Chapter 10- DJ comes back
DJ was able to go back to Hogwarts the Thursday after the adoption hearing, though she didn't get there until halfway through Transfiguration. "Take a seat Ms. Prewett," McGonagall said, trying to say it in a way that would minimize the attention on DJ.
As DJ went to the back, where the only seats were left, Dennis wanted to kick himself for being early to class that day. His mind wandered trying to figure out what he would say.
It didn't really matter, though, because when class was over DJ made herself scarce; a practice she had mastered over the years. Dennis tried to meet her in the kitchens since lunch was starting, but she wasn't there either. "Have any of you seen DJ?" he asked the house elves.
They all responded 'no', but just as Dennis was turning to go, a small elf came up and tugged at Dennis's robes. " 'scuse me sir, but Tobbles was just wondering if DJ has come back," the small creature asked in a voice higher in pitch than usual.
"Yes she has," Dennis said.
Tobbles smiled, "that makes Tobbles very happy, sir."
"Me too," Dennis said, smiling broadly. He left and looked all over the grounds, though it seemed too cold today for DJ to be eating outside. She wasn't there either. Dennis decided to go eat his lunch with Colin during the last twenty minutes of lunch.
"Where have you been?" Colin asked. Dennis and Colin had started eating meals together since DJ had been missing.
"I was trying to find DJ," Dennis answered.
Colin gave Dennis a sympathetic look, thinking his little brother had gone off the deep end. "Dennis, DJ's been missing for-"
"I know, I'm not stupid," Dennis said, and Colin gave an expression of doubt. "She's back. She came to charms."
"Really?" Colin asked, finally starting to take Dennis seriously.
"Yes, really; I'm not blind you know," Dennis said, snatching a roll. "But she's not anywhere she usually goes for lunch."
"Didn't DJ say 'hi' to you or anything?" Colin asked, furrowing his eyebrows.
"No," Dennis said, dejected. "I don't know what's up, but something's definitely not right."
"I'll help you find her if you can't catch her before dinner," Colin promised, then took a drink of his juice.
"Thanks," Dennis said.
Dennis only had one afternoon class with DJ, but she did the same thing in leaving quickly as she had done in Transfigurations. Dennis made is way through his last two classes, and then met up with Colin in the Gryffindor Common Room just before dinner. "Did you talk to her?" Colin asked.
"Do you think I'd be by myself if I'd talked to her?" Dennis asked sarcastically before plopping himself down in one of the large armchairs in front of the fire.
"Well, let's go find her then," Colin said, putting his jacket on. "Come on Dennis," he added.
"Fine," Dennis said, still cold from having had their Herbology class outside on the ways to prevent roots from freezing. "Let's check the kitchens first," Dennis suggested. They did so, and DJ was again not there to eat dinner. They searched the grounds, but once again came up with nothing.
"Do you think she's trying to avoid us?" Colin asked.
"You think?" Dennis added sarcastically while leaning up against the wall.
"Hey, don't snap at me! I didn't do anything to you," Colin said.
"Yeah, well, your dumb questions aren't helping any either," Dennis retorted.
"I'm sorry for trying to help," Colin said.
"I said it's not helping."
"I was just trying to cover all our bases."
"She's not on any of the bases."
"Maybe she's at home base," Colin said, an idea suddenly coming to him.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
It was so simple that they had skimmed over the possibility. "What if she's hiding out in her house common area?"
"Great, then we'll never see her," Dennis said in defeat.
"No I think I have a way," Colin said, making his way to the Great Hall.
Dennis rolled his eyes and followed. He looked up and down the Gryffindor table, but didn't see Colin anywhere. Great I lost another one, Dennis thought.
"Dennis over here!" Colin called.
Dennis almost didn't when he noticed that Colin was standing right next to Julia. He decided to humor Colin, and see what was going on.
"Come on Julia, we really need to get into the Hufflepuff common room," Colin said.
"I don't know if I should give you the information," Julia said overdramatically.
"Please, Julia. It's important," Colin said.
"How do you know that anyway?" Dennis asked Julia.
"My new boyfriend is a Hufflepuff," she said with a slight grin. "I guess I could help you get in, Dennis, you didn't dump me for no reason," Julia added, getting up from her seat.
"I just didn't think things were working," Colin said defensively.
"Right, whatever," Julia said. "Come on Dennis."
"I'll be right back," Dennis said to a fuming Colin. "Thanks Colin."
"Yeah," Colin said, taking a deep breath and heading to his own house table to eat.
