Adelaidaline Jujuvitz

Adelaidaline curled up on top of the soft bed of the guest bedroom. Her head started to throb as memories of her parents flooded back through her mind and she felt her face burning. She soon realized that her pillow was soaked with tears. In the morning she would begin her first day of training. She was still in her dress from earlier that day, to exhausted to change into proper bed clothing. Her face was red, her green eyes pink and puffy, and her dark brown hair laid limply around her.

After a few minutes of recuperating Adelaidaline got up from the bed and went to her bureau, lifting a set of pink pajamas out and placing them on top of a set of folded towels. She carried the pile into her personal bathroom and set them down on the counter. She then reached for the toiletry basket a house elf had left for her and took out bath oils and salts, shampoo and conditioner, and bubble bath soap. She hadn't had a bubble bath since the night the boy she fancied dumped an entire inkwell on her head and teased her freckles, which she had successfully gotten rid of after two years of a UV protection charm and parasols. The situation had very much depressed her and her mother had set up a bubble bath with tea, cookies, books, and candles, and had let Adelaidaline stay up late to watch a very nice muggle movie, that she had liked very much. Her mother had said that she had watched the movie when she was Adelaidaline's age. Laidy loved everything about the movie, and wished to be just as fashionable and darling as Holly. And the ending of Breakfast at Tiffany's had been so heartwarming that Adelaidaline forgot completely about what's-his-name.

Laidy turned from the running faucet of the bathtub with a small smile playing across her mouth, reminiscing on the happy evening. She was just about to get in when the toiletry basket caught her eye. It was now full of cookies, books, and candles, and a tea tray was placed next to it. She gathered the items from the basket and saw that underneath them had been a copy of Breakfast at Tiffany's. She didn't quite understand how this was at all possible, but soon lost interest in the notion, and settled on being simply pleasantly surprised. She lit the scented candles (Vanilla and Cinnamon, her favorites) and placed them around the room. The light scent immediately filled the room, calming Laidy instantly. She then set the tea tray and cookies on the side of the tub and got in without getting her copy of The Odyssey wet.

_=_

She tiptoed downstairs into the den where her Aunt Lydia was reading a thick book. Lydia looked up when Laidy reached her armchair.

"Yes, honey?" she asked sweetly.

"Auntie Lydia, you wouldn't happen to own a muggle television set, would you?" Laidy inquired delicately.

"Actually, I do. For when I have muggle acquaintances over. And I do like to watch a movie every now and then," she answered with a laugh. "Why do you ask? You didn't bring any movies with you did you? I would have thought you'd bring more personal belongings."

Adelaidaline held up the DVD in response. She watched a smile slowly grow on her aunt's youthful face. "Breakfast at Tiffany's. I used to watch that with your mother when we were girls. She absolutely loved that movie. Where did you find it?"

"My toiletry basket?" Laidy answered almost as a question, still not sure of how it had come to be there. But, apparently her aunt was not as perplexed. She nodded serenely and got up to help Laidy with the DVD player.

After a minute Lydia returned with a big bowl of popcorn and two lemon waters. She sat herself down next to Adelaidaline and clicked a button with a green sideways triangle on it. The picture immediately began to play.

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_=_

Adelaidaline woke up to the sound of twittering birds. Her eyes opened to a sunlit room and a breakfast tray filled with high protein foods. Today she would begin her training.

She sat up in bed bringing the tray closer to her, and began to eat. After finishing about a quarter of the food on the tray, she pushed it back and got up to dress. She was just reaching her dresser drawer when she realized clothing had already been laid out for her. A thick and sturdy camisole tank top, stretchy black pants, and a pair of gleaming white tennis shoes. She quickly dressed and then braided her hair into a long black plait. After a moment of nervous pacing she proceeded downstairs.

A tall burly man with a shiny bald head was seated in the lounge. He was drinking tea from a cup that looked absurdly tiny in his enormous hand. Seated across from him was Adelaidaline's aunt. They both looked up at her upon her entrance, her aunt smiling, the giant staring sternly. Very intimidating to a ten-year-old girl.

"Laidy, come meet your trainer," Aunt Lydia requested. Adelaidaline reluctantly complied. "This is Bono. He will be training you for the next few years."

"How do you do," Laidy murmured. Bono nodded curtly in response. He got up and stiffly walked out of the room. Laidy looked at her aunt questioningly, who nodded swiftly in his direction, indicating that she should follow him.

