The Curse-Breaker

My Day Off

The next day when I woke up, it felt like I hadn't even slept at all. It was a Thursday, my only weekday off work, I looked over to the clock on the counter and it read 9:05am. Rubbing my eyes I swung my legs over the edge of my bed and stood up, walking out into the living area. Peering down the hall I saw Harli's bedroom door hanging open, she'd left for work. I found the remote laying on the sofa and turned on the TV, finding the shitty daytime television shows, the guilty pleasure kind. I settled on Jackass and went over into the kitchen, finding some bread and throwing it in the toaster. I laughed at the TV as I sliced through an avocado and placed it on the toast, pouring myself a glass of vanilla soy milk and sitting down on the sofa. I ate and then watched idiots hurt themselves for another hour before dragging myself into the bathroom to wash. After my shower I got dressed, throwing on a pair of baggy jeans and one of my dad's old KISS t-shirts. I put on some makeup and tied a bandana round my head, reaching over to my backpack and rifling through it to find my wallet. I slipped it into my back pocket and grabbed my baggy, zip up hoodie, grabbed my wand and put it into my other pocket and stuffed my feet into my vans, locking the door behind me as I walked out into the street.

I wandered through furniture shops, finding some nice decorations for the house and some curtains to put up in my room. I carried them through the alley, popping into some grocery stores to buy some things to make dinner. I bumped into a few people I hadn't seen since Hogwarts, which was nice, until I turned to the vegetable aisle and quickly ducked away. I crossed my fingers hoping he hadn't seen me but unfortunately, "Riley! Hi!" I heard his voice from behind me. "Hi Marcus." I said, gritting my teeth and turning around. "How've you been! You still working with the Weasleys?" He said, grinning. I nodded, "Uhm. Yeah, what're you up to?" I said, readjusting the paper bags in my hands. "Still at Hogwarts! I had a free day so I thought I'd come to a few shops." He said, the grin still spread across his face. "Oh, nice, well I was just-" I said but he cut me off. "You're looking nice! You give in to George's crush on you, or are you-" He said, shuffling his feet. "What? No, George never had a crush on me we're just best friends." I said, furrowing my eyebrows and rubbing the back of my neck with my free hand. "Oh so you're... single then?" He said, his eyes glinting. "Oh, I- I'm seeing someone actually." I said, pleading that this conversation would end and I could just buy my mushrooms and get the fuck out of here. "Oh! Can I ask who?" He said, putting his hands in his pockets. "No, uh, well. We're keeping it low at the moment." I said, my eyes darting to see if the mushrooms were in reach. "Do you live round here then?" He said, my answer shot out of my mouth, "No! No I'm just visiting." I said, laughing off the harshness of my tone. "Oh, right, I'll have to come visit you at work sometime, I hear the shop is awesome" He said. I raised my eyebrows, "Yeah, maybe, anyway! Nice to see you but I should get going." I said, walking past him and grabbing the box of mushrooms and speed walking to the counter. "Oh, ok see you Ri-" He said, his voice faded as I rushed away.

I sighed and put the paper bags on the counter top next to the cooker. Even in Diagon Alley I couldn't escape Marcus Belby, the boy had followed me around Hogwarts for the entire 6 years we were there at the same time. I shook my head to shake him out of my mind and looked over at the clock above the fridge, 12:38pm. I reached over to the large pot on the cooker and started boiling some water to make some mushroom soup. After making the soup base, I left it to simmer and took the curtains to my bedroom to put them up, I pulled out my wand and waved it to reach up to the high point, sliding the curtain onto the railings. I set out to clean up the apartment, however, I got lazy and waved my wand, sending the hoover running over the house, the duster over the windows and surfaces and the spoon stirring the soup. I collapsed onto the sofa and pulled a book off the coffee table to start reading, the room started to get dark and I flicked the lights on with my wand, not taking my eyes off my book. 

I heard the door open and Harli's voice ring out, "honey! I'm hooooooome!" She shouted. "Welcome home dear, how was your day?" I called back, acting like an old married couple was honestly one of the best things about living together. She flopped down onto the sofa, telling me about the kids that came in and how Fred and George had yet another argument about who was taller. "But, best thing about today..." She said, wiggling her eyebrows at me. "What?" I said, raising one eyebrow and biting down on my bottom lip. "Your boyfriend came in again, asking for you. He left when I said you weren't in." She said, slapping my legs with her hands. "One, not my boyfriend, two... really?" I said, trying to hide a smile. "Yes! He's obviously in love with you!" She said, standing up and walking over to the hallway. "Shut up!" I said, shaking my head and rolling my eyes. I watched as she blew me a kiss and walked into her room to get changed. I let myself smile like an idiot after I heard her bedroom door close, I put my book down and walked over to the pot of soup on the stove. I took a blending tool and blended everything together, adding some cream to make it thicker. I poured it into the bowls and set them down on the table, putting out some bread and butter to dunk in. Harli came back out of her room, dressed in her pyjamas and sat at the table with me as we ate, telling each other about our days. 

