(A/N: Hiloooo people! I'm incredibly sorry about how long it's been since I last updated, but I got diagnosed with Anxiety and that kinda took the contents of my brain and put them in a food processor. It made my writer's block more like 'writer's impenetrable force-field.' Anyway, I'm back now. I own nothing. Enjoy!)
Chapter 21: Curious Christmas Conversations Part 2
It was raining wrapping paper in the common room. Well, from Ron and I's areas. Harry was reverently opening each present with awe on his face.
This year I got: sugar quills and a friendship bracelet from Hermione, sheet music from Darren, chocolate frogs from Harry, dungbombs from the elder twins, a homework planner from Percy, and a large package with a letter on top that appeared to be from Mom, Dad, Bill, Charlie, and Ginny. I opened the letter first.
~oOo~
Dear Kayla,
Hello to you, too! It's funny, but this owl got here not two minutes after Mum and Dad told the three of us about you! Yes, I said three. Bill showed up to surprise us. Which is great, because he's the coolest of our prats. Oh, excuse me, brothers. Did you know that out of all of them, you're the only one who's written to me? Like I wrote, prats- the lot of them! We're not that bad, little sis!
There were a bit of ink splatters before the letter continued.
Sorry about that, Charlie was reading over my shoulder and decided to nick my quill. Be warned, he might do it again and I don't much care for the look in Bill's eyes either.
Anyway, I agree that it will be nice to have a sister. The only reason I haven't gone completely mental is having my friend Luna's house to escape to. She's a bit….different, but she's really nice and great company. Maybe during the summer, I can take you to meet her!
On to your questions. My favorite colour is light blue. My birthday is August 11th. I'm particularly fond of licorice wands. In my spare time I like to sneak out our brothers' brooms and practice flying, I can't wait to knock them on their arses when I get on the team at Hogwarts! Other than that, most of the time I'm playing with Luna or doing chores. I honestly don't know how I survived being around all these idiots…maybe I am mental. We already knew that.
More ink splotches.
Prat! Um…what's a genre? I do like the Weird Sisters if that helps?
What's America like? And who's this 'Harry' fellow? We'd like to know that as well.Do I need to set a dragon on him? I can lock him in a tomb if he's bothering you-
Yet more ink splatters.
What I MEANT with that question is: is he Harry Potter? I remember the twins mentioning him at the Platform. Because it would be brilliant if he were. Anyway, I'm getting tired of replacing quills…so this is the end of this particular letter. I hope you'll write back soon!
Love,
Ginny and Charlie and Bill
~oOo~
I was giggling by the end of the letter. I can already tell that I'm going to love them. And Ginny is freaking awesome, despite the fact that I'm going to have to educate her on music over the summer. Ron and Harry were looking at me strangely.
"Oh, this is just a response from Ginny. I wrote her a letter earlier this week. The reason I was laughing is that Charlie and Bill kept swiping the quill and writing things." I snickered. Then I remembered something.
"Oh yeah, Ron. I have your present; I just wanted to give it to you myself." I pulled the package out from behind me and swapped his present for the one he got me.
We both opened them at the same time. From Ron, I got a picture of the two of us asleep on top of our homework in identical positions across from each other (I wonder who took that and when) in a frame that was decorated with blinding orange paint and black cannonballs. (When he told me about his favorite quidditch team, I jumped on the bandwagon to support them as well.) My eyes started to water a little as I smiled, this present was incredibly sweet and thoughtful of Ron. He had almost the same expression on his face as he unwrapped the orange and black hand woven bracelet I made him that had 'Favorite Twin' stitched on it. I did the only thing I could think of in that moment; I glomped him and shrieked, "Thank you!"
He hugged me back and said, "You too."
I released him and looked at-
Harry's floating head.
"Um, Ron? Why is Harry's head floating in mid-air?" I asked, blinking and rubbing my eyes.
"No clue. Mate? Look down." Ron told Harry, as the boy was looking at us like we were insane. He looked down, yelled, and suddenly pulled something off to become visible again.
"Blimey, that's an invisibility cloak! They're incredibly rare. Who sent it?" Ron asked excitedly.
"Dunno, there was no signature on the note." Harry responded. Then he got a somewhat wistful and sad expression on his face as he continued, "Apparently it used to belong to my dad."
There was some noise coming from the boy's dormitories so Harry stuffed the cloak under his presents. Fred and George came in frog-marching Percy over toward us with a hand knitted sweater shoved over his head.
