Stay awake
Get a grip and get out, you’re safe
From the weight of the world. Just take
A second to set things straight.
I’ll be fine
Even though I’m not always right.
I can count on the sun to shine.
The dedication takes a lifetime
But dreams only last for a night.
Holly Wood stepped off the Hogwarts Express with a feeling of anticipation. She would be at her best friend’s (and now boyfriend) house for an entire week! She never thought that the gang would stay together after Hogwarts, but she had hoped and dreamed. And that dream had come true.
Jack Dawson was the next one off the train. “Mum!” he yelled, spotting his mother standing a few yards away, to the left of the train.
Mrs. Dawson had an arm protectively wrapped around her eleven year old daughter Elisha. Elisha was one of the first students off of the train; typical first year. The petite blonde girl broke free from her mother’s grasp and rushed into the throng of students so that she could hug her brother.
“Jackie!” Elisha said cheerfully.
Jack smiled as he drew his arms around her. Because of the age difference, they never really saw each other around the school. They were very close, though. “Ellie!”
“Alex, do you need a hug?” Holly questioned, looking at her other friend.
Alex Williams was leaning against the train, his arms crossed and his hair half in his eyes. Alex always put on an air of being too cool to care about anything. He swished his head to get a strand of honey-blond hair out of his eyes. “I’m fine, Wood,” he replied.
That didn’t stop Jack, though. He gently nudged Elisha towards Holly to keep her out of the way of students getting off the train before walking over to Alex and throwing his arms around his neck.
Alex grimaced. “Jack, Mrs. MacMillan might see.”
“So?”
“So she already thinks you’re…interested in me.”
“Oh. Right.” Jack let go.
“Right on time, too,” Zack Macmillan said, getting off the train. “My mum’s coming over.”
Zack’s mum appeared to the right of where the gang (plus Elisha Dawson) was standing. “Zackary, it’s wonderful to see you. Especially after you conveniently forgot to write to us for the past two months.”
Zack smiled sheepishly but walked over to hug his mother all the same. “Holly’s going to stay with us.”
“Mhm,” Mrs. Macmillan said. “And what is the deal there?”
“If Norah and Maria stayed as well,” Zack recalled. “But they are. So it’s a winning situation.”
“Auntie Meaghan wrote me to say that the girls would be a day late, because they have a prior commitment,” Mrs. Macmillan said. “So that means that it would be an entire night in the house with myself being the only other woman in the house. And I retire to bed early.”
“Oh, but you can trust me, Mrs. Macmillan.” Holly smiled earnestly. “I promise to be a perfect gentlewoman.”
“You know very well that it’s not you I worry about, dear,” Mrs. Macmillan said. She directed her gaze towards Zack and Alex. “It’s those two that trouble me.”
“Hey!” Jack yelled. “What about me?”
Mrs. Macmillan grimaced. “Jack, dear, you know that I’m not overly concerned about you and Holly.”
Jack scowled. “Really now? This is what I get? One time! One time I say Alex looks good as a friend and you never let me forget it!”
“Dear, we all saw you hug Alex just a few moments ago,” Mrs. Macmillan said sadly.
“Oh, my God.” Jack threw his hands in the air. “Elisha, come on. Let’s find Mum. You don’t need to hear this.” He ushered his sister away to his own mother.
--------------------------------
“Jack, how was the ride here?” Mrs. Dawson asked. “Did you make it alright?”
“No, Mum, we were attacked by a band of Death Eaters. But we fought them off ourselves, so no worries there. And then the conductor almost lead us off a cliff. But he swerved just in time,” Jack said sarcastically. “What could have happened?”
Mrs. Dawson laughed. “Oh, I missed your wit, Jackie,” she said. “Uh-oh.”
“What?” Elisha looked up at her mum.
“Jack has that questioning look in his eyes,” Mrs. Dawson said warily. “Jack, what do you want?”
“I was wondering if I could spend the week at Zack’s house,” Jack explained. “Holly and Alex would be there, too, and so would Zack’s cousins, Maria and Norah.”
Mrs. Dawson looked quickly at Alex, then turned her stare back to her son. “Oh, my God!” Jack yelled.
“What?” Mrs. Dawson asked.
“Not my own mother too!” Jack exclaimed.
Mrs. Dawson looked at her son with a perplexed look on her face. “Jack, I’m not sure if I follow? I was just wondering why he was all by himself without his family.”
“Oh,” Jack said slowly. “Well. Then never mind. So can I?”
“I don’t see a problem with it,” Mrs. Dawson agreed. “So you can go. Are you going there now?”
“I assume we’ll Apparate from here,” Jack explained. He hugged his mother. “See you in a week!” He set his hand on Elisha’s shoulder. “No magic outside of school,” he instructed. He pulled his wand out of his pocket and conjured a pink balloon. He handed it to Elisha. “I’ll see you later.”
“No magic outside of school!” Elisha giggled as Jack walked away to join Holly and Zack.
