This was a bad idea. [Henleys]

[Shawn Henley]

Shawn Henley had never been the planning sort. This was true for his career; which was unaccomplished, his finances; which were unimpressive, and his home; which (as of last weekend) was unaccounted for.

As he trudged up the concrete outer steps to a small apartment building in East Hogsmeade, wet sneakers making uncomfortable squishing sounds in the puddles as he went, it suddenly occurred to him to wonder if anybody would even be home.

It was the middle of the day after all, weekend or not.

He considered for a moment turning back.

Of course, what would be the point in that?

Reaching the top landing and wiping his hand, which was wet from the icy railing, on his jeans, Shawn peered at the small numbers etched into the 6 identical wooden doors. 2, 3, 4… Ah. There it was. Number five.

There was no little window to check his reflection in, so he did his best to blindly tame his blond hair, overdue for a trim as it was. He pulled his grey woollen beanie off his head, ruffled the greasy strands with his fingers until they fell somewhat symmetrically on either side, then jammed the beanie straight back on to protect his ears from the cold. If he’d been able to see his reflection, he would have seen that he hadn’t changed anything at all.

He paced back and forth for a few steps, rocking from one heel to another and listening to the damp squeaks of his feet. This was stupid. Shawn Henley was not the type of man to get nervous. In fact, his lack of nerves was practically his trademark. It sure had been in highschool, that one time Jackson had dared him to…

Okay. He had to stop this. He was stalling.

With a shake of his head and a squaring of his shoulders, he took two steps forward and knocked firmly on the door. oh damn this was a bad idea

With an eager smile plastered across his face, ready to break into a grin the moment the door opened before him (and really, the smile was only half fake. He was looking forward to seeing his siblings again, despite his trepidations), he waited.

Just keep smiling…It’ll be fine…this was a bad idea

[Sam Henley]

[Shawn Henley]

Oh

Staring at the ever-so-vaguely familiar girl in the doorway, Shawn was momentarily taken aback. He’d just assumed Josie would be there to greet him. Maybe she’d answer the door, or perhaps one of the other two would, but Josie was still supposed to be right there. Being Josie, she’d probably squeal and bounce around for a minute or two, in which time his other two siblings would realize who he was and…

That wasn’t quite the way things were panning out, was it?

The woman in front of him was attractive, and it shocked him how much he’d been expecting a little girl in her place. Sammy looked both exactly as he’d imagine a twenty-something year old Sammy Henley to be, and nothing like it at all.

It was only then that he realized she seemed slightly annoyed, as if she were too distracted to bother being angry. What she had to be angry about he wasn’t sure. All that he was sure of, was that she didn’t recognize him in the slightest.

“Heyyy Sammy.” He drawled sheepishly, a crooked smile working its way across his features. “It’s uh…it’s Shawn.”

He wanted to kick himself for sounding so stupid, but really, what else could he say?

As if speaking it out loud suddenly made him realize that God, this is my little sister, Shawn couldn’t help but grin. As a matter of fact, he barely controlled the impulse to grab her by both shoulders and pull her into an enthusiastic hug.

At the moment, she didn’t look like the kind of person who would appreciate that.

[Sam Henley]

[/size]

[Shawn Henley]

The moment that Sammy recognized his name, cold nerves began to grow in the pit of Shawn’s stomach. In that brief pause between recognition, exclamation, and throwing herself into an enthusiastic hug; Shawn imagined he saw a myriad of emotions play across her features. She wasn’t happy to see him. She wanted to know what he was doing here. She didn’t even remember who Shawn was.

Then he was stumbling backwards as she launched herself into his arms.

With an easy laugh, Shawn lifted her up into an affectionate bear hug before ungracefully setting her back on the floor. By the time they broke apart, Shawn felt as if they’d never left L.A at all.

He grinned with a slightly perplexed look in his eyes as Sammy peered down either end of the street before shiftily tugging him into the apartment. Apparently all of the Henley girls had that hyper-adorable-weird thing going on. A gene that Shawn had clearly missed out on.

