Bryt got up, heading into the hallway with her hand behind her back, gripping her wand tightly. Emily gave a barely visible nod of approval at that, though her gaze was still towards Mrs. Watkins and the visitor at the door.
Bryt had to admit, the woman did look like Sofí. The same black hair that'd been recently cut to the chin, same narrow, friendly face and mischievous dark eyes, same slender frame...She was even dressed in the same style of branded tee-shirt, bangle-covered wrist, short plaid skirt over leggings, and platform boots that added unnecessarily to her already six-foot height.
"What's with the look, Brychelle? Y'act like yeh've never seen me 'fore in yer life."
She even had Sofí's accent and tone down. Bryt stared, starting to wonder if maybe this really was Sofí. After all, it would be very much like Sofí to show up unannounced and early like this. Still, Bryt had to be sure. Thinking hard, Bryt brought up a question that she was sure only three people knew—herself, Sofí, and Julio.
"What was it that gave me the fear of rats?" she asked.
"Bryt, what's gotten into you?" Mrs. Watkins asked.
"Amelia, let her answer," Emily said sharply from behind Bryt. Mrs. Watkins immediately started frowning.
The woman at the door rolled her eyes and cocked her head in just the way Sofí would.
"I madeja watch Willard with me in the middle of the night when y'were five," she said in a bored tone, "Really, y'haven't seen me in nearly a year and that's the first thing y'say? And on my birthday? What's gotten into yah?"
Bryt relaxed, pushing her wand back into her pocket as she looked at Emily.
"That's really Sofí," she said.
"What's gotten into you two?" Mrs. Watkins asked sharply from by the door, "Who else would she be?"
"Amelia, don't you remember what I told you about security?" Emily asked, coming over to Amelia and leading her into the living room, obviously wanting a private conversation. Bryt watched them go, frowning. It was one thing for Mrs. Watkins to be told of the dangers around them, but she was about to be faced with the reality of it, that Death Eaters could be disguised as anyone. Bryt could only hope this didn't set her mother back on her opinions of the wizarding world.
Bryt turned back to Sofí, who looked as if she felt she hadn't done anything wrong as she made her way into the kitchen, sitting where Bryt had been moments before. Bryt sighed and followed, sitting down at the end of the table.
"Where's Julio?" Hermione asked.
"And what're you doing here early?" Bryt added.
"I got bored," Sofí said with a shrug, "Julio's doin' all the paperwork, so all I was doin' was sittin' 'round. So I got permission, then decided t'head out fer a while. I'm meetin' Julio at home later." Sofí smirked at them. "And thanks for the birthday wishes. Appreciate it."
"Yeah, Happy Birthday," Bryt said, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. If Sofí expected a party, she shouldn't have decided to drop by at last minute.
"Don't you mean 'at his house'?" Hermione asked curiously and Sofí shook her head, leaning back so that the chair was balancing on two legs.
"Nope, it's our home," she said, "I decided t'move out here with my dear brother."
Hermione looked horrified and Bryt just stared at Sofí, dumbfounded.
"What about your final year at Salem?" Hermione asked, looking as if the thought of skipping a year of education was a criminal act.
Sofí just shrugged.
"Don' need it," she said and Hermione opened her mouth to reply, but Bryt spoke up to cut her off.
"And what'd Dante think of this?" she asked, referring to the only boyfriend Sofí had that lasted longer than a couple of weeks—in fact, the two had been dating for over a year.
"We broke up," Sofí said with a shrug, as if she were commenting on the weather. Bryt just stared at her.
"You what?" she asked, "Why? I thought you really liked him!"
An odd look crossed Sofí's face as she stared up at the ceiling.
"Yeah, well, long-distance ain't for me," she said simply, then the look was gone as she looked back to Bryt, "Anyway, what's it matter? I'm here, that means I getta see yah over Christmas finally!"
"And on Hogsmeade visits," Hermione pointed out. Sofí shrugged again.
"If I'm off work," she said.
"You already have a job?" Bryt asked, taken aback again. It wasn't like Sofí to think that far ahead.
"Not yet, but I got an interview set up," Sofí replied, "This robe shop in Diagon Alley. Madam Malkin's, I think. It's on Saturday."
