Starstruck

“Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.” Bob Marley

The table was littered with tons of stuff, half of it being food wrappers from Dudley, then there were dirty dishes, some bandaids, a lime green vase with flowers in it, and other things Harry didn’t need nor did he care about. He smiled as he spotted his target.

Harry snatched the pair of gardening gloves off the table before heading to the front door to work on the garden. He had to get it done before his Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia got back from his cousin Dudley’s hot wheels race.

“I’m not actually sure why he likes cars so much. He’s got them everywhere though, it’s a weird thing of his.” He remembered the time that he had the unfortunate timing of walking in on Dudley watching Cars while touch.. Harry really didn’t want to think about that.

The sun had been blazing today- even though it was March- which Harry hated but it had started to drizzle so he thought it would be the perfect time to go do the garden. He stepped outside and sighed in content as he felt small drops of water on his face.

“God- can’t you let me breathe!” A girl shouted from somewhere next to him. He looked over and was a bit worried. His neighbour was shouting at her parents. The first thing he noticed was her pointing and yelling at someone in the house. Then his eyes trailed up her arm and to the blood running down her arm.

“No! No I won’t, because- hey! If you leave right now I swear you won’t be allowed back! Get your ass back here, Cherry!” She ran down the street with her mother yelling at her. Harry felt inclined to ignore what happened and do the garden so he wouldn’t be yelled at like that by his aunt.. but the girl was hurt. Even though he may have been raised in an environment where people's bodily harm wasn’t even acknowledged, he wouldn’t be doing that. He dropped the gloves back on the table and grabbed the bandaids. He bolted out the door and chased after her.

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Her feet hurt as she neglected to grab her shoes while she was leaving. The street was still quite hot but was becoming bearable as it rained. It dawned on her that it was raining, so she really shouldn’t sleep over at the playground or she might get hypothermia again..

When she reached the playground she immediately went for the swings. She sat down and was catching her breath for a second. She let out a deep breath and glanced up at the sky. The sun was covered by the wet clouds which she was grateful for as she hadn’t grabbed any sunglasses either. She blinked a few times as some water had gotten in her eyes. Her eyes stung as she blinked. The water trickled down her cheek and landed on her pants. She wiped away as much of the rainwater she could.

It was rainwater. Not tears. She didn’t cry, because she didn’t have a reason to. She wasn’t bleeding out or dying she wouldn’t-

“Are you alright?”

Her head snapped up and brought her out of her thoughts. She looked at the young boy infront of her. He looked a lot younger than her, maybe 7 or 8. He had a very boyish face with brown hair. She vaguely recognized him. She realised he was waiting for her to respond.

“Yea.. I’m alright. Why?” Confusion was apparent in her tone as she didn’t know who this was and why he was asking. She definitely recognizes him though.. but from where? A restaurant? The store?

The freckle covered boy laughed a bit, “Uh.. I’m your neighbour.”

She looked away a bit embarrassed as she had been talking out loud. A habit she had thought she got rid of years ago. She mumbled an apology. He sat down next to her on the other swing. She leaned her head on the swing chain as she felt lightheaded and foggy.

The two stayed there in peaceful silence for a few minutes. At around the third minute mark, she knew this because she had been counting to keep awake and aware, she heard rustling behind her. She recognized the sound as bandaids, but it didn’t stop her from flinching when the boy lightly touched her arm.

“Can I?” He spoke softly and quietly and he was barely audible over the rain.

“I don’t know, Can you?” He snickered and unwrapped the small bandaid and put it over the scrap on her upper arm. It barely covered it and he was lucky it had already stopped bleeding. The blood from it had been carried down her arm with the rain.

He also noted ink running down her arm mixing with the blood. It looked to have been a Moon drawing with stars. They washed down her forearm and stained an already soaked bandage wrapped around her wrist. The bandage went from her palm to her elbow, whatever was underneath looked painful probably hurt.

The girl said thanks and turned around to look at him. He had a fair complexion, and glasses that made his eyes look a little zoomed in. His hair looked like he was just struck by lightning, it went in every which way. She finally noticed a lightning shaped scar on his forehead running across his eye and down his cheek.

“Sweet scar, how’d you get it?” He shrugged his shoulders. She nodded along. She’s got a few scars too and has got no clue where they came from.

