FATHER
Chapter 13 - Elodie
Elodie loved the Potter's house. There was something so comforting about it. Like being folded into a hug, or stepping into a warm bath.
She adored the threadbare carpets and the scuffed wallpaper. The random shoes strewn about the house. The clutter of framed pictures whose occupants grinned at her from behind the glass. Even the old brooms propped in a tangle by the kitchen door carried a certain lived-in homeliness that made her want to snuggle into the furniture and never leave.
She glanced back over her shoulder, her eyes swivelling round the empty kitchen. From another room she could hear her mum's distant voice, but for now, she was alone.
Taking a breath, she turned to the brooms and reached out a cautious hand. As her palm connected with the wood, she waited for… something. It was hardly like she was expecting it to waltz across the kitchen, but the disappointment she felt from the cold, dead wood surprised her.
"Ever been on one?" a voice said behind her.
Elodie spun, her hand flying behind her back as she noticed Ginny leaning against the open door. "Don't worry, it's not a trick question" she said with a wink when Elodie didn't immediately answer, walking into the room and staring to gather various vegetables from a bowl on the side.
"Uh, no, not really".
Elodie shook her head as she said it, a short sharp little movement. For all of the books she'd devoured, her experience in all things magical felt decided lacking and increasingly sore.
If Ginny thought less of her for it though, she didn't say. Instead she chuckled, a warm sound that suited the house, and began to run the vegetables underneath a stream of water at the sink. Elodie watched in amazement as Ginny muttered a spell under her breath and the vegetables began to turn in the air, bits of soil shaking free under the fall of water.
Ginny turned back to her, wringing her now empty hands on a dishcloth.
"Your mum was never really one for flying, you know. Most people either don't like the speed, or the height. Hermione always said she hated both".
Ginny had made her way to stand next to Elodie and with a practiced hand, she picked up the broom Elodie had been looking at, quickly surveyed it and then handed it back to Elodie.
"Here you go. It won't bite".
Elodie reached out tentatively, wrapping her fingers around the midsection of the broom that in contrast to the rest of its gnarled exterior, was shiny and smooth with use. She glanced up at Ginny, a questioning and apprehensive pull on her lips.
"Harry once told me about his first flying lesson. Your mum was there too. She wouldn't even touch the broom, let alone get on one. Had apparently heard a story from one of the fifth years about someone falling off and well, that was it. She'd decided she didn't like it and you know Hermione, won't change her mind on anything once it's set".
"And did they?"
"Hmm? Did they what?"
"Fall off? Like the fifth year said".
Ginny laughed. "I have no idea but I doubt it. You never fly alone as a beginner and you always learn to control your fall". She paused for a moment, contemplating Elodie who was still eyeing the broom with trepidation.
"You know, I could take you up. If you wanted? Show you the ropes before you get to Hogwarts".
Elodie's eyes snapped up to hers.
"You mean like, up there?" she said, nodding her chin towards the grey clouds.
"Well, we certainly aren't going to do it in the living room", Ginny snorted. "Trust me, I speak from experience. Let's just say that certain members of this household decided indoor flying was decidedly less fun after getting to know the ceiling".
"But won't everyone see us?" Elodie asked, her nerves and, dare she say it, excitement, rushing ahead.
Ginny shook her head. "Nope. Brooms are disillusioned, just like the house".
"Cool", Elodie whispered almost to herself. She was still surveying the broom in her hand, her thoughts warring on whether to accept Ginny's offer, when Ginny turned back to the sink and collected the bucket of now clean vegetables.
"Think about it. You can let me know after lunch", she said, sinking into a chair at the table and drawing a peeler towards her. At the same time, as a tremendous thudding began to rattle the ceiling, the feet haring down the stairs suddenly turned themselves into a boy as Albus bust into the kitchen in a breathless tumble.
"Mum, mum, have you seen my Extendable Ear?"
"Now why would you need that? It couldn't possibly be to spy on your brother could it?"
