The American Dream
Masquerades chapter 2
Jakki woke up earlier than usual the next morning, hurrying to gather her clothes and get into the bathroom. Yawning, she slipped on her black shirt with capped blue sleeves and the inscription "WEIRD SISTERS FAN" in big bold blue letters. She was going to put on her bleach-splashed jeans, but she couldn't find them in her room so instead she slipped into her faded ones with dark purple paint splattered across the back. The paint was a result of a splattering contest she had with Mercey when they painted her room.
Her hair was probably kinked and rumbled from being braid while it was wet. Cursing her love of storms, she pulled the band from the bottom of her braid and shook her hair free. It was better than she expected at least; strait from scalp to half way down her neck and then it kinked from drying in the braid, and then the bottom inch or so was strait again. Instead of using a muggle straightener in her hair, she dug through her cabinet under the sink for her bottle of hair straightening potion, and gently smoother it through her kinky blonde hair, watching as the waves begun to lay flat. Since the potion set in quickly, she had to hurry to brush out the tangles and knots before she couldn't get them out again.
With her hair left down, she slipped the band around her wrist while she checked over what she looked like in the bathroom mirror. She was just putting her potion bottle and brush away when she heard a clunk on wood in her room followed by a curse.
She tried not to laugh while she threw her clothes in the hamper. Harry had ended up sleeping under her desk, and she knew from experience no matter how careful you were, more often than not, you'd hit your head on the desk.
"You know it's your own fault," she taunted. "You shouldn't sleep under a desk."
"Well, you could have told me that last night." Harry said angrily, as he rubbed his head.
"Last night you were next to the desk, not under it," she pointed out, digging in her closet. "Be a little weird then, wouldn't it? Telling you not to sleep under a desk when you were next to it."
He grudgingly agreed, glaring at the desk as he stood up, and sat in the chair. "What are you looking for it anyway? It looks like you're dressed already."
"I think I have some of my boyfriend's clothes in here," she replied, yanking a white t-shirt out from under a pile of clothes, and turning to throw it at him. "You don't want to have to wear that today, do you?" she returned to the pile for a pair of dark blue jeans. "I don't have a belt though, so if they're too big, too bad."
"Thanks," he shrugged looking over the clothes, hoping they weren't cursed. "Why are you being so nice today?"
"Mercey is coming over today, and I don't think she'd wanna smell you." She replied, getting her wand of her bedside table and tucking it down the back of her shirt. "There's a shower in my bathroom, just don't go through my drawers, the towels are on the rack next to the sink."
Shrugging, Harry went into the bathroom. "I do not smell." He whispered angrily after he shut the door. So she wasn't as nice as he thought she was. She was still the quick-witted mean girl from the night before.
An hour later found Jakki and Harry sitting across from each other at the little table in the kitchen, both silent not looking at each other. Harry knew Jakki would have some quick little comeback for anything he would say, and besides, he couldn't think of anything to talk to her about. Jakki just didn't want to talk to Harry, she was still convinced he was some thrill-seeking hero-boy, and just wanted him out of her house.
There was a knock at the door, and Jakki jumped up quickly, and went into the next room to go answer it. Harry resisted the small temptation to get up and peek in through the door frame to see what Mercey looked like.
He heard the two girls talking excitedly, laughing and sounding just like he expected two girls to act around each other. Until he heard Jakki mention him.
"No! Why'd you invite to your house? I would have left him out in the rain." he heard the other voice say, assuming it was Mercey.
"I know, but that house always gave me the creeps, and I donno, I guess I thought if I left him there, someone was gonna pop out of no where and kill me or something." He heard Jakki chuckle slightly.
"And sometimes you're just too nice to be a friend of mine." Mercey also chuckled, followed by the sound of the girls coming back to the kitchen.
"Oh yeah, then who would you prank with?"
Harry was still sitting at the table, pretending to look through the copy of the Daily Prophet that was on the table. Mercey walked in arm-and-arm with Jakki, both of them smiling and truly looking like really close friends.
Mercey was a shorter than Jakki; her hair was a dark russet brown with an intense reddish glow to it, much like Jakki had a golden glow to her dark ashy locks. Her hair was short, only a few inches to the ponytail of tight curls. Her nose looked like it had been broken once, and not quite set back right, giving the look of being smashed in. Her cheeks were flushed like she had just run (or flown) over. Her dark chocolate brown eyes looked slightly watery, like the wind had been blowing right into them, her hair also looked slightly windswept dispite the fact it had been in a ponytail. She was a little bulky, but more muscular than anything. She had many scars over her slight tan, just like her friend Jakki did. All in all, Mercey was rather good-looking, but next to Jakki was like putting a pug next to a Great Dane; it just didn't do her justice.
"Is that him?" Mercey whispered in Jakki's ear.
Jakki nodded, not even bothering to hide her smirk. She dropped her arm from the link of the other girl's, and went over to the refrigerator in the opposite corner of the room. "You want something? Water, Butterbeer, anything?"
