NOVEL NEXT Chapter 8: Chapter 8 -[Riddle]
Summer was torture for Skuld Weasley.
She missed the freedom to do what she wanted, eat what she wanted, and read what she wanted.
She longed for Hogwarts, despite not having anyone to wait for her.
Her imagination soared further and further, and when she received the diary of someone named Tom Riddle, she completely lost her mind.
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Skuld was jolted awake by another nightmare.
Her summer was filled with nightmares, leftover burnt toast, feeling invisible to the rest of the Weasleys, and enduring offensive comments.
She counted the days until she could go back to school.
In her nightmare, a snake spoke to her.
Not a normal snake, and not a typical conversation.
It was a snake bigger than her room at Hogwarts, and she was asking it to kill someone.
There was also a boy.
An attractive boy with dark, pale hair, a little older than her. He spoke to her, urging her to do something, to be faithful to him.
The last time, her nightmare had been about roosters.
Dead roosters.
Skuld looked out the small window and saw her father's Ford Anglia parked where it always was, and the twins Fred and George, Ron, and Harry got out of it.
They believed they wouldn't be discovered.
Screams began to echo from downstairs a few minutes later, and Skuld decided to get dressed first before heading down.
She would probably be sent to throw gnomes off the fence while the twins' guest enjoyed tea and chatted with Ginny and her mother.
Evelyn Goldstein, the Ravenclaw who had shared a boat with her on the first day of class.
The world felt small and confining.
She bounced down the stairs, almost falling on her face after nearly tripping over Ginny's shoe, and entered the kitchen, grimacing in pain.
She had hurt her ankle because of her sister's shoe.
If the shoe had belonged to anyone else and they had hurt her instead, Ginny would have exploded.
"Skuld?" Harry asked when he saw her enter, limping a little.
"Good morning, Harry!" she greeted, sounding more cheerful than she had when she woke up.
Seeing him around the house made her happy.
"Skuld, go with the boys to degnomize the garden," her mother ordered.
She was savoring the first decent piece of toast she had eaten all summer.
Ignoring her mother's command, she continued eating. The toast tasted great—almost like what one might imagine unburned toast should taste like.
Harry passed her a piece of bacon, and it felt like a taste of glory.
"Wow, anyone would think you've never eaten bacon, snake," Fred mocked, grinning.
Skuld felt a surge of strength when she noticed Harry there. She knew that with him present, something would change in how they perceived the first female Weasley.
"Just the Hogwarts one, this one is better," she shrugged.
Harry was surprised. Didn't her mother feed her?
He couldn't imagine Molly Weasley mistreating her daughter.
But as he looked into her eyes, it became clear that she wasn't lying.
Unlike the rest of her relatives, her irises were neither blue nor brown. They were green—similar to his, but a shade lighter.
They reminded him of the countryside in spring.
He couldn't help but notice that beneath her beautiful eyes were striking dark circles.
Was Skuld not sleeping?
He would be lying if he said he didn't want to know everything about her, to get to know her better.
[T/N: I liked this chapter better, though it still sucked to read, makes me so emotional. I also read something really f*cked up yesterday that's also messing with my head. If you like this chapter then leave a comment, write a review, and drop some stones! If you want to read some advanced chapters then check out my Patreon.]
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