“You?” Her hand reached up to touch her cheek. She felt the star shaped scar that resided on her skin, slightly sunken in and coloured darker than her skin. She let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding and let her hand drop to her side. He didn’t say anything but she knew he understood.

The rain was picking up a bit more and his bangs had begun to stick to his forehead. Like on command she stood up and reached a hand out for him.

“Come on, it’s probably going to start thundering soon.” He took her hand and stood up. He looked at her and this time noticed her eyes. His brows furrowed at her deep green eye, surrounded with smudged pink sparkling eye shadow. The forest green eye didn’t confuse him, it was the dark red eye with blinding green glitter eyeshadow lining her upper lid. Ignoring the way the glitter went from her eyes to the side of her temple as if they had been swiped in an effort to rid tears, he focused on the dual coloured eyes.

“Is that..”

“Heterochromia? Nah, my eyes are naturally green but I had a blood vessel pop in this eye when I was super young.” She pointed a thumb at her bloody left eye that was a stark contrast to her mossy right eye.

It’s the story she told everyone, but she didn’t really know where it came from.. She’s got far too many stories like that.

Harry looked thoughtful and nodded along. Her eyes were beautiful but- His face suddenly looked as though he remembered something.

“Oh right! Sorry I forgot.. uh I’m Harry. Harry Potter.”

“Cherry. Cherry Wood.”

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The walk back was a bit longer when you’re not running so they chatted a bit; getting to know each other. The rain was picking up even more but neither could find it in themselves to care. Harry learned that her hair was not natural. Well, the redness was natural but the green tips and streaks caused the water that ran down her face to tinted slightly green. Cherry learned that Harry was completely blind without his glasses and was taking advantage of this.

Cherry held his glasses above her out of his reach, while holding up a finger, “Ok- but how many fingers am I holding up?” She giggled and hoped he couldn’t see her hand at the moment.

“I can’t see! Do you have both hands up or just one, cause I’m seeing like three. You don't have any extra arms right?” Cherry cackled and shook her head, they remembered Harry was seeing shapes and colour right now so she audibly said no. She put his glasses back on his face and accidentally put it in his ear. He yelped and swiped the glasses back. He took his glasses off to clean them and looked back up at her.

“I was holding up one finger,” She showed him she was holding up her middle finger, effectively flipping him off. Harry rolled his eyes and pushed her hand away.

“You're gonna wake up with another hand,” Harry smiled and adjusted his glasses so they were straight.

“I'm sorry?! What does that even mean!” She sputtered out between laughs and gasps of air. He was trying to keep a straight face but was failing miserably.

“Looks like your parents are home!” She said as they reached Harry’s house first and she saw his parents' car was there.

“My parents are dead.”

The woman was too stunned to speak.

She sputtered then giggled and looked at him like he was joking. She saw his straight face and went to apologise then she saw him trying not to laugh.

“Oh you're evil.” She shook her head and punched his arm slightly trying to not laugh again.

“No- no they are actually, but your face! Oh, it was beautiful,” His mouth curved into a sly smile.

“You're damn right I’m beautiful but that was not funny. Ok, it was a little funny. So if they're dead,” She pointed a finger at the car again, “Then who the fuck’s that?”

She pointed at the woman who stepped out of the passenger seat. She had very tall heels on, which were bright green. Then she looked over towards the man struggling to get his ass through the driver's side. The woman walked around to the driver's side quickly to get out of the rain as soon as possible. She helped the man out, then opened the backseat door and unclipped a baby.

Well Cherry expected a baby.. then out pops a whole ass teenager. The woman carried him in her arms inside like he was a baby.

Cherry had her mouth covered and was struggling so badly. She almost fell over from laughing so hard. She felt like she was dying. The second the group was inside she let her hand away and a chortle escaped.

“Oh my lord, what the everloving fuck was that?” She wiped away some rainwater from her face and eyes.

“That was my cousin Dudley,” He beamed at someone finally hating him like Harry did, “He’s 11 and still uses a pacifier”

Cherry cackled even louder.

“That was the best thing ever in the whole world.” She howled with laughter.

The two kids continued to Harry’s house, and she walked him up to the porch. She heard yelling from inside for Harry. Harry stiffened and looked over at Cherry.

“You should probably go..” Harry looked away with a slight grimace.

She understood why perfectly. She gave him a quick hug and said her goodbyes, but then his aunt came out.