Adelaidaline power walked to catch up, then slowed down to a stride behind him. He led her down two flights of stairs into a huge gym that Laidy had never seen before. Of course, Laidy did not even know there were two floors beneath the main floor, let alone any secret gyms.

Bono walked over to a corner piled with balls and picked a medium sized yellow one up. He tossed it in the air a few times and caught it again each time with ease. He then threw it to Laidy with a quick, "Catch."

Laidy caught it. With her wind basket.

There was no possible was a ball could be that heavy naturally. She fell to the floor, gasping for air, her coughing sounding more like a dogs bark. She felt the ball roll off her diaphragm and land on the floor with a loud clunk!

She looked up at Bono with tear-glazed eyes. He gave her an unbelievable look and quipped, "Oh, come on! Muggles play with those after breakfast!"

Laidy didn't mention that she had just eaten breakfast, and that she doubted any muggle that had just eaten could go through the day happily after just being walloped in the abdomen by a forty-pound piece of exercise equipment, especially when the thrower was flippin King Kong.

Instead, she resorted to gritting her teeth and attempting to get up, which proved to be a difficult feat. Once up, Bono looked at her sternly and held up the ball. "Ready to try again?" He asked. Laidy was prepared this time. She set her stance and tightened all her muscles. She nodded and waited for the blow. She had it for a second, before it dropped from her grasp and landed against her shin, knocking it from underneath her. She quickly recovered and sprung up to her feet again, feeling her shin burn wear the ball had socked her. Bono gave her an understanding sort of look and mumbled that it was better. He then picked it up for the third time and held it up once more. Laidy rearranged her hands so that there was no way she could drop it unless she turned into an amnesia victim at the last second. Bono tossed the ball again, and this time when the ball started to slip, Laidy regripped and kept it up. She looked up to Bono who had an expression of impressments on her face.

"Good work."

_=_

Laidy was out in the courtyard smelling the poppies. Something about them made her feel very calm, almost drowsy. She moved on to the lavender, which was equally tranquilizing. She walked serenely into the center of the garden and looked up to the light blue sky, clouds stretched out across it, but not hiding the sun. She felt a wet tap on her forehead, and followed the feeling of the raindrop running down her face. She felt another splash onto her bare shoulder. All of a sudden a downpour of soft summer rain hit her head on. She stood taken aback for a second. Laidy began to twirl, watching her dress fan out around her. She took in the steam of the rain as it hit the hot pavement, which dried almost instantly, probably due to some charm.

The rain calmed to a light hot shower and Laidy began to run around. She jumped onto the rope swing and used her leg strength to push herself. She felt the warm rain pelt her from each direction and couldn't help but smile. As the swing hit a climactic height, Laidy leapt from it and landed in a garden of poppies. She started to drowse off almost immediately, realizing every drop of steamy rain that touched her until she was swept off into a sweet dream.

She was at a school. She was running from the huge front doors down a sloping hill to a dark but sparkling lake. She ran in without stripping her clothes off, which seemed preposterous to her dream self, but would seem like common sense and courtesy to her true self, as she was surrounded by staring people. Out of nowhere, the dream turned nightmarish as she realized that half the crowd was crying. She then took notice to her own tear-welled eyes and aching head. She splashed into deeper waters until she reached a floating body of a teenage boy. His dark hair was plastered across his face, his glasses barely hanging onto his nose. She let herself pull him into more shallow waters until she was merely wading. She felt herself fall to her knees next to the body, tears spilling down her red contorted face, her head buzzing and pained. She put her hands to his pale face, and she tranquilly took notice of how slim and mature her hands were: definitely not her own.

The crowd surrounded her and the boy. She could see through blurry eyes a tall boy with very bright hair holding a bawling girl with big brown hair. They were no more distinguished than the rest of the crowd, but somehow Laidy knew they were of more importance than the rest.

Laidy felt herself be pushed gently to the side, and watched as a slim man with grey-brown hair put a hand on the dying boy's chest, holding his wand in the other, directed at the boy's heart. Someone was pushing Laidy out of the way as the man's wand tip ignited. She shouldered them off, but they persisted, their strength growing steadily. Finally Laidy jerked to face them as they pushed her harder then ever before knocking her over.

Laidy's eyes snapped open at contact. She was still lying in the garden, but it was no longer raining out. Her aunt and Bono were standing over her. Bono held out a hand to her declaring the end of lunch break. It was time for her magic lessons. She received the assistance and was pulled to her feet and steered in the direction of the house. She vaguely heard Bono say she was going to learn how to make things fly and her aunt say something about being wary about taking naps in her Posterior Poppies.