Chapter Ten: Living Room Peeks
POV: Nia, Emily, and Albus
"Get back here!"
My heart was banging in my chest with painful bursts of adrenaline-fueled fear, like I was being chased by a psychotic murderer. I tried to control my breathing, pushing my palms over my mouth and nose to muffle the sound as in the distance I heard her yelling for me.
"Nia Harper," the monster shouted, "get back here this instant!"
I was often told I was impossible when it came to making the smart choice in a scenario where the troubled path tended to be the one I would gladly run to without looking back. Yet, for those bastards who think I am never going to change, well—they are right. I will choose the highway any day.
I sprinted out from behind a crook of my father's bookcase, but I was intercepted with foul play. A spell magicked the rug to rise two inches off the ground two and trip me.
"Grandmother," I hissed, kicking my legs when the blasted thing started to wrap around me, forbidding me to make another run for it. "We've done these stupid lessons for a month now. Leave me alone!"
Grandmother Brocklehurst appeared before me, arms crossed as she narrowed navy eyes at me. There was a massive book in her hands that she gripped with a silent prayer to whatever God she worshiped to give her patience before she used said book to beat me to death.
"How can you ever flourish as a proper lady when you act like a wild animal?"
"I'm not some puppy you can train to stop peeing on the carpet," I told her as I continued to kick my legs, punching the rug to release me. "I don't need to be to taught how to sit, stand, and speak! I want to breathe fresh air, drink something else than tea, fly my broom—"
She scoffed at that.
"I want to see my friends," I continued. "I want to see Liam. You're the reason why I haven't received an owl from him in weeks." I knew for a fact she was intercepting my letters; our house-elf Babbity (don't judge me) told me as such when I threatened to runaway if she did not tell me who had been tampering with my mail. Babbity had also sent Libby (my owl) to Liam's when my grandmother continued to lock her in a cage for days.
"You'll have time for friends later," she dismissed. "Now, we will continue working on your manners."
"My manners are bloody fine."
The charm on the rug ended. I was sprawled out on the floor, glaring at the ceiling of the living room, but I was then snatched up by the collar of my vintage Weird Sisters shirt.
"You will not bring shame to the Harper name," she hissed at me. "Do not forget your status in this world."
"What status?" I gripped her wrists, trying to set myself free. "We are at the bottom of the food chain! We aren't worth a single sickle!"
Her hand raised, but before it could fall upon my cheek, my parents appeared at the entrance. Both were so very similar in appearances, striking blue eyes, shiny blonde hair, tall and outstanding, but there were differences that made one whimsical and the other stern.
"Mother," said my own, "please excuse yourself. We would like to talk to our daughter."
"Mandy," my grandmother said, aghast, "if you do not allow me to teach this incorrigible child, then—"
"I am not your daughter," I hissed. "You don't need to teach me anything."
"That's enough, Nia," my father interjected firmly. Silence fell upon me immediately. "Forgive her, Joan. She is just restless from a month of being home."
I scowled. It was not just from being home, but from dealing with this old bat's nonsense.
My grandmother nodded once at her son-in-law before turning on her heels. When she had crossed past the door, I turned to my mother and said, "If you don't have her living in a nursing home, I am leaving. I don't care if I have to live in the Forbidden Forest. I'll happily survive off berries and squirrels."
"It's adorable that you think squirrels are in the Forbidden Forest," my mother laughed.
I rolled my eyes at her just as my father approached my side. He placed a hand on my right shoulder, looking me deep in the eye (he was big on that). "Your mother and I were thinking that maybe you should go see Liam."
My frown vanished from my face. "Really?"
"Really."
"Thank you!" I cheered, throwing my hands around his neck. "I cannot wait! His last letter said he was spending the weekend with Malfoy and Potter, but I'll just cut that short. Or they can deal with me because I have loads I need to catch up on with Liam! Oh!" I stopped, clapping my hands once together when I remembered Rose's letter. "Maybe he'll go with me to Godric's Hallow. Rose said she was staying a week there. I have to owl Emily again, or maybe Malfoy already has—"
"Nia," I had not realized my mistake until my father's eyes turned sharp in my direction. "When was it decided that it was okay for you to befriend that boy? I specifically ordered you to stay away from him, didn't I?"
"Kellan," my mother said in the same tone he had used with me. "Do not poison the girl's mind any further. She is just a child, as is Scorpius Malfoy. They have nothing to do with the past."
The glare on my father's face did not diminish. "My only child will not interact with the Malfoys, Mandy. Do you understand me? I will not allow it. The mere use of their name in this house is an insult to my family."
"You are judging a boy for something his grandfather did," Mother admonished. "What if that was Nia? What if someone rejected her off what your family did during time of war? You are not innocent, either, but you don't put your mistakes on our daughter's shoulders. Do not do it to someone's son."
