Running Out of Pounds

The clink of another pound being thrown into the callbox made Rafael sigh. He leaned against the window of the red telephone box and switched the receiver so it was against his other year. He could hear his siblings in the background and if he cared to ignore his sister, he could catch part of Nico and Jaret’s conversation. Rafael sucked in a breath. If he was paying for the call then he may as well listen to what his sister was saying. It felt like everything was going in one ear and out of the other, though. Her worries had gone from low level to sky high. Finally, their mother had cut them off and for the first time in a long time, it felt as if it was going to be a permanent thing. Rafael would have been a liar if he’d claimed it didn’t bother him. No in fact it infuriated him but there was nothing he could do about it. He had to remain indifferent for Mynah’s sake. She had to feel that he was on top of everything, that he was keeping the situation contained – even if he really wasn’t. Rafael dreaded the prospect of getting yet another Saturday job. The off-licence missed him but he wasn’t going back there – wizards got far better pay. He had to find somewhere wizardly to work – some place with good pay.

“Mynah,” Rafael cut off his sister’s monologue. His soft voice flowing down the other end of the receiver silenced her immediately and she listened closely to hear what he had to say. “I will talk to mum, alright? I will say something to make it better again. Until then I will pull funds from somewhere – anywhere – just to tide you over in the meantime. Alright?” he heard her sniffle and bit his lip. “I’ve got you, My. I promise. Listen, I’m going up to Hogsmeade Post Office now. I will send you a check down. It should be there in a couple of days. I knew forging mum’s signature for school trips would come in handy one day. Yes it probably is illegal but she’s not going to notice. She spends money like she’ll live forever and we get her bank statements. Yep, yep. I have to go. The cash is running out. Yeah, I love you-”

The line fell dead and Rafael sighed. He let the receiver drop in his hand before putting it back on the hook. He stared at the black plastic for a few moments before turning and leaving the telephone box. He stuck his hands in the pockets of his coat and began to trudge up the road, his brow creased and his eyes facing the path as he thought carefully about his next move. Galleons were burning a hole in his wallet. He only had so much money left and he could have killed for a Butterbeer. Vanessa had cut them off before, many a time in fact. Now she seemed to be adamant that this was it, basically. The prospect of them being penniless terrified Rafael. Hogwarts restricted his breathing on a daily basis, this made things worse. He needed to graduate, he needed to get a job and he needed to support his family. Social workers would poke their noses in soon enough, especially if Nicolai broke another window.

Rafael whimpered quietly to himself. He could see the post office up ahead. Thank God, he thought.

.

Renny had spoken to Piper before she left for Hogsmeade. The conversation had gone like a thousand others she had had with her pig-headed sister.

"Hey, Pie, want to go to Hogsmeade."

"No. And don't call me Pie."

"Come on, it's good for you. You never talk with anyone-"

"Then why would you think I'd want to spend a whole day with anyone?"

"Pi-"

"God, Renny! Just leave me alone. You're not my mother, okay? Stop trying to be!"

Renny had stared at her sister and forced a smile, like she always did. Someone had to be the one that loved no matter what, and that was not going to be Piper. Piper of course rolled her eyes, scoffed and walked away. When Renny had called after, asking where she was going, she had given Renny the finger. Renny had called back, "We'll talk about that later, Pi! You remember what I said about doing stuff like that! Stay safe and out of trouble. Okay?... Okay?!"

Renny should have gotten over worrying about Piper as much as she did. She knew Piper was going to get in trouble, she was going to do something stupid, so why should she worry she would if she knew she would? The problem was, Renny was an idealist. She saw blue skies even though there was always a cloud following her around. She was getting worn down, she knew, but if she went down, she would go with love in her heart, worry on her brow, and a smile on her face.

So she made the trip alone. All her friends had left with everyone else and she had been delayed when she had been trying to convince her sister to at least feign being a human being. She wound her scarf around her neck and tightened the blue ribbon in her hair and tugged at her boots before taking off for Hogsmeade.

Soon her cheeks were rosy in the cold and her eyes were bright blue against her pale face. Her black hair bounced with every step and she slowed as she reached the small village. She did not like spending any money, seeing as she and her sister had so little, bit she liked to pretend like everything was okay and normal. Maybe a drink, or a small trinket, a scarf, that was it. First, she needed to find someone to hang out with.

She walked forward, slipping her hands into her pockets and quickening her step. She spotted a familiar figure and hurried up. Rafael always looked so sad so she was naturally drawn to him. She had a motherly need to fix the broken, comfort, protect, like she tried to do with her sister. Rafael was in the same year as her so she knew him fairly well- one could call them friends. Seeing as Renny was the "a stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet' type, she considered him just that.

