Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
6: The Squib Pride March
Pandora stared at the wizard stood upon the doorstep for a long moment, as he stood, shoulders a little hunched and his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his leather jacket, before Jamie Macmillan offered her a small smile and opened his mouth to speak...
"What do you want?" Pandora asked before he could speak, folding her arms firmly across her chest and offering him a scowl. "If my sister sees you here she'll bloody well hex that stupid smile off your face!"
"I just want a word with Immy, Pan, that's all..." Jamie began, as if he hadn't really heard her threat, and Pandora gave a snort and informed him bluntly:
"Well she doesn't want a word with you. Now get off of our doorstep before my dad comes home and I tell him what you've been up to behind Imogen's back!"
"Look," Jamie said, hands balling into tight fists in his pockets, "I need to talk to Imogen and it's none of your bloody business whether she wants to talk to me or not! Let her decide that herself!"
"Why?" Pandora asked, leaning forward a little so that she could glare at him. "I can't imagine what you could possibly have to say that she would want to hear..."
"This is bloody ridiculous!" Jamie snapped, taking a step forward so that he could peer past her into the hallway: "IMMY?!"
"You're right, it is." Pandora agreed, reaching for the door. "I think I'm going to shut the door in your face..."
"You're bloody not!"
"Goodbye, then..."
"Wait!"
Despite her annoyance that her efforts to shut the door were halted by Jamie jamming his foot in the way, Pandora felt rather satisfied by his pained wince as his foot narrowly avoided being crushed.
"Listen Jamie," the squib told the wizard impatiently, "I don't have time to chat, I just made a cup of tea and it's getting cold. Why don't you do us all a favour and go running back to that silly tart of yours?"
"She's not a silly tart!"
"Of course she is, Jamie! She's a...a pair of big boobs on a broomstick! My sister is worth ten of her at least! Not that it matters, you're much too shallow to realise that. You only like Martina because she's some big shot Quidditch player...do you have any idea how ridiculous that makes you sound?"
"Just let me talk to Imogen, for Merlin's sake!" Jamie demanded, giving the door a furious push, only for a voice from the bottom of the driveway to call:
"What's going on?!"
At the sight of her parents making their way up the driveway towards them, Pandora pulled the door open as Jamie scrambled to yank his foot free.
"Alright, Jamie love?" Carrie called as the young wizard spun around to face her.
"Evening, Mrs. Lupin..." Jamie greeted, sounding abruptly nervous. "What...what a...a pretty dress, you're looking rather lovely..."
"Everything alright, Pan?" Teddy asked as Carrie offered the suddenly pale Jamie a bright smile, and Pandora scowled and informed her father:
"Not really, Dad, Jamie's refusing to leave!"
"I...I was just going, actually..." Jamie announced hurriedly, much to Teddy and Carrie's bemusement, and Carrie offered:
"You can come in for a cup of tea if you like!"
"No he can't!" Pandora insisted coldly, only for her father to scold:
"Pan, really!"
"Don't be silly, love," Carrie said as Jamie took a step away from the door. "Why ever not?!"
"Because he's been shagging Martina Marshall for the last Merlin knows how many months!" Pandora announced frankly, causing Jamie to flinch.
There was a distinctly stunned silence as Teddy and Carrie exchanged a glance, before they both turned to stare at the accused, who took another couple of steps backwards.
"It...it's not...it's not what it sounds like..." Jamie mumbled, gaze flickering somewhat nervously to Teddy's pockets, as if expecting himself to be confronted with a drawn wand.
"Is it not?" the Auror observed dryly, folding his arms firmly across his chest.
"N...not in the slightest, Mr. Lupin..."
"I can't imagine what else it could possibly mean..." Teddy admitted, and Carrie reached to press a somewhat warning hand against her husband's arm, before hastily making a beeline for the front door.
"Inside, Pan!" the muggle hissed, much to her daughter's annoyance, and as they shuffled back from the doorway Pandora heard her father decide:
"I think you had better leave."
"Y...yes, Mr. Lupin..."
"Now, please."
"Yes..."
Jamie made for the pavement at an almost-jog, only to pause when Teddy called after him:
"Jamie?"
The young man turned reluctantly to look back at the Auror, who was still stood, his arms folded firmly across his chest as he instructed cooly:
"Stay away from my daughter."
