By: Sweet 16 Movie Buff!
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Jillian lay in bed, staring at the window, watching the gray sunlight outside sparkle through a hand-painted suncatcher of a football. Rays of blue, yellow, green, and red light played on her pillow in octagonal shapes. A beam of green fell across her open palm.
She was a little girl again, holding up a finger-painting to her mother. It was her first complete painting from kinder school and she was so proud to show it to her mother.
"That's you, Mummy," she pointed to the taller stick person with a bounty of yellow hair. Then she pointed to the smaller figure with large glasses and blue hair, "And that's me and that's our house."
"Oh, it's lovely, Jillybean! So much color, I love it," Mrs. McKee brought the small child onto her hip and smiled at the painting, admiring the talent. "Let's go hang it on the fridge."
"Can we put it in my room?" little Jillian asked shyly.
Mrs. McKee pecked her daughter wetly on the cheek, arousing a giggle from her, "Of course, Jillybean. Then I can admire it when I come for tea, right?"
They had tacked it up in her room, beside the picture of Jillian and her father. It had hung in her room for the longest time, a bright, loving picture of the two, warm against the lilac walls.
But this wasn't her room, and the walls weren't lilac, but grass green. This room was Toby's, and this was Toby's house. Jillian and Carly had moved their things in only four days ago to spend the remaining three weeks of the holiday with the Williams.
The Williams homestead was a small suburban town home, one of the many outskirting London, with a rather homey and worn interior. Unlike Jillian's own iron-wrought bed and delicate furnishings, Toby's room was another world with practical vinyl furniture to withstand the constant wear and tear of her three football-kicking brothers.
Jillian had always loved Toby's family and their wild energy, but this visit felt different. She felt disconnected from the rest of them, out of place. It felt as if she were moving through the house in her own private cloud, unable to touch down on solid ground again.
Perhaps she just missed her mother.
"Bloody hell, she's still asleep?" Toby whispered, her voice muffled by the closed bedroom door.
"She didn't sleep well again last night," Carly commented softly.
"It's almost noon!"
"Toby . . ." Carly growled warningly. Of the two, Carly was by far the most patient and understanding; if it wasn't a general consensus of the population and the influence of recent events, she would say that Death Eaters might actually have some good qualities to speak of.
"Well she needs to get her butt up. Sleeping the day away is not going to help her any. Besides, I need Miss Perfect back on my team if we're going to beat Tom and Mat in doubles." the door opened a crack, light from the hall spilling out onto the Berber carpet.
"Be nice, Toby!" Carly hissed.
"I will! I will!" she assured, batting away her worries.
She stepped into the room, opening the door wide, allowing light to pour into the dark room. Jillian let out a groan and brought the blankets over her face. Toby avoided boards that squeaked and snuck over to the bed where Jillian lay motionless. With a sigh, Toby crawled underneath the blankets with her.
"Jilly?" she inquired softly. She held the blankets over their heads, creating a private makeshift tent. There was a rustle of cotton as Carly, too, crawled under the sheets.
Jillian did not open her eyes.
"Faker," Toby accused. A ghost of a smile crawled onto Jillian's face.
Carly pushed a strand of hair away from her face; "You miss her don't you?"
Mutely, Jillian gave the slightest of nods.
Carly sighed and resettled her head on the pillow, "You know she would have wanted you to move on. She wouldn't want you sleeping the rest of your days away."
"She also would have wanted you to brush your God damn teeth, because your breath stinks," Toby told her curtly
"TOBY!" Carly gasped appalled, "For once in your life could you be serious?"
"Well someone needs to take up the role of comedic relief," she snapped back.
Jillian smiled the first real smile she had had in a long time. That was Toby Williams for you.
Toby motioned to Jillian, "See?"
Carly grumbled inaudibly, something about a smart aleck, and then sighed, "Come downstairs, Jilly. Mrs. Williams has sandwiches downstairs for lunch. You don't even have to get out of your pajamas."
Jillian's lips twitched in a weak smile; "I miss her so much."
"I know you do," Carly agreed earnestly. She heaved a sigh and then began softly, "When I was eight, Mum had her fourth baby. I was so excited, I finally had a baby sister. Mum and Dad had a name all picked out and signed on the birth certificate, Helena Spocker. Then when she died in St. Mungo's from complications I was absolutely crushed. I didn't speak to anyone; I threw my toys. I had to be forced to eat. Then my dad sat me down and told me something he had once read: 'For certain is death for the born and certain is birth for the dead. Therefore over the inevitable thou shouldst not grieve.'"
"When my granddad died, my Uncle Sam told me the same thing, except it sounded more like: 'you knew this was gonna happen sooner or later, so why cry about it?' Of course, he hadn't really liked granddad since that fishing accident . . ."
Jillian laughed despite herself, remembering the story rather well and the puncture marks Uncle Sam had showed her where the two-inch hooks had gone through his foot. Carly was hardly amused. "For the love of Merlin, Toby! Can't you just take one, just one thing serious for once in your life - "
"Aw, come off it Carly!" Jillian said lightly, placing a hand on her chest as she gasped for air. "She's not harming anything by it."
Carly smiled, glad that at last Jillian had shown signs of her usual self. "Okay."
