Rabbit: June 1969
Title: Rabbit
Chapter Number/Title: June 1969: Hours (28/100) [[ Previous | Next]]
Rating: G
Word Count: 1717
Workshop?: Suggestions always welcome. The non-linear style is a little closer to how I'd normally write, but it's a departure, so hopefully it's clear enough/not too much of a shift. Also, not sure I made Rabbit as blameworthy as he should be here.
June 30, 1969
Hours
“No!” Rabastan shouted. “No, no, no!”
“But Rabbit,” Sirius began.
“Don’t talk to me and don’t call me Rabbit. You’ve picked your side,” he snarled, “and now I know. You’re a traitor. And I’m alone.”
“That’s not-”
“That’s it.”
The door slammed shut, and the boy was left in silence, his clock ticking over his head. That was it.
**
As the old grandfather clock began striking for four in the afternoon, the boys around its feet appeared to be having fun. The tallest, with jet-black hair, quaked in feigned spasms on the floor, while another grinned gleefully over him. He was lighter haired, and paler generally, with a thin nose and a dense, explosive energy that leapt out in bits as he shouted and jolted his hand, arm and fingers outstretched, and a toy wand, held clumsily in the other hand, at his play victim. The third repeatedly ran towards the two, falling against an imagined wall.
“You’ve got to break his shield, Sirius!” he shouted. “You have to use the curse or I can’t get in and help you!”
“Can’t - lost - wand -Darren’s - too - strong,” Sirius gasped between flails.
“You have to! Come on, Sirius, it’s all up to you!”
Darren threw back his head and laughed.
**
Darren waved shyly, as if Rabastan were a stranger rather than a cousin whom he played with at least once a month.
“Lo, Darren.”
“Hullo.”
“Well, you two be good,” ordered the breathy voice of Viola Avery. She dropped her hands from her hips and ran them along her green taffeta skirt. Looking back up at Angelique, she continued, “You’re such a dear for inviting Darren. He’s so attached to Darius’ boy, and now that they’re on the Continent it’s…”
“So!” Darren started. “Are you reading anything now? Because I am. I got a book, and it’s a real one, and it’s-”
“Once Sirius gets here, there’s a great game I’ve planned,” Rabastan interrupted.
“Oh.” His face fell, blocked from his attempt to impress. “Right, smashing,” he mumbled.
Rabastan bit his tongue. He knew Darren and Sirius didn’t always get on, but it was no reason to sulk. And where were the Blacks? They were supposed to arrive at three, and time kept moving, and it was nearly three-fifteen. It wasn’t like Mrs. Black - Mrs. Orion Black, that is - to be tardy.
As if on cue, they emerged from a leaping flame in the fireplace. Mrs. Black pushed the wrought-iron gate open, and Sirius bounded out in front of his mother.
“Oh, Walburga, what a pleasure!” Viola simpered. “I have to run to a charity meeting, but we must find the time to catch up.”
“Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit!” Sirius greeted. “And why, hallo, Avery.”
“Hullo.”
“If it’s Literacy, you can give my regards to my sister-in-law,” Walburga noted, sounding downright bored by the very thought of a meeting of ladies discussing literacy improvement.
“So it is! That’s Witches Working for a Literate Workforce, you know. It’s such a shame, so many of these young orphans or paupers who simply get no education. Not that they need to be at Hogwarts,” she laughed, “but it’s -” The clock’s song for the quarter-hour silenced her. “Oh, I must be off. Do take care-Walburga, Angelique.” Her gloved hand took a pinch of the green powder deposited next to the hearth and stepped into the fire. In a flash of green flames, she was gone.
“Witches Working for a Literate Workforce!” Darren repeated in a sing-song just loud enough for the other boys to hear. Rabastan thought it might be too loud, because he caught Mrs. Black looking at Darren and wearing the subtlest smirk. “That’s the W-W-L-W, and we’re helping all those poor little orphans! Pfff.”
“I can’t see Auntie Ella teaching any paupers anything,” whispered Sirius.
