Even though it was still morning, Kayley already felt tired. She had just returned home from her graduation and was still mad at her parents for not being there. Well, that wasn't entirely true. They had appeared just long enough to see her awarded her degree. Now, she was going over to her cousin Sky's house to celebrate. Kayley had gladly accepted the invitation, since the idea of staying home by herself on her graduation day didn't appeal to her. Besides, Sky was her best friend and always made her feel better when her parents ignored her.
As Kayley hung up her graduation robes, she wondered where her brother, Carter, had been. He was almost five years older than she was, and she hadn't seen much of him while growing up, and less of him since he graduated, but she had still expected him to be there for her graduation. Surely, he could have found the time to travel home from England for something this important. She couldn't remember the name of the organization he had joined, but was too young to be so important that he couldn't miss a day of work. Though, the way her parents spoke of him that might not be entirely true.
They always compared her to Jake. She frowned, wondering what had possessed her brother to go by such and informal version of his name. He would always be Carter to her, since she didn't think Jacob suited him.
'Oh, well, it didn't matter,' Kayley thought. She made her way back to the door. She checked the sitting room for mail before leaving, and she noticed a folded piece of paper on the coffee table. Feeling curious, she sat down on the couch and read the paper that turned out to be a letter addressed to her parents.
Then she reread it. She couldn't believe what it said. Carter had been arrested in London and sent to Azkaban. Kayley set the paper back down, trying to leave it just how she had found it. Azkaban… it sounded familiar, well, not really familiar, but like she should know what it meant. She continued on her way to the front door. She made sure that the door was shut securely behind her, still thinking about Azkaban, and Apparated to Sky's house.
Sky's family had a mansion almost as large as Kayley's. Kayley knocked on the door and was admitted by a house-elf.
She went to the living room and found all of Sky's family and the other guests in there. Aunt Kya was attending to her guests; Uncle Evan was chatting with some of his friends. Kayley noticed two large piles of presents stacked along the wall.
Kya saw Kayley enter the room and hurried over to give her niece a hug. "We've been expecting you," said Aunt Kya. She had her shoulder length brown hair drawn up in a clip, just like Kayley's. Aunt Kya was her mother's sister.
"We added you to the cake," Aunt Kya said, winking at her.
"I can't wait to see it," Kayley said enthusiastically.
"I'm glad you came, Kay."
"Me too," said Kayley. "I'm going to go look at the cake." She smiled at her aunt as she headed toward the cake.
Sky met her half way; they hugged and went to look at the cake together. The picture of Sky's fifth birthday was on it. Kayley smiled– it was one of their favorite pictures. The candles went out as the girls took deep breaths and blew, and then the scene replayed. There was a ten-year old Carter smirking at them from his chair in the picture.
"I opened one of Mom and Dad's presents already," Sky said. "It was a beautiful dress. Come and see it!" She turned to head to her bedroom. Kayley followed with interest. They went through the many rooms and up the many stairs to get to Sky's room
Sky put the dress back in the closet after they were done examining it. Kayley wondered absent-mindedly if her parents had gotten her a present. Probably not, she decided as she followed Sky out of the room.
When they were walking back to the living room, they passed a storage room, cluttered with all sorts of broken objects, several of them Kayley couldn't identify. There was a broken telescope leaning against the wall, a set of lopsided scales in one corner and a cauldron with a hole in it in the center of the room under a table piled with newspapers. Kayley curiosity got the better of her when she didn't recognize the name of the paper, and she doubled back, Sky following her. They stepped into the room. The top the paper had The Daily Prophet written on the front. Kayley picked it up, captivated. Sky was peering over her shoulder.
"What's this?" Kayley asked.
"That's an English newspaper," Sky replied.
"Why do you have an English newspaper?" asked Kayley.
"Dad works for the Ministry, and they might have to help the Brits fight the Dark Lord. Dad doesn't want the Ministry to get involved, but they have to keep track of the goings on over there." Sky answered.
Kayley nodded and read the headline: "More Guards at Azkaban."
Kayley read the story with interest. Azkaban– the wizard prison. Her brother was in wizard prison! Kayley shook her head. She really wasn't surprised. He had joined an organization that had illegal dealings, so he'd finally got caught. She hadn't heard much about the Dark Lord, and she was mildly curious.
"Can I borrow these?" she asked Sky.
"Err…I don't know," said Sky. "They're Dad's. You'd have to ask him." Kayley nodded and lead the way back to the living room.
Kya greeted them with, "Ah, there you are. We were waiting on you to cut the cake." She handed a knife to both girls.
They went over to the table where the cake was sitting, and Kayley cut it down the middle. The five-year old girls in the picture kept blowing out the candles, unfazed by what was happening outside their picture. Kayley and Sky cut one half into servings and served everyone before taking a pieces for themselves and sitting down together to enjoy the cake.
Then they opened their presents. They both got towels, along with a lot of other stuff. There was different magical gifts, some nice things (like jewelry), but only from relatives and lots of other stuff that one gets when one gets a new house. Usually, new graduates moved out of their parents' houses, but Kayley had no intention of doing this, and she imagined that neither did Sky. "Merlin! We graduated, not got married!" Sky exclaimed when she opened a set of dishes.