It was rare when my parents argued about something. They had differences, yes, but they often met in the middle to resolve them. It worked for them, really, but the Malfoy subject was one that hardly was ever civilly discussed. Father would not stand for it. A part of me knew he knew what Mother said was the unchangeable truth—he was just too stubborn to admit it. As such, he stalked past my mother to exit the living room.
I lowered myself rather ungracefully on the open couch. "If he wants me to hate Scorpius Malfoy, I will, Mother. I swear it." I looked down at my dirty sneakers, frowning. "But I don't want to."
"In a whole, your father is a just man, Nia. Sadly, alike most of us, he is plagued by the demons of war. His nightmares consist of the Malfoys." Mother took a seat beside me, reeling me gently into her loving arms. One of her hands smoothed out my hair from my face. "He watched his father die at the hands of Lucius Malfoy. It torments him every day."
"Grandfather Harper and the Malfoys chose to be Death Eaters, did they not?" Mother nodded at my question. "And they have paid for their sins?"
"Yes, darling, they have," she said.
"Then why can't Father forgive them?"
"Lucius Malfoy died alone in Azkaban," Mother murmured, "but your father, alike so many others, did not think it was enough. They wanted Narcissa and Draco Malfoy in a cell, too, until their dying day."
I snuggled closer to her side. "That's terrible."
"You are a little rough around the edges, darling," Mother said, "but you are kind and fair. Most importantly, you are not your father's mistakes or grudges. Do you understand me?"
I did not have to answer because I've known for so long I was not him.
X
Ring. Ring. Ring.
I flipped the page of my book.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
"Don't you hear the phone, Emily?" an annoyed voice shouted. "Get it!"
I sighed as I closed the book I was reading and tossed it to the couch nearby.
"Hello?" I answered the cordless phone.
"Emily, dear, is that you?"
My jaw dropped; I clearly had to be mistaking that voice—that voice that I hadn't heard in forever, that voice that meant so much to me was on the other end. She could not be calling me. She could not know where I was.
My lip quivered, something inside of me going awry. "Yes," I breathed, feeling the rest of my body shake, "it's me."
"It's been two years, Emmy," the woman sniffed on the other end, her voice thick with an emotion that was burning inside of me, too. "I tried to reach you, I swear I did. I even went back to New York to look for you, but all traces of you were gone. Then there was a rumor you were in England and I had to follow it through."
I bit my lip to muffle a cry.
"Running away from home, from everything here...that isn't going to end well for you, Emmy."
"I had no choice, Aunt Marlo," I managed to say past the knot in my throat. "I was taken. I was taken from home, from our family, from my memories—"
"Emily," Aunt Marlo interjected, the use of my name weighing with sorrow. It was said in our family that she was an Empath, that she could feel anyone's emotions like they were her own. I could not tell then if it was her despair or my own that I was hearing. "I need you to believe me that I would have never let this happen to you. I fought so hard to keep you, but the Magical Congress deemed me unfit. Oh, but I would have kept you, my sweet Emmy. I would have given you the life you deserved."
I could not keep the cry from escaping past my lips. I felt it burn all the way up. My bones weighed with longing, with deep nostalgia and remorse. I could see Aunt Marlo, with her long, cascading hair, wide violet eyes, and hear her contagious laughter. She had been my favorite person once, a lifetime ago. She was my mother's younger sister, but never seemed to fit the mold. They thought I was too young to understand she had troubles with narcotics, but I'd known for so long, I could see the haze in her eyes. It was why she was not eligible to take me with her.
"I know," I whispered to her, clinging on to the phone. "The Magical Congress made their choice, but one day I will be seventeen, Auntie. Then I...."
"Will you come home?" she asked. "Or will you stay there with him?"
I was too afraid to answer that. I had often contemplated my course of action when I turned seventeen, but love is not something you can turn your back on. Even though Aunt Marlo had been a comforting figure in my past life, clinging on to my loneliness, sympathizing with my tensed home-life, she was not him.
"I started school here," I found myself murmuring. "I started Hogwarts, like in the books you used to read me."
Aunt Marlo sighed, but then laughed lightly. "I told you it was real. I bet it's ancient, far more than Ilvermorny is. Are you making friends, Emmy?"
"The best ones."
"I'm happy to hear that," Aunt Marlo said, but I could still hear her discontent. She wanted me home. I wanted to be home, too. But there was no home to go back to. "Stick with the people that make you feel whole and special, because you are, Emmy. You deserve to be happy. No matter what happened here, you deserve to live out your life. Don't listen to what he tells you, you are not a monster—"
Loud static replaced my aunt's voice.
"Hello?" I said into the phone. "Auntie?"