They found Imogen still lying upon the sofa in the sitting room, sobbing silently into a cushion, and as Carrie went to perch upon the chair, reaching to put an arm around the girl, Pandora watched Teddy back out in the hallway as he slammed the front door shut, before shrugging off his cloak.
"That's it, I've had enough!" the wizard announced to his younger daughter somewhat grimly as he reached to hang the cloak up upon a hook on the wall. "No more boyfriends, either of you! Not until you're at least thirty five!"
"Oh Teddy, be quiet!" Carrie snapped from the living room and as he went to stand in the doorway, reaching to pull Pandora into a one-armed hug, Teddy sighed heavily.
"Immy knows I'm joking, don't you Sweetheart?" he said as Imogen paused in her sobbing to raise her head a little to peer over at her father.
"Doesn't matter!" the watery eyed witch half-choked. "I...I won't f...find an...anyone else a...anyway!"
"Of course you will, love!" Carrie said, reaching to stroke her hair soothingly. "Don't say that..."
"They'll be queuing round the block to date you, Im." Teddy said as Carrie reached to fish a handkerchief out of her pocket, dabbing at Imogen's face with it as the girl gave a miserable sniff. "It's going to be utter chaos, we'll have to send Pan out there to make sure they form an orderly line and there isn't any pushing and shoving!"
Imogen managed a somewhat garbled half-chuckle, only to complain:
"I...I thought he...I thought he loved m...me!"
"Did you, Sweetheart?" Carrie murmured sympathetically, easing the girl up into a sitting position so that Imogen's head could rest upon her shoulder. "And it felt wonderful, didn't it?"
"Y...yes!"
"Well then, just imagine what you've got to look forward to, now he's gone. Just you wait until you meet the man who truly does love you, just imagine how even more wonderful that will feel!"
"It's not going to happen, Mum. Nobody's g...going to want m...me...I'm...I'm useless!"
"Nonsense, love..."
"Y...yes I am! Even D...Dad says so..."
"Dad's inherited a love of melodrama from your grandmother, Sweetheart. He doesn't think you're useless in the slightest, do you Ted?"
"Of course I don't!" Teddy said, "I'm extremely proud of my girls, the pair of you! You've an awful lot going for you, Im, you're a talented, bubbly girl and any moron with half a brain can see it!"
"I'm not talented. I'm...I'm not even a...a good flyer!"
"Hufflepuff hadn't won that Quidditch cup in an age before you showed up at Hogwarts, Im! For goodness sake, you're an excellent flyer!"
"Yeah? Well I...I don't want to...to look at a broomstick ever again! Not ever!"
"Oh Imogen..."
"I...if I was...was a good flyer n...none of this would've happened!"
"I know, love, but..."
"A...and you d...didn't help, Dad! Y...you never l...liked him!"
"Now come on, Im..."
"A...and N...Nana never did, either!"
"Nana doesn't really like anyone, Immy." Pandora pointed out, bemused by the sudden torrent of accusations.
"Nana hasn't even met him, love..."
"How w...was he e...ever going to feel welcome when you...when you don't even try to...to like him?!"
"That's not fair, love, we've always been nice to him..."
"You're always n...nagging me about...about everything!" Imogen shrieked, reaching to grasp full of clumps of chestnut hair in agitation. "A...and...and you never helped m...me with Quidditch, either! You never let me h...have a decent broom!"
"I bought you a perfectly decent one for your sixteenth birthday," Teddy insisted, growing irritated by her sudden temper. "If you wanted a new one you're perfectly old enough to save up and buy it yourself!"
"See!" Imogen cried, utterly hysterical. "See! You...you won't help and...and now look what's happened!"
"You said yourself he didn't love you for being you, Im." Pandora pointed out, utterly bemused by her sister's rapidly twisting logic. "Why in Merlin's name would you want him to like you just for Quidditch?!"
"Because!" Imogen screeched, leaping to her feet, her hands balling into fists. "I LOVED HIM!"
And with that she ran from the room, bursting into fresh tears as she stomped up the stairs. As they heard her bedroom door slam shut a moment later, Pandora complained:
"She's not making any sense."
"Love doesn't make any sense, Pan." Teddy admitted, taking a step towards the stairs, only for Carrie to murmur:
"Leave her, love. Let her calm down."
