THE WORD

OF THE
POTTERHEA
D
I
For Steven
 1
NEW SCHOOL

The bright rays of sun managed to creep through Tyra’s snow white curtains and
put her out of her great peaceful paradise of laying her head on the softest cotton
pillow, drifting off to where her mind could take her and never thinking of
returning to reality. After a long thirty-minute struggle, she managed to crawl out
of her tempting blankets but since she was still half asleep, she tripped over her
school trunk but escaped death by a whisker when she landed on her favourite
Quidditch blanket.
Despite the fact that her room was messy it was a very interesting. With the red
and gold Gryffindor colours, it made her feel as if she was at Hogwarts School of
Wizardry, her heaven, the best paradise. Harry Potter merchandises were scattered
around because of the tantrum Tyra had last night whilst she was packing. Her
friendly rat which she named Scabbers was ravaging through her fruit cake from
last night and her television was giving a twenty second countdown before it
switched off in order to attract the user’s attention.
Tyra unwillingly stood up and wore her thick lensed glasses.
“Damn my daft sight!” she thought.
Tyra stroked the small rat’s soft brown fur with her finger and was about to start
packing her prized possessions when her mother barged in with her cheerful smile,
glaring happily at her scrawny last born.
‘Oh my! Someone’s up already and this only happens once in a lifetime for her.’
She joked.
‘It’s also a huge surprise for me too! How in the world did I wake up this early?’
Tyra laughed heartily. She always enjoyed it when her mother transformed her
gloomy start of the day a warm cheery one. Her mother, Karen, gracefully walked
from the doorway and sat on her daughter’s untidy yet comfy bed. She too had just
woken up but the thought of her daughter going to a new school made her feel as if
she needed to give her the spirit of ecstasy because she was going to leave the only
reliable friends she had.
‘I don’t know. That’s a huge surprise for me to handle but the real question is “Did
that somebody pack the right belongings for school and not the whole room?”.
That would be something worth knowing.’ She questioned her daughter with a
sharp raised eyebrow.
“Damn! The woman knows!” Tyra thought. Although she could come up with
many excuses, she knew it was wrong decision to use them on her because obeying
her mother was a must. With a disappointed look on her face, she opened her trunk
and started to remove three quarters of her Gryffindor merchandise.
‘I know you have a great interest in Harry Potter but sometimes you really don’t
need to be a Potterhead wherever you go and aren’t you afraid that they’ll get
stolen?’ Karen asked anxiously. She failed to imagine her daughter fitting in with
the other teenagers at her new school but was only able to see a clear image of
Tyra being bullied to death
‘With all respect mother, I really love you but you can’t stop me from being me.
That’s just how I work and unfortunately since you bore me you’re gonna have to
face the consequences.’ Tyra stated ‘Besides. Most people don’t show love more
than Scabbers and that’s true.’
‘I see your point. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough time to argue about this.
You can only go with five merchandises but you are not taking the broom. You
hear me young lady?’ Karen spoke firmly as she stood from Tyra’s bed and walked
to the door, this time without being graceful.
‘Yes.’ She sighed. When Karen closed the door and left, Tyra picked up a stuffed
up Scabbers and stroked its belly gently until a thought hit her.
‘Mom didn’t say I couldn’t take you with me’ she grinned.
Breakfast felt abnormal since it was actually her first time eating it early in the
morning. Lifting the fork was quite a lot of work despite the fact how small yet
delicious fried sausage was. Tyra gave a huge yawn and rubbed her sleepy eyes.
Nothing would hurt if she just got a few more hours of shut eye rather than waking
up at six in the morning to get ready for the journey to her new school Lincon
Mountains High School.
To her greatest disappointment it was not a mixed race school. Tyra dreaded that
people would find out she could not understand Shona. She preferred schools with
many kids of different colour and culture. It made her feel as if she was exploring
the whole world and for sure she knew that she would not fail to find a single
Potterhead but unfortunately, she had to go to a school that made her feel like an
outlaw. Feeling like the ‘white kid’ made her feel as if she was degraded and
removed from her African heritage, a complete ugly duckling or the rotten raisins
that ruined her love of fruit cake of which she had received yesterday.
‘Someone seems to be finding breakfast hard. To be honest, did I really raise an
alien because I have never seen a child at the verge of passing out right in front the
best sausages in town.’ Karen teased whilst she poked her daughter back into cruel
reality.
‘I’m trying to put in my full effort on this breakfast but it’s too early for this,’ Tyra
droned with food stuffed in her mouth. Her mother chuckled at the silly words of
her daughter but immediately stopped when Tyra started to choke on her egg.
‘Excuse me for a bit mom,’ she stated as she coughed on her way to her bedroom.
Opening the door and picking up Scabbers who was startled by the way she barged
in, Tyra fed the rat a fat, juicy sausage she managed to smuggle from the breakfast
table. ‘Eat up Scabbers. The journey might probably be a long one for you
according to the amount of patience you have. Mind you, you can’t stay in one
place and I hope you don’t chew on my pockets when we go to class