"This is where you grew up?" The awe in her boyfriend's voice stops Dominque Weasley in her tracks, spinning around when she realizes she's walking alone.
The tone wasn't entirely unexpected; it was the one most people adopted when they saw her childhood home. Still known as Shell Cottage among her family, what had once been a quaint house her parents inhabited during the war had grown and expanded as their family had as well.
What stood now was a moderate sized home, with elements of the old cottage juxtaposing with the newer elements to create one cohesive unit. But what got most people's attention was the view. Apparating to the edge of the property where the protective wards ended meant a short walk up the path and offered a perfect glimpse at the house overlooking the cliff. If you came at the right time, you got a perfect sunset. A few hours early for that, Dom knows the sun will now be shining down over her mother's garden on the side of the house.
The boy behind her is not looking at her mother's sunflowers, but rather at the house and the cliff and the tree that's slightly off in the distance with the somewhat weathered tombstone under it and Dom realizes that he's not in awe of the landscape or architecture or even the perfect view that's ahead.
No, this dork's marveling about the history.
"Do you realize what happened here?" He looks around and she reaches her hand back to pull him along.
"Yes, I know what happened here." She grins, and then adds cockily. "I grew up here!"
It serves its purpose. "Not that you're not perfectly lovely, but that's not what I was referring to,"
"Perfectly lovely?" Dom declares, linking her arm through her boyfriend's to continue the remaining walk to the house. "Is that all you think of me?"
More than used to her brand of nonsense, the response is to roll his eyes and pull her in for a quick kiss.
"Oi!"
Dominique breaks away with a sigh and turns to her father with an annoyed expression on her face. "What?" She snaps.
Her father has a wide grin on his face as he watches out the front door and the twinkle in his eyes tells her he doesn't care that he caught her kissing her newest boy so much as he enjoys seeing the look on her face for interrupting them. "Aren't you going to bring him inside?"
"Not if you're going to act like that,"
"Then I hope it doesn't rain today," Her father responds pleasantly.
"Dad!" Dom cries aggravatedly.
"Oh, come on," This time it's Dom who's pulled along, feeling a gentle tug in her arm as she's pulled toward the house.
"Hi, Dad," She shakes herself free in favor of launching herself towards her father, who returns her hug just as tight as when she was little, and he'd really lift her off the ground, spinning her around when he returned from a long work trip.
"Hello, Dom," He smiles as he pulls away, holding his hand out to her boyfriend. "And you must be..." He pauses, like he's trying to recall his name, even though Dom had specifically reminded her parents via owl just yesterday about his name, career, and how she had met him so that this exact situation wouldn't happen.
"Harry," The boyfriend in question returns the handshake good-naturedly, an easy grin on his face.
"Ah!" Bill Weasley was many things-adventurous, outgoing, laid back, and, even still at this age, cool-but one thing he was not was stupid, and he certainly didn't play the part well. "That's right! Well, come on inside you two. Your mother's in the kitchen, come say hello,"
Her mother is seated at the table with a glass of wine, flipping through a magazine as dinner cooks on the stove. "Fleur," She looks up at her husband's call. "Look who's here,"
"Dominique!" A smile graces her mother's face and Dom feels one growing on her own as her mother stands to pull her in for a hug. "And you must be 'arry!" In her almost thirty years of living in England, Fleur Weasley had greatly improved her English, and though she swore up and down she didn't have an accent anymore, her husband and children assured her a slight one remained. "It's so lovely to meet you,"
There's just a hint of...something...in her mother's tone, this thing Dom can't quite put her finger on. "Why are you talking like that?"
"What?" Her mother says, too quickly for Dom not to be suspicious. "I do not know what you are talking about. Bill, do you know what she is talking about?"
A far more adept liar, her father ignores the question completely and offers drinks for the room. Harry shakes his head, but Dom only looks between her parents skeptically. "What are you two up to?"
"Honestly, Dom, tone down the skepticism. We're just trying to get to know your new boy,"
"That's what I was concerned about," She mutters.
Harry gives her a look before turning back to her father. "I think I've changed my mind; I will take that beer if it's still available, thanks,"
Her dad's laugh is mostly covered by the sound of her brother toppling out of the fireplace. "Alright, let's get this shit over with-oh, hello!"
Her poor boyfriend looks utterly baffled, but Dom settles on glaring at her younger brother. "Mum!" She whines.
"No fighting in the kitchen," Is the typical response. "All of you, out, before you are messing up dinner."
"Magpies play the Arrows on the Quidditch Network," Dom grins at her brother's words, as Lou looks between her and their father.
"Then what are we doing in here anyway?"