"Merry Christmas!" the elder twins exclaimed.
"Hey look—Harry's got a Weasley sweater, too! Kayla, why haven't you opened yours, yet?" The continued in the unison speech I couldn't quite manage with Ron yet. I noticed they were wearing the sweaters with the wrong initials. Classic.
"I got distracted by a rather entertaining letter from Ginny. Keep your skirts on, I'm gonna open it!" I replied sassily. I turned back to the package and shredded through the paper. In it was a lovely purple sweater, some home-made fudge, a barrette that had a butterfly on it, a tiny dragon figurine, and an Egyptian symbol charm on a thin cord that was probably a necklace. I immediately put on the sweater and it was so snuggly. I probably won't take it off until the end of this freezing-ass winter.
"Nice, little Kaylakins! Harry's is better than ours, though," Fred commented, inspecting the green sweater that matched its owner's eyes. "She obviously makes more of an effort if you're not family."
"Why haven't you put on yours, Ron?" I asked, noticing that he was the only one not in a sweater.
"I hate maroon." He grumbled as he put it on.
I noticed Percy was still struggling with his sweater that looked to have been forcefully shoved onto him.
"Hey, Perce! Why don't I help you out a bit with that?" I asked as I walked over and pulled the sweater up over his shoulders (which I may have had to get on my tip-toes to do) so that he could put his arms through.
His disgruntled expression turned to a slight smile. "Thank you, Kayla."
"No probs, bro!" I replied with a grin.
I turned towards the twins and asked, "So, Gred and Forge….why did you both feel the need to turn Percy into an unarmed Prefect?"
They cracked completely unconvincing innocent grins, "Why, dear sister, whatever are you talking about? You seem confused."
I rolled my eyes. "I know ya'll switched sweaters. Also, you both were marching him down with devious grins and he looked thoroughly disheveled and irritated with you. Now, come you guys, it's Christmas! Couldn't you have cut him a little slack today?"
Fred and George were looking a little shell-shocked that I could tell them apart. To be honest, it wasn't that hard; they had different tones of voice and different personalities. They re-gained their devious grins and replied, "Why, we wouldn't want him-"
"To think we were-"
"Going soft on him!"
I just sighed and rolled my eyes, deciding that it was a lost cause.
~oOo~
Christmas dinner was extravagant affair, and I got introduced to Christmas Crackers. Apparently they are a traditional British type of party favor, and these ones were magical. I gave most of my prizes (the ones that weren't chocolate) to the boys and mostly just enjoyed the explosions.
After that, we all had a huge snowball fight in which I mostly ducked behind others and sniped those who were otherwise occupied. It was brilliant. Once we were all sopping wet and tired, we ate dinner and retired to the common room. Fred and George were playing keep away with Percy's prefect badge, Ron and I were playing chess (I was losing terribly), and Harry seemed to be a sleepy and broody haze.
~oOo~
As I laid down to go to sleep, I finally allowed myself to come to terms with the fact that I hadn't received so much as a card from the Smiths. Sure, I was still incredibly mad and hurt that they had kicked me out the moment they found out I wasn't normal; but I still sent them a card wishing them well on Christmas. They did take me in, after all. Oh well, I guess they really didn't care as much as they told me before THAT day…..wait a sec, do they even know how to send stuff to a magical location? I'll do a little more thinking about this.
~oOo~
The next morning at breakfast, Harry looked incredibly pale, sad, and excited. As he explained about finding a mirror that showed him the image of his family surrounding him, a ton of red flags went off in my mind. Harry's reaction to the mirror was entirely unhealthy; he had a weird gleam in his eyes and wasn't touching his food. He was obsessed with finding the mirror again. He didn't even care that Snape and Quirrell almost caught him out of bounds. He also sounded entirely too shocked about what his family looked like. That settled it; tonight was going to be the night that I talked to Harry about his past with his relatives.
~oOo~
That night, I sat in the common room with a book that Hermione lent me called "Ender's Game" to read. And I read it patiently while I waited for the boys to leave and come back from the creepy soul-snatching mirror. At about midnight, I heard two sets of footsteps leaving slowly and glanced up to see the portrait hole open and close. Did they honestly forget that I was there both when they had a conversation about going to the mirror AND when Harry got the cloak? Also, they still need to work on their sneaking skills. Sighing, I went back to reading about children soldiers in space. With lasers. (A/N: It's actually a really great book, I recommend it!)
A few hours later, right as I was finishing the book; I heard the sound of my two lovable morons stumbling back into the common room.