“They probably just pay for tutors,” Rabastan guessed in defense. “Or ask the Ministry for help.”
“-be back around five,” Mrs. Black was saying. “I expect Sirius not to give you any trouble,” she assured Mrs. Lestrange, though her eyes were on her son, giving a silent warning.
“Anyway, I have this great idea for a game.”
**
“Are you taking luncheon, little Rabbit?”
“Oh!” Rabastan looked up from his drawing to see his brother leaning in his doorway. “Is it time already?”
“Tiggly told me twelve-thirty, so I suppose so.”
“Hm.” The boy stood up but his gaze lingered on the drawings. “All right, then.”
Rodolphus took a step into the room, and peered over to see the papers, with drawings of futuristic wizards fighting, two of them and a dragon against one and a pack of some lumpy sort of animal. “What’ve you been working on all morning in here?”
“It’s a plan,” Rabastan answered, sliding sandals onto his feet and beginning to buckle them. “It’s going to be a game, for when my friends come over. That’s Sirius, and me, with the dragon. We’re fighting Darren and his evil wild dogs, because he hates our dragon.”
“Oh, I see. Rabbit?”
“Yes?”
“Promise me you won’t spend the whole summer inside.”
Rabastan laughed and stood up. “Promise. It was just today.”
**
“I think he should be a Norwegian Ridgeback.”
Rabastan crossed his arms. “It’s not about what you think, Sirius, you can’t change him. He’s a Common Welsh Green.”
“But that’s boring.”
“I think so too,” Darren added.
“What?” Rabastan dropped his arms again and pierced his cousin with an accusing gaze. “You don’t even like the dragon. That’s the whole game. You don’t get to decide!”
“Why not? I’m still playing, aren’t I? And I’d rather take on the Norwegian Ridgeback.”
Sirius’s smirk made him look like he’d won a bet on the Quidditch World Cup to win the entire Atlantic Ocean. “See? It’s better that way. Don’t worry, Rabbit, it’ll be fun! We’re still a team.”
“Right,” he mumbled, shoving the drawing back onto his desk. He didn’t feel like much of a team, but they’d wasted a good twenty minutes on setting up, and he was ready to play.
**
The fourth chime tolled and mixed with Darren’s evil laughter.
“Rabbit!” called Sirius, and Rabastan stretched his arms out along the pretended barrier, shaking his head. “I - can’t,” the captured friend explained. “I’m - sorry -”
“No!”
“Yes!” Darren countered. “Join me, foolish boy!”
“Whatever you need,” whispered Sirius, “I’ll do. Just don’t - hurt - Rabbit.”
“I have your word?” The light from the afternoon sun reflected off of a lighter strand here and there in Darren’s mop of hair.
“Don’t do it, Sirius!” Rabastan stood back and aimed his wand at a small box on an end-table. He would have to break this barrier himself, somehow.
“You have my word.” Sirius reached his hand out, and Darren took it.
“Good.” He pulled up his new ally and grinned. “Now, let’s get that Ridgeback.”
“Pshhhzzzztrrrooom!” Rabbit held the wand steady and shook his body. “Sshhhhhwerrrshh,” he whispered.
Darren turned and cocked his head. “What’s that, Rabbit?”
“Your shield!” Rabastan answered, but not before he hurled himself toward Sirius. He knocked the boy back to the ground and threw his arms wildly at him. Before he could do much damage or get anyone in trouble, though, he was pulled back by Darren. Sirius scrambled to push himself up and held his arms out to keep his friend off.
“What’s into you, Rabbit?”
“You!” he spat. “You ruined everything!”
“I do not,” growled Sirius. “I was just making it more fun.”
Rabastan wrenched his hands free from his cousin and stepped back from them both. “It’s fine. I get it. You’d rather be friends with Avery. You two can just go and be best of friends, I don’t care.” He turned, stormed out of the room, and ran to his own bedroom.
“Evan’s my best friend!” Darren called, but it made no difference. Rabastan didn’t look back, and didn’t say a word until he turned into his room and saw Sirius tailing behind him.