"All right, there's my Jilly!" With a sudden burst of energy, Toby flung the sheets away and leapt to her feet. ""Come on, Miss Perfect! Get up, it'll do you some good!"
"Toby!" Jillian cried as her legs got a full blast of the cold. She snatched vainly at the sheets while not bother to sit up, and when she couldn't reach them she moaned, "Fine! Keep the blankets!"
Carly rolled out of bed and smiled down at her friend. Jillian stretched her arms above her head and her toes as far down to the foot of the bed as she could. She shook her head at the two; "I'm NOT getting out of bed."
Toby and Carly shared a significant glance. Open sympathy had woken her up, lighthearted humor had revived her to a living state, but food hadn't coaxed her out of bed. Time for plan two: chocolate.
With a dramatic sigh, Toby plucked at a stray fiber on the bed. "Then I guess she doesn't want any of that chocolate icing we saved from Mat's birthday cake."
Jillian shot them a wary glance, "Icing?"
"Yeah," Carly agreed dolefully, slowly turning towards the door, "Or the M&Ms and Twix your mum bought at the market yesterday."
"Guess that means more for us!" Toby said so quickly her words ran over one another and they bolted out the bedroom door.
"We're running down the stairs!" Carly called in a singsong voice.
"All right! All right! I'm getting up!"
----------------------------------------------------
"Jillian! Post's here!"
Jillian paid little attention to Carly, her brows knit in a pondering frown as she studied her hand of cards. She had several packs of M&Ms and two of her favorite Chocolate Frog cards at stake, and if Toby had something better than a pair of Jacks and a pair of twos they would be lost.
It was the week of September the first, the week the three would return to Hogwarts for their seventh and final year. At the moment, however, Tobyand Jillian were finding solstice in Toby's bedroom on one of her twin beds, deeply interested in a game of poker.
"Jilly, you got something in the mail!"
"Give us a second!" Toby called out the bedroom door and swiveled back on the bed. She grinned slyly at Jillian, "So, McKee? You gonna fold or what?"
She pursed her lips, then with a flourish revealed her cards, "There! Read 'em and weep!"
Toby lifted a delicate brow at the two pairs, "Very nice, McKee, but," she shook her head sadly, and laid out her cards, "I hate to say it, a royal flush beats out two pair any day of the week."
Jillian's jaw dropped as she saw the four Aces laid out neatly before Toby. She guffawed and tossed her cards at her laughing friend. "I'm never playing poker with you again."
Carly's head appeared at the side of the bed, her chin resting compliantly on folded arms. In her hand was clutched a letter. "Are you done yet?"
"Yes," Jillian said bitterly, though there was a lopsided grin on her lips. Then she saw the letter clutched in Carly's hand. "Is that for me?"
Carly handed her the envelope; "It's from your building."
Jillian tore open the envelope and unfolded the crisp piece of paper. Quickly she scanned the letter, then read it a second time, making quite sure she hadn't imagined the words printed in clear-cut black and white.
It was an eviction notice, saying that having failed to pay the second half of the month's rent, that they regretted to inform her that she would no longer have residence, etceteras, etceteras.
Carly watched Jillian's face carefully, noticing the little flicker of disbelief in her dark eyes. "What is it?"
"An eviction notice," Jillian handed her the letter, trying very hard to sort out how she felt about the treacherous piece of paper. She'd lived in Kensington since she was a little girl; there were so many memories attached to that flat and the street she'd come to know even blindfolded. It wasn't that she couldn't afford to pay the rent, her mother's last will and testament had seen to that, but it was the other, more recent, more horrifying and painful memories that had driven Jillian to the other side of the city that haunted her decision.
Carly frowned as she scanned it. "Don't you get a thirty day pay period?"
Jillian shrugged, "I suppose not."
"They're supposed to give you thirty days to pay the rent," Carly said darkly, crumpling the letter and tossing it away with disgust. "Filthy, slimy cockers."
Toby blinked, "Carly! Did you just curse?"
"Yes, because even wizarding families know that the eviction notice is not the final notice. These . . . people wanted an excuse to put an available flat on the market and make a little bit of extra cash. What are you gonna do?"
Startled by the sudden question, Jillian echoed, "What am I gonna do?"
"Are you gonna pay the rent or what?" Carly asked impatiently.
Jillian thought for a moment, then shrugged nonchalantly, "I don't see why I should. I'll be gone most of the year and it would be pointless to continue paying for a space I'm not using."
"But it's your home, Jilly!"
"No, it's a crime scene now. That's all it is," she snapped back, losing her temper. Toby and Carly looked at her taken aback. With a shaky sigh, she slipped off the loft bed; "I'm sorry . . . I, I didn't me to snap, it's just . . . I'll go see if Mrs. Williams needs some help in the kitchen."
And she quickly retreated from the bedroom.
Toby heartily slapped Carly on the shoulder, nodding solemnly, "Well done. Well done."
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AN EXTRA DISCLAIMER . . .
Okay, before I forget, I have an extra disclaimer to add here. When Toby says, "She also would have wanted you to brush your God damn teeth, because your breath stinks . . ." that comes from Practical Magic and belongs to the production company and writers of that film.
I just really love that line.