The Curse-Breaker

"Girls" Day

The next morning I was woken by Harli, a mug of tea in her hand and a soft smile on her face. "How you doing?" She said, stroking her hand through my hair. "Not too bad." I said, a bare faced lie that I knew she picked up on. She leant forward and kissed my head before leaving my room and closing the door behind her. I sipped my tea a few times and got up, pushing my feet into my slippers and walking over to the dressing table. There were tear stains from my mascara, making it obvious that Harli knew I was lying. I grabbed a cloth and cleaned my face, doing some skincare and finishing my tea. Before I was about to start doing my makeup, Harli opened my door again, "Don't get ready, we're not going to work today" She said, the house phone in her hand, covering the bottom. "Oh? Is something wrong, are the boys ok?" I asked, turning round in my chair to see her. "No, they're closing the shop for deliveries." She said, shrugging as she spoke. She turned and walked out into the living room, going back to talking and closing my door as she left. I tilted my head and looked out of the window in the direction of the shop, not seeing any movement from inside. Shrugging, I put down my makeup brush and took my now empty mug back into the kitchen. 

I felt my stomach rumble and realised I hadn't eaten dinner the night before, I opened the fridge and rooted around inside to find some veggie sausages and hash browns. I found a tortilla wrap in the bread bin and began making a breakfast wrap for both myself and Harli. She wandered over and held the phone up to my ear as I cooked, hearing "You have one new message. New messages." I leant my ear down to clamp the phone between my ear and shoulder so that Harli could free her hand. I listened to the message;

"Hey, Riles? I found your number in Fred's address book... That sounds creepy, uh... Anyway, I figured I'd give you a call, see how you were after last night and if there's anything I can do? I'm probably being too forward here but I'll call by the shop tomorrow to see you... Anyway, I hope you're Ok. Call me soon... It's Bill by the way... In case you hadn't fig- Alright, bye!" 

I giggled slightly at the awkwardness in his voice and hung up the phone, putting it down on the counter beside me. "You not gonna call him back?" Harli said, half laughing as she spoke. "Yeah, later." I replied, finishing off cooking. I put the wraps onto plates and carried them through to her in the living room, sitting next to her on the sofa as she turned on the TV. We flicked through the channels, finding our favourite, 'Queer as Folk' and we began eating. "These are good Riles." She said with her mouth full. I smiled and nodded as we danced along to the theme tune of the show. We watched a few episodes, chatting through them, before Harli left to shower and I took our plates over to the dishwasher. I picked up the phone and dialled the home number, checking in with Tonks to see how dad was. She said he was ok, however it had been pretty rough and he'd be lay up for a few days, she updated me on herself, saying she was still feeling pretty sick herself. I wished her and my father well, telling her about the secret chocolate just in case she wanted some, to make her feel better. She thanked me and I hung up, fiddling with the numbers slightly and feeling worry in my gut about my father. I brushed it off, Tonks knew how to look after him, she'd been doing it for the past five years.

I thought about calling Bill, but then figured he'd be at work so there was no point in calling at this time. I wandered back into my bedroom and thought about changing out of my pyjamas, that being Bill's hoodie and pyjama pants. I decided there was no point if I wouldn't be leaving the house and sat back on the sofa, playing a couple more episodes of the show. We'd seen the whole thing before but, it was easy to watch and I didn't really feel like watching anything else. I walked through to the bathroom, sitting down on the floor, Harli heard me and stuck her head out from the shower curtain. "How you feeling love?" She asked, reaching out and pinching my cheek. "I don't know, like I'm not sad but I'm not... I don't know." I said, she nodded and sat, keeping her head poked out so that she could listen to me. "I get that, you wanna talk about it?" She said, leaning her head on her shoulder. I shook my head, I didn't know if there was much to say, Harli understood that cue for her to talk about nonsense. She started ranting about Fred, about their Valentines day and how he'd gotten too drunk and fallen asleep early, ruining her day. I nodded along as she ranted, Fred wasn't my favourite person. I didn't hate him by any means, he was just irritating, loud and his pranks had made school hell, I remember one time where I was about to shower but George felt guilty and told me Fred had put hair remover in my shampoo, so not my favourite person. But I could see how head over heels in love he was with Harli, you could see it in his eyes when he looked at her, he looked at her like she was a piece of art straight out of a museum, like his world was black and white until he fell in love with her and there was suddenly colour around him. George and I had always said 'find someone who looks at you the way Fred looks at Harli'. 

