The Wake

"Oh, I'd rather speak to you," she said pulling her to her eyes, "What's it like to be, Hermione Granger's daughter, I mean you're obviously smart, you must be a Ravenclaw!" she said now poking Lily in the chest, rather hard. "I've heard about you, they might be rumours, but what getting in the sack with Scorpious Malfoy, I bet you enjoyed" she said her heart panting.

"But then what bout that McLaggen boy, I knew your dear mother always had the hots for him," she said, now having to sit down, her intoxicated breath nearly making her pass out, "I think you are stupid! I mean we had an eligible boy in the living room for you to date and he's only in his fourth year or something, his perfect for you, actualllllly... I reckon I might set James up with you!" she said clapping in delight!

Lily stared at the girl. So many things wrong with every thing she said. No wonder Ravenclaw had never been an option for her. Lily blinked. "Hermione's my aunt, not my mum. My mum Ginny died a few years back. And I'm in the same House as you. I've asked you for the common room password before... And I haven't ever spoken to Scorpius, let alone romped around with him."

It was at this point that Lily abandoned tact. She had been strong enough not to hex Jessica for the accusation about Malfoy. After her fourth year debacle, Lily hadn't even touched a boy that wasn't family. The poke in the chest wasn't exactly pleasant either, but Lily reminded herself of the location. A wake for Jessica's siblings. She had to keep that in mind.

"My aunt never liked McLaggen. Our families don't even interact." The girl continued on and Lily's face morphed into a shocked expression. "Stupid?" She shook her head. "I'm not looking to date, especially fourth years. It's illegal, since I'm technically an adult." She then continued on, trying to set her up with James. Lily clenched her fists and hissed, "That's my brother-" she wanted to call Jessica a name, but she forced her expression into a strained, twisted smile. "It's alright though. We don't look alike. You must not have heard me call him my brother thirty seconds ago." She smiled too sweetly, the insult so glaringly obvious to her.

Amelia was just frozen there. She didn’t understand. She couldn’t even begin to try to understand. It was so unreal but it was real. This time it wasn’t just her. But why her grandmother? A muggle, it made no sense. Unless Claire was appearing to certain people, but still why them and not Jessica or mum. Where had her mum gone? And Drew? She was too out of it to ask.

After a few minutes she became aware of what was going on. She knew one thing, Jessica was being an idiot. She knew no one else was going to stop her so she should. Even with a pounding headache she care enough of about her sister to stop her from doing something so idiotic that it could come back and haunt her rest of her life. She knew Jessica wasn’t sober and knew she’d get a mouthful but she didn’t care.

“Jessie, will you stop talking. Why don’t you tell Lily about the time Edgar, Claire, Drew, you and I went to the lake up in Scotland and we got stuck on that island in the idle of the lake?” suggested Amelia. She braced herself, she knew that drunks were not always the nicest people nor the smartest, she knew that bracing herself still wouldn’t prepare her but after last time her and Jessica talked she wasn’t sure anything she said hurt anymore. Jessica had already hurt their relationship and Amelia still didn’t understand how the fight had started. She had never said anything about Jessica besides the fact she blames their parents for something that couldn’t have been stopped and that Jessica hadn’t seen Edgar die. Amelia had seen Edgar and Claire die ten times. Only one real time for Edgar and she hadn’t been with Claire. That’s what killed her was the fact Claire was alone when she died, she had no one.

Amelia knew she was in this constant grieving cycle. She’d be better than worst. Most people were able to get out of it after one complete cycle but she couldn’t. At least she could feel her emotions again, which was good. She understood why she lost her temper, it wasn’t the fact she was grieving. She was blaming Jessica for not being there to help Claire, Edgar had a better chance than she did. But the truth was it all lead back to Amelia. If only she had told. She cursed the fact she hadn’t told anyone.

“Thank you Chad,” she whispered. She hated the fact that her astral project did cause mild fainting spells and causes her to see things she ought not to know about. She saw her siblings die over and over in the images but yet hadn’t been able to figure out how to stop it. Maybe she was starting to figure out to use it. Maybe she conjured out Claire.

"Your welcome,"he said helping her sit up, "Let's go somewhere else." He thought he could almost feel glares looking at him, he guessed they were thinking, "He's going to get Amelia when she's down, WRONG" he was just going to let her have a lie down if she needed one. "I think we need to work on channeling your emotions into your Astral Projection's" he said into her ear, he really didn't want anyone to think he was helping her channel her emotions.

"I think we'd be best in a room of quiet, do you have any rooms where we can't be disturbed?"