Following his sister into a bright, cheery little kitchen, he had to admire what he saw. The place was larger than it looked from the outside (charmed, probably he thought), and even thought the kitchen looked a little small to accommodate 3 young adults and the home was hardly luxurious, they seemed incredibly well-off for such young people. It made him inordinately happy to think of his siblings leading such a great-looking life.

“Yeah, I could sure use one.” He responded when she offered him a drink, naturally assuming she was referring to a beer. “It was a hell of a commu-”

Shit. Oh shit.

Where was his bag?

Trailing off mid sentence and glancing back towards the door with the panicked look of someone who knew that what they were looking for wasn’t going to be there, Shawn’s face must have appeared quite comical as it dawned on him that he’d left his belongings in the atrium of the Ministry.

You idiot.

Not wanting to put a damper on the good mood though, he turned back to his sister with an embarrassed smile. “I uh…I just realized I forgot my stuff.” He muttered disbelievingly before suddenly seeming to brush the issue aside with a self depreciating laugh and a lazy shrug.

“Ah well, nothin’ but a few work papers anyway. I’ve got copies.” You idiot

The whole situation seemed to amuse him greatly, and after another disbelieving chuckle at his own expense, he moved onto a different topic with a crooked smile crinkling the corners of his eyes.

“So. Where the hell do I start? You look great Sammy. How are you? How’re Kyle and Josie?”



[ooc|| Yeah…I totally didn’t forget that he should have had a duffle bag. Not at all. This was purely intentional character development. *cough*
Though now that I think of it, it’s pretty fitting xD]

[Josie Henley]

[/i] just outside the door, followed by another crashing noise, which was caused by Josie all but falling up the stairs on their front porch and then also tripping on her own feet and falling into the door rather than opening it like a normal person would. She stood up, brushed herself off, and checked to make sure that she hadn't squished her hamster, who was taking her usual residence in Josie's hair. After straightening jacket (and all of this was probably visible to her two siblings via the large window next to the door), she inhaled deeply and opened the door for herself. She dropped her bag on the ugly armchair in the living space and skipped happily back to the kitchen, where she promptly launched herself at her older brother.

"A bunch of Weasleys told me there was a tall looking American guy looking for me while I was buying stuff I don't need!" She announced happily, bouncing up and down as she spoke. She had been fairly certain that the Weasleys (she wasn't sure which but she thought it was maybe the Granger-Weasley kids, but they could be so hard to tell apart, really) were just talking about Kyle, but that had seemed odd to her considering that most people around here knew Kyle by this point in time, and these Weasleys had seemed particularly flummoxed at the mysterious stranger's arrival. Probably they had figured out he was another Henley sibling and were confused because they didn't know there were so many of them, but it wasn't really like they were in a position to be judgmental about how many siblings somebody else had.

"What brings you to our side of the pond?" She asked with a broad grin, all but dancing to the other side of the kitchen where she deposited Goliath in a mug that was on the drying rack. The hamster had a tendency to wander, so normally Josie just kept her close by, but it could be disorienting when your bedroom was bouncing up and down and being hugged, and she might have been squished if she had left her in her jacket pocket. Josie was pretty sure that Kyle would have a fit if he knew that she stored her pets in the clean dishes, but she didn't really care right now.
[/size][/ul]

[Sam Henley]

[/b] She placed her fingers on her forhead and rubbed as if warding off a migraine she turned back to her brother.

"You do realize this isn't alchohol right bro? Although something Josie, you could lead to me to a drink. Don't worry I haven't drunken anything recently," Sammy had to reassure her sister she wasn't drinking. Granted that was a lie, considering about a week ago she was totally smashed, but they didn't know that, did they? Sammy shook her head, unable to recollect if they do know that trip or not.

