Chapter 19: Christmas Attack
It was a day before Christmas and Sirius' house had been livened up with all the Christmas decorations. It had taken them only a few hours to put up the streamers, balloons, Christmas tree and the lightings. That was the convenience wizards have over muggles. With a few waves of their wands, everything was in order.
Hermione had given Janieve a bracelet which could command her wand. If she had been disarmed, she could just shout "Accio wand" and the wand will fly back to her. Ginny and the twins had given her a beautiful broom case while Mrs. Weasley had made her a lavender sweater with the alphabet "J" knitted over the heart.
Janieve brushed her long black mane, put on a little make up and headed down for the Christmas Eve feast. She had been in a better mood since her discharge from the hospital. Although Harry and Ron was still ignoring her, Fred, George, Ginny and Hermione had made it up by being extra nice to her. The atmosphere was more like anti-Harry-and-Ron than anti- Janieve.
A number of the Order members were around. There was Tonks, Mad-Eye, Remus, Mundungus, Kingsley, Mr. and Mrs.Weasley, Bill and a beautiful girl Janieve did not recognise.
"Mom, Lee has got this party going on at his house tomorrow night and we're invited," said George over dinner.
"Well alright, boys," said Mrs. Weasley, "but no drinking."
"Harry and the rest are invited," added Fred. Everyone around the table stopped their chatter.
"You know Harry is not allowed to leave the place without a guard," responded Mrs. Weasley impatiently.
"Why not? We are sixteen. We are not children anymore. Harry knows how to take care of himself," said Ron. Harry nodded his head. Janieve, Hermione and Ginny were looking at her expectantly.
"Well, Dumbledore did say they're allowed to have some fun," began Mr. Weasley.
"Arthur!" said Mrs. Weasley sharply.
"Well, Molly, they are almost grown-ups," said Lupin.
"You said almost. You too know wizards are only considered adults when they are seventeen. And you know it would be dangerous," argued Mrs. Weasley and Janieve thought she saw her looking at her for a fleeting moment.
"Dumbledore had it all covered Molly. It'll be fine. I think they need to relax," said Lupin.
Mrs. Weasley looked around the table but none came to her rescue. Finally she said, "Fine! But Ginny is staying."
"But mom! I can take care of myself!" Ginny protested.
"Yes Molly, what do you expect her to stay here all by herself while her friends and brothers are off to a party?" said Mr. Weasley.
"Fine! Fine!" she shouted as she began cutting angrily into her piece of turkey.
Ginny and Hermione launched into a conversation of what to wear to the party to saying how much they envied Tonks for being a Metamorphmagus. They started asking Tonks what it was like to be able to change her appearance at will. Janieve tuned out their conversation. She was observing Harry. She was sure Harry had been looking at her when she flirted with the twins the past few days. She was sure he still felt something for her and she needed to talk to him. Her chance came when Harry decided to beat an early retreat to his room.
"Harry?" she called gently outside his room. When there was no reply, Janieve pushed open the slightly ajar door. Harry was lying on his bed, his back facing the door. "Harry, I know you're awake." Still he did not answer.
Janieve went over to sit beside him on Ron's bed. "Harry, I'm really sorry for not telling you earlier about my parents. I found out the night you were attacked by the centaurs. Then many things happened after that. I couldn't get the chance." She said dejectedly as her words were once again greeted by silence.
"Harry, do you remember when you said you wouldn't judge me after the tornado incident? You said your whole life had been judged by other people. I thought you would understand how I feel."
Still there was no answer. Janieve was getting angry.
"Do you think I'm proud of having parents like them?" she said hotly. Harry just lay motionless on the bed soundlessly. "Do you think if I had a choice, I would want two cold-blooded murderer as my parents? Sirius was my uncle! You're the only one with the loss!" Janieve felt her eyes stung with tears. After another long moment of silence, she left the room feeling worse than she had ever felt.
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Harry's bright green eyes were shining with tears. Do you think I'm proud of having parents like them? Janieve words had given him an odd feeling of déjà vu. Last year, Sirius had used almost the exact same words on his take on Bellatrix Lestrange. Do you think I'm proud of having a relative like her? Harry knew it was unfair to blame Janieve for something that was not her fault. In fact, he did not blame her anymore. If there was one thing he was sure that night, it was that he cared about Janieve a lot. He would do anything to keep her from danger, even if that meant keeping himself away from her.