She fell into step with him. "Hello Rafael," she said in her soft, melodic voice. She heard a strange noise from him and her steps faltered before she righted her self. "Everything okay, dear?"

ABBA’s songs were more relevant now for Rafael than any other time in his life. He saw a silver lining though. He wasn’t thirteen anymore. He was seventeen, pushing for eighteen in April time. He could look after them. He didn’t have to make sure he had one eye on whoever was behind him at all times. He did that automatically but he could drop his guard a little. He was mere months away from being able to be the parental figure his younger siblings needed and the support that Mynah was trying to glean from whoever would lend it to her.

Hogwarts had created a rift between them; between him and his family. Rafael knew that had he been a Muggle then he would have just been getting off of work and heading home for dinner. He would have probably bathed Raina, put her to bed and then gone off to work at the off-licence until quarter to twelve. Then he’d have had to swing by the park to pick up Jaret from whatever seedy little hole he and his friends were in and drag him home. Rafael missed it, shockingly enough. He missed not being able to be with them and he hated feeling so useless.

There was a feeling of hope within him now, though. He was a stone’s throw away from the end. He could feel them. They were within reach but still too far away from him. For the first time ever, Rafael felt as if he could make it through the year. Nothing had changed his view of magic in the last seven years he’d been at Hogwarts. He hated it just as much as he did when he was a First Year; if not more.

When a familiar brunette fell into step with him, Rafael allowed himself to smile a little bit. He looked over at her and greeted her similarly. “Hey Renny,” his murmur was carried on the wind well enough. Rafael buried his face in his scarf. “M’fine,” he mumbled. Rafael sighed and shook his head. “Everything is...normal I guess,” he smiled wryly and shook his head. “How are you?” he asked.

Rafael was very quiet, so Renny shifted slightly so she was stepping closer to him to be able to hear hi over the wind. She smiled as he greeted her and nit her lip when he said he was fine. Renny was bright enough to know that this was not the case. But she knew how to delicately treat people. She handled each person differently, but used the same care, as though handling glass or porcelain, because a human heart was the most precious thing of all.

Renny did know better than to simply call him out and say he did not look fine. Instead she shrugged at his question, slipping her hands into the long peacoat she wore, her hands shivering slightly as she snuggled her shoulder against the coat. "Oh..." she said, in a soft, contemplative voice. Usually she would just smile and say 'fine' but her intuition told her to tell him.

"I just had a bit of a row with my little sister," she said sadly. "She seems to loathe the fact that I sincerely care for her safety. She refused to accompany me to Hogsmeade, but what can you do but offer them your love and support, right?" She looked at him and gave a small, sad smile. "So, I've been better." She chuckled. "But it's a nice day. Got to stay positive, eh?"

She glanced around the street. It was rather cold and she had no plans for the day. She thought maybe she could hang out with Rafael for awhile, maybe find out what was wrong. "Do you have any plans for today? Maybe would you accompany me for a cup of coffee or something?" Her bright blue eyes looked up at him through a curtain of bangs.

As the wind glided past, it brought with it the sounds from further up in the village. Stalls were lined up and people were shouting out the prices of this and that and advertising special deals that you weren’t going to get from anywhere else. Rafael loved this aspect of village life – adored it to be precise. It was why he spent so much time in Hogsmeade actually. He loved breathing in the smell of freshly made bread, the unique scent that was simply Honeydukes and of course the people.

Every person that wandered, bustled, stormed or just simply walked past had their own smell. The men were tall, rugged and smelt like whisky and cigar smoke. The women were slightly shorter, more put together and smelt of whatever perfumes were being bought in both the muggle and wizarding worlds.

Of course Rafael didn’t go out of his way to smell anyone; it was just a waft of something, always a waft, never anything more. Renny for example smelt like peppermint and...was that cookie dough? Rafael took a peek at Renny. He averted his eyes and snorted quietly in amusement. Rafael folded his arms over his chest and shivered slightly against the wind, involuntarily voicing his distaste for the chill, “Brrr!” Rafael dropped his arms and rubbed his hands together, trying to encourage them to warm up. Ideally, they would have subsequently warmed up. This was, unfortunately, Rafael’s reality though, so they remained cold.

Rafael’s eyes darted back to Renny when she spoke and he folded his arms back over his chest as she did so. Rafael suddenly found himself feeling rather awkward and well...envious. Renny, although she argued with Piper, had her sister right by her side. When Rafael argued with Jaret over stupid things, or when he shouted at Nicolai, it was down the phone. He had to apologize to them the same way too. He couldn’t read their minds. He didn’t know what they were thinking. There were miles between them and those miles weren’t getting any shorter.