After dinner we heard a knock on the door, I furrowed my eyebrows and walked over to the door. I unlocked it and swung it open to see the two ginger idiots I worked with. "What are you doing here?" I said, looking over to Harli who shrugged. "Well, we heard that you have a date tomorrow." George said, winking. I raised my eyebrows and looked back over to Harli, "did you now." I said, glaring at her. "Yes, Harli definitely did not tell us." Fred said, winking at Harli. I looked back over to the boys, stepping to the side and letting them in. I closed the door and followed them into the kitchen. "That's funny because she's the only person I've told about it." I said, she gave me a look that said, 'i'm sorry' whilst trying to hide a smile. "Right well, she wouldn't tell us who it was with, so we've come to find out." George said, lowering his head to look into the pot of soup on the stove. Fred pulled open the cutlery draw and fished out a spoon, eating the soup straight from the pot. "Do you mind! At least get a bowl you animal!" I said, reaching up and slapping him over the back of the head. "Besides, you're wasting your time, I'm not telling you who it's with." I said, sitting back down opposite Harli. George pulled himself up so that he was sat on the counter as Fred was pouring some soup into a bowl, turning round and leaning his back against it. "Tell us." Fred said, through mouthfuls of soup. "Absolutely not." I said, looking between them. "Go on." George said, giving me a cheeky grin. "No!" I said, leaning back into my chair. 

"It's Belby isn't it!" George said, I hung my head and sighed, they'd been guessing for hours. "No George, funnily enough I saw him earlier, he actually said that you had a crush on me." I said, looking over to him. He sat on the extended part of the sofa, on the end of the corner part, Harli next to me and her legs swung over Fred who was next to her. "Cheek on him!" He said, crossing his leg onto his thigh. "George, come on, first three years you were practically in love." Fred said, throwing a cushion over to his brother. George went bright red, "Fuck off" He said. "George!" I said, my mouth hung open. "Yeah, alright, but that was like seven years ago." He said, rolling his eyes. "True." I said, leaning back into my chair, running my hands through my hair. "So, Riley, tell us who you're date is with or I'll fire you." Fred said, reaching his arm around Harli. "Fred!" George and Harli shouted, Harli hitting his chest. "You can't fire me, you wouldn't be able to run that shop without me." I said, grabbing hold of his finger and pulling it backwards until he yelped in pain. "Fine, we'll just hang around here until they pick you up tomorrow." He said, holding his finger and pouting slightly. "Like hell you will." Harli said, looking over to me and raising her eyebrows. "Finally, thank you." I said, gesturing outwards. "Fred they clearly don't wanna tell us so maybe just drop it now mate." George said, leaning back and resting his arm along the back of the sofa. I smiled at him and nodded a thank you, and he smiled back in response. 

The boys stayed until around 11pm when they apparated back home, leaving me and Harli to settle for the night. We got ready for bed and had a cup of hot chocolate together in the kitchen as I poured the remainder of the soup into containers and stacking them in the fridge. We said goodnight and I closed myself into my room, drawing my curtains and sitting in front of my mirror, staring blankly at myself. As I stared at myself in the mirror I examined my white hair, something I had been dying over from the ages thirteen to seventeen, per request from my father. I remembered back to when I decided to stop dying it, Remus hadn't been too happy with the decision. I remembered once we'd come back from holiday and seeing a man standing our door, he apparated away before any of us could speak to him. Remus seemed panicked by it, I remember him checking the entire house when we got back, before letting me or Tonks in. I never really gave it a second thought but thinking about it now, that was really strange. That was the year he'd come to Hogwarts with me, taking a teaching position and keeping a close eye on me the entire year. I shook the thought off and flopped into my bed, staring at the ceiling for a while. I rolled over onto my side and felt butterflies through my stomach as I thought about my date tomorrow. I'd never been on a date before, especially not to a restaurant, I rolled back over to look at my trunk of clothes on the floor, wondering what on earth I would wear. Should I have bought something new today? What do you even wear on a dinner date? The anxiety was kicking in, questions racing through my head. What if I underdress? What if I overdress? What if I do something stupid? Say something stupid? The questions ran through my head over and over until I drifted off to sleep.