After that, they told several guests good-bye. Family and close friends remained for dinner. After all of the guests had left, it was pretty late and everyone was fairly tired. Sky, Kayley, Aunt Kya and Uncle Evan retreated to the sitting room to chat.
"Uncle Evan?" Kayley asked. When he looked at her, she took it as a sign to continue. "I saw a rather large stack of papers in the storage room. Sky said that they were British… I looked at the top one, and I was wondering if I could borrow them?"
"You can have them. Just don't get rid of them, in case I need them back," Uncle Evan answered in a bored tone. Kayley could tell that he was ready to go to bed.
"I'll just go get them, then," Kayley said as she stood up. She went into the storage room and the stack of papers. With a wave of her hand, she sent them to her house. It was nice to be out of school and allowed to do magic when ever she wanted. She went back to the sitting room and gave her aunt and uncle a hug, takingher leave. Then she went to the front porch before Apparaitng home.
At home, it was dark and quiet. Kayley lit the chandeliers and candles to ward off the oppressive atmosphere as she made her way through the house. It appeared that her parents still weren't home. Kayley inwardly groaned. She wasn't sure why she had wanted her parents home. She hated it when they were home. She was also really mad at them. For some reason, being mad at them made her more tired. She undressed and climbed into her big oak bed.
When Kayley woke up the next morning, the sun was pouring through her square window. There was a rainbow on the floor, made from the sun catcher that was handing from an inconspicuous nail stuck in the wood paneling on top of the window. She reluctantly got up.
She dressed quickly, wondering if her parents were home. She was slightly put out when she took the stairs two at a time calling for them and received no answer. She made her way nonchalantly to the dining room, she sat down at the table, and summoned the papers that she had borrowed from Uncle Evan.
While she sipped her coffee, some of the more interesting articles jumped out at her. Carter had made the paper. She reread the sentence over and over again: Among them was Jacob Daniels. He was accused of torturing Muggles north of just London. He might have also been involved in the deaths of several others.
Torturing Muggles? Aiding in the deaths of many others? He hadn't said exactly why he went to Britain, just vague mentions of a business opportunity. Somewhat vexed, she picked up another paper.
After several hours of reading back issues of the Prophet, she now understood what was taking her parents so long. They would be proud of him, but annoyed that he was in prison. Idiot. If he was going to do stuff like that, he shouldn't have got caught. Her parents probably would tell him that– if they ever got in to see him. She doubted that they would.
The doorbell rang. Kayley walked briskly to the front door to see who it was. It had to be family; she hadn't invited anyone over. She opened the huge oak door to see Sky standing on her porch and let her cousin in.
"What took so long?" Sky demanded walking into the entrance hall.
"Long walk," Kayley replied, annoyed at being taken away from her papers. Sky rolled her eyes at her, going … somewhere, Kayley wasn't sure where. Sky always acted like she owned the place and plopped down on the couch in the first sitting room that she came to.
"So…" Kayley said, eyeing her cousin who was making herself comfortable.
"So what?" Sky asked looking curious.
"So, why did you interrupt my breakfast? So, why did you make me walk all the way to the door? So, why are you sitting on my couch, in my sitting room, and why do you think you own this house?" Kayley questioned. Sky looked slightly taken aback.
"Well, I came to talk to you about careers," said Sky, looking very businesslike.
"Didn't you already talk to Miss Strump about that?" Kayley asked feeling more and more annoyed by the minute. She wanted to get back to the mystery of what her brother was doing in England.
"Yes, well, she had a lot of options," Sky said, not noticing the annoyance in Kayley's voice. Kayley crossed her arms, allowing her expression to tell Sky that she was annoyed. Sky didn't get it.
"Why are you asking me? Why don't you go home, and discuss it with you're parents?"
"Because they only annoy me," Sky whined.
Kayley rolled her eyes. "Oh, really?" she said.
"And I figured that you already knew what you were doing," Sky said hopefully.
"Yup," Kayley said flatly. She immediately had her cousin's attention.
"So, what are you doing?" Sky asked.
Kayley, deciding that Sky was not going to be easy to get rid of sat down in the chair facing her cousin. "I'm going to go apply for a position in the International Relationship's Office at the Ministry tomorrow," Kayley told her.
Sky looked fascinated "Really?"
"No," Kayley said, unenthusiastically and Sky glared at her.
"What do you think I should do?" asked Sky after a small pause.
"Work at a department store of some kind," Kayley answered.
"I've thought about that," Sky said seriously.
"So why don't you?" Kayley asked.
"I will," Sky said standing up. "I'll go and apply tomorrow." She headed towards the door.
"Thank you," she called over her shoulder, but Kayley didn't get up. She heard Sky let herself out.
Kayley went back to the dining room and resumed studying the papers. She finally decided that she had learned all that she could handle for one day and put them up. Tomorrow she would apply at the Ministry.