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chapter two
"INTRO TO THE BADLANDS"
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In the town Emilia's best friend was from, there was this pretty little café on the corner that smelt of fresh pastries and had a mural depicting both scenes from Jaws and David Bowie album covers. It was oddly a tourist attraction. Em didn't know whether it was because of the mural or the food, but either way, there was a reason the café was successful.
There was also a reason why the café in her town's train station was successful. Because (a) busy businessmen needed their coffee fix quick, and often they couldn't walk five miles to the nearest Co-Op, and (b) the only other "eating places" in town included two pubs, a social club, and an abandoned diner.
And, since the library was usually packed with others dreaming to leave their town, Em had no option but to trudge up the road to the train station, and claim one of the booths there.
The wedding was meant to be five days ago. Em had spent the day after the almost-wedding making her rabbit a safe home in the hidden hallways that the house-elves used. They were cool with it when she asked permission. They also declined her offer of a lemon tart in exchange for their help. Probably because the Ministry were stingy when it came to helping free elves. Definitely not because she couldn't bake for shit.
But, once Ripper the Rabbit had his own rabbit mansion, Em had been making an effort to either keep out of the house, or at least keep a distance between herself and her siblings. And it had been working. Her godmother Donna was pissed off about the whole thing, but she had been allowing Em to eat meals separately, at least until Mona calmed down.
Which would never happen. Em knew that. Her siblings all lived in a constant state of anger. And, being natural bullies, they found the easiest target, and that happened to be Emilia. Whether it was just them being rude, or blaming her for their wrongdoings, they were being arseholes to her.
She wanted to believe they didn't like her because they blamed her for what happened with their parents. Which was silly, because Em was only one, but she thought that might be the case. Em tried to think about other things. They just wanted a scapegoat. But, when she had to spend a good six weeks at home, it was harder to ignore it.
"Would you look at that!" said Sirius. Em looked up from her booth in the rotting café. "You weren't lying when you said we could meet here."
"I never lie," Em frowned.
"You did yesterday," he said, "when you said it was completely normal to take a rabbit on a walk."
"Ripper needed exercise!" she said. "And, it's got to be an okay thing to do, because I bought his lead from a shop, so obviously enough people walk rabbits for there to be a market. A bit of a niche market, but still a market."
"Also — Ripper? The rabbit?"
"It's short for Jack the Ripper," said Em. "But he also answers to Prince Albert."
Sirius raised an eyebrow. "It obviously wasn't Prince Albert," he said. "I'm pretty sure they've got evidence that he was somewhere else during the murders."
"Or was that the royal family cleaning up after themselves?" asked Em. "I mean, Queen Victoria probably didn't want the public to know her grandson was a serial killer..." She shook her head, and smiled softly. "Yeah, I don't know, but he's the only suspect I easily remember, so I can only use him for the joke."
Sirius smiled at her. "I sometimes forget you're a Hufflepuff, and then you say something and I think, how could I have forgotten the obvious?"
Em scowled. Sirius laughed.
Holding onto her cup of tea, she said, "So, I was planning to screw with my family a little bit for the rest of the holidays, and then forge letters so they think it's Dumbledore telling them that I'm getting tons of detentions, and all of the things I'm doing but not actually but actually to them are all of the things that they've blamed me for doing. At least what I can remember. And it'll be Dumbledore and not Sprout, because that gives it an extra oh shit factor, you know?"
"Also," she said, not noticing his attempts to hide him smirk, "I've been able to start the process by wearing all of my cool badass clothes, because although I always wear them at school, I always try not to wear them at home because the nice sunflower dresses were the only thing saving me sometimes when they blamed me for stuff. But now — oh, hell no, I've worn my cool leather jacket twice since the almost wedding. And I looked great."
"I just—" Sirius grinned. "You know, I love the idea — again, Salvatore, I'm becoming more attracted to you by the minute — but you somehow manage to make everything so Hufflepuff."
"It's a gift," she said, deadpan.
"So, you poison their food or something," said Sirius. Em's eyes widened. "I'm kidding. That's the last stage, eh?" She blinked. "I'm only joking, Salvatore. But, you could always just mess with them like a muggle would, yeah? Like, swapping shampoo for hair dye, and stuff."
"Oh, no, Mona would kill me if that happened," said Em, shaking her head. She froze. She looked up at Sirius, and she smiled brightly. "I'll do it!"
"Believe me, after years of knowing Snivellus, I know exactly how piss people off," said Sirius. He looked incredibly proud of himself, until he saw the frown on her face. "Oh, come off it. He's a dick! You know what he called Evans?"
"I'm not saying that he's nice — believe me, that would be as big a lie as Chandler saying I ruined Mona's wedding," said Em. "But, I don't think you should be as bad as he is."
"But it's the right thing to do! I'm only doing what should happen."
"But—" In that moment, she gave up. She sighed. "Whatever. I don't like it." Sirius frowned at her, and she grinned back. "Has anyone ever told you that you're as stubborn as a Gryffindor?"
"You know, that would be a first."
***
Emilia ending up getting home around six, but snuck upstairs and stayed hidden until half-seven. Her family would've eaten by then, and they would now retire to their personal territories; Mona, the biggest bedroom on the highest floor; Chandler, the basement-turned-apartment; and Paisley, the bedroom across the hall to their godmother and godfather.
