Bottom of the Box
AlwaysPadfoot
Comp: Test your limits competition
PROMPT: (your chosen character) posed for Playwitch magazine. Years later, his current romantic partner finds out.
"Mum, we got engaged last night," Jac groaned, rolling her eyes at the reflection in the hallway mirror, "No I do not know what flowers we're going to have at the wedding."
Jacqueline Marshall tucked the phone between her ear and shoulder and pulled her hair out of its bun whilst her mother continue to ramble on about wedding plans. It didn't really bother her, but as Elizabeth Marshall continued to talk Jac felt the small smile cross her lips and the heat rise in her cheeks.
Last night Jac's boyfriend of almost two years had proposed to her and she still felt all stupidly happy inside when she looked down at her engagement ring.
"...so you'll come round at eight for dinner?"
Her attention was quickly brought back to the phone, "Tonight?!"
"Yes tonight, Jac. Your Dad and I will want to meet Zach as our future son-in-law not just as your boyfriend."
"Oh Mum," Jac retorted, "I don't know, I'm not sure what time Zach gets back -"
"I'll see you at eight, Jac."
With those final words, her Mum put the phone down and Jac stared at the screen in disbelief. With a tut, she pocketed it and headed upstairs to get changed. Her Mum always did that, last minute, made arrangements assuming that it was convenient for everyone without even asking.
Jac stood in front of the drawers, rubbing off the days make-up from her face that she would end up reapplying after a shower and before dragged Zach to her parents later. He would reluctantly agree after ten minutes or so of persuasion. She still wasn't entirely sure why he wasn't a family and friends person, but Jac was pretty much the same, just with a more fortunate relationship with her parents than he.
"Shit," she swore as she dropped the back of her earring. Jac put the other piece on the drawer top and dropped to her knees to peer under the chest of drawers.
Surprisingly, the back of the earring wasn't the only thing under there. At the back, against the wall was a box that she knew, did not belong to her so it must have been Zach's. Pulling the box out, Jac sat back against the bed and brushed the dust from the lid. Scribbled across the top was the word: Hogwarts.
She frowned. Jac didn't even recognise the word as English or anything familiar that Zach had mentioned. A nervous tingle passed down her spine, maybe he hadn't shown her what was in the box for a reason, but he wasn't here. Jac eventually voted to take a quick peek, she would hear Zach come in early enough to put the box back before he even noticed.
Anxiously, she lifted the lid only to find a pile of letters and photos.
Jac's mouth fell open.
Were those pictures moving?
She quickly snatched up the top photo to see a younger version of her fiancé with two other lads and two girls sitting and lounging under a three. They were all in school uniform, black trousers or a skirt, white shirts and yellow and black ties. It must have been warm because none of them had blazers or jumpers.
One of the girls, with ginger hair was sat reading a book against the tree with one of the other lads talking. The other girl, a blonde, chucked a funny shaped ball at Zach whilst the other boy grinned.
Jac stared at it for a long time, she couldn't believe it was moving and she literally turned it in every which way to see how it moved.
She was so confused. It was as thin as a photo, it bent like a photo and scribbled on the back in Zach's handwriting was: Ernie, Justin, Hannah, Susan and me. Fifth Year, after Exams. Why do I hang out with these dorks?
But it moved.
The picture actually moved.
As Jac went through the photos, they only got weirder. Photo's that depicted Zach and mostly those four same people in funny robes. Photos that showed her fiancé on what looked like a fancy broomstick, floating in midair. Photos that showed things that could only be described as magic.
She felt guilty about reading the letters so Jac skipped over all but one that caught her attention, one where the address on the envelope was smudged in places like someone had been crying.
Biting her lip, she began to slide the letter out when something at the bottom of the box caught Jac's attention.
A magazine.
Putting the letter aside with the other stuff, Jac picked up the magazine aptly named Playwitch taking into account the busty woman on the front, switching from one revealing position to another.
Why had Zach kept this one magazine?
Casually she turned to the contents page only to find on page seventeen was an article entitled: PlayWiz - Our Sexiest Males of 1997.
"No, please tell me he didn't," Jac muttered under her breath. She hastily sifted to the aforementioned page only to see the main model starred her new fiancé.
Jac's jaw dropped to the floor as she stared at the pictures. Suddenly a grin crept onto her face and she flicked through the photos, wondering why on earth Zach would pose for magazines and not have told her. Coincidentally, what Jac probably should have been wondering about was the moving photos and their content.
All of a sudden the door opened and Jac jumped out of her skin, whirling around to see Zach in the doorway. His eyes fell to her and his face paled.
"I can explain," they both stammered in shock before they stared at each other in silence for a short moment, "I'm sorry."
Jac looked back down at the photos and letters surrounding her and the magazine in her hands with absolutely no idea what to say. Luckily, Zach spoke first, "I understand if you're freaked out."
Jac eyebrows furrowed before she looked up at him and spoke confusedly, "Because you posed for some, really sexy photos."
"No," he replied with a frown, "The whole box. Wait what? You've been in the whole box and you want to know about the magazine photoshoot?"
