Chapter 11: A Home Coming Made of Ice Cream.
I felt Freddy get up off of my bed, but I was too tired to even open my eyes. I wasn't sure what time it was, whether it was still night or the next morning, but I knew I didn't want to move from my comfortable bed. I rolled over without the inconvenience of my little brother hugging me and stretched out. I'd missed being this comfortable even though I didn't want to admit it.
"Daddy! Roxie's home!" I heard my little brother whisper excitedly outside of my door.
Oh no, I thought, now he knows I can't even live up to my word. I'll just pretend to be asleep and then he can't talk to me. I rolled over and curled up facing the wall opposite the door. He'll walk in, see that I'm sleeping and then he'll leave. I told myself hurriedly.
I heard my bedroom door squeak open and I pressed my eyes shut tight. I felt my dad's weight shift the bed as he sat down. His back was up against my knees and I had to try my damnedest not to move them or else he'd know that I was awake.
I felt a lump in my throat as my dad rubbed my back and said "Roxie?" ever so lightly. Then my body completely disregarded my mind as I jumped up, wrapped my arms around my dad's neck and hugged him as hard as I could for the first time since I was a little kid.
"Daddy!" I said as tears poured down my face, leaving hot trails in their wake.
"You can come back any time you'd like. You know that." he whispered to my hair.
"She's horrible!" I cried. "Absolutely horrible!" I hugged him tighter and I could feel his body tense up as I called my mother horrible. "There was a house elf..." I choked. "And mum got mad at her …..painting... nails... and... the elf... cutoffertoes!" I sobbed harder "and she wouldn't let me help the elf... holdingmeback... so I fought her... and...IDON'TKNOWHWERETHEELFISSS!" I eventually ended up wailing. I hadn't cried this hard since I was four and James got me with a bat bogey hex.
"Shhhh!" my dad consoled as he rubbed my back. "It's alright, you're home now."
"No, I can't stay here." I told him.
He pulled me away from him and gave me the most vicious 'are you bloody kidding me' look I'd ever seen in my life. I immediately felt guilty but just because things were alright with my dad for now didn't mean they were going to stay that way. Call me selfish but I still didn't like the fact that he was seeing Verity. I had gone almost all of my life without a mum and I didn't need one now, especially since I'd just realized how horrible my real mother was. What if Verity was just as horrible, or even worse (if that's possible.)
And Rose, there's no way I could go back to living with my dad, I knew that Rose would call me a coward and still never speak to me again. I'd rather her know that I'm brave and that I can make it without the Weasleys rather than her hate me and think I'm full of bollocks. I hate this horrible mess I've gotten myself into.
"You're staying here tonight." my father told me sternly. "And I'm getting Angelina over here first thing tomorrow morning!" he sounded angrier than I'd ever remembered him to be.
"I hate her, daddy! I hate her!" I cried hard, going back to his chest. "I don't know where I'll go, but I can't stay here and I can't go back to Hogwarts and I can't go back there with her!" I was wailing again and I was sure that Freddy was listening at the door with a pair of extendable ears. "Aunt Ginny and Dominique hate me and so does Grandma and Grandpa!"
"Hogwarts? What? Why can't you go back to school? No one hates you, Roxie, I can't help you unless you talk to me and tell me what the hell is going on!" he pulled me away from him again and forced eye contact as he spoke. My dad's never been a serious man, but he was as of this moment dead serious. He wasn't kidding, he wanted answers and I had better be able to give them. "Freddy, go put on some tea and put a bit of the calming draught in it." he spoke to the door. I knew Freddy was listening in and apparently so did my dad, he was a hard father to fool.
My dad pulled me into the kitchen just as the tea Freddy made started to whistle. He pointed his wand as the cupboard and two mugs came out and landed in front of us on the kitchen table. Then the teapot hovered over and started to pour itself.
The atmosphere in the room was tense and electrified. I looked to my brother who was also seated at the kitchen table looking worried. He knew something big was going on and he didn't want to miss a second of it. His bright blue eyes were round with wonder and excitement. I was just glad to know that he was happy I was home. I'd missed the little bugger.
"Freddy, go to bed, it's late." my dad told him.
"But I want to know too!" he whined.
"No, dad, let him stay." I told him. "Freddy's got just as much of a right to know as you do."
My dad nodded at Freddy, who was beaming at me for sticking up for him. I smiled at my little brother and sipped my tea.
"So, spill it." My dad said.