"She's not allowed to make contact." I dropped the phone at the voice, startled. He had the phone's cord in his hand, disconnected from its plug.
I fiddled with my fingers, trying to calm my breathing before I bent to pick up the phone and hang it back up. "It was a wrong number," I said to him, already heading out of the living room, but he stopped me with a raised hand.
His green eyes were narrowed at me. Like always. "She was warned once before. I will have to contact the Magical Congress to let them know she reached out when specifically told unless clean, she cannot. And let's face it, Emmy, Aunt Marlo is not clean."
"She just wanted to know how we were—"
"We?" he snarled, taking a rough step in my direction. I yelped on instinct. "There is no we, Emily. There never was, not when it came to that family. It was all about you. It still is."
"It's not like that—"
"Of course it is!" he growled, now gripping my forearms. "Because what happened didn't damage me? Because I am not still grieving?"
"Then act like it!" I could not believe that came out of my mouth. I cannot believe I had raised my voice, but I was shaking. It was not just fear and distress, it was anger. It was betrayal. "Act like it hurts you! Show me that it does! Because I love you, Nick, and I'd do—"
"We're done here," my brother hissed, releasing my arms as he took a step back. "Go to your room and stay there until dinner."
I shook my head. "No, I'm trying to talk—"
"Go to your damn room!" he shouted, reaching for me again. He pushed me in the direction of my room. "I don't want to hear or see you, you filthy witch!"
Whatever was holding me together, whatever was the glue keeping me a deformed whole dissolved. Anger turned to misery. The voices in my head came back.
There was no escaping this prison.
X
"Fire!" James and Freddie burst into the living room from the kitchen with smoke following behind them. "Fire!"
"What? Where?" Lily screamed. "Where? Is it on me?" She jumped from her place on the couch and ran in a circle. "Daddy! Daddy, put me out!"
Dad chuckled, lowering his edition of the Daily Prophet. "Lily, there's nothing on you. You're safe, dear."
"James Sirius Potter!" Mum emerged from upstairs, probably hearing the racket from her office. "What did you do?"
Stopping his shouting, stopping everything in general, James huffed at our mother, acting like nothing had happened the last second. "What did I do? What did Freddie do is more like it."
Our cousin gasped, stopping his attempt to 'put-out' my little sister. "You bloody traitor, Potter!" He frowned, grabbing a nearby vase like if he planned to get revenge that way. "Don't pin this one on me! You were the one who wanted to experiment with muggle firecrackers!"
"Firecrackers?" Mum hissed, already descending the steps like a dragon mid hunt. "James, didn't I forbid you from buying any items when you went to London with your Uncle George? How many times do I have to tell you—"
Not knowing the rules of life—in his case to keep it—James interrupted our mother. "Technically, Uncle George went to that muggle joke-shop and left Freddie and me to scavenger on our own."
Freddie nodded aggressively. "It's true." He rather tattle on his own father than face the wrath of Ginny Weasley. Uncle George had warned him about making Mum angry (he was also told to blame James and make a run for it).
James smiled innocently at Mum. "See? How were we suppose to know that an illegal merchant would persuade us to buy the firecrackers? Therefore, for our lack of adult supervision, Uncle George is to blame."
Mum raised a red eyebrow at him, crossing her arms and her fury not withering. "Do you think I was born yesterday, James?"
"You better not answer that, mate," Freddie muttered to my brother. "It's a trap."
As Dad's laughter bounced off the tension in the living room, the kitchen door swung open. Lily's eyes landed on the people by the door, and in an instant she was skipping her way toward them.
"Uncle Ron!" She launched herself at him, hugging him tightly as Hugo rolled his eyes at her and Rose smiled sweetly.
"Your kitchen's on fire, Ginny," Uncle Ron told Mum as he scooped Lily up.
Mum glared. "I know, Ronald. Apparently George's not to be trusted with children."
Uncle Ron scoffed. "Obviously." With his free hand, he pushed Hugo forward. "This is why I bring mine to you. You just understand them and have all the patience to deal with them."
"Uncle Harry!" Again, the door swung open. "Your kitchen is on fire."
In came Louis, Dominique, and Lucy.
Groaning and muttering a curse, Mum sent Dad a glare. "Why'd you sign us up for this weekend, Harry?"
"It was unavoidable," Dad chuckled as he leaned back on his armchair. "No one else could do it. They asked Victoire and Molly to do it, but they were both busy."
Snorting at that, Dominique shoved James and Freddie out of her way as she headed for a seat inside the living room. "Yeah, really busy. Vic and Teddy are out celebrating her graduation from Hogwarts."
"Again?" I raised my eyebrow. "It's the fourth time since summer started."
"I know. Dad's getting annoyed about the amount of time Ted spends with Vic." Dominique turned her eyes at my dad. "You should be expecting an irritated visit from him soon, Uncle Harry. Dad's wondering why you can't keep Teddy locked up in his room."