“No! No, no, no!”
**
Rabastan sat, fuming, in his room. He wished it were five already, that they would just leave. When he felt sure all was clear, he opened the door back up and peered in either direction, scanning the hallway. Sirius was long gone. Rabastan felt his lip quiver, but sucked it into his teeth. He would not be caught crying, of all things. Especially not where he was going.
The familiar path led him to a closed door, and he knocked three times. “Come in!” the voice within called. Rabastan turned the handle and pushed the door open.
“Hi, Dolph. Can I play with you?”
Rodolphus stretched his neck and looked down at his little brother from over his shoulder as he pulled a muddied jumper off and tossed it through a hole in the wall. “I thought your mates were over,” he said, freeing himself from sweat-drenched robes, and then sat to face Rabastan. “What happened to your, ah… grand dragon plan?”
Rabastan dropped to the floor. “Disaster,” he replied. “Sirius isn’t friends with me anymore.”
“What? That can’t be true, Rabbit.”
“No, it is. He likes Darren better. Darren stole him. I don’t like either of them.”
Dolph’s hand pulled Rabastan up onto a chair. “You don’t mean that. How do you know he likes Darren more than you?”
“He does!” he insisted. “We were a team and we were fighting Darren and he joined Darren! And they both changed him to be a Ridgeback, which wasn’t what I wanted.”
“Sirius playing with Darren doesn’t mean he likes him more, Rabbit. I thought they were always in a row?”
“Well, not anymore.” Rabastan let his head fall back, and stared up at the ornaments where the wall met the ceiling.
“Be happy they aren’t, then. They still like you. It’s a good thing, when people get along.”
“But Sirius…” He wasn’t sure how to explain his point, how to explain how angry he was.
Rodolphus rested a strong hand on Rabastan’s shoulder. “You have to trust your friends, Rabbit. I imagine they’re waiting for you to come back. You can all play together.”
“I guess.”
“Vas-y.” Rodolphus nudged his brother to stand and nodded toward the door. “Before it’s time for them to go.”
Chapter Number/Title: June 1969: Hours (28/100) [[ Previous | Next]]
Rating: G
Word Count: 1717
Workshop?: Suggestions always welcome. The non-linear style is a little closer to how I'd normally write, but it's a departure, so hopefully it's clear enough/not too much of a shift. Also, not sure I made Rabbit as blameworthy as he should be here.
June 30, 1969
Hours
“No!” Rabastan shouted. “No, no, no!”
“But Rabbit,” Sirius began.
“Don’t talk to me and don’t call me Rabbit. You’ve picked your side,” he snarled, “and now I know. You’re a traitor. And I’m alone.”
“That’s not-”
“That’s it.”
The door slammed shut, and the boy was left in silence, his clock ticking over his head. That was it.
**
As the old grandfather clock began striking for four in the afternoon, the boys around its feet appeared to be having fun. The tallest, with jet-black hair, quaked in feigned spasms on the floor, while another grinned gleefully over him. He was lighter haired, and paler generally, with a thin nose and a dense, explosive energy that leapt out in bits as he shouted and jolted his hand, arm and fingers outstretched, and a toy wand, held clumsily in the other hand, at his play victim. The third repeatedly ran towards the two, falling against an imagined wall.
“You’ve got to break his shield, Sirius!” he shouted. “You have to use the curse or I can’t get in and help you!”
“Can’t - lost - wand -Darren’s - too - strong,” Sirius gasped between flails.
“You have to! Come on, Sirius, it’s all up to you!”
Darren threw back his head and laughed.
**
Darren waved shyly, as if Rabastan were a stranger rather than a cousin whom he played with at least once a month.
“Lo, Darren.”
“Hullo.”
“Well, you two be good,” ordered the breathy voice of Viola Avery. She dropped her hands from her hips and ran them along her green taffeta skirt. Looking back up at Angelique, she continued, “You’re such a dear for inviting Darren. He’s so attached to Darius’ boy, and now that they’re on the Continent it’s…”
“So!” Darren started. “Are you reading anything now? Because I am. I got a book, and it’s a real one, and it’s-”
“Once Sirius gets here, there’s a great game I’ve planned,” Rabastan interrupted.