Cherry hopped over the side of the porch and hid in the bushes, not wanting to run away and give herself up. Where she was sitting a small drop of water hit her head every few seconds. She cursed herself for forgetting shoes when she left as the mulch was digging into her feet.

The woman quietly yelled at Harry for not doing the rest of his chores then dragged him inside to yell at him louder.

Cherry wondered if she should go save him.. but decided to not follow.

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She felt horrible for leaving him but she didn’t exactly have a choice. She ran back to her house through the pelting rain and the second she stepped in she sighed. The loud footsteps coming from the kitchen made her run up to her room and lock herself inside.

She sat on her bed and looked out the window, it started to rain super hard and the street had the sides filled with water. Her mum was downstairs stomping around and smashing stuff in a drunken rage.

In Cherry’s nightstand was a bunch of first aid stuff. She took off the small band aid that Harry put on her arm and put some Neosporin on it, then she put a larger band aid that covered the whole cut in one go.

She unwrapped the bandage around her wrist that was covered in watered down ink, hair dye, and blood that washed down her arm. Her hair bled colour because just touched up the green yesterday. She grabbed another thing of gauze and bandages, but only put it on her nightstand for tomorrow morning as she didn’t really need it at the moment. What she did need was food.

The closet in her room had a not-stolen mini fridge that totally wasn’t stolen. She grabbed a yoghurt out of the NOT-stolen mini fridge. She would go downstairs but since she had food in her room she didn’t need to deal with her moth-

“It isn’t dealing with her, it’s helping with her; how dare you insinuate she’s a burden.” Cherry took a deep breath and ignored the voice, though she would make up for it later.

She grabbed a spoon and went back to sit on her bed and eat while drawing. She grabbed a key from under her lampshade and unlocked the padlock on her nightstand. She had a sketch book where she drew some people she met and people who interested her. In this case Harry Potter was both.

She drew him looking over at her while they were on swings. He was wearing a dark red shirt that had a V neck. Lead slid down the paper like the rain on his face. His hair covered his ears and was untamed; going in every direction but down.

She finished on the outer sketch and hair so she started on his face. He was pale, the kind of pale that came from never going outside. His face has lots of freckles, like thousands. The glasses he wore were huge and went from his eyebrows to his nostrils.

“Ok they weren’t really that big, but I drew them like that because it was funny.” She smiled and moved onto the next detail. The lightning bolt.

The scar he had was beautiful. Her pencil dragged from his forehead down to his cheek to draw a lightning shaped scar. It cut right through, and had lots of lighter colored branches like real lighting fading into his skin. He had very nice eyelashes, but they were nothing compared to his eyes. They were light colours and popped in the contrast with the rest of his face. Green around the outside and practically white around the pupil. He had a lost puppy look and the rain made it look like he was crying.

She felt good about the drawing so she put her notebook under her pillow and while she was at it she grabbed her diary from there. She wrote down what she knew about him in her diary.

• He seemed like a nice boy, also kind. He was around her age, 9 or 10.
• She assumed he was caucasian, she’d have to ask if that was correct.
• He didn’t have either parents so he lives with his aunt and uncle, plus his cousin who was like a teenage baby.
• His aunt was mean and had yelled at him the second he came home.
• His humour seemed a little dark which she found funny.
• Gay?
• He seemed a little clueless about life but could hold his own.

She wrote down a few more things she learned about him, then a quick summary of today's events before Harry, then she wrote about her interaction with him.

She hoped they could be friends. She looked out the window again and to the Dursleys house and wondered which room was Harry’s. She shook her head then sighed, then began to replay the whole interaction..

Maybe he was just being nice but if she had the chance to make a friend she wasn’t just going to lose it. She decided the next day she would go over to his house and see if he wanted to hang out.

The notebook and drawing notebook were put back in her nightstand then put the padlock back on it. She leaned over the side of the bed then reached into a hole cut in her mattress. Her hand pulled out a small orange bottle and dumped two pills into her hand. She swallowed both of them dry as she wasn’t about to leave her room for water. She flopped onto her bed, but forgot to turn off her light. The light above burned her eye annoyingly. The fuzzy feeling from the pills came and gave her a pleasant feeling. She already felt her body sinking into the bed, so she willed the light to turn itself off.. and it did.

She didn’t think too hard about that and passed out.