-----------------------------------
“Alex.”
The boy in question turned to the right. He groaned. “Go away. Better yet, go home.”
McKayla Williams shook her head. “Mum and Dad couldn’t come, but--”
“What a surprise,” Alex said in a bored voice. “I’m going to Zack's for a week. I’ll see you after that. Buh-bye.”
“Alex,” Michaela groaned. “Don’t do this. Come home! We haven’t seen you since last summer, seen as you rudely decided to stay home for the Christmas holidays.”
Alex cocked his head. He unfolded his arms and folded his hands in front of his chest. “Let’s see.” He pretended to think. “Spend the week with my best friends, or go home to my abusive father and alcoholic mother. What seems to be the right decision to make? Proper logic prohibits me from considering the latter.”
“Alex, they’ve gotten better!” Michaela sounded exasperated. “Mum’s in a twelve-step program, and Dad…He’s better, I promise.”
“How can you stand by them?” Alex spat. “A twelve-step program can't help her, haven’t you realized that? And I’ll believe it when I see it. Look at you! You look like you’re recovering from a black eye.”
McKayla shook her head, her hair falling across her left eye a bit. “I tripped,” she mumbled.
“Into his fist?” Alex laughed dryly. “Come with us. I’m sure Mrs. Macmillan would love to have you.”
“Don’t do me any favours. I need to stay with them,” Michaela said coldly. “Someone has to, since their own son deserted them.” She spun around and disappeared with a pop!
Alex walked over to where Zack, Holly, and Jack stood with the addition of Maria and Norah MacMillan. He knew that they had been watching the confrontation between him and his sister, no matter how animatedly they were talking now. “I can come,” he said as if they believed no different.
“Awesome.” Zack grinned. “There’s just one problem. Maria and Norah are going to be a day late because of a ‘prior commitment’.”
“I told you!” Norah cried. “We’re painting the basement of the house down the street for a study group!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Zack said. “Why would you paint the Muggle way when your parents can get it out of the way magically? Then you can come today!”
“Because Dad’s a Muggle and doesn’t believe in using magic?” Maria supplied.
“Whatever,” Zack said. “The point is, Mum might not let Holly come if she’ll be the only girl.”
Alex’s face didn’t betray the thoughts that began racing in his head. The last time he had gone home to his family over a holiday, the summer before this one, he had returned to school with a black eye and a bruise on his forearm. He didn’t want to go back to that. He couldn’t go back to that.
“Mrs. Macmillan,” he said, walking over to the woman, “can’t we please come? I promise that Zack and I will try absolutely nothing concerning Holly.” He knew better than to get into a debate with Mrs. Macmillan on Jack; she had her mind made up about him.
“Well…” Zack’s mother pondered for a moment. “Holly can’t go home. And I suppose that if you have nowhere else to go--don’t look at me like that, I saw you and your sister--then you would be welcome at our house. And it wouldn’t be fair to leave Jack out. Fine, fine, you can all come today.”
“Yippee!” Jack cheered, jumping up and down. “I mean, that’s cool.” He quickly composed himself.
“Let’s go, let’s go,” Mrs. Macmillan instructed. She waved her wand at the kids’ trunks. They floated over to the group. “Everyone, take your trunk. Maria, Norah, I’ll see you tomorrow. Early, I hope?”
“Yeah,” Norah said with a smile. “Early. Wouldn’t want Zackary to get any ideas.” She looked pointedly at Holly as she said this.
Mrs. Macmillan looked suspicious. “What aren’t you telling me, Zackary?”
“He’s going out with Holly!” Jack blurted out.
Alex snickered. “Way to go, Dawson.”
Mrs. Macmillan turned to Zack. “Zackary Walter Macmillan!” She ignored Alex’s laughing at Zack’s middle name. “How could you not tell your own mother something like this? It’s not even the gang coming over; it’s Alex, Jack, and your girlfriend now!”
“Erm, Mum, we’re still the gang,” Zack mumbled. “Holly and I are just going out.”
“Yes, and what’s next?” Mrs. Macmillan asked. “I don’t even want to go there with you. Just… Just don’t let anything happen that you might regret, okay?”
Jack seemed to be utterly fascinated by the ground under his feet. Alex whistled absentmindedly. Norah studied the fingernails on her right hand. Maria tried desperately not to laugh at Holly, her cousin, and her aunt.
“Well, Mrs. Macmillan, you have my assurance that nothing will happen,” Holly stammered. “Trust me. Really. Please!”
Maria lost her battle; she began laughing so hard that tears streamed down her face.
Mrs. Macmillan appeared to ponder this for a moment. “Oh, alright. I trust you, Holly.” She eyed her son. “You, on the other hand…”
“Mum!” Zack yelled.
~*~
“So, this is the famous Macmillan house,” Jack said as he set his trunk down in the foyer. “It’s pretty!”
