Andromeda and the platinum scroll by Dionne Newman (best self help books to read txt) 📕

Waking Up

Andromeda lay sleeping under a huge, oak tree with the wind whipping her hair, sun beating down on her face, gently mumbling her eyes started to open and she grimaced as she caught an eyeful of the brightest orange. Grumbling to herself Andromeda covered her eyes with her hand and stood up, she looked around. Why was it this sunny but still so cold? She moved her hand away from her eyes and took a handful of hair, hmm orange today, next grabbing the little mirror from her bag she looked into it. Green eyes? This was only the second time her eye colour had changed. Most eleven year old girls would find it extremely unusual to wake up every morning with a different colour of hair and sometimes different colour of eyes, but not Andromeda, she was used to it by now, every morning for the past year she woke under the oak tree with different coloured hair.
The first time it happened now that was a shock! She was ten years old and sleeping under a huge tree in the meadow with her best friend Ashen, Andromeda had woke and was ready to brush her hair, looking into the compact mirror that she had just pulled from her rucksack, she saw a great tuft of the brightest purple resting on top of her head. “WHAT THE…” she had screamed, waking Ashen “what’s wrong?” Ashen had called from her branch on the tree, when Andromeda did not reply Ashen had flown down and saw her best friend sitting at the trunk of the tree, pulling her hair with tears running down her face. But that was all a distant memory and now that abnormality had become part of Andromeda’s everyday life. Still when her hair turned an ungodly colour such as grey or a murky mauve colour, Andromeda was put in an awful mood which lasted the whole day. Orange was good though and the wavy cut and fringe looked good with her face. Oh yeah! Not only did her hair change coloured, the shape of he cut, her eyes and her facial features changed occasionally too. Slowly and carelessly Ashen came drifting down from her branch. “Orange looks good on you, Andy”, she yawned “what’s for breakfast?” Andromeda looked at Ashen “dunno why don’t you go see what Mrs Dowel can give us?” She said with a wicked smile. “Sure, sure Andy, I’ll be back soon” ashen said as she flew away, her tiny wings beating gracefully and her legs swinging. Andy…The only person that could call Andromeda that was Ashen, personally Andromeda hated the name but that’s what her mother had introduced her as to Ashen. She felt a pang as she thought of her mother. Andromeda remembered when Ashen had come home with her mother and father with a smile. “Look what we bought you baby,” her father had smiled and showed her the tiny, sleeping fairy “this is your new friend, her name is Ashen.” A four year old Andromeda had taken the tiny creature into her hands and gently stroked its head; the fairy was about six inches big, had silver hair and wore a bright blue dress that seemed to glitter in the light. “Nobody wanted her because she can’t make fairy dust” Andromeda’s father had explained, “I don’t care she’s beautiful daddy”, Andromeda had laid the fairy down gently on her bed and flung her arms around her mother and father “ yes she is beautiful, just like you” her father said as both her parents hugged her tightly. “Your fathers right Andromeda, your beautiful darling and you always will be” Andromeda’s mothers voice echoed inside her head. Andromeda wiped the tears that were escaping from her eyes; she always got weepy thinking about her parent’s.
Andromeda sat down and listened carefully for Ashen coming back, ten minutes later she heard the fluttering of wings and saw that ashen was back, holding a loaf of pan bread, two full jam jars and a big raspberry tart. “Nearly got caught by that damn animal that, that horrible old woman keeps” ashen said indignantly. Ashen had a huge problem with old Mrs Dowel’s dog; it seemed to relish the thought of sinking its teeth into Ashen’s long tanned leg. Ashen at the present moment was 5ft 9”, huge for a fairy it turns out, but she could miniaturise herself at a moment’s notice, the thing was Ashen loved being tall, she could also hide her wings but didn’t see the point in it unless they were walking around the muggle town, it would be strange for a muggle to see a beautiful girl with huge pink wings… sitting down next to Andromeda, Ashen placed the food on the grass on top of a white and red picnic blanket that Andromeda had pulled from her rucksack. Silently they both cut off bits off bread and spread the jam generously over it. They ate without speaking as per usual, until the whole loaf of bread was done, then Andromeda lifted the remaining bits of jam and scooped it on to the raspberry tart and placed the other full jar into her bag while Ashen took the empty jar and flew with it over to the skip behind the trees. When she came back Andromeda gave her a small knife and two plates which they had taken from Mrs Dowel three weeks earlier, at once Ashen cut the tart in half and placed the pieces of tart on each plate, then she handed the plate back to Andromeda, “thanks” Andromeda said and again they resumed silence until every scrap of the tart was done. It was really good! Once they had finished they placed the plates at their sides and lay back onto the grass, groaning with the fullness in their stomachs. Andromeda and Ashen both looked at the slight bump on Ashen’s stomach which was due to how much she had just eaten. Simultaneously they both burst out laughing. They laughed for a long time, until their sides hurt and tears ran down their faces. Neither one could explain why they were laughing so much; it was just one of those things that happened when life was going great, but life wasn’t going great, yeah maybe it was good but it wasn’t great. If it was going great she’d be sitting in her house with her mother practicing her magic while Ashen sat cheering along whenever she got a spell exactly right…but she wasn’t there, she was here…in the forest…sleeping under a tree…keeping warm with the only spell she remembered…the firethorn charm – fireta mobalin – a spell which surrounded the person with an non-painful fire to heat them up when it got cold. Her mother had taught her that spell as a young child. The most useful spell to know she had called it….

