V. HARRY & JEWEL [PART ONE]
OCTOBER 20TH - DECEMBER, 1989
[ almost ] TWO YEARS AGO
[ give or take three months ]
[ but close enough ]
[ time is weird ]
"And this, is Jewel."
"Hello, Jewel," a flawless Amazonian-looking woman(not a stitch or hair was out of place-from her meticulous braid to her black skirt and warm yellow buttondown to her stylish black pumps and her perfectly manicured fingernails)greeted softly, a warm smile on her tanned face. "My name is Dakota. And this is my husband, Alistair."
A tall man with blonde hair with little flecks of grey and a wiry frame, dressed in comfortable jeans and a white t-shirt with a colourful semi-circle printed on the front and the words 'data science and whisky' in bold black writing, wove at me with an easy smile.
I didn't say a word, nodding slightly and looking away.
"She isn't quite-talking, yet," Mr Soo, a stocky thirty-something-year-old Chinese-British man that had been my caseworker for the past couple weeks(and, unlike my last caseworker, had yet to give up on life), admitted. "But she's always reading," he added hastily, "can't keep her nose out of a book."
"Is there anything in particular that she likes to read?" Dakota asked, thinking better of asking me directly.
"Uh-" Mr Soo stammered, "anything. Everything. She's very smart."
I almost snorted.
Way to make me feel like a crappy used car you're trying to palm off, mate-'the engines screwed, but would you look at that paint job!'
"Is there anything you or social services haven't already disclosed?" Dakota checked seriously. "I know what happened in her-" she wavered slightly, "in her last placement, and I know things have been very-difficult for her. Is there anything we should know? Anything we could do to make things easier on her? We want her to feel as comfortable and safe as possible with us."
Mr Soo looked startled.
"I-uh-" he fumbled with his notes, "my predecessor did suggest therapy. When she starts talking, she might want to see someone to help her with-"
They all looked at me.
In retaliation for their pity, I shot back a resting bitch face.
Alistair looked amused.
"You a fan of the Clash?" he said, nodding at my shirt.
Under his British accent, there was a hint of a Scottish.
I threw up a sarcastic thumbs up.
Alistair chuckled quietly.
"What about school?" Dakota asked. "If you'd like," she added, looking at me kindly, "we can homeschool you for a while until you feel up to it. We can let the last few weeks of this term play out then you can start fresh. You don't have to decide now," she said quickly, "it's just a suggestion."
When I nodded slowly, Dakota smiled breathlessly.
She was nervous, I realised. She really wanted this to work. It was only recently that she and Alistair stopped trying for children of their own-the doctors had already told them a couple of years ago that it might not happen, but they'd held out hope. That's when they had the idea to adopt. They were going to get a baby...but then they saw my file and, for some reason, changed their minds.
Blinking quickly, I looked down, confused about where the hell that all came from.
I probably just overheard Mr Soo talking about it, I assumed.
Dakota came across as a perfectionist, and kind of sophisticated-especially in comparison to her husband...but she was also very loving and maternal; I could see it in the way she smiled at me, and in how desperate she was for this to work.
Alistair was messier, easy-going, and nerdy.
They probably shouldn't work, but they did.
It was like they covered each other's weaknesses and it was clear, from the way they interacted, the way they could read each other with just a look, that they were deeply in love-despite having been together for fifteen years and the strain their marriage had been put through, trying for children then finally accepting that they couldn't have a baby the conventional way.
Something Mr Soo must've been gossiping about too, I figured uneasily.
"-ready to go?" Dakota asked.
I looked up quickly, realising I'd tuned out a large chunk of the conversation.
Seeing them all looking at me expectantly, I nodded, waving to Mr Soo before following Dakota and Alistair to their car-silently wondering to myself how long I'd last here, and what my next foster family will be like.
It had been a couple of weeks and, for some reason, I was still at the Morrissey's.
You'd think how on edge I always am, and the whole mute thing, and the fact that I don't like being touched in any capacity, would've been a turn-off.
For some reason, it wasn't.
For some reason, they were still trying.