"No, I'm fine, unless your mum made any of those butter rum cookies; I supposed she's too busy at work to do any cooking now a days, though." The dark haired girl sighed, jumping up to sit on the counter.
"Well, the ministry hasn't really been on mum a lot, but Jon seems to be over-worked." Jakki hopped up on her toes to get to the top of the fridge, pulling down a bag of golden brown cookies with designs pressed in the top of them. She passed the bag over to her friend and pouring two glasses of milk for them. "You should hear Michelle complaining about it. She never shuts up about! I swear, she's killing me."
"Yeah, I bet," both of the girls seemed to have forgotten Harry was in the room with them. "So, anything going on with your trip yet?"
"I just sent the letters yesterday afternoon," Jakki shrugged, taking an unnecessarily large bit of her cookie, almost choking on it before she swallowed it. "I won't hear back form them for at least another day or two."
"I'll be you get in, especially 'cause-a your pen friend," Mercey grinned, "What's her name again? Annie or Ally?"
"Ashlee, but I don't know if it'll help or not," Harry wondered vaguely if he should leave or not, after all the girls didn't seem to notice him at all. "I bet the rest of the people got better grades than me, and that's gotta count for something."
"So, I noticed your new little friend doesn't have much of a life," Mercey grinned as she got the last cookie before Jakki had the chance to grab for it. "That or he likes you."
"Ace, I swear, you think everyone like me," she didn't seem to react much despite how Harry looked to have been offended.
"Yeah, well that's because half of the boys in our House do!" Mercey laughed, and Jakki scowled.
"No, I don't think so," she shook her head and glared at her friend. "What about everyone's favorite Seeker, Cho?"
"Oh, don't even say that name!" Mercey slapped her hands on the sides of her head, in a mocking headache. "I can't stand that girl!"
"I know, that's why she got maggots in her bed last year," Jakki looked mischievous, and Harry wondered what these girls had against the girl he had once dated. "You remember her face when she went snuggled into bed that night. That was something I'll never forget."
"I just wish we would have thought of that earlier."
"You kinda did," now she grinned outright, "remember? She started locking her trunk after she got Flubberworms in it the year before."
Mercey returned her friend's grin and they shared a laugh at Cho's expense.
The next few days passed in a blur, with nothing interesting happening and few things that weren't boring. Harry had moved across the hall to Jonathan's old room that was now acting as a guest room, Jakki seemed really excited to have him out of her room, and out of her way.
On Harry's third day visiting the Ravenclaw girl's house he woke up to her running through the house screaming excitedly.
"Mum!" she called running up through the hall outside the bedrooms. "Mum, are you still home?"
"Yes, dear, I'm still here," Harry recognized the voice of the very kind Mrs. Knight answer her daughter's excited calls. "But I'm running a little late, so you'll have to hurry."
He couldn't help it, he had to peek though the door to see what was going on, he could see Mrs. Knight's back from where he was in relation to the two women, she seemed to be looking at folded bit of parchment, reading over it carefully. Jakki was standing just opposite her, and Harry could see clearly her really excited and eager expression.
Wonderful, she got her letter, and she was accepted. Harry thought selfishly, he didn't like spending time with Jakki, nor did she seem to with him, but as long as she was still home he had an excuse to stay in the house. But if she wasn't there, how could he stay? And where could he hide out while he worked on figuring out the latest clue to the final Horcrux? He had known that she may be leaving but he never though she actually would. He knew it was selfish of him but he couldn't help it.
"Oh this is fantastic, dear, we'll have to throw you a party this weekend," Mrs. Knight handed the acceptance letter back to her daughter and headed for the stairs just behind her, she was still facing away from Harry so he couldn't see her face, but he knew she was really proud. "Don't forget to remind me when I get home tonight."
"I won't, Mummy!" Jakki grinned as she looked over the letter again. Then she looked up, the grin slipping from her face, and all joy leaving her features; she had spotted Harry peeking out, and she didn't seem too happy about it. But her new scowl was again replaced with a wicked glare and smirk to match.
"So, bet you're happy I'm leaving now, aren't you?" she said, waving the letter with a not-so-subtle air of being superior. "Now you can go out and continue playing hero-boy without feeling like you're leaving me unprotected or anything."
"Oh, yeah, 'cause I just love going around saving people, keeping myself in the spotlight at all times," Harry replied sarcastically, watching her with a very slight kind of admiration towards her. No, he caught himself half way through the thought of admiring such a brat; I most defiantly do not admire someone like that. He shook his head, as he retreated back into his room.
Jakki sniffed, still glaring at the closed door, before returning to her own. She half-jumped just thinking about going to the States, Mercey would most defiantly want to know, as would Travis. She couldn't wait for them to find out!
"I still can't believe you'll be leaving me," Travis looked slightly depressed as he, Mercey and Jakki sat on the couch on one side of the large parlor packed with friends and family congratulating Jakki for making it into the program. "I'll be all by myself for a whole month."
