"and my little girl don't understand ... why we can't afford no Christmas here" ~ Phoebe Bridgers
~december 1971~ (christmas special part 4 of 5)
When Artemis exited the Hogwarts Express on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on her first day of Christmas break, it took her a minute to remember that her mother would probably be waiting outside the gates. The rest of her friends gave her quick hugs and goodbyes and hurried off to join their own families, leaving Artemis to lug her trunk through the invisible barrier by herself.
When Artemis saw her mother standing a few feet from the entrance to the platform, looking very alone and slightly uncomfortable, she abandoned her trunk to run and give her a hug. Harry felt his own expression soften at the scene, Jane's arms going around her daughter and pulling her into a tight embrace. "Ohhh, Artie," she said happily, "I've missed you so much."
Artemis stepped back and gave her mother an enormous, crooked smile. "I missed you too- and I have so much to tell you! Here- wait, isn't Percy coming with us?"
"He should be..." Jane's eyes scanned the platform worriedly. "Oh- there he is."
Seconds later, Artemis's brother joined them, looking around the platform nervously. He gave Jane a quick, one armed hug, and then said, "Come on, let's go," and started towards the doors of the station. Artemis shrugged at her mother and turend to jog after Percy.
When they got to the family car, Artemis stowed her things in the trunk and crawled into her seat in the back next to Percy. She didn't say a word to him as she buckled her seatbelt and stared out the window as her mother got into her own seat and started the engine. "So, you had a nice term?" Jane asked again.
"Yeah, it was really good," Percy said with, to Artemis's obvious immense surprise, a smile. Not the cold, sneering smile he wore around his friends, but a real and genuine smile that made his dimples appear and showed the little chip in his left front tooth. "Art, you had a good term too, right?"
"Funny, you wouldn't know," Artemis said roughly.
Jane looked at them through the rear view mirror. "Why's that, Artie?"
"Because he didn't talk to me the whole time," said Artemis, her voice cracking slightly. Harry immediately felt bad for her when she started blinking her eyes rapidly. He knew that she'd never cry in front of her new Hogwarts friends, but now she looked on the verge of breaking down.
Percy widened his eyes at her warningly, but it was too late. "What?" Jane said sharply. "Perseus, you ignored your sister on her first term ever at Hogwarts?"
Percy let out a deep sigh and rolled his eyes to the ceiling. "Mum, you don't understand how things work there. And if Art wanted to talk to me, she could've-"
"You're the older one," Jane said crossly. "You should've at least made sure she was doing alright- I mean, he did that, right, Art?" Artemis shook her head. "Perseus!"
Artemis listened to her mother and brother argue back and forth and finally managed to swallow the lump in her throat down. She didn't want to cry in front of Percy. She needed to show him that she was old enough to not need his help anymore. She was determined not to forgive him over Christmas break. He had ignored her completely from the second they got onto the Hogwarts Express on September first until now, and she was angry about it. She kept needing to remind herself not to take his side in the argument as she normally would do, even when it was her mother who was coming to her defense.
"How can you yell at me for ignoring her when you literally left her alone all summer?" Percy demanded as the car pulled into the driveway of the Blake house.
Jane jolted the car into park and turned in her seat to face Percy. "Do not blame me for that," she said in a deadly calm voice. "You could've come home and kept her company anytime, but you wanted to abandon our family the summer after your father died to go galavanting around London with your friends. That's not my fault, Perseus. I did what I had to do to keep this family afloat, and-"
Artemis couldn't take it anymore. She was sick of them talking about her like she wasn't there, and she didn't fully agree with either side of the argument. She opened the car door in the middle of Jane's sentence, and stepped out, slamming it behind her harder than she'd meant to. She pulled her owl, Athena, as well as her school trunk and bag from the trunk, and then made her way up the front steps and into her house. To her immense dissatisfaction, it was almost colder inside than it was outside. She guessed her mother was cutting down on heating expenses. There were blankets thrown about everywhere and Artemis pulled her father's old coat tighter around herself as she struggled up the stairs, laden down by all of her things.
At last, she made it to her tiny gable room and tossed her trunk on the floor before gently setting Athena's cage on the windowsill and unlocking it. "I know you've been dying to get out," she murmured, letting the owl nip her finger and let out a low hoot. "Just don't bring back anything too gross, okay?" Athena let out another hoot and spread her wings wide, soaring out the window and into the freezing December night air. Artemis closed her window, knowing Athena would peck at it when she was ready to be let in. She stepped back into the room and shrugged off her dad's old coat, hanging it gingerly on a hanger in the closet. Then, she crossed to the chest of drawers in the far corner. She'd moved all of her usual clothes to a giant heap in the back of her closet and replaced them in the drawer with as many of her father's old clothes that Jane would let her keep. She pulled out a sweater that was about three times her size and pulled it over her head. It might've been her imagination, but she sometimes thought the clothes still smelled of her dad.
She sprawled out on her familiar gray bedspread just as there was a soft knock at her door. Percy pushed it open lightly before she could respond and closed it behind him. "Hey," he said softly, sitting lightly at the edge of Artemis's bed. She didn't make any move to sit up or acknowledge him at all. "Look, Art, I'm sorry," Percy said, and he truly looked it. She still didn't look at him. "It's just- you know how things are there."
"No," Artemis said softly. "Dorcas Meadowes hangs out with Ted Tonks all the time and they're in different houses."
