Notes and Disclaimers: This story is about Eileen Pierce's summer between "Father Figure" and "Eternal Knight", she visits several of her friends and learns some interesting things about them in the meantime. Each chapter of this story will be about a different person she's staying with and the secrets they indulge. The characters starring in this short story are: Eileen (of course), Cheryl and Gregory Applegate, Artemis Prewett, Lucas, Page, and Roderick Beowulf, Fred and George Weasley, Remus Lupin, and Severus Snape. Special thanks to Starr and Otaku for helping me find my inner New Yawkah! XD Enjoy and make sure you read it, some of this might be referenced in the next story! ~_^
Chapter 5: Mothers
"I have to go over to the Ministry for a few hours, will you two be alright by yourselves?" Mr. Applegate walked into the living room where Eileen and Cheryl sat watching Muggle television.
"Don't worry, Pops, we won't throw a party with tons of older men and booze while you're away." Cheryl said casually, still staring at the television screen.
"Just make sure they catch the subway home." Mr. Applegate replied, walking over to the door and stepping out.
Eileen watched him leave before saying, "How is your father getting to the ministry?"
"Oh, he catches the Middy Bus to where the secret entrance is, we don't have a fireplace so that's how he travels."
"He doesn't apparate?" Eileen inquired curiously.
"Nah, he doesn't like to apparate much, says it makes him sick," She muttered as the show went to commercial and she suddenly jumped up, "Oh hey! Now that the old man's away, wanna jam to some music? I have tons of sweet music on my computer!"
"Muggle music?" Eileen blinked up at her curiously.
"Oh yeah, I'm not really big on wizard music, it's not as popular over here in America. Though it's kind of ironic, I like a lot of European bands..." Cheryl explained as she hopped onto her computer and began fiddling around on it. As she clicked buttons and nibbled on her lower lip in thought, a window popped up on the monitor displaying a list of titles.
Suddenly, the room filled with a lovely smooth drum and piano beat, a male singer musing over a woman he loved. As it played and Eileen marveled at the technology, Cheryl jumped up and began dancing around the room and singing along.
"Every little thing she does is magic! Every thing she do just turns me on!" Cheryl belted out, somewhat in sync with the singer, flailing her arms about as she danced around the room, causing Eileen to laugh at her ridiculous behavior. She grabbed Eileen's hands and began to dance her around the room, Eileen doing her best to awkwardly follow her.
"Are you sure this isn't a wizarding band?" Eileen shouted over the music.
"Yeah, they're called The Police! It's a band from London! Aren't they awesome?" Cheryl pranced around with her friend as the song kept a fun beat going.
"I guess so, I don't listen to music very often!" Eileen began to bop around with Cheryl, amused by the crazy dancing she was doing.
"Do you know how to swing dance?"
"Swing dance? I've never danced before, what is it?"
"I'll show you, it's easy!" Cheryl bounced over to her computer and switched over to another song that began with a rowdy drumbeat, followed by a playful guitar twang and boisterous trumpets. She tapped out the beat and took Eileen's hands, "Follow me, you just step side to side and do a back step and repeat!"
"Okay..." Eileen looked unsure but tried her best to follow, stepping along to the beat before slowly picking it up and bouncing along with Cheryl. Giggling, they danced around the living room, doing dips and spins, having a ball dancing to the song as it carried on, the singer speaking about subtle innuendos. They spun themselves silly as the song came to an end and they collapsed onto the couch, laughing hysterically.
"WHOO, that was fun! I haven't danced like that in years!" Cheryl hollered, sprawled out on the couch holding her aching abdominal muscles.
"Where did you learn to swing dance?" Eileen smiled over at her, a little winded.
"Back when I use to attend Augury they had annual dances, it was a lot of fun! My mom -" Cheryl stopped mid-sentence, her giddy expression falling as she got up and crossed the room to her computer, playing around with the music player, "Hey, I know a great song you might like. It kind of reminds me of Professor Snape."
Eileen gazed at her curiously, wondering what had just happened, "Your mom?"