I was reluctant but I proceeded to tell the entire story from the night Rose and I snuck out and went to the party, when I didn't snog Scorpius, to "Ditching the losers," and making friends with those horrid girls. I told him about all the sneak out parties, the horrid grades, Rose still hating me, Dominique hitting me, Neville rescuing me and giving me a day off of school, Scorpius cheating on me, my mum's strange and erratic behavior, how creepy Steevie McKrude is, the awesome concert James and I went to, the new boy, Elijah I had met and then I repeated myself about Bow cutting off her toes.
When I was finished, Freddy said "Whoa." and my dad said nothing. He stared at me for a second before going over to the grey owl, who was hooting at us for keeping it awake at such an ungodly hour. My dad scribbled a note, attached it to the owl's foot and sent it off. He then scribbled a second note and left it on the sill for when the owl came back.
"Who are you writing to, dad?' Freddy asked. I knew better than to say anything. I knew I was in for it. I had just admitted to my dad that I was sneaking out of Hogwarts almost every night to get drunk and snog and that it was because of my sneaky drunken snogging that I was failing all of my classes.
"Your mother," he said through gritted teeth. He had a hatred in his voice that I wasn't prepared to deal with. It both frightened and shocked me. "And Hogwarts." he said, coming back to the table.
"I think it's best if you're home schooled for a while."
I opened my mouth to protest, but I knew nothing I could say would make any difference. I averted my eyes to the wooden table.
"Angelina is going to be here tomorrow morning. I'm going to have a serious talk with her." Again there was that hatred in his voice. "Freddy, pack up some clothes, I'm going to take you to the Burrow tonight so you don't have to be here in the morning."
"No, dad! I want to see mummy too!" I suddenly got angry when my little brother said this. Part of me understood where he was coming from. He hadn't seen his mother since he was five or six, but if he knew what she was like, he wouldn't want to see her.
"Freddy," I turned to my little brother. "I know you don't want to believe me because she's our mum, but she's not worth anything."
Freddy just stared at me like I was speaking French. "Remember all those Christmases and birthdays that we stayed up real late waiting for her to send us a letter?"
"Yeah..." he said, side glancing at our dad.
"She didn't write to us because she doesn't love us. She's a cold, evil woman and I wouldn't pay her fifty galleons to take us back." I told him sincerely.
Freddy didn't answer me, he just took off to his room.
I could barely sleep that night, I wondered what was going to happen when my mother came to talk to my dad. I actually wondered if she would show up at all. I couldn't picture her in our little flat above the Joke Shop, it seemed too far under her to even step a foot inside.
A swell of hatred rose up inside of me directed towards my mother. She was with us once and as far as I knew she was happy. What the hell happened to make her so cold and want to leave? Why wasn't she happy with my dad or us anymore? She loved us once, I know she did, but why did she have to leave?
The next morning, my dad looked rather tense as he made me his famous apple pancakes. He made them the muggle way, which was surprising to me. He usually used magic for all the chores, cooking, laundry, dishes... everything really. I sat at the kitchen table while he worked at the stove with his back to me. I couldn't see his face but his robotic actions told me that he was nervous and upset.
He placed the pancakes in front of me and with half a smile he said "Eat up," but before I could even cut a piece of the pancake off I heard a popping noise coming from the living room. I looked at my father who went paler than usual.
"George Weasley what is the point of all this?" I heard my mother's cold harsh voice yell.
He didn't answer her immediately but he went into the living room to greet her.
"Ahh, Angelina, I actually wasn't expecting you to show up!" he said sweetly.
"What are you playing at?" she demanded.
"Well, here, sit down." he stammered just as I came into the room. "I want to talk about Roxanne."
"What about it? It seems your parenting techniques are too lenient on her, which is why she made the smart decision to come live with me." Angelina said, taking the seat that my father had offered her.
"Maybe so, Angelina, but she came here last night, did you even notice she was gone?" my father asked her.
"As a matter of fact, yes I did." she crossed her legs and her arms and my father and I could both tell that she didn't want to be here.
"And tell me about this house elf that my- our daughter witnessed mutilating itself. Did you think that was alright for a sixteen year old girl to see?" my father asked. His voice was tense and I feared that any second he was going to yell at her.
"George, I did not come here to be interrogated by mere scum!" she glared at him with so much hatred in her eyes. She got up and came to me, she grabbed my wrists and hissed in my face "And you, you little snitch! I did not let you into my home so you can come back and relay the things that happen in my house to your father!"
"Let go of me!" I pushed her off of me with the help of my dad who grabbed her around the back. He seemed to toss her back in the seat she had been sitting in.
