Note: I've been up until 3:30am writing this. How utterly ridiculous of me...
So! Excuse any errors!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
5: A Pair of Fools
"...and then we all had tea and cake because Nancy had been baking..."
"Lovely."
"...and I had two slices because Jeff said he wasn't hungry and gave his share to me..."
"That was good of him."
"...he's always so nice, Nana..."
"Sounds like it."
"...he even let me win at chess the other week!"
"Maybe he's just crap at chess."
"He isn't, Im! He let me win, he's brilliant at chess really..."
"For goodness sake, Pandora! Is there anything he isn't brilliant at?"
Pandora looked up from pushing a roast potato distractedly around her plate to offer her older sister a scowl, but before she could retort, beside her her grandfather uttered a meaningful:
"Imogen."
"What?" Imogen said, nose wrinkling indignantly at the gentle scolding. "It's all she ever talks about these days! Jeff this, Jeff that...!"
As Pandora felt her cheeks blossoming with colour, Dora reached to snatch up the bottle of wine at her youngest granddaughter's elbow, rolling her eyes.
"Oh leave her alone, Im!" the former Auror muttered as she poured herself a more than generous glassful of the crimson liquid. "If Pan's happy then that's just wonderful!"
Imogen gave a soft huff only for her expression to twist into a smirk, watching her grandmother take a generous gulp from her glass.
"Grandad?" the young witch said, apparently changing the subject much to her sister's relief.
"Mm?"
"Is Nana an alcoholic?"
Pandora jumped as Dora promptly spat wine into her dinner, before dissolving into a violent coughing fit. At the other end of the table her husband merely took a sip of his orange juice and murmured:
"Only a borderline one, I'm sure." A few splutter-ridden moments later he consented to asking: "Be a saint and fetch Nana a glass of water, won't you Immy?"
"She's not a bloody s...saint!" Dora wheezed, slapping a hand down upon the table that made Pandora jump again. "She's the bloody devil child..."
"Yes, we already know that." Remus agreed, turning his attention back to his dinner.
It was late December and with just a week to go before Christmas, Teddy and Carrie had left to attend the Auror Department's Christmas party at the Ministry. With the S.E.W.S festive get together scheduled for the same evening and Imogen's boyfriend Jamie due to whisk Imogen away somewhere for the night, Remus and Dora had come over to fix their granddaughters some dinner and escort Pandora into London. Nana Dora had cooked roast lamb without burning it. Quite frankly Pandora was impressed.
Since first attending S.E.W.S back in September, Pandora had been attending meetings there twice a week after school, and would go every single evening if she had the opportunity. As it was her parents didn't seem to think this necessary and Pandora was becoming increasingly jealous of Rochelle who lived within walking distance of the place in London and whose parents didn't seem to care where she went during the evenings at all. Pandora had come to view the slightly run down little building as a second home of sorts for the certainly felt as if she belonged there, surrounded by people like her, all of whom, no matter what their age, seemed very friendly and easy to talk to. They got up to all sorts of different activities from takeaway dinners with party games to excursions out into the countryside, book readings for the adults to treasure hunts for the children, little musical concerts put on by the musicians on Hobby Night to simply sitting around with tea and biscuits, having a good chat. Pandora often enjoyed just sitting and talking like that, giggling about anything and everything with Rochelle, talking about what school had been like back in the old days with an elderly lady named Maude, hearing what mischief Liz's children had been up to that week or what old Mr. Elton's late wife would have to say about this or that. She got on rather well with the eyeliner obsessed girl named Hallie, they had surprisingly similar tastes in music and there were two twenty year old young men named Gareth and Sebastian who, when not arguing over which one of them Hallie secretly fancied (which from what Pandora could tell was neither of them), were good fun to be around too. Sebastian had even taken to lending Pandora books to read.
Yes, Pandora had made a great number of new friends since September and she was extremely fond of all of them. But the one person she looked forward to seeing above all others was Jeff. Jeff was always extremely busy, running around organising events and outings. It was a wonder, Pandora thought, that he had a single spare moment to himself or time to sit and chat to anybody. And yet it seemed that Jeff had time for everybody. He had time to run around playing games with the children, had time to sit and give words of encouragement to the adults, had time to pop here and there and help with one thing or another. He seemed to have plenty of time for Pandora, too, and he was always bright and smiling. He took an interest in all sorts of aspects of her life; he always asked her how school was going and had even spent several hours helping with tricky pieces of homework. He spoke enthusiastically about setting up a S.E.W.S newsletter that he was confident Pandora could write for, he cheered her up if she had had a bad day and made her good days even better.