"Isn't this a fun song? Maybe it's too upbeat for Snape." Cheryl laughed.
Slowly, Eileen got up and crossed the room, walking to the computer and turning off the song that was playing. She stared intently at Cheryl as she refused to meet her gaze, her hand shaking on the edge of the desk before it slipped into her lap.
"Why'd you turn it off? Didn't you like it?" Cheryl's voice was distant and nervous, her eyes staring blankly at the monitor.
"You never told me what happened to your mother." Eileen waited patiently for Cheryl to respond, watching her closely as if testing her Legimens abilities to read her face.
Her eyes told the story of a frightened and traumatized young girl who was recalling a memory she had tried so desperately to suppress, her fingers slowly curling around the fabric of her pants.
"My...my mom?" Cheryl looked pale, almost terrified. She suddenly jumped up and ran to her room, flinging herself into her closet and slamming the door, huddling into the darkness and rocking slowly.
"Cheryl!" Eileen blinked in surprise, following her and gazing at the closet in confusion before inching toward the closed door and crouching beside it. She could here Cheryl hyperventilating inside and felt her stomach turn awkwardly, leaning on the door and saying, "I'm sorry...I didn't mean to make you mad. I...I understand how you must feel...I've never told anyone how my mother died."
There came no response but Eileen could sense she was listening and took a deep breath.
"My mother...she was a gifted healer, best in her class at Hogwarts. It was her dream to work at St. Mungos, try to find cures for the people there who were suffering from incurable ailments. She was given the highest recommendations by her teachers, she was ready to start work as soon as she graduated from Hogwarts...but then she met my father. " Eileen paused, hugging her knees to her chest, "She met him in a coffee shop, he was a Muggle but she found him charming, telling her stories of his work as a private detective. He was fairly handsome, had dark hair and dark eyes, she said he was mysterious and alluring. They fell in love and got married, apparently it was because of me, I don't really know why but she claims it's not really my fault."
She took a break to listen at the door and see if Cheryl was still listening. There was still no sound but the gasping had stopped, relieving her a bit as she continued.
"My mother told him she was a witch and introduced him to the wizarding world, she said he was frightened by it at first but became accustomed to it. He learned of the Wizarding war going on at the time and didn't want her working at the hospital, so he convinced her to move away from it all with him and they took up residence in a quiet town. At first everything was okay but a little at a time he cut her off from the wizarding world, determined to make her into a regular housewife."
She paused again, mostly to gather her nerve as she felt herself growing anxious over the memories.
"I remember the first time I saw him hit mother. I was only 5 years old, I heard him yelling at her in the foyer and peeked down the stairs just as he slapped her. I didn't understand why he would hit mother, she always taught me that it was wrong to hit people. I guess I know why she always taught me that, she didn't want me to follow in her footsteps. Five years later after years of watching my father abuse my mother and brainwash me into thinking it was my duty as a woman to submit to men, I couldn't watch anymore. It was a bad day, father had lost a huge case and mother had spent too much time teaching me magic that she forgot to make dinner. He started hitting her and yelling at her, calling her names that made her cry. I didn't like it, I asked him to stop but he hit me instead, that's how my eye got like this. He'd never hit me before, I didn't know what to think...but when he started choking mother I had to do something. So I stood up to him and when he came toward me again...I lost control and lashed out with my magic."
She found herself shaking slightly at the memory, retreating into the void in her mind as much as she could in order to finish her story and hopefully ease Cheryl's pain.
"He would have died, he should have died, but mother healed him. She told me that no matter how much we hate someone, we shouldn't kill them, it's not our place to pass judgment on their souls. Instead we tied him up and locked him in the basement so we had time to escape. Mother instructed me to pack up all her books and belongings in a big trunk, the one I bring with me to school every year, so I did while she made arrangements for us to live elsewhere. I had no idea that she had been planning this for months, she already had a flat in London picked out, a place he couldn't find us so we'd have time to figure something else out and be safe forever. When I had finished packing the trunk and gotten everything ready for the trip, mother levitated everything out to the curb where she called a Knight Bus and put everything on it, asking the man to keep an eye on me before sending me off. She said that she would be along as soon as she obliterated father's memory so he wouldn't pursue us but...she never came."