Instead, Teddy made a beeline for the kettle in the kitchen, and as she retrieved her own now luke warm tea, Pandora confessed to her mother:
"Falling in love sounds dreadfully scary, Mum."
"Of course it is, Sweetheart." Carrie agreed with a small smile as she rose to her feet. "But I shouldn't worry about it, not quite yet."
Pandora felt like saying that she was already quite terrified and in over her head already, but she didn't want to mention her disastrous evening to her parents at all. After all, it seemed that one broken hearted daughter was more than enough for Teddy and Carrie for one night.
"Try and get to bed now, won't you love?" Carrie said as she headed after Teddy to the kitchen. "It's getting very late."
Pandora reluctantly headed up to her bedroom to get changed for bed, and once she had done so she found herself in need of a glass of water to take to bed. She crept back across the landing so as not to disturb Imogen, and headed downstairs, only to pause at the bottom to peer into the kitchen where she spied her father stood at the kitchen sink, leaning heavily against the countertop, his head bowed as he murmured:
"I think I want to kill him."
As she took a step up behind him, reaching to slide her hands up his back to rest upon his shoulders, Carrie admitted:
"I think that's probably natural."
"What're we going to do?"
"What d'you mean?"
"With Immy. What are we going to do with her?"
Carrie's forehead came to rest against the wizard's back as she sighed heavily and mumbled:
"She'll be alright. She just needs a bit of time, that's all."
There was a long pause as Teddy sighed heavily before complaining:
"I can't believe he showed up here like that and I didn't hex him..."
Carrie let out a rather despairing laugh.
"Come here." she said, straightening up so that she could pull him round to face her. The muggle rose up on her toes to press a kiss to his lips and as he reached to wrap his arms around her, Teddy mumbled:
"Should've had boys, Carrie."
"Mm..."
"Much easier..."
"Think your parents would have something to say about that."
The wizard groaned, his face buried in his wife's hair.
"Merlin, I think I need a drink!"
"You've had plenty enough already." Carrie laughed, fingers raking through his sandy hair. "Jasmine was trying to get you plastered!"
"It was revenge. She was sulking because I didn't bring Mum with us. Reckons she'll be out the job herself before long so she fancied pretending it was the old days again."
"Well she didn't bring Isaac!"
"Isaac barely leaves the house these days, I heard."
"Poor man..."
"I think if I had been dating Jasmine Wickes for Merlin knows how many years I would want to lock myself away and hide too."
"Don't be dreadful, Ted!" Carrie laughed, reaching to lace their fingers together before giving him a slight tug towards the kitchen doorway. "Come on, let's get to bed! I'm utterly exhausted, these heels are killing me..."
Pandora passed them in the hallway where she paused to permit them peck her upon the cheek with a murmured goodnight, and as she retrieved a glass from the cupboard a moment later the girl found herself musing that she felt utterly exhausted too.
What a night, she thought dully as she stared blankly out at the darkness through the kitchen window.
Pandora wondered quite how she managed to drag herself out of bed the following morning when her mother called her for breakfast. She lay in bed for some half an hour, feeling as if a night's sleep had done little to cheer her after the night before. She wondered if she might ever bear to go to SEWS again and the prospect of not going made her feel yet more miserable. When she finally consented to wandering downstairs in her slippers and dressing gown, she found her parents sat around the table in the dining room, sipping cups of tea and eating croissants with strawberry jam.
"It's about time one of you made an appearance!" Carrie said with a smile. "At this rate Dad and I will have to go to Diagon Alley on our own!" When Pandora merely blinked somewhat blankly at her as she dropped down into a chair, the muggle consented to elaborating: "Christmas shopping, Pan!"
"Oh...right..."
"Don't sound too enthusiastic, Sweetheart." Teddy murmured through a mouthful of croissant, and Carrie asked:
"Is Imogen up and about yet, love?"
"Doubt it." Pandora mumbled glumly, and Teddy rose from his chair, dusting crumbs from his fingers.
"I'll give her a call, shall I?" he suggested, and with that he disappeared through the kitchen and out into the hall.
Talk around the breakfast table turned to Christmas presents and Pandora found herself entirely unconcerned by the upcoming festivities. She was pretty sure that she had never felt less Christmasy than she did just then, and she very nearly sighed when Teddy rejoined them at the table and joined in the conversation.