Ginny glanced towards Elodie and winked again.
Albus immediately reddened, the tips of his ears turning pink. "No".
"The last time I saw it it was on your dress-"
"Okay thanks mum", Albus said, ready to bolt out of the warm kitchen when Ginny stopped him.
"Alb, why don't you take Elodie to play with you?"
Albus stopped and turned in exaggerated slow motion. His eyes flicked over Ginny's shoulder to look at Elodie and she felt herself tensing, the black knot of friendless worry in her stomach smouldering at his obvious appraisal of her.
She gritted her teeth together and looked at him through hard eyes.
"It's okay, I have my book", she said stiffly. The words sounded less sure than she'd wanted them to, but they were still firm enough for Albus to frown at her.
Ginny ignored them both.
"You could show Elodie your new chess set. The one Dad and I got you for your birthday".
When Albus didn't immediately reply, Ginny twisted in her seat to face him. Elodie couldn't see whatever look she gave him, but she could see Albus's grimace. He huffed out an exaggerated sigh.
"Fine".
"Wonderful", Ginny said, turning back round and giving Elodie a broad smile. "I'll call you both when dinner's ready".
Albus lead Elodie up the stairs and to his bedroom at the top of the house. It was tucked into the roof space and from the eaves dangled paper cut outs of broom sticks and what Elodie could only presume to be Quidditch balls hung with string. A bedside lamp cast a cheery glow around the room and outside of the small window she could just see the tips of the trees and a few dead leaves waving at her.
Albus was rummaging around in his dresser. "Ah ha!" he proclaimed, grasping something in his hand. When he turned and saw her staring at him he looked suddenly sheepish.
"It's not for spying on James, I just wanted to find it", he said, though the way he looked towards his feet made Elodie think that he probably wasn't telling the truth. She didn't say anything though. She wasn't even sure what to even if she wanted to.
She had a few friends back at home (well, not home any longer), but they'd all been girls. Girls who liked playing in the sandpit at the back of the house and then when they'd gotten older, giggling along to whatever song was top of the charts that week.
How did one even interact with boys? Especially ones who liked things that looked like a human ear attached to a piece of string?
She settled for shrugging nonchalantly.
"Dad said you're going to be starting at Hogwarts", Albus finally said, shoving the Extendable Ear into his pocket and rummaging around in the drawer some more. "What House do you want to be in?"
"Um, Ravenclaw maybe".
Albus glanced up at her, his eyebrows raising up on his freckled forehead.
"Not Gryffindor? Mum and Dad went there. Your mum too".
Elodie's shoulders raised again and she looked towards her feet.
She supposed she should want Gryffindor. Albus was right - it was Hermione's house, and Harry's too. Even Albus and James were in Gryffindor. Albus had a big red and gold poster of the Gryffindor lion plastered over his bed as if to prove it. Already it had roared at them both though lacking any sort of voice, Elodie though it looked more like a yawn.
"I guess", she said, words suddenly lost somewhere in her stomach.
She wasn't a Gryffindor. She wasn't brave or fearless or whatever you had to be to be chosen. She was just Elodie. Bookish and quiet. She liked drawing more than she liked adventure and she would always choose a chair by the fire with one her stories than venture anything dangerous or scary.
Was that true though? She'd been so close to saying yes to Ginny. To flying. Her!
"What 'bout your Dad? What House was he in?" Albus asked, interrupting her self-doubt. He'd finally retreated from the drawer with a crushed packet of biscuit and was studiously ripping open the ends of it.
He didn't notice how her fingers clenched into the sleeves of her jumper, the hot pricking touching at her chest as it always did when someone asked about her father as though she had one.
"I, uh, I don't know".
"Oh, is he a muggle? That's cool if he is. One of my best mates, both of his parents are muggles. Met them at King's Cross. They were both really nice".
His words were muffled around the biscuit which he'd just crushed into his mouth.
