Jabberwocky

Chapter 2: Three up and two across

by Em and Jamie

Jamie was shaking; whether it was with the newly found revelation that he was a wizard his sister was a witch, or if it was all the cookies that he had eaten, no one knew. His mother snatched the chocolate chip cookie that was halfway to his mouth out of his hand.

"There are other things on the table,' she said, a grin on her face. Em, who was watching from the other end of the table looked at her parents. For once, they were having as much fun as their children were, giving them a much younger appearance. Her father came up behind her and stood behind her chair.

"Tomorrow," he said, "we go to Diagon Alley to pick up your supplies early. Thankfully, it won't be crowded."

"If Sirius decides to show," his wife added. Remus Lupin grinned at his wife.

"He has to. This is Muriel's first year of teaching. He wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Can you believe that I used to teach her?" Penelope said absentmindedly as she brushed cookie crumbs off of her son.

Emily and James looked at each other, giving the occasional sidelong glance to their parents as they rambled on about their Hogwarts days. Thankfully, the ringing doorbell proved a great distraction for them to get away from their slightly loony parents and they both ran to the door to answer it, with Remus close behind. Em reached it first.

"Hello?" she said cautiously, peering through the peephole. The slightly distorted face of Sirius Black met her view.

"Emmie? Open the door and give your uncle a hug!" Unlocking the door, Sirius burst in, laden with all types of oddly shaped packages.

"Lord, Sirius, let me give you a hand with all that," Remus said, taking on a large portion of the gifts.

"What did you do, buy out Diagon Alley?" Penny said, picking up the parcels that dropped on the floor.

"Very nearly. There's more, too, that Muriel's bringing in from the car." As if on cue, Muriel burst through the door, dropping her packages.

"Dad... next time we go shopping, I'm doing the buying, I think you cleared out Quality Quidditch supplies."

"But that's the fun of it, Muri," Sirius said, walking over to his daughter and ruffling her short black hair. She adjusted her glasses and smoothed her hair, glaring at her father.

Emily had to laugh at her brother. As soon as Muriel Black stepped through the door, James dropped what he was doing and went comatose. Currently, he was staring at her with open eyes. She slipped across the living room over to him, grinning evilly.

"Jamie, you might want to pick up your lower jaw from the floor." She hissed in his ear.

James shook his head for a moment and looked at Emily quizzically.

"What did you say?" Emily laughed, joining her parents once more.

"...Sirius can stay in the extra guest bedroom downstairs and... hmmm..." their mother was saying. Remus slipped an arm around Penelope's shoulder.

"What wrong, luv?" he asked.

"I'm trying to find a way to fit Muriel in without her having to sleep near Sirius." Remus thought for a moment

"Well, there's one way. Em, dear, would you mind giving up your room tonight to Muriel and sharing your brother's bedroom?"

Jamie looked at Em and Em looked at Jamie.

"No way," they both said in unison.

"Well, then, it's settled," Penelope said, matter-of-factly. "Muriel, you'll be staying in Emily's room." Seeing some slight tension, Sirius changed the topic.

"Shouldn't you all open your presents?" Em and Jamie dive-bombed towards the pile, leaving the adults in the room to laugh at the two rambunctious eleven year olds. Emily picked up a long rectangular-shaped present.

"Whatever can this be?" she asked, shaking it. Sirius smiled at her.

"Open it and find out." She eagerly tore into the present, finding a slender wooden shaft, painted metallic light blue, and lettered in silver.

"The Nimbus Hailstorm? It's...a- a broom, Uncle Sirius." Emily cautiously pointed out as though her uncle might have lost what little sense he had. She didn't want to sound un-grateful of course, but… The room of adults laughed.

"I highly doubt you'll think the same way after this year, honey," Remus said as Emily gave him a puzzled look and set the broom

aside. Jamie was tearing into his presents, also.

His expression, however, was much different than that of his sister's.

"Kick As--I mean,. Cool!" he exclaimed. "I don't know what it is, but it looks cool!" he held up a huge package marked Zonko's. Remus and Penelope groaned.

"Aww, C'mon you two. It'll make the year MUCH more interesting." Sirius grinned. Penelope put on her forced smile that was only reserved for eating her children's culinary experiments and parent conferences with Mrs. Lister. Remus laughed, and the children continued unwrapping their gifts.

After all the gifts had been unveiled and the wrappings cleared away with a wave of Penelope's wand, Jamie and Em thanked Sirius, Muriel, and their parents for making it their most interesting birthday yet, certainly. The twins headed up to Jamie's room to go to bed, bickering occasionally, but really to tired and excited to put any real energy into it. Soon enough Emily, at least, was fast asleep.

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Em woke up early the next morning, just as she always did, and stretched out her muscles, careful not to disturb Jamie, who had stayed up all night playing Final Fantasy and had just fallen asleep on the floor. She threw on a pair of jeans and an old sweater and crept to her room, past her lavender covered bed where Muriel was still out like a light, and into her closet. She picked her away around until she found the slender shaft of the broomstick and stole away, out into the backyard. She stared at the pale broom in her hand.

"Now what the hell am I supposed to do with this?" she said quietly, examining it

"Drop it on the ground." Em spun around and came face to face with her father.

"D-dad!" She dropped the broomstick. "W-what are you doing up?"

