Our Endless Numbered Days
Chapter 2- Expectations
June 1, 1981
The morning came far too soon for Josie; before she knew it, Mrs. Pierce came charging into her room and threw open the curtains. Mrs. Pierce was an older woman in her sixties that had been keeping house for the Flanders since Joseph had taken his post as Prime Minister. However, she was far from a nice grandmotherly figure. Stern and firm, Mrs. Pierce had seen Josie at her best and, more often, at her worst. While the woman had displayed no outward signs of anything but polite, respectful duty towards her, Josie never bothered Mrs. Pierce with tricks or pranks, like she did with her mother and father; out of fear or respect, Josie wasn't sure. "Rise and shine, miss." Josie groaned as sunlight made its way across her face and into her eyes.
"Five more minutes," she mumbled, throwing the covers over her head. Mrs. Pierce sighed before ripping the blankets off of Josie's body.
"That won't do, miss. Five minutes turns into ten and ten turns into thirty and the next thing you know, you've slept half the day away! Now up! Breakfast will be served in thirty minutes, and you are expected to be there. In fact, I believe that your mother stated that under no uncertain terms are you to not attend this breakfast." Josie huffed, but finally sat up.
"Fine, fine, I'm up."
"Good, miss. Your brother needs waking now, so I can trust that you'll be able to bathe yourself without my supervision?" Josie rolled her eyes.
"Yes." Shifting to move towards the edge of the bed, Josie got up and picked up her bathrobe that was lying, haphazardly across a chair on the other side of the room. Seeing that Josie was up and moving, Mrs. Pierce nodded quickly in her general direction before leaving the room to go and wake Henry up. With a sigh, Josie trudged to the shower and turned the water on. While waiting for it to get warm, she stood in front of the bathroom mirror and gazed at her reflection. She wasn't a vain person by any means, in fact, any time after the morning, she avoided mirrors and looking at her reflection. But ever since she was eleven, she always began her morning ritual by staring at herself in the mirror, examining her face, looking for flaws, for mistakes, for blemishes; trying to find something, anything wrong with her to give herself, some sort of explanation as to why her parents wouldn't give her the time of day. And while she realized now that there wasn't anything wrong with her, she couldn't break the habit. So every morning, she would stare at herself in the mirror: her vacant brown eyes still filled with sleep and her mussed up brown hair sticking out in different directions, her sometimes blemished skin; she took this all in, tried to commit it to memory, tried to understand how the person in front of her could be who she really was.
Tired of looking at herself, Josie turned away and stepped into the shower; the water was scalding hot.
Sirius Black was not particularly pleased with his next assignment, but if it got Lily Potter to cook him breakfast, then he wasn't going to complain. At least, not at that particular moment. His 10 month old godson was sitting in his high chair, giggling as Sirius made funny faces at him. Lily, the love of his best friend's life and purveyor of the delicious breakfast, was in the kitchen, making him an omelet. James, said best friend, was nowhere to be seen, presumably somewhere on the second level of the tiny cottage in Godric's Hollow. The smell of food turned out to be too much to resist, however, as a moment later, James Potter made his appearance at the table, dressed in pajama pants and nothing else. Walking over to his wife, he kissed her on the cheek before smirking and saying, "What's cookin', good lookin'?" Lily groaned.
"Seriously?" She gave him a look that clearly said he was being an idiot, although by the way she was smiling, James knew that she was amused. "That was bad, even for you." James chuckled but said no more to Lily, moving from his wife to his son, giving Harry a kiss on the forehead.
"Hey there, little man. How's he been this morning?" James asked Sirius. Sirius shrugged.
"Good as always. Not particularly fussy, my godson. He's easily amused; just like his father." James affectionately smacked Sirius upside the head.
"Aw shut it, Padfoot."
"Breakfast is almost ready James. Go put on a shirt," Lily interjected. James rolled his eyes.
