Payment in Full
By Terra
Introduction: This story was written as part of challenge on Sugarquill.net. The task was to write a letter, essay, or anything, in 1, 500 or less, to a character in a fic (on the Sugarquill) about how the fifth book was coming out and how the related story with the character might become null and void. Furthermore, we had to quote the book or J. K. Rowling herself at least once in the entire entry. I choose to do a short story involving Katinka's Abby Loomis from "Interwoven or the Seamstress and the Stray" among others. My entry follows.
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Author's Note: I do not own Harry Potter related people, places, or things. Abigail Loomis belongs to Katinka and I thank her many times for letting me borrow her for 1, 500 words. If you want to know her story, read "Interwoven", "A Kind and Caring Friend", "Character Development", and "Merry and Bright" on the Sugarquill. This is the first time I've ever participated in a Sugarquill challenge but I think I'm up to it! Let's get ready for June 21st! If you want to review, hit the button or e-mail at destinyplot@lycos.com. Enjoy!
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It was the beginning of a typical day for Abby Loomis. Get up, wash, get dressed, walk to work... and worry. Worry about Lord Voldemort. Worry about Harry Potter. Worry about her father. Worry about Dumbledore. Worry about the Malfoys. And, definitely, worry about Sirius.
If someone had told Abby a year ago that she would not only take in an escaped convict but also bake him ginger biscuits and even have feelings for him, she would have said that he or she better stay away from the Whomping Willow in future. But it was true, although barely anyone knew. Everyone thought she just had a dog that came and went as it pleased.
Then again, everyone also thought she was just the owner of Gladrags who was a little flighty ever since her experience with the Whomping Willow. The truth was she was a Weaver of Invisibility Cloaks and her first and only one was now with the aforementioned escaped convict, Sirius Black.
When did her life become so complicated?
It was June 20th and Abby was setting up shop alone. This allowed time for Abby to stress about all the problems in her life before the rush came in so she could concentrate. As she was arranging the fabrics again, the bell over the door jiggled and a customer entered the shop.
It was a young girl, looking about thirteen, with long, frizzy hair that appeared to have split ends. Her hair was dyed auburn but her natural light brown roots were showing. Her blue eyes shifted around the shop, seeming to be trying hard not to focus on Abby's face. She was pale but red spots dotted her face and shoulders, showing through her make-up and around her sleeves of her t-shirt, which had French words on it. She was very thin. She was carrying a denim backpack with metal key chains on the zippers and holding a large grocery bag in her right hand. She was twirling a sugar quill in her left hand.
"Hello," Abby greeted, smiling. "May I help you?"
"Um..." the girl answered softly with an American accent. "Is this Gladrags?"
"Yes, it is. I'm the owner, Abby Loomis."
"Cool. Can I buy a dress?" the girl asked. Abby nodded and indicated the fabrics surrounding the shop. The girl set the large paper bag on the counter and left her backpack at the door and followed Abby. The girl went straight for the incandescent purple satin fabric. "This one. Please."
"Wise choice," Abby complimented, but added, "But it's a little expensive."
"I can afford it," she answered but gave her a cryptic look as if she meant something more. Abby shook off the weird feeling and nodded her assent. She told her to stand on the stool in front of the mirror so she could have her measurements.
"So," Abby started sweetly, "excited about starting new classes in third year?"
The girl sighed wearily. "I'm seventeen."
"Oh. My apologies!"
"I get it a lot." The girl sighed again and said sadly, "Sirius misses you."
Abby dropped her supplies in alarm. "How...?"
"How what?"
"How do you know?" Abby demanded. "Who told you?"
"About you and Sirius or that he misses you? Never mind. Don't worry, I'm a friend of both of you." She then made a zipping gesture over her mouth meaning that she had told no one else of Abby's connection to Sirius. "Just try not to put invisible pins in my dress. He warned me about that."
"He...?"
"Sirius. Did you take my measurements yet?" The girl had obviously decided the subject was closed. Abby gaped wordlessly at her. How did a seventeen-year-old girl meet up with Sirius who was on the run? Abby continued her measurements as the girl stared at her and Abby's reflections in the mirror. Once Abby had the measurements, she brought out designs of dresses that Abby could make for the girl. She sat in a chair and flipped through the pages as Abby took out the fabric to be used. Occasionally, the girl would look up, sigh, shake her head sadly, and go back to the design book.