It was almost a relief when Imogen appeared in the doorway some ten minutes later.
At the sight of her, the table fell instantly silent.
Pandora simply stared, croissant halfway to her mouth.
Because there stood Imogen, wrapped up in her fluffy white dressing gown, smudged make up around her eyes, face blotchy and pink...
And her hair...! Her hair was...!
"Oh, Immy!" the young witch's mother exclaimed, reaching to press a hand to her mouth as she surveyed the short, choppy, messy strands where just the evening before there had been long, wavy locks. "What have you..."
"Cup of tea, Sweetheart?" Teddy asked a little too loudly in an effort to drown his wife out, and Pandora watched in shock as her sister shuffled silently forward to drop down into a chair beside her.
Imogen looked as if she had been attacked by a pair of gardening sheers. Pandora couldn't stop staring...
"Pan," Teddy said meaningfully, giving the girl a nudge with his foot under the table. "Why don't you go and pour your sister a cup of tea in the kitchen?"
It wasn't just Imogen's hair that changed drastically from that day onwards, indeed Pandora found over the next few months that her big sister really didn't seem like her big sister at all. Though Carrie had coaxed her into town to have her hair cut professionally, Imogen kept her hair short and frequently untidy. She took to wearing nothing but slightly ill-fitting jeans and t shirts, locked her broomstick away in the cupboard under the stairs to gather dust, refused to go back to work at the Quidditch stadium and spent the majority of her time up in her bedroom, drowning out the rest of the world with pounding music that made her father persistently irritable. Come February she had started to half-heartedly apply for jobs, but seemed quite at a loss as to what to do with herself.
In contrast, Pandora found herself snowed under with revision for her GCSE exams, and she spent the vast majority of her time either revising with the help of Libby in the sitting room or, when she could, attending SEWS in the evenings. Sometimes she took her homework with her and, to her delight, Jeff would sit and test her on dates and events for History or Shakespeare quotes for English. Her first trip to SEWS after the disaster of a Christmas party had twisted Pandora's stomach into knots and she had been worried at the reception Jeff might give her. But he appeared to have quite forgotten the whole incident, in fact he seemed to have been struck with a burst of enthusiasm for a new idea that, he said, had struck him on the way home from the Christmas party.
"I was thinking of your grandfather, Pan." he'd informed Pandora when she had seen him and noted a distinct spring in his step.
"My...my grandfather?"
"Exactly! Your grandfather and the Order of the Phoenix! I was thinking about that march of theirs...the one they do each summer..."
"The Phoenix Day Parade?"
"Yes, exactly! And I was thinking...we should do one!"
"Our own Phoenix Day Parade...?"
"No, our own march! Right through Diagon Alley! A Squib Pride March, can you imagine? It would be such fun and it would be just perfect to raise awareness and...and show the world! Show them all what we're about and...and that we're perfectly happy being who we are! We could raise money for the society and...and I bet we'd make the front page of the Prophet! Just like the Order does!"
"It sounds like an awful lot of fun..." Pandora agreed uncertainly, and Jeff had grinned broadly and announced:
"I knew you'd say that! It's going to be brilliant, you can help, we'll have to make ourselves a...a load of banners and flags and that sort of thing!"
And so the meetings at SEWS became dominated by the sewing of flags, the planning of routes, the practicing of music and the excited practicing of marching by the children, their persistent stomping up and down the road outside the hall becoming a frequent occurrence come rain or shine. The local muggle residents seemed to think that they had acquired a particularly raucous troupe of boy Scouts and there were frequent complaints about the noise, which Jeff seemed to find amusing rather than anything else. He was, Pandora thought, a brilliant organiser, and his energy and enthusiasm for this latest little project seemed utterly infectious.
Pandora was quite sure she was falling for him worse than ever. She seemed to spend the vast majority of her time at SEWS simply watching him flit around the room as he talked to people. His smile, should he care to shoot it her way, made her heart flutter and his laughter made it melt away entirely. And sometimes, when she let her imagination get the better of her, she felt as if he might just really like her too. He always included her in discussions with the adults, always asked her how things were going at school, always seemed to find the time to help her with her homework. He'd even presented her with a large slab of chocolate tied up in a bow upon discovering that her first round of exams had gone better than she had expected, and he'd gone around telling everyone about it as if he were terribly proud of her.
