𝐇𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐄, j. potter

──twenty three

twenty three.

OLIVIA KINSLEY HAS NEVER FELT ANGERS WORSE THAN SHE DID NOW AS SHE SAW THE CONDITION LUCAS IS IN. The little boy, so frail and tiny and clearly lacking the nutrition he needs growing up, sobbed so violently his whole body began to shake. He cradles his arm to his chest, his coat ripped and wet and his hand clutching broken glass, causing blood to drip from his palm. Gushes covers his face, a deep wound by his eyebrow and his lips.

It angers her. It angers her so much to see the little boy who brought nothing but sunshine in this cruel word so bruised and broken. It makes her ball her fist so tightly, they begin to turn white.

"What happened?" She asked him, taking a deep breath to calm herself enough to tend to his needs. "Who did this to you, Lucas?"

The boy said nothing as he kept sobbing, holding on to her arm as blood fell the same time his tears did.

"You have to tell me what happened, love," she says again as she forces his palm to open.

There lies the glasses Healer Helen had made him wear to fix his dyslexia. They're squared, like James' as Olivia figured he'd be much more motivated to wear them that way. However, now it's nothing but broken glass and plastic, the shards digging to his skin.

"I-I'm sorry!" Lucas cries out as he sobs in Olivia's arms, his face buried on her neck.

"Who did this to you, Love?" She asks again, softly this time as she pulls him closer to her.

"I didn't mean it," he sobs on her shoulder, his hands tightly clenched around Olivia's shirt. "They-They tied me to the bed and kept throwing cold water at me and I-I couldn't breath then they started floating and I didn't mean it, Olivia. I swear I didn't mean to h-hurt them."

With his words, her anger only seems to spread throughout her body and her eyes start to darken, her mind going to places it will never return from.

"We know, baby prongs, we know you didn't," Sirius, whom Olivia hadn't noticed was even in the room, reassured the little boy.

"T-Then they called me a freak," Lucas continues to cry. "They said they're going to burn me like they did to witches before. I-I broke the rope but one of the girls held me back and t-they started burning my clothes and it was so hot!"

Euphemia only then realized the blood that covers the boy's arms, dry and causing his clothes to cling to the wound. With horror, she realized they were burns.

"They started c-cutting my hair and my face and it hurt so bad," he cries, his entire body shaking. "Why would they do that, Olivia? I never did anything to them. Why did they hurt me?"

Olivia's hold on the boy only tightens as hot, angry tears fall from her eyes. In that moment, she only sees red and she only hears Lucas' cries. "We'll make them pay, Lucas. I promise. We'll hurt them just as bad."

James Potter thought he had seen Olivia Kinsley mad before, but he's proving to be wrong. Her eyes only darken more and more as Euphemia finally starts treating Lucas' wounds. Her fist stays clenched as Lucas tells them how he was picked up by the knight bus, leaving all of his stuff in that horrible orphanage, including his wand. Her body remains rigid as Lucas eventually falls asleep crying.

James then realized that this is the calm before the storm. A hurricane hides behind her eyes and they're begging to be set free.

He kneels in front of her, placing himself between her legs as he takes her hands in his, gently tugging on them to gain her attention.

When Olivia finally meets his eyes, they're almost unrecognizable. It's nothing like the striking grey ones he had gotten so attached to. Instead, they're dark and smoky, hooded and terrifying. They hold no emotion apart from anger.