"Yeah, but he's a Hufflepuff," Percy sighed. "That's not as bad. Gryffindor and Slytherin are rivals, Art. Plus, Dorcas and Ted are cousins."
"And you're my brother!"
"I know," he said softly. "I know, Art. I'm sorry, really, I am. It's just that we're a Slytherin family. Dad was a Slytherin, and he told us all the time that that's the best house. So when you got into Gryffindor- I dunno-"
Artemis sat up and pushed her hair away from her face. "It's not that bad," she said defensively. "I made a lot of friends in Gryffindor and they're way nicer than any of your friends."
"Nice," Percy scoffed. "Where's 'nice' going to get you in the world?" Artemis's face fell and Percy immediately felt bad. He hated disappointing his sister. "Alright, alright, what if we just put it all behind us for the holidays? Houses don't matter when we're not at school. And who knows, maybe you getting into Gryffindor was just a fluke in the system." He meant for it to be a joke, but he had no idea how many times Artemis had worried about that very thing in the last four months.
She seemed lost in thought for a long time, and then she nodded slowly. "Okay, yeah. That sounds good. Hey, are we going to the museum Friday?"
Percy's face broke into another genuine smile that caught Artemis off guard. "'Course we are. It's a Christmas Eve tradition, isn't it?" Artemis nodded and allowed herself to give Percy a small and weary smile.
~
On Christmas Eve day, Artemis woke her mother and Percy up at the crack of dawn for their annual family trip to the museum. It was the first time they'd ever do it without Andrew, but surprisingly enough, for the first time since her fathers death, Artemis felt normal. She let herself into Percy's room and jumped up onto his bed, pouncing on his shoulders to wake him up with a start. "What the hell, Art?" Percy groaned, rolling over so Artemis toppled off of the bed and caught herself just before she face-planted on the ground.
"Come on," she said, picking herself up and facing Percy with an exasperated expression. "The museum opens in an hour. We've got to be the first ones to be there."
Percy picked up a pillow and smashed it over his face, letting out another long groan. "Art."
"Come on, come on, come on, come on-" Artemis pulled the pillow from Percy's face and grabbed his arm, trying unsuccessfully to pull him out of bed.
At last, Percy gave in and swung his legs over the mattress, pushing Artemis out of his way as he stumbled groggily to the dresser. "Get out, will you? At least give me a minute to change." Artemis let out a little cry of excitement and fled the room to wake up her mother.
An hour later, Artemis was dragging Percy by the hand toward the front doors of the museum as their mother trailed a few feet behind. "And they've got a new exhibit with a bunch of prints by William Hogarth. It's called 'Prints by William Hogarth," Artemis said at a rapid fire pace. Percy let out a short laugh, but didn't have the time to say anything as Artemis continued, "And I want to look at the Widener Collection, and the Rodin Drawings, and- and-" Artemis's steps slowed to a stop and her face fell. "What's he doing here?"
"Oh!" Jane cried, rushing past her children and into the arms of her new boyfriend, Alfie. Percy and Artemis exchanged a bewildered and disgusted look. Jane turned back around to face them. "I hope you two don't mind, I invited Alfie for the afternoon. I just figured- oh Artie, are you upset?" Her wide doe eyes widened at her daughter, whose face had transformed from excitement and joy to something reminiscent of a storm cloud. "I just figured I would want company," Jane said meekly, "You know, usually your father would-"
"Okay, okay, okay," Artemis interrupted. She didn't want to hear any excuses for her dad being replaced on their favorite day of the year. "It doesn't matter. Just- hurry up, I want to be the first one in there." She took Percy's hand again and dragged him in the doors of the museum. The two of them stood in front of the counter, waiting for their mother to follow so they could head into the first gallery. "Where is she?" Artemis muttered, bouncing on the balls of her feet and staring imploringly into the doorway of the gallery.
"Ahhh... Art..." Percy tapped her shoulder and pointed out the window. Jane and Alfie were wrapped in a grotesquely tight embrace, their lips locked in a passionate kiss.
Artemis made a disgusted noise and turned away quickly. "That's- I-" She was having trouble forming a full sentence. She kept thinking about all the years they'd gone to the art museum together as a family on Christmas Eve day. When Andrew would hold Jane's hand and they would all walk around the galleries together, Artemis and Andrew carefully ignoring the complaints of Percy and Jane as they spent endless hours examining every work.
Percy looked closely at Artemis's expression. There was something he wasn't used to seeing in it. She looked, somehow, lost. Percy was used to his little sister being too confident for her own good. He sighed and gave her hand a squeeze. "Come on, let's just go. They'll catch up." He started to walk into the first gallery, but Artemis held him back.
"No," she said, her expression hardening resolutely. "No, it doesn't feel right without Dad. Let's just- let's just go." She nodded pointedly at the door, through which their mother was still locking lips with the tall, burly man dressed all in black.
"You mean you want to run away?"
Artemis shrugged. "Just to teach Mum a lesson." Her lips curled into a sly smile and Percy raised his eyebrows, not sure whether he should be concerned or impressed.
"What happened to Gryffindors being so noble?" he asked teasingly.
Artemis looked up at him with calm bluish-gray eyes. "Where nobility fails, we Gryffindors turn to our stubborn recklessness and inability to comprehend rules."
"Well said."
And with that, the two siblings made a break for it, sprinting out the doors of the museum and past their mother kissing Alfie. Jane looked up just in time to see her children bolt past the last window of the museum and turn a corner, disappearing from sight.