The house was in a flurry of activity when I arrived home. This was odd, because for what seemed like the past year, many of our valuable paintings and antiques had silently been disappearing from various rooms and hallways in our Victorian mansion in North London. But when I arrived home there were about three burly wizards in our foyer uncovering various furniture pieces. I spotted a large highly polished dining room table and at least fifteen matching high backed chairs with black velvet seats, and various priceless works of art, whose occupants were still looking a little shook up from their journey. Elba, our house elf, was there to dutifully take my hat, coat, and gloves.
"No, no, no. I told you that the china cabinet was to go on the south wall," my mother's imperious tones seeped from the sitting room on the left. My tan heels clicked on the parquet floors as I followed the noise. The solid oak door made no noise as I entered the room. A tiny balding man held his wand out and carefully levitated a china cabinet into the spot that my mother pointed to. She had her back toward me and I studied her for a moment. She was wearing her standard uniform, long black robes and black pumps. The black pearls that she wore in her ears and around her neck shone as brightly as diamonds. Finally satisfied with the position of the furniture, she clasp her hands.
"Now, I'll want all the other pieces moved in by tonight," she turned to face men, "Oh Jocelyne, I didn't hear you come," she came forward and barely brushed my cheek with her lips, "I wish you wouldn't wear tweed," she said inspecting my skirt, placing her hands lightly on my shoulders so as to keep me in place.
"You picked this out, mother," I said tugging on the hem of the tweed pencil skirt I had worn for traveling. My mother enforced a strict dress code on me, insisting that a lady should never wear pants in public and that when in doubt all black was the way to go.
"Oh well, maybe we should start to switch you to black," she said tapping me, a signal I knew so well, and I spun slowly so she could inspect me. She studied me for a moment. Don't slouch either," she said tapping my shoulders once more. "Follow me please," she said striding out of the room. I automatically followed with the stout man on my heels.
"Now, I'll have all of these pieces moved into the dining room in the next hour and you can leave the painting for the house elf to arrange," she said barely glancing at the men who still occupied our foyer.
"Can I ask where all this came from," I tried to keep my voice casual in front of everyone, and absentmindedly skimmed my fingers across the glossy wood of the table.
"No, you may not," she said briskly. "Now your father would like to have a word with you,"
"About what?" but she didn't answer. I followed her upstairs to where I could see my father's study door was cracked. She lightly tapped on the door before pushing the door open. My father, Arcturus Spencer, stood with his hands clasp behind his back in front of the fire.
"Shall I leave you," my mother said motioning for me to sit down in one of the chairs in front of his desk.
"Yes, that will be all, Allondra," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand as he turned and went to sit at his desk.
My father had never really shown much interest in me. My childhood was not unhappy; it was simply like all the childhoods of most pureblood children, void of most parental love and attention. I had never felt myself starved for attention because growing up with my group of friends they were exactly the same way.
My father sat for a moment without speaking, and I crossed my ankles and folded my hands in my lap. Normally most of our conversations were held during dinner or a handful of nights when my parents weren't attending a society function. I could never really recall a time when I had been called to his study. His attention was suddenly focused on a stack of papers on his desk and he took up a quill and made a few markings here and there before speaking.
"I was wondering if you had any ideas about what you would like for your birthday party,"
"My birthday party?" I asked
"Yes, as I recall you were born on December 21st, which if my calendar serves me right is two days from now," he said without looking up as he flipped the page.
"I really don't care for a party,"
"Come now, you haven't had a proper party in some time. Two or three years?"
"Well, I just..," in all honesty, I had stopped having birthday parties because I was told I was too old for silly parties but I suspected the real reason was because we couldn't afford it. We could afford lots of other things, at least one large dinner party in the summer and numerous dress robes for my mother but those things only helped keep up the appearance we were still wealthy, once you scratched the surface there were cracks in our daily lives that hadn't been there ten years ago when I was still a child. "I just figured that maybe I would simply do something with my friends at the Black's house while we're all together for Christmas,"
He kept writing for a minute longer and then stopped to look up at me. I didn't see many of my features reflected back at me, people always said that I resemble my mother more than anyone, but I could see the traces of doubt on his features, traces that I recognized could make their way into my features. He laid down his quill and folded his hands in front of him, holding my gaze. "Jocelyne, I know this hasn't been easy for you. To go through all of this while you have been growing up, but your mother and I do appreciate it,"
"I only did what I thought would make you happy,"
"I understand that, and we're happy you've grown into such a mature young lady," he stood and faced the fire once more, his hands behind his back. "I want you to know that soon I'll be making an investment that will allow us to live like we once use to. It is a specific wish that you be compensated for lost times,"
I contemplated him as he stood. I knew of many investments that he had tried to make to regain our fortune; multiple magical mystery potions that proclaimed to do anything from cure dragon pox to mend a broken heart, a competitor to the Knight Bus, and a sadly planned mail order correspondent Squib school. Every investment only sinking us more in debt, only leading to more fights between my parents, I had little faith in this new investment.
"Well, I am happy to hear that, but really, father, there is no need to compensate me," I hated that word. As if I were the victim of some horrible accident, "and I will simply be happy having dinner with you and mother,"
He turned and to look at me, and I was afraid that he would insist that I have this party but he simply nodded. I stood and went to kiss him on the cheek, "Thank you for being concerned, father," I said before making my way out of the study and closing the door behind silently.
