Well hello my fellow readers!
Welcome to chapter one of Better Days Ahead!
I hope you have already read Better Left Unsaid and, if not, go check it out on my page! Otherwise, you will be dazed and confused. No one wants that!
If you've already read Better Left Unsaid, then strap in and get ready for a rollercoaster ride.
Read, review, and enjoy!
Vanessa had to quit her job at the Ministry of Magic. After the death of Professor Dumbledore, she subtly put her two weeks in at the Auror Office. It made her depressed for a good chunk of day's afterword, but we all knew it was for the best.
It was dangerous for her to work at the Ministry these days and no one, Vanessa included, wanted to see her life snuffed out over a job as a receptionist. She knew it had been coming though. Everyone could feel it in the air.
It worked out in all of our favor when she took a job at a local pub in downtown London, where many witches and wizards came from all over the county to drink quietly before rushing home. People just didn't want to be out and about nowadays. There was one night when she was working and a handsome young man happened to stumble upon the pub. After a whole night spent together talking, Oliver Wood asked my sister out on a date.
It's history from there as she would say. I was incredibly grateful to Oliver for taking in his girlfriend's kid sister for the summer. He didn't seem to mind though. He even found the time out of his rigorous quidditch training schedule to help me decorate the room he had set up for me. We had gotten into one too many play fights when he tried to sneakily slap posters of himself onto my walls.
I was even more grateful to him, if possible, when Padma showed up on the doorstep mid-summer, bags packed and tears in her eyes. She had gotten into a fight with her parents about coming back to Hogwarts for our final year- they didn't want her to, she wouldn't take no for an answer.
Her parents wanted to agree to disagree, but the damage of the fight was already done. Parvati chose to stay with her parents for the rest of the summer and Padma moved in with me.
Needless to say, I kept my promise to myself and told my best friend about my relationship with Draco Malfoy. She was angry, though not particularly surprised at the news. She more so wanted to know how good of a kisser he was and if he was really as good in the sack as everyone claimed.
All of this led up to the last week before my seventh year at Hogwarts started and that, my friends, is where my story really begins.
"Merlin, Natalie! Do you even know the meaning of 'clean out your trunk every year'?" Padma teased as she neatly folded the last of her schools robes into her school luggage. She was my best friend in the entire universe, something that I had an odd revelation about at the end of my sixth year. She was also my complete opposite on many different topics.
She had cleaned out her trunk from top to bottom every summer since first year- going through old notes and homework assignments, storing some and tossing others. I, however, was not that kind of person. I had scrapped off the top half of my trunk, much like the rest of my fellow students I'm sure, and continued to stuff new things on top.
Padma thought it would be a good exercise for me to just go through all of it once and for all. Out with the old and in with the new, as she had once put it. Turns out, those words were easier said than done.
"Is that a…GAH! Natalie! What are you doing with a devil's snare plant? Are you trying to kill someone?" She screeched as the plant's long vines shot out of the trunk and took hold of her bare ankle. She grabbed her wand and shot a burst of sunshine at it before it recoiled back into the dark depths.
I contemplated the scene before me with mild interest. "Huh. I wondered what kept trying to grab me whenever I needed to dig for clean underwear."
Padma gazed at me with an exasperated expression. "And it never occurred to you to search for…you know what, never mind. Just don't say anything at all. That will probably be better for both of us."
After finding the devil's snare plant, we both decided it was probably best to just rid the entire thing with magic. We took out our wands and held them up to the trunk.
"Hey can I borrow a- what are you two doing?"
I turned my head to gaze over my shoulder. Vanessa was standing behind us, her eyebrow cocked in a questioning manner. She had hair curlers entwined in her dark locks; a green, gooey mask engulfed her face.
"Padma found a devil's snare plant in my trunk," I explained as I turned back to the luggage carrier, "and she thought it best to just dump the thing magically before something deadlier creeps up on us."
Vanessa didn't quite know what to say for a moment. She narrowed her eyes at me. "And how did you not know about the… you know what, never mind. I don't even want to know. Can I borrow a piece of parchment?"
