Part X
Examinations were over, and summer stole onto the castle like a lazy dream. Slytherin had won both the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup, something that Arthur and Francis gloated about. Alfred only rolled his eyes.
"Just you wait, next year we'll kick your asses and win those two!"
Arthur, Francis, and Nataliya took to spending their free time by the lake, holding splash wars and avoiding the Giant Squid. Sometimes Alfred would join them.
Now that Busby's Chair had been all but obliterated from his mind, Arthur started wondering about himself. He was a nation. He was England, Voldemort's next target no matter whom he killed.
"I can't believe the year's almost gone!" Francis exclaimed one day. They were down by the lake once more. Nataliya was spending time with her sister Yekaterina, so it was just Alfred, Francis, and Arthur sitting on the small dock with glasses of pumpkin juice (or in Arthur's case, a nice cup of tea) in their hands.
"It went by fast, hasn't it?" Arthur mused. "Where are you blokes off to for the summer?"
"Back to America, of course," Alfred said.
"I have to return to France," Francis added. "My darling little sister Aurélie is starting Beauxbatons. She's eight years old and I miss her. Also, my eight-year-old cousin Mabel is also starting Beauxbatons. They may transfer to Hogwarts at eleven… I don't know what my parents and Mabel's parents have planned for them."
"Yeah, same here," Alfred pitched in. "We're having a family reunion. I wonder who else in the family has magic – probably Cousin Tiffany, although I always thought she was off her rocker; she always made weird stuff happen every time she gets mad…"
"What kinds of things?" Arthur asked, lightly kicking his feet in the water.
"She was just so overemotional, you know? Always running to me crying because some boy down the street pulled her hair. And then she'd jump off of the roof of the house and not have a scratch on her… it was pretty awesome at first, but eventually it got really annoying. Cousin Annabelle wants her sent to the loony bin."
Arthur raised an eyebrow. "How many cousins do you have?"
"Around fifty."
Arthur blanched. Fifty cousins, fifty states.
"You alright, Artie? You look rather ill." Francis spoke up, putting an arm around Arthur.
"I-I'm perfectly fine. Keep your hands where I can see them."
It soon came to the day when they all piled their trunks and their pets onto the Hogwarts Express, heading back to London. Driscoll seemed rather put off at having to be in a cage again.
"Honestly, Driscoll, can't you behave?" Arthur asked him exasperatedly, but the owl merely hooted irritably at him. "I'll let you out when we get home, okay?"
"Talking to birds makes you look insane, Artie," Alfred said nonchalantly, his eagle owl Justice sitting prim and proper in her cage.
"Says the bloke who pulls hamburgers out of thin air," Arthur retorted as Francis came in with his snowy owl.
"Say bonjour to Pierre," he said cheerfully. Alfred and Arthur stared.
"I didn't know you owned an owl," Arthur said.
Francis chuckled. "I've owned many owls. They were all named Pierre."
"It's no wonder why they all died, then, with such a horrible French name like that," Arthur replied.
"Oh, but it's better than Gilbird – that's what Gilbert named his pygmy owl, you know."
The train started to move, and Arthur pressed his nose to the window, watching Hogsmeade and the giant form of Hagrid recede.
"Well, here's our last few hours of being able to use magic," he said as the town disappeared from sight. "We're not allowed to use magic outside of school until we turn seventeen, after all."
"Damn it, does that mean I don't get to hex Cousin Tiffany into next week?" Alfred said with a pout. "And I was so looking forward to that, too."
The compartment door opened again, and Nataliya came in dressed in a dark blue dress with a white apron. It looked rather odd on her considering that she had been wearing school robes for a year. "Hello, boys," she said cheerfully, sitting down next to Alfred.
"Bonjour, Nataliya," Francis replied with a smirk. Alfred and Arthur only nodded.
They spent the rest of the train ride trying out interesting jinxes and hexes on each other. When Gilbert came in with a pack of Exploding Snap cards, they played a few rounds of Exploding Snap – Arthur's eyebrows caught on fire for a moment until Nataliya doused it out. Near the end of the ride, Nataliya exited the room temporarily to let them change into Muggle clothes, but she came back in just as Alfred finished zipping up his skinny jeans.
As the train pulled into King's Cross, Arthur turned to Alfred, Francis, and Nataliya. "Owl me often during the summer," he said. "I want to know what you guys are up to."
"That doesn't sound creepy at all," Alfred said, earning him a playful smack on the arm. "But yeah, I'll write!"
"Oui, I'll write to you," Francis said with a wink. Nataliya nodded, the vague hints of a smile playing at her lips.
"Good, because I'll be sending Driscoll around," Arthur said, with a nod towards his owl. "Be sure to feed him a lot, though. I don't want him getting tired and drowning in the Atlantic ocean."
They all laughed at that, even as Arthur spotted his family waiting for them. Peter was bouncing slightly to get a look at him, and Arawn was already there by their side, regaling Erin and Liam with his own adventures.
"See you in September," he said to his friends, hugging each of them. With a smile, he turned his back on them and headed to his family.
END OF YEAR ONE
Notes: Aurélie Bonnefois is Corsica.