Wake

When I surfaced to consciousness, I kept my eyes tightly shut. I wished and prayed that when I opened them, I'd be in my room, with its curled posters of famous guys I had had a crush on since I was 12, well worn shelves with well worn books and my old quilt spread across me. I wished and prayed that Mum would be shouting up the stairs for me, "You're gonna be late for college!" I wished and prayed that I would run down stairs to find a chaotic kitchen, with Luke and Mark trying to throw their bowls of cereal at the wall, while Dad calmly reads the paper over a mug of tea and Mum screams bloody blue murder.

I wished and prayed so hard, that I believed it was going to happen. Everything that happened to me, I wanted it to be a terrible but a peculiar nightmare, the memory of which would eventually flow away like smoke in the wind.

So I opened my eyes, confident this would be the case…and was severely disappointed. The room was not mine. The bed was not mine. I was lying fully dressed under the covers. The room was decorated in sickly colours of pink and white lace. I turned over and stared at the vase of dead pastel coloured flowers. The room smelled of heavy perfume, the kind that my Great Aunt Brenda wore, heavy and oversweet. I wrinkled my nose and sat up, my hair sticking up on one side. I still felt groggy, my eyelids feeling gungy. I got up and tiptoed to a bowl and jug, which were full of warm water. I washed my face, noticing a brush on the side. I brushed out my hair until they were the familiar fuzzy curls before putting the brush down and edging towards the door.

The smells of bacon and eggs wafted up from the stairs. I crept along them, the floorboards creaking beneath my socks. Whatever this place was, it had seen better days. The flowery wallpaper was peeling in places, there were water stains on the ceiling and under the smell of bacon there was the smell of must heavy in the air. Following my nose and the sounds of scraping pots wafted up from the bottom floor. Pulling my large cardigan around me, I shuffled down the stairs and turned right at the bottom of them.

I was standing in what appeared to be a rather dusty kitchen, light streaming past a pair of moth eaten curtains on the opposite window. The tiny gremlin from yesterday was standing on a stool by the stove on the left, shuffling a frying pan on the stove. I coughed to get its attention, standing awkwardly by the door.

The head swivelled around, a large crescent moon smile at me, "Miss Lucy! You's up! Please sit, Moppy is makings yours breakfast."

I gave a small smile back and shambled towards the small table and chairs in the centre of the room. I gingerly sat myself down on the chair. Crossing my legs, I watched the gremlin cook.

Not bearing the silence anymore, I said, "So… did you sleep well?"

I did not expect the reaction I got from that simple question. The gremlin's eyes shone with inexpressible emotion and its hands trembled, "M-M-Moppy h-has n-n-n-never been asked th-that qu-qu-question b-before." Large tears rolled down its brown weathered skin, dripping of the ends of its nose and chin.

I stared at her, open-mouthed before blurting out, "Alright, its just a question!"

She finally sniffled and finished her little breakdown before turning back to the eggs and bacon, "I didn't really sleep, Miss Lucy. I was trying to get this place tidy and clean for you."

I took in the chipping paint on the wall, the leaking tap in the sink under the window, the broken hinges on the cupboards, "Needs a bit more than a clean and a tidy, but thank you. Its always good to have a clean house," I focused my mind on how I could make this place better. It was better thinking about that than thinking about anything else, "My dad's a handyman, does DIY and shit, taught me a few things. Lick of paint there, few hammerings there, place could look quite nice. I'd need your help though, if you'd do me the favour please."

Her eyes were shining again and I put up my hands and said, "Don't freak out, it was only a suggestion."

"Miss Lucy is very polite to Moppy," Moppy whispered, "No one has ever talkeds to Moppy in such a nice way. That's why Moppy's eyes leaked." She served the bacon, eggs, sausages, hash brown and bakes beans on a white china plate before scuttling away for cutlery.

I thanked her, and her hands trembled as she set down the cutlery. "What kind of people have you been around with? They couldn't have been very nice."

She smiled sadly, as she began to clean the stove again with worn fingers, "You's right Miss Lucy."

I smiled sympathetically at her and began to eat. It was pretty good considering it had been cooked by a gremlin. "So when's David…I mean Draco, coming around to explain all of this to me."

"He should be here any minute, Miss Lucy," Moppy said, "You's must be special, Miss Lucy. Master Draco doesn't normally go to such lengths to care for someone else. Trust me, I've known him since he was five. He only cares for himself and himself alone." Suddenly Moppy's eyes widened and she cried, "Forgive me Master!" She pressed her fingers against the still hot plate on the stove and cried out in agony as her flesh sizzled.

I yelped and jumped out of my seat, running towards her as she continued to moan and press her fingers against the stove, "Bloody hell gremlin! What the hell are you doing?"

