Quiet Little Mice

[Penelope Humphrey-Mavis]

Penelope sighed elegantly to herself as she entered the library, a display of fatigue that was entirely for her own benefit, and pondered briefly whether she would see any of her siblings for anything other than meals today. During these long, tedious summer months she had found herself developing habits – things that Penelope loathed, hating predictability as she did – she breakfasted with Betsy, usually saw John by lunch and never saw Freddie when there was still natural light in the sky. She spent the majority of her time either in the library or writing letters and there wasn’t a day she didn’t wonder how much more she had gotten done in an average day at Hogwarts as compared to these dreary days.

At least she could breathe clean air during her morning constitutional, she consoled herself, whilst the poor souls still trapped within the boundaries of Hogsmeade were probably still inhaling naught but smog and giggles. This was decidedly better – or at least it had been until they’d been invaded and forced to acknowledge that their family were not immune from such terrors. She swept into her usual window seat and had just pulled Mr Pater’s essays from where she had left them the night before when the door opened again and she rolled her eyes as she glanced up.

“Oh,” she narrowed her eyes curiously, not overly used to their new house guests just yet. Being polite was such a struggle sometimes. “It’s you.”

  

[Olivia Humphrey]

• If Olivia was intimidated by Freddie she was terrified of Cousin Penelope and she visibly shrunk as dark brown eyes locked on hers from across the room. She had thought this particular library to be long since deserted, but apparently she had been wrong; the blonde was clearly a regular, tucked up in the window seat as if she owned the room and Olivia flushed with the realisation that this had never been her safe haven of quietness. She had always been an intruder, and she suddenly felt hopelessly out of place in the one room she had been comfortable in.
  
  “I’m sorry, I can leave,” she blurted quickly, her eyes ducking to the floor and fingers fiddling with the book she had brought. Perhaps there was another room that was genuinely deserted, or perhaps she would simply be better hiding in her room until one of her siblings needed her.

  

[Penelope Humphrey-Mavis]

It wasn’t exactly that Penny objected to having their cousins in the house – the estate was so big that she could ignore them or the most part or at least pretend they were staff if push came to shove – but she had ever been entirely successful with other people her own sort of age. For the most part she found them tedious or stupid and she was rarely proven wrong in her prejudice.

But Olivia had sought out a library. And appeared to have a book in her hands. Both of these things recommended her to Penny more than any conversation ever could.

“There’s no need,” she waved Olivia into the room properly and glanced down at the book in her hand. “What are you reading?”

  

[Olivia Humphrey]

"Agnes Grey," Olivia murmured after a moment, half convinced her cousin would correct her posture as Cousin Freddie had been doing since she had first come to Esterwick Park. She corrected it herself self-consciously, but Cousin Penelope did not seem to be sizing her up and she was grateful for the momentary reprieve. "Have you read it?" she asked shyly, feeling distinctly silly for doing so. The blonde had probably read every book in this library!

  

[Penelope Humphrey-Mavis]

“Oh goodness me yes and it was dreary indeed,” she drawled as she crossed her long legs languidly, rolling her eyes in irritation and finally waving Olivia into a seat when it became apparent the girl wasn’t going to sit down under her own steam. Penny liked deference as much as the next peer but she grew tired of having to direct people in her own library!

“Why on earth are you bothering? We have plenty here you’re quite welcome to borrow.” She narrowed her eyes at the tome in her cousin’s hand. “Unless you have aspirations of governing children yourself?” She said, without malice, but quite without realising her own thoughtlessness.

  

[Olivia Humphrey]

Olivia flushed scarlet, smothering the stab of irritation conjured by Cousin Penelope's utter lack of understanding. She would have been quite proud to be a governess before Cousin Albert had so kindly taken them in—it was, after all, a perfectly respectable occupation for a young woman in her position—but that path was closed to her now and her place in the world had been turned quite upside down. "I doubt your father would approve," she said quietly.

  

[Penelope Humphrey-Mavis]

“Of the career?” Penny smiled bemused, all thoughts of irritation fading away in the face of actually having somebody to talk to. Betsy was all very well but listening to her and Eva Sleptova talk like schoolgirls as she sat despairing was tedious and trying to talk to her brothers wasn’t much easier – the sheer fact that she had met Olivia in the library immediately put her in good stead.

“Or the novel choice?” She let out a single, unamused chuckle. “Papa never seems to mind much so I am intrigued.”

