Chapter Six

Chapter Warnings: AU, POV!OC.

Word Count: 1,783

Disclaimer: I don’t own Twilight, and I don’t make any money off of it. I don’t own Harry Potter or Nox of Darkness, and I don’t get paid to write this.

Dedication: To LadyAlece, who told me to update. So, here it is, long long over due!

Michelle

The last night in our home, I snuck out of my room and slept with my sister in her bed. It wasn’t that we slept better - as a matter of fact, we didn’t sleep at all that night - but it was comforting, none the less.

We hardly got along, but in the crazed life that my sister and I were living after our father’s death, Tuesday was the only thing solid I had.

We laid in silence for hours before my sister finally spoke.

“I found Louis when I was packing. You remember Louis?” She rolled over and grabbed the plush cat off the floor.

“Of course...” I took the old stuffed toy and turned him over in my hand. He was dusty and faded, with the same torn ear and tear right above his tail. He was just the same as I remembered. “Geez, you mean you hid him in here for that long? It’s been-“

“Nine years.” My sister finished for me, easing back into our silence. I looked away and held Louis to me, trying to push back the memory that came to me anyway.

“Day! Day, give it back!”

Tuesday giggled, swinging the brown stuffed cat around by his torn tail. I tried to catch up to her, but Tuesday had an entire years worth of height on her legs.

“Day, you’re hurting him! Mom! Momma!!”

The memory made me smile. We should have known even back then that we were destined to fight. We were only a year apart, and Day was practically raised by our older brothers. Me? I was the ‘precious little girl.’ It was another moment before Tuesday spoke again.

It was like she read my thoughts. “We’ll be okay in Forks, Michelle. I promise...”

But I couldn’t help being afraid. Mother said Forks was a lot like London, rainy and grey, and the people there were more than nice. Charlie was great, and Bella seemed nice enough (even though I had dodged my step-sister the entire time she had been here). Even if all that were true, Forks wasn’t used to wizards- that meant a town of Muggles and a family of Muggles that we had to keep our identity from.

It was only one of the many problems we faced, sure. I was just sixteen. I still had another year before my last year at Hogwarts. Mom had offered to transfer me to one of the American wizarding schools, but I just couldn’t stand the thought of switching over to the Wicca system of magic. Tuesday still had another year or so before her own license passed... how were we supposed to do all that and still cover our bums from exposure?

“Michelle.” I rolled over, face to face with my sister. She spoke, but I could tell that in her eyes she didn’t truly mean it. “We’ll be fine.”

No, we won’t. “I know.”

We laid there, staring around the room for the rest of the night. I thought about Forks, our memories in our home, what was to come, our trip tomorrow, and everything in between before Day shook me out of my trance.

I hadn’t noticed the sun had come up, or that everyone was downstairs moving around. Day was sitting up with her legs tucked under her when I finally woke enough to notice. She was listening for the voices underneath us, so I leaned against the backboard with her.

“Those are all the bags you’re taking?”

“Will, darling. I promise this is all we need. Whatever else we need, we can buy in Forks!” When Mother said the name of the town, I smiled. She made it sound like Utopia or some sort of paradise.

Will wasn’t convinced. “You don’t need the china or the piano or anything?”

“I have all that at home. Well, all but the piano.” Charlie answered, and his low sarcastic voice made me smirk. I wasn’t ready to call him father yet, but I was glad to have someone level-headed around. (Goddess knows in this family of drama queens, we needed someone to keep up grounded!) “Bells, go make sure Michelle and Day are ready, would you?”

“Shit...” Tuesday muttered, shaking her head slightly. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who she was referring to. Were Tuesday and Bella fighting already? Before I could ask, Tuesday moved. We both slid off the bed, and I stretched; the lack of sleep was already catching up to me, and I doubted that even the plane ride was going to make me feel better.

The knock made me jump, and I turned around, not surprisingly, to find Bella standing in the doorway. She looked uncomfortable, but it didn’t seem to phase her courage. “Dad wants to know if you are ready.”

Tuesday didn’t make a move to answer, so I broke down and admitted defeat. “Let me get my carry on.” I walked past Bella, who had entered the room, and went down the hall to my room. The walls were bare and lifeless now without all the family portraits on the wall. I never realized how much they livened up the hallway- even when they were frozen for Charlie and Bella’s visit last week, they were nice to have around.

Maybe I’d freeze the pictures of Jon so I could hang them up in Forks...

I stuffed Louis into my duffle bag and threw the yellow and black bag over my shoulder. I made sure the black “H” was hidden next to my body (I could have lied about it, but I really didn’t want to explain what the Hufflepuff “H” meant to Bella or anyone else) and took one last look around the room.