"Well it seems like a much more interesting topic than whatever all this other stuff is," Jac answered.
"Jacqueline, the pictures move. They move. Am I missing something?"
Zach seemed almost distressed as he ran a wayward hand through his hair and shrugged off his jacket, chucking it on the bed. Jac shrugged and patted the floor beside her, "Why don't you come and explain then? You can start wherever."
He shifted on the spot before Zach sat down beside me, taking her hand, "Jac, I'm magic."
"Magic," Jac managed to splutter out.
"My parents were magic and I went to Hogwarts which is a magic school that most British magical students go to..."
And so Jac let him go on, explaining very briefly about his family and his friends. From the photos: Susan, the ginger, and Hannah, the blonde were the girls and Justin, the guy who was reading and Ernie, the laughing guy were the two boys. Zach explained that he didn't realise they were his friends until his fifth year and he was still a bit of an arsehole to them.
Then he came to the letter that Jac never opened, with the smudges, and his hand trembled as he picked it up.
"This was the day my Dad wrote to me in my sixth year and told me that my Mum had died," he told her quietly before he handed it over, "Here."
Jac took the parchment from and carefully unfolded it.
Zach,
I was going to come to Hogwarts, but I want to give you the space to deal with this in whichever way you need too.
Last night your Mum passed away, her infection took a turn for the worse and the Healers couldn't do anything for her. They made her comfortable and she wouldn't have been in any pain.
Your uncle and I are making all the arrangements and you're free to come home now or in the holidays or not at all. Whatever your decision it's up to you and I'll respect it either way. I will make any arrangements instantaneously if you just let Professor Sprout or Professor McGonagall know.
Love,
Dad
Jac blinked hard, trying to cover up the fact tears were threatening to fall, "Wow, my Dad would have marched right into school and taken me home."
Zach half-smiled, "I think if it had been a year earlier he would have. I hated him as a kid, he was so clingy and strict and it made me act more and more like an arse. I kind of hated him more for being so respectful of my space so in the end I chose to go home a week before the Christmas Holidays."
Jac cuddled in close to him and listened as he explained that was when he and his father's relationship changed forever.
When he arrived at home he couldn't explain how he really felt. The house felt empty to him like there was no one there at all the world, but when he saw his Dad the first thing he did was break down into tears. For Jac, she almost found it hard to believe that he hadn't done so when he'd recieved the letter.
It was that Christmas that Zach and his father actually got on okay for once. He told me that he could barely get words out let alone shout at his father.
His father took this time to explain that he probably only smothered him as a child because his own father was exactly the opposite. Zach's grandfather had been a neglectful and angry man who Zach's father, Keiran, had never wished to be. Keiran had only just realised that being so clingy was why Zach disliked him so much and why they hadn't gotten on for years.
Zach soon fell quiet and Jac sat trying to absorb everything he'd told her about magic and his family and this so called war that happened when he was younger, nearing the end of Hogwarts. Half her brain was screaming that this must be all a joke and that the photos must be some kind of technology, but the other half was interested and happy that he'd explained it.
Jac looked back down at the magazine in her lap and smiled, "When did you do this?"
Zach blushed right to the roots of his blonde hair, "I wanted some extra money. I did it at the end of my sixth year, I didn't realise it was going to be quite so revealing until I got there. I wasn't going to say no. It was a lot of money."
"Is there any more?" Jac grinned, closing the magazine.
He shook his head, "I tell you just about the biggest secret ever and you want to perve at some handsome seventeen year old?"
She punched him lightly.
"Shut up." Leaning against him, Jac sighed, "I guess you could have told me before. We've been together for two years."
"Would it have changed your answer last night?"
"No," she said instantly before sitting back and looking at him seriously, "I'm not going to give birth to a baby with two heads am I?"
Zach paled, "You're not?"
"No, no, but it's something I might have to bear in mind if I'm going have an alien baby," Jac grinned.
"You won't have an alien baby," Zach laughed, "But he or she would have magic too."
Jac didn't mind that, Hogwarts sounded like so much more fun than she had in school. Although she did feel like she had a lot more to learn about Magic right now. She started asking more questions straight away as they packed away the photos.
Zach explained that he did not work in some business in Manchester, but that he actually worked down in London for the Department of Magical Games and Sports. When Jac questioned how he got there, he explained about apparation and Floo travel. It was so much to take in, but she listened intently.
He went to put the magazine away went Jac reached out and took it back. She leaned in and kissed him cheekily whilst holding it behind her back, "I'm keeping that in my beside draw."
"Cougar," he retorted with a wink.
Jac pulled a face of mock horror as they stood up before changing to subject, "So my Mum wants us to be over by eight."
Zach groaned, "We only got engaged last night and it's already quarter to seven. There isn't enough time."
Jac grinned to herself before leaning up and wrapping her arms around his neck, "You know what she's like and I was thinking that perhaps we could be economical and save water and time by sharing a shower."
Zach appeared to think about it for a moment before he swept Jac into his arms and headed towards the bathroom, "We better get moving then."