If I May Be So Bold (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

1.

August 2034

ELLA

The house was never usually this silent. Ella rarely had it to herself. When Juni was there, it was loud and everything was a mess, and there was this buzzing, humming presence that you just felt even when she wasn't in the room with you. When her mum was home, the radio was always on, and her dad — he always had something to say.

She didn't mind the noise really. Ella loved music. She liked the laughter when everyone was there. But this was nice, too. It was nice to have the windows open and listen to the waves outside and feel the breeze and just be still. She never really got to do that. She never really felt like she could.

For some reason, Ella had always found it was easier to be ignored if you looked busy and so she was always doing something.

She stepped out onto the porch and sat on the swing. Her parents had gotten engaged on this porch swing. Technically, Ella has been there too, but not born yet. Her dad had told the story so many times. He always told the same stories, but she didn't mind. She liked them. She repeated them to herself sometimes, like her own personal fairytales. She liked when he told them, especially, though, because they had a script and his face followed it, but he wasn't acting. That was nice.

She heard the whoosh of the fireplace behind her, but didn't turn around. Her silence had been short-lived.

The door opened and she turned, expecting to see her dad or Juni — it definitely wouldn't be her mum this early on a weekday — but it was Henry Parker. She jumped in surprise.

"Hey," he said. "Is Juni around somewhere? I was supposed to pick her up."

"She left already," said Ella.

Henry was actually in her class, but Juni's house and on the quidditch team. They were having some summer pool party at the house of one of the richer kids. It was mostly quidditch kids but other people had been invited. Not Ella, though. And not her friends.

Ella and Juni wore being a teacher's kid very differently. Ella tried not to break rules, tried to fly under the radar, to do well enough not to be worried about but not so well as to draw attention to herself. Juni used it like membership to an elite club, calling professors by their first names even when they told her not to and half-bullying their dad into shortening assignments, pushing back tests, and letting them choose their own partners.

She was extraordinarily popular. Ella had never even wanted that many people to know her name.

"Oh," Henry was saying. "Did she go on her own?"

Ella shook her head. "Luisa slept over last night. They went together. Juni probably forgot you were coming."

He didn't take offense to this, though. Just laughed and said, "Typical Juniper Mason." Which was true, but if anyone else had acted the way she did, they'd have been called a jerk. But Juni was bright and shiny pretty, loud and funny and hard to look away from. People just liked her anyway.

"You live here?" Henry asked then, looking out at the water.

Ella nodded. She wished he would leave. She would have to rat Juni out for this later, giving their address to a boy. They weren't really supposed to give it out without permission. Her mum's job was so big and sometimes so dangerous. The house was unplottable, among other things, and there were a limited number of people who had access via the floo network. Some of their friends knew of course, but only the close ones, ones their mum had approved.

She highly doubted either of her parents would have approved of Henry Parker — her mum because she didn't know him and her dad because he was a fifteen year old boy who knew he was good looking.