"It's just Sirius," he pointed out. "He doesn't mind." Lily whirled around, spatula in hand and gave James a stern look.
"I don't care if it's just a homeless man that we met on the street, James Potter, you will wear a shirt at the table."
"And what if I don't?" James challenged, although everyone present knew that he would concede to his wife and put on a shirt.
"Then no breakfast for you! I'm sure that Sirius could eat both of these omelets, with no problem."
"Ah, she's got ya there, Prongs," Sirius commented, grin on his face. "I'd never turn down lovely Lilykins' cooking."
"But—" James tried to reason but Lily would have none of it.
"No buts. Go put a shirt on James, then you can eat. And Sirius, if you call me Lilykins again, this'll be the last you ever taste of my cooking!" Sirius laughed while James disappeared upstairs again, grumbling.
"Yes, ma'am, whatever you say! Just don't take the food away!" Lily rolled her eyes and placed an omelet in front of him.
"You're ridiculous."
"And proud!" A moment later, James re-emerged, this time with a shirt on. Lily smiled and presented him with breakfast before sitting down at the table. All three of them ate in relative silence, enjoying being in the presence of each other. Harry gurgled from his high chair, his eyes wide with excitement as he watched what was going on around him.
"So, new assignment, Pads?" James was the first to break the silence. Sirius grunted in displeasure at the mention of where he was off to after this breakfast.
"Yeah. Babysitting spoiled muggle leaders. Should be a blast."
"You never know, could be kinda fun," James tried to reason with his friend. Sirius snorted.
"About as fun as a thorn in my side."
"Actually, considering that you'll be watching Josephine Flanders, I can see that," Lily chimed in. Sirius gave her a blank look.
"Who?" Lily sighed.
"She's the Prime Minister's daughter. She's usually in the news for doing something obscene. She's not exactly a well behaved child. Always seemed like a bit of a brat to me, to be honest."
"Great! Something to look forward to!" Sirius exclaimed with all the sarcasm he could muster.
"The rest of the family may not be that bad," James pointed out. Lily shook her head.
"Actually, from what I can tell, I mean, I haven't followed muggle politics closely, but the wife's a bit of a floozy. And the Prime Minister, well, a colder man I have yet to see. In every interview I've seen or read, he's remarkably stiff and lacks any sort of warmth or geniality. Only bright spot of that family is the son, but he's just a little boy. Six or seven, something like that. Of course, he's bound to turn out as messed up as the rest of them, but that's a few years down the line yet. You probably won't be protecting them by that point, Sirius." Sirius had stopped eating and looked at James with a smug expression on your face. James groaned.
"You're not helping Lily." Realizing that she had only reinforced Sirius' perception that this would be the worst assignment ever, instead of trying to make the situation better, Lily tried to come up with something to say to reassure her husband's best friend.
"Oh. I'm sure you're right, though, James. It shouldn't be too bad."
"...One…two…three…" Josie didn't waste another second bolting out of the kitchen running through the dining room. She only had until Henry counted to thirty before he would come looking for her and she needed to find a good hiding spot and quick. Exiting the room and fully expecting to come into an empty foyer, but to her surprise, a rather good looking young man, dressed in black slacks and a white button down was standing awkwardly at the entrance and she was heading straight for him. Josie attempted to stop moving, but as her feet were clad only in her white socks, it was easier said than done on the hard wood floors. They collided before Sirius could even register that there was a girl flying at them.
Splayed out on the floor, both of them groaned in slight pain from the contact with the floor. Sirius had felt most of the fall, cushioning Josie as she had fallen on top of him.
"Bloody hell, woman! What is your problem?"
"What is my problem? What is your problem? What are you doing just standing in the foyer, like some creeper?"
"Ready or not, here I come!" Josie froze. Sirius began to answer her question, but she completely ignored him.
"We need to hide. Quickly!" She scrambled to her feet, pulling Sirius with her and hastily looked around for somewhere to hide. Her eyes landed on the coat closet and, without another moment's hesitation, she shoved Sirius into it before jumping in herself and shutting the door behind her.