And Jeff was always smiling.
Sometimes Pandora thought it made her go a little weak at the knees.
Sometimes Pandora really did go weak at the knees. It had happened last week when everybody had donned thick coats, hats and scarves and gone to have a go at archery for the afternoon. Jeff had stood behind her and held her arm steady, helping her to aim. Somehow she had managed to drop the bow and arrow entirely and stumbled back into him when she had felt him lean a little closer to squint at the target over her shoulder. She'd flinched a little at his hand tightening upon her elbow and gone positively scarlet when he had chuckled and told her: Watch your step, Pan!
Pandora had been forced to lie and say that her arm was aching and she'd had quite enough archery for one afternoon. He'd grinned and stopped her heart dead in her chest for a beat or two when he'd suggested: Next time, then! You wait, I'll make an archer out of you yet!
She'd watched him wander over to help Hallie, who didn't drop her bow or go scarlet or anything of the sort. With Jeff's help she'd hit the target impressively close to the middle and everybody had clapped her, everybody except for Pandora who had been too busy wondering why girls didn't simply drop at Jeff's feet when he walked past them.
She later supposed that the answer to this was relatively simple.
For all his numerous merits Jeff was essentially very ordinary. He didn't have some sort of high-flying job, indeed he had no job at all because S.E.W.S kept him so busy. He had little if none of his own money, Pandora supposed, and he was a little older than most teenaged girls like she, Rochelle and Hallie would bother to notice.
But none of this mattered as far as Pandora was concerned. She liked Jeff anyway.
Because money wasn't important. Of course Pandora didn't really know what it felt like to be poor, by the time she had been born her father had been qualified as fully fledged Auror for a full year and by the time she was old enough to notice money it had never been much of an issue. Of course her friend Libby was awfully poor and things were dreadful for her, there was no doubt about it. But then Nana Dora and Grandad had spent the vast majority of their married life scraping a living and it had never mattered to them. How could it have mattered? They were in love!
Nothing had mattered to Nana Dora and Grandad, not ever. It hadn't mattered that Grandad was a werewolf, it hadn't mattered that he had been older. Age was just a number, and that was a fact!
And that was why Pandora was different from the other girls. She knew all of these things.
Because her grandparents were living proof of them.
She might just be falling in love with Jeff, she mused that evening as she polished off the last of her roast potatoes. Except she wasn't really sure how the whole falling in love thing worked...
It would be rather dreadful, she supposed, to fall in love with Jeff. After all, he was in love with Rovena...apparently...
If money didn't matter, how on earth did somebody like Jeff fall in love with somebody as awful as Rovena Luga?
She decided to ask her grandmother some half an hour later when the two of them were sat up in Pandora's bedroom upon the bed, Nana Dora busy casting numerous curling charms on Pandora's hair, a permanent frown upon her lips.
"Merlin, I've not sat and done this in years!" the witch observed as she reached to wind fresh strands of mousy hair around her wand.
"Nana?" Pandora mused as she stared over at the photographs she had pinned around the mirror upon the opposite wall.
"Hm?"
"How come...how come people fall in love with the wrong person?"
Nana Dora let out a soft huff of amusement as she reached to hold the hair carefully in place.
"Oh, for a hundred reasons, love!" she said, pausing to murmur a spell under her breath, only to pull the wand free from the now curly locks. "It all depends on who!"
"It's Jeff." Pandora confessed, frowning deeply at the very thought. "He has the most horrible girlfriend, Nana, he really does!"
"Does he?" the former Auror said, sounding only mildly interested, only for her to lose hold of the next section of hair when Pandora fidgeted irritably as she insisted:
"Yes! He does! Rovena Luga! She's utterly dreadful, I can't stand her, nobody can..."
"Rovena...Luga?" Nana Dora repeated, sounding suddenly more interested, and Pandora wondered:
"Yes, do you know her?"
"Oh, no." the witch said, shaking her head a little even though Pandora could not see her. As she reached to select another section of hair she recalled: "But I've known a Luga or two in my time. They're one of Albania's oldest Wizarding families, like the Blacks and the Malfoys in Britain. They're extremely wealthy, I hear. I had wondered what they were up to, the ones that left Albania, that is."
"Why?"
"Oh I'm just curious, love."
"Well I don't know what Rovena Luga does. Except for showing up to S.E.W.S every so often to boss Jeff around and be rude to everyone."
"I think you'll find being rude is a Luga family trait, Sweetheart. They're rather...forceful characters! But don't let it bother you. Unless you find one pointing a wand at your face, then you ought be very bothered indeed!" And with that, Nana Dora let out a laugh and Pandora suddenly recalled where her grandmother had heard the name Luga before.