“Siblings, eh? You can’t stand them sometimes but you still love them...no matter what.” He’d tried to lighten his voice somewhat but it still came out flat and weak. Rafael cleared his throat and tried to at least quirk his lips at Renny to show that he was alright. That wasn’t happening, much to his dismay. Rafael sighed and resigned himself to the fact that he’d have to tell her. He was sure that that was what she wanted anyway, though. That thought did make Rafael’s lips twitch slightly and he shook his head, trying to hold back his amusement. It was a female thing. Mynah poked and prodded subtly until she heard exactly what she wanted from their younger siblings. Rafael was upfront about it, firm and concise. If they wanted to tell him, they would. He’d tried Mynah’s method a few times; a movie and some chocolate definitely worked.

So, Rafael relented but in case she wasn’t trying to wriggle his problems out of him, he asked instead. “Do you think we could talk?” he queried, a note of hesitance in his voice. Their voices clashed in the air between them and Rafael felt his cheeks heat slightly. He looked away and shuffled his feet, tucking his hands into the pockets of his coat. “C-coffee would be great actually.” He added with a half-smile. Rafael cocked his head to the left, towards the café that was in no competition with Madam Puddifoot’s across the road. You only went to Madam P’s if you were on a date with a ‘gooey’ girl or just plain old stupid. Rafael shivered as the cold danced across his back and he pursed his lips. “Come on!” he ushered her along, moving abruptly towards her. He took his hands out of his pocket and placed them on her elbows, giving her a slight nudge. “I’ll pay.” He added, deciding to throw caution into the wind.

She knew she was right. When it came to people, Renny was typically right. She was perceptive, she knew when people were hurting, and she was typically great at easing that pain. She knew it was what she had been created to do. Created to help, to save, to protect. She had been given her soft voice, sad eyes, and gentle touch just for that cause.

At his words, and his tone, she knew she had been right and she was close to figuring out what was bothering the boy. Something about mentioning her pig-headed sister had gotten to him. It seemed she was very close, must have had something to do with family, she guessed. Her tender eyes watched his face carefully, searching it for any other clues. Her instincts told her to help.

He asked if they could talk and she felt her mouth moved into a small, warm smiling, trying to encourage him that he had been right to ask. She was a good person to talk to. She took other people's burdens as her own and bore them as such, she kept secrets to an almost ridiculous extent, she was comforting, and she typically wouldn't let you escape unless she had helped you.

"Of course," she said in a kind, melodic voice. He said coffee would be good and proceeded to lead them towards a shop, taking her by the elbow. She shuffled closer, snuggling into her peacoat and her scarf a little more as she went, giving him an encouraging smile.

The prospect of a warm shop and a cup of coffee had momentarily took Rafael's mind off of, well, the possible end to his family. He danced across the cobbles, ducking easily underneath the overhang. He put his hand on the doorknob and twisted it, opening the door for Renny to slip through. He followed her in, letting the door shut behind them.

Rafael cast his eyes across the cafe and found a seat by the window. He put his hand on her elbow once more and pointed to the seats. He gave her a little nudge but turned the opposite way and headed towards the counter. Rafael unwound his scarf from around his neck and exhaled as he met the gaze of the server.

"Can I get two coffees please?" He asked politely. The server nodded and disappeared, muttering something about bringing the drinks over. Rafael exhaled, nodded and turned, heading back over to the seats he'd sent Renny to. Biting the skin below his lip, Rafael took a seat. He dropped his bag and his scarf onto the floor before shedding his coat and letting it fall onto the back of his chair.

"They'll bring the coffee over in a bit," Rafael explained quickly.

Renny glanced up at Rafael as they neared the shop, hoping to peek up and see some of the emotions he was failing to hide, but he seemed focused on getting through the door. He opened the door for her and she stepped inside. Warmth hit her and buffeted her so that she almost reeled back slightly, but she retained her usual poise and stepped in more to allow Rafael ample room to enter.

She felt a touch at her elbow and looked up at Rafael and followed his pointed finger with her eyes, locking on to the seats. She wordlessly nodded, giving him a quick glance of confirmation as he squeezed her elbow gently to let her know he was going to fetch the coffees. She smiled at a few of the people there who had seen her enter and knew her from school, her eyes dancing as she greeted everyone with special care as she did for everyone.

She sat sat at the seats and the warmth goaded her into shrugging off her heavy, woolen peacoat. She folded it and rested it over the back of her seat, before slipping off her scarf and slipping it into one of the pockets of her coat. Rafael came over to the table and, likewise, took off his coat, having already removed his scarf. He sat and she nodded at his words, folding her long, tapered fingers as she looked at him, waiting patiently for his cue.