was so close. Charles was too proud to use an Unforgivable Curse, so he used many defenses, rather than curses. The worst curse of them all finished him off. Jets of different colored lights could be seen every way you turned. I was hidden inside, so the only two who got the bad end of a spell was the duelers. I would have helped, but Charles insisted that I stay out of harm’s way.
I went home and cried. Nobody saw me for a month or two. I was back to where I started.
Waiting. Waiting for the end that came too late. Waiting for what seemed to be the only thing I ever knew. But now it is too late. I should have followed my heart, not my brain. I thought he would be nice, but he destroyed me. He took my life, and gave it endless misery.