I grabbed her hand and wrenched her towards the sink. I turned the cold water to full blast and thrust her poor sore fingers under the icy spray, "You're insane, you know that gremlin? I think I'm just going to call you that from now on, because you are truly crazy. Firstly: why would you do that? Secondly: do you have a first aid kit around?"

Large limpid eyes stared at me in confusion, "I is punishing myself Miss Lucy, for speaking ill of Master Draco. And I don't know what a first aid kit is. Is it a kind of spell or potion?"

"Well there must be something to clean and bandage these up with. And why would you punish yourself in such a way?"

"It's just what we do, Miss Lucy," Moppy explained, "Its how all house elves is like. And here." She snapped her fingers and a neat pile of bandages landed on the kitchen tiles.

"That's disgusting," I said, revulsion in my voice, picking up the bandages, "Keep your fingers under the water, alright? Don't move. And don't get emotional on me either!" Moppy's eyes were starting glisten with unshed tears.

"Am I interrupting something?" the cool voice of Draco Malfoy cut through the sound of splashing water. I whipped around to see him leaning against the doorframe, white blonde eyebrow raised and dark robes brushing the flagstone floor.

"Gremlin got burned," I said, "because she has the burning desire to punish herself."

He smirked, his confident demeanour firmly back in place. Arrogant git. "Glad you are getting along," he replied, walking to sit down in the other chair at the table. He took a piece of bacon from my plate and popped it into his mouth, "Moppy, get me a cup of coffee."

Moppy made a move to get away from the sink, but I glared at her, "Stay right where you are gremlin. "

I then turned my glare back to Draco, "Get your own sodding coffee. Gremlin's hands are too burned to do anything."

His eyes narrowed, "I never make my own coffee. Moppy: make my coffee."

I grabbed Moppy's moving hands and forced them under the icy spray, not breaking eye contact with Draco. "Well there's no time like the present to break habits. Make your own coffee."

"You're a waitress, why don't you make it?" his wintry grey eyes were glaring right back now.

My temper spiked and I spat back, "Not anymore, not since the next fucking holocaust rolled through town. I probably no longer have customers to serve or a boss to pay my wages or a family and friends to go home to after my shift!" My voice had risen throughout my tirade until I was practically screaming it at him and trembling with barely controlled rage.

He was silent, his jaw locked and his eyes burning with something unreadable. We both glowered at each other for a full minute before I finally swallowed down my anger and said, "Let's start over. Maybe if you heal gremlin's burns with that magic stick thing, she can make your coffee…if you ask her nicely of course. So that means you say 'please' and 'thank you', like she's a creature with feelings instead of a dog."

He chewed on his tongue, and I knew he was fighting the urge to call me every name under the sun. "It's called a wand by the way," he said, as he got up and walked towards Moppy, pointing the wand at Gremlin's fingers, "and what does 'holocaust' mean? You've said it a couple of times now."

I couldn't believe he didn't know what 'holocaust' meant. "Long story short," I said drily, "it basically means mass death. And this thing that's happening now, it's happened before."

"Oh," he said, as Moppy's burns shrank and disappeared under the stream of water.

Moppy looked incredulously towards her Master before bowing lowly, "Thank you, Master, thank you. Moppy is so grateful, so grateful."

"Now ask her nicely for your coffee," I said, as I settled back in my seat and continued to eat my breakfast.

Draco's fists curled and he muttered darkly under his breath before spitting out between gritted teeth, "Moppy would you please make me a coffee."

Moppy trembled but managed to keep control of her emotions. She began to bustle around, getting the coffee things together as Draco finally sat opposite me. He stared at me as I ate and I stared back. It was like that for a good 5 minutes until Moppy set down Draco's coffee. We both broke eye contact and I scraped my plate loudly to break the thick silence that had descended on the kitchen, "So…did you sleep well?" he asked in a painfully polite way, stirring the heavy amounts of sugar and milk he had added.

"As well as I could have," I replied, mirroring his tone, "You?"

"No," he said, "I was too busy getting your things from your house or what's left." He rummaged in his inside pockets, before pulling out a tiny rectangular box, rather like a cigarette box.

I stared at him sceptically. He pulled out his wand and gave a quick flick of his wand. The box went spinning off the table, expanding as it went. When it landed on the floor it was a fully sized trunk, the initials D.A.M. embossed on the side. Staring at it for a moment, the corners of my mouth turned upward, "Cool trick. Can you juggle?"