"Was she really that scary, Nana? Valbona Luga, I mean?"
"Oh love, she was a force of nature! She still is, I imagine! She was National Duelling Champion three years in a row!"
"And you beat her!" Pandora recalled proudly, and her grandmother agreed:
"In a manor of speaking, yes."
"Mum says she was a monster."
Nana Dora gave a distinctly disapproving huff and murmured:
"Mum should know better."
"What d'you mean?"
"Bellatrix Lestrange was a monster, Pandora. Valbona Luga is, and always has been, entirely human. She's a fine Auror, she just has a particularly boisterous competitive streak."
"Mum says you hate her."
"Mum says wrong. I don't hate her. I admire her."
Grandparents, Pandora mused, were strange.
"Why would Jeff like a woman like Rovena Luga?" she wondered, because talking about Valbona Luga seemed even more baffling, and to her irritation her grandmother instantly guessed the same as Rochelle:
"Money, love." Then she gave a chuckle and asked: "Who doesn't want to marry into money?!"
"You."
"Don't be daft, love. I'd love to have married into money, everybody would. Being financially secure helps you sleep soundly in your bed at night. It just so happens that some of us aren't shallow enough to put that concern at the top of our list."
"Jeff isn't shallow..."
"We're all at least a little bit shallow. Is she pretty?"
"No."
"Hm..."
"She has big boobs and she wears tight enough clothes that you'd think they were spray painted on."
To Pandora's annoyance, her grandmother laughed again and exclaimed:
"Oh, Pan!"
"I just don't understand why Jeff likes her, Nana!"
"Well perhaps she is nicer to him in private."
"Why would she be like that?"
"Well...we're all different in private, I suppose."
"How?"
"More...honest, perhaps. Or more...affectionate...who knows?!"
"Isn't that a bit fake?"
"Not really. You can see the truth at any time if you look hard enough. Ask Great Grandma Molly, she's an expert!"
"Is she?"
Nana Dora gave a snigger and muttered:
"And don't I know it!"
The pair lapsed into thoughtful silence as Nana Dora finished curling the final section of Pandora's hair, setting it all in place with vague wave of her wand, before pocketing it and giving her granddaughter a tap upon the shoulder, announcing:
"All done!"
Pandora slipped off the bed to her feet and went to fetch a necklace from her jewellery box, and the witch watched her, eyes somewhat scrutinizing.
"Pan?" she said after a long moment, and as she fiddled with the clasp upon her chosen set of beads, Pandora turned to wonder:
"Yes Nana?"
Nana Dora's expression was somewhat grave as she reached to push a stray strand of snowy white hair out of her eyes.
"You...you be careful, alright?" she instructed carefully after a lengthy pause. "Be careful with that heart of yours, Sweetheart. Our hearts are made of glass when we're young. They're not made to...to love when we're your age! They distort anything that touches them, they break in an instant and men can see straight through them and see how they work. So you keep it safe, won't you?"
Pandora could feel herself turning the deepest shade of pink and she desperately wanted to look away...
But Nana Dora's dark eyes were pinning her to the spot.
How did she know...?
She didn't know. She didn't know anything, Pandora thought furiously. Because Pandora wasn't in love with Jeff. She wasn't! She couldn't be...
Except she was. She really was...
Wasn't.
She didn't need to be warned, in any case! She wasn't stupid, after all. She knew what she was doing.
She had no idea what she was doing.
She wasn't stupid! She could figure it all out!
And Nana Dora hadn't met him. She didn't know Jeff. She didn't know him like Pandora did and it didn't matter if Pandora was young, she wasn't a baby she knew her own mind...
She didn't know her own mind at all.
But Nana Dora didn't know Pandora's mind either! She couldn't do, she wasn't Pandora, she didn't know what it was like...
She didn't know anything...
"Grandad's waiting for me." Pandora mumbled, for she didn't know what else to say, and with that she fled towards the bedroom door, Nana Dora's gaze upon her making her flinch as she went.
Despite insisting to her grandfather that she was running incredibly late, Pandora arrived at S.E.W.S to discover that she was early enough that only a handful of people had arrived for the party and that they were still putting the finishing touches to the Christmas decorations.
She spotted Jeff standing somewhat precariously upon a stool from the kitchen as he reached to pin a string of fairy lights along the wall above the doorway and she flinched a little when he gave a potentially fatal wobble and a man across the room called:
"Careful, Jeff!"
"I've got it...!" Jeff insisted, straining upon tip toes to hook the last of the lights in place, only for the stool to teeter yet further forward...
