And here's Chapter Two. Hope you enjoy it and thanks to everyone who was kind enough to leave a review, you guys really make my day, y'know? This chapter's going to be jumping from place-to-place and time-to-time for a little while at the beginning because I want to give some insight into Peyton and Archie's friendship. Please R&R.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
Peyton looked up at the sky with a grin on her face. Today really couldn't get much better. Ever since she and Archie shook hands, her life had taken a rather pleasant turn for the better. She had a friend, an actual friend who played with her and joked around. She turned her head to look at him. His brown hair stuck up at odd angles and his head was bopping along to whatever music he was playing on his Walkman. As if he sensed she was watching him, he opened his eyes and grinned at her.
"What?"
Peyton shrugged in response and looked back up at the sky for a few more seconds before she shut her eyes. The sun was shining on her face, the music coming from Archie's Walkman, however faint, had a nice beat to it and she had the whole weekend ahead of her. Life couldn't get any better than this.
"Peyton."
One eye opened lazily, "Yeah?"
Archie was holding his headphones in his hand and motioning for her to take them, "D'you want to listen?"
Her other eye opened and she looked at the headphones like they were in danger of exploding. She might have been more familiar with the muggle world than her elderly aunt and uncle, and Archie was always using something of electronic origins but that didn't make her entirely comfortable around certain things.
"No, it's all right."
Archie waved them in front of her, "Are you sure? I think you'd like the song."
Peyton nodded and edged away from the accursed music-playing device like it was a deadly, growling creature.
Archie watched her disbelievingly. Soon after meeting her, he had found that Peyton was, well, a bit of a weirdo - in a good way, but still. You mentioned anything pop culture related and she just stared at you like you dribbled down your shirt. She was scared of tech, she didn't even know who the Prime Minister was! It was like she was from a different planet or something.
"Really, it's okay. I'm fine."
Archie shrugged, still watching his friend closely, "If you're sure."
Peyton nodded vigorously, "Absolutely. Entirely positive."
Archie shook his head but smiled, "You can be so weird, Ossie."
"No, I'm not. And don't call me Ossie!"
OoOoOoO
"No. No way." Peyton shook her head and waved away the offered felt tip pen.
Archie pouted at his friend, "Aw, come on, Peyton. Everyone does it. Like Steven from my class and, er," He squinted at a scrawled name on the climbing frame, "I'm fairly sure that's his sister, Rosie. Besides, it's not really illegal, look at it like an everlasting tribute to our friendship." He ended on an inspired note.
Peyton crossed her arms over her chest, "First of all, didn't you call Steve, and I quote, 'an idiot who could only count to five with an abacus because he was too stupid to use a calculator'? And secondly, if anyone sees this, I doubt that telling them that we're making an 'everlasting tribute to our friendship' will soften their responses."
Archie sighed and slouched his shoulders dramatically, "You're far too serious." He held the pen out once more with a sad, puppy dog face, "Please? Pretty please?"
Peyton looked around at the park, the climbing frame and finally the pen before she rolled her eyes and took the pen from him, "Anything for a quiet life, I suppose."
She found a small space that didn't have profanities and phone numbers scrawled on it and then carefully started to write. After a minute she straightened up and took a step back to admire her handiwork.
Archie leaned in and grinned at the neat, round words.
Ossie and Archie
- 19/5/1989
Apparently the nickname had started to grow on her after all.
OoOoOoO
"What are you reading?" Archie turned around to find Peyton looking over his shoulder at the book in his lap. He shrugged and held it up for her.
Peyton's brow furrowed as she looked over it, "The Celestial Toymaker?" The cover had a picture of an elderly looking man, flanked by two clowns. The writing down at the bottom proclaimed it to be wrote by Gerry Davis and Alison Bingeman. "I've never heard of it."
"It's a Doctor Who book. A novelization, y'know?"
"I don't think I've heard of that either."
"A novelization?"
"No, Doctor Who."
Archie blinked at her, an unusually serious frown making him look older than his ten years. "You're pulling my leg." Peyton shook her head and Archie looked reminiscent of someone who had just watched a beloved pet get run over. "How?"
His friend shrugged, she was beginning to look uneasy. Archie sighed and handed the book to her, "Well, basically, it was a show on the telly about this alien called the Doctor-"
"Hence the title." Peyton interrupted, looking over the blurb.
"Mm-hm. But anyway, he had a spaceship called the TARDIS, which was disguised as a police box and he travelled through time and space in it with pretty girls, all the while fighting evil." He took a deep breath before he started talking again, and when he did his voice had a sour note in it, "It was really, really brilliant but then someone cancelled it."
Peyton nodded sympathetically, "Shame. It sounded quite interesting." She went to hand the book back to him but he waved her hand away, "Keep it."
"Um, Archie, I couldn't-"
He rolled his eyes at her flustered behaviour, "Didn't anyone ever tell you not to look a gift horse in the mouth? Seriously, our house is coming down with them. And besides, if you like it, we could start a petition or something to make them put it back on the telly."
"Would that work?"
"Maybe. They have to listen to us, you know. We're the audience."
