Birthday Parties and Squibs (11 years old, Pre-Beauxbatons)

Acadia punched the boy in the face, breaking his nose. The children at the party quickly gathered around the scene, eager to see the fight. She had just punched the birthday boy, after all! It wasn't necessarily the most appropriate gift Acadia had ever given. Acadia sucked in a breath at the intense pain in her knuckles, then yelled at him directly: "You beat him senseless, you idiot!"

She was referring to a good friend of hers, Bernard Hanover. He was eleven years old, like her, but, unlike Acadia, he did not get an acceptance letter from any wizarding academy. It was a completely unexpected turn of events, for Bernard's parents were "properly" magical and had commendable positions at the Ministry of Magic. In other words, Bernard was a Squib.

The birthday boy, whose name was Tyler, put a hand to his throbbing nose. "He deserved it, didn't he? The git ain't worth a sickle!" Tyler proceeded to shove Acadia into the swimming pool. At that moment Tyler's mother came outside in a flurry.

"Heavens...what has that girl done to you? I'm sending an Owl to her parents at once!" Tyler's mum screamed, reeling at the sight of her son's bloody nose. "Come inside dear, before you bleed to death," She continued, her voice wavering. "And you..." She continued, furiously.

At this point Acadia was hauling herself over the edge of the pool, on solid ground again.

"You run home this instant. I never want to see your scrawny face again, do you hear me? There's a reason you weren't invited to this party Acadia Aisling O'Callaghan!" And Tyler's mother promptly shoved her back into the pool. At this point, most of the party guests laughed at Acadia's fate. Some just stared helplessly.

"Go on then, laugh! That's right!" She slammed both arms in the water forcefully then made her way to the edge again. Still in a rage, she hauled herself out and glared at every snotty kid who had attended Tyler's party.

"Go on and play with your loser boyfriend!" Tyler yelled through a crack in a window as Acadia walked out the massive gates of the mansion. She recoiled at the comment, and turned, but the gate shut and locked quickly behind her. She gave the bars a hard kick, then limped away, her toes now pulsing with pain. Only when she was a safe distance away from the party and hidden behind a huge oak tree did the tears come.

"I'll kill him. I'LL KILL HIM!" Acadia screamed, her face flushed in intense anger. Bernard stood a little ways away. He was a short kid, and a little on the chubby side, but he had a nice-featured, kind face. Currently, his brown hair poked every which way and his clothes were ragged. His face was a bloody mess and he was limping terribly.

Bernard reached out quickly, grabbing Acadia's arm before she stormed off and did something rash. "He's not worth it, Cad. Just beat me up is all," He tried to reason with her, but there was no reasoning with an angry bull.

"This is the third time in a week, Bernard! He can't get away with this anymore. I won't let him!" She retorted, yanking her arm away.

Bernard's usual gentle gaze turned hard. "I won't let you go and get yourself hurt too. Besides, it'll make it worse for me. Is that what you want?"

Acadia had never heard her friend raise his voice like this. It took her off guard, but she recovered soon enough. "No, of course not! I...well, we've got to do something." She said helplessly, leaning against the huge oak tree in her backyard. Bernard nodded and sat down on the plush grass. He motioned for Acadia to join him.

"I'm going to do something about it, Cad, but you're not going to like it," He started with a sigh.

This got Acadia to shut up. She sat next to her best friend, a Squib, and her temper dropped to be replaced with grave concern. For a moment they sat in silence together, cross-legged on the grass. Finally Bernard broke the stillness.

"I'm going away." He stated, purposely looking away from his friend. He didn't want her to see the tears form in his eyes.

"Oh come on. You're not going to--"

"My parents disowned me. They kicked me out. Don't want a Squib in the family," Bernard interrupted. His tone was hard...embittered.

After a brief rush of shock, Acadia offered, "You can stay here! You're like my brother anyway, mum and dad won't mind."

"I'm going to live with my grandparents on my mum's side. They're muggles, you know. I can't live here anymore. Tyler isn't going away any time soon, and there'll be nothing convincing his family that he's not the 'good boy' they think he is," Bernard reasoned with her, hoping she would understand, stubborn as the girl was.

Acadia took in a wavering breath. She felt suddenly drained of wrath, of sadness, of everything. She looked up from the ground, and saw a tear fall off her friend's bruised cheek. For a moment, she just stared at him, with all the compassion of a loyal friend. There was no pity in her gaze, just a sort of fear. "We'd better get you washed up," she muttered, lifting her hand and gently wiping away his tears.