A Love Story
CHAPTER ONE
Michelle Gardner was a witch. An American witch, at that. Between that fact, and a husband who had died tragically (whilst helping to guard Azkaban during the great prison riots) her potions shop did tremendously well, due to the human interest factor. Forget the fact that it was the only potions shop in Hogsmeade. Her friendly smile and curious nature was the reason she was so busy.
She lived in a house on the outskirts of the village. Her shop was attached to the front of her home. It had it�s own fireplace, for those wishing to arrive by floo powder, as well as a rather large group of trees in the front yard, to cover for those apparating from anywhere else. She lived alone with her son, James, a feisty boy of four who never seemed to cause enough mischief and mayhem. During the hours that her shop was open, James was either entertaining himself around the house, or he spent the day with his grandma, which of course, any boy of four would prefer.
It was a Friday afternoon, that our story begins. James had not been allowed at his grandma�s because he had magically (although, accidentally) set the living room on fire the previous day. He had been testy and angry at his mother all day, even going so far as to throw a tantrum in the shop, in the hopes of getting sent to his beloved grandma�s for the rest of the day, but to no avail. Michelle was a loving, but stern mother, who recognized his act for what it was.
The day did not continue to get any better, because at dinner that night, James refused to help clean up, and didn�t want to get his bath before bed. By the time Michelle finally got him settled in, and went back downstairs to tally up the day�s receipts, she was exhausted. It had been a long day and she wanted nothing more than to collapse in the very chair she was sitting in and go to sleep. But as she looked up, she realized that she had to get up and dump the dinner scraps outside in her compost heap. With a weary sigh, Michelle gathered up the scraps in her old frying pan, and trudged outside. It was a decent bit of a walk to get to the back of her property, and as she turned the scraps out, she looked up into the cloudless night sky.
The moon sure is full and bright tonight, she thought to herself. Kinda nice, she sighed.
Just then, she felt the first prickle of fear, the kind of fear that you have when you know someone is watching you. Michelle looked out into the trees of the forest that bordered her house in the back and stared. Suddenly, she saw them. A pair of enormous amber colored eyes were staring at her. Stifling a scream, she began to back away. As she reached into her pocket for her wand, she realized that it was still back in the house. With that thought, out from the woods stepped the scariest sight she had ever seen. A fully grown werewolf was staring at her. For almost a full minute, she and the creature stared at one another.
Michelle began to chant in a fearful and almost childish voice, �my son�s inside, I�m all he has left, please don�t hurt me!� Suddenly, a lone howl issued from somewhere deep in the woods. The werewolf turned towards the sound, and Michelle took her chance. Without a backwards glance, she turned and ran as fast as she could go. Arriving at the back door, it magically opened to allow her entrance, but never was there more of a muggle moment when Michelle slammed it shut and locked all the locks on it. She then ran to the table where her wand was and looked back outside the back window. The werewolf was still there, staring at the house as if politely puzzled as to her whereabouts. Michelle wasn�t going to take any chances. She put out all of the lights and trudged upstairs, collapsing on the floor beside her son�s bed. She�d be dammed if she�d let that thing get to her son. She vowed to stay up all night just in case.
Chapter Two
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