Memories like sunshine (OPEN)

[elvishbanana]

Jo shot out of bed, panting and covered in a cold sweat. The sheets wrapped around her torso, a tangled mess of linen. Rubbing her face with one hand, Jo was surprised to find that her face was sticky with remnants of tears. Glad that the curtains were closed for once, she fell back onto her pillow, trying and failing to remember her nightmare.

Jo never cried. Never. The last time she could remember crying had been years ago, after her mother hadn’t recognized her the first time. Jo sighed. She would never be able to get to sleep again. Not after such a dream. Unraveling herself from the sheets took some time, but Jo managed. Jo tied her bathrobe firmly around her waist and shoved her rowan wand in her belt, padding out of the dormitory. Normally, her first stop after a nightmare was the common room- but Jo took one long look at it and decided that tonight, it wasn’t enough. Slipping out was easy enough- wandering the halls without being caught was something else. Still. After six years at Hogwarts, and numerous after-hours adventures, Jo could get around the castle without being seen by anyone. The only truly difficult part was that she never knew where Filch was. He had a habit of popping up without warning, and making Jo’s plans fail.

Jo tiptoed down the stairs, thinking a visit to the kitchens might not be a bad idea. If she happened to run into Seb, the Hufflepuff she’d befriended a few days previously, that might not be so awful, either. The only problem- it was the middle of the night. Jo wrinkled her nose. Keeping to the shadows, she trotted down the Grand Stairase, ears and eyes peeled for Mrs. Norris or Filch. Having reached the bottom of the stairs without incident, Jo considered going outside. She even dared to poke her blond head outside- but the chilly air quickly convinced her that she wouldn’t be able to haunt the lake just then.

Jo padded to the kitchens quietly, her bare feet making only the slightest noise on the stone floor. The kitchens were always awake, always full of cheerful yellow light and tasty smells. Now was no exception- even at the pitch black of night, the place was up and running. Jo sat at one of the tables, summoning a mug of black coffee with her wand. A few house-elves still worked, keeping the furnaces running or sweeping up. None of them paid much attention to the blond Ravenclaw. Jo smoothed out the wrinkles in her dark blue robe, her hair falling over her shoulders. She’d dyed her hair only the day before, and the bright aquamarine streaks stood out against the white-blond of her hair. Jo put her wand on the table next to her mug, rubbing her face. This was one of the few times her hands were clean- normally they were streaked with charcoal or ink or paint or chalk or dye, sometimes all the way up to her elbows. But she always washed her face and hands before bed. Jo had slipped up once, only to find that in the night she’d covered all of her sheets, pajamas, and skin with chalk dust.

The Raveclaw stirred her coffee with her slender wand, sipping and closing her eyes at the taste. It tasted like the coffee she had at home, the good stuff that Julius kept in a bright blue porcelain jar next to the Crock-Pot. Jo imagined her father sipping his own coffee, miles and miles away on the beach at Brighton. She missed him terribly. Julius wrote, of course, and he sent her sunflowers every Saturday morning, her favorite- but it wasn’t the same. He made coffee like no one else could. Jo had tried; she’d copied his every move, but it just never tasted as good as when Julius made it. It wasn’t just the coffee, either. Julius’s touch was like magic with plants, and he could make Jo laugh harder than anyone else could. His attempts at singing made Jo cringe, but he was a good guitar player, and he always smelled like oranges, his favorite fruit. Every summer holiday, Jo went home to Julius, and the two of them had a wonderful time by the beach. But during the school year, with no sea nearby, no good coffee, and no Julius, Jo felt lonely. And what was worse, she couldn’t keep her mother out of her mind. Tara Milner had been in Ravenclaw, just like her daughter. Every time Jo moved back into the dormitory, she wondered if her mother had slept in the same one as a student. She wondered whether her mother had finished her essay on the uses of moonstone in potion-making, or if her mother had mapped out the stars. She wondered whether her mother had fed the giant squid, or played Quidditch, or even just spent all her time in the library. But Jo would never know, and it was driving her mad.

Jo looked down, realizing that she was toying with her charm bracelet again. The bracelet was silver, and had five charms; a silver starfish from her trip to Sydney when she was nine; the letter C in silver, C for Clementine; a bronze rowan leaf from the day she’d bought her rowan wand; a raven charm from when she’d been Sorted into Ravenclaw, and a tiny glass bottle. The bottle was the most precious to Jo- it was like carrying a piece of home around with her. The bottle was only half an inch or so high, and filled to the top with fine white sand, a memento of the last day she’d spent at home before leaving for Hogwarts. Jo and Julius had spent all day on the beach, from sunrise to sunset. Jo had scooped up a handful of sand and poured it into the bottle, and it was her habit to rub it whenever she was worried or pensive. Jo pressed the bottle to her lips, missing her father more than ever.

As she let the bottle drop down to the chain again, the wax sealing the bottle’s cork cracked, and before she could catch it, the charm fell to the floor, and smashed. Sand spilled out over the floor, tiny pieces of glass scattered in between. Jo stared at the floor, close to tears once more. She was unable to move, unable to take her eyes off of the bottle, even when the door creaked open.

OOC: Come on, let's bring the site back!!!