I gestured openly toward the oak desk situated in the far corner. She hopped into the room, being careful to avoid the broken quills and ink bottles that lay haphazardly across the floor. She let out a squawk of surprise as the devil's snare, once again, shot a vine from the trunk and seized her around the leg.
I lazily flicked my wand toward the plant. A ray of sunshine burst out and the plant's vines, once again, recoiled into the trunk.
"Merlin, just get rid of that thing already," Vanessa snapped impatiently as she made her way back across the room, this time taking care to create a wide berth around the trunk.
I snickered in response as she skirted the edge of the room, eyeing the trunk as if it had done something personally wrong to her. When you thought about it, I guess it really had.
"Don't forget we're going over to moms for dinner in half an hour!" she tacked on as she left the room. She then yelled to her boyfriend something about us housing deadly creatures in his apartment.
I rolled my eyes. "What a drama queen. It's not like it tried to eat her dog or anything. Moving on, you ready for this Padma?"
She poked her wand forward in a gesture that clearly said 'get on with it.' We moved a little closer to the trunk, avoiding the vines that started to creep over the sides.
"On the count of three," she whispered, as if the plant had ears and could hear our plot, "One, two…"
"NATALIE GARCIA!" a voice in mock anger shouted at us from behind.
Padma and I shrieked in response, falling over backwards from the squatted position we had on the floor. This gave the devil's snare just enough time to shoot out its vines and wrap them tightly around our legs.
"Whoa!" Oliver said in surprise as he surveyed the plant in mild interest. "Your sister wasn't kidding. You really are housing deadly creatures in your room."
"Why are you so surprised? This is her we're talking about!" Padma said shrilly, as the plant had started to weave its way up her legs, tightening the vines as it went. "This is entirely your fault!"
"My fault?" I snapped back. "How is this my fault? How was I supposed to remember the Devil's Snare seed I snuck from Herbology in the third year? And how was I supposed to know it would actually grow into a plant?"
"YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS DAMN PLANT AND DIDN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT?" Padma launched herself across the floor. Or, she tried to at least. The vines had a hold of her waist and had stopped her a few inches short of my body.
Oliver, utterly amused by this scene unfolding in front of him, finally had enough sense to take out his wand. He shot a ray of light at the vines holding me and they snaked back into the trunk with a defeated air about them. He turned the wand onto Padma, but I quickly tackled him to the floor, effectively knocking the wand from his hands.
"What are you doing crazy?" Padma cried out. The vines had wound themselves around her arms, pinning them to her sides. "This thing is going to kill me!"
"And if I let you out, you're going to kill me!"
I heard a groan of frustration from the doorway and, before I knew it, a final ray of light was shot at the plant. They quickly unwound themselves from Padma's body, shooting back into the trunk at incredible speed. The three of us looked up at the doorway to see Vanessa standing there, un-amused.
"I will kill all three of you if you do not get off this floor and get ready to go." She stomped from the room, a curler flying from her hair and bouncing ominously on the floor in front of us. Oliver got up right away, following my sister like a dog with its tail between its legs.
Padma glared at me for a moment before turning her wand on the trunk and Vanishing the Devil's Snare plant without a sound.
"Wow," I said, trying to sound deeply impressed. Though, I knew she had been able to do silent spells since the beginning of the summer. "I wish I was as good at magic as you are." She rolled her eyes as she pushed herself off the floor, grumbling about changing her clothes into something more appropriate. I thought I heard the words 'immature' and 'crazy as an ogre' thrown in there somewhere.
Padma and I were ready to go forty-five minutes later, much to my sister's dismay. We had decided to walk to my mother's house, as it was now much closer than our old apartment.
The sky was a cloudless blue. The sun sparkled perfectly over the skyscraper buildings. Many parents were sitting on stoops that led to apartment buildings while watching their children play muggle games on the sidewalk. A fountain to the right flowed endlessly and a few people that appeared to be my age splashed joyously in the water.
Having always been the person to ruin parties, I should have known my sister would rain on my happy parade.
"Did you know that Charity Burbage is missing?" she asked casually as we walked in a line down the sidewalk. Well, more so Oliver, Padma, and Vanessa walked in a line down the sidewalk while I trailed awkwardly behind, trying to avoid trees and fire hydrants on the way.
