Hey y'all! Yeah, shit's pretty real! We're past the halfway mark now, so if I were you dudes I'd be savouring the shit out of this. Imma miss it when it's over!
Chapter Thirty-Six: Regarding the Storage of Acorns
I went to Lucindy's first. I knocked on her door about six times, crying very publicly and embarrassingly in the night, but she was apparently not home. Well, great. That had been my master plan. Where else was there to go? Who could I go to among my friends? I doubted I'd be able to be around Andy and Lacy with their sickeningly perfect couple-ness. Kirk had just moved in with some new girlfriend and I didn't know the address, even if I'd wanted to go and see Her Royal Bitchness. And Pete was just… he wasn't the kind of person I could go to with something like that. I liked him and he was a lot of fun, but I had the feeling that he was only around while the fun was there. He was still just a kid, after all, only about twenty-three or something. Older than Severus said I acted, though. Was I really that bad? Had my horrific annoyingness just gotten to him in the end? Even if he did love me, it just wasn't enough to cover how stupid and immature I was. Merlin, I was a wreck. How was I supposed to grow up anyway? It wasn't like I could just do it, even if I did want to bow to my stupid husband's every stupid demand.
I disapparated from Lucindy's doorway and ended up in front of my parents' house. The lights were off and the blinds were shut. I couldn't go to them with this. I knew how they really felt about Severus. I'd be thrown into the path of a different guy every day, and despite what Severus would like to believe, I didn't want any of them with their stupid sensible haircuts and woollen vests and fancy jobs doing curse-breaking or whatever. Faced with the only option left to me, I pulled the crumpled piece of parchment out of the back pocket of my jeans and tearfully read the address, trying not to smudge it with my stupid, pathetic weepiness. Merlin, what if Severus could see me now, crying over a guy. That was definitely fifteen-year-old behaviour. As I disapparated to somewhere in the middle of London, I wondered what would be proper twenty-eight-year-old behaviour for this situation. Bloody hell, I had no idea. I started by wiping the tears off my face, though. I wandered up to the thin apartment-thing and knocked on the door. After about a minute, it swung open.
"D'you know what time this – Raphaela!" it was Eric, and he was looking tired in striped pyjamas and with messy hair. He perked up somewhat at the sight of me though, which was weird, since I probably looked all puffy and gross, like a creature from the black lagoon or something. "Bloody hell, what're you doing here?"
"I…" I trailed off and burst into tears again, remembering that whole damn fight. "Merlin, I'm so sorry," I said as he ushered me inside and closed the door behind me. "I just… I didn't have anywhere else to go."
"No, no, it's fine," he said, bustling around, turning on lights and putting a kettle on. "Really. Now, what's the matter?"
I took a break from my almost-silent sobs to look at the ceiling and take a few deep breaths. "I don't think Severus loves me anymore. Or rather, I'm quite sure that he can't stand me anymore."
"God, Raphaela," he replied, bringing in two cups of tea. "You're fine. I'm sure he can stand you fine."
I snorted. "That's a sweet thing to say. He keeps yelling at me for acting like I'm sixteen or something though."
"Had you not spoken to each other before getting married?"
I laughed again, something I hadn't thought was possible back at Hogwarts only about half an hour ago. "I think it got too much for him." Eric frowned and I sighed, leaning back in the chair.
Morning found me lying on that couch, though I didn't really remember going to sleep on it. I remembered lying on it and talking to Eric for a very long time, but then the next thing I knew, the front door was slamming shut and I was jerked awake, bright sunlight hitting my eyes. I was still in my clothes from yesterday, but a fuzzy blue blanket had been draped over me. I was reminded momentarily of the night I spent on the daybed at my parents' place just a week or so before, but before I could think about that any further, an owl scratched against a window somewhere. I'd become very used to what an owl's claws sounded like in my experience in the Wizarding world and I recognised it immediately, rushing over to let it in. It dropped a letter on the coffee table and flew off again, and before I could remember my mother telling me never to even glance at someone else's mail, I read my name on the envelope. That was odd. Nobody but Eric even knew I was there. Now that I thought about it, even if anyone were to be tracking me, I disapparated too many times for them to be sure. Not that anyone would be tracking me, but still. I tore the letter open and read it.
Hey babe!
Not sure if this owl will get to you. I told it to try and find you, and it's usually pretty good at shit like that. We went to Paris! Well, it was just me and Lacy, really. We invited Kirk but Her Royal Bitchness spazzed out and said she didn't want him going away for the weekend with two Other Women. Bitch. Anyway, he hasn't dumped her yet, but I'm hoping she'll be out on her arse before the week is out. I hear she's got three tits though, so it might be hard to tear him away. Ha ha, not really. I wanted to invite you but Misty said you had to stay at Hogwarts to keep an eye on her kid. If I were you I'd tell Misty where she can shove it. I'll give you a clue, it rhymes with bunt, and begins with a c. Sorry about being cryptic, but I figured you might be with your parents and you know how they get with The Swears. You should tell them where to shove it too.
Mr. and Mrs. V, if you're reading this, I was absolutely not trying to get Raphie to tell you where to shove anything.
Anyway, were you at my place last night? My neighbours say they saw a crazy dark-haired woman in a dark blue coat crying very loudly and knocking on my door for about twenty minutes shouting about kicking that stupid fucking waste of skin in the face so hard he'd never make another stupid potion, and I just thought of you. Sorry.
If it was you, come around today and we'll put our feet together to kick him extra-hard. I'll go for his nads if you want. I hear that's where they store their acorns for the winter months.
If it wasn't you, please forgive me for thinking that you could be described as a crazy woman who yells about kicking people. But that is the kind of thing you'd do.
Come around anyway, if you can. I miss you!
Love love love love love love love,
Lucindy
I giggled as I read her letter, and when it was done I felt a broad smile sweep across my face. At the reminder of what I'd done the previous night, my stomach twisted around and I clenched my eyes shut for a while, but eventually the horror subsided and I mentally did the tri-snap of sass. I didn't need no stinking Severus, not when I had my best friend in the world ever. She'd kick everyone who needed to be kicked, no questions asked. I wrote a quick note to Eric.
Eric,
Thanks for letting me stay here last night and listening to me when I was blubbering and embarrassing myself and stuff like that. I'll be staying with my friend Lucindy though, so I won't be impinging (impinging? Is that the right word? I have no idea) on your hospitality any longer.
It was nice to see you again.
Raphaela
With that done, I left the note on the coffee table, folded up the blanket, and disapparated to Lucindy's. It was just nice at Lucindy's. Her whole house, everything in it, it just reminded me of school and how much fun we had together. And we kept on having fun while I was staying with her. I wore her clothes, since all I had were the ones I'd run away with, we made blended drinks while watching horrifically trashy TV shows, and we got drunk off our arses of an evening and plotted ways to kick Severus so hard in the nads that he'd lose all the acorns he'd saved up for winter and starve to death when hibernation season kicked in. The times, they were good. They were wonderful.