A/N: Here's chapter 3. I'm not getting a lot of feedback on this story. Do you guys like it or do you want me to stop writing it?
Kenzie barely nodded hello to the man that had just entered her home and went outside go get Mountain.
"What? Don't you even want to say hi?" asked Jared.
Kenzie grinned. "Not really." she replied as she gave Mountain a fresh bowl of water.
"But…but….."Jared whimpered. "I'm your favorite uncle."
"You also happen to be my only uncle."
Jared stuck his tongue out at her. "Fair point."
"I win."
"Do not."
"Do too." Kenzie retorted as she walked through the small house to her bedroom.
Jared let out a cry of frustration. "I don't see why I even argue with you. When is your mother getting home?"
"You argue with me cause it's fun. And Mom should be home in a bit." Kenzie yelled as she carefully set her new belongings on her dresser. She slowly started taking the rest of items out of her bag; she was in no hurry to clean the basement, when there was a knock at her window. Opening it, she saw a coal black owl standing on the ledge with a letter tied to its leg. She recognized it immediately as Evan's owl.
"Come on in, Godric." The owl hooted gratefully and hopped through the window. Kenzie dug around under her bed for a moment. Finding what she was looking for, she stood up and untied the letter. Kenzie noted it written in Evan's messy handwriting. She shoved it into her back pocket and handed the owl a treat from the box she had been searching for moments earlier. Godric hooted thanks and flew off again.
With Mountain following close behind her, Kenzie walked back towards the kitchen where she saw Jared sitting at the table with one hand on his head and a piece of paper in the other. He looked up when she entered the room.
"Looks like this note your mom left says that you have a mess to clean up in the basement."
Kenzie sighed. "Yea, but you know, " she said, giving him her best puppy dog look, "if you happened to go down there and let's say, just wave your wand and clear the mess, it would a lot easier on the both of us."
Jared tried to hold back a smile. "I don't think so. Last time I did that, your mom was mad at me for weeks."
"Well, it was worth a shot."
"That it was. Now go on, get to work. If Megan comes home and sees you in here talking to me and not cleaning, heads might roll."
Kenzie smiled at the thought, but did as she was told. Mountain followed her most of the way down the steps, but stopped when he started to get near the neon green goo.
"Smart dog," Kenzie muttered, staring around at the mess. Green slime covered most of the table and a good portion of the floor, all a result of yesterday's "mishap". Carefully, trying not to slip, she walked over to the storage closet. In it, there was an assortment of supplies, ranging from books to umbrellas to dog bones to cleaning supplies. A person could get lost in there. Kenzie pulled out a bucket and a sponge, trying not to knock anything out of the closet.
"Ouch!" she yelped as three books fell on her head. Upstairs, she heard voices. Mom must be home, she thought.
Kenzie carefully placed the books back and filled the bucket with water and a special cleaning soap used for potions messes. As she scrubbed the floor, she could hear her mother talking about something. Work, most likely. Megan Pheleps was a healer in the Burn unit of the local hospital. Almost every day she dealt with hundreds of burns that people received from the wild dragons. It was gruesome work, but she liked it.
Uncle Jared, on the other hand, had a cool job. He worked with the goblins at Gringotts. Kenzie loved to hear the bed time stories about the mysterious things that lived in the tunnels under the bank. She had been hearing those stories for as long as she could remember. When her dad died, Uncle Jared started spending more time with her. He was almost like a second father.
Kenzie stood up and surveyed the room. There was no green goo on the floor or the table anymore, but there was a ton on her, she quickly realized as she looked at her clothes.
"Yuck." she said with distaste as she tried to wipe the slime off of her t-shirt. Not succeeding, she decided to just let Mom deal with it.
"Hi Mom." Kenzie said, running into the kitchen.
"Hi Mack- what on earth happened to you?" Megan asked as looking at the green mess she called a daughter.
"Um, cleaning the basement?" Kenzie replied sheepishly.
Megan just shook her head and gave her wand a wave. In seconds, Kenzie was clean again. "Now, come on, sit down and eat." Kenzie now noticed the plate of chicken sitting on the kitchen table, and her uncle sitting there waiting rather impatiently to eat.
"What did you do Kenzie? Just roll around on the floor until all the goo was on you?" Kenzie shot her uncle a glare, but otherwise ignored him.
