𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐌𝐄
➶-͙˚ ༘✶ 𝖯𝖱𝖮𝖫𝖮𝖦𝖴𝖤 ˎˊ˗
╭ 　 　　　　                                                  ╮

╰ 　　　　　                                                    ╯
---                                𝙸𝙼𝙼𝙾𝚁𝚃𝙰𝙻
000.                  ZERO. 🐚🕊🍼

THE COTTAGE looked as if it was straight out of a fairytale with a happy ending or a picture book for little kids. it looked like many things. it was rusty, old and dusty, but rather welcoming. the whole house was made of dark red bricks. a tiny stove, two small wooden chairs, a circular table, a not-so-large matress and that was quite it. hedges and vines and honeysuckles and so much more. a green gate with paint falling off was the door to the property. then came a narrow dirt path with small pebble, a tiny pond with lilypads and a few ducks, maybe a frog or two. a two-metre hedge surrounded the property. vine grew up the archway and the arched wooden door with brown planks. the grass was green and yellow, scorched by the hot, blazing sun in the summer. two huge trees, one with red and orange leaves. one of the trees was hollow. a family of squirrels lived there. occasionally, a woodpecker or an owl would come to visit too.

life was plain, simple and quite hard. but, life was good and happy, too. till a loud shriek destroyed the peace.

"PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!"  pleaded the little girl, dragging out the words and keeping her hands interlocked with each other as her eyes were shut tight. the older woman sighed and shook her head, looking up to the ceiling and sending out an imaginary prayer.

"i'm sorry, dearie but it's too dangerous" she said calmly, that statement doing nothing but make the small girl whine and plead even more.

"please please please grandma minnie! i've never tried doing magic or going to normal school or even hang out with another kid!" the red head pleaded, throwing herself on the floor for dramatics and place a hand on her forehead,

"i'm dying, grandma" she groaned in a fake hoarse voice, reaching her little arm out till dropping it and "dying" with her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth. the only reaction she got came from another red headed woman who sat on the couch, with a book in hand as a giggle escaping her lips at her daughters dramatic tendencies ( of which she most definitely got from her ).

the woman stood up from her spot and walked over to her "dead" daughter, tickling her sides and lifting her up into her arms. the small girl shrieked loudly and wrapped her short arms around her mother's neck, shoving her head between her shoulder.

"you're only nine, baby boo. let's not get too ahead of ourselves" she said, "hogwarts is two years away and..." the woman halted her sentence, looking over at the woman she had now considered to be her own mother.

"you may not be eligible to go into hogwarts" mcgonagall said solemnly, the girls smile dropped as she pushed herself out of her mother's arms and onto the wood floor.

"what? why not?"

the older woman sighed as she was about explain before being cut off by emilia, "your father, he—...he's done some bad things and if anybody else found out about you or the fact that i'm alive and they tell him...we would all be in danger." she crouched down her her little girls height as tears began to form in her eyes at the memory of her past love,

"stella you have to understand how dangerous it would be if he—or anyone else ever found out about us. i can't let anything bad happen to you, baby....you're all i have left" small arms wrapped around the woman's neck as tears began to fall freely and onto the little girls bright pink t-shirt.

her pale little hands rubbed her mother's head comfortingly, "it's okay, mama....i understand."

that day, estella made a promise to herself; ' i, estella emilia riddle, will never let my last name or my fathers actions define me. ' she repeated these words aloud thirty three times for three days once a year on her birthday—and when asked why, she would always say it was a manifestation of what she would grow up to be without her fathers name bringing her down.

and slowly but surely did christmas day come. the, now eleven year old stella was practically shooting off the cottage walls. she baked, she jumped, and laughed. asking the red head to sit that day was like trying to tell a fire not to burn. her baby blue eyes were alight, her every muscle needs to move, to dance, to jump. she chattered and observed, giggled and joked. everything tickled her as funny and if there is one idea coming from her mouth there are seven more queuing up in her mind.

on her tiptoes she reached up to the window ledge, eyes wide, hoping to see the first signs of another life. specifically, dumbledore himself.

"you know if you keep staring out the window like that, your eyes might pop out of your head" emilia joked, walking over to her daughter and handing her a sugar cookie she'd just finished baking.

"mmh then i'll go to hogwarts blind. as long as i get to anywhere other than here" she said, nibbling on the cookie. "this cookie is disgusting by the way"

"you made that" emilia said as she ruffled the girls wavy red hair and walked away.

to the two women who had raised her from a newborn and up, estella had undergone a significant change since she was nine. her freckles were now more prominent, even showing up across her shoulders as her long red hair had begun to turn wavy instead of straight and flowed down her back graciously. she'd become more open as well. asking them questions about voldemort and what he was doing around the wizarding world because as much as she'd love a father in her life—a murderer is not father of hers.

"why isn't grandma here this christmas?!" the girl called out, not taking her eyes away from the window as small droplets of snow fell around them.

