Mysteries among Trophies Solo

Day: March 22, 2020

Time: After breakfast

It was a rainy March Sunday morning, and Lydia had no idea of what to do. She had already done all her homework, and since the weather wasn’t nice, she was trapped inside the castle; she couldn’t even hang out with her friend Aaron, since he had other plans for that day.

After a good breakfast - she had eaten some chocolate cake and a hot chocolate with whipped cream, after all it was a gloomy morning, and that called for comfort food- Lydia had started wandering around the castle, with no destination in particular. It was still quite early, barely after eight, and the corridors were still empty, the students probably still in their beds, sleeping under the warms blankets. Lydia didn’t mind that though, this way she wouldn’t risk being in the way of other students, and she could just take her time exploring her surroundings, her nose up in the air.

That morning she had decided to wear her formal clothes, since there were no classes on the weekend: a pair of high-waist black skinny jeans, her yellow converse, and a jumper with three big horizontal stripes, the one at the bottom black, then a yellow one in the middle, and a white one at the top.

Lydia still couldn’t believe how amazing Hogwarts was; classes aside, the whole castle had so many places to explore and new things to discover, making every single day kind of special.

After a while Lydia reached the third floor, where she usually had her Charms class, and decided to explore it; the usual paintings were hanging on the wall, some of them chatting with each other, while others would greet the young girl as she walked in front of them. She still hadn’t found the courage to talk with one of them, too scared to disturb, even though some of those paintings really intrigued her.

Lydia soon reached the Trophy Room, and she decided to go inside, knowing that it was always unlocked; she had never been there, after all she wasn’t too interested in Quidditch or any other sport that would have its trophies displayed in that room, but she still wanted to check it out. It looked kind of creepy in the morning light, with the pouring rain hitting the windows, the strong wind blowing outside. A shiver ran down her spine, and she wrapped her arms around herself as she walked around, admiring the trophies and pictures in the displays; most of those belonged to Quidditch players and games, from the year before up to way back in the past.

At a certain point, Lydia stopped walking once she reached a section that was dedicated to the Head Boys and Girls of Hogwarts. There were pictures of them, from every year, together with a list of all of the previous ones. A smile appeared on Lydia’s lips, as she thought that it wouldn’t have been that bad to be one of them; sure, she needed to wait until her seventh year at Hogwarts, but she still could dream about it.

She kept looking at the pictures, the previous students smiling proudly at the camera, their eyes shining with happiness and what Lydia assumed was pride.
She was skimming through them quite quickly, eager to see how far back the pictures and list went, when she suddenly came to a stop. In the picture in front of here, a boy and a girl, respectively from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, were grinning at the camera, the boy’s arm wrapped around the girl’s shoulders.

Lydia kept staring at the picture, not really certain if what she was looking at was actually real. The girl in the picture looked exactly like her mother, with long blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin, but that could not be right because her mother was a muggle, so how could she be the girl in the picture?

Lydia checked the year the picture was taken, 1991-1992,  and then walked back to the list of all the Head Boys and Girls. Her eyes were flying over the list, reading as fast as she could. She needed to know who that girl was, and why she looked like her mother. Because it simply could not be her, not in Lydia's mind. When she finally reached the school year she was looking for, she hesitantly read the names of the Head students.

There, written with an elegant calligraphy, was her mother’s name, Natalie Lacroix.

Lydia’s mind was trying to find an explanation for what she had just seen, it could not have been her mother, she was a muggle not a witch, it made no sense for her to be there. Millions of thoughts were running through her mind, as she slowly stepped away from the display, her hands clasped over her mouth, none of them making too much sense. The only way all of that would have made sense, was if her mother was actually a witch, and not a muggle; but if that was true, that meant that she had lied not only to her, but to her sister and her husband for all this time.

Unless.

Unless Lydia’s father actually knew about all of that.

The prospect of that being true was incredibly scary, and it hurt Lydia more than she had ever been hurt before. The girl didn’t even realise she had started hyperventilating, and when she felt tears falling on her hands she quickly dried them off, hoping that she would regain control of herself.

But the more she tried to fight them, the shakier her body got, and she soon found herself quietly sobbing in the middle of the Trophy Room.

All of a sudden she felt the need to run, no matter where; she couldn’t bear to be standing in front of a picture of her mother at Hogwarts, the first of who knew how many lies her parents had told her.

So she ran.

She ran out of the Trophy Room and into the now busy corridors.

She ran, trying to avoid bumping into other students as she made her way to the Entrance Hall and then out into the Courtyard.

Lydia kept running, not caring that it was pouring rain and cold outside, not caring if other students saw her cry. She just needed to run and be as far away from that picture as she could, away from all those lies, and away from the pain that she felt inside.