"You'll miss our trip to the Burrow!" Bryt said.
"If your mom lets you go," Hermione pointed out and Bryt frowned.
"I bet Mr. Watkins'll talk her into it," Sofí said, sounding far too sure of herself. Bryt stared at her, but had a feeling she was right. Her father and Mr. Weasley had been friends for a few years now, and even though Mr. Weasley had visited them, Mr. Watkins had never had the opportunity to visit the Burrow. Bryt doubted anything would keep him from that chance.
"I'm guessin' y'only just recently got the invite," Sofí said, pointing over the fridge. Bryt turned and saw Pig was up there, bouncing back and forth. She had forgotten he was there.
"I guess I'll write Ron and tell him we should be coming," she said, feeling a bit guilty over the fact that she wasn't talking to her mother about this first—but Saturday was too close coming up. Today wouldn't be a good day to talk to her mother, not after the scare with Sofí. She was sure Emily or Mr. Watkins would be able to calm Mrs. Watkins down and make her see reason.
As Bryt headed for her room, she felt a pang of guilt over the situation. Her mother was fine with the wizarding world now, but every time something came up, it was either Emily or Mr. Watkins that calmed her down. Bryt could never think of anything to say to reassure her mother. She was always relying on others to do that for her.
Bryt sighed, trying to push it from her mind as she went to her desk to grab a piece of parchment and quill, writing a quick note to Ron that she'd be coming over with her family on Saturday. Then she headed back into the kitchen where she spent nearly ten minutes trying to get Pig to come down from the cabinets. Hermione tried to help, but Sofí spent the time laughing at them from the table.
Once Bryt finally managed to get Pig down, she gave him the letter, then set him loose out the window. Bryt watched as Pig disappeared in the distance, finding herself looking forward to Saturday already.
xxxxx
Bryt and Hermione up at six-thirty the next morning, thanks to the alarm Bryt had set the night before. They both dressed quickly before heading sleepily into the kitchen where Mrs. Watkins had already made bacon and scrambled eggs. To Bryt's immense relief, her mother hadn't gone back to hating the wizarding world. Bryt didn't know what Emily had said to Mrs. Watkins, but she was almost normal, though she was a lot more careful about answering the door and now even more unwilling to let anyone leave the house alone—Bryt had overheard her parents arguing about Mrs. Watkins not wanting her husband to head into work today. Mr. Watkins had finally convinced her that he'd be fine, though only by agreeing to let Emily escort him to work.
"Good morning, girls," Mrs. Watkins greeted Bryt and Hermione, setting a plate of food in front of both of them as they sat down, "You'll need all the energy you can get today."
"Yeah, I remember how it was moving five years ago," Bryt said, "At least there's only two people to unpack for this time."
"I still can't believe Sofí isn't finishing education," Hermione said.
"Sofí wanted to move out here. Would you rather she spend her last year at Hogwarts?"
The look on Hermione's face made it clear that the idea was not something she wanted to deal with. Bryt laughed, going back to her breakfast.
After breakfast, Mrs. Watkins drove Bryt and Hermione through London to a street lined with identical, narrow Victorian-styled homes pressed together. Mrs. Watkins came to a stop in front of one about halfway along and Bryt and Hermione got out, Bryt going around to the driver's side window.
"Thanks, Mom," she said with a grin, "Come and get us around five?"
Mrs. Watkins nodded.
"I'll see you two then," she said, "Stay in the house until you see the van, okay?"
"Don't worry, we will," Bryt assured her mother. Anything to make her feel more comfortable.
Bryt and Hermione turned, heading through the small gate in front of the house before going up the steps and knocking on the door. They barely had to wait half a minute before the door opened and they were greeted by Sofí.
"About time y'two got here," she said as if they were hours late when they were actually a bit early. Bryt and Hermione both knew not to argue the point.
"Where's Julio?" Hermione asked instead.
"In the livin' room," Sofí said, pointing to the nearest door of the narrow hallway before waving towards Mrs. Watkins in the car. Bryt stepped inside the house and noticed there were two other doors in the hallway—one close to the first, and one down at the end—as well as a staircase going up.
