Grete Samsa-Lupin looked fondly over her two sons wrestling in the front yard. Remus had Rommie pinned below him with dirt smearing both their faces and a torn shirt-sleeve somehow in the mix. She'd ignore their antics a little longer, turning six warranted a blind eye didn't it? Besides Fenris would just spell them clean and mended before the party began.
The entire Lupin clan was coming in for the event, flooing, brooming, and apparating their way from Northern France all the way to her father in-law's cabin. It really was amazing how quickly a person could adapt, Grete reflected. Only six years ago she washed dishes by hand, dreamed of buying her own phone, and was dating a mysterious man named Fenris that promised her excitement and an easier life if she would only marry him. Now she stood in a yard that was quickly being filled with people dressed in purple, scarlet, midnight blue (and one odd sparkling orange) robes. Gifts were drifting through the air to land on an ornately carved oak table where fairy lights were charmed to float lazily around a three tiered birthday cake whose letters "Happy 6th Birthday Remus & Romulus!" shimmered and blinked on and off while circling each layer like train of words circling up and down a mountain. And all these eccentricly dressed individuals had equally peculiar names to match.
"Welcome Aunt Ulrica, hello Uncle Rafe, how is your leg these days?"
"Amoux, where's your brother Quillan I'm going to need your help taking down the decorations after the party. "
"Faolan!!! Get away from that! Where is your mother!?!"
"Adolphine will you please look after the food for me? I'm afraid my husband will start without us."
Grete gave her annoyed teenaged neice an indulegent smile as Adolphine huffed in protest and rolled her eyes. These Lupins were a strange lot even aside from being wizarding; there was this preoccupation with family and their name-sake animals. Jokingly everyone referred to themselves as "the Pack" but more often than not the amusing pseudonym rang true.
Being accepted into this family had proved no easy task especially as Grete had had no magical skills, but now that her boys were turning six and had shown signs of being magical she felt awash in the glow of love that her in-laws seemed to produce. Her own father-in-law Lyacon had hugged her in welcome upon flooing in this morning, which was much unlike the brusque snort that had greeted her first meeting with him several years prior. The two young cubs now tusling in front of her being what had finally broken through Lyacon's hard shell of indifference towards her. He'd even gone as far to name the boys himself, and what else would befit two twinned children of Lupin better? Looking down at two unrepentant pairs of blue eyes Grete sighed. She really had had her heart set on Samual and Theodore in the beginning but she never could deny Fenris anything.
Remus, with a skinned knee, grinned up at his mother with a toothy beam of boyish joy and all dark thoughts floated from her mind. His slightly more petulant brother squirmed beside him bouncing back and forth from side to side biting his lip in anticipation. He could see the ever growing pile of presents on the table and he itched to tear away the wrapping paper to expose the doubtless prize inside. Their Lupin relatives always gave such interesting gifts, much better than the ordinary stuff Grandma Samsa would give them for Christmas.
This was only the third time Remus, Romulus, and Grete had been subjected to a full reunion of the Pack and Fenris had warned that things might get a little out of hand, especially if Uncle Rudolph brought out the Firewhiskey and Gilly Water as he was prone to do. When the last relative had exited the fireplace commenting on how, " much nicer these new soot resistant robes are!" the festivities finally began.
Fenris came from behind and enveloped his wife in a bear hold, marking her waist as his property while smelling in deeply the scent of her hair. God, this woman! How could a man love this much? She was the true magic in this yard, this slight creature in his arms, the one with the azure eyes that graced his children and the shoulders that while being slender could bear his troubles and protect him from all the world as long as he remained in her presence. The sky darkened but Fenris didn't feel the chill, all he could feel was the joy in this day, being surrounded by his family, celebrating the product of the love he and his wife shared; these two boys.
- - - - - - - - - -
One pile soon became two, one of discarded brightly colored paper and the other an accumulation of toys, books, and candy; all across the property witches and wizards smiled dotingly at the younger generation remembering their own hellion days. One wizened warlock flapped his twinkling-tangerine colored robes and wiggled until a bottle fell out from under his concealment pouch, Rudolph intended to help his fellow seniors remember their adolescent amusement...
After it had been established which punch bowl Rudolph had spiked (and it had been spelled to shock anyone not of age) the party got going indeed. Music started up and witches and wizards of all generations started dancing creating a bopping whirling canvas of color, their robes swirling in time to the music and laughter could be heard deep within the forest. Soon the twins and their cousins grew bored of their parents' and grandparents' actions. Laying in a pile they looked up at the stars; Romulus's head flopping on his brother's tummy trying to find a comfortable position.
"'ey! Watch what you're doing stupid!", Remus wheezed past his brused midsection.
Other than his unhappy stomach the rest of him was quite warm saddled next to his cousin Silas, he could hear his mother's laugh and his father's contended chuckle and truthfully he didn't mind it that his icky brother was laying near on top of him. No one in the world was as close to Remus as Romulus was, they went exploring together, they shared their lunches at school, and once they had found a toad and kept it their bedroom until their mom had found out, it had been their secret. Nothing was ever going to separate them, they'd promised each other forever.