Before she could quite realise what she was doing, Pandora had darted across the room in panic and reached to grasp hold of the stool tightly with both hands in an attempt to keep it steady. Jeff, his arms having flailed a little at the abrupt change in angle, looked down at her, momentarily shocked, before plastering a grin across his face and telling her:
"Thanks, Pan!" As he turned his attention back to the lights he gave a chuckle and wondered: "What would have done without you?"
"Fallen and cracked your head!" Pandora told him rather fiercely, going rather red when her tone made him pause to look down at her again rather questioningly, and she found herself trying to explain: "You shouldn't...you know...it's rather dangerous and you should...should be careful!"
"Yes I should, shouldn't I?" Jeff agreed as her face grew steadily redder, and her embarrassment grew tenfold when he looked past her towards the entrance to wonder: "Is this your grandfather I've heard so much about?"
Pandora turned to find her grandfather stood in the doorway, and the werewolf offered her a raised eyebrow as he held out the pale pink scarf that she had forgotten just moments beforehand. The girl made a beeline to retrieve the garment, mumbling a thank you to her grandfather as she reached to take it from him, but before she could turn and hurry away again Jeff had appeared just behind her, reaching past her to offer Remus his hand.
"Mr Lupin? Jeff Fawley, nice to meet you..."
Pandora waited somewhat impatiently for the brief exchange to be over and done with. She felt somewhat embarrassed to have her grandfather meet Jeff.
What if he went back home and told Nana Dora all about him? What if it led to them talking about...things...
Things that weren't true or things that were nothing to do with them. Things they didn't understand...
Things Pandora didn't understand...
"I've always been fascinated by it!" Jeff was announcing a few minutes later once Pandora had bothered to pay attention, and she wondered dully what it was that he was talking about. "It's just fascinating! And it just goes to prove, doesn't it? What a group of civilians can do if they put their mind to it!"
"Absolutely." Remus was agreeing, hands shoved deep into his pockets and looking ever so slightly awkward as Jeff seemingly swelled with excitement.
"I'm telling you now," the young man said with a chuckle, clapping his hands together in enthusiasm. "I'll study that book of yours once it's published, every letter of it! Just...fascinating!"
"I should take a look at Dumbledore's Army if you're keen on an impressive organisation." Remus suggested, smiling faintly, and before he could utter another word Jeff had exclaimed:
"Yes! Goodness, yes, fantastically brave...waging warfare on a smaller scale!"
Remus frowned ever so slightly, before giving a nod.
"Small scale resistance, yes..."
"But the Order of the Phoenix...it's like our personal voluntary army, it just...springs out of nowhere and...and gets stuck in!"
Remus gave a huff of amusement.
"Oh I'm much too old to be getting stuck into anything, Jeff." he said, offering Pandora a raised eyebrow for good measure. "And I can't say we've ever thought of ourselves as an army exactly..."
"Then what do you think you are?" Jeff asked, sounding slightly surprised, and Remus smiled and told him:
"We're simply an organisation of like-minded individuals who all take their convictions extremely seriously." The werewolf reached to straighten his cloak before adding with a chuckle: "Both our moral convictions and any unfortunate and consequential criminal ones." And with that as Jeff dissolved into laughter he reached to squeeze Pandora's arm and told her: "Have a wonderful evening, Sweetheart. Imogen shall come to get you at around half eleven or so, alright?"
"Alright, Grandad." Pandora agreed, musing that she'd be lucky to be home by midnight knowing Imogen's time keeping skills, especially when Jamie was involved, and with that Remus bid Jeff a good evening before turning to disappear back through the doors and into the icy street beyond.
Pandora followed Jeff back into the hall and helped him hang the last of the decorations as a couple more party goers arrived, including Nancy who summoned them all into the cramped little kitchen to help with the food, leaving Jeff and Pandora to go to examine the last decoration in the large cardboard box in the corner.
"Ah," Jeff said, reaching to extract a sprig of rather crumpled looking greenery from the box. "I knew I'd packed it somewhere!" He held it up for Pandora's inspection and the girl felt as if her heart had stopped dead in her chest as he inquired: "Where d'you suppose we ought hang the mistletoe?"
"Um..." Pandora mumbled, feeling abruptly light headed at the sudden wave of imaginings that flooded her brain...
She tried to stop wondering what it would feel like to kiss Jeff Fawley before the thought could fully form, and promptly failed somewhat dismally. She scrambled around the vivid imaginings in order to find her voice and utter: "A...above the door, maybe?"