"you know why, ella! she doesn't want the kids who don't want to go home to feel left out during the holidays so she stays back and hands out presents" the girl huffed and rested her head on her crossed arms as the sun began to set and her eyes began to droop.

"well i sure hope you're not tired" said a familiar voice, the red head whipped around in her seat to see minerva standing behind her with a smile and her hands behind her back, "how else am i supposed to give you this gift if you're asleep?"

estella smiled cheekily and ran up to the older woman, wrapped her arms around her middle as the grey haired woman patted the young girls back. pulling away, stella noticed her keeping one arm behind her back.

"what's the gift? can i see it? is it another pair of gryffindor socks?" stella asked with a huff. nothing wrong with gryffindor socks, but getting socks on christmas in a house you weren't even in yet seemed like a bit of an odd christmas present.

the older woman shook her head and slowly lifting her arm out from behind her back, revealing a beige little post card.

a sharp gasp escaped the young girls throat as she recognized the sign on the back of the card. her hands moved faster than her brain could catch up to as she excited ripped through the packaging and opened the beginning of her brand new life...at hogwarts.

'well this just great isn't it' stella thought to herself as she sat on the throne in front of about thousand or so students, all waiting for the sorting hat to do its job, which seemed to be taking longer than usual. luckily for everyone else, she was the last to be called and the only one that got what they called a 'hatstall'.

"mmh you're cunning...very ambitious, you'd be perfect for slytherin, you see?" just the name of the house made her shiver

"no no no no, please...you cannot put me in slytherin" she whispered softly, hoping not to offend any overhearing slytherin's. there was nothing with the house itself, it seemed to be filled with one of the smartest people stella had ever seen, but she just could not be related to tom riddle and be in slytherin—she needed one thing to herself. one thing that didn't associate with....him.

"why not slytherin?!" the sorting hate shouted, catching the attention of the entire slytherin table who gave her offended looks and she smiled back awkwardly, annoyed that the hat disregarded the one thing she didn't want it to do. "there is sometching about you that screams slytherin..."

stella sighed, coming to terms with the fact that she'd be forced into a house filled with a few people who worshipped her father and that they'd quite easily find out about her heritage—thereby killing her and her mother immediately. well that's a bit dramatic but the red head had already imagined how terribly her life would go if it ever came out her true name. at least in a house like hufflepuff or ravenclaw, they wouldn't be as adamant into finding out everything about her.

there was a reason slytherin's were known as the most cunning and powerful house.

"very strange one you are..." the hat mumbled quietly so only she could hear, "i've come to a final decision!" everybody's ears perked up as the tension rose up. the last time the hat had stalled this long was for mcgonagall, but it never stalled between choosing wether a student was a gryffindor or slytherin.

"GRYFFINDOR!" every student at the red table shot up in excitement, some sending teasing faces over to their opposing house and others waving over stella to sit next to them. it felt like a heavy weight had been lifted from the room after the hat had chosen, not even dumbledore knew which house it was going to choose.

mcgonagall sat proudly in her seat, sending her ' daughter' a reassuring smile and tilting her head in the direction of the many
people awaiting the red heads arrival.

upon instinct, stella sat herself down next to the first person that caught her eye. that being a beautiful dark skinned girl with chunky braces and a bright smile.

"hi, i'm estella. estella—...mcgonagall" stella said with a smile, catching herself before revealing her full name.

"i'm salem pigelle, it's nice to meet yo-" the girls greeting was cut off by a loud gasp.

"mcgonagall? are you her daughter? how does that work? you have red hair" said a small pale boy from across the table, his questions had gotten him a jab in the stomach from another girl.

"that is no way to greet someone, winston." her long brown curly hair flipped behind her shoulder as the girl faced salem and estella with a smile and holding her hand out.

"i'm indigo. indigo sterling and this investigator is my best friend, winston. it's nice to meet you too" her pearly whites showed off as a grin filled her cheeks and the awkward boy's cheeks turned bright pink.

"salem, estella. nice to meet you too" said salem, her hand showing each person accordingly. the light skinned girl nodded and grabbed a small bowl of strawberry ice cream, immediately digging in.

"so...how are you guys feeling about classes? personally i think i am going to do great. my dad taught me everything i know" the girl smiled proudly as stella ignored the small ache in her chest at the mention of a father figure. a good one at that.

"not me, i'm so nervous i think i might forget my nice during attendance" shivered the skinny boy, with a look of panic and causing the three girls to giggle.

"i think you'll do just fine. plus, if we have the same classes together, all we need to do is stick together and we'll make it through just fine" said salem calmly. stella admired the way each person held themselves.

salem, who they'd come to learn was a muggle-born witch, held herself and everything around her with such comfort and relaxation that anybody near her could instantly relax as well. winston was just a shy and awkward little mess which turned him into a sort of comedic relief during times of stress, even going as far as to help others with panic attacks even if he himself was having one. and indigo, who held herself with such a radiant energy of confidence and self-assurance that made stella look up to her in a way.

it was only their first interaction with each other but the four kids had known instantly that they were going to be in each other's lives for a very long time.