“Michelle?”

Was life going to be as good in Forks as it was here in London? Were we really going to be alright living as muggles with our deep secret behind us?

“Michelle, we’re leaving!” Tuesday yelled over the slamming of the car door. I left my room and joined the rest of the group downstairs. Will and Day were waiting at the bottom of the stairs. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” I lied. The longer I stayed in the house, the more I missed my old life.

Day read my mind. “Let’s go.”

We kissed our brother goodbye and left our childhood home. Mother and Charlie were leaned against the car, smiling at us. We smiled hollow grins back and took our stuff to the open trunk.

“Ready?” Charlie pulled out his keys and eyed us as Tuesday slammed the top down. Could he tell we were nervous?

“Always,” Tuesday answered for us both.

insert line here

The planes at Heathrow airport were always late. I had flown to Hawaii with Tuesday to visit her friend once, and that plane had been over an hour late. Bella’s trip here was late a good thirty minutes too; I don’t know why we bothered to arrive early.

Mom and Charlie left us waiting to go grab something to eat. I didn’t feel like eating, and neither did Bella or Day. Somehow I had become peacemaker – while our parents were away I sat between my two sisters and blocked the glares aimed at the other.

Bella wasn’t as vicious as Day, but I was used to the “Swift stare.” I couldn’t understand why Bella would want to pick a fight with Tuesday, but she had been seething in anger before the seat belts had finished clicking in the car. Tuesday was the same – had they fought after I left Day’s room this morning? No way of knowing now.

Bella shocked us both by speaking over me straight to my older sister. “It’s not my fault.”

“Puh-lease.” Day drew the word into two syllables. Day wasn’t phased by Bella’s defense at all; however, when I looked over at Bella I could tell Tuesday was getting under her skin.

“You can blame it on me all you want, but it was my father’s decision.”

“Bella.” I tried to sound peaceful, but I was cut-off.

“Charlie would’ve stayed with us. It was because of you that he decided to go back.”

“Day,” I grabbed my sister’s hand. It didn’t take an empath to figure out that Day was upset at leaving. She was dishing all the blame on Bella. What if it was true Bella was the real reason we weren’t staying in England? Was it really fair to blame it completely on her? Apparently Tuesday thought so.

“Charlie and Anna decided together-“

“Because Mom wanted what was best for you! She didn’t bother to think about what we wanted-“

“That’s not my fault!”

“Day, Bell-“

“It is!”

“Enough!” All three of us froze. I watched Mother and Charlie jog through the crowd and sighed to myself. Mom looked upset, even though she didn’t have a clue what was going on. She was going to be even more upset when she found out that her new daughter wasn’t getting along with her older daughter. She despised when Day and I fought; I didn’t have a clue how she would react with those two going at it. “What is going on?”

I started to explain. I wanted to tell her that they hated each other, how I hated being caught in between them both. I wanted to say that it wasn’t fair that we were leaving home. I wanted to tell her that I didn’t agree with what she was doing- how she could just drop everything for this guy that we barely knew. I wanted to tell her everything.

But when Tuesday squeezed my head, I bit my tongue.

“We couldn’t decide who got their own room.” A lie.

Bella chimed in. “I thought that Michelle could sleep with me, since Day is older and all…” A bad lie.

It worked. “Nonsense, Bella.” Our mother smiled, obviously happy at the thought of the two of them fighting over something so petty. She was oblivious to the real reason the fight had broken out just seconds ago. “Day and ‘chelle have been sleeping in the same room since they were born!”

They were smiling now, Charlie and Anna, thinking that everything was back to normal. That their perfect family was fine now that the only miniscule detail that was making their daughters upset was taken care of. Everything was fine now.

Day let go of my hand, and I felt sick.

“Oh look. The plane’s here!”

When mother said that, all three of us stood up instinctively. Bella and Day glared through me at the other, but I never bothered to look up at them.

I wasn’t going to get caught in their little squabbles.

A/N: Oh my goodness at the long chapter! This was longer than all the other chapters (sans Chapter Two)! I guess you could say I was inspired- Michelle wasn’t my character in Nox of Darkness, but I was in love with the cute little sister of my own character! She’ll end up playing a major part in the plot coming up, so don’t forget completely about her over the next little bit.

Just and update: the next chapter is in Forks with Jacob, and it will be mostly focused on the relationship between the wizards and werewolves. Bella comes back in Chapter Eight with the Swifts settling in; last but not least, Chapter Nine starts touching on the real plotline with Bella’s POV again.

Check back in, okay? (Reviews are nice too!)