And Jeff, entirely oblivious to her sudden and alarming thoughts, grinned and agreed:
"Yes, we'll catch them all coming in! Ha! Come and hold a chair again so I don't fall and crack my head open..."
Standing holding rather limply onto the chair in question a moment later, Pandora tried not to look up to watch him tie the mistletoe in place because looking up made her feel dizzy...
She looked up anyway.
Pandora hadn't really kissed anybody before. Not properly, anyway. She hadn't wanted to much, either. It just hadn't ever really occurred to her before: kissing. She'd never been all that curious and she'd never really liked anybody enough to think about kissing them...
Except she really liked Jeff...
She wasn't in love with him. Obviously. Probably not. Only a little. She just really wanted to kiss him...really, really wanted to kiss him...
Because you didn't have to be in love with somebody too much to kiss them, surely? You probably didn't have to even like them that much...
That didn't really matter. Because she really, really liked Jeff. That was enough, wasn't it? Enough for a kiss?
Of course she couldn't actually kiss him, that would be silly...wonderful...wonderfully silly...
He'd be a good kisser. He was a good kisser, she was sure of it. How could he not be? He was just perfect, he smiled and laughed and he was very handsome. How could somebody like that be bad at kissing?
They couldn't, obviously...
And he had very nice lips. He was biting his bottom lip now in concentration as he tied a tight knot of thread around the sprig of mistletoe.
Pandora felt herself give an involuntary shiver...
She jumped a little when a moment later he had hopped back down off the chair and triumphantly announced:
"There! All set!" He reached to push the chair back against the wall as she stared somewhat dumbly at him, before motioning to the mistletoe and suggesting: "You can be the first victim, eh?" And with that he leant forward to peck her upon the cheek...
And as she watched him lean closer and closer, as if time had slowed to an agonising crawl, Pandora felt all reasonable thought, or indeed any type of thought at all disappear from her head...
And with that the girl found herself lurching forward until she could crush their lips together.
Jeff leapt backwards so violently that he very nearly tripped over his own feet, and Pandora felt utter panic and humiliation douse her in ice that left her to freeze.
His eyes had grown as wide as snitches and he suddenly seemed a little short of breath as he simply gawped at her.
"P...Pandora..." he managed after a horribly long pause, and Pandora screwed her eyes shut and hurriedly said in a voice far too high pitched to be her own:
"Sorry! Sorry, I...I didn't mean to, I just...well..."
"Listen, Pandora, you..." Jeff said, sounded bordering on angry, only to be interrupted as a voice from back in the entrance hall to call:
"Clear the way, Jeff, we're bringing out the nibbles!"
As Jeff stumbled sideways to allow a crowd of people bearing food to pass him, Pandora too shuffled sideways, watching numbly as he reached to rake a startled hand through his hair, attempting to plaster a grin onto his face as the others passed him.
Pandora thought she was probably about to cry. She probably looked like it, too, but she didn't think she cared. She'd already ruined everything, what did it matter now? For the love of Merlin, what had come over her?! And the way Jeff had reacted! Merlin...she'd not be coming back here again, there was no chance! He'd want rid of her, he'd hate her. Because she was a silly little girl and he loved Rovena bloody Luga because she had loads of money and...stupidly tight clothing and...and massive boobs and...
A hand had reached to grab hold of her almost painfully by the elbow and Pandora jumped a little to suddenly find herself being towed firmly across the room towards the bathroom door.
"Inside, quick." Jeff instructed swiftly as he pushed open the door and once the two of them were inside he pushed the door shut again, flattening himself up against it as if the shock had struck him all over again now that they were away from preying eyes.
Pandora didn't turn to look at him. She didn't think she could bear it.
"You're crying, Pan." Jeff informed her after a moment, and at last she chanced a glance round at him to find he had one hand pressed across his mouth, eying her worriedly. "G...grab a tissue, eh? You...you'll get m...mascara or whatever it is all...all over your face..."
Pandora went to grab a fistful of tissue from the dispenser beside the toilet and half-buried her face in it.
"Listen," Jeff said after giving himself another moment to attempt to compose himself. "I...I don't know...I don't know if I've...if I've ever suggested or...or indicated to you that I...that I..." he trailed off and Pandora dared to look at him again as he sighed heavily, raking a frustrated hand through his hair. "Listen," he said again, and Pandora felt an odd urge to laugh despairingly because she couldn't possibly think of interrupting him, she wouldn't have a clue what to say. "This is...I'm with Rovena, Pan. Remember?"
Pandora really did cry, then, scrunching up the tissue in her fists in frustration as he went on:
"I'm with Rovena and I love her..."