Rovena Luga would show up at SEWS every once in a while, inevitably to drag Jeff away from the others for a while and every time she watched the insufferable woman lead him out of the room with a hand upon his elbow, Pandora would fail to hide her scowl. She spent far too long attempting to decipher precisely what it was about Rovena that had Jeff so besotted, drawing very few conclusions indeed, instead telling herself that it was only a matter of time before Jeff saw Rovena for what she really was; a bad-tempered, self-centred little cow who seemed incapable of being polite to anyone at all.
The day of the Squib Pride Parade dawned and Pandora rose before the rest of the house could wake, the excitement of the day ahead making any further sleep impossible. Determined not to be late, for she was keen to arrive early enough to plant herself firmly at Jeff's side at the front of the march, she hurried downstairs and made four cups of tea, which she wasted no time in carrying upstairs on a tray.
"Wake up!" she demanded as she kicked open the door to her parents' bedroom, eliciting a loud groan of protest from her father. "It's march day! Wake up, Dad!"
"Pandora," her mother pointed out with a yawn as Teddy reached to bury his head under a pillow. "It's barely past seven and Dad's been on a night shift..."
"Look, I've made you a cup of tea!" Pandora announced, ignoring her mother entirely as she set the tray down upon her father's bedside table with a bang, causing him to mutter irritably. "Hurry up and drink it before it gets cold! I'm going to floo Nana and Grandad, make sure they're up..."
"Don't you dare floo anybody, Pan!" Carrie exclaimed as the girl turned and bolted for the stairs again. "It's Sunday, for goodness sake!"
"But I don't want them to miss it!" Pandora shouted back as she thundered down the stairs, and back in the bedroom Teddy muttered:
"I hope Mum bites her head off..."
"Hasn't it been full moon?" Carrie wondered as she leant over him to retrieve her tea, only for Teddy to nearly send it flying as he flung the covers back from him, scrambling out of bed as he shouted:
"PANDORA?! JUST WAIT A MINUTE!"
Pandora, however, had already snatched up a handful of floo powder, and with that she dropped to her knees before the fireplace, tossing the dust into the grate...
When her head materialised in the fireplace in her grandparents' sitting room in a burst of emerald flames a moment later, she found the little room dark and void of life.
"Nana?!" she called, straining in an attempt to look towards the kitchen door. "Grandad?!"
There came the sound of tinkering glasses from the kitchen and after a moment Pandora spied her grandmother shuffling into the room, a tall glass of water in one hand and a bottle of alarmingly orange potion in the other.
"Hello love." the witch greeted, sounding distinctly sleepy. She was dressed in a thick, fleecy night dress of pale grey, a thick woollen shawl about her shoulders, her hair distinctly ruffled. "I was just off back to bed..."
"You haven't forgotten, have you Nana?" Pandora asked, "You remember what day it is, don't you?"
"What?" Dora murmured, sounding slightly bewildered, and Pandora's face was about to fall when the witch gave herself a small shake and decided: "Oh yes! Yes, Pan love. Yes it's...I know what day it is..."
"The parade, Nana!" Pandora reminded her because she couldn't help but not be entirely convinced. "You are coming, aren't you? You and Grandad?"
"I wouldn't miss it for the world, darling." Dora assured her after a sizeable pause, offering her granddaughter a smile.
"And Grandad? He's not forgotten, has he?"
"He's...not forgotten, no..." Dora pursed her lips firmly together for a long moment in consideration before reminding the girl: "But it was full moon last night, you see...you know how it is, don't you? I'm sure he'd have loved to have come and watched! But I'll...I'll definitely pop over for a little! Um...remind me love...where...?"
"Diagon Alley, Nana." Pandora said, failing not to sound a little exasperated.
"Of course. Obviously...and um...when abouts...?"
"At ten o'clock this morning! I told you just the other day!"
"Alright, love! You get to my age, you know, you start forgetting these things..."
"You said you'd written it on the calender!"
"Did I?" Dora glanced over at the wall where the offending calender hung, frowning a little as she murmured: "Well, fancy that!"
"You won't be late, will you Nana?" Pandora pressed, feeling excitement bubbling in her stomach.
"Of course I won't."
"Promise?"
"Cross my heart and hope to die, Sweetheart."
"Dad says you ought be dead ten times over for saying that."
