The Imperius Flower

Outside the house that the Evanses owned, the sky was grey and dull. Soft pearly clouds flitted across the sun that ached to get through.

Lily Evans sat in her bedroom, on the slightly crumpled bedspread that lined her bed, with soft riveted tears trickling down her fair cheeks. The letter slipped from between her fingers and glided to the floor, swaying in the slight breeze that came from her open window. It settled at last by her desk, on which lay various items and letters. Suddenly she let out a loud shriek and flung herself back on the bed, narrowly missing the wall and settling among the ruffled sheets. She lay with the tears drying in salty cracks on her soft skin, dehydrating it and giving a rough texture. The salt crystals on her cheeks broke apart as she deeply inhaled the air around her. She didn't know why she felt so sad, or why she had been clutching a letter which she had received from James, weeks ago.

In the bedroom next door, Petunia Evans sat at her desk, writing on a crumpled piece of paper. The small flower lay next to her page-full of scrawl. She paused and leant back in her chair, studying the flower. It was slightly crumpled and lay sprawled over her pencils. It was a lily flower, Petunia's favourite. It reminded her of death and sorrow, mourning and grief, darkness and bitterness. She watched the flower intently through her darkly pencilled in eyes. She licked her dark lips and pouted slightly. She reached out and held the flower in between her bony fingers, looking at every angle of it. She twisted the stem around between her fingers and looked up, smiling slightly. She took her compass and drew a fine line across the stem, spilling its sticky green fluid.

The clouds began to get darker. A rumbling, darker power was working behind them, fighting to get out. The dark sheep flew across the sky, as one huge charging ram.

Lily ran to the bathroom, the blade clutched eagerly in her hand. She held her left wrist out over the sink and touched the cool metal against her skin. She cringed. Why am I doing this? She felt like there was an outside control pulsing through her, flowing in her veins. She jerked her right hand downwards and gasped as a cut appeared behind the blade, the blood following it along her wrist. Suddenly she jumped backwards, dropping the blade in the sink.

Petunia heard the little clink and smiled to herself. She put the flower back on the desk and ignored it, turning to her door. She wandered out and onto the landing, down the stairs and into the kitchen. Passing a picture of Lily, she picked it up and threw it to the floor. Malice and hate coursed through her entire being as the glass shattered across the carpet. Lily's face in the photo had a deep slash across it, glass embedded into the photogenerated skin. Petunia picked it up and looked up to the bathroom. I wonder ... If I tried hard enough, would it work with a photo? She didn't realise the power behind her actions, not yet.

Lily slid to the bathroom floor, her back pressed against the hard wooden door, miserably. She held her bleeding hand to her. She had feebly wrapped some tissue paper around her arm which had stemmed the flow. She sniffed and looked out of the window. Her heart was beating fast and hard in her chest, she was breathing quickly.

Petunia frowned and decided playing with Lily was through for the day. She let the photo fall to the floor, it landed face down and upstairs in the bathroom, Lily blacked out.

The heavens finally opened and let the tears of a thousand angels spill forth. The rain poured down, hammering cold, harsh patterns onto the surfaces of the earth below.

Petunia had only recently discovered the dark magic behind voodoo, only just realised the power she could have over Lily. Everyday she had sat in her room, copying from text books about voodoo, anything she could find on the dark subject. She hated Lily's magic. It was fool's magic, not for her. But something about this bitter, twisted power that voodoo had offered her was enticing and tempting. Every day she felt herself more drawn to it. Whilst Lily had been downstairs eating the night before, Petunia had gone into her bedroom and looked through Lily's own textbooks. The only thing close to control she found was the Imperius Curse. She had no idea what it was, only that it slightly resembled voodoo. Today had been the first time she had practiced it, the first time Lily had experienced an outside control. Petunia knew that she would torture again. And again.