“Oh.” His face fell, blocked from his attempt to impress. “Right, smashing,” he mumbled.
Rabastan bit his tongue. He knew Darren and Sirius didn’t always get on, but it was no reason to sulk. And where were the Blacks? They were supposed to arrive at three, and time kept moving, and it was nearly three-fifteen. It wasn’t like Mrs. Black - Mrs. Orion Black, that is - to be tardy.
As if on cue, they emerged from a leaping flame in the fireplace. Mrs. Black pushed the wrought-iron gate open, and Sirius bounded out in front of his mother.
“Oh, Walburga, what a pleasure!” Viola simpered. “I have to run to a charity meeting, but we must find the time to catch up.”
“Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit!” Sirius greeted. “And why, hallo, Avery.”
“Hullo.”
“If it’s Literacy, you can give my regards to my sister-in-law,” Walburga noted, sounding downright bored by the very thought of a meeting of ladies discussing literacy improvement.
“So it is! That’s Witches Working for a Literate Workforce, you know. It’s such a shame, so many of these young orphans or paupers who simply get no education. Not that they need to be at Hogwarts,” she laughed, “but it’s -” The clock’s song for the quarter-hour silenced her. “Oh, I must be off. Do take care-Walburga, Angelique.” Her gloved hand took a pinch of the green powder deposited next to the hearth and stepped into the fire. In a flash of green flames, she was gone.
“Witches Working for a Literate Workforce!” Darren repeated in a sing-song just loud enough for the other boys to hear. Rabastan thought it might be too loud, because he caught Mrs. Black looking at Darren and wearing the subtlest smirk. “That’s the W-W-L-W, and we’re helping all those poor little orphans! Pfff.”
“I can’t see Auntie Ella teaching any paupers anything,” whispered Sirius.
“They probably just pay for tutors,” Rabastan guessed in defense. “Or ask the Ministry for help.”
“-be back around five,” Mrs. Black was saying. “I expect Sirius not to give you any trouble,” she assured Mrs. Lestrange, though her eyes were on her son, giving a silent warning.
“Anyway, I have this great idea for a game.”
**
“Are you taking luncheon, little Rabbit?”
“Oh!” Rabastan looked up from his drawing to see his brother leaning in his doorway. “Is it time already?”
“Tiggly told me twelve-thirty, so I suppose so.”
“Hm.” The boy stood up but his gaze lingered on the drawings. “All right, then.”
Rodolphus took a step into the room, and peered over to see the papers, with drawings of futuristic wizards fighting, two of them and a dragon against one and a pack of some lumpy sort of animal. “What’ve you been working on all morning in here?”
“It’s a plan,” Rabastan answered, sliding sandals onto his feet and beginning to buckle them. “It’s going to be a game, for when my friends come over. That’s Sirius, and me, with the dragon. We’re fighting Darren and his evil wild dogs, because he hates our dragon.”
“Oh, I see. Rabbit?”
“Yes?”
“Promise me you won’t spend the whole summer inside.”
Rabastan laughed and stood up. “Promise. It was just today.”
**
“I think he should be a Norwegian Ridgeback.”
Rabastan crossed his arms. “It’s not about what you think, Sirius, you can’t change him. He’s a Common Welsh Green.”
“But that’s boring.”
“I think so too,” Darren added.
“What?” Rabastan dropped his arms again and pierced his cousin with an accusing gaze. “You don’t even like the dragon. That’s the whole game. You don’t get to decide!”
“Why not? I’m still playing, aren’t I? And I’d rather take on the Norwegian Ridgeback.”
Sirius’s smirk made him look like he’d won a bet on the Quidditch World Cup to win the entire Atlantic Ocean. “See? It’s better that way. Don’t worry, Rabbit, it’ll be fun! We’re still a team.”
