WHO: Lumos Boot & Lakshmi Patil WHAT: Lumos asks Lakshmi to leave and then makes a phone call... WHEN: April 8, late morning WHERE: Lumos's house
With Terry unsafely on the train, Lumos trudged back into her house to find Lakshmi sitting on the sofa where she’d left her. “Oh, you’re still here,” she said, sliding out of her coat, dropping both it and her handbag unceremoniously on the floor instead of hanging them on the coat tree by the door.
Lakshmi hadn’t moved — far anyway — since last night. It was all she could do to keep herself together while Lumos left to see Terry off to Hogwarts. What if permeated her grieving mind the whole time. Would Clement be waiting for Lumos at King’s Cross?
Weary relief was evident on Lakshmi’s face when Lumos returned home, and she stirred. “I wanted to make sure everything went alright.” Not that she really wanted to leave Lumos alone right now, and further because she was certain she’d break down herself the moment she was good and truly away from her best friend.
“It was fine,” Lumos said, her words flat as she wavered by the door. She didn’t look at Lakshmi now. Having her there last night had made her feel like her skin was much too tight for everything her body contained. It was worse now that Terry was on the train. She felt too much, too defeated, too like she’d let Terry and Byron down by not keeping him safer, too like nothing ever, ever went right for her.
Lumos took a deep breath and made herself look at Lakshmi. “You don’t have to stay.”
“I know I don’t, but—” That thought hung in the air, Lakshmi having cut herself off as she tried to figure out what to say. She was tired, upset, and still feeling sick herself. Looking Lumos in the eyes as well to assess her friend’s state for herself, Lakshmi sagged a little with an exhaled breath. “I didn’t just want to take off and leave you alone, either.”
“I’ll be fine,” Lumos said, still flatly. She looked away now, down at her feet. “I want to be alone, honestly.”
Sizing her best friend up and wondering if it was the right decision to leave her alone in the wake of Byron’s murder and Terry leaving for Hogwarts, Lakshmi found she had no answer. What did people do in this sort of situation? Was it safe to leave Lumos alone right now? She pressed her lips together in a thin line in thought.
But she couldn’t deny Lumos her privacy to grieve, either. “Okay,” she said softly, and pushed herself to her feet, not bothering to smooth down her wrinkled clothing. “Okay, but if you need anything please hext me?”
“I will,” Lumos said, looking up at Lakshmi again. She wouldn’t. Because what she needed was for none of this to be real and Lakshmi couldn’t provide that. She roughly tucked a stray curl behind her ear. “Thank you for staying last night.”
“Thank you,” said Lakshmi, moving towards the front door and thus closer to her friend. “And you’re welcome, I’ll always be here if you need me.” She hesitated after picking up her own hand bag from where she’d left it near the door last evening, and then once more gave Lumos a gentle hug.
Lumos returned the hug halfheartedly and stepped out of it too soon. “I know,” she said. “I really appreciate it.”
The quick pull away would have stung, but Lakshmi was unable to find the strength for further emotions. She nodded, muted for a while as she made sure she had all her belongings. “I love you.”
She then followed her friend’s wishes, and left.
Finally alone, Lumos sank into the wall, resting her head against it while she tried to figure out what she was supposed to do next. Byron hadn’t even been there a week, but his presence was still scattered around her house. He’d been something to her since they were eleven and now he was gone.
Tears slipped down her cheeks and she trudged over to the sofa, sinking into the cushions. His phone was still plugged into the charger she’d numbly hooked it up to the night before. The screen was strewn with missed calls and hexts that he would never read.
It was unfair.
She didn’t know why, but she thought of a few months ago and the picture Byron’s father had sent him and her asking Byron about it. She’d asked for his father’s number so she could give her a piece of his mind and Byron had refused. There’d been more to the conversation, but all that stuck out to her was how frustrated she’d been with his father, for treating Byron poorly and for setting the worst example for him.
Byron wasn’t there to stop her now. And she wanted someone to feel as terrible as she did, someone to know what it was like to have let so much time go by without saying or doing something. And if there was anyone who had wasted as much time as she had, it was Byron’s father.
So before she or Byron’s voice could stop her, Lumos scooped up Byron’s phone and skimmed through his contacts until she found his father, tapping the call button almost immediately. She hadn’t expected him to answer so quickly, but she’d already made up her mind.
“Hello, Quentin? It’s Lumos,” she said, her voice firm and unforgiving. “There’s something I want to tell you.”