"What about Molly?" I spoke again, trying to stir Dad away from his sure mumbling of Teddy getting older or Mum's rants about how she's tried to get Teddy to stay home.
"Oh. That." Lucy, Uncle Percy's second child, snickered as she pried Lily off from Uncle Ron. "She got Artie."
"Artie?" Freddie and James asked at once, both looking between amused and sympathetic. "That's terrible."
Rushing toward the window, Lily called for Dad's attention."There's non-family people outside."
I jumped out of my seat eagerly. Finally! My entertainment and escape from this crazy house!
"Excellent! They're here!" I said joyfully, grabbing onto Rose's sleeve and pulling her to the kitchen.
"Who's here?" Uncle Ron asked as Dad tugged him behind his daughter and me. "You've guests, mate?"
Crossing the flaming kitchen counter-top, the smell of burning wood in the air and pieces of what used to be firecrackers scattered around the floor, I turned to my uncle and dad before Rose opened the back door. "Mum's going to have her hands full, but it's going to be so wicked."
"Why's it going to be wicked? Who's—" The rest of Uncle Ron's annoyed question was halted as I started waving a hand at a group in our garden. "No," he squeaked.
"Took you ages, Al," Scorpius smirked from where he stood, his father directly behind him, looking more than uncomfortable.
Clearing his throat, Mister Malfoy nodded his head. "Potter. Weasley."
"Malfoy," Dad and Uncle Ron said at once.
Rose and I gave each other a skeptical look before she rolled her eyes and headed for the group. She smiled at the two blondes, making Uncle Ron gawk at her as she gave the smallest Malfoy a quick hug. "It's nice to see you again, Scorpius."
He returned the smile. "You too, Rose."
"Bloody hell, not this," I heard my uncle muttered.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mister Malfoy." Rose extended her hand out to Scorpius' father.
Trying not to be hesitant, Mister Malfoy shook her hand. "Scorpius tells me you inherited your mother's brains, Rose. What a gift."
"Gift?" Uncle Ron muttered again, clearly appalled.
Huffing next to the Malfoys, Lucas Zabini glared at us. "And what am I? Do I look like a gnome?"
I laughed. "Zabini! You're here? I wasn't aware we invited you."
As Rose proceeded to hug his son, Mister Zabini glanced up in our direction. "Thanks for having our boys over, Potter."
"Yeah," Mister Malfoy cleared his throat again. "Thanks, Potter."
Dad scratched his head, looking a little uncomfortable while Uncle Ron fumed next to him. "No problem. Your boys are my son's friends. They're welcomed whenever they want."
Scorpius and Lucas beamed like if they were granted the greatest honor. I rolled my eyes.
"Are you sure you can handle this lot?" Mister Malfoy asked in attempt of small talk, looking between the four of us. "My nephew Liam will be arriving soon, too."
"Not to mention Nia," Rose added, happily.
"What about the American girl? Emily, was it? Scorpius mentioned she was a part of the lot," Mister Malfoy added.
I shook my head at him. "She is, but Emily wasn't allowed over. But Dad can handle us."
Dad held a baffled expression, turning a slight green as he started counting his fingers. "I can...manage. Yeah."
"Are you sure?" Uncle Ron questioned his sanity.
"Sure. It's nothing." Dad shrugged. "What can possibly go wrong?"
Jinxing himself, Lily bolted out the backdoor and into the garden as Hugo trialed behind her. "Daddy!" she yelled, running toward us. "Fire!"
Dad groaned. "Again?"
"Help me!" And now James ran out the door.
"James!" A loud shout came from inside the house.
"Run, James, run!" Freddie shouted. "She's coming!" James and Freddie leaped over the small fence surrounding the garden and began to run through the roads of Godric's Hallow.
"James Sirius Potter!" Mum—followed by the rest of her nieces and nephews came out the door. "Fredrick Weasley!"
"Gin," Dad coughed. "We've got company." (Oh, the shame.)
Not caring, Mum narrowed her eyes at the two men by her rose bushes. "Malfoy. Blaise."
"Bad timing, Ginny?" Mister Zabini asked, trying his hardest not to laugh.
"Why would you say that?" Mum huffed.
"There they are, Aunt Ginny!" Lucy hollered. "They're heading for the cemetery!"
Mum quickly tied her long, flaming red hair into a messy bun as she lost interest in the guests. "That's were they're going end up once I get a hold of them!"
She pulled out her wand and began sprinting.
"I love your mother," Lucas smiled at me, clearly entertained.
For a moment, as my family and my friends watched Mum tackle James and Freddie down in a swift movement, I felt at ease. Time was just going to fly by now and it was just going to get even more intense.