Flashbacks

A ten year old Andromeda sat outside in the bright sunshine with her mother and father eating shockballs – a lemon flavoured sweet which gave the person eating it small shocks in their mouths and made red smoke come out of their nose and ears – while her father tried to charm a muggle tennis ball and two muggle tennis rackets so that he could play a game of tennis against the other racket. “Marvin, come have some Goldtea” Andromeda’s mother, Ella had called to her husband; Marvin walked over his face bright red with exertion and took the Gold tea gratefully. Goldtea was an adult drink that contained the purest alcohol that was found in the horn of a unicorn, it was called Goldtea as it was a bright golden colour. Marvin and Ella sat chattering away with each other as their young daughter walked over to the abandoned rackets and ball, Andromeda lifted her father’s wand and pointed it at the ball, instantly the ball lifted into the air, Andromeda then pointed the wand at the rackets and as the ball had done they also rose into the air, with another flick of the wand the rackets and ball began playing all by themselves as Andromeda sat on the ground and watched holding her father’s wand to bring the ball back when it got hit too hard and flew away. “my goodness, look at that!” Marvin had exclaimed as Andromeda brought the ball back for the fifth time. Running over to his daughter he scooped her up “you are wonderful baby, so talented, you’re going to make a great little witch aren’t you!” of course Andromeda had been showing signs of magical talent from a very early age, but this was advanced magic, that sixteen year olds were supposed to be able to do. Ella came over and hugged Andromeda “you make us so proud” her mother crooned. Behind them ashen shot her thumbs up and a huge grin. Then suddenly the sky turned black and the air went cold, a look of fear passed over Andromeda's fathers face “get in the house, NOW!” he ordered them “hurry up, Ashen you too, everyone get in the house!” her mother put Andromeda down and grabbed her hand. Once they were inside her father started muttering spells under his breath pointing his wand all over the house. “that won’t stop them from getting in Marvin” Andromeda's mother cried, “no but it may hold them off” her father had replied back, his face pale white. Moments later the coldness started seeping into the house “wh-what are we going to do Marvin” Andromeda's mother stammered. Merlin chose to ignore this; it looked as though if he opened his mouth he would vomit. CRASH! The door was blasted open and in came a tall man with, dark greasy hair, skin like yellow wax and trousers that were two inches too small, in his hand he held a blue piece of parchment and began to read from it “Mr and Mrs Lorr, on the orders of the high minister himself, we have instructions to take you both away with us so we can observe and evaluate the powers you both have. The minister has taken a special interest in youse and demands that you go to see him immediately, neither one of you has a choice in this matter as it is an order from the highest man known in this world, if you do not come quietly or comply with our wishes we are entitled to take you by force or kill you. The minister does not wish youse to be harmed but if needs be it shall come to that. You may allow us to fetch a small amount of possessions for you both but you are asked that you remain seated silently. We must ask to have both your wands and any other items of magic you may have on you.” Both Marvin and Ella handed over their wands to the two guards that accompanied the man that was reading from the blue parchment. When all three men went upstairs, Ella lifted out a white metal scroll and handed it to her daughter. “put that scroll in your bag and never lose it, do not follow us when we leave, Ashen shall take care of you when we are gone, be good for her and wait until we come back, then we will tell you what’s going on, I love you darling…always” Andromeda replied, her voice breaking “I love you to mummy, please don’t go, don’t leave me please, I am sorry I did magic with daddy’s wand I won’t do it again I promise, please mummy,” tears flowing hard and fast. “no.no this has nothing to do with you but we have to go baby girl, I’m sorry,