Jack sat at the Thee Broomsticks, nursing a Firewhiskey. She had not wanted to leave the house really, but it felt lame to stay indoors. Like she was admitting she had nothing to do, no one to visit with. Her heart ached to make up with Riley, but she knew her brother wanted nothing to do with her. And she had told her family that communication was ending. She was not going to go back to them now, just because she felt like a loser.
So she went to the bar in Hogsmeade, since it was pretty much eternally open. She paid for her drink and sat around, wasting her time. Drunken warlocks sat on either side of her, recounting their own reasons for being alone on the holidays. Jack felt no reason to prove it to anyone, but she could not help but overhear their own sorry reasons. She did not find anything wrong with solitude at anytime of the year, but the men around her certainly did.
“Really, she just left for whatever reason. And I told her-”
“Then my brother died and me mam told me she wanted me gone because-”
“All I did was tell him the truth! He’s a fat, lying, lousy-”
“What’s she expect, for me to chase after her like a sorry son of a-”
Chase. Hmmm… It struck Jack that she had not visited Chase in a while, and that she was sure Chase wouldn’t mind a Christmas visit. Jack paid for her drink and slipped outside, pulling the jacket around her tighter. She apparated to her store and fumbled with the keys before slipping inside. She knew exactly what she wanted for the family, and she set about gathering everything and storing it in a carpet bag she kept in the store for transporting odds and ends. She locked up and apparated again.
She made her way up to the door and stood before it, stopping now to wonder if maybe she should have called. It was afternoon, though, so lunch was over and dinner had not yet started. She didn’t plan on staying for dinner, really she needed to be home to feed the animals. However, Jack figured it’d mean more to Chase if she stopped by at a bad time rather than not stopping by at all. So she knocked on the door and waited.
by 