The front door had a glass window at the top of it. The floor of the front hall had a dark green, almost black-looking, carpet that stretched to the kitchen, which was floored with tiles of linoleum. There was a staircase that sat to the right of the front door that led to the bedrooms. The living room was attached to the kitchen; there was a large television set in it, considering Zack’s mum was a Muggle, and a couple of tables. The sofas bordered the walls, and a ceiling fan with an attached lamp spun from the slanted ceiling.
Alex walked into the parlor and collapsed onto one of the sofas. “Yeah, I could get used to this.”
Zack’s father walked into the room. “You’re not my son,” he said simply. “Eh, wouldn’t be the first time.”
Jack walked into the room. “Ernie, my man!”
“That’s Mr. Macmillan to you.” Mr. Macmillan rolled his eyes. “You’re staying…again…I take it?”
“That’s right! Miss me?” Jack asked.
Alex looked at Zack, who had entered the room as well.
“Jack likes to spend half the summer here, you see,” Zack explained. “He likes to consider himself on a first-name basis with my father. It doesn’t exactly work that way.”
“I’m just saying,” Jack said, “that if I have to call him ‘Mr. Macmillan’, the least he can do is call me ‘Mr. Dawson’.”
“You would think so, wouldn’t you?” Mr. Macmillan nodded. “Yeah. No.”
Mrs. Macmillan entered the parlor with Holly. “Ernie, we have a new addition to this week’s stay. This is Holly. Holly Wood.”
“Like the Muggle city in America?” Mr. Macmillan asked.
Holly grimaced; she hated when people made that assumption. “Like the daughter of Oliver Wood, Quidditch player and family-leaving bastard extraordinaire.”
Mr. Macmillan’s mouth widened into an ‘o’ shape. “Huh. I didn’t know he had a family.”
“Oh, no one really does,” Holly snapped. “Because he left when I was six.”
Jack’s jaw dropped. “Soooo…Who’s up for a Exploding Snap? It’ll pass the time until dinner!”
~*~
Later that night, around about ten o’clock, the gang lay under the stars in Zack‘s backyard. A full moon shone above them, illuminating the grass and casting eerie shadows through the yard. Jack had his eyes closed, his hands clasped behind his head. “This is nice, isn’t it?” he asked.
“It really is,” Holly agreed. “So amazing.”
“Stop looking at Zack when you say things like that,” Jack reprimanded, not bothering to open his eyes.
“Man, it’s scary how you can do that,” Alex said from where he sat, leaning against a tree. “Really creepy sometimes.”
“You just wish you had my level of intuition,” Jack stated.
“Sure. Something like that.”
“Guys, it’s freezing,” Holly said, sitting up. “We should go inside. I know a great movie that’s on tonight.”
“What?” Alex asked.
“A story represented in moving pictures.” Holly smiled.
“I know what it is!” Alex snapped. “I was just asking which one it was!”
“Oh. Well then.” Holly laughed. “It’s about a girl named Elizabeth and her sisters, Mary, Lydia, and Jane. It takes place in, like, seventeenth century England and whatnot. So, Elizabeth knows this guy named Mr. Darcy--”
“Stop.” Alex held up a hand. “Sounds boring.”
“We’re watching it, so suck it up,” Zack said, standing up.
“You only want to see it because Holly does,” Alex muttered. Zack slapped him on the back of the head. “Thanks! Thanks, man.”
~*~
Halfway into the movie, Alex was dozing on the sofa. Jack was sitting less than two inches away from the television, his legs pulled up to his body with his arms wrapped around them. Zack lounged in the armchair, and Holly sat on the arm of his chair, leaning on him.
“I guess he didn’t like it after all,” Holly whispered, gesturing to Alex.
“Shhh!” Jack ordered.
“Sorry!” Holly said quietly, stifling a laugh.
Zack rolled his eyes. “This is a total chick flick, Hol. I can’t believe you’re making us watch it. Should’ve waited for Norah and Mar; they’d like this.”
Holly’s jaw dropped. “This is a classic, my friend!”
“Sorry!” Zack said. “It’s just, well, boring to someone of the male species.”
“You just cost yourself big time, man,” Alex mumbled. Apparently he wasn’t as heavily asleep as the others thought.
“Huh?” Zack asked.
“You just wait,” Alex said. “You just wait.”
“SHH!” Jack snapped.
“Sorry!"
Stay Awake by ringobeatlesfan4
Story Notes:
Substance Abuse warning is for much later in the story; chapter five or so.
Chapter Notes: This picks up later in the day that DLJY left off. Lyrics in the beginning are from Stay Awake (Dreams Only Last for a Night) by All Time Low. I’d like to thank my so-fabulous-words-cannot-describe-her beta, Russia Snow! She’s given me a load of help on my usage of Americanisms… Which are probably my downfall as a Harry Potter fanfiction writer. She also put up with my insane writing style Anyway, here ‘tis!
Chapter Endnotes: Review, please! Thanks for reading! Also, there are seven chapters planned, so six left! Chapter two is written and will be submitted as soon as it's beta-ed. {BeccA}