"No, it's not that. He was a wizard. Is a wiz- anyway, yeh, he was at Hogwarts but it's just well… I don't really - it's sort of always just been me and my mum".
The words fell out of her like she'd just vomitted pebbles. All disjointed syllables that landed with a dissatisfied thud at her feet. She cast a glance up at Albus, sure that she'd find him looking back at her like she'd grown two heads. She'd long ago gotten used to it just being her and Hermione but people tended to react in odd ways when they found out that she knew nothing of her dad. Albus merely looked pensive though. After a moment he nodded and then took a bite of another biscuit.
"Dad didn't really know either of his parents, you know. They died when he was only a baby. There's loads of stuff that he doesn't know about them even now and he's spoken to tonnes of their friends".
"Like what?"
Albus narrowed his eyes and looked towards the ceiling, thinking hard. "Like what his mum's familiar was. He reckons it's might have been a cat because he saw this tail in an old photo of her. I reckon it was a toad though. Toads are cool".
Albus grinned and then said, "so you want to play chess then?"
He didn't wait for her answer and instead turned to a groaning shelf behind him, packed with all manner of brightly coloured yet tattered objects. He reached up onto the balls of his feet to draw down a box which looked comparatively new, and then sunk cross-legged down to the floor and gestured for Elodie to do the same.
"Yo'wana'biscuit"? he said, shoving yet another into his mouth and proffering the pack to Elodie. She shook her head. "Just as well, mum'll kill me if she finds out I've been eating these before lunch. You wanna be white or black"?
It took her a moment to realise he was gesturing towards the board.
"I don't know how to play".
"Doesn't matter. I'll teach you. Not hard", Albus said, spraying crumbs everywhere and then wiping them off with the sleeve of his jumper. Elodie giggled which made Albus grin.
"James is rubbish at it, but Uncle Ron is amazing. We always play when he comes round and he nearly always wins".
"You must be good if you beat him some of the time", Elodie said tentatively, watching as Albus laid the pieces out on the board.
"Nah, I think sometimes he just lets me win because mum tells him off. She's his little sister but I reckon he's scared of her. He always makes this face when she tells his to lay the table and she shouts at him even more. It's really funny".
"It's nice that you have a big family", Elodie said, watching with interest as Albus tapped each of the pieces. Their tiny porcelain faces turned up to him and nodded seriously. One or two even saluted.
Albus grunted. "It's okay. Kind of annoying though. Mum's always forcing us on these trips to see these relatives that smell like the back of the garden shed. Still though, my cousins are alright. You got any?"
"Cousins?" Uh no, I don't think so. It's just me and my mum".
Albus nodded. "Grandparents? Brothers, sisters?"
Elodie shook her head again, drawing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs as though it could stop the shame from leaking out of her.
"That sounds quite nice you know", Albus said casually, oblivious to her discomfort. "I always have to share my things with James, it's such a pain. He doesn't know about this though", he said with a smirk, patting his pocket where he'd shoved the Extendable Ear.
She supposed from what she'd heard from other people that brothers or sisters could be annoying sometimes. Certainly the girls she used to go to school with were always complaining about their siblings. Secretly though she'd always though them lucky. What she wouldn't have given for someone else to play with when she was little. Even now, as she lay in her new bed she had wondered what it would be like to snuggle down with someone, their faces close, and reminisce about life back home.
Nothing would ever come of wishing though. She was grown up enough now to know that.
"What even is that thing?" she asked, happy to steer the conversation aways from family.
Albus grinned. "You hide it in a room and then run the string back and you can hear what they're saying in there. I used it the other day and I think James has a girlfriend". Albus looked beside himself with the knowledge. "So gross. Wait 'til mum and dad find out. Dad'll have a fit. Anyway".
He pushed one of the pieces forward. "So you're gonna try and capture my king, yeh? This ones a pawn. It moves like this, see?"
As they played, talking and occasionally pushing biscuits into their mouths, for the first time since arriving in England Elodie felt something decidedly like happiness.