You can hinder me, but you'll never stop me

Back Home (But Not For Long)

Jay sat with Neville in the train "home" playing poker. She ran her hand through her hair, or at least, what was left of it. One side of her head shaved nearly bold, while the other half was cut to about her cheekbones. She smirked, thinking of the absolute hell that Lily would raise. She was looking forward to it.

Neville couldn't help the smile on his face either. Going to the hairdresser had been experience he wasn't going to forget any time soon. And if Charlies reaction to his sister's new look was anything like her parent's would be, they were in for a show. Charlie had walked straight past them, not even recognizing her at first. And then he dropped his jaw so low Nev feared it had been dislocated.

"How are your ears doing?" He asked, looking at the red earlobes.

She reaches a hand up and stops before touching them, remembering the advice to not touch them the coming weeks if she could help it. "Better. They don't really hurt anymore, just feel a bit hot."

Nev hums. Suddenly they are interrupted by visitors entering their compartment. It's Charlie, Hermione and Ronald.

And their jaws drop the second they enter the compartment. "See!" Charlie calls out enthusiastically, "I told you she did that!"

Jay raises an amused eyebrow at his antics. "Is there something I can help you with brother? Or did you just want to show them my new hair?"

"Wow! You actually did that... I thought he was joking." She seems to realize that might not be the nicest thing to say and she quickly adds, "But you pull it off really well!"

"Thank you." Is all she replies. "What do you think Ronald?"

The redhead turns bright red and stammers out, "You- you look beautiful." He turns even more red, which she hadn't thought possible.

Nev and Jay laugh. There had been multiple reactions like that from both girls and boys alike. "I meant more my hair, but thank you anyway." She adds a wink. Which seems to crash the boy's brain for a bit.

She runs her hand through her hair putting her tattoo on full display.

"Jay... please tell me that comes off." Charlie turns wide eyes to his little sister.

She smirks. "Oh no, it's here for good. It's real."

"Jay I know I said give them hell... but I didn't think you would go so far, so fast." Charlie says as Neville laughs again.

"Mate, she's had that one for years, she just hides it normally." He places his cards on the table. "Full house, what do you have?"

Jay rolls her eyes. "You win again." Neville whoops and pulls the candy to himself. She looks at Charlie, who is still looking with horror at her arm. "I did say I wasn't going to hold back, did I? Brace for impact brother, we're almost home."

Charlie just let's out a small "Oh Merlin help me." Before leaving the compartment.

The last hour or so they had to wait Jay only lost more candy to Neville, and only decided to call quits when she ran out of candy. Besides her chocolate of course. She'd never surrender her chocolate to him.

Jay was waiting together with Neville, whom had already reunited with his grandmother, for her parents to see her.

She spotted them, only for them to walk straight past her, to Charlie, and began demanding where Jennifer was.

Neville and Jay looked at one another, before bursting out laughing.

"Mom, dad..." Charlie just pointed at Jay and Nev. Jay just looked up with a wicked smirk.

"Hello mother, father." She walked over, and almost lost it at the sound of Neville still losing it right behind her. "How have the last few months treated you? I'd say they did well for me."

James just stood there, gaping, "Jennifer?"

"Yes?" She batted her eyes innocently.

Just then Lily found her voice, "You... I... What the fuck?" She snapped her mouth closed again, shocked at her own vulgarity.

Jay just picked up her bag. "Shall we?" Lily pursed her lips and didn't mutter another word. She didn't need to though, her presence was ominous enough. Jay knew that once they were out of public eye all hell would break lose.

She was right.

When they got home both Lily and James started shouting about how she was a disappointment, and how would they find a husband for her now?

She interrupted them, "Good thing I don't want to get married. And when I choose a spouse, I'd be more comfortable marrying a woman instead of a man."

Which broke another argument, about how that would embarrass their family, and didn't she care about caring on the legacy of the Potters through having children.

"Who said I want children? There isn't a hair on my head that would even consider that."

Which brought the mother of all lectures about her duty to the house of Potter. "I'd rather hang myself." She said with a bored look. They'd been going on for almost half an hour now.

"You will not say such things! Especially at the upcoming party! You're almost old enough to be engaged to someone, and this Christmas party will be the perfect opportunity to find you a future husband."

''Not happening." Jay said with the nastiest look she could muster.

"You will stop this nonsense immediately! Now, we are going to the hairdresser immediately to fix the mess that your hair is now. And take the silverwork out of your ears!"

"Yeah... Not happening." Jay then threw her jacket off and over the pushover she called father.

Jay was certain Lily would start shrieking at that gesture, before Lily exclaimed "Is that a tattoo?!" To be fair, she was only twelve, so Jay would give her that.

"Yup. Had it for years now. I thought you knew." Which was a lie on her part. But she was just so done with it at this point. "Do you like it?" She asked innocently.

Lily was so red at this point Jay could hold a tomato to her face and it would match perfectly. "I thought you were supposed to follow parenting classes? If you did, they didn't help much." At this point both James and Lily are yelling at her, completely oblivious to her comment.

She just stood up and went to her room, her parents screaming all the while for her to come back. She slammed the door behind her only to stare in shock at the pink monstrosity that was her room... what the hell happened? There was pink and flowers everywhere on her walls. It made her want to vomit when she thought about having to stay in the room for the vacation.

With a simple swish of her wand, the flowers vanished and the pink walls became white. The curtains were changed to a deep blue and her bedsheets as well. Now that the assault of pink was dealt with, she moved her trunk in its rightful place, and set up her music player. She had the perfect song ready for her parents. She turned the volume to max and began blasting Kiss It by Dorothy. Her parents began banging on her door, and Jay began singing "Mommy, she don't like my walk! Daddy he don't like my talk! My baby told be listen here, a woman need a man! All I gotta say to you, is kiss it baby yeah!" And Jay honestly didn't think the song could be any better, until she heard her parents screams of outrage in the background.

After awhile she climbed out of the window, into the cold.

A few hours later Jay wondered if her parents had by now broken her door down. It didn't matter, she decided. That same night, Black Phoenix was seen for the first time in a year, and the aurors were wondering however why he suddenly seemed taller...