"So Harry, can I talk to you for a bit? Ron can take your cloak up to your dorm for you." I said calmly, whilst trying not to giggle at what I imagined their faces looked like right at the moment. I closed my book and looked at the newly visible Harry and then over where Ron's head was floating. They were both staring at me in shock.
"What? You two might not have been visible, but that doesn't mean you're silent. Plus, as you both seem to have forgotten…. I was there when you were making your plans to sneak out." I gave them both a Look.
"Er….right, well I'm going to go put up Harry's cloak now!" Ron bolted.
Harry was left there, standing awkwardly. I sighed and pushed him into the armchair across from mine.
"So….err….what did you want to talk to me about?" Harry asked curiously.
"Harry, you know you're one of my best friends, right?" I asked, wanting to test the waters.
He furrowed his brow, a little confused as to where I was going with this. "Yeah? You're one of my best friends, too."
"So you know that this comes from a place of caring." I was stalling a bit.
He nodded, now looking slightly worried.
I steeled myself to just get this over with. "Harry, I've noticed some things about you that really worry me and I've got to ask: do your relatives mistreat you?"
Harry looked at me in shock and then defensively asked, "What would make you think that? You know…it's very late, I think I'll just-"
"Sit back down, Harry Potter, or I shall have to sit on top of you." I sternly said. This conversation had to happen.
He looked at my determined face and sat back down reluctantly.
"You ask what would make me think that? Several things. The fact that your normal clothes look to be several sizes too big for you and severely worn by someone who isn't you. The fact that I, the human twig, weigh more than you do. The fact that every time someone shows you decency, you look somewhat shocked. The fact that the first few weeks when I hugged you, you would tense up. Finally, the fact that you looked genuinely surprised that you got Christmas presents. Harry, I just want to know so that I can help!" I was working myself into a bit of a state and tears were welling up in my eyes.
Harry looked shocked at my speech. He then chose his next words very carefully. "The Dursleys don't much care for me, but they never beat me or anything."
That was one weight lifted off of my mind but I still needed to press on. "Abuse doesn't only include beating. Did they ever starve you? Lock you up anywhere for extended periods of time? Verbally abuse you?" It hurt to ask these things, but it was the only way to know so that maybe Harry could get help.
Harry looked conflicted, like he was arguing with himself. He looked into my eyes searchingly and then he made his decision. "Until my first Hogwarts letter arrived, I lived in a cupboard under the stairs. If I did anything they didn't like, I got locked in it for a few days with no meals. They don't like questions, me getting better grades than Dudley, magic of any sort, and me. Hedwig is the first present I've ever received. Until primary school, I thought my name was "Freak" or "Boy." All of my clothes used to be Dudley's and my glasses came from a donation bin. I was never allowed to go with them on their multiple vacations."
My heart broke and my tears overflowed. "Oh, Harry…." I couldn't fight it any longer and I pulled him into a fierce hug. After a couple of minutes, I pulled myself together and got mad at the fiends that hurt my friend. Harry looked somewhat relieved that I had stopped crying.
"Harry, we have to get you out of there. It is NOT okay that they treat you like that! We have to tell McGonagall, she could help-"I was getting into one of my famous rages.
"Kayla, you can't tell anyone!" Harry exclaimed, with a panicked expression.
"Harry. Now that I know, I can't just sit back and do nothing! Your relatives have been neglecting and verbally abusing you! They should be in prison!"
"I'm pretty sure that McGonagall already knows. My letter was addressed to my cupboard." He responded quietly and he looked at me with those bright green eyes.
Unhappily, I replied. "Fine. I don't like this. I'm going to get Hermione's address and phone number. I also want your address. If things get bad and you can't get a letter to Ron and I, you need to find a way to call her or get to her house. Or we can come get you. And then we will work from there." I wouldn't bend on this. It also didn't sit right with me that Harry's letter was addressed to his cupboard, but when McGonagall came to my house and saw me get kicked out she was mad. I just knew that I couldn't push Harry too far on this.
Sighing, he nodded.
After that, we went to bed with an unspoken agreement that we would go back to normal tomorrow.
(A/N: The last part of this chapter broke my heart to write. But Kayla's a little too perceptive about human behavior to NOT have noticed something was off. I don't know if I did this sort of thing justice, but I sure as hell tried. And if it seemed like Kayla backed off too quickly or didn't do everything properly, remember that she's only 11 and most of her knowledge of what to do is from TV shows. Let me know what ya'll think!)