"No you won't," Jakki snuggled up closer to her boyfriend, resting her head gently on his shoulder, "You still have Mercey, plus a week after I leave, you'll be going to France, and you'll forget all about me."
"Not true," Mercey and Travis replied at the same time, laughing at each other as Moshi jumped up onto Jakki's lap and the kittens all tried to fallow, not able to get up as high as their mother did. Yamani and Lioness were picked up by Mercey while Scrap was by Travis.
It had been three days since Jakki had gotten her letter. She still couldn't believe she would be leaving in a week. She had gotten a letter from the family she was going to be staying with when she got her acceptance letter. They seemed nice to her, but they also reminded her a lot of her own family…only they were a more extreme version.
Jennifer Halliwell was a single mother of six kids. Jakki often heard her father saying he felt the same, even though he only had two. Allen and Rebecca were closest to her in age; with Allen at eighteen and Rebecca at fourteen. Having an 'older brother' while on her trip made her feel a lot better about going but having a lot of younger siblings seemed to be a really fun adventure for her. Even though she wouldn't have minded being in a family of all boys, she liked that she would have Rebecca and Bethany (only six years old) to teach her what it was like to be an older sister. The last three children were boys, Jacob was twelve and the twins, Jared and James were ten. All in all she was extremely excited to go…and scared that she'd be alone in a new country.
"You know, your new friend has been staring at you this whole time." Travis looked annoyed as he noticed Harry watching in the corner.
"Yeah well, just a week and he'll be gone for good," Jakki smiled up at him, kissing his cheek.
"You hope anyway," Mercey grimly added, "I mean, for all you know, your parents could just adopt him while you're gone, and you'll be stuck with him for the rest of your life."
"Why would you even say that!" Jakki exclaimed, clapping her hands over her ears. "I think I'd rather be in Salem Witch Trials being accused."
"Me, too," Mercey agreed, raising her glass to click it against her friends in a toast to being ride of the annoying hero Jakki now lived with.
As the girls and Travis laughed and bashed Harry, Jakki's mother came weaving though the crowd with Jonathan behind her. Both of them were looking rather scared and hesitant, Mrs. Knight was even close to tears, flooding her dark blue eyes.
"Mum, is everything okay?" Jakki dropped Moshi to the floor and stood to go to her mother.
"Mercey, will you come into the other room with me?" Mrs. Knight tried to keep a level voice as she ignored her daughter.
"Yeah, Ria, what's going on?" Mercey was worried, very few times was it that Mrs. Knight ever looked close to tears, and it was only in extremely bad situations when that happened. So Mrs. Knight, Mercey, Jakki, Jonathan, and Travis went into the empty dining room that had been closed against the crowd.
Jonathan frowned as he closed the double doors behind the group. The girls and Travis sat in chairs around the table while Jonathan stayed by the door, and Jakki's mother hesitated as she walked around the table.
"I can tell her if you don't want to," Jonathan offered, but Mrs. Knight only shook her head.
"I have to do it," she sighed as she sunk to the nearest chair. "Mercey, your mother is dead. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is ruthless; you know that, the Mark was over your house, and everything inside was destroyed, I'm so sorry, dear."
"No," Mercey shook her head viciously, her dark russet brown curls flying everywhere. "You're wrong, it was a different house, it had to have been."
"It wasn't," Jonathan sighed, leaning back against the doorframe. "I was there, I heard someone talking about it in my department, and I took off to see it for myself. I'm sorry, but it was your house."
Mrs. Knight's eyes overflowed with tears, and Mercey collapsed against the table, shaking with sobs. Jakki looked to her brother, who turned away, staring out the window to the dark night. She felt Travis wrap his arm around her shoulders and pull her towards him. She gave in to lean against him, now crying as well.
"I'm not going," Jakki shrugged as she and Mercey unpacked her bags. All of the guests had left, save Mercey. Jakki's mother had insisted Mercey stay the night, in a safe house, where she could at least be with people who knew what she was going through, and felt the same.
"I can't go now," she continued, "not after what happened. I'm gonna stay with you. Besides, I don't think I can go through with the trip if I know you're alone now."
Jakki stood outside the door debating for a while. Everyone in the house was still asleep when she left. She felt stupid going out for a walk so early in the morning, but by the time she was out of the yard she took off at a run around the neighborhood. She had started crying while on the run but before she turned back down onto her street her tears had been all dried out, and left salty tracks across her cheeks.
Now she was back in the house, still trying to decide if what she was doing the right thing. Finally she gave in, and knocked at the door. Harry poked his head out, looking extreamly annoyed.
"What do you want?" he asked with a yawn.
"I know what you were doing at that old house," she tried not to be hesitant as she explained herself. "You're after You-Know-Who, aren't you?" she didn't wait for an answer, it was now or never for her. "I…er…I wanna go with you. I wanna help you."