"How was your day at Grandpa's?" Megan asked.
"Fun." Kenzie replied as she slipped a piece of meat under the table for Mountain. "We explored the attic."
"Don't think I didn't see you do that. And you," Megan rounded on her brother. "Don't encourage her to feed the dog at the table."
Jared quickly pulled his hand out from under the table and gave his sister his best innocent look.
"Don't give me that. I saw you do it. Why do I even let you in this house?"
"Cause you love me?"
"No."
"Cause you care about your favorite and only brother?"
"No, wrong again."
"Um, cause you know that I would come here anyways, so it's just easier to let me in voluntarily?"
"That sounds close."
Kenzie took this opportunity to sneak the dog another piece of food. Megan didn't notice this time, but Jared did. He gave her a wink. "So," he said loudly. "Do you know what the goblins were complaining about at work today?" He went on to tell them about how some goblins had been complaining about unfair wages. They were thinking of quitting, but Jared didn't think that this was likely to happen.
After dinner, Kenzie cleared the table while Megan went off to do some paperwork she had brought home with her. Kenzie heard her uncle turn on the television to the Muggle news. It appeared as though he was watching it, but she knew it wasn't true. She could see him staring intently at a piece of parchment.
"Whatcha looking at?"
Jared jumped and quickly folded the parchment up. "Nothing."
"It didn't seem like nothing."
"It was nothing, alright!" He stalked off into the kitchen. Kenzie didn't see what good that would do. From her seat on the sofa, she could see him perfectly. He was seated at the kitchen table, the piece of parchment laying in front of him. Snapping of the television, Kenzie stuffed her hands in her pockets and headed off to her room to read. That's when she felt what she thought was a piece of paper in her pocket. Remembering Evan's letter, she ran into her bedroom to read it.
Hey Mack,
All's quiet here in sleepy old Godric's Hollow. Nothing exciting ever happens here. Maybe you can come visit. Or better yet, you could move up here. Yeah, right. What are the chances of that happening? Oh, this one is even better, maybe Dad will get a transfer back to Romania. That would be awesome. I bet I could get him to do it too. Just need to do a little brainwashing first. He's in love with Britain, I swear.
How are things with you? How are Brad and Briana? I wrote them, but I keep getting odd replies. They are both trying to write on the same bit of parchment and keep crossing out whatever the other said. I can't exactly read most of their last letter. There's too much ink on it. Is Mountain being a good dog? Cookie is doing fine. She's the only friend a got up here right now.
Alright, I hear Dad downstairs yelling at some diplomat. I better go see what's going on. Write back soon, please.
Your bestest friend,
Evan
P.S. - I got my Hogwarts letter yesterday.
P.P.S. - I wish I could go to school this year with you and Briana.
P.P.P.S- The kids here are boring.
P.P.P.P.S. – Cookie says "woof."
Kenzie reread the letter twice and pulled out a piece of parchment.
Hiya Evan,
Don't call me Mack! I'm fine. Everything's the same here, the dragons are fire breathing, Brad's still pulling jokes, and Briana still complaining about Brad. You're not missing much. You're father's in love with a country? That's just scary.
Nothing to exciting is going on here. Yes, Mountain is being a good dog. You got your Hogwarts letter? Awesome. Don't worry about not having friends yet, I bet you'll meet some new people at school. I'll talk to Briana and Brad and see if they can write you a decent letter for a change.
Oh, guess what? Grandpa gave me these cool mirrors. Too bad you're not here to test them out. When Briana and I try them out, I'll tell you all about it. Maybe Mom and I can come visit over Christmas. I'll bring them then.
Your bestestest best friend,
Kenzie
P.S- You don't want to go to school with us. Hogwarts will be much better.
P.P.S. - Mountain says "woof" back at Cooke.
Kenzie folded the letter up and ran into her mother's room. "Mom, can I borrow the owl?"
Megan raised an eyebrow, but nodded her head. "Letter to Evan?"
"Yep." Kenzie replied. "Come here, Zeus." The brown owl held out its leg and Kenzie tied the letter on it. "This goes to Evan, got it?" The owl hooted and flew out the open window.
Again, if you don't like it, or if you do like this story, just leave me a little review, please. It helps me tell if people are interested in this story or not.