Willow was only just nine years old when Casey left to join the army. Her brother is nearly eleven years her senior, really more of a second father figure than a sibling. And it is his leaving that stands out most in her memory. She marks it as the moment in her life that everything started turning to shit. Of course it wasn't his leaving that was the cause, just the most memorable event before it all went for the worse.

It was subtle at first, her father grew more distant and her mother fell ill more frequently. She wouldn't know the illness for addiction until she grew up but she knew that her mum had changed, become temperamental and unpredictable. At times her mother could be showering her with affection and others nothing she did was right. All the while Mr. Metz spent more and more time at the pub. Somedays she wouldn't see him at all.

For a while the family was able to keep up appearances. And Willow did well enough in school, although even then she was beginning to show the signs of a terminally low self-esteem. She would take twice as long as the other kids to do the same work, trying to make sure it was perfect. At least until she quit trying altogether. And then in Third Year the addiction finally claimed her mum and rather publicly at that. She became the girl with dead junkie mum.

After all that her father found he couldn't stand to look at her anymore. When he was sober and contrite enough he would explain how much she resembled her mother. When he wasn't he'd just give in to fits of grief or anger, both of which he remedied with alcohol and loose women. It wasn't long before her father couldn't stand what he'd become, an intolerance he also projected onto Willow, seeing all his flaws in her as she fled further into the escape of drugs, alcohol and the rave culture.