Author: Lyta Padfoot
Category: General
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of J.K. Rowling. Characters and situations are used without permission, no infringement is intended.
Summary: Penelope Clearwater and her cousin play and plot together.
* * *
The girl pressed her face against the window until her breath fogged the glass and she had to wipe it clean with her sleeve to look out. There was a funny man dressed in a purple cloak, a green terrycloth bathrobe and a pair of bunny slippers searching amid the rubbish bins.
"What are you staring at?" her cousin hissed in her ear. Brian did not like girls and thought having to spend Christmas in a household that contained nothing but girls was a fate worse than death. At least Penny, the oldest, was not as bad as her sisters; she shunned everything pink and frilly and did not mind going outside to act out stories.
She pointed. "That man."
"He's wearing purple?" Brian exclaimed in disbelief. He moved to the window to stand behind Penny.
Penny bit down on her lip to keep from giggling. "You used a pink towel for a cloak last week."
Brian scowled at her. "It was a red towel. It just faded a bit in the wash."
Penny fixed him with her best 'if you say so' look - the one she usually reserved for her sisters when they tried to tell her that she was imagining things when she asked them to account for the lack of socks in her dresser. Unfortunately, the look was wasted on Brian, Penny didn't know him as well as her sisters and it was hard to settle on a means of retaliation.
She faced the window again just in time to watch as the strangely dressed man winked out of existence, exactly like the magician at the show. Penny rubbed her eyes and decided she must have blinked.
"Do you think he was soused?" she asked, turning to her cousin. She didn't really know what the word meant, but her father often referred to people who did strange things as being soused. Once, after Auntie Ethel's wedding, he had used that word to describe her mother. She had been very giggly, Penny recalled, almost as bad as Bessie and Helen.
"Probably," Brian said with all the authority an eight-year-old could muster.
"Are you bored now?" she asked.
"Yes. You?"
"Yes?"
"What do you want to do?"
"Want to have a horse race again?" she suggested. The good thing about having Brian visit was that he liked to do some interesting things. He was much more fun than her sisters - at least most of the time.
"All right."
"Go get the brooms and meet me in the hall leading to the garage."
"Why?" Brian asked. "It's cold there."
"If we have the race anywhere else the adults will hear," Penny explained. She took a deep breath and looked him right in the eye as she continued. "And so will my sisters. Do you want Helen and Bessie to bother us?"
Both children shuddered at this thought.
"I'll get the brooms," Brian said.
"I'll bring our coats."
"See you there."