Sometimes Sammy didn't know if she loved her family as much as she claimed or not.[/ul][/size]

[Josie Henley]

[/i] and fourthly, you couldn't get me to enforce a cage rule if you tried and you know it.[/b]" She rattled off the list while poking around the kitchen as Sammy informed Shawn that there was no alcohol in the house, which was pretty much surely a lie.

"Whatever, I have fancy wine, I got it for your birthday but since Shawn's here we should celebrate." She said, pulling the bottle out from the pantry. "And since when do you not drink? Or are you just saying that cause Shawn's here? I don't think he's passing judgement on you or anything, right?" She asked her brother with a dazzlingly sunny smile. Her idea was slightly hindered by the fact that there really weren't any clean wine glasses except for the one she'd stuck her pet in. She wasn't exactly hoity toity upper class material, but she also wasn't going to drink very nice wine out of a mug, either.[/size][/ul]

[Kyle Henley]

Indeed, Kyle had been away from the house for a while, mostly because he had not only been working at the printing department at the Daily Prophet. But he had also been interviewed to be of the new writers of the political column, which was now only available to read if the reader had charmed the page with a very specific spell. Thus, methodically avoiding controversy with the purists and still being able to print issues of the newspaper which actually contained the truth, even if it was hidden. Though it seemed to be, metaphorically, what was going on at the moment – the Purists were hiding any information that could put muggleborns, halfbloods and ‘blood traitors’ in good light. For example Hogwarts academic results for the year 2020, which Kyle had been currently investigating as it was the year that, statistically, muggle borns achieved a better average grade for their NEWTs – though most of that information ‘mysteriously vanished’. After leaving Hogwarts, Kyle’s career had steered towards Quidditch, mostly at the time when the siblings needed money before they left for America and he seemed to have no other choice. Kyle’s true passions were History and Politics, and any opportunity he had to work with either would not go unnoticed by the former Ravenclaw.

The ice cold breeze caught Kyle on his way back to his house; who had now realised it was a bad idea to go outside without a jacket. The road leading towards his house was mostly cobbled and unsurprisingly empty – since it was a Sunday and people were mostly sleeping, resting, visiting family, or doing a bit of all three. As Kyle had arrived in front of his house, a smile formed across his lips, which were pretty much blue from the cold. The reason he was smiling was because the lights were on in the house, meaning Sammy was up or Josie had come back from town. This meant he could give them the coffees he had in the holder in his arms and the sweets in the plastic bag he had rested on the other. The two girls had been through a lot since coming back from America- particularly Sammy – whose writing had been taking over, keeping her restless and making her stay up ridiculous hours. So seeing her up and having an opportunity to try and lift her spirits up was something he was looking forward to.

Kyle levitated his coffee and sweets whilst he rummaged in his pocket for the key to the house, though when he had placed the key in the hole he noticed that the door was already open. This took Kyle a little by surprise, seeing as over the years his siblings picked up on Kyle’s habits on locking the door behind them, or so he thought – anyway. This most likely meant that they had a visitor, or they –heaven forbid - forgot. Feeling particularly optimistic since his interview actually went pretty well, he banked on the first option; nonetheless, he was not oblivious to the fact that his sister were well.. pretty unpredictable; so as long as they hadn’t invited kids over to trash their house – he would put up with their little quirky habits which often made him twitch.

There was one thing that Kyle noticed as soon as he had walked in which was something that, no matter how much he convinced himself wouldn’t get to him; it still did. In hasty reaction Kyle swiftly swiped his wand out of his pocket, levitated his coffee and sweets towards the kitchen whilst almost sprinting towards the coffee table in the sitting area in the kitchen.