"I could hear Sirius' snoring through the walls and it kept me awake. I was wondering the same about you. I knew you got up early, but... well, I had no idea," Remus said. Em blushed.

"I was just... er..." Knowing that she had been caught, she hung her head. Remus smiled at his daughter.

"It's early. `No one'll be able to see us. Just concentrate."

"On what?"

"The broom. Focus all of your energy on making the broom move." He looked at his daughter, as she closed her eyes and exerted all of her energy on the broom.

"Now," Remus began, "I want you to command the broom to move at the count of three. Say up when I reach three." Em nodded.

"One......Two......Three."

"Up!" The broomstick flew into Em's outstretched hand. She let go abruptly and jumped back, startled. She expected it to clatter to the ground, but it didn't. Emily stared at it in surprise as it peacefully floated in the morning air.

"I...did that?" Remus nodded.

"Yep. I think you're a natural. Most people can't." Remus mounted the floating broomstick and pulled his daughter on in front of him.

"Now what?"

"We're going to fly on a broomstick. What else?" Em turned around and stared at her father like he had lost it.

"And how are we going to steer? What's propelling this thing? Is this safe? Legal, even?" Remus grinned.

"I'm going to steer until you get the hang of it, magic, very, and probably." He kicked off of the ground and laughed as Em screamed. They were floating over the backyard.

"So, where to?" Remus asked.

"I don't care. Steer. Somewhere." Emily said, clinging to the shaft with one hand and her father with the other for dear life. Remus laughed once more as they sped off into the morning.

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Remus and Emily flew back into the yard just before daybreak, breathless and excited. Emily tumbled off the broom, cheeks flushed, laughing.

"Wow, Dad! I never knew you could do that on a broom!"

"There's a lot you don't know now, but just wait till the end of the day!" Remus panted, grinning at his daughter.

"That's for sure!" A voice came from the porch and both father and daughter spun around to see Sirius leaning up against a column and sipping a coffee, his dark eyes twinkling.

"That's right! Where exactly are we going, again? Diagonal alley or something like that…" she looked expectantly from her father to her uncle, who shot her a wicked grin.

"Diagon Alley." Sirius corrected, pretending to look pained.

"Same thing." Emily muttered under her breath, but she was far too absorbed in her new broomstick to argue about semantics with Sirius.

Her father had been right- she certainly didn't look at it the same way now that it had propelled her across the early morning sky without causing any near death experiences. It had truly been incredible.

They'd flown over her school and the playground where she often spent afternoons playing football (soccer) with her friends, they'd gazed down as Ms. Bristol collected the morning paper from her stoop in her magenta curlers which were so bright that Emily could distinguish them clearly, even from an elevation of fifty feet. Then they'd turned around and headed home, Remus saying, "Everyone will be up soon, so we'll have to have breakfast and get ready to leave for Diagon Alley."

And Emily had replied, "That reminds me- how're we getting to this place? Mum said it was in London, right?"

"Right. We'll go by Floo Powder I expect. That's simplest." Judging by the confused expression on Emily's face she hadn't thought that explanation was simple at all, but she decided not to question it, as a large white owl carrying a package had just flown past them and she had a sneaking suspiscion that her father might know what it was doing.

"Er, Dad?"

"Yes Em?"

"Was that an owl, just now?"

Remus shrugged (as best one can while directing a broomstick) and said, "Probably, it's still early. Why?"

"And was it carrying a package?"

"I wouldn't be surprised."

"Well, I would! In fact, I am!" Emily said indignantly. She'd had just about enough of this nonchalant attitude about magic. They were all so blasé about it! Flying broomsticks, mail-owls, "flew" powder, whatever that was… honestly!

Remus laughed again. He seemed to be doing a lot of that lately, and as they began the descent into their backyard he explained: "Owls carry wizards' mail, kind of like our own personal postal service."

"Oh." Emily nodded, pretending that made sense, as they tumbled off the broomstick and found Sirius on the backporch. The three went inside and discovered Penny in the kitchen standing over the stove, where she had pancakes sizzling.

Much to Emily's surprise, seated in the middle of the kitchen table was the same snowy owl they had passed in mid-flight, munching on a stalk of celery. At least she thought it was the same one…

"Hedwig!" Sirius exclaimed behind her. Then he turned to Penny, "Did Harry send something?"

"Yeah, a package." She gestured to the counter where a box wrapped in brown paper sat. with a roll of parchment attached to the top. Remus took off the parchment and handed it to Sirius to read aloud as he handed the box to Emily.

"It's addressed to you- and your brother." Emily tore open the box to reveal two smaller packages as Sirius began to read:

Remus snorted at this comment and Sirius made a face, but Emily could tell he was trying not to laugh.

Sirius looked up from the parchment grinning as Emily ripped the wrappings off one of the presents. It seemed to be a sort of strange shaped crystal thing-y which suddenly went haywire, flashing and blinking and making a racket. Emily dropped it suddenly and turned around at her brother's voice.

"What's that thing?"

Before Emily could say that she hadn't a clue, her mother answered for her.

"It's a sneakoscope- it only does that when someone is doing something untrustworthy around it, and since it was fine until you walked into the room, may I ask, James Henry Lupin, just what you've been up to?"

"Erm…"

Emily began to laugh along with her father and brother at the uncomfortable look on her brother's face.

Maybe this witch thing would be pretty cool after all…