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"Wake up!"
"I'm not going!" Janieve grumbled. Ginny and Hermione began attacking her with their pillows.
"We are not going without you!" cried Hermione.
"And after all the trouble we took to get the permission to go, we're not going to let you ruin it for us," proclaimed Ginny.
Janieve groaned. She sat up and stared viciously at her friends. "Can you just leave me alone?" she pleaded.
"NO!" they shouted at once.
"You know what we should do? We should dress you up so hot all the guys' jaws will hit the ground, and let Harry regret for treating you badly," Hermione went on.
Janieve's lips curled into a cunning smile and said, "Now, that's an idea… How about NO!" and she flopped back onto her bed.
Twenty minutes later, she had been pushed into the bathroom to shower and pulled out of there, changed into an ultra short brown skirt which hung dangerously low on her hips and had threw on a black tank top. The attire was too skimpy even for a normal day, much less for a typical snowing winter day.
"How do you expect me to go out in this?" she said, shivering with cold.
"Here," Hermione said as she tossed her a denim jacket.
"And this," added Ginny as she handed her a pair of brown suede boots.
"Wow…" they murmured as they stared at their creation two hours later. Janieve's hair was tied up in a high but loose ponytail. Her face was made up expertly by a spell Tonks had taught them over dinner last night. Even Janieve had to admit she looked gorgeous.
"I'll still be shivering outside," she stated matter-of-factly.
"Don't worry, a coat should do the trick," said Hermione confidently.
"Even if not, I'm sure plenty of guys would be honoured to warm you up a little," added Ginny cheekily.
Janieve had to smile despite herself. Harry is so going to regret this, she thought evilly. Her friends really knew what they were doing.
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Harry's jaw literally hit the ground when he saw Janieve. The three girls had emerged from their room at five in the afternoon even though Harry was sure they had been up since noon. Hell they were making so much noise Harry was sure their neighbours would have heard it if not for the anti-muggle spell on the house.
Hermione was dressed in a clingy black dress which clung to her at the right places while Ginny was clad in black leather pants and a flattering blue blouse that brought out her eyes. Janieve was a different thing altogether. She was unearthly. She looked liked a playful angel. She was so gorgeous Harry had tripped himself over the carpet upon seeing her and knocked his chin painfully on solid ground.
Fred let out a wolf whistle while George kept saying Lee was going to thank them for this. Mrs. Weasley had reproved the girls for wearing too little and said that the cold was going to get to them. Harry had to agree with her for once. They were indeed wearing too little. But Harry was more repulsed by the thought of strangers ogling at them than anything else.
Harry was sure Ron was smitten by Hermione from the way he was staring at her, kind of rudely actually.
"What Ron? Have someone turned you into a frog? You look just like one with your eyes bulging like that," she snapped meanly.
The seven of them got into a London cab. Harry was sitting between Ron and Hermione and facing the twins, Janieve and Ginny.
"Where does this Lee Jordan guy stays?" asked Janieve.
"Prinsep Avenue," Fred replied, "but we're going somewhere else for dinner first." The driver pulled into a street lined with dingy looking shop houses and restaurants.
"This is a muggle restaurant," said Hermione as they walked up the entrance to an old looking restaurant with broken green and red signboard.
"Yes it is, and don't tell mom," said George.
"Yeah, she'll flip. Anyway, it was Dad who told us about this place," agreed Fred.
The restaurant from the inside was surprisingly well furnished. It was classy and chic with a little Christmas decorations but not overly done. The place was packed with diners already even though it was barely six.
They were seated next to the enormous aquarium situated in the middle of the restaurant. Harry looked idly at the colourful fishes swimming around while waiting for the food to arrive. He figured it would take some time with the crowd.
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"Eww, I'm not eating this!" protested Ron.
"It's yummy!" Ginny said.
"They are snails!" Ron cried indignantly.
"They are escargots," corrected a laughing Hermione, who seemed to have forgotten to stay angry at Ron.
"I don't care what gold they are," said Ron stubbornly, "they look disgusting."
