Ghosts of Yesterday

Ghosts of Yesterday
Chapter Three

The owl arrived a few days later. I was slurping some chicken noodle soup (even though Mum was scolding me about slurping and it is rather childish) when I heard a `tap tap tap' on the window. The noise as well as the noise maker made Dad jump up and Mum give a tiny scream.

“Don't worry Mum and Dad; it's just an owl from Heather.” I grimaced as I got out of my chair. Most of the time when I received owls, I got them in my room. Though they were very supportive of the fact that I was a witch, I knew that our world still kind of scared them, so I tried to have them have as little as possible to do with my world. I grabbed the letter and its carrier and ran up to my room. I would heat it up and eat later. Right now, I had way more important things to do then eat.

Despite my earlier worries about not being able to find a job because I hadn't graduated/had NEWTS yet, it didn't take me very long to find a possible candidate for a job. This was what the ad said:

WANTED: One live-in helping hand to care for a young girl, age 5. Contact Mrs. Chapman by owl for more details or to apply. Requirements: must be 16 or older, must be good with children and care for them, and must be fairly flexible. Must bring black formal clothes.


Hey, I could do this. Never mind the fact that I had never babysat kids before, but hey, it couldn't be that hard, right? And I was a kid once, even if it had been ten years ago. I sat down to write out my reply. I mean, it's not like it'd be the end of the world if I took a live-in job…It's not like it would be with James Potter or anything.

In fact, I was so confident that I would get the job and I would like it, that I packed my trunks right then and there after sending off the owl once more.

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I did, in fact, get the job. Now was the harder part, telling Mum and Dad. Because of my over-confidence, I didn't even have packing to put it off. Still, I waited as long as possible. I counted tiles on the wall; I counted books, neatened up my room until even a person with an obsessive compulsive disorder about neatness would have been satisfied. I did everything I could think of until, at last, there was nothing else to do. So I did another tactic that every kid does at least once in their lifetime: I sucked up to them.

First I sat at the table, even going as far as folding the napkins into bird shapes. (Four years ago my summer hobby had been learning origami, and even now I was fairly good at it. Mostly because people were always asking me to make shapes for them.)

After that I told Mum and Dad that I would be cooking dinner (another thing I had learned four years ago, as origami hadn't taken up enough of my time.) Mum hated cooking and was rather bad at it so Dad was the one who did most of it. The rest of the time, Petunia and I had to figure it out and make it ourselves.

Tonight, I decided to go with something fairly simple. I didn't want to go too overboard or else they would expect more of me. Now that wouldn't be good. One nice thing about being gone practically the entire year was that Mum and Dad's expectations of me were fairly low. I decided on toasting tortillas and making toppings for a put-it-together-yourself burrito.

At last, it was dinner time. I waited until everyone had finished eating (just in case it didn't work out very well, I wanted to have a full stomach before stomping out of the room) and Dad was drinking his evening coffee to finally bring it up.

“Mum, Dad, I have something I want to talk to you about.” I began, crossing my fingers under the table for good luck.

“Ahh, so that's what all this was for. I was wondering about that. The day a teenager does anything around the house without expecting something in return is the day the world ends.” Dad said, taking a sip of his coffee. I guess I was more obvious then I thought, but no matter. Though I did make a mental note to myself to do something around the house for no reason one day to see what Dad's response would be.

“Well, you know how I'm going to be graduating from Hogwarts soon? I need some way to support myself after I graduate, during the time when I'm looking for a job and, when I find one, waiting for the paycheck. So,” Here I took a deep breath, “I applied for a job a few weeks ago. And I got it.”

“That's wonderful, honey! I'm so proud of how responsible you are. What are the hours?”

“Er, it's a live in job.” Suddenly the smile that was on Mum's face disappeared.

“No, absolutely not. I only get to see you a few times a year, and now I don't even get that? Find a new job.”

Here was the trickier part. Most people say red-heads have fiery tempers, and maybe that's true, maybe it isn't. I, however, am fairly good at keeping calm. Not that I never shouted or screamed or snapped at someone, but usually I could hold myself back. Right now, if I stomped my foot saying something like, "This isn't fair! I'm almost an adult, and I HATE you!" my parents wouldn't budge a bit. What I had to do was stay calm and rational and insult free, and present myself in a way that would change their mind. Plus, this method grows respect for me, which is useful in the long run.

"It is very important to me to have this job. And I looked and looked for other options, but this was the only one I found that I could do. Besides, I'll come home for Christmas this year, I promise." Most holidays I spent with Caroline or Heather, but usually Caroline. And okay, so I had only looked in one issue of the Daily Prophet for a job, but hey, it counted, right?

Mum sighed sadly. "Well, if you put it like that, I suppose... But remember that you have to come home for Christmas, or next time you ask for something big like this..." And, just because I knew it would make him angry and possibly affect the overall decision if I didn't do this, I looked to Dad to see what he would say about this, but he just gave a little nod and said, "I agree with your mother."

"YES! Thank you, Mum! Thank you, Dad!" I jumped out of my chair and gave each of them a hug and a kiss before running off to share the good news with Caroline and Heather.
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The next day at precisely two o'clock, I apparated where I had been directed to go in the letter. I had always been taught that being on time to everything (early was okay in some circumstances but in most cases, it wasn't good in case things weren't prepared for you yet or the people weren't expecting you. And it is pretty self-explanatory why being late is bad.) and while I didn't always follow it, I knew it was important to make as good of an impression as possible on my employer.

The place I apparated to was near Amy Chapman's, the little girl I was the Au Pair to (I know most people here in England call it nanny, but I like au pair better. Makes me feel more educated, and WAY more fun to say.), house. Apparently the Chapmans had made it so that people couldn't apparate in the house, and I didn't have floo powder, so that option was out. And apparently a lot of houses were this way, as this area had a special area for apparating people, just like a train station does for people traveling that way.

I had just gotten to the point where I was considering taking out a book and read, despite the fact that I had wanted to save my books with me being such a fast reader and all, when someone finally arrived. Amy's mother, I assumed. The lady was very beautiful. She was tall and had long blonde hair, and hazel eyes. And, surprisingly enough, instead of the Wizard robes I was expecting for her to wear, she was wearing ordinary clothes. Her eyes sparkled as she looked at me with a smile. I liked her right away, and felt that I had made the right decision.

“Lily Evans, I presume?” She said. I gave a nod in confirmation, and, finally showing some sign of being a witch, she took out her wand and shrank my trunks to a size where it was easy to pick them up. We each grabbed one and walked to her house in silence. At last, when we arrived, I stared at it for a moment.

It had a simple white paint job, with simple grey roof tiles, but you knew from its sheer size that it was not merely something simple. The inside also had a lot of expensive things in it, and was very full, but despite all this, it wasn't like most full-of-expensive-things houses. It was still somehow cozy and comfortable and well, homey. Again, I felt like I had made the right decision, and that, if the little girl was as nice as everything else had been so far, I was going to have a wonderful summer.

It was just that, as I was going up the stairs with the lady to my third-floor bedroom that I realized that my summer wasn't going to be so great after all. And that the woman wasn't really Mrs. Chapman. I knew it was too good to be true, especially considering my luck. Because coming down the stairs, asking when dinner was going to be ready, was none other than James Potter.