"Sh...she's a...a stuck up cow!" Pandora complained, for a moment not caring that she was being rude. "Everyone thinks so! It's...it's true!"
"Excuse me?!" Jeff sounded deeply offended, but Pandora felt so exhausted by the steady building up of emotions over the past few months that now they had boiled over so disastrously she couldn't quite care if she was being rude or not.
"You could do better!" she insisted, and his hands came to slap against the door behind him in anger as he snapped:
"What the bloody hell do you know about anything?! You're just a girl!"
Pandora felt as if she had been punched in the chest. She simply stared at him in silence and he drew in a deep, calming breath, again reaching to tug frustratedly at his hair.
"You're...you're just a girl, Pan." he told her again, calmer this time. "You...you don't know what it's like to...to be in love."
"I...I m...might..."
"No you don't! You're...you're sixteen years old, for goodness sake! Pan! What...what in Merlin's name would...would your father have to say if...if he knew what you just did?! You're...that's practically...if anybody saw!" He paused to draw in a deep breath before reminding her: "You're sixteen and I...I'm twenty three. Just...just think about...think about that, eh? That's...that's not...not something that people would...I mean...you could get me in trouble..."
"With Rovena?"
"With everybody! People wouldn't like it! Even...even if I wasn't with Rovena! I'd...I'd have your father down here threatening to hex me into the middle of next week, for goodness sake! You're still young enough you know, people'll think I'm...I'm some sort of...of bloody pervert or something!"
Pandora looked keenly down at her shoes. Jeff had to pause to tug anxiously at his hair again for a moment before telling her:
"I...I don't know where all...all this...whatever it is...I don't know where all of this came from, Pan, I really don't. But if...if I did something or...or said something...! I had no idea you were...I didn't mean for you to get any...any silly ideas in your head, alright? That's the last thing I want. We're good friends, right? I like you very much, you're a nice girl and everything. But...but that out there just now...! It's just a...a silly crush, alright? You'll see, it's nothing! Now...now I like being friends with you, you know? So...so let's just...let's not ruin anything by...by acting rashly. Let's just dry your eyes and...and go back out there like nothing happened. Have a great party! How does that sound?"
"Do you hate me?" Pandora wondered miserably, still staring at her shoes, and she heard him take a few steps forward, his hand coming to hover over her arm, only to apparently think better of touching her.
"Of course I don't. It's...I'm very flattered, alright? You're very sweet. But I don't want anybody getting any funny ideas...especially not you! Like I said, I love Rovena very much. She's...nobody gives her much of a chance! But she's...really great and...and you're lovely too but...but I'm with Rovena and one day you'll have forgotten all about this silly crush and be with...with some guy and...and I'll be the first one to tell him what a lucky man he is! Alright? Now come on! They'll be wondering where we were!"
Pandora didn't want to go outside and join the party. She wanted to go home, curl up in a ball in her bed and sob herself to sleep until the tears filled up the bedroom and drowned her.
She'd imagined kissing Jeff so many times over the past few weeks, caught herself daydreaming wildly about all the wonderful things he might secretly think about her, dreaming of a day where he'd confess that he didn't really love Rovena at all because he'd fallen for Pandora the moment he'd laid eyes upon her, just like she had him.
She hadn't really realised how silly and extreme the whole thing had become. Not until she really had tried to kiss him. Not until she'd watch him leap away from her as if she were poisonous. Not until he'd told her that it was all downright silly...
She managed to dry her eyes a little and wandered back out into the hall after him, and as he hastily disappeared off to greet the others who were steadily growing in number, Pandora went to find herself a chair in a corner, where she spent the following hour watching new arrivals laughing at being caught under the mistletoe and offering one another vague pecks upon the cheek before entering the room. To the disappointment of Gareth and Sebastian who arrived just behind her, Hallie didn't notice the mistletoe at all for she was too busy prancing into the room as an old Weird Sisters hit from back in the 90s blared into life from the record player. Before long the party was in full swing, generous amounts of mulled wine, butterbeer and a number of suspect looking spirits had been consumed and the squibs all seemed to be having a marvellous evening. Pandora did her best to look cheerful and had even consented to letting Rochelle and Hallie drag her up to dance with them. The pair seemed tipsy enough that her half-hearted dancing didn't seem to worry them much, Rochelle kept grabbing Pandora by the hands and twirling them around, whilst Hallie seemed to find music of all kinds utterly hilarious because she seemed incapable of stopping her hysterical laughter. Jeff, Pandora noted, kept a safe distance from her all evening, and she found herself both despairing an glad at this observation, until one record crackled to a halt and one of the older men went to replace it with a new one. Catching sight of Jeff slipping through the crowds towards the toilets, Rochelle half-launched herself at him, grabbing him by the arm as she cried:
"Jeff! Dance with me!"