Oliver squinted his eyes in thought as he took my sisters hand. "Charity Burbage. That name isn't ringing any bells."
Padma gazed wide-eyed over to my sister. "Charity Burbage? Are you sure?"
Vanessa nodded in grim agreement. "I heard through the grapevine. They only reported that she resigned from her post at Hogwarts in the Daily Prophet, though." Her best friend still worked in the Auror office, despite all the crazy happenings. It worked out well on our end, because we were able to hear the real news firsthand.
"This seems like a very intriguing conversation," Oliver said as we neared my mother's apartment building, "so I would very much like to be a part of it. Therefore, will someone please tell me who the hell Charity Burbage is?"
"She's the muggle studies professor that Natalie tortured with nail polish in the fourth year," Padma responded quite offhandedly.
"Which is probably why she resigned in the first place…"
Vanessa backhanded Oliver playfully in the stomach. He smiled widely down at her. As much as I often wondered how someone in general could be attracted to my sister (she was a witch on the best of days, no pun intended), they were very happy together and very much in love with each other.
I often proposed to her for him, because I really have wanted to play with a baby for awhile now. Everyone thought that was weird, but it's true.
As my sister jangled the keys in her right hand trying to find the right one, I glanced around the empty side street. Even the non-magical community was feeling the pressure of You-Know-Who's return, though they didn't exactly know why. Parents rarely let their children out of their sights. People refused to go outside after dark.
Being in your own home now was a danger, as many muggles were being murdered for fun and left for the police to work out. These thoughts made me think of my father, who had killed an entire family of muggles. In turn, this made me think of death eaters, which made me think of Draco Malfoy.
I shook my head, trying to rid my thoughts of the boy. I had grown even madder at him since the summer had started and many times I wondered why that was. He hadn't been a part of my life for very long. As a matter of fact, when he was a part of my life it wasn't very constant either, so I wasn't quite sure where all this animosity came from.
The only thing I could figure was that when I heard of all these deaths, destruction of property, and kidnappings I couldn't help but blame it on him. At least partially. Being a Slytherin, I wasn't supposed to take the side of Dumbledore, but I also couldn't help but wonder if any of these things would have happened had he still been alive.
With a force much harder than necessary, Vanessa threw open the door to the apartment building. It flung back and hit the mailboxes lining the wall with a sharp bang. Residents who were loitering in front of the building, many of them taking a smoke break from their daily lives, eyed our group nervously.
Vanessa marched up the stairs, Oliver a close second behind her. I shut the door to the building quietly, not wanting to draw more attention to us than my sister already did.
"Do you think she's right?" Padma whispered, drawing away from the other two to talk to me. "About Professor Burbage I mean."
I shrugged my shoulders. "Wouldn't be surprised, as bad as that sounds. I mean, the death eaters are offing the muggles for being…muggles. Can you imagine what they would do if they found someone who thought them to be highly fascinating?"
She shuddered, but was saved from having to respond, as my mother had thrown open her door, a big smile plastered on her tanned face. Her dark hair was pulled back into a messy bun at the base of her neck, some loose strands stood frazzled around her head. I could hear Eli screaming in the background.
"Vanessa! Oliver!" she pulled my sister and her boyfriend into a right hug, kissing them both roughly on the cheek. "You should come over more often! Vanessa, how come you're so skinny?" Without waiting for a response, she pushed my sister out of the way and grabbed me around the wrist. "Natalie! Where have you been? I've been missing you. Who's your friend?"
It took me a moment to register what she had said; as she was speaking so fast I could barely understand her.
"Mama, this is Padma. She's my best friend." I had forgotten that Padma had never met my mom. Whenever she came over during the holidays, we always stayed at my sister's house. Padma stuck out her hand in greeting, but my mother knocked it aside and pulled her into a tight squeeze.
It caught my best friend off guard, but she was happily hugging her back a few seconds later.
"Any friend of Natalie's is family to me," my mother responded to the introduction as she pulled away, patting Padma on the cheek with fondness. "Dinner is ready to eat. We should probably get started before it goes cold!"
The four of us stumbled across the threshold, kicking off our shoes, and tripping over each other in order to avoid my younger brother, Eli, who had gotten a hold of my mother's wand and was waving it dangerously in the air.