"This way," Julia said in a sing-song voice, tapping on one of the bricks behind the tapestry halfway down the hallway that DJ had disappeared in every time Dennis had been around. It opened up into a long staircase, and they made their way down until they came to a door. It was large and looked rather heavy. It had black hardware holding it to the stone frame of the door. "Quibbler," she said, and the door swung outward, making Dennis jump out of the way to avoid being hit.
Dennis looked into the brightly lit room, and saw only one inhabitant for the moment. The room was more circular than anything. There were large fancy couches near the fireplace, and high back chairs at all the tables. There were small tables at the edges of each large seating area, and on top were beautiful bronze lamps. Dennis saw DJ sitting at a table that lined one of the walls, coming halfway across the room. "Thanks," he said to Julia.
"No problem," Julia said, and then went back up the staircase.
Dennis walked into the common room, DJ still having not noticed him, and went towards DJ, who had her books strewn across the table. It wasn't until he got closer that Dennis noticed DJ sniffling, as though she had just been crying. He walked to the table and took a seat next to DJ.
DJ only noticed anyone else was in the room when Dennis pulled the chair out, and it made a noise from rubbing up against the wood flooring below it. DJ just looked at Dennis, not saying a word. "Hey," Dennis said, sitting comfortably in the chair.
"I don't want to talk about it," DJ said, turning back to the parchment in front of her.
"I wasn't going to ask you to, but I'm starting to think maybe you should," he said. DJ ignored him, still writing vigorously on the components to a Shrinking potion. Dennis notices something beneath her Transfigurations and Charms books.
He pulled out the binder which was open to the picture of the smiling man with light brown hair that DJ's mother had taken. "Is this your dad?" Dennis asked, knowing he was treading on thin ice with this topic.
"Yes," DJ said not looking at it, and trying to hold back tears.
"And this must be David," Dennis said, finally striking a chord. DJ stopped writing and looked straight at him in shock.
"How do you know-"
"Dumbledore told me," Dennis said. "You were trying to find him, weren't you?"
DJ's breathing deepened. "What do you know?! You just think I'd run off to find him?!" she shouted liberally, something she rarely did.
"Well, that's why you got caught, isn't it?"
"Yes, I saw him," she still shouted as tears started pouring down her cheeks. "I was this close," DJ indicated by showing a small space between her index finger and thumb, "to talking with him! Something I haven't done in four year! Four bloody years, and you're going to be upset with me?! I was going to get your Christmas gift and I saw him, damn it! Can you blame me for wanting to talk with my brother?!"
"No," Dennis said, half of him feeling guilt and the other half pushing him to get DJ to keep talking. The second half won. "I know it's hard to lose people, but don't you think you should just let yourself be happy?"
"Happy?" DJ asked incredulously. "Happy? You want me to be happy? Fine! I'm happy with the fact that I killed my mum! I'm happy with the fact that it's my fault my dad died and that David had to live through it all! I'm happy that my brother was taken away from me! I'm happy that no one cared enough to get us out of that Hell hole!"
DJ was now on a roll; a roll of six years of pent up anger and sadness that was finally revealing itself. "What do you mean your fault? A car hit your mum," Dennis said.
DJ completely broke down once Dennis had said it, as if it hadn't been true until the words escaped Dennis's lips. DJ sat down, putting her face in her hands and leaned up against the back of one of the nicely upholstered chairs. "It was a damn necklace," she repeated to herself over and over again, "a bloody locket."
"What do you mean?" Dennis said, kneeling in front of DJ and pushing a stray hair behind her ear.
"I wanted it so bad," she continued, looking into her lap and occasionally letting out a sob or wiping her nose with her sleeve, but she continued none the less. "It had a unicorn on it, and I wanted it so badly that I couldn't stop begging for it. When she finally said no I…I," DJ put her hands over her face again.
"Everyone does that, DJ, it's just something kids do," Dennis said calmly.
"Do you know what the last thing I told her was?! Do you?!" DJ shouted and looked at Dennis, but didn't wait for a response. "I told her I hated her! For not getting me the necklace, and you know what's worse? She had bought it for me for Christmas, which was a few weeks away!" DJ's breath was now becoming rigid, and unsteady.
"That doesn't mean it's your fault about your dad," Dennis said, trying to bring some reason into the conversation. "Dumbledore said it was some sort of bond he had with your mum," he said.
"Yeah," DJ said. "And because she died, he died."
"Don't think of it like that, I'm sure they wouldn't want you to do this to yourself," Dennis said.
"You don't know what they would want," DJ said bitterly to Dennis. "They weren't around long enough for even me to know what they wanted!"
