After meeting Percy's brother Fred, Percy ushered me into their empty living room.
"If this gets too overwhelming for you, just let me know. Okay?" Percy asked me.
I just nodded and snuggled myself into his chest as he engulfed me into a hug. To be honest I was feeling overwhelmed. To meet your significant other's family is one thing, but the whole extended family? Yeah, awkward. All these people were gathered just to meet me, and I'd be the centre of attention. To some this would be heaven, but I wasn't that kind of person. I was shy.
"It may not comfort you, but I can assure you that they're all lovely people who are very interested in meeting you." Percy stated to me.
"How do they usually take girlfriends?" I asked Percy curiously.
"Well um…it depends. Mother and Ginny didn't initially take a liking to Fleur as far as I know, but you must remember this was during dark times. Hermione was a little different as she had been Ron's best friend for years; same with Harry he was already part of the family. If we add them all together we can say the average is that they'll like you?" Percy stated, adding a small joke at the end to which I only gave a weak smile.
"What do you mean 'as far as you know' they didn't like Fleur? What kind of things did they do?" I asked, panic beginning to rise in me.
"You know what? Let's not discuss this. It's just making you worry a lot more. Come on, let's go into the kitchen, it's just mother and possibly father in there right now. Baby steps, you've already met Fred, one down." Percy said to me, putting his arm around me to usher him into the kitchen.
I sent him an odd look, but didn't press on. It was quite strange he quickly moved on and wouldn't elaborate about how his mother and Ginny treated Fleur, but it made sense. It probably would have just freaked me out a little more.
As we stepped into the kitchen, Percy dropped his arm from my back. But I wasn't without human interaction for too long, as his mother had grabbed me into a hug before I could even properly see what she looked like.
She let me go and put her arms on my shoulders.
"Carly dear, you're so pretty! Oh, my name is Molly and it's lovely to meet you. Percy you didn't tell me how beautiful she is. Oh Arthur come here! Look how gorgeous she is!" Percy's mother said, calling her husband to the kitchen.
He appeared, and offered his hand.
"I'm Arthur. It's nice to finally meet you, you've been the topic of everybody's discussion for quite a while." Percy's father said, introducing himself.
"Oh um, I'm glad to finally meet everyone then if everybody's been talking about me." I nervously stated, adding a nervous laugh at the end.
"Percy says you're studying at university whilst doing an internship. That must be interesting." Arthur stated to me.
My cheeks began to turn rosy and I looked down, a little uncomfortable with the attention. Just his parents giving me attention was making me nervous, how would I go about meeting the entire extended family?
"Beauty and brains, you've got yourself a good one Percy. Make sure she doesn't get away." Molly said to Percy, giving him a wink.
I was now very uncomfortable. It was great that they were thrilled at the first impression and seemed to already like me, but this attention was undesired.
My social status was good; I wouldn't be shy about that. If I had a son who was dating a wealthy law student doing an internship with England's most famous and sought after lawyer I guess I'd be happy too. But I'd wait to see if she wasn't a bitch or a psycho or something. For all she knows, I could know my social standing and expect Percy to wait on me hand and foot because I think I'm better than him, or other crazy stuff like that.
"Why don't you both take a seat at the dinner table outside, it's a lovely day today so we decided to hold the celebration outside. Percy could you please ask Ginny, Ron and maybe Fred and George to come to the kitchen to help serve the food." Molly asked Percy, who once again put his arm around me to lead me through the house and out the back door where there was a long table.
There were people everywhere. Luckily not everybody was sitting down, so I'd be able to go and mingle with different groups in order to meet everyone.
"Come on, let's do the rounds." Percy said to me, kissing the top of my head and grabbing my hand. We made our way over the younger ones of the group who were sitting in the grass, laughing and joking.
"Fred, George, Ron and Ginny, mother has called you all inside to help her transport the food from the kitchen to the table. But before you go inside, this is Carly my girlfriend." Percy introduced me.
George, Ron and Ginny all mumbled greetings whilst one of the twins gave me a nod. I assumed that one was Fred the one I met before, so I just gave him a nod back.
"I guess I'll talk with you guys later?" I awkwardly asked as they all shuffled in, only receiving a wink from each of the twins.
I looked at Percy with a bit of uncertainty as he just squeezed my hand in reassurance.
"The remaining two have been family friends since their first year in Hogwarts. Hermione is now Ron's girlfriend. This young man here is Harry Potter, yes THE Harry Potter, who is also my sister's boyfriend." Percy introduced, as both Hermione and Harry stood up.
I watched Harry and smirked a little, as he looked as uncomfortable as me. He was watching me carefully; trying to predict what reaction I'd have after meeting a celebrity.
"It's nice to meet you both. I'm Carly." I smiled, not bothering to offer my hand this time around as I didn't see it was necessary.
Before any conversation could be started, there was yelling from the kitchen. I couldn't make out what had happened or what was being said, but Percy was on it straight away.
"I'll go attend that and see what has happened. You stay here with Harry and Hermione, make conversation I'm sure you'll have something in common." Percy said to me.
I just smiled and nodded, and gave him a quick peck on the lips as he rushed off.
I then scowled and sat down, both Harry and Hermione sitting down in the grassy patch next to me.
"I saw that scowl. What's wrong?" Harry asked me, pushing his glasses up his nose.
"Oh, you saw that? It's just stupid. Percy wants today to go really well, and is being a bit of a perfectionist about everything. The way he said we'd find 'something' in common seemed like it was patronising to all of us. I'm just overanalysing everything though, he just wants everything to go well because his family, and his family friends mean a lot to him." I explained, giving a nervous chuckle at the end.
I watched as Hermione and Harry looked at each other, but I decided to stay silent as they looked away just as quickly.
"You also mean a lot to him, I'm sure." Hermione stated to me, giving a smile at the end.
Without warning, two figures appeared either side of me. It was the twins, Fred and George.
"How'd you get out of that? Your mother seemed pretty adamant on the younger siblings helping her out?" I asked the two, my mouth curving upwards.
"A moth flew up, giving her a scare. Percy ran in screaming at both George and I assuming we had done something wrong. After protesting our innocence and mum confirming, we were released as Percy insisted on taking our spot in the kitchen." Fred stated, being the twin on my left.
"Yep, and now we get to sit here and converse with our future sister in law." George grinned.
I fell over from shock, but then composed myself.
"Whoa, Whoa, WHOA. No one is talking about marriage here. Too fast, man." I protested, putting my hands up in a 'no' like fashion.
"Besides, who would want to marry Percy anyway?" Fred grinned, but earned a disapproving look from his twin brother "What? And you think calling her 'future sister in law' isn't taking things too far?"
"You know what? Let's go introduce you to Bill and Fleur, and their baby Victoire." Hermione suggested, and without warning I jumped up from the bickering twins and followed both Hermione and Harry over, not before the twins ceased to fight and stated amongst each other that I was different than what they expected.