"You've got to be kidding," Jeff laughed, pausing to down the last of his drink, some sort of acid-green spirit that made Pandora flinch. "You're more than a little drunk and you'll stamp on my toes!"
And to Pandora's mortification Rochelle let out an indignant huff before dragging Jeff forward until he was stood at Hallie's side and demanded:
"Well give Pan a dance, then! She's too young to be anything but stone cold sober and she's being a miserable git! Somebody needs to persuade her to dance properly!"
Jeff looked distinctly horrified at the suggestion, but as the record player crackled back into life Hallie insisted:
"Go on, then!"
Jeff held out a reluctant hand, quickly plastering a fresh grin upon his face.
"Come on then, Pan!" he agreed, managing to fake an impressive level of enthusiasm. "You'll have to show me though, I can't dance to save my life!"
The music, an embarrassingly slow number which from what Pan could tell had been recorded at some point during the Prehistoric period, warranted not much more than an awkward shuffle around the makeshift dance floor. Jeff rested on hand upon her elbow, as close to her waist as he was apparently prepared to venture, and with his other hand laced their fingers together, holding a reasonable distance between the two of them as they moved. Pandora fixed her gaze at a point just below his jaw because any higher and she might catch a glimpse of his expression. It was, the girl realised, probably going to be the most awkward few minutes of her entire life.
But after a little while they both seemed a little less stiff, a little more comfortable, and as the chorus rose in tempo they set about a messy routine of shuffles and kicks, narrowly avoiding one another's knees until she accidentally caught him in the ankle, and instead of awkwardness the two of them were laughing.
"Sorry..." she mumbled, drowned out by the music, and he reached to raise their hands up above her head so that she could give an enthusiastic twirl, only overbalance a little and stumble into his shoulder. By the time they had repositioned themselves the gap between them was marginal and Pandora found herself at last daring to stare up at his face. As they went back to their less hazardous shuffling from side to side, Jeff offered her a vague smile. When she made to look back down again her chin bumped against his chest and he hastily put a good distance between them again. Pandora wished the simply move hadn't made her feel so suddenly shattered...
"Pandora!" Nancy's voice called above the noise of the music and the dancers, and Jeff took this as an opportunity to hastily drop Pandora's hand. Disappointed, Pandora turned to find Nancy stood over by the double doors, waving a hand above her head to catch Pandora's attention. It was then that Pandora spotted the familiar figure of her sister stood just behind Nancy. Imogen was still in her fancy lacy blouse and skirt that she'd donned for her evening out with Jamie. Apparently she had come straight here on time for once...
….early even, Pandora discovered from a brief glance at the clock upon the wall. Very early. It was eleven o'clock!
"Merry Christmas, Jeff." Pan mumbled as she looked back round at the man before her, and Jeff smiled brightly, probably glad to escape she thought, replying:
"Merry Christmas, Pan!" he told her, reaching to pat her gingerly upon the arm, and Pandora turned to offer Hallie and Rochelle a wave, though she wasn't sure they saw her.
"You're early," she told Imogen a moment later once she had made her way through the crowd of dancers to the edge of the room.
"Yes, alright!" Imogen muttered irritably, apparently in a startlingly bad mood for someone who had just spent an enjoyable evening out on the town. Pandora felt as if she was probably hearing things, so as Imogen turned on her heel and set about leading her way back through the hall towards the exit, the younger sister clarified:
"Half an hour early..."
"So you miss half a bloody hour!" Imogen snapped, reaching to thrust the door open, the blast of cold air making Pandora shiver as she hastily pulled on her coat. "So what?! The world doesn't bloody revolve around you, Pan!"
Pandora opened her mouth to do her duty as a sibling and snap back at her when Imogen stepped outside reaching to bury her face in her hands, her shoulders hunched.
"Are you alright, Im?" Pandora asked, stepping up beside her sister to get a better look at her. Imogen's long chestnut locks, so carefully arranged before she had gone out that evening, were looking distinctly ruffled and as she let her hands fall back to her sides through the dim light of the lamp beside the door Pandora thought the make up around her eyes looked smudged, her eyes watery.
Imogen gave a sniff, reaching to straighten the cloak around her shoulders.
"I'm fine, Pan." she insisted, not sounding fine in the slightest. "It's just...it's just well..." She screwed her eyes shut for a moment, gritting her teeth in an attempt to keep her composure and Pandora found herself wishing that she could have done the same earlier back in the bathroom with Jeff.