"Come on," Dom links her hand into Harry's, pulling him into the living room with her dad and brother.
The two of them are arguing about the Magpies' superior Chasers against the Arrows' far better Seeker and how that may play out this game, as she and Harry settle in on the other couch, making themselves comfortable and fighting the urge to make her opinion known (Dom's firmly with the Arrows on this one; the Magpies aren't that good).
The game is just starting, Kinsey of the Magpies taking control of the Quaffle initially. "So, Little Harry, who's your Quidditch team?" Her father asks
"Did you just-" Dom turns away from the game, wondering if she heard right.
"Ah, I never really cared much for Quidditch," Harry responds lightly, before she can really process.
The smile falls off her father's face and Lou turns to look at him blankly. "What?"
Harry shrugs. "I'm a muggleborn. Grew up around football, actually. Huge Arsenal fan," He remarks, far more casually than he's ever been during, well, any actual Arsenal match (and Dom speaks from experience).
"Strike one," Lou mutters under his breath, and he and her father turn their attention back to the Quidditch match on the WizTV.
Harry looks over at her, taken aback and utterly perplexed, and Dom shrugs her shoulders, jaw dropped. "Uh-"
"Don't worry about it," Harry mutters.
"I should have warned you we're a Quidditch family," She smiles apologetically.
"Was that supposed to be news to me?" Harry returns playfully, most definitely referring to the Puddlemere game she'd had on two weeks ago, matches during which she was particularly vocal about ever since one of her cousins had begun playing for the team.
"No, I guess not," Dom returns the grin.
"Dom, how's work?" She turns at her father's voice, rolling her eyes at the slight grin on his face as he interrupts them again. "Any exciting cases?"
"We just wrapped this case of a guy who was using Severing Charms to kill his victims by detaching them limb by limb," The grimace on her father and brother's faces matches the one everyone in the Auror office had worn each time they'd seen a new victim. "Going to be this guy's problem now," She nudges Harry's side. "I'll be anxious to see what someone like that says at trial,"
"You and me both," Harry says dryly.
"How's law school going, Lou?" Dom asks, politely sending the sentiment back to her brother.
A dark look crosses his face. "I have this stupid law and economics analysis class this term that is awful, but other than that, it's fine,"
"What's wrong with the economics course?" Dom asks.
"We have all these ridiculous journal reviews and economic graphs to read and draw, like we're-we're-we're economists or something!"
"Do you have Professor Allen for that?" Harry asks, amused.
"Yes," Lou responds flatly, sounding like he had much more to say on the topic, but was holding back depending on what Harry had to say.
"I think I've still got some of my old notes and work from that class. I'll send them to you if you want," Harry offers.
"Ayy, cheers, Little Harry," Lou lifts his beer in Harry's direction in a toast, looking distinctly jollier than he had at the start of the conversation.
"Why did you-" Dom starts again, this time sure that she heard correctly.
"'Lo family!" The new arrival cuts her off.
"Ted!" Dom's father greets jovially. "Great to see you!"
"Bill!" Teddy Lupin, Dom's favorite (and only, in fairness) brother-in-law, meets his father-in-law in the middle of the living room to match his hug with equal enthusiasm.
"Lou," Teddy ruffles the perfectly styled hair of his brother-in-law.
"Oi!"
"Hey, Dommie!" Teddy ignores Lou's cry of outrage, settling instead for grinning across the room at her as he takes the seat next to her dad. She waves in return and watches as his eyes move over to Harry next to her. "Hey, Little Harry's here! Hey mate, I'm Ted-"
"Why are you all calling him that?" Dom cries out, interrupting Teddy's introduction.
"Calling what?" Teddy frowns.
"Little Harry!"
"Well, frankly we were getting confused between this Harry," Her father gestures across the room. "And your uncle Harry so we needed some kind of distinction,"
"We started out with Other Harry," Lou adds. "But that just got confusing, because we never knew which one was the Other Harry. It kept switching, you see, depending on which one we started talking about and which one came up second,"
"Then we came up with Dark Harry and Light Harry, you know once we stalked Little Harry's ministry file and found out this one was blond," Teddy shrugs, like that was no big deal and not a total invasion of privacy that Dom will totally be addressing later with her Uncle Harry, who needs to stop pandering to her father's whims. "But that got eliminated almost right away. Sounded too Voldemort-y. So then we got Little Harry and Big Harry," He doesn't even flinch at Dom's death glare.
"Unfortunate coincidence that Little Harry is actually bigger than Big Harry," Her father remarks casually, even less bothered by the glare than Teddy. Actually, probably only encouraged by it, Dom thinks.
"Bogus, really," Teddy grins.
"Heinous," Her father agrees.
