InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Ow, my thong!"

Megan Elizabeth Baker (megs) wrote in strugglewithin,
@ 2008-11-29 20:47:00

Entry tags:

*complete, august 1997, justin finch-fletchley, megan jones

Date: 26 August 1997
Characters: Megan Jones (Justin, if he wants to)
Location: London, Paris
Status: Private
Summary: Megan runs away.
Completion: Complete

Megan yawned and stretched in her bed. She rolled over in her bed and covered her head with her pillow in an attempt to drown out the knocking sound. It wasn't terribly loud, but just enough to pull her away from what had been a very lovely dream. She'd been having difficulties sleeping with what Justin had told her and the war as a whole, and now her ruddy neighbours had to have builders over at some ungodly hour in the morning. It's not like any amount of money could salvage their taste anyway, so she didn't see why they even bothered. After several minutes of trying to ignored it, Megan finally gave up. Tossing the duvet covers off her body, she slid over to the edge of her double bed and moved her legs over the edge of the bed, sliding her feet into her slippers. Still hearing that irritating sound, Megan turned toward the large side bedroom windows and stopped.

Okay so maybe it wasn't her neighbours. A little confused at the sight of the little own lapping on her winder, Megan headed toward the window, threw open the nearly see-through sash and opened her window to allow the bird entry. It flew past her, landed on the owl perch next to Ivy and started grooming itself. Expecting it to be a letter from Hannah or Susan, Megan walked over to the perch and untied the letter once the bird extended its leg for her. She smiled at it and reached out to stroke the little feathery head. Paying a attention to her own owl then, Megan started to unroll the piece of parchment and slowly read it's content. The colour started to slowly drain out of Megan's face as she read the words on the paper. Expelled.

Reading the letter over a second time, Megan let out a slow sigh and rolled the parchment up. She crossed herself, walked over to the messenger giving it a small owl treat, and then watching it fly out of her window. The second it was gone, Megan ran to her wardrobe, and pulled out her school trunk. It was a standard Louis Vuitton trunk that her parents had given her on her acceptance to Beneden, though Susan had taught her a spell just last year to expand the storage space. Normally she wouldn't have started to pack for a few days, but given what she'd just been sent, Megan wasn't taking any chances. She then ran through her items, looking at the various wizarding and muggle clothing, packing several different items making sure she would have robes if they were going to pretend they were wizards and regular clothing just in case. Before she could put anything away, Megan pulled out all of her school things, save her cauldron, potions ingredients and Charms book, just in case. The few wizarding coins she still had left Megan fished out of her trunk and set them aside.

The rest of the thing she filled with her clothing, makeup, CD player and most things she would need over the next couple of weeks. She wasn't really thinking about what was to lay ahead, all Megan knew was she needed to leave. She hadn't been reading the paper, but her friends, Justin included, had been mentioning the sudden turn against the muggleborns. Maybe they were only going against Justin and Hermione and Harry's friends, but who knew what they would do next. And now that she was expelled? Well, she couldn't very well sit at home and wait could she? Besides it was the only way to be sure that they wouldn't come after her family. Although she felt rushed, Megan knew she had to make it seem like she was going to school, as if everything was normal for the sake of her family, and just in case the Ministry came looking for her. She really wanted to just run, run far away, but that was hardly the right thing to do, and that was so not what Justin had said. At least if he'd been there - Megan shook her head and tossed in the last pair of socks before closing the thing.

Once her trunk was packed, Megan quickly decided on something to wear for the day before changing. It was almost like she was in a dream of sorts and had picked out an outfit, shoes in record time, for her anyway. Taking the few steps over to her bedside table, Megan picked up her wand, and cast a spell on her trunk to make it lighter before tucking her wand, and the galleons into her favourite tote. She picked up her wallet and looked at the contents, making sure she had a couple of pound notes and her credit cards, just in case. Making a mental not to stop by a bank and pull out some cash before arriving in Paris, Megan picked up her mobile to dial her brother. When he didn't answer, Megan left a message, telling him that she would be going to her friends a couple of days before school started and that she would ring him later. Hanging up, Megan put her mobile away before heading toward her desk. Finding her stationary, Megan scribbled a quick note to her parents then folded it up and placed it in one of her envelopes.

Tucking her note into her pocket, Megan walked back over to her owl and gave the bird another treat. She gently rubbed the feathered head and grabbed another treat for her. "Alright, Ivy, you get to go on a little vacation, okay? I can't take you with me today, so I'll need you to meet me in a couple of days, okay?" she said smiling as Ivy hooted in response. Offering her arm for Ivy, Megan gently stroked her head again before lifting her arm so that Ivy could take off. "Have fun!" she called after the bird before she turned back to her things. She grabbed her trunk and purse and headed toward her bedroom door.

Heading down the main stairs dragging her trunk behind her, Megan paused as she saw one of the maids vacuuming the hallway. Waiving to get her attention, Megan waited for her to turn off the vacuum before speaking, "Irenka! Could you give this to my mum when she wakes up? And can you ask Trevor to pull the car around? I'm going to Nottingham so I need him to take me to St. Pancras." Megan asked with a smile as she handed over her envelope for her parents.

"Yes, miss," came the response as the girl ran off to do as she was asked. Whilst she waited for the car, Megan proceeded the final set of stairs down to the ground floor, still dragging her trunk behind her; she had to admit that spell was really pretty brilliant. Depositing her trunk in the foyer, Megan ran into the kitchen, and grabbed herself a couple of bottles of water and an apple for the time being. Tucking the items into her tote, Megan headed back toward the foyer. She smiled at her father's driver as he stood there waiting for her, her luggage in his hand.

