It was a perfect day to go outside. Or so Ariana thought, as she ran down a meadow. The sun felt warm on her skin, and the clear sky was in a perfect shade of pastel blue that Ariana wished she could use it as paint.
As she sat down under a tree, Ariana couldn’t wait to do her little tricks. Tricks her brothers called magic. Something her parents said to be a gift, and boy, she loved this gift!
Raising her small palm, she closed her eyes and thought of a butterfly. And as expected, what came fluttering out of her hand was a small yellow butterfly. Her blue eyes sparkled as the butterfly took off from her palm and into the sky.
“More!” Ariana said to herself with a giggle as she closed both her hands this time. Making two more butterflies.
Her excitement made her continue. More butterflies she made, and every time they appeared on her palm, her blue eyes would light up.
Being six, bliss was found in everything she saw. Even in the butterflies she made. But her bliss was short lived when she saw a few boys staring at her from across the meadow.
Ariana watched them as they watched her. They whispered to one another and though she was rather curious on what they were up to, she decided to ignore them and return to making more butterflies.
One after another, butterflies escaped her palms. She was getting better at it and she was ecstatic.
Giggling as butterflies filled the tree above her head, she had not notice the boys walking towards her. And when she finally did, they were only a few feet away.
“What are you doing?” one of the boys asked skeptically.
“Making butterflies!” Ariana smiled from ear to ear.
“It’s a trick, isn’t it?” another boy asked.
“It’s magic!” Ariana innocently answered.
“There’s no such thing as magic you freak!” the same boy shouted.
Ariana who was shock by the accusation, quickly got on her feet.
“Yea! You must be a freak if you can do magic!” the other boy added.
“Freak! You’re a freak!” They began taunting her.
Ariana, who was confuse and hurt, started to sob. Was she really a freak? Ariana thought as she watch the butterflies in the tree slowly fluttering away.
“I’m special! I’m not a freak!” Ariana shouted at the boys.
“Oh yea? Who said so?”
“My mother and father!” Ariana bravely answered.
And as she did, one of them pushed her to the ground, “Shut up freak!”
“Yea! Shut up!” another boy added as he gave her a kick.
His action triggered the rest to follow after, as one by one they started kicking her. Taunting and calling her a freak as they did.
Ariana, quickly curled up as she took their blows. Tears falling down her cheeks and her constant plea for them to stop did not help. She was scared and confused. She didn’t know why they hated her. All she did was make butterflies. Was it so wrong?
The boys finally stopped after what seemed like a long time of kicking and stomping the young girl.
“Freaks should die!” one of them shouted as they backed away from her and started to leave.
“I hope you die” another spat at her before he followed after his friends.
Ariana, still curled up, didn’t dare to move. And as her tears kept falling, she kept wondering. If she had to die for being special, she didn’t want to be special anymore. She didn’t want to make butterflies or make flowers bloom. She didn’t want to make colorful fishes or heal the baby bird’s broken wings. She didn’t want to do magic. It was a horrid thing.
As day became night, Ariana stayed curled up till her brothers shouted her name. When she looked up and saw Albus and Aberforth hovering over her, she only said one thing, “No more.”
Her brothers, who immediately noticed the bruises and wounds on her body hurriedly brought her home. And as her distraught mother patched up her wounds, her father left the house without a word after she told him what had happened.
And though Ariana was a bit confused with her parents reaction, she was clear on one thing. She was never doing magic again. Magic was bad. It was horrid. And she will die if she made another butterfly. With that, Ariana slept and never again would you see her little hands make that day’s delights ever again.
Jeyna Grace 