"Most non-triumphant," Teddy nods, feigning seriousness.
"Ah, Ted, don't be dead, dude," The grin on her dad's face is only mimicked on Teddy's; Dom's face is one of pure annoyance and even Lou is rubbing his temples.
"Where's Vic?" Lou mutters. "She can usually stop you two,"
"Why did anyone think it was a good idea to show you two that movie?" Dom mutters, not quietly enough.
"It's named after us!" Teddy cries. "Our Excellent Adventure!"
"It is a great movie," Harry adds hesitantly.
"See, Little Harry agrees!" Dom's dad gestures excitedly.
"Stop calling him Little Harry!" Dom growls frustratedly.
"It's fine, really," Harry placates her calmly.
"Don't!" She grumbles.
Before anything more can be said, a blonde head pops into the room. "Dinner's ready." Her sister calls.
"You're two minutes too late," Lou stands immediately.
"For what?" Vic smiles.
"Bill and Ted shit," Lou brushes past her into the kitchen.
Vic fixes her gaze on her father and husband. "Please don't, at the table,"
"No promises," Teddy grins and Vic shakes her head as she turns back to the kitchen,
Dom follows, ignoring the laughter of her father and Teddy behind her, but harder to ignore is her boyfriend right next to her. "Party on, dudes,"
"Stop encouraging them!" She hisses, as she pulls him into the kitchen.
"I think it's kind of funny!" Harry shrugs.
Dom turns her death glare to her boyfriend and Harry merely beams back at her, unfazed. He's become far too attuned to her glares in this relatively short period of time since they've started dating.
"Dinner looks great, Mrs. Weasley," Harry says kindly, once they're all seated around the table.
"Thank you," Her mother says stiffly, carrying the last dish to the table.
"Did I see you made tarte tatin for dessert?" Teddy grins excitedly.
"Teddy, I would not dream of not making your favorite dessert," Dom's jaw drops at the difference in tones from talking with Harry to Teddy. This was practically sung, followed by a sweet laugh.
Dom stares at her mum flatly, as Teddy sings her praises. Strange things are afoot.
She watches and listens carefully as dinner commences, on the edge of her seat practically, trying to figure out what exactly is going on.
"Eh, Teddy, can you pass the potatoes?" Lou asks, interrupting a story Harry'd been telling in response to one about Victoire's bizarre co-worker.
Dom glares, first at her brother for interrupting, and then at Teddy, for reaching across Harry to grab said potatoes, instead of just asking him to pass them along.
Neither of them even flinches at it. Her death glare must be losing effectiveness. She'll need to re-evaluate after this dinner ends.
"So, Little Harry," Her father remarks.
"Fucking hell!" Dom shrieks, throwing her silverware down. Enough was enough.
"Dominique!" Her mother scolds.
"Why are you all being so rude?" She ignores the chastising tone. Dom is a grown woman, thank you very much, and if she wants to swear because her family are being wildly rude to her boyfriend, then she will, damn it!
"Dom," Harry tugs on her hand gently. "It's alright, come on; sit down."
She hadn't even realized she'd stood up. "It's not alright!" But she does sit back down into her chair. "Harry has been nothing but friendly to all of you! And you're all treating him like he's...he's...he's some random I picked up off the street you can't remember the name of!"
"Well," Lou shrugs, picking at the fruit bowl in front of him. "With your history, he may as well be,"
"Louis," Vic hisses, as Dom sits back in shock and anger. "You weren't supposed to say anything!"
"What?" Dom cries, outraged.
"Cat's out of the bag now; we may as well tell her!" Lou argues.
"Should make Little Harry feel better," Her father agrees.
"Oh, are we sticking with that?" Teddy asks.
"Well, we've still got to differentiate between the two; that hasn't changed," Lou says, reasonably.
"What the hell is going on here?" Dom interrupts, before this can go any further.
The pause that follows is uncomfortably long as it seems like her entire family looks between each other at different times. Dom taps her fingers on the table impatiently until Harry grabs them and pulls them into his lap, the gesture a comfort she didn't know she needed.
"Fine, FINE!" Her father says eventually, holding his hands in the air in defeat. "I'll tell her." He directs his attention to Dom and Harry. "It's just...we were..." He trails off.
"It wasn't personal," Her mother tries next. "We-"
"For Merlin's sake," Lou cries. "We were tired of being nice!"
"Louis!" Her mother cries.
"It's the truth!" Lou shrugs. "You bring home boy after boy and we have to sit here with them and make small talk and pretend like we care anything about their jobs and their families, and what they like to do,"
"And they never last!" Teddy adds, looking at least sort of apologetic, which is more than any of her actual blood relatives can say. "They're here for one meal and then they're gone and there's a new one in their place,"
"First of all," Dom protests. "Harry is different," Scoffs from her entire family. "He is! Second, even if he wasn't, that doesn't give you lot the right to treat him this way!"