Peyton looked down at the book. It was creased and the pages were yellowed with use and for some reason she couldn't keep the smile off her face when she looked at it. In a moment of madness, she threw her arms around Archie, who almost toppled off the swing he had been sitting on for the entirety of the exchange. "Watch it!" He exclaimed.
Peyton squeezed him so hard, he thought his lungs were in danger of exploding for a second before she let go with a big, goofy grin plastered on her face, "Thank you, Archie. Really."
He looked at her sunny face in total bewilderment, "It's just a book."
She shrugged and hopped onto the wall beside him, "Maybe to you."
OoOoOoO
It was an overcast Sunday morning in the middle of July when everything changed. Peyton, or Ossie as more and more people were starting to call her, was sitting at the table, eating her breakfast opposite her Uncle Christoph who was reading the paper, only pausing to complain about certain things, mainly Cornelius Fudge or Lucius Malfoy, who had recently given a hefty donation to St. Mungo's. Aunt Matilda hummed along to the radio while she sat at the head of the table knitting a jumper. It was a perfectly normal beginning to the day. But then an owl flew in the window. Matilda shrieked as it flew past her head like a speeding bullet, almost hitting her in the process. Christoph said something in German that may have been a swearword and Peyton choked on her toast.
The owl seemed to stare at the scene before it with an air of something akin to superiority, as if to say, "Humans. Total morons, the lot of them!" It dropped the letter from its beak, ruffled its feathers with an almost disdainful hoot and flew out the window again.
Once Peyton had managed to painfully swallow the chunk of toast that had been lodged in her throat, her eyes immediately went to the letter, which was sitting in the middle of the table. On it, clear as day and in green ink, was an unsettlingly accurate address:
Miss P. Oswald
The Kitchen,
Das Haus von Uhren,
Quigley's Grove,
Suffolk.
She reached over, picked it up and turned it over. Sure enough, the Hogwarts Crest was stamped onto it. Peyton swallowed. All of a sudden, it had became rather hard to breathe.
"Well, don't keep us in suspense, open it!" Christoph exclaimed, looking nearly as nervous as Peyton, who had turned incredibly pale. Matilda swatted the back of his head with her knitting needles, "Don't pay him any mind, Peyton. Open it when you're ready, dear." But even as she said it, she seemed on edge.
Decided to put everyone out of their misery, Peyton opened the envelope and pulled the heavy, expensive-looking parchment out. She looked over it and as she did, a small smile began to play at the corners of her lips. After a few seconds more, she passed the letter wordlessly over to her aunt and uncle who took it and began to read over it eagerly.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Ms. Oswald,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on 1st September. We await your owl no later than 31st July.
Yours Sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
There was absolute silence in the kitchen as the letter was read over for the second time. And then suddenly Christoph gave an incredibly undignified whoop and Matilda, who was sniffling, reached over the table and enveloped Peyton in a bone-crushing hug. All the while, Christoph was babbling in the background happily,
"I knew it was going to come today, I could feel it in my bones. And here it is, in front of us!" At this point, he reached across the table and hugged Peyton as well, "We are so proud of you, my girl!"
Peyton had never been happier to find it difficult to breathe. Matilda shot up suddenly with an idea sparkling in her eyes. "We should have a party." Seeing the objection starting to form in Peyton's eyes, she quickly elaborated, "Nothing too big, of course. But a few family friends, party food, perhaps a cake."
"Err-"
"Now, now, child," Christoph cut her off, a joking smile on his weathered face as usual, "Don't deny your uncle an opportunity to break out the wine."
For the second time that day, Matilda brought her knitting needles down upon her husband's head. He winced and raised his hands in a placating gesture, "As usual, I jest, my dear. Slightly."
Peyton laughed a little at them before she nodded, "Okay, as long as it's nothing really big." She brightened, "I expect Mr. Jefferson will be coming, right?"
Christoph nodded gravely, "Of course. It couldn't be considered a party if Reginald isn't there."
Matilda nodded thoughtfully, "Reginald has a granddaughter who's starting this year as well. We could make it a joint party." She looked at Peyton who nodded, agreeing, "It would give you a chance to make a friend before you go to Hogwarts."
At the word 'friend', Peyton's happiness ground to a sudden and complete halt. In the last few minutes of jubilation, she had forgotten Archie. Archie who was a muggle and most certainly wouldn't be going to Hogwarts come September.
"I'm going to need to tell Archie." She said the words without fully realising she was saying them.
Christoph and Matilda shared a worried glance and Matilda said delicately, "Peyton, you know you can't."
Peyton shook her head, like she was trying to free her thoughts from whatever nook they were all stuck in, "No, not everything. Just that-that I won't be around as much anymore."
Christoph was the first to react this time. He patted his niece on the shoulder gently; a far cry from the celebrations that had been taking place mere moments ago. "Of course you need to, but not yet. First we need to finish breakfast, I think." He said, waving vaguely at the plates, which had been forgotten.
Peyton nodded and sat back down. She was still smiling, determined not to bring the mood down anymore than she already had, but now there was a forced quality to it and Matilda had the nastiest feeling that as soon as she could be alone, Peyton would start crying. She watched her niece worriedly as she picked up her second-hand copy of The Celestial Toymaker.
And there's Chapter Two. I hope you enjoyed it and I would appreciate it so much if you reviewed it!