"Drina," Dennis said, not knowing if using that name would be better or worse for his situation. DJ was in shock again, enough so for Dennis to continue. "I'm sure you're hurting them more by blaming yourself."
"If I hadn't run in the street though-"
"It doesn't matter now," Dennis said boldly. "Any mother would have rather done that than watch their child die. It was her choice to have you live, so why aren't you?"
"Why aren't I what?" DJ asked, looking away from Dennis.
"Living?"
DJ didn't know how to respond to this, so she stayed silent. Silence had always been her way before, so why had it changed with Dennis? Could he perhaps be right?"
"You know you always smile when you're around the house elves, why is that?" Dennis asked, trying to make some kind of a connection.
"They deserve to have someone treat them right," DJ said. "Everyone else treats them like they're so small and insignificant."
"You did that for David sometimes too, didn't you?" Dennis said, hitting the nail on the head.
DJ nodded. "There was one time when his friends were over. The oldest of the play group was about a year older than David, and he tried to steal David's toy," she said, finally speaking with fondness instead of misery.
"I bet he misses you," Dennis said.
"I miss him," DJ said trying to hold back tears. "You know, when I started to learn how to read I would read David bed time stories," DJ said.
"I bet you did," Dennis said. "I'll bet you sang to him too."
"No," DJ said, a smile almost coming on her lips. "Mum used to always sing us to sleep, actually. I always wanted to hear the Mary Poppins song." Tears started freely again. "I remember the way she sang it, and the way she smelled when she sat close to me and played with my hair. When we were sad she would talk to us in Bulgarian. Her parents were from there, a real Veela community from what Mum used to say. Mum said she would take me there someday to see how Veela and Veelo lived, but-"
"Don't think about that," Dennis urged, having relaxed a bit in his manner. "Tell me about your dad."
"Dad used to tease me when I wanted to wear Mum's makeup," DJ said, with a large smile showing through the tears. "He would say his little angel didn't need the make-up, but he would still let me wear it. Dad would watch as Mum and I put on a fashion show some nights. He played the piano; he was really good too. Him and Mum would sing and play all night some times, letting me stay up as long as I wanted. They, when I was tired, I would lay down on the couch and pretend to be asleep so that Dad would carry me to bed. There were times he'd sit there and watch me, not knowing I was awake."
"They sound great," Dennis said, nodding his head.
"They were," DJ said solemnly.
There were a few minutes of silence, and Dennis thought he'd move things on a bit. "So, I'm starving, how about you?" he asked. DJ nodded. "Cool, let's go to the kitchens, and maybe you can show me some more pictures," he added, standing up and giving DJ a hand up.
"Yeah," DJ said. "Dennis?" she added as Dennis started making his way toward the exit.
"What?" Dennis asked, turning back around.
DJ walked up to him and put her arms around Dennis's neck. "Thank you," she said softly.
It took Dennis a minute to respond, "any time," he said, squeezing slightly before letting go. He pulled away, placed his hands on DJ's shoulders, and looked her in the eyes, "I know it's not going to be easy, but you can't keep thinking this way," he said. DJ just averted her eyes. "They love you and are watching over you," he said.
"I know," DJ said as if just deciding it, then looked at him. "Do you know how I know?" Dennis shook his head. "They sent me you," she said, then made her way to the exit. Dennis pondered on this for a moment before following.
A/N: YAY! Things are getting better! Don't worry, DJ still hasn't had a complete turn around, but things have to start coming to a close right? Hope you like this chapter. I thought I'd give Julia a bit of a redemption, though you'll notice how quickly she got over Colin… I think that's interesting considering she's still bitter toward him. I also think it's funny that she never picked up on the mean feelings and comments coming from Dennis. Oh well, that's just how it is.
Thank you:
JamieBell: Yes! Thank goodness for Tonks! At least here that is… Things don't just turn out fine when someone's blaming themselves for their parents' deaths silly girl! Hehe jk. Things are looking better, and I'm sure you've started to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's not coming up yet, but I'm sure you'll like the convo they had.
Josephine Sawyer: No, I'm just flattered, because if you didn't have any critic it must have been a really good chapter (at least in your eyes). Oh there's more credit given than you know! I think you'll really like what's coming up, especially since you like Eve. I think Tonks would go out of her way to make things sound proper instead of the way she would normally say them, just to personify that 'business woman' image, but I'll look into the comment. I'll also fix the 'two weeks of silence' thing, it just might take me a bit to get around to it! I've already explained the Ravenclaw thing, and I'll give you the perfect example of a similar Ravenclaw: Padma Patil. I don't think I gave that example, but that's who I imagined (only Julia's not Indian) and magnified it to where I needed to.