"It's Jamie." Imogen said at last, giving her head a defiant little toss that left her expression abruptly murderous rather than broken.
"What about him?"
"He's a right bastard, that's what!"
"Have you had a row?" Pandora wondered wearily, thinking that she was never sure how she felt about Jamie when he had a row with Imogen. It was difficult to decide whether or not he had boundless courage or just sheer stupidity.
Imogen gave a distinctly bitter laugh.
"Oh, and the rest!" she said, which Pandora found rather unhelpful as an explanation, and then she said: "Come on, let's just go home!"
They apparated home and let themselves into the dark house. Imogen went to switch the lights on in the sitting room before collapsing down upon the sofa, and Pandora went to turn the lights on in the hall and kitchen, calling:
"D'you want tea, Im?"
"Yeah...yeah alright."
As she boiled water in the kettle and splashed milk into a couple of mugs, Pandora wondered if she might tell her sister about her dreadful evening and her awful blunder with Jeff and the mistletoe. She quickly decided not to, it was just too embarrassing even for Imogen to hear, and what was more, Imogen seemed to have enough trouble to be dealing with herself.
"What time are Mum and Dad coming back, Im?" Pandora called a few minutes later as she poured the tea into the mugs.
Imogen didn't reply.
"Immy? I said when are Mum and Dad coming back?"
Again, Imogen didn't reply.
Sighing, Pandora picked up the two cups of tea and made a beeline for the sitting room.
"Did you hear, Immy?" she asked as she stepped into the room. "What time are Mum and..." she trailed off at the sight before her.
Imogen was lying upon the sofa, hugging a cushion to her chest as she buried her face in the top of it, silently sobbing. Pandora hastily abandoned the mugs of tea on the coffee table and went to perch upon the sofa at Imogen's side, reaching to grasp hold of her by the shoulder.
"Im, what's wrong?!" she asked, alarmed when Imogen only let out a fresh, far more audible sob.
"Oh Pan!" the young witch cried, reaching to hug her sister's arm tightly, the cushion falling abandoned upon the floor. "Th...that...that stupid bitch has...has gone and ruined everything and...and made me look like...like a fool!"
"Who?" Pandora asked, attempting to prise her arm free with little success, only for Imogen to exclaim:
"Martina Marshall!"
"The Harpies' star chaser?" Pandora recalled, frowning deeply. "Isn't she your favourite player?"
This only seemed to make Imogen sob harder than ever.
"Shall I send an owl to Nana Dora?" Pandora wondered, feeling rather alarmed to be left to deal with such hysteria on her own, and Imogen sniffed and asked:
"H...has...has Nana D...Dora ever...ever been t...taken for a total idiot and...and had her heart ch...chewed up and...and spat back out again?!"
"I don't know..." Pandora mumbled. "But...but does it matter? I mean I haven't..."
"It's been going on for...for MONTHS!"
"What has?"
"J...Jamie and...and that bitch! I...I know it has, I m...I made him tell me!"
"Merlin..."
"H...he's been seeing her behind my back f...for ages and...and in...in September when...when he was in Spain...I was off work, there weren't any matches on, remember?!"
"Mm..."
"D'you know w...why there weren't any bloody matches on?!
"No..."
"Because you can't play Quidditch when your bloody star player has...has buggered off to Spain w...with my bloody boyfriend s...so they can spend a...a bloody week or so in a hotel room shagging one another bloody senseless!"
Pandora felt as if she had taken a beater's bat to the head.
"What a bastard!" she cried, utterly appalled at the mere idea, and Imogen struggled against a fresh sob to tell her:
"And...and they've been s...seeing each other the whole time since they got back! I found a pair of...of knickers down the side of the sofa at his flat! I asked him where they came from and...and he told me everything! He...he says he was...he says he was bored! Bored! He only likes her because she's some...some big shot Quidditch player! She's as thick as two short planks, I swear it, she left Hogwarts with a Quidditch Captain's badge and barely an OWL, let alone a NEWT! He said he was going to tell me after Christmas! Said he'd been bloody planning on it since...since my latest application to the Harpies got turned down last month!"
Pandora opened her mouth to make a suitably disgusted exclamation when there came the sound of knocking at the front door. Imogen promptly buried her face in her arms with a moan and so Pandora patted her gingerly upon the arm and muttered:
"Don't worry I'll get it."
As she wandered out into the hallway Pandora wondered who on earth would be calling at such a late hour. Were they mad?!
When she pulled open the door to reveal a distinctly nervous looking Jamie Macmillan, Pandora could only conclude that yes, they certainly were.