Monsoon Wings

Juno Emily was currently on her stomach on her bed, flipping over the pages of an old tattered photo album. Her room was located in the center—between the main bedroom and Jayden’s. The walls separating the rooms were thin, and Juno could indistinctly hear Jayden opening and closing his table drawers next door.

She flipped to page three. It was the black-and white photo of her two-year old self sitting on a roundabout, a blond tall woman next to her, waving and smiling. The photo of the roundabout was moving, as it always does in the magical world; and the two-year-old Juno and her Mum were laughing in jubilation.

She sighed. Had her Mum not passed away, maybe she could have a happy perfect family by now.

In the next room, Jayden cursed.

Juno was used to it, anyway. The street in front of her house was never deserted. There were nights when she couldn’t sleep because of the noise. Like, kids laughing and screaming.

‘Juno, there’s a package for you. It’s from Olivia,’ called her father from downstairs.
Juno quickly got up. Her house was located directly in Diagon Alley, a grumpy small building. Her father—Luke Emily—runs a toy shop in the first floor of the building. Juno descended the narrow wooden stairs, which creaked and groaned with her every step. She almost stumbled and fell down at the last step. Klutz movement of the evening.

She arrived directly at the doorway to the shop. Her father was locking the bars outside magically and turning off the lights of the shop. ‘On the table,’ he said.

Juno walked towards the table not far from the stairs, and got hold of a small package and a letter beside it. She ripped open the package excitedly and found something small and black. It had a nozzle at one end, but it was nothing like torches or lighters. There were no buttons to press, or any movable part. She clicked her tongue. Olivia always loves queer things. She put the queer thing on the table and opened the letter.

Dear Juno,
This is an All-Burner. Bought it for you. Some bloke kept rattling to me about it on my way back to the hotel, and I had no choice but to buy it. He said the fire it creates is very strong and waterproof, and it burns all kinds of elements—bricks, silver, gold, burning them to ash. I don’t know how to operate it, but perhaps you could try! Africa is awesome. We stayed in a small hotel for witches and wizards. I arrived back home this morning.
Oh, btw, will you watch the World Cup tomorrow? We’re sort of late, Harry and the others had contacted me; they are all at the Burrow already. Even Hermione is there. Mr Weasley has bought the tickets for us. I’ll come to pick you tomorrow morning and we’ll go straight to the Burrow and together, we’ll walk to watch the World Cup. So wake up earlier tomorrow. I’ll pick you and Jayden at four.

Love, your best friend Olivia Wince

p.s. Percy’s got a job at the Ministry of Magic. I don’t actually know the details, but he was having a go at his parents.

Jayden had descended the stairs. You can’t call him a geek—he’s too cute to be called it. You can’t call him cool, either: he always tumbles here and there. With his brown eyes, and unkempt brown hair, Jayden Rocky was cute, but—what’s the perfect word?—girly.
‘So Olivia’s home, isn’t she?’ asked Jayden, scratching his brown hair.

‘Jayden!’ Juno slapped his back excitedly, which made him jump in surprise. ‘Tomorrow we are going to watch the World Cup! Isn’t that great?’She turned to her father, who was stocking things up in the shop for tomorrow’s business. ‘Daddy, can we go? Olivia’ll pick us up tomorrow.’

‘Who else will be coming?’ asked her father.

‘Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Mr. Weasley, Hermione, Ginny, Olivia, and—well, that’s it. Oh Daddy, can we go? I’m with Jayden. It’ll be fine. Daddy!’ It’s always a hard job assuring her father.

‘Okay, honey,’ her dad smiled. ‘Now both of you better go up, I’m closing the doorway.’

‘Yayyyy!’ Juno and Jayden shouted with glee, dancing around. Then they walked up the stairs again.

‘Juno, I have something for you,’ Jayden said, bringing her to his room. His room was at the end of the hall. They both walked into his room, the floorboards creaking all the time. It’s hard to feel silence in this building. Then he proudly showed her a blue-sky sweater.

‘What do you think?’ he asked proudly. ‘I knitted it for you.’

‘It’s nice!’ she cried, hugging him. ‘But why are you giving me a sweater in August? You should’ve given it in winter.’ Juno took the sweater, and walked in front of the mirror. She put the sweater in front of her body and turned here and there, wanting to see how she would look in that sweater from all sides.

‘Well—I just want to give you things, can’t I?’ Jayden blushed. ‘I chose blue because it matches your eyes.’

Jayden is so kind to me, Juno thought. ‘You knitted this?’

‘Yes,’ he replied proudly, shoving his chest out. Magically, he added inside. ‘You should wear it. It gets cold sometimes, too, even during the summer.’

Juno hugged the sweater and nodded, beaming at him. ‘Well, we’ll better get ready. We’ll wake up at three tomorrow. Olivia’ll come at four.’

‘Okay.’