"You do not touch my daughter, Angelina! You do not lay a finger on her whether it's to wipe dirt off of her clothes or to harm her!" my father was absolutely pissed for lack of a better word.
"Oh George, now she's your child?" Angelina smirked. "We had a deal!"
"The deals off!" he yelled.
"What deal?" I exclaimed.
Angelina smiled an acidic smile toward me while my father looked at me nervously. "Oh, dear daddy here, didn't tell you?"
"No, what deal?" I demanded.
"Your father and Verity are to be wed this Summer and you were supposed to stay with me so you wouldn't wreck anything." her voice was so acidic, I swore I felt my heart burning.
"What? Dad, she's lying!"
"I made up that whole 'I know you've been having trouble at home!' spiel as to not tell you, just like your dad asked me to."
"Dad!" I looked to my father who had his back toward me. He faced the fireplace with his head in his hands.
"I'm sorry, Roxie." he said quietly.
"Right, so come, Roxanne, let's go home."
I backed away from her no sooner than she came towards me. I huddled in the corner next to the fireplace. I was too upset to cry and too hurt to do anything drastic. I was at a complete loss for words, I didn't know what to do or what to say. So I just sat there, staring from my father to my mother,. I watched them exchange hateful glaces at one another before my father finally broke the silence.
"Roxie's not going anywhere with you!" he told Angelina.
"And why is that, George? You didn't want her a month ago!"
I saw something in my father's face finally break and he let out a shout that I never even knew he could muster. "YOU HATE US BECAUSE YOU'RE STILL IN LOVE WITH HIM!" I watched in shock as tears poured down my father's face. "You stayed because I was convenient, Angelina!"
My mother's face went pale but she said nothing, she silently sat down on the sofa.
"When I let you leave me-us, I knew it was for the better because you never loved us! You just couldn't get over him!" watching my father have a breakdown wasn't an easy sight to watch. Still Angelina said nothing to him, she averted eye contact with the both of us.
"With who," I muttered silently.
"George, now is not the time to bring up my relationship with your dead brother!" my mother barked.
"I don't blame you, Angie," he used a pet name that I hadn't heard him use in years, and I could tell that it hurt the both of them. "He was a great guy, but we shouldn't have... we shouldn't have gotten married so soon. We shouldn't have gotten married at all." he dropped to the floor as he said this. Tears were silently pouring down all of our faces. My mother was still pale but she stayed silent. My father brought his hands up to his face as if he were shameful of his crying. "I loved you." he muttered before he suddenly stood up "But I will not let you treat our daughter the way you have been. Hate me all you want but don't dare bring OUR children into this!"
"I never wanted them!" my mother yelled into her palms. Her voice was muffled, her head in her hands, I watched the scene like it was a train wreck, I was so hurt and upset but I couldn't look away or leave the room. "Not with you..." she confessed.
"I have raised these kids to the best of my ability, ALONE!" he choked out. "With no help from you, ever! Even when they were small you wanted nothing to do with them, so I let you leave! I'd was glad to have raised them by myself so that they didn't grow up and realize what was going on." he was shoving his finger at her, accusingly. I was still so shocked at how mad and hurt he was.
My father was always a jokester, not an angry man, and to think all these years he'd been harboring feelings for someone who just didn't love him back. You'd think he'd be depressed or mad but all he ever did to Freddy and I was scold us lightly and laugh it off. It took me until that very moment to realize what a real hero he was.
"All those late nights, Angelina, I knew you weren't at practices, you were bloody cheating on me and everyone knew it!" he sobbed "My whole damn family knew it and they told me I don't know how many times but I couldn't believe them."
"George, stop it!" My mother shouted.
Just then two pops echoed in the tiny living room and Gran and Grandpa Weasley appeared with my little brother. Gran took one look at the scene: my father standing over Angelina, crying hysterically, me huddled in the corner of the fireplace and Angelina just sitting there, her head in her hands acting rather bored at the whole fight.
"Listen you scarlet woman!" Gran lashed out on Angelina, "I don't know what's going on here but you have to the count of three to get out of this house before I do something I really regret!" there was so much anger in my Gran's voice as she stared at my mother. I hadn't noticed until she moved her hand, but Gran had her wand out and Angelina took her seriously. She popped away before Gran could even start counting. "Are you alright, Roxanne?" Gran hugged me sweetly.
I nodded. That's all I could do. My head was still ringing, my mind was numb. I couldn't believe what I had just witnessed. My mother never loved us. She didn't want us. She didn't even want my father.
