Selenophile // Marauders

|114| Uncle Alphard

24th of July, 1978

The whole group was at the Potter Manor, sitting in the living room.

There was a knock on the window. It sounded like a knock, but it most certainly wasn't. It was more like something had hit the glass.

Riley turned sharply to see a white owl bump into the glass with a letter attached to its claws. Euphemia Potter looked over at the window, then opened it to take the bird in.

"Sirius, dear, it's for you," said Mrs. Potter. "It looks quite fancy."

Sirius jumped off the couch and ran up next to Euphemia who was holding the letter. He took it kindly, then teared the envelope apart. His face glowed with a big grin with a slight image of sadness.

"What is it?" asked Mary.

"I don't know whether to celebrate or to process it..." said Sirius. "I guess I'll just celebrate!" he then said with a bright smile and sat back to the couch with a jump.

"Tell us what it says," said James with a weird kind of smile.

"My Uncle Alphard passed away," said Sirius still smilingly.

"And why are you smiling?" asked Lily.

"Oh! Was he a total dick?" said Marlene but was shushed but Euphemia.

"No! He left me plenty of gold!" exclaimed Sirius. "And by plenty, I mean plenty!"

"Woah," said Peter.

"Dear, so sorry about the news," said Mrs. Potter soothingly. Fleamont Potter also walked into the room.

"What's going on?" he asked cluelessly.

"Sirius' uncle passed away and left him loads of money," said James, also with a smile. Riley didn't react much.

"Well — did you like your uncle?" asked Fleamont.

"Not really," said Sirius. "But I do now."

"Good for you, son!" said Fleamont also with a smile.

"Monty!" scolded Mrs. Potter. "His uncle passed away! We need to be respectful!"

"It's all right, mum—" said Sirius but then stopped as he realized what he had just said. The room went quiet, nobody said a single word. "Er — sorry."

Sirius glanced at everyone, then left the room abruptly.

***

26th of July, 1978

The Humphreys were back in town.

Riley had seen them come early in the morning, turns out they went on a short road trip to the south as a family.

She tried to avoid going out of the house to prevent Penny from seeing her. She didn't want to talk to her, even though Penny probably had no idea about what had happened the night before they left.

But she couldn't avoid her forever, especially not when Penny was in front of the door, knocking impatiently.

"Riley!" she yelled from outside. "You in there?"

Riley panicked, not knowing what to do. She pretended not to be home for a whole minute, but Penny wasn't gullible.

"Riley, you left your shoes out here, I know you're home!" shouted Penny.

Riley huffed and walked to the door.

"Hey!" said Penny and hugged Riley warmly. "I've got so many things to tell you! Ugh, being stuck with Ethan for those days was torture, but at least the sea was absolutely amazing!"

Riley just smiled and nodded.

"You know what?" said Penny. "I discovered my love for swimming, maybe I should've became a professional swimmer or something."

"That's good," said Riley quietly.

"Something's wrong," said Penny as she slowed down. "Mind telling me?"

Riley hesitated. "Er — well — I'm fine now."

"So, you weren't fine before?" asked Penny as she sat down. "Is it about your mother — oh — you can talk to me," she said kindly. "Come on, sit."

Riley knew she should tell her about what Ethan did. But it wasn't as easy to face her.

"Well — before you guys left, Ethan came here," she began.

"Why?" asked Penny. "I hate him lately. I guess he never learned his lesson after that Christmas party."

"We are on the same page there," muttered Riley. "And he was kinda... strange. Remember how you told me he had a crush on me?"

"Yeah," said Penny. "Please don't tell me you two are dating, you deserve someone much better, Riley, not my idiot brother."

"No, it's quite the opposite of that."

"Oh, that's nice."

"No, it wasn't nice." Riley gulped. "He confessed how he felt about me for a long time, and he wouldn't shut up. I told him to go away to his house but he obviously didn't leave. And things got worse... And — and then — he hit me with a chair," she said the last part even quieter, but it was loud enough for Penny to hear it.

"He — he WHAT?!" she screamed. "How — I'll kill him — how could he?! How could he do such thing?!" she repeated. "What happened to you? Are you all right? Did you get hurt? Please tell me you are okay—"

Riley didn't say anything, she cried instead.

"Oh my—" muttered Penny in many emotions which she had trouble to express. She couldn't express how angry, how sad, how shocked she was at the same time.

Penny turned to Riley and pulled her into a hug.

"Riley — I'm so sorry," she whispered, she was also crying. "I can't believe it — I can't even recognize my own brother anymore... He wasn't like this, he's turning into a monster... He's already a monster!"

Riley sniffed. She felt rather relieved to see Penny's reaction. Maybe she had expected her to defend Ethan instead of her since they were siblings.

But Penny Humphrey never failed to be a good person. She had the purest heart anybody could have, she was always there for her friends. And she never made anyone feel down.

Penny slowly pulled away the hug, then stood up.

"I'll kill him..." said Penny angrily. "That fucking monster!"

"Penny—"

"He deserves to die! Him being drunk doesn't change anything, he hurt you! He hit you with a chair, he injured you!"

Riley didn't reply. But she agreed with Penny. She wished Ethan Humphrey was dead.