“We have coasters in the house, please use them!” , he pleaded melodramatically accompanied with a teasing eyeroll as he picked up a mug that looked like it had been sitting on the coffee table for quite some time. Kyle turned around to swipe a cloth from the counter; his siblings –most importantly Shawn - were basically in front of his very eyes as he turned, but the fanatical man had turned back around to the table too quickly to even take in his surroundings. Practically fixated with his urge to keep the house clean, he wiped away the round cup stain, placed a coaster in its place and the mug on top of it. After taking caring of that business, he took the floating coffees and sweets and placed them on the kitchen counter, he turned his head in his sisters direction as he spoke, ”I thought you two needed some-“

The reason that Kyle had stopped half way through talking was pretty much obvious – there was a strange man in the house next to his siblings, worst of all – his sister’s attire was pretty revealing. Kyle often had an issue with the way his sister dressed, but he could never force her into wearing something she did not want to ; so where did the blame lie following Kyle’s sequence of rationalisation? To the guy that was looking at her, inevitably. The pulse at Kyle’s neck was starting to become paced and louder to Kyle’s ears. The heat the was starting to make way to his face and cause his hot flush was subconsciously driving his to a state where he would have liked nothing better than to impale the man’s eye with his wand.

Without a word, Kyle practically marched over to the man he had yet to recognize as his brother. The man was surely taller than Kyle was, but it did not stop him from approaching him at a distance that was most likely invasive of his personal bubble. In fact, Kyle was so close to Shawn than he could feel the warmth his own heavy breath reflected by Shawn’s skin every time he breathed out. Though Kyle could not ignore that he had now noticed that there was such a striking familiarity about him, he could not help but grunt out of the side of his mouth, ”Who’s this..?”

While that question had been directed at his sisters, Kyle had not torn his gaze from Shawn. It was something that Kyle could not help – he was indeed rather protective of his sisters and what he had considered to be strange man in the house was code red in his books. So the intense glare Kyle gave him was nothing new – it was an innate reaction. However, after many years ‘rehabilitating’ in America – finding that his constant contact with bludgers was the simplest and most effective anger treatment for him - he had changed to some extent. Kyle used to mostly be a hit first ask questions later sort of person, but his ‘rehabilitation’ had caused him to deal with things in a slightly milder manner. Not to mention Kyle was in a pretty good mood that day, post interview and everything. Nevertheless, both of his fists were curled up so tightly by his sides that he could have sworn that some of the blood had stopped flowing to that direction.

[Shawn Henley]

“Josie!” Shawn exclaimed, returning her hug with earnest after she barreled through the front door and into his arms. His awkward reply to her question, “Eh, just felt like a change of scenery,” (which he'd convinced himself by now wasn't completely false), was mostly drowned out by Sammy's scolding. Relieved at the quick change of subject, he leaned back against the kitchen counter and smiled at his sisters' antics. He'd expected this little reunion to be awkward, at least at first, but the girls were already acting like weirdos and bickering like sisters, and Sammy seemed completely comfortable around him.

'Goliath?' He though, with an odd look at the hamster. 'He's still aliv- oh, right.' Josie called all of her hamsters Goliath, didn't she?

Shawn's eyes moved from one girl to the other as he listened to their rapid-fire conversation, enjoying the noise and chaos of being amongst family again. It had been far too long.

“Be a hypocrite if I did”, he replied to Josie's cheeky question about Sammy's drinking, a bit surprised that his sister felt the need to lie about it in the first place. Though, when Kyle entered the house a moment later, Shawn thought he might understand.

The man before him was clearly his younger brother, with a darker complexion that set him apart from his siblings, but made him look so much like their father. He was recognizably Kyle, but any similarity he bore to the kid from Shawn's memory quickly evaporated as he stalked towards his older brother with barely suppressed rage.

'Shit.' Shawn thought, shifting backward and trying to look meek. He should have expected this to happen. He couldn't blame Kyle for being angry, he'd made practically no effort to stay in touch with any of his siblings over the years, even Josie, and of course they'd be mad because he hadn't even written, he'd been so caught up in his own stuff, even when Sammy was published and Kyle was accepted to play for Orange County, and now he'd just marched into England as if he expected them all to love him and...

And Kyle didn't recognize who he was. Shawn laughed, with relief more than amusement, before realizing that was probably a mistake. He flinched, Kyle looked positively murderous, and glanced pleadingly at his sisters for help. He had no idea what to say.