Dakota wasn't just an endless source of warmth and comfort, she was like this...determined, kind of OCD, motherly pillar of support-and it was hard to not lean on her when she felt so safe in a way that I didn't think anything would ever feel again.
And Alistair had this way of making me smile-which felt weird on my face, considering.
He was always blasting music, cracking puns, throwing out random nerdy quotes and fun facts, coming up with dangerous but colourful and entertaining experiments that drove his wife mental, and shooting me this good-natured grin that made my constantly tense muscles relax ever so slightly.
As promised, Dakota put in the paperwork and she and Alistair took turns homeschooling me.
After Christmas break, I'd start my new school.
I still had trouble believing I'd be around for that long.
There've been...incidents.
Eventually, they got too bad to brush off-which is when Dakota and Alistair brought me to Ms Alecto Dodds, a therapist that was supposed to help me open up and deal with my issues.
As if.
Sitting in the backseat of Dakota and Alistair's silver car, I watched the snowy scenery flash by my window. Alistair was playing with the radio and chatting idly with his wife about-something or rather.
Dakota had decided it would be fun to go out to lunch, and then shopping, after my therapy session with Ms Dodds-like a kind of treat for being good.
I preferred to think of it as an apology for making me put up with that old bat twice a week.
Suddenly, a song I recognised clicked on and I straightened up quickly, a rare, almost smile blooming on my face.
"Hey, it's the Clash!" Alistair said, grinning back at me.
I ignored him, tapping my foot along to the beat.
My fingers drummed on my lap.
"Darlin' you got to let me know, should I stay or should I go? If you say that you are mine, I'll be there 'til the end of time, so you got to let me know, should I stay or should I go?"
I didn't notice I was humming quietly under my breath.
Or when that humming turned to quiet singing.
"-one day is fine and next is black," I sang under my breath, not noticing Dakota and Alistair stiffen catching the soft noise, "so if you want me off your back, well come on and let me know, should I stay or should I go?"
They looked at each other, shocked.
Suddenly, Dakota smiled brilliantly and turned up the volume on the radio.
Looking back at me, Alistair grinned to himself.
꧖ꦿꦸ⊰ ⊱꧖ꦿꦸ
AUGUST, 1991
PRESENT DAY
Uncomfortable couldn't even begin to describe dinner at the Dursley's.
It was Dakota's idea.
Two weeks had passed since our trip to Diagon Alley and, beyond the painfully awkward phone calls between me and Harry, we hadn't had much contact(we mostly just talk about Hogwarts, our owls-Harry named his gorgeous snowy owl Hedwig and I named my biting horned owl Illyius, and how the Dursleys were ignoring him-and Dudley was scared to be in the same room as him-).
She thought this dinner could change that-because, as much as she and Alistair would love to run Petunia and Vernon over with their car, they were determined to try to smooth things over for mine and Harry's sake.
I blame Ms Dodds.
For the past two weeks, I've spent an insurmountable amount of time on her couch.
Dakota was worried I was bottling up my feelings about Harry, and the Dursleys, and my parents' murder, and magic in conjunction with my childhood(of course I'm bottling up my feelings-if I didn't, I'd be a freakin' headcase), and she wanted me to talk to someone about it-even if I had to find Muggle equivalents to explain my magical issues, and Voldemort, seeing as Ms Dodds is a Muggle.
And somehow, from all of that, came this dinner.
This tense, tense dinner.
Petunia either couldn't look at me, or couldn't stop staring.
Dudley was sitting on his hands.
"So...anyone wanna hear a joke?" Alistair said abruptly in an attempt to ease the tension.
Everyone jerked around to stare at him.
"Great!" he continued enthusiastically(but, unlike when he's genuinely enthusiastic about something-or around/phoning his family, his underlying Scottish accent didn't thicken), not giving anyone a chance to reply-probably because Vernon and Petunia didn't look like the joking type and their answers were pretty obvious, "So, two chemists go into a bar-" Dakota physically facepalmed in resignation, "The first one says, "I think I'll have an H20." The second one says, "I think I'll have an H20 too"-and he died."
Alistair grinned like he'd just told the funniest joke ever.
Taking pity on him, Dakota faked a chuckle.