"Your loss then, Ronnie," said Ginny who was helping herself to a second one. Harry didn't blame Ron though. Even though he had grown up in a muggle family, he had never eaten something quite like this before. Janieve, on the hand, looked like she had enjoyed it thoroughly and that had prompted Harry to try one, to his regret of course. The snail-like dish was chewy and tasteless and Harry had forced it down his throat with a few gulps of water.
"Guys we'd better hurry up. I don't want to miss the firewhiskey," said George.
Ron nearly chocked on his ice-cream. "Firewhiskey?" Ron croaked, "Tell me Lee hadn't got that," Ron said disbelievingly.
"He's got that," said Fred and George merely nodded in consensus.
"Merlin's beard! I've been dying to try that!" Ron exclaimed.
"But, are you sure we're allowed to…" Hermione started but Ron cut her off.
"Stop being a spoilsport Hermy. We are grown ups. Look at us!" he said. And Harry did. Indeed, they looked like a bunch of young adults even though they were only fifteen, sixteen and the most, eighteen. Hermione just scowled at Ron but did not argue with him for once and Harry was thankful for that. Harry himself had wanted to try the firewhiskey ever since he had come to know about them.
They walked out of the restaurant a little past eight and saw that the London cab was still waiting for them outside.
"I didn't know they booked the cab for us," said Ginny. They filed into the spacious vehicle and headed for Lee's house.
Lee's house was big. Harry did not know Lee was rich. He had expected all the rich wizard families to be dark wizards. Now he knew he was wrong for Lee could never be a dark wizard.
"Wow!" murmured Ron and Harry felt that was an understatement. Lee's house had this circular drive in before they reached his porch. At the side was a garden with a pond big enough to be called a lake. The inside was even more spectacular. There were light chandeliers hanging down from the high ceilings and their crystals lit up every corner of the room. The only house he had seen which could measure up was Janieve's house. The place was packed with people and Harry recognised a few of them from Gryffindor or at least used to be from Gryffindor. Fred and George had abandoned them and made their way towards Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet. The five of them made their way to one of the untaken couches. He also saw Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor ex-captain before Angelina, with a bunch of ex-Hogwarts students in Oliver's year.
"Harry!"
Harry turned around and his heart nearly skipped a beat when he saw Cho Chang bounding up to him.
"Hi Cho, nice to see you here," he said politely.
"Nice to see you here too!" she gushed. "How have you been?"
"Uh not bad. You?" Harry asked.
"Not so good. I broke up with Michael." She said sadly but smiled quickly, "Want to dance?"
Harry looked at Janieve but she was looking at the drink she held in her hand.
"Come on Harry, I missed the chance at Yules Ball. You can't say no now," she said decisively as she dragged a protesting Harry down to the dance floor.
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"Seamus! Dean!" Ginny called. They turned and made to walk over but froze when their eyes landed on Janieve. They quickly walked away.
"What's with them?" Ginny asked, not quite catching on. Janieve shrugged though she knew perfectly well why they had walked away.
Janieve could feel her good mood evaporating ever since she had stepped into this place. Fred and George had left them at the start of party and Harry had followed suit when a pretty Asian girl had asked him to dance. Janieve had pretended to look away but she was eavesdropping on their conversation. She could tell that she was Cho, the girl Harry had dated last year, and she was obviously flirting with him.
Now, only Ron, Hermione, Ginny and she were left stranded at the couch. None of the Hogwarts students had dared to join them because of Janieve's presence. Dean and Seamus' reactions were proof of that.
Janieve got up with the excuse of going to the bathroom. She did not know most of the people here and she felt really left out. She knew if she stayed with her friends any longer, they too would be plagued by unpopularity.
She walked outside into the cold Christmas night. The late December wind was stinging her face but she didn't care. She needed to get away from everyone and outside had seemed like the best choice. She found a swing in the garden and sat on it, swinging lightly as she occupied herself with miserable thoughts.
More than a dozen pairs of violet eyes walked out from the dark and began closing in on Janieve. She noticed them when they were a good two feet away from her. She drew out her wand but came up with none. She then realised her wand was still in her coat pocket. She remembered the bracelet on her wrist and opened her mouth to shout "Accio wand" but before she could do so, the black cat-like creatures jumped on her and began biting and clawing at her. She tried to fling them off but there were too many of them. Janieve fell to the ground, tasting blood in her mouth. Her visions blurred as more blood began flowing down her forehead into her eyes.
