Arabella was about twenty yards away from her house. She had started for work, staring right down at the ground and looking at papers she'd brought home with her before she had looked up to make sure she didn't walk into the bushes, as she often did on her way to the office when distracted. That was when the world had turned upside down, and she had done the only reasonable thing to do- she had hit the ground instantly, curling up into a tiny little ball made up of her red wool coat and gray skirt that reach below her knees. She held onto her knees and kept her eyes shut between looking at her journal, praying someone would tell her how to get safe, or come and stop the spell.
Her anxiety was at an all time high. As a squib, she was incapable of altering her situation, and was as helpless as a babe left in it's crib right then. She had cried, ugly tears that left her makeup smeared and her eyes red as she kept curled up. The road was hard under her, but she didn't trust her legs, and she liked the feeling of being as close to the earth as possible. Her eyes were closed tight, and she was currently trying to just control her breathing, which was erratic at best at that moment. During the war, having a curse or hex fired upon her had been her greatest fear, due to her inability to protect herself. And now her fear was public, in the journals, and people would learn she was a squib; useless. Unwanted.
Her brother had enjoyed casting spells on her when he'd been in school. He would lock her into a room magically, or make her knees turn to jelly. She would fall, scream, and beg and only have corrective spells cast by her father when her crying grew too annoying to ignore.
Her friends in the Order would only protect her for so long before they tired of her still needing their aid. She was well aware of how the good intentions of helping someone could sour when it became inconvenient. Aberforth, once safe a home, would come and then find her pathetic, she was sure of it. When she open dyer eyes and saw his figure in the mist, she raised her head slightly, her hands on her now messy hair as she called out his name in a gasp.