"Yeah? Well Dad's got no right to talk, has he? He's been late for Grandad's birthday party two years running!" Reaching to put the potion bottle down on a sideboard so that she could rub a weary hand across her forehead, the witch insisted: "I'll be there on time, Pan. In fact I'll be there early so I can get a decent view, how about that? We could have ice cream afterwards, how does that sound? Is Imogen gracing us with her presence or would she rather sit around moping at home?"
"She promised she'd come when I asked her yesterday." Pandora recalled, not sounding entirely convinced, and Dora sighed and murmured:
"I hope she does, she's not been over to see Grandad or me for near on a month! We're missing her. You tell her that, eh?"
"I will, Nana."
"What's she been doing with herself lately?"
"Nothing, I think."
"Right. Well you make sure she comes today, alright? She needs her Nana to give her a good talking to! And don't tell her I said that, else she'll stay in that room of hers and barricade it shut!" Snatching the potion back up again the witch gave a sigh and confessed: "We've been worried about her. It's not...not right, the way things have been recently..."
"She went and got her nose pierced last weekend." Pandora said, frowning at the memory. "Dad went berserk when he found out!"
"Yes, Mum did mention it...had Grandad raise an eyebrow or two..." Dora trailed off with a deep frown before admitting: "I'm sure that's the least of our worries!" Stifling another yawn she informed her granddaughter: "Listen love, I'm going to go back to bed for an hour or so...it's been a rough night..."
"Why?" Pandora wondered, feeling apprehensive, and her grandmother shook her head.
"Oh it's always a rough night, Pan, when there's a full moon in the sky..."
"Is Grandad alright?"
"Oh yes, yes...nothing out of the ordinary there, I just...well sometimes after he's safely locked away for the night I...sometimes I just feel like..." the witch trailed off with a sigh, shaking her head before trying again. "It's not something you ever get used to, Pan. Going to bed alone, knowing..." she trailed off again with a frown, concluding: "Sometimes I don't manage to get a whole lot of sleep, that's all! Ten o'clock sharp, yes? I'll be there!"
"Alright then!" Pandora said, grinning again. "Bye, Nana!"
"Bye, Sweetheart." Dora mumbled, turning to disappear back across the room towards the bedroom door, and with that Pandora leant backwards, pulling her head out of the fireplace.
She found herself confronted by her dressing gown-clad father, who promptly folded his arms across his chest.
"It's a Sunday morning after full moon, Pan." he pointed out disapprovingly as she got back to her feet, dusting soot from her hair.
"It's alright, Nana was up..."
"Yes, if she hasn't been to bed at all I wouldn't be surprised! Go and run your sister a bath, it's going to be a team effort to persuade her out of her bed this morning!"
Pandora bolted back upstairs to jam the plug in the bath and set the taps gushing, before going to barge unceremoniously into Imogen's room.
"I'm running you a bath, Im!" she announced briskly as Imogen reached to fling her hands up over her face in anticipation of the curtains being thrown open. "And I just spoke to Nana, she says she and Grandad are missing you, and she's looking forward to seeing you this morning at the parade! She's going to buy us ice cream."
Imogen huffed as if she didn't approve of her grandmother's plans in the slightest, before rolling over to face the wall, grunting:
"Get out of my bedroom."
"You are coming, aren't you?" Pandora pressed, much to her sister's annoyance. "You did promise..."
"Only if you get out of my bedroom and leave me in peace." Imogen said, kicking back the covers until she could sit up. Leaning to snatch the wand up from her bedside table, she gave it a vague wave in the direction of the large record player in the corner, and within seconds music was blaring at full volume out of the large speaker, causing Pandora to reach to clamp her hands over her ears, shouting:
"Alright, alright! I'm going!"
"IMOGEN!" Teddy's voice bellowed up the stairs as with another flick of Imogen's wand the door swung shut behind Pandora. "TURN THAT RACKET DOWN, FOR MERLIN'S SAKE!"
"It's Sunday morning, Im!" Carrie called from the master bedroom, voice almost entirely muffled by the noise. "Do you want the neighbours to complain?!"
"Just you wait," Teddy grumbled as he appeared at the top of the stairs, making a beeline for the bedroom. "One of these days I'm going to throw that wretched record player of hers out of the window! Go and put the kettle on, won't you Pan? I think we're going to need another cup of tea!"