“Right,” he mumbled, shoving the drawing back onto his desk. He didn’t feel like much of a team, but they’d wasted a good twenty minutes on setting up, and he was ready to play.
**
The fourth chime tolled and mixed with Darren’s evil laughter.
“Rabbit!” called Sirius, and Rabastan stretched his arms out along the pretended barrier, shaking his head. “I - can’t,” the captured friend explained. “I’m - sorry -”
“No!”
“Yes!” Darren countered. “Join me, foolish boy!”
“Whatever you need,” whispered Sirius, “I’ll do. Just don’t - hurt - Rabbit.”
“I have your word?” The light from the afternoon sun reflected off of a lighter strand here and there in Darren’s mop of hair.
“Don’t do it, Sirius!” Rabastan stood back and aimed his wand at a small box on an end-table. He would have to break this barrier himself, somehow.
“You have my word.” Sirius reached his hand out, and Darren took it.
“Good.” He pulled up his new ally and grinned. “Now, let’s get that Ridgeback.”
“Pshhhzzzztrrrooom!” Rabbit held the wand steady and shook his body. “Sshhhhhwerrrshh,” he whispered.
Darren turned and cocked his head. “What’s that, Rabbit?”
“Your shield!” Rabastan answered, but not before he hurled himself toward Sirius. He knocked the boy back to the ground and threw his arms wildly at him. Before he could do much damage or get anyone in trouble, though, he was pulled back by Darren. Sirius scrambled to push himself up and held his arms out to keep his friend off.
“What’s into you, Rabbit?”
“You!” he spat. “You ruined everything!”
“I do not,” growled Sirius. “I was just making it more fun.”
Rabastan wrenched his hands free from his cousin and stepped back from them both. “It’s fine. I get it. You’d rather be friends with Avery. You two can just go and be best of friends, I don’t care.” He turned, stormed out of the room, and ran to his own bedroom.
“Evan’s my best friend!” Darren called, but it made no difference. Rabastan didn’t look back, and didn’t say a word until he turned into his room and saw Sirius tailing behind him.
“No! No, no, no!”
**
Rabastan sat, fuming, in his room. He wished it were five already, that they would just leave. When he felt sure all was clear, he opened the door back up and peered in either direction, scanning the hallway. Sirius was long gone. Rabastan felt his lip quiver, but sucked it into his teeth. He would not be caught crying, of all things. Especially not where he was going.
The familiar path led him to a closed door, and he knocked three times. “Come in!” the voice within called. Rabastan turned the handle and pushed the door open.
“Hi, Dolph. Can I play with you?”
Rodolphus stretched his neck and looked down at his little brother from over his shoulder as he pulled a muddied jumper off and tossed it through a hole in the wall. “I thought your mates were over,” he said, freeing himself from sweat-drenched robes, and then sat to face Rabastan. “What happened to your, ah… grand dragon plan?”
Rabastan dropped to the floor. “Disaster,” he replied. “Sirius isn’t friends with me anymore.”
“What? That can’t be true, Rabbit.”
“No, it is. He likes Darren better. Darren stole him. I don’t like either of them.”
Dolph’s hand pulled Rabastan up onto a chair. “You don’t mean that. How do you know he likes Darren more than you?”
“He does!” he insisted. “We were a team and we were fighting Darren and he joined Darren! And they both changed him to be a Ridgeback, which wasn’t what I wanted.”
“Sirius playing with Darren doesn’t mean he likes him more, Rabbit. I thought they were always in a row?”
“Well, not anymore.” Rabastan let his head fall back, and stared up at the ornaments where the wall met the ceiling.
“Be happy they aren’t, then. They still like you. It’s a good thing, when people get along.”
“But Sirius…” He wasn’t sure how to explain his point, how to explain how angry he was.
Rodolphus rested a strong hand on Rabastan’s shoulder. “You have to trust your friends, Rabbit. I imagine they’re waiting for you to come back. You can all play together.”
“I guess.”
“Vas-y.” Rodolphus nudged his brother to stand and nodded toward the door. “Before it’s time for them to go.”