"What the hell happened?" My grandpa finally spoke.
"Rox, take your brother out for a bit." my father heaved. "There's about twenty galleons in my wallet on the dresser. Take him to get some ice cream or something."
I scrambled to my feet as fast as they would let me, I took my brother's hand, went into my father's bedroom, got the money and before my mind even made sense of anything, we were walking out the front door of the shop and into Diagon Alley.
"Roxie, what happened?" Freddy asked as the warm Spring air washed over us. I was a bit relieved to be outside.
I ignored my brother to which he responded with an angry pout. "Do you want to go to Florean Fortescue's or The Leaky Cauldron?" I asked him.
"Dad said ice cream." he replied in a foul voice. "Fortescue's."
Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor was just five shops away from Weasley's Wizard Wheeze's and our tiny flat above it. It was a nice place with fluorescent umbrella covered tables right outside the shoppe so one didn't have to stay in the tiny dusty old place to enjoy an ice cream or piece of cake. The parlor wasn't owned by Florean Fortescue anymore. According to our dad, he went missed back when a Dark Lord had power over many wizards right before we were born. Now a nice guy named Daniel owns it but he kept the name to honor the missing ice cream entrepreneur and so that Diagon Alley could still keep some of it's old charm.
"Hiya, Miss Weasley, Mister Weasley," the owner, Dan greeted us when we walked in. He looked as if he were hand washing some dishes as an old churner next to him magically pumped out new flavors of ice cream.
"Hello." I greeted as cheerfully as I could.
"We've got some Bertie Bott's ice cream flavors!" he smiled "Want to try a sample?" he said more to Freddy than to me.
Freddy frowned at him and shook his head no. It wasn't until I went to go get the money out of my pocket did I realize that I still had a grasp on my little brother's hand.
"Are you two alright?" he asked, concern showed on his face.
"Yes, we're alright." I said too quickly for either Dan's or Freddy's liking.
Dan nodded at us. "So what can I get you, kids?"
"I want a chocolate frog sundae," Freddy told the man.
"I'll take the same." I told him.
I paid Dan and Freddy and I took a seat outside at a bright green table with a clashing yellow umbrella to wait for our dessert. "I want to know what happened!" Freddy exclaimed when we were out of earshot from Dan.
"Freddy, please don't cause a scene." I told him calmly.
"I won't, I just want to know what went on! Why was daddy crying?" he asked.
"Because our mother is a foul bitch, that's why." I said rather honestly.
"Don't say that." Freddy leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms sourly.
"What did you say to make daddy cry?" Freddy asked me.
"I didn't say anything to make him cry, Freddy!" I spat at him. I didn't want to be mean to my little brother, I loved him, but I couldn't find the guts to tell him everything I had heard between my mother and father. I felt like I should protect him from that.
"Daddy can't cry. Daddy's a man! A happy man! And he shouldn't have been crying!" he shot me a dirty look.
"Listen, if you want to know so badly, ask dad, see if he'll tell you, but I can't and I won't!"
Dan caught my brother and I giving evil stares at one another while he brought our sundaes to us. He looked nervously at the two of us for a second before he sat down at the table next to us.
"Nice day..." he said, trying to make conversation.
"Yeah, it's warm." I replied politely, while playing with the chocolate frogs that were hopping around my dish.
"I saw your mother passing by this morning." he smiled, thinking this would make us feel better. I shot him a look and he quickly changed the subject "Yes, yes, what a nice day! Hey listen, does your father still make that Bruise Remover Paste? The churner goes haywire sometimes, leaving awful marks on me and my employees." he chuckled.
Freddy smiled too at the thought of a bug wooden stick beating up unsuspecting employees.
Dan was quiet for a while, watching my brother and I eat our ice cream, also in silence.
Out of nowhere a chocolate frog bounced out of Freddy's sundae, it stopped on the table for a minute to shake itself off before jumping down the front of Dan's apron. Dan got up suddenly, running in circles, knocking over tables as he danced trying to get the frog from out of his clothing.
"It's cold! It's cold!" he screamed, trying to get to the front door of his shoppe. Passersby pointed and laughed at the hilarious sight of a full grown man dancing, running and screaming about a frog being inside his robes.
Freddy and I were in tears, but this time, they were happy tears. Tears of us laughing so hard that we couldn't stop. Everyone on Diagon Alley was now in front of Florean Fortescue's Parlor laughing at the shop keeper.
Freddy and I knew we should help the man, but instead we sat in our bright green seats, under our bright yellow umbrella and laughed.
We sat there all day. Laughing.