After reassuring her that Fred was ridiculously in love with her, I left her to finish her shower. I flicked through leaflets for different takeaway menus, deciding that I wanted to order a pizza for dinner tonight. Harli walked out wearing one of Fred's t-shirts and shorts, insisting that she wanted to give me a "pamper session" and that it would help my mood. I rolled my eyes but she gave me a puppy dog eye look and I had no choice but to follow her into her room. Harli's room was lay out similar to mine, a large king size bed in the middle of the room, although Sirius had given her a large wardrobe to bring with her, so she wasn't living out of a trunk like I was. I lay down in her bed and she pulled up a chair, resting my head in her lap. She massaged oils and moisturisers into my face, she was pretty good at this kind of stuff, and she was completley right about it relaxing me. I could have drifted off to sleep as she applied a face mask to me, massaging it into my skin. "Feeling better?" She said softly. I nodded and sat up as she crawled over the bed to sit next to me, I rested my head on her shoulder and she pulled me into a hug. "Can we get pizza tonight?" I asked, she nodded, "Absolutely." Harli replied. We walked out of her room and sat back on the sofa, finding some trash daytime TV to waste the day away with.

Around four, the boys swung open the front door and sauntered in, Fred making his way straight over to Harli who was sat on the sofa. George came my way and stood in the kitchen with me. "I've literally just boiled the kettle and now you're gonna make me do it again aren't you?" I said, taking the kettle back over to the tap to add more water. "Thank you kindly." Fred grinned from the living room. George pulled two mugs from the cupboard, setting them down next to mine and Harli's matching mugs. "I still love that you only have four mugs for the four of us." George said, pulling himself up so that he was sat on the counter. "By the looks of things, I'll be having to buy another one soon." I said, raising my eyebrow and not looking at him. "Oh really?" He said, a slight giggle in his tone. "You haven-" I said, looking at him wide eyed. "I haven't said anything! Don't you trust me?" He interrupted me, faking hurt by dramatically clutching his chest. I shoved his knee, "Obviously I trust you, that's why I told you doughnut." I said, flicking his forehead. He pouted and rubbed his head, pointing at the hoodie I was wearing, which was clearly about 5 sizes too big for me. "That his?" He said as he put teabags into the mugs. I smiled and nodded, "Yup." I said as the kettle flicked off, letting us know that it was boiled. "One, two, one, none." I said, pointing to each mug as I spoke to George who was holding the sugar bowl now. He did as instructed and I poured the water into the mugs. George reached around me to open the fridge, giving me a look with his eyebrow raised. "What?" I said as he started to giggle. He didn't say anything and just started pouring milk into the mugs, "What?" I said again, a little louder. He didn't reply again and I noticed he was pouring milk into his own mug so I nudged his hand, making him pour too much into the cup. "Dick." He muttered, I laughed and took the mugs through to the couple in the living room.

"That hoodie's way too big for you." Fred said, kicking his shoes off an putting his feet on the coffee table. "AH!" I shouted, pointing to his feet, he looked at me with wide eyes and then rolled them as he realised I was telling him off. He took his feet down and sipped his tea as I walked back into the kitchen where George was making himself a new cup of tea. I slouched into a chair by the table, George taking the one opposite and sipping the tea he'd made. "Must be pretty serious if you're considering buying another mug." He said, raising his eyebrow at me. "I was joking, we've only been on two dates." I said, laughing it off. "Oh so it's not serious? Tell me why he came to the shop looking for you today then." He said, raising both eyebrows now over the brim of his mug. I stammered over my words and he nodded, a smug smile on his lips, "Yeah, that's what I thought." He whispered with his nose scrunched up. I pushed on the bottom of his mug, spilling some onto him, "Dick." He muttered again. I changed the conversation and spoke to him about the deliveries they'd had at the shop today and why he didn't want our help. He talked for a while about the new products they'd made that they were having delivered in bulk and the "gross" delivery men. I knew exactly who he was talking about, the guys from one specific company always tried to grab at me and Harli, they were gross. "Anyway, we're having pizza, you staying?" I asked, George nodded and grabbed a few of the leaflets from the table, looking over them. I pointed the place we were ordering from and he nodded excitedly, "The best place, obviously." He said, looking more over the options that the place was offering before deciding that he'd get the same pizza that he did every time we ordered. We walked through to the living room and flopped onto the sofa, George tossing the leaflet to Fred for him to look through.