"Mornin'," Julio said as Bryt and Hermione came into the room Sofí had pointed out. Bryt and Hermione both gave him a hug—Hermione's lingering longer than Bryt's.
"You got yourself a nice house here," Bryt said, looking around at what Sofí said was the living room—there was a couch, a wizard radio, and an empty bookshelf pushed against one wall, piles of boxes scattered around, and a fireplace on the opposite wall of where Bryt stood.
"I like it," Julio said, grinning, "It took a lot of work gettin' the home ready for us, considerin' we're movin' into the middle of a Muggle neighborhood."
"Hadta make sure we wouldn' interfere with the neighbors whenever we use magic and all," Sofí said boredly, rolling her eyes.
"And make sure anythin' we did wouldn' attract attention," Julio said, glaring at his sister, then turning to Bryt and Hermione, "We can start in here, if y'want."
"Or Bryt and I'll take care of the kitchen while y'two work in here," Sofí said, then without waiting for an answer, she took Bryt by the arm and pulled her down the hallway.
"I can walk, you know," Bryt said, pulling her arm free as they entered the tiny kitchen—there was a stove sitting next to a fireplace, a fridge by a door along the back wall, and a short counter that held a sink and empty space to prepare food and a line of wall cabinets above it. This room was also filled with boxes.
"And don't think they don't know you were just trying to get them alone together so you can tease them later," Bryt went on as she went and opened the nearest box—it was filled with plates and bowls, each carefully wrapped and stored so they wouldn't break in travel.
"And why would I ever do that?" Sofí asked in mock-innocence. Bryt rolled her eyes.
Despite the kitchen being small, it took Bryt and Sofí most all morning to unpack everything. They finished just in time to make a plate of sandwiches for lunch and were soon joined by Hermione and Julio, who were nearly done with the living room.
They spent their entire lunch break coming up with security questions for each other—something Sofí took surprisingly seriously, considering how she didn't seem too concerned about it the day before.
After lunch, Hermione and Julio returned to the living room while Bryt went upstairs to help Sofí unpack her bedroom—the upstairs hallway was just as narrow as downstairs, though it became even narrower towards the back. There were two doors in the wider area—Sofí said the nearest one was going to be a guest bedroom, while the one at the front of the house would be Julio's bedroom, since it was the largest of the rooms and had the most windows to make it feel more 'open'. Two more doors were in the short, narrower part of the hallway, one leading to a bathroom, and the other leading to a room barely bigger than the tiny kitchen downstairs, the boxes of this room labeled "Sofí's Room", then varying in other labels such as "pictures", "books", and "Clothes".
"Wanna start with the books while I get through my clothes?" Sofí asked.
"Fine with me," Bryt said, turning and grabbing the nearest books box, moving it towards the small shelf sitting next to Sofí's desk.
Bryt pulled open the box and started unpacking the books—most of which were on Divination, but there were several fictional stories and autobiographies from adventurous witches and wizards as well. Once Bryt finished with the first box, she pulled over a second, opening it and noticing a red-bound book near the top. Bryt stopped, staring at the book, thinking about the year before when Sofí began acting so strangely on the last day of holidays. The only time Bryt had ever seen the girl get angry. Bryt knew the red book was Sofí's dream diary, where she wrote her dreams that she thought were 'warnings of the future'. Sofí was normal now, but at the time, it had been so strange.
Bryt reached for the book, suddenly having the urge to open the thing and see what it was that made Sofí act so strangely. She stopped herself, however, and mentally scolded herself. Whatever was in that book was private to Sofí, her diary in a way. Bryt knew she'd never want anyone reading her own diary, so she shouldn't go nosing around into someone else's. No matter how curious she was about it.
Bryt sighed, shoving the red book down under the pile, then turned back to her work, distracting herself by listening to Sofí's rambles about how she was actually looking forward to getting to work at a robe shop.
"If you even get the job," Bryt reminded her.
"Oh, I'll get it," Sofí said confidently.
Bryt grinned and shook her head. Sometimes, she envied Sofí's naïve confidence. At least it kept the woman happy.
For the first time, Bryt was glad that Sofí was now living in London. With everything happening, having a more constant contact with the one person who almost never seemed upset was going to do a lot to keep moods up.