  

[Olivia Humphrey]

The humour in Cousin Penelope's voice was obvious, but Olivia did not think she was laughing at her. In fact, she seemed rather pleased by her presence; it was a novel concept in this house, that one of her cousins might actually want her here, and she found herself compelled to take a seat, clutching her book like a shield between them but not quite as petrified as she had been. Perhaps she had been silly to fear the blonde? She hadn't tried to correct her posture thus far!

"The career," she replied, a tentative smile upturning the corner of her lips. "I cannot imagine your father would be especially offended by Anne Brontë."

  

[Penelope Humphrey-Mavis]

Though she had been brought up far too finely to exactly flop back into her chair, Penny’s casual leaning was certainly more of a relaxed than she would ever allow herself to be around anyone other than her family or those she liked. Fortunately Olivia fell into both categories, although Penny had scarcely ever known the other girl as a cousin, so perhaps there was more of case for viewing her as a friend?

“Sadly I find I cannot say one way or the other. Papa sometimes has peculiar notions.”

He had taken in their cousins after all, when he could just as easily have provided financially for them and left it at that but she could not say she was sorry for what had happened.

“Some yield more pleasing results than others though I must say.”

  

[Olivia Humphrey]

Olivia couldn’t be entirely sure but she suspected there was a compliment of sorts in Cousin Penelope’s words and her cheeks coloured even as her lips drifted up in a smile. Ten minutes ago Olivia had been certain that Lady Penelope was the most intimidating of the lot but she was pleased to find she had been quite wrong. Perhaps she might have a friend in her new home after all?

“Your brother, on the other hand,” she began with obvious trepidation, “appears to have taken a very keen interest in my future.”

  

[Penelope Humphrey-Mavis]

“Really?” Penny asked with interest, holding her book idly in her hand for something to do, although for the first time in what felt like years she did not mind the interruption to her daily time in the library. In fact she was only really holding it out of habit. “I’m astonished. He certainly never takes much interest in his own future.”

A thought struck her then. Quite an unpleasant one too, and though Penny had never had a single cause to really think her brother a bad man, there was always the possibility… Olivia was, after all, a pretty young woman, and Freddie was still a man!

“He isn’t bothering you is he? Because I could certainly intervene if he was.”

  

[Olivia Humphrey]

For a moment Olivia was silent, until it dawned upon her precisely what Penelope was implying. Her eyes went wind, and the brunette shook her head furiously as an increasingly red stain covered her cheeks.

"No, no—absolutely not!" she protested hurriedly, utterly aghast at the thought. "He's my cousin and—and a very good man, and he wouldn't ever! He just wants me to get married!"

  

[Penelope Humphrey-Mavis]

"Oh," Penny wrinkled up her nose at the very thought and immediately lost the spark of concern that had flickered within her momentarily and made her feel rather tense. "That. Yes he does seem rather preoccupied with encouraging other people towards the alter whilst making absolutely no attempt to do so himself."

As for him being a good man, Penny wasn't sure. It had been a while since she'd finished school, and she had been sharing a home with him on a more permanent basis for some time and yet they still shared none of the easy relationship she saw him have with Betsy. It was almost upsetting.

"I believe he must talk to you more than he does to me."

  

[Olivia Humphrey]

Olivia wasn't entirely sure what to say in response. Instead, she glanced down at her skirts, her eyes picking out a loose thread and brushed her fingers over it absently. She had noticed that Cousin Penelope seemed rather distant from her siblings—or perhaps it was the other way round—but it was not her place to comment, or even to notice, for as much as Esterwick Park was her home now Olivia still felt distinctly like a guest. A stranger.

She wondered if that would ever change.

"What are you reading?" she tentatively changed the subject.

  

[Penelope Humphrey-Mavis]

Penny turned the cover towards the other girl, though the embossed golden lettering was probably too faint to really be visible to Olivia.

“Mr Pater’s essays. They’re terribly dull I must say and I read somewhere else that they were supposed to be interesting.”

Giving up she closed the book and huffed, pulling out her wand to levitate it carefully back into where she had found it. Even if it was dull it was still a book and her papa wouldn’t appreciate it being left lying around.

“I certainly wouldn’t recommend them. Other than as a means of putting oneself to sleep at night. Of course nothing of that kind ever does any good for me,” she shrugged disinterestedly, irritated whenever she thought about her own over-active mind never letting her sleep.

  

[Olivia Humphrey]

"My mother used to sing to me," Olivia offered shyly, flushing and looking down at her hands at her pronouncement. She must seem so silly, so small, to someone as lovely and clever as her cousin who read essays in her spare time. "It was the only thing that ever seemed to help."