Donna normally sat in the living room. Capulet was a bit of a mystery, because really, her godfather wasn't around enough for her to know enough of his whereabouts at certain times. But she knew the others. How else was she going to avoid them and getting into trouble?
So, at around half-seven, she made the decision to stop playing with Ripper the Rabbit, and to get both of them dinner. She used the house-elves' hallways to get downstairs into the kitchen, carrying Ripper like a cat. She had a feeling that she resembled a Bond villain.
The kitchen was normally only frequented when house-elves were sorting out meals or at late-o'clock-in-the-morning, when a certain sibling was stumbling to find food before they finally went to sleep. But, to her surprise, Capulet was sitting at the kitchen table, his hand lingering around a glass of brandy.
"Emilia Elodie," said Capulet. She smiled politely. Best behaviour around your godfather, she reminded herself. He's the one that's scary when he's angry.
He gestured for her to sit down at the table. She frowned, but she sat. "You know, I take a break from work, hoping to spend time with all of my family, and yet one of them is never around. Why's that?"
"I thought it was best to stay out of Mona's way," said Emilia. "For the time being, at least. But it's fine! I'm fine going out every day. I mean, I've found out one of my school friends lives nearby, so that's a plus! Now it's not as lonely, since I can't see my other friends over the summer."
Capulet nodded. "Yes, well, it's unfortunate that we're always busy as a family on the days you're invited somewhere," he said. Emilia nodded. "Have you heard from your friends recently?"
"Once for all of them, at the start of the summer," said Emilia. She forced a smile. "But I bet they're too busy to reply to my letters. I mean, they all live near each other! They're bound to be having too much fun at home to worry about me."
"Worry?"
"Think, I mean."
"Right."
Emilia hugged Ripper a little tighter, before placing him down on the floor. She started to pull the leaves off of the celery in the fridge to give to her rabbit. Behind her, Capulet sat, still, like when she arrived. She frowned, hiding her expression by crouching down to give Ripper one of the leaves.
As she sorted herself a bowl of cereal, Capulet said, "So how's school? Still doing well in Dark Arts?"
"Yeah, Defence Against is with Slytherin, so I get to spend the lesson with my friends," said Emilia. She sat down at the table with the bowl of cereal, leaving the rest of the celery leaves next to Ripper. "How's your work?"
"An old friend of mine has become a business partner," said Capulet. "He was a Slytherin, like us Salvatores. Well, apart from you, at least." Emilia smiled awkwardly. She could feel the disappointment lingering in the room, a mist no one could see, but the victim could feel it wrap around their bones. "Well, he's always kept in contact, ever since the end of school, but his plan's only just starting up now."
"Oh, are you investing or something?" asked Emilia. "That's the term, right?"
"Yes, it is," he said. He smiled pleasantly. "And I suppose so. He's offered jobs to you and your siblings, if you want to take it once you've left school."
"What is it, though?" she said.
"I'll tell you sooner to the time," said Capulet. Emilia nodded, and continued eating. Sounds reasonable. "But I think you should consider it. Your friends could come along, too. That would be nice, wouldn't it?"
"Well, yeah," said Emilia. "But I don't want that. Well, no, I'd love to spend every day with them even after school, but they've got dreams. Dinah wants to open a nursery — Carm's going to be studying medicine once we're finished with school — and Melanie wants to study creatures. Not to mention, Carm's going to be picky over jobs and moving to areas with mostly wizards, because she's got this really serious boyfriend and he's a muggle so—"
"A muggle?" asked Capulet. Emilia nodded. "Oh. Is that one the Muggleborn?" Again, Emilia nodded. She looked down. Ripper was chewing on the last of the leaves. "Oh, well, maybe it's not suitable for her, given that she'll be busy with medicine..."
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking," said Emilia.
"Are the other two Pureblood?"
"Um, Dinah is, but Melanie isn't," Emilia replied. She frowned. She quickly pressed on, "I'm sure the job would be great, but they've got their own plans after school, and a great job to one person could be a terrible job for another, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't like having a job in anything that wasn't childcare or magizoology."
"Ah, I see," said Capulet. "Doesn't hurt to try, though, right?"
"Right!" said Emilia. She began to clear her bowl. As she did so, she saw her godfather drink the last of his brandy. He had a frown on his face. Her stomach sank. She felt bad turning the offer down on behalf of her friends. But she would've also felt bad signing them up for something they wouldn't like. She frowned to herself. She probably should've also mentioned that the nursery idea was a plan between herself and Dinah, but she didn't have the heart to say that now.
Maybe she should just play along? Just for a little, and then say that it's not the career path for her? At least then, she wouldn't feel like she's disgracing her family by turning down a relative's lovely attempt to get her employed. At least then, she wouldn't feel like the spirits of dead relatives weren't lingering around her, reminding her of what she had done.
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i have no idea if this in any good or not but i really hope i hit the nail on the head in terms of what capulet was talking about. hopefully i did lmao. i tried to make it obvious.
also!! quick lil note: melanie's surname's now turner because for a brief month or so i must've forgotten how traditionally surnames went, so, yeah. (and in terms of half a crown, she's still poppy's mum.)
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