After the sixth time she did this, Abby inquired, "Something wrong?"
The girl bit some loose skin off her lip and rubbed the knuckle of her right thumb before finally answering, "I'm going to miss you so much."
"Miss me? I'm not going anywhere," Abby answered. Perhaps she was worried about the danger of the oncoming Dark times ahead? "And I'm not planning on dying either."
"It's not that," the girl explained, setting the book aside. "It's just... you've done so much for Sirius and I want to you to stay but... June 21st..." she trailed off.
"What's happening?" Abby asked anxiously. "Is something going to happen? You must tell me."
"Oh no. Nothing like that. Nothing with the Dark Lord... well, not to you. That's the problem. Not to you," she explained cryptically. "I can't explain it better than that."
Abby looked suspiciously at the young girl. What did this girl know? What was happening the next day? Why couldn't she explain?
The girl sighed. "Harry Potter may not know all that you've done but I know. Even though you were crushed by the supposed betrayal, when Sirius sneaked into the Wizarding house and spoke to Harry on the Gryffindor fire, after feeding Sirius and giving him a haircut, he looked healthier, which put Harry's mind at ease (1)."
"He spoke to Harry that night?" Abby asked.
The girl nodded. "After all, it gave a reasonable explanation as to how Sirius got to a fire since he's on the run. And then taking care of him while he was Padfoot and as he was Sirius. Although he says to Harry that he was just posing as a lovely stray, there is room for speculation (2). Of course, he couldn't mention you because of security reasons." The girl muttered to herself softly and Abby could barely hear, "That, and you're not really canon and you'll have to go away."
"Pardon?"
"Nothing," the girl answered, smiling all-too-innocently. "Anyway, and the name that you gave Padfoot made it safe for the Trio and Sirius. I mean, anyone could overhear them or intercept a letter at any time. By giving him the idea, Sirius was able to have a name like Snuffles on hand to use as a code (3). I mean, how else did Sirius think of the name so quickly without even pausing to think about it?" She crossed her arms and ankles and added, "I'm surprised they hadn't even thought of the possibility."
"But that doesn't explain why you'll miss me."
"Oh, well, see... I think you were the only woman I've seen that truly understood Sirius. I mean, you didn't get all mushy and romantic with him. I mean, you're just an ordinary woman doing extraordinary things, meeting challenges head-on... like Sirius." Abby raised her eyebrows. The girl ignored her. "But she could do anything! She might invent a lover or have Sirius explain Snuffles and what he did through Book Four and have no room for any notion of you. But, even so, he likes you. I like you. I came to say that."
"Just to tell me that?" Abby asked, a cross between deeply flattered and somewhat disturbed. The girl nodded and rose out of the chair. With a smooth movement, she grabbed the denim bag on the floor. To Abby's amazement, she still had the sugarquill clutched in her hand but she popped it in her mouth. "When do you want the dress?" Abby asked, remembering her job but the girl didn't answer. She just went to the door and gave a little wave. Then she was gone.
Abby stood in amazement because of the weird girl and went to the counter. She gasped. The bag was still there! She ran out to the street to call the girl back but she was nowhere in sight. She had simply vanished. As she went inside, she noticed that everything, including the fabric that she had sworn that she had taken out, was back where it was before the girl arrived.
The bag was labeled in a child-like scrawl with her name. Curious, she opened it, finding Muggle ziplock bags containing: fifteen cups of shortening, twenty cups of white sugar, twenty eggs, eighty tablespoons of molasses, forty teaspoons of baking soda, forty cups of flour, twenty teaspoons of cinnamon, and ten teaspoons of ginger. There was also a note: "Dear Abby, You told me that I would have to pay you back someday. I don't like debts hanging over me so here's the payment in full. Now you have no excuse not to make me some when I come back. Yours, Sirius."
When employees finally arrived for work that morning, she was still clutching the letter and laughing her head off.
The End
Sources:
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter Nineteen: The Hungarian Horntail, (American Paperback Edition), p. 331. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter Twenty-Seven: Padfoot Returns, (American Paperback Edition), p. 522. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter Twenty-Seven: Padfoot Returns, (American Paperback Edition), p. 534.