He ignored the joke but with another flick of his wand, the trunk opened, revealing clothes, ornaments, pictures, bottles and electrical appliance, neatly folded and packed away inside the trunk. My throat thickened and my eyes stung as I saw the stacks of curled pictures that were stacked neatly, so many familiar faces all compacted into neat piles, surrounded by so many familiar and friendly things. A trunk full of my life. I looked back at him, and tried to force my emotions back down to allow myself to speak. With a trembling voice I said, "Thank you. Very much."

He was again staring at me, eyes examining me with an unknowable curiosity, "You're welcome. I just thought to collect your stuff, before the cleaning crews roll through."

"What will happen to the houses? The things inside them?" I asked.

"Are you sure you want to know this?" he asked, a crease forming between is grey eyes.

"I've lived in that house since I was born," I said quietly, "I want to know."

He sighed and said, "The things found inside will be incinerated unless the objects have a use to them. The houses will probably be either renovated and charmed to accommodate the Wizarding population or demolished to make way for agriculture or industry."

"Ok," I said, taking it all in, "ok…how long will I be here for?"

His face took on an expression I did not like, "…I don't know. I'm sorry, I just don't know. It depends on how long the Dark Lord will reign, how long his regime will last. And that could be…years, maybe even decades -hell!- centuries probably."

There was another long silence, only the scrapes of Moppy cleaning out the stove. "Alrighty then," I said, "It could be worse I suppose." Looking around I said, "This place could look quite nice with a little TLC."

"Moppy was supposed to get this all renovated for you," his eyes flickered to Moppy, who trembled.

"Sorry Master, Moppy did not have time. Moppy will punish herself most terribly," she proceeded to smack the saucepan she had been cleaning against her forehead, her cries bouncing off the kitchen walls.

I grabbed the saucepan from her spindly fingers, "Stop it gremlin! I'd prefer it this way anyway." Holding the saucepan, I turned to Draco, "It'll give me something to do. Where will our supplies come from?"

"Ask Moppy and she will get it for you. You want to renovate this place yourself?"

I nodded, putting down the saucepan on the nearest surface, "Then I'll work on the garden."

He looked at me like I was crazy and then shrugged, "Do what you need to do. I'll check up on you whenever I can, but I will probably be ordered away a lot."

"What happens if we get found out?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"You go with Moppy," he said, his hands quivering slightly around his coffee, "She will apparate you out of here to another safe house, a villa we have in the south of France, a villa that is not of common knowledge. I will try to follow." He took a deep breath, "but that won't happen. There's no way they would discover this place. This cottage has some of the strongest defensive charms that exist. You're more than safe."

He pulled out a pocket watch to look at the time and tucked away again before standing up, "I have to go. Are there any questions?"

"Yeah, one," I said, mimicking his movement, "Why risk it? I mean, we were friends but not enough to warrant for you to save me like this."

He looked down and then back up again, "I don't know…maybe because you were there, at the right place and the right time. Or the wrong place and the wrong time, depending how you look at it."

A part of me wanted him to say that he saved me because he liked me at least or couldn't stand to see me suffer or something along those lines. Not because of coincidence. But I was tired of being angry with him. I was tired of feeling, in general. I just nodded and smiled tiredly at him, "Thanks for coming by. I'll see you whenever."

He nodded and bent his head, "Thank you for being so calm."

"Keep Calm and Carry On," I quipped, smirking hollowly.

A confused smile appeared on his face and he headed for the door, "And Draco!" I called.

He turned, irritation plain on his face, "What?"

"Thank you, for risking it," I said, twisting the hem of my shirt, "I'm grateful for my life."

"You're welcome," he replied quietly, his eyes flickering with something before it vanished, "Until the next time."

He was gone. I closed my eyes and composed myself. Turning to Moppy, I attempted another smile and said, "Right gremlin, we're going to work out how to decorate this place. But firstly I'm going to sort out my stuff out. Would you mind making me a cup of tea please?"

"Absolutely, Miss Lucy," she bowed low again.

I bent to pick up a framed picture from the trunk running my fingers along the frame. Tears pricked in my eyes but I blinked them away. I walked out of the kitchen and walked across the hall to another room. Light streamed in from the windows around the walls, revealing it to be a sitting room. There was a fire place and I walked towards it, placing the picture frame on the mantle piece.

We had the photo taken before Aaron had gone on his second tour. There we were, in the back garden, Mum and I sitting on the wooden bench, Luke and Mark on our laps. Dad and Aaron were standing behind us, the sun blazing down on our smiling faces. Mark and Luke were behaving for once, with twin sets of blonde hair and white smiles, Aaron looking handsome in his uniform, Mum was laughing at some unheard joke, Dad looking so proud, his hand on my shoulder.

Smiling back at them all, I touched each of their faces and whispered. "Wish you were here."

Not a very long chapter and its more of a filler. The plot will thicken soon though!

Any thoughts?

Lotsa love

Emily

x