I had been to Number 12 Grimmauld Place many times when I was younger, I could remember playing hide and seek years before I went to Hogwarts in the dark dusty bedrooms of the home, but I had only been to the Black manor house a handful of times and its opulence struck me every time I visited it. I arrived, by floo powder, on Christmas Eve afternoon and appeared in the fireplace in the ballroom where at least ten house elves were busy decorating the Christmas tree that stood at least 15 feet high and using their domestic magic to polish the already gleaming floors. My mother had already sent Elba on to help with the preparations and to be ready to assist us when we arrived.
The doors were open at the far end of the hallway, where I could see Bella and Cissy lounging on low couches and talking and laughing as they watched the progress in the ballroom. I made my way toward them, each house elf stopping to bow before returning to its work.
"There you are, Jocelyne," Bella said looking up at me as I entered. "We were wondering if you had gotten lost. You're the last person to get here," she said patting the space beside her. "You remember Evan, our cousin," she said gesturing to the sullen looking boy who sat next to us. Evan Rosier had graduated two years ago but I still remembered the time he sent a third year to the hospital wing stepping on his robes.
"Of course," I said graciously. "It's good to see you again, Evan," I said without meeting his eyes. He simply grunted and went back to what seemed like examining the dirt under his fingernails. "Where are all the others?" I asked looking around expecting them to appear any second.
"Oh I think they all went to play quidditch on the lawn," Cissy said twirling her wand between her fingers absentmindedly. There was an awkward moment of silence where all made a point to look in opposite directions.
"Well I'm sure you'd like to freshen up before supper, I'll bring you to your room," Cissy said getting up.
"Yes, thank you," I said nodding to Bella and Evan before following Cissy out of the sitting room into the foyer where I could see her mother and Regulus's mother were greeting my parents as they arrived from the foyer's fireplace. I waved to my mother and she nodded at me approvingly.
"So what is the plan for tonight," I asked Cissy as we climbed the giant staircase that lead to the bedrooms on the second floor.
"Well, we'll have formal dinner tonight. I'm sure there will be lots of toasting and we'll all be bored to death, but tomorrow we'll all have presents in the ballroom and Christmas brunch and then we'll have a proper ball tomorrow, and people who aren't staying here will be attending. Then until New Years we have free reign of the house," she said, almost out of breath from walking up the stairs.
"Well, that doesn't sound too painful," I said laughing thinking about how much my mother had made me overpack. "It could be a lot worse."
We headed in the direction of the west wing of the house, our footsteps muffled by the rich red carpet that covered the floors. Cissy stopped in front of the second to last door, and started to open it.
She turned back to face me as the door swung open, "Bella is on your right and then I'm across the hall. Then I forget how all the boys are arranged but there on this hall as well, and parents are on the east wing," but I didn't catch much of what she was saying because I was far to occupied with the scene inside my bedroom. Regulus Black was sprawled across my bed, his foot wiggling as it hung off the bed. His head popped up when he heard the door open but he seemed frozen on my bed, and I tried to keep my face relaxed as Cissy talk. She was about to turn back to look inside my room but I grabbed her upper arm and turned her back towards the hallway.
"Who is that man?" I asked practically dragging her back out into the hallway, where I pointed to a man I knew very well, Caliguila Lestrange, who emerged from a door about five doors down, and walked back towards the staircase.
Cissy furrowed her eyebrows at me, "Dolph's father?" ending her statement in a question and searching my face.
"Oh yes, of course. He just looked different for a moment. What was he doing in that room?" I asked trying to look as innocent as possible while still keeping a firm hand on Cissy.
"It's the library," she said and pulled out of my grasp. She turned back towards my room, the door completely open, but there was no sign of life in it. She turned back to me, apparently back at easy. "Well, I'll leave you. Dinner is at seven thirty. I'm sure we'll be back up here so we can all get ready together," she said before striding back towards the staircase. I watched her go, until she had disappeared around the corner before entering my room, shutting the door quickly behind me, and locking it.
I stood there for a moment, waiting for him to appear but he didn't. I made me way towards the bed and kneeled down to look underneath it, and as I ducked my head, I felt a pair of hands on my waist that immediately made me whip back around. Regulus kept a tight grip on my waist though, even as I spun around. My heart thumped wildly in my chest and I was thankful I hated screamed my head off. We stood there for a moment more, his hands on my waist and my hands on his forearms and looked at each other. Then, like it was the most natural, obvious thing in the world for him to do, he leaned in and brushed his lips lightly against mine.
My heart's beating when he surprised me was nothing compared to how it rammed against my chest as I felt the light brush of his lips. I could have sworn the world stopped turning, the birds ceased singing, and time stood frozen for however long we stood there in our embrace. His hands went around me, pressing the small of my back into him and I simply melted deeper into him.
Then he pulled away, painstakingly slow, his lips light against mine for a moment and then pulled away completely. I moved to regain what I had lost but he pulled away farther, although his hands didn't budge one inch from where they were pressed on my back.
"I missed you," he breathed.
"I missed you," I whispered, now it was my turn to pull away and I tilted my head back, like I would do on summer days when I wanted to feel the heat of the sun on my face, and my arms fell away from where they had been on his arms. I let myself go, his hands to only thing supporting me as I closed my eyes and basking in the feeling that was still radiating down to my toes.
Then I felt the tip of his nose skim against the skin at my neck, and his lips press kisses light as feathers in a trail up to my mouth. He pulled one of his hands away from where it was on my back and slid it up my back, and into my hair. His deft fingers dislodged the pins that kept it into a tiny bun and my hair tumbled down my back.
Finally I tilted my head back up and opened my eyes to peer into his.
"Why haven't we done that before," I said leaning in to him, my mouth just an inch from his.
He paused for a moment, as his hands found their way out of my hair and skimmed lightly down my back pulling me flush against him. "I can think of a few reasons," he said before he kissed me again.
And I thought I would die of happiness.