I sniggered-more at everyone's reactions to the joke than at the joke itself.
Vernon and Petunia were staring at Alistair blankly, like they thought he might be a few crisps short of a bag of Walkers Cheese and Onions.
Harry and Dudley just looked confused.
Alistair's grin faltered.
"-Uh, did you know that carrots are sweeter in winter?" the salt-and-pepper blonde went on after an awkward pause, not taking the hint-although, his good-natured smile did look strained as hell. "Plants develop defence techniques against predators and the severe cold, because they're immobile-" he added, "carrots have developed a physiological response of increasing their sugar content when it's cold outside. It helps stop ice crystal formations and prevents cell damage."
"Nerd," I teased under my breath.
Alistair nudged me playfully in return.
There was another awkward pause.
"So," Vernon said gruffly, clearing his throat and glancing at Alistair, "what is it you do for a living again?"
"Deal Molly," Alistair joked.
Vernon and Petunia looked at him in horror.
"That-that was a joke-" he coughed, glancing sheepishly at Dakota.
"He teaches biology," she corrected in exasperation.
Vernon grunted.
"I, myself, edit the sports column in the Ipswich Star," Dakota added, smiling stiffly as she struggled to keep everything as pleasant as possible, given the circumstances, "what do you do, Vernon?"
"I work at Grunnings, the drill company," he said.
"Oh, that's nice," she replied politely.
He just grunted again.
"How about you, Petunia?" Dakota turned to the blonde woman.
"I used to work a clerical job," Petunia said stiffly, "it's where I met Vernon. Nowadays, my main focus is on taking care of my Diddykins."
Her sideways look made it clear that she was looking down on Dakota for not doing the same thing, as if being a working mother made her neglectful.
Like she, of all people, had room to talk.
Dakota tensed.
'Diddykins?' I mouthed at Harry, eyes wide with mirth.
"Diddykins?" Alistair whispered to me in a struggling voice. "Oh my god," he added, his shoulders shaking in silent laughter, "that poor kid."
"Don't too feel bad," I muttered back, "from what Harry's told me, he's a spoilt little git."
Alistair rose his eyebrows at me before suddenly grinning.
"I know what you mean, Petunia," he said, raising his voice, and Dakota looked at him sharply only to soften when she heard the mocking edge in his voice, "ever since we adopted our Jewel-kins, we've been spending a lot more time at home with her."
I stepped on his foot under the table, hard.
Alistair winced but managed to keep his reaction minimal, a hint of a shit-eating grin on his face.
At the mention of my adoption, Vernon and Petunia looked uncomfortable.
I didn't feel sympathetic.
Another awkward silence followed.
"So, Harry, are you excited to go to Hogwarts in two weeks?" Dakota asked Harry after a couple of minutes, smiling at him kindly.
Harry's head jerked up.
Vernon's fork scraped loudly across his plate.
Dudley let out a whimper.
Petunia gasped, a hand clutching her throat.
"I-I don't think we need to talk about thatnonsense right now, do we?" Vernon said tightly.
Dakota and Alistair stared at them.
"The Dursley's don't like MAGIC," I purposefully emphasised to be a bitch, "or WITCHES and WIZARDS-or HOGWARTS-or FLYING BROOMSTICKS-or-"
Harry's eyes went wide.
Dudley whimpered again.
"THAT'S-" seeing the fury that flashed across Dakota and Alistair's faces when he rose his voice at me, Vernon hastily and awkwardly lowered it, "that's quite enough of that."
"I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't raise your voice at my daughter like that, Vernon," Dakota stated icily with an obviously forced smile on her face.
Vernon just nodded stiffly, his face blotchy and purplish.
"Now, let's get to the matter at hand, shall we?" Dakota said, done with making small talk as she placed down her knife and fork and folded her hands on the table in front of her. "For Harry and Jewel's sakes, we need to form a cohesive unit. I don't agree with what you did to Jewel, but there's no way to change the past-and it brought her to us, and that's something I can't be mad at." She glanced at me, her eyes going soft before hardening as she looked back at Vernon and Petunia, "Harry needs his sister, and Jewel needs her brother. We need to find a way to co-exist so they can properly develop that relationship."