They managed to arrive in Diagon Alley, Imogen in tow, at a quarter to ten, whereupon the rest of the family went in search of Dora and Pandora headed for the march's designated starting point, a small side street just opposite the Leaky Cauldron. There she found a cluster of squibs already gathered, chattering excitedly and handing out the flags and banners which were in a crate set down in a corner. Rochelle was busy lining up a group of children with a large banner in SEWS chosen colours of green and brown – nature-related colours chosen, Jeff had claimed, because their being Squibs was simply just what Nature had intended. Meanwhile Hallie was stood leaning up against the wall in the corner, engrossed in applying yet more eyeliner, and several of the society's resident musicians were busy tuning their instruments.
"Going to grab yourself a flag, then?" suggested a cheery voice from just behind her, making Pandora jump a little. "Or are you going to fight over the main banner with Katie and Michael when they show up instead?"
Pandora spun around to find Jeff stood just behind her, a large flagpole held firmly in one hand as he grinned down at her, and for a moment she felt somewhat transfixed by the sight of him. He had donned a pair of smart chocolate brown trousers, an open necked pale green shirt and a thick sheepskin jacket, the collar turned up against a fierce early Spring breeze. Pandora felt an odd urge to reach forward to stroke the soft material, or better still lunge forward to hug him.
"Hi!" she greeted, shoving her hands into the pocket of her coat to stop any alarming urges in their tracks, and she felt her cheeks instantly warm when he told her brightly:
"You're looking very smart!"
"Green, like you said!" Pandora said, glancing down at herself with a slight chuckle, and Jeff laughed and exclaimed:
"You're perfect, Pan!"
Pandora knew he meant it in reference to her choice of clothing only, but his passing comment very nearly made he weak at the knees and she laughed probably a little too enthusiastically, only for him to become distracted by somebody shouting his name. A glance over his shoulder later and Jeff had spotted his girlfriend stood just up the road where it joined the main cobbled street. Her dark hair today tied into a long braid down one side of her head, Rovena Luga's lips were coated in their usually thick layer of ruby red lipstick as she shot Jeff a broad smile and a wave.
"Here," Jeff said, turning back to push the flag pole into Pandora's hands. "Keep hold of this for me a moment, won't you? I'll be back in just a second!"
Pandora watched him stride over to Rovena, who promptly reached to dust invisible dust from his jacket, and Pandora turned her back on them before the display could make her stomach clench in disgust. She went to stand with Rochelle who was handing the last of the children their flags, and the two of them commented brightly about the lack of rain and how they had been looking forward to the march that morning. Hallie joined them after a few minutes, chewing on a wad of gum, eyes liberally framed by eyeliner, and the three of them finished herding the children into place just in time for Jeff to return, another flood of SEWS regulars in tow. Once in place and the children had quietened down, leaving just Rochelle and Hallie to giggle near the back, the musicians struck up a tune and the march set off into Diagon Alley and up towards the vast marble steps before Gringott's Bank.
Pandora had somewhat imagined the little procession to be something akin to the Phoenix Day Parade the Order of the Phoenix held in the village of Hogsmeade each year. Indeed, since the number of Order members attending the event had been slowly decreasing over the years, the older members growing too old to march the full distance or indeed some passing away in their old age, the squibs' march was made up of a greater number of people and their musicians were by far more competent, the Order relying solely on the beat of a single drum wielded each year by Charlie Weasley. But as they headed out into Diagon Alley Pandora saw that, where the streets of Hogsmeade would be lined with spectators, just a small number of people had paused in the morning shopping to watch the squibs marching, and where the press descended upon the Phoenix Day Parade in flocks each year, today a lone reported from the Daily Prophet was hurrying along in front of the procession, snapping photographs with his large camera that gave puffs of multicoloured smoke with each click of the shutter. Despite the smaller scale, Pandora felt quite swept up in the occasion, the raucous music and the smiling faces and laughter. Sat upon a low wall outside a distinctly posh robe shop, Pandora saw, were her parents, sister and grandmother, all four of them offered her an enthusiastic wave and Teddy whistled loudly and clapped, which made Pandora have to duck her head against a snigger. Once they had reached the steps of Gringott's the march took a neat u-turn and set off back down the cobbled street, and by the time they reached the end of their designated route Pandora found herself stomping along to the music, arms swinging and laughing along with the rest and as the marchers dispersed back in the side street there was a buzz of excitement and cheer as everyone started talking at once.