"Well, we really don't want another Brian situation," Her dad says, referring to one of the boys she had brought home last year that they had all liked. Her dad, Teddy, and Lou had all been devastated when she'd mentioned they'd broken up.
"Brian was awesome!" Lou nods, eyes suddenly alight with enthusiasm. "Aw man, remember what kind of-"
"Stop. Talking." Dom growls at him.
"Anyway, the point is, we're not getting attached anymore to someone who may not even be around at dinner next time," Vic shrugs. "No offense, Little Harry."
"Uh," Harry says, definitely wondering how that was supposed to not be offensive.
"Well, he'll definitely be here next time because we're getting married!" Dom cries, for her family to gasp in complete shock.
"No, we're not," Harry corrects, peacefully and reasonably, the soothing calm to her burning temper.
"Why would you say that you are getting married if you are not getting married?" Her mum cries, after letting off a string of French swear words.
"I was mad, and I panicked!"
"And that's what came out?" Vic asks.
"Well, I guess so," Dom snaps at her sister.
"Alright, I think we all need to calm down," Harry says, standing up. "There-a lot of things have been said over the last few minutes. Let's talk them out,"
It is, of course, the right thing to do. But Dom's family has never been known to settle their differences conventionally.
So six of them begin talking over one another.
"Who just announces they're getting married when they're not?" Teddy cries.
"Do you know how excited I was for you?" Vic tacks on.
"For two seconds?" Dom bites.
"-if we asked, Brian would come?" Lou nods towards their father.
"Oh absolutely," Her dad nods excitedly. "I'll owl him tomorrow and see-"
"Um, excuse me?" Harry tries.
"-and now you'll never be getting married at this rate! Am I supposed to wait until I am an old woman to have grandchildren, Dominique?"
"Why can't you direct the grandchildren comments to Teddy and Vic, who are already married?"
"Stop deflecting!" Vic argues.
"You stop deflecting!" Dom fights back.
"Ok!" Harry tries again, standing up from his chair, this attempt working far better than the last. "I have some things to say and I'd appreciate if you would all stop talking to listen to me," Dom fights back a laugh when he looks surprised this tactic was successful. "Oh, uh, wow, I didn't think that would actually work, but here goes," He mutters. "I don't care if you don't like me,"
"Sorry, what?" Lou asks, confused.
"I mean-" Harry starts. "I don't not care, but I like Dominique! I like spending time with her, she's absolutely lovely! And if putting up with you all calling me Little Harry, or teasing me about not like Quidditch, or ignoring me in favor of the prodigal son-in-law-"
"It's true, he'll never be as good as Teddy," Dom gives her dad an exasperated look as he agrees.
Harry ignores that statement. "It that's what I have to deal with to be with her, then okay! I love her and it's a small price to pay,"
Her mum is beaming and her dad looks impressed, but whatever Teddy, Vic, and Lou are saying is unheard as Dom stares at her boyfriend. "What'd you just-did you just-"
"Oh for the love of Merlin," Lou shakes his head. "Don't tell me this was the first time you've ever said I love you,"
"Er," Harry cringes.
Lou and Teddy howl with laughter but again, Dom barely notices. "I love you,"
"You don't have to say it, you know, just because I did and we're in front of your-"
"I love you," She repeats. "I loved you before you stood up to my crazy family and I love you more for it,"
"Oh!" Her mother cries excitedly.
"Mum!" Dom hisses.
"They're in the middle of something!" Vic shushes, watching intently.
"Oh," Harry's smile back to her lights up his whole face. His blue eyes are sparkling, his cheeks are just a little pink, and somehow, his smile keeps growing. "Ok then,"
"Ok then," Dom repeats, somehow knowing her own smile is just as big.
"Well," She looks over and her dad's got a bottle of the champagne he and her mum always keep chilled in his hand. "I guess this calls for a celebration. A new beginning, and a promise to be more welcoming to Little Harry next time,"
"Dad!" Dom cries, still annoyed at the name.
Her dad winks in return and Harry links their hands together as he grins at her during the toast and Dom supposes that if that's the worst they do to him, then it will most certainly be an improvement on tonight's disaster dinner.
A/N: There were three prompts available to choose from for this challenge and I chose: a "meet the family" situation which includes any kind of families or relationships
Additionally, I make no apologies for the Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure reference in this, and do in fact, now want to write Bill Weasley and Teddy Lupin bro-ing out with historical figures in wizarding history