"She said, sounding strikingly like my therapist," I muttered dryly. "But no, this was all her idea, that old bat Ms Dodds had nothing to do with it."
Dakota shot me a look that had Alistair biting back a grin.
"You have a therapist?" Harry blurted in surprise.
"You don't?" I joked to relieve some of the tension, and the discomfort pressing down on my chest, with a pointed glance at the Dursleys.
"Well, we don't want-" Petunia cast a nasty look in my direction.
"I don't frankly care what you want, Petunia," Dakota said bitingly. "This isn't about you, or your husband. This is about Harry and Jewel."
"I won't have that-nonsense in my home!" Vernon stated.
"Don't you think it's even a bit cool?" Alistair asked him in disbelief. "Magic is real, your niece and nephew are magic-"
The disgust in the way Vernon looked at him spoke volumes.
"So, this is going well," Alistair commented sarcastically as he turned to his wife.
Dakota sighed, shaking her head.
"Fine, we won't talk about ma-nonsense," Dakota said sounding slightly sarcastic herself. "I see you are very-no-nonsense people, and I can respect that. But that doesn't negate the fact that your nephew, and our Jewel, are special. In two weeks, they'll go off to-boarding school together and I think it's important that they spend more time together before they leave-"
"You think it's important, or Ms Dodds does?" I muttered.
Dakota ignored that.
"Fine, then take him," Petunia spat.
"Excuse me?" Dakota said, taken aback.
"You think they should spend time together," Vernon grunted in agreement, "then take the boy. They can spend all the time they want together-not here."
Dakota pursed her lips, clearly disapproving of how quick they were to try to wash their hands of Harry; at least, until the summer holidays.
I mean, that's what I'm assuming they meant-
"We'd love to take Harry for the next two weeks," Alistair stated sassily, his expression going hard in a way I'd never seen it before; I guess the Dursley's just have that effect on people. "He's a joy and a pleasure to have around-like Jewel, but you wouldn't know that, would you?"
Dakota shot her husband a sharp look.
Alistair didn't seem to regret it in the slightest.
Petunia had an ugly look on her face.
It was kinda satisfying.
"You want me to come with you?"
Harry looked over at the Morrisseys, shocked and hopeful.
If anything, seeing the look on his face only strengthened their resolve.
"Consider it an extended sleepover," Dakota said tightly, her face softening slightly when she met Harry's bright green eyes-that, while lighter, she seemed to think looked so much like mine. "We can take you to King's Cross and you can board the train with Jewel."
Harry looked down, struggling to hide his excitement and hope.
He seemed to think that, if he looked too happy, the Dursleys would force him to stay-even if it meant being 'stuck' with him until September 1st.
"It's settled, then," Vernon said shortly.
"Yep," Alistair agreed with a bitchy smile.
꧖ꦿꦸ⊰ ⊱꧖ꦿꦸ
On the drive back to the Morrissey's, Harry seemed to still be in shock. He couldn't quite believe this was happening, that he was leaving the Dursleys two weeks early. More so, he couldn't believe he was leaving them to stay with Dakota and Alistair Morrissey...and me. Dakota ended up giving Harry the guest room, which was apparently larger than his room back at the Dursley's(then again, they used to make him sleep in a cupboard under the stairs until they gave him Dudley's second bedroom because those Hogwarts letters freaked 'em out; it's not like we had a high bar to beat, here).
The first few days were...awkward.
Harry and I were still hesitant with each other, feeling one another out, and struggling to find common ground only to default to Hogwart's talk.
(not to mention the fact that I think-as crazy as it sounds-that my scar is somehow...reacting to Harry's presence; like, when he comes into the room, it kind of tingles faintly, like spiderman's Spidey-Sense-but, you know, for awkward estranged twin brothers, not bad guys in drag-and at first I thought it was just me, but it's him, too-we both kinda think, or rather hope, it's probably just a wizard/magic thing, or something to do with our scars being 'cursed', but it's weird as hell-).
Harry was right.
It was definitely going to take a while before this-us-is less weird.
In our case, 'a while' was two weeks and six days.
