Not a Pretty Girl

NOT A PREETY GIRL

Chapter 1
The rain poured mercilessly from the thick ominous clouds penetrating her warmest cloak. Though her hood was drawn Mehgera’s thick auburn hair was saturated with three hours worth of rain water running down her neck and into her robes. She couldn’t possibly care less if she were attracting the wrong kind of attention in muggle London. She trudged up the cobblestone street two suitcases and a back pack in hand. She figured she had six blocks to go before she reached her destination when a sickening crack of thunder jolted her system.
“Smashing” she muttered grimly.
She continued her assent up the steadily increasing hill when a bang like a gun went off that nearly made her drop her luggage in fright. She looked for the source of the noise when she realized that it must have been a car backfiring. Sighing she looked bleakly at her surroundings. This time she really did drop her luggage, in peeling green letters a sign over a seedy looking tavern read: The Leaky Cauldron. It was luck that I looked up now she thought; I certainly would have never noticed this place otherwise. Mehgera had the distinct suspicion that the muggles passing her would have never noticed this pub even if they were staring at the aged sign.
Watchfully the young n stn stepped into the pub and removed her hood. Out of habit she took in her environment hurriedly. An elderly witch sat at the bar smoking a cigar and drinking a glass of a smoking mauve liquid. In the corner a couple sat obviously inebriated and groping each other. A group of middle aged warlocks sat in the center of the room playing Exploding Snap and a cloaked witch sat at the other end of the bar sipping what looked like brandy. Not for the first time this week Mehgera sighed loudly.
She removed her waterlogged cloak and pulled a piece of parchment out that had been preserved thanks to a water repelling charm. She read the letter to herself already knowing that they wouldn’t be here for three hours yet. Wearily she took a seat at the bar and ordered a buterbeer and pulled her hair out of her robes allowing it to hang mid-back. She studied herself in the mirror hanging above the bar while the bartender went to the cellar for more buterbeer. Her lengthy hair shrouded her slightly round face before she pulled it back, tucking it safely behind her ears. Her winter pallor had returned she noted irritably, her mud brown eyes hung heavily now as she continued to stare at the girl in the mirror. She had given up hope some time ago on her figure; which was not plump but too voluptuous for her taste. Her large breasts and hips had always attracted more attention than it was worth but her dark eyes and hair gave her a manner of mystery that had held the complete idiots at bay.
“Will that be all for yeh miss?” the bartender had returned smiling at her revealing several missing teeth.
“For now.”
“Okay that’ll be three Knuts” Mehgera handed him the money casually and began sipping her butterbeer. Warmth spread slowly through her body and she relaxed a little and pulled out a much worn copy of: Most Potent Potions and began to read from a dog eared page.
It wouldn’t have appeared to and onlooker that Mehgera noticed the hours slip past her or even that the party she was meeting was forty-five minutes late. Her eyes reread words that she already knew by heart as she moved mouth soundlessly. She was perhaps mid-way along a paragraph regarding a potion that would paralyze the drinker’s ankles when a hand rested on her shoulder.
“You’re late.” Mehgera said bluntly causing the middle aged woman to jump.
“I didn’t th-“
“I saw you in the mirror” she said setting her book down. Her eyes focused on a portly woman with flaming red hair, a young man with untidy black hair and a worn looking man who had to have been close if slightly younger to the woman’s age.
The woman smiled nervously at her, a smile that Mehgera did not return.
“You’ll be Harry?” Mehgera said suddenly, her dark eyes staring fixedly at his scar. He nodded beginning to dislike Mehgera less and less every second. Mehgeracheached a hand out towards Harry’s forehead; she stopped just short of it and looked at Harry with a question in her solid eyes. He nodded and let her trace her finger over his scar. The red headed woman looked scandalized by Mehgera’s brazenness but said nothing. The tired looking man looked on with interest bust said nothing either, though he was obviously amused.
Harry however felt a warm sadness flow through his body as though being able to feel her emotions. He looked at her as though she were the first woman he had ever met and longed for her to touch him again.
“That thing must have hurt like hell” she muttered taking her hand away. Harry smiled liking the way that she could talk about it with casualty that Ron and Hermione had never mastered. Harry was rapidly changing his opinion of this pretty girl with dark and eyes and hair.
“So you’re Mehgera Black?”

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