Amelia knew Chad was trying to help but she didn’t need him to take care of her. She didn’t like being lead around. It wasn’t in the Bones genes to be lead around by anyone. She was her own person. She knew she had to make sure Chad realized he needed to back off some.

“No. If anyone is going to teach me about my Astral Projection it is my mother and thanks for telling the world about it. You can’t do it so how do you know to do it,” she snapped pulling away. She wasn’t about to force herself her astral projection out. She rather sit in Potions class then rather force her body to do something that could be dangerous. “Thank you but I can do it myself if I want. There’s a lot more to it then you know,” she said trying not to sound so harsh. She didn’t want to hurt him but to make a point. She knew that deep down her normal self was making a comeback.

James looked over Lily's way when he was called, but something told him to hold back for just a little bit. He eavesdropped on Jessica and Lily for a bit, finding the conversation almost hysterical, but knowing that he'd have to step in soon to avoid catastrophe.

"You called, sister dear?" James asked, putting emphasis on the title of sister.

He was keeping an eye on Amelia and the young man out of the corner of his eye, seeing some tension there, but not something he felt the need to jump in the middle of. He could only keep his eye on so many family members at once. James could honestly say that he had never been to a wake quite like this one. Some of the situations were getting so hysterical, that he was having a difficult time clamping down on laughter. He felt that to laugh would not be in the spirit of a wake....and if Susan didn't come out of the kitchen soon, he would have to go in and check on her to make sure she wasn't harboring some sort of relief through the salvation of a sharp knife. Then inspiration struck.

"Lily," he said, squeezing her shoulder softly, "I saw Susan go into the kitchen a few minutes ago. Perhaps she needs some help with something, because I haven't seen her return yet."

Nothing to do now, but hope that Lily was in a reasonable mood, and would take the 'out'.

Through all the chaos he managed to briefly scold Amelia, "Don't be so rude, and you..." he said pointing his finger at chad, "I'm watching you" glaring at him. He pulled James away from Jess, she was so drunk she'd just insult him, "Jess, why don't you go sit down?""Glad to finally meet you. I remember my mother mentioning you every now and again when I was a younger gent. I am so sorry to hear about your loss."he heard James said, he shook it back with a firm grip, and casually said, "I've heard a lot about you; thank you, it's a great loss for everyone" he said his tone breaking, he let out a stifled cough, "So, James you'd be graduated? It's seems like a couple years ago I saw you as a two-week-old," he said chuckling, then he turned to face Chad, then turned around again, "Can you keep an eye on him? I never trusted Slytherins" he said through gritted teeth.

Her savior arrived, and she hoped that Jessica would accept her brother's attention over her own. James was much better at dealing with fame-struck people. They always had a good laugh at the women who suddenly became interested in him after his surname was introduced. And though her brother's didn't understand why her tolerance for the fame-seeking was so low, they had always known of it and been gentle with her about it.

"Yes!" she said, turning to him. "I did. Because, ah... Jessica here, wanted to know about the, um, the McLaggens, and I never got a chance to meet them. They lost their son, too, Simon, I believe. But I never met him. So, yes." She smiled widely, attempting to look casual and at ease.

He gave her an out and she gave him a look of pure gratitude, saying, "Right. I'll do that." She smiled at Jessica. "Nice talking to you Jessica!" And she squeezed past them all to find Susan.

The woman was alone and Lily relaxed. At least Susan had known her father as a boy, not a legend. She wouldn't terrorize Lily about her father. "Ms Bo- Susan," Lily said, correcting herself. "Do you need help with anything?"

Amelia glared at her father but kept up her firm stance. Then it hit her, what would be a better idea. She was going to do this just to spite her father, she was pissed and it seemed like it would work. It was entertaining if nothing else.

She randomly kissed Chad. She wanted to take him away to the dining room before someone got the idea to hex him. “You said you wanted to meet my dad, know you did so let’s move on to the Dining Room,” she said pulling on his hand. “But I’m not doing anything with Astral Projection,” she added.

James chuckled, a bit embarrassed when meeting someone old enough to remember him as a baby. He turned to regard Chad at Ernie's request, frowning slightly, perplexed.

"I suppose I could during this wake, but what do you intend to do when they return to school? Can't follow them there," James commented, smiling slightly.

In his experience, by trying to force your child apart from someone, made it more likely that they would cling even harder to that person. If only to spite their parents. It seemed as if James' thoughts were proven true as Amelia whipped around and kissed Chad. James eyes grew big, and his coughed loudly into his hand.

"Erm...I think I hear my sister calling!" James cried, making a mad dash for the kitchen before all hell broke loose.