At first, I think we were kind of trying to force it.
We were both just so desperate for this to work, being orphans and coming from the homelives that we have, that we kept trying to shove the pieces together.
In the end, it wasn't until we stopped, and relaxed our guards, that they clicked into place on their own.
I had a soccer game, the last game I'd play this year seeing as I'll be at Hogwarts in just over a week, and Dakota Alistair and Harry all came along to cheer me on. After the match-we crushed the other team by several points and I got red-carded when I decked another player(in my defence, it was totally deserved...kind of...so, maybe I'm a bit competitive-to a semi-violent degree; that, in my opinion, is all on Ms Dodds), we went to the drive-thru and got ice cream.
Per usual, Alistair cranked up the radio.
"-don't drink, don't smoke, what do you do? Subtle innuendos follow, there must be something inside-"
"Hey!" I exclaimed, sitting up straighter and almost dropping my sundae.
Alistair jerked around in his seat to grin at me.
"No one's gonna tell me, what's wrong and what's right-!" we sang loudly, "or tell me who to eat with, sleep with, or that I've won the big fight, big fight-"
Harry looked at us in surprise as we broke out dancing like idiots.
Dakota laughed, smiling at us fondly.
"Look out or they'll tell you, you're a "Superstar"," we belted along with the radio, "two weeks and you're an all-time legend, I think the games have gone much too far!"
"Come on, Harry, take the mic-" Alistair called over, grinning.
"If the words unspoken, get stuck in your throat, send a treasure token, token-"
"I-uh-I don't-"
Harry looked like a deer in headlights.
"It's the end of the song, it's all chorus from here," I reassured, taking pity on him, "here-just copy me-"
I waited for the chorus to circle again.
"'Cause I don't drink, don't smoke, what do you do?" I sang.
"Don't drink, don't smoke, what do you do?" Harry continued awkwardly.
"Subtle innuendos follow, must be something inside," I finished.
"'Cause I don't drink, don't smoke, what do you do?" we sang, Harry slowly getting the hang of it, "Don't drink, don't smoke, what do you do? Subtle innuendos follow, must be something inside!"
"There you go, Harry!" Alistair cheered. "Now just belt it out like a complete lunatic, and throw in some weird crazy dance moves, and you've got it."
"'Cause I don't drink, don't smoke, what do you do? Don't drink, don't smoke, what do you do?"
Harry grinned sheepishly and I lightly punched his arm, laughing.
"-subtle innuendos follow, must be something inside."
"There might just be corrupting you yet, Potter."
Harry blushed faintly but, when he looked away, he was smiling like an idiot.
The first real step came that night.
Dinner was long over and Alistair was downstairs doing the dishes while Dakota did paperwork at the kitchen table.
I could hear soft music playing, faint voices, and occasional laughter.
After washing up and changing into my PJs, I hesitantly made my way down the hall, heading for the guest room.
Walking in to see Harry sitting on his bed, Hedwig grooming herself in her cage on the polished mahogany nightstand, I knocked on the doorframe.
He looked up in surprise.
"Jewel-hey-" he got up quickly.
"Hey," I said with a nervous smile, rocking on my heels. "I wasn't sure if you'd gone to bed or not-I have something for you."
"You have something for me?" Harry repeated, taken off guard.
Taking a deep breath, I quickly thrust out my green walkman and headphones.
"I figured-I mean-" my face pinked, "I thought that, while you're here, you might wanna borrow my walkman-I can teach you all the wicked songs I know, like earlier in the car with Goody Two Shoes-and I was thinking we could have a movie marathon tomorrow after my appointment with Ms Dodds-"
"Really?" Harry brightened, "I-yeah, that'd be great. I'd love to."
I let out a whoosh of air.
"You would? Great. Awesome," I said, laughing slightly in relief.
Harry accepted the walkman.
"Thanks, Jewel," he said shyly.
"No problem, Scotch tape," I replied jokingly.
"Scotch tape?" he echoed, startled.
"What?" I teased with my usual tongue-in-teeth smile, "I thought that one was pretty good."
And, in that moment, I finally felt it.
That...click.
And he smiled, because he did too.