"Hallie only went and bloody tripped!" Rochelle was telling anyone who would listen, laughing hysterically, and one of the older women gave a chuckle and admitted:
"It was rather fun, don't you think?"
"I enjoyed it!"
"Can we do it again, Jeff?!"
"We should do it again next year!"
"Did you see that man?! Do you think he was from the Daily Prophet?"
"We're going to be famous!"
"We could make the front page, you know! Imagine that!"
Half-skipping over to Jeff's side, Pandora reached to slap a hand down upon his arm with a grin, exclaiming:
"Jeff, it was brilliant! Did you see the people all watching us? They were all smiling..."
"They weren't all looking." Jeff mumbled, sounding somewhat dejected as he flung a flag back into the box, and Pandora gave a shrug.
"Who cares? It was fun! Look at how happy everyone is..."
"And one photographer!" Jeff went on as if she hadn't said anything, folding his arms furiously across his chest. "One! Do you have any idea how many letters I wrote?! I wrote to the Quibbler, I wrote to Witch Weekly..."
"But Jeff..."
"Nobody gave a toss!"
"I give a toss..." Pandora mumbled, taken aback by his anger, only for the sound of high heels upon cobbles to draw their attention and Rovena Luga came striding towards them, announcing:
"Jeff, come! You've been ages, I'm gasping for a drink!"
Jeff gave a distinctly irritated huff, but nevertheless he obediently shoved his hands deep into his pockets and, without so much as a goodbye, stalked off to join her.
Somewhat deflated by Jeff's temper, something that seemed quite alien to her, Pandora headed back out into Diagon Alley in search of her family. She discovered them at a table outside of the ice cream parlour, whereupon her grandmother presented her with a suitably enormous ice cream sundae drizzled in chocolate sauce and topped with a wafer. The little family gathering rather cheered Pandora up and by the time they had dispersed for a wander round the shops some half an hour later she had quite forgotten Jeff and his bad mood. She had tried to coax Imogen into Quality Quidditch Supplies, which had gone down badly, so instead she had wandered off on her own to peer in the window at the Magical Menagerie, only to spy a couple of figures down the alleyway beside the spot that caught her attention.
There stood Jeff, back pressed up against the wall, Rovena Luga seemingly attached to the front of his jacket as she grasped fistfuls of his shirt in her hands, her lips dragging teasingly across his jaw, the mere sight of which made Pandora feel quite sick. Jeff stood motionlessly, seemingly not at all interested in the witch's advances until she had drawn back from him a little with a smirk.
"Well we are in a bad mood today, aren't we?!" Rovena observed with a titter, causing Jeff to turn to stare determinedly away from her, his expression stoic. She leant forward to kiss him again, pressing herself up against him only for him to reach to lay his hands firmly upon her shoulders.
"Rovena, don't..."
"You're being very dull boy, Jeffrey." the witch complained, sounding rather impatient. "You're not being fun..."
"I don't feel like being fun." Jeff grunted, only for Rovena to laugh and exclaim:
"But I do! Come on..." She leant to kiss him again, one hand reaching to drag one of his hands down towards her bust, only for him to warn:
"I mean it, Rovena! I'm not in the bloody mood!"
"Very, very dull! Sulking over nothing!" Rovena teased, tugging harder upon his sleeve, and Pandora was just wrinkling her nose in distaste at the woman well all of a sudden Jeff reaching to grasp hold of the witch by the wrist with such a tight grip that she gasped, and within half a second he had shoved her violently backwards, causing her to stumble in her heels, ankle turning painfully with a shout as she fell backwards upon the cobbles, narrowly avoiding hitting her head.
And to Pandora's shock, rather than leap forward to help her up, Jeff offered his girlfriend a scowl and muttered:
"Bitch!" And with that he turned to stalk off out of the alleyway, the crumpled witch behind him reaching to grasp hold of her ankle with a pained hiss.
And Pandora hastily backed away from the alleyway, her heartbeat thudding in her ears to have Jeff catch sight of her.
But when he did he merely offered the girl a bright smile, entirely unaware of what she had witnessed, and called:
"Alright, Pan?"
"Alright, Jeff?" Pandora mumbled back.