Eileen choked out those last words, shivering as tears rolled down her cheeks.
"When I got on the bus...I looked out the window and...saw daddy coming out of the house. He...he had a gun...he shot mommy...he killed her. He would have killed me too but the Knight Bus vanished a second later...that was two years ago..."
The closet door cracked open as Cheryl peeked out, a look of shock and grief on her face as she slid over to face her through the hanging clothes.
"You saw her die?" Cheryl sounded a bit hazy.
Eileen nodded, burying her face in her lap as she buried the memories of that night so she wouldn't have to keep suffering it over and over.
Slowly Cheryl rocked and thought over her own trauma, finally saying, "Five years ago I started attending Augury, my mom was a teacher there. She taught Charms class, she was a really awesome teacher, everyone loved her. She was also the head of my house there - Augury only has three houses: Forsythe, Bontecou, and Moriarty, or the Brains, the Brawn, and the Daydreamers respectively. I was a Forsythe, obviously. Back then I got into a lot of trouble at school, I was a bit of a prankster like those cinna-mint twins of yours, causing all sorts of trouble for the teachers. I thought it was funny but I guess it got my mom in trouble a lot since I was her kid. I didn't mean to get her in trouble, you know? I was just being a kid...kids goof off in class and set up magical traps for people to stumble upon in the hallways."
Eileen nodded, keeping her face in her lap in case Cheryl didn't want her to look at her while she told her story.
Taking a deep breath, Cheryl settled back a bit in the closet, leaning her back against the wall and hugging her knees, "Well...in my 3rd year, I got this brilliant idea to try out this new spell I had read about in a book. It was suppose to make it look like the school was on fire but it wasn't suppose to be real, just an illusion. When I used it, I must have said it wrong or something cause the school really did catch on fire; burnt down the west wing where the teachers lounge was. No one was suppose to be inside cause it was lunchtime but...my mom was preparing for a quiz for her class. She...didn't make it out. It was just suppose to be a joke, you know?"
Eileen slowly looked up as Cheryl choked on her words, looking like she wished she had died in the fire instead.
"I'm sorry..." Eileen whispered, feeling empathy for her suffering.
"I could hear her screaming...there was nothing I could do, I didn't know how to make it stop." Cheryl strained to talk, rubbing her arm as her face contorted into one of great pain, "After the funeral, I spent all my time locked in my room, I didn't want to talk to anyone. Pops tried to get me to see a therapist about it but I knew it was my fault, I wanted to die. I tried to kill myself a couple times but people always found me in time. A couple months after the incident, pops got a letter from Dumbledore inviting me to study abroad at Hogwarts. Apparently Headmaster Prewett had gotten in touch with him about my situation and felt it was in my best interests to get as far away from everything as possible. So pops shipped me off the next school year, got sorted into Ravenclaw and started my great act of being happy all the time so I wouldn't have to tell anyone what happened. No one knows what really happened that day...except Dumbledore...and now you."
Eileen watched her curiously, letting her arms slide down from her legs as she inched slowly into the closet and sat next to Cheryl. Sitting quietly, she waited for her to make a move, just making sure she was there for her.
"I just wanted to forget, you know? Maybe if I didn't have to remember it wouldn't hurt so much," Cheryl sobbed, "But it's hard to act like everything's great when I want to die every day I wake up and know my mom's not there."
Eileen cautiously put her hand on Cheryl's shoulder in an act of comfort, quickly finding her arms full when her friend fell into her embrace to cry. Quietly, she put her tiny arms around her and held her without another word, stroking her hair gently in an attempt to soothe her sorrows. They sat in the closet for a while until Cheryl's father came home and found them, quickly doing his fatherly duties and ordering Chinese food to comfort his daughter. The rest of the evening was spent in silence, everyone too afraid to say anything to anyone.