"What exactly are we hiding from?" Sirius asked, frustrated. The back of his head was throbbing from hitting the floor and absent mindedly, he rubbed it.
"Shh! He'll hear us." They sat in silence for another moment before Sirius sighed and began to get up.
"This is ridiculous." Josie grabbed his hand and pulled him back down.
"You can't go out there. Then he'll find me."
"Who will?" Sirius asked again.
"Henry! We're playing hide-and-seek. God, don't you people understand anything?"
"You people?" Sirius questioned, incredulously. "What exactly does that mean?" Josie sighed.
"I'm referring, obviously, to your choice of career."
"And what exactly is wrong with my career? I'm out there, on the front lines, doing good so that people like you can enjoy their privileged life without having to worry." Josie rolled her eyes.
"I'm so glad you think so highly of your position, but being my father's lackey isn't exactly 'on the front lines', as you put it." Her reply was caustic and she finished it with a sneer. Sirius almost laughed in disbelief.
"I don't work for your father. Believe me, if I did, I'd do the world a favor and off myself." Josie frowned at this statement, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion and worry.
"Who the hell are you and what were you doing in the foyer, then?"
"I'm Sirius Black and believe me, if I didn't have to be here, I wouldn't."
"Oh, you're magic boy," Josie said, realization making its way across her face. Sirius frowned at the term.
"Magic boy?" But the pair didn't have time to debate the subject because the door flew open and light shined into the coat closet.
"Found you!" Henry squealed and immediately, Josie smiled.
"Yes, you did! You're turn to hide," she remarked, getting up off the floor of the closet and walking out of it back into the foyer. Sirius followed suit. "Go on, now."
"Nuh-uh," Henry said. "You need to close your eyes and count."
"Ah, right." Josie covered her eyes with her hands and began counting. Henry ran down the hall, towards the stairs, his little feet taking him far away from the foyer. As soon as she could no longer hear Henry's footsteps, Josie stopped counting and uncovered her eyes. Sirius was standing next to her still and she took in his appearance. She had to admit that he was good looking. His black locks were on the shaggy side and his clear gray eyes almost glowed. He was fit, she could tell, just by looking at him. He wasn't smiling at the moment, not that Josie could really blame him, but she imagined that when he did, it made him even more gorgeous. "So, magic boy, I'm assuming you want to see Daddy, huh?" Sirius rolled his eyes, obviously disgruntled at the new nickname that had been bestowed upon him.
"Yeah. And you've got to stop calling me that."
"Oh? And what would you rather I call you?" Josie asked.
"My name," Sirius replied, simply. Josie snorted.
"Sirius? No, that won't work. I'd feel ridiculous. I don't know if anyone's ever told you this, but your name is rather odd."
"It's not like I asked for it. Besides, look who's talking Josephine. Not exactly a common name, is it, even in the muggle world?" Sirius responded, bitingly.
"First of all," Josie snapped, "the only person who calls me Josephine is my father and I gather that's because he's so vain, he likes to say it to remind me and the rest of the world that I'm named after him. Secondly, just like you, I didn't exactly have a say in the matter. And lastly, the name's Josie. That's what everyone calls me. Better get used to it, because the next time you call me Josephine, you'll regret it." Josie was annoyed; this Sirius character had already managed to get under her skin. She pursed her lips, and without another word, turned on her heel and left the foyer. Henry should have found a hiding spot by now.
As she climbed the stairs, Mrs. Pierce appeared in the foyer, presumably to take Sirius to the Prime Minister; Josie didn't stick around long enough to find out.
A/N: Why did I write this? I certainly did not have time to do that. I will regret this much later. You cannot even fathom just how busy I've been these past weeks and still am. Now, I'm back to disappearing again for God knows how long.
This is completely unedited, which means I might go back and change some details later, but nothing major.
Leave a review on your way out, yes?
NaP