He let out a scream of protest when she snatched it from him, but was happy a moment later when he had managed to pull the air freshener off the kitchen counter. He let out a stream of words in a made up language while running around the living room with a pair of underwear on his head.
"Fletcher turned my brother into a freak," I grumbled as I watched him. Padma snorted in response to my statement, but Vanessa shot me a warning look from across the kitchen. We didn't need another Fletcher blow up in this family. "Where is Fletcher anyways, mama?" I asked louder as I leaned against the table, picking at a cheese and cracker spread.
She smacked my hand away before levitating a bowl of hot soup onto a protective pad. "Being flighty again as usual," she said indifferently, but I caught the steely tone as she finished the sentence. "He had to stay hidden for awhile after the death of Moody. Something about people blaming him for it? I don't really know."
I still wasn't sure why she stayed with him, but Vanessa had drilled it into me that she loved him and not to upset her with my snide comments. The snide comments about my snide comments stopped abruptly when Padma moved in, as she had the perfect ammo on me because of Draco Malfoy.
Yet another reason my relationship was a bad decision.
My mother scooped Eli up from the ground (he tried vehemently to spray her with the air freshener) before plopping him down into a booster seat at the end of the table. He forgot about the spray instantly and eyed the food with a sloppy grin on his face.
"Come, sit at the table. Eat some food," Mama said with a smile, gesturing toward the table. She didn't have to tell any of us twice, as we all fought to get a seat as far from Eli as possible. He had gotten himself into a "food fight phase" and liked to toss whatever he was eating at the nearest person.
Since it was Padma's first time at my mother's house, she had the honors of sitting next to Eli for the duration of the meal. "I don't know why you think he's so bad. He's really rather-" She was cut off as a cube of cheese hit her in the cheek and bounced onto the floor.
I snorted in amusement as I grabbed the ladle for the soup and made to pour some into the bowl in front of me. A loud crack resounded through the apartment at that moment, scaring me half to death. I flung the ladle behind me and it landed with a thud on the floor. Soup spilled onto the table and dribbled on the floor. Eli clapped his hands happily.
"Oh, it's you," my mother said rather heatedly as I caught my sister's eye. We shrugged subtly at one another, not wanting to say something out of respect for my mother. "I wasn't expecting you, so I didn't set a place."
"It's 'lright," he mumbled dryly as he pulled up a seat, scrapping the wood flooring loudly, "I s'pect I won't be 'round too long tonight." He conjured another ladle quickly and dipped it into the soup. We watched him in silent disgust for a moment as he ravenously shoveled the food into his mouth. "What's the bleedin' matter with you? Why are you bleedin' staring at me?"
I turned back to my bowl, no longer hungry for the soup my mother prepared. A grabbed a few crackers and started to munch on them quietly. Padma sent me a knowing side-glance.
"Where have you been?" mama asked politely, scooping some soup into the small bowl in front of Eli. He eyed it greedily before dipping his small spoon into it. "You haven't been home in a few days."
Fletcher shrugged one shoulder, obviously not going to answer the question honestly. "Just been busy, okay? Makin' money for you an' the boy."
I rolled my eyes this time, unable to help it. "When was the last time you spent your own money on my brother?" I shot at him in anger. Vanessa widened her eyes at me. Fletcher paused for a second. "Don't worry, I'll wait," I added on after his silence.
"So, mama, this soup is fantastic," Vanessa said quickly in an attempt to change the subject.
Fletcher was staring down at me in disbelief. He slowly pointed his spoon at me. "You better keep your bleedin' nose out of me life, okay? Or we're gonna-"
What we were going to do, I never found out. At that moment, a very old, very scraggly house elf apparated into the kitchen. I jumped in surprise as the thing clutched its tiny hands around Fletcher's right forearm.
"What in the name of bleedin'-" Fletcher cried out as the house elf vanished into thin air, taking my mother's boyfriend with him. Eli clapped his messy hands, obviously thinking this was a show his parents had put on.
"Well," I said after a moment of silence, as we had all stared at the spot Fletcher had been sitting a few seconds ago. "That hasn't been the weirdest thing I've ever seen."