Malignant ••• George Weasley

Chapter 10 - Family

Juna felt defeated. Her own father didn't love her, in fact - even as only a colleague, he didn't even like her. More than once she had wondered why her mum and dad even had her. She knew she was an accident - a lapse of judgment one night between two young agents, back before her father lost all sense of emotion and before her mother was... well, the way she is now.

Lost in thought after her blow up at her father, Juna noticed her feet carrying her the familiar path toward the housing compound where she was born and raised. It was a drab and depressing place, a small footpath led out the back of the MIU offices and to a gate held by high concrete walls.
Inside the gate was about 8 homes, all very small, lacking colour and no vegetation whatsoever. It was enough to make someone plunge into depression just being there, hence why Juna got her own place away from here. Not even majority of the other employees would stoop to live here, many of these homes stood empty.

She found herself at a grey door with an iron number 4 nailed to it. She didn't bother knocking and just walked straight in, the smell of tea and cabbage invading her nostrils.
The sound of a kettle was whistling from the worn, compact kitchen located through the door directly in front of her. At all times of the day and night her mother would boil the kettle, and there it would sit and whistle until all the water evaporated, only for her to fill it again.
Only about three times a day would she actually take it off the stove to use the water for a tea.

She spotted her mother sitting in a large grey armchair in the living room to her right. She had a small, purple knitted blanket draped over her legs and she was talking... to nobody, as usual.
Her mother's name was Susan, but her MIU name was Roxy. She rarely ventured outside this dreadful house, she wasn't allowed to, her mind not being what it used to be. She had become frail and fragile, though as bitchy as ever.

Her mind used to be as strong willed as Juna's, but somewhere along the line of the last 8 years something had snapped inside her. Nobody knew wether it was the intense pressure or difficult and sometimes gritty work the MIU put her through. Or maybe it was having to put up with Mace (who was not her husband but they lived together since Juna was born), or perhaps just something that was going to happen to her no matter what she went through in life. It was sad to see either way.

Juna gazed at her from behind for a moment, her mother's blonde hair now thinning and turning grey at the roots and her bony shoulders protruding from her blue cardigan.
"Roxy?" She breathed, she knew she wouldn't respond to her real name of Susan, or even 'mum'.

Her mother turned her head and her watery, glazed eyes fell upon her daughter.
"Cove. Hello." She smiled. "Tea?"

"Sure."

Roxy rose shakily from her armchair and shuffled her slippered feet to the kitchen where the kettle was already whistling. She continued to mutter to herself as she brewed two cups of tea, small drops of water landing on the bench around her as her hands shook violently, but Juna knew better than to offer help.
Last time she had tried to help, the cup of tea had been thrown at her head.

"What brings you around here? I thought you had your new fancy flat to live in." There was some malice behind her voice.

Her mother had never very tactile in the way she went about her words or actions. She was somewhat warmer than Mace, but that wouldn't be hard. The concrete walls surrounding this justified prison would be warmer than her father.

"Just thought I'd visit, it has been a little while. How are you?" Juna followed behind her mother, back to the living room where she sat on an overstuffed grey couch opposite her mother's armchair.

"Oh yes, I'm very good. They should have an assignment for me any day now!" Her hand shook as she bought the cup to her mouth and took a small sip.