"I need to go to St. Pancras?" Megan asked, unsure if the message had been passed on correctly. When Trevor nodded and mentioned that the car was out front waiting for her, Megan smiled. She followed him out the front of her home, down the stairs and to the waiting car, letting the driver handle her case. Getting in, Megan waited patiently for Trevor to finish putting her things away before they were finally off. They arrived at the station less than thirty minutes later thanks to light traffic, although to Megan it almost felt like an eternity. She was trying really hard not to worry, to think about what she was doing, but the more time she sat by herself, the more difficult it was not to think. Maybe it would get easier when she was at her destination. Good God she was running away!

Trying to calm herself, Megan gripped the seat and stared out of the window a moment longer. Taking more deep breaths Megan barely noticed that they'd arrived when Trevor was already opening the door for her. As he gathered his things, Megan checked the time on her watch and frowned ever so slightly. What if she couldn't find him? Deep breaths, and Megan was now hugging the driver goodbye and heading for the main entrance, pushing the trolley he'd acquired for her with her trunk already loaded. Once inside the station, Megan headed immediately for the cash-machine. She wasn't sure what they were doing, where they were staying, but she couldn't go with only a couple of quid, it would have been a stupid thing to do, and besides wasn't tracking cash harder?

She certainly hoped so. She would really have preferred to fly, but that would have been far too complicated and would have required loads of explanations. At least there were plenty of departures. Looking up at the list of scheduled departures, Megan's frown deepened, the last train for the next couple of hours was leaving in only minutes and she didn't even have her ticket yet! Armed with money from her personal account, Megan headed toward the ticket counters and purchased a first class one-way ticket to Paris. It was exciting and scary and completely terrible all at once, but Megan wasn't thinking about that as she walked as quickly as possible toward the platform. Boarding the train, Megan quickly found her seat and stored her trunk away.

Just over two hours later the train pulled into the station and Megan made her way out of the compartment with her trunk. Once she had her things on a trolley, Megan reached for her phone. Biting her lower lip, Megan slowly rocked back and forth on her heels. "Please answer, Justin, please," she whispered into the phone as she impatiently waited for either for him to answer or his voicemail to kick in.

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finch_fletchley
2008-12-07 02:38 pm UTC (link)

Being on the run was boring. Justin didn't want to spend too much time out in the open, so he mostly just sat in his hotel room reading or watching TV. It gave him a lot of time to think, which, he'd decided, wasn't altogether healthy. Worrying might have been a better word for it.

He was doing a fair bit of that at the moment, actually. He wasn't even sure what program was on, but it had become background noise at this point. The mobile ringing snapped him out of hit, and he picked it up to see who was calling now. He'd gotten several from his family, but he'd ignored them all. Hopefully they would just think he was somewhere with too much magical interference for it to work properly.

This time, however, it was Meg. He hoped she was just calling to check in, but he had a feeling it was probably more than that. "Hello," he answered. "Meg? Is everything all right?"

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megs
2008-12-07 03:00 pm UTC (link)

Megan was busy hopping nervously from foot to foot as she waited nervously for Justin to answer his phone. She wasn't entirely sure what she'd do if he wasn't there! When he finally answered the phone, Megan breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh thank God, Justin. I was afraid you weren't going to answer." She said, glancing over her shoulder as she tried not to speak too loudly. She pushed her trolley toward a column so as to get out of people's way and continued into the phone: "I'm here. I mean I'm in Paris. And I'm sorry I didn't call. I just - I didn't know what else to do , I got a letter, you know and they expelled me and I couldn't tell mum or dad or Preston and then I remembered what you said about running to the continent and I did except I dunno what to do now, and I know I should have called and I'm really, really sorry for not dong that but I -" Megan gasped as she tried to slow herself down and take a breath. She was starting to hyperventilate and although she had spent the majority of her ride thinking, it almost seemed as if the shock of the matter were wearing off at that moment, having heard that familiar voice.

"I just thought it would be a really bad idea to say anything before I left, and I mean Expelled?! How could they expel us, it's not just me Just. It's all muggleborns, we're not allowed back, I just know something bad's going to happen!" Megan continued through the tears that were rolling down her cheeks, not giving Justin time to interrupt. "And I - I know it's too much to ask, but can I come see you?"

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finch_fletchley
2008-12-07 04:12 pm UTC (link)

Justin smiled despite himself, it was very good to hear her voice again. It quickly faded however as he listened to her rambling dialog. He hadn't really been keeping up with the Wizarding news since he'd left, which was probably stupid, but he didn't know the Magical districts of Paris. He'd no idea they'd expelled the Muggle-borns from school. Megan sounded completely distraught, and he would have tried to offer a few words of comfort, but she wouldn't let him get a word in edgewise.

"Yes, of course you can! It's not too much at all. I'll be glad to see you," he told her honestly. "I'm staying at the Hotel d'Argenson. I'll meet you in the lobby." Wait, what was he doing? He should be offering to come to her, instead of making her come the rest of the way on her own. "Or I can meet you at the train station, if you'd rather."

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megs
2008-12-07 04:58 pm UTC (link)

Megan breathed a little as she allowed Justin to speak. She wasn't trying to make this difficult, but when he'd asked the words had just come rushing out. Megan wiped the tears from her eyes and shook her head. Then, remembering she was actually on the phone, and not talking to him in person, Megan added "I think it'll be better if I meet you there, just so I don't have to wait here. I can manage and my trunk is really light and I'll be okay getting there, but I'll meet you in the lobby, yeah?" As she was speaking, Megan started pushing her trolley toward the exit of the train station. It really was a good thing her mum and dad had insisted on all of those French lessons when she was younger, or this would have been a million times worse.