Gillian was walking down Magnolia Crescent on her way to the park close to her home. It was an unbearably hot summer day, and turning into an unbearably hot summer night, but this didn't bother her. Everything about the summer had been that way.
The air was dusty with dirt from the parched and dying grass, causing her to cough painfully to clear her throat of the grime. She saw some people look out of their windows at her. She smiled. How sick she must seem, so skinny, coughing and pale. The neighbors weren't fond of Gillian, and she didn't attempt to change that in any way. She wore mostly black, often loose fitting clothes, and seemed to disappear inside of them.
As she turned the corner to the park, she saw that somebody was already there on the swings. Normally, this wouldn't have bothered her; there was still the merry-go round, which she liked to sit on and spin to stop thinking about the present and this disappointing world. But this wasn't just anybody sitting at the park. She hurried back around the corner again, and hoped he hadn't noticed her. The someone sitting there was a tall, black-haired, bespectacled boy. The Potter boy.
She peaked around the corner again, intrigued that she was so close to him. He was said to be big trouble, although nobody actually knew anything about him except that up until he was eleven years old he had been in normal school. Afterwards, however, he was sent off to some special school for delinquents during the normal school year. She had gone to school with him up until he left. She remembered that he was quiet, often distracted in class, and got into trouble for all sorts of weird things.
She also remembered his cousin Dudley. He was one of Piers' friends, and the meanest of them, as far as she could tell when she saw their gang at it. She almost felt sorry for Harry for a moment, since anybody growing up with Dudley and that horribly mundane Dursley family probably didn't have a chance. But this feeling didn't last long: she remembered the story she had heard about his scar.
Rumor was that he got the thin scar cut down his forehead in a fight in grade school. Apparently, before they had ever had class together, he had instigated a fight with another student. Harry had attacked him on the school grounds, apparently beating him up until the kid had to be sent to a doctor for stitches. When a teacher came over to see what had happened, Harry apparently ran, hiding on the school rooftop. When he was told to get down, he smiled and jumped down a whole story, deliberately, cutting his head when he landed.
She had grown up with someone almost as terrible as Dudley. Piers was no cup of tea. And thus far, she hadn't attacked anybody or jumped from high buildings to hurt those around her. Gillian’s pity for the boy passed.
She turned back around the corner and made her way up Magnolia Crescent again. She was sort of upset that she had to head home, especially when she saw Pier's gang stop at the crossing in front of her, and say their goodbyes. Piers started walking towards her.
"Hiya, Gillian," he said, in a voice that was bound to start trouble.
She wasn't in the mood. She swept her hair back, behind her shoulders, looked up at the sky, and quickly doubled back towards the park.
"Mum and Dad are going to be mad at you if you're late again!" called Piers, but she kept walking towards the only place she could. Even facing Harry Potter was better than letting Piers try to get to her.
Heading back towards Wisteria Walk, she was relieved to see that the park was empty now. She took a seat on the last unbroken swing and stared at the ground, with an expression that said, as she looked at the dirt, 'This is as good as it gets'.
But as Gill contemplated the waves of self-pity and woe that washed over her, she was jerked awake by very loud, very inappropriate screams. After all, it was almost 9:00! She jumped up. The screams didn't sound angry. They sounded scared. She began running toward Wisteria Walk, to help whoever was screaming, not quite aware that a skinny 15-year-old girl wouldn't be much help against whatever it was.
Suddenly, as the yells drew near, a terrible dark washed over her accompanied by a dreadful cold and a sick unhappiness the likes of which she had never felt, in all her glum. With all her strength, she continued forward, desperate to help. She could sense something around her. A presence…an eerie, unshakeable presence, and a sound like a death rattle, as she became colder and colder. Gillian shivered and lurched to her knees, suddenly vomiting in the street. There was a tempted pause in the presence, and she felt as though she could feel something standing over her, although she couldn’t stand to look up. She was relieved when the feeling suddenly dulled, fading away. But she was seized with fear again when she felt the invisible beast move towards…towards what? Two figures in the dark. One of them was standing, clutching something in its hand, and the other was behind it a bit, closer to her, cowering. Suddenly, she heard the standing figure say something, something she couldn’t understand, and a silvery, misty sort of light appeared in front of him, lighting up his face. He did it again and again. But whatever he was trying to do, it didn't help. With the last of her strength, Gillian crawled into an alley between two homes not far off. And, there, she fainted.
In Muggle World by Daedalus Plum
Chapter Notes: Everybody, please welcome and thank my beta reader GryffGoddess for her help! With her by my side, I'm sure that Gillian's sotry will really take off.
If you are looking for your own accredited beta reader, check out www.perfectimagination.co.uk