A/N: Sorry for taking so long to review -can't believe I've taken 6 months to post this chapter!! i give you all permission to shoot me... and once again i apologise for my crap endings.
CHAPTER: 12 - Christmas Eve
There was a room for practically everything, a library, a kitchen, a dinning room, six guest rooms... the list went on. One of the interesting things about the twins' house was that everything seemed to run on magic, and Lily found it all very exciting. Another thing was that the house had a ball room, 'for the balls my mama 'olds', was what Miranda had said.
Overall Lily was sure she was going to enjoy her stay at the Walker Estate.
"These are my parents." announced Jo as they entered the dinning room for dinner.
The twins' mother was tall with curly dark brown hair and blue eyes. It wasn't hard to tell where the twins had got their amazing looks from. She looked fairly young, but she gave the impression that she was not someone you ought to mess with. Their father on the other hand was slightly taller with black hair and brown eyes.
"Papa, Mama. Zese are my friends, Isabelle -"
"Issy." corrected Issy automatically.
"- Amber and Lily." Miranda finished.
"Bonjour, mademoiselles. Err... I.... Simone Walker." said the twins mother, quickly and with an obviously confused note in her voice.
"Papa, I fought you 'ad zaid zat Mama would improve 'er Eenglish... ?" Miranda questioned, whispering behind her hand at her father.
"Ah yes, it seems she has not taken a liking to the language."
It was obvious that although the twins' father's first language was, in fact, English, the twins mother had only just started learning the language, and was obviously not finding it easy.
"Mama can't speak Eenglish vairy well, soree."
"It's ok." said Lily, smiling at the fact that Miranda wasn't exactly an expert either.
Dinner was uneventful, but very formal. There were no elbows on the table, no fingers used as cutlery and everyone was sitting up straight taking small bites of their food.
On Christmas morning, Lily awoke to the sound of the shower in the ensuite and the rustling of wrapping paper.
"Oh, you're awake." acknowledged Amber, "sorry, I couldn't wait much longer." she said as she indicated towards the pile of opened presents.
"It's ok." Lily groggily sat up and rubbed her eyes, slowly taking in the fact that it was Christmas morning.
"Those are yours."
"Oooo, presents!" Lily made her way over to the pile of un-opened presents that lay under the small Christmas tree that Amber had insisted be put in their room.
She had received a beautiful book on charms from Amber, a pretty charm bracelet and a book ('So You're Muggle-Born...') from Miranda, pink hair chop-sticks and a Diroset's book of hair spells from Sky, 'Diroset's big book of fashion' and a hair curling potion from Issy, a large assortment of candy from Jo, milk duds and Emma (a/n: Jane Austen's book...) from Emma and a newly released Beetles album from her parents.
Miranda had exited the bathroom soon after Lily had finished opening her presents.
"My cousins will be 'ere for Christmas dinner." Miranda informed them.
"Ok." said Amber as she threw some Bertie Bott's into her mouth.
"Do any of them speak English?" Lily asked, eyebrow quirked.
"Ah. Paul can't, but Aunt, Uncle and Christophe can. And Fleur; she understands it, but refuses to speak it. She says zat English is a stupid language." Miranda bit on her bottom lip, "But you 'ave Joanna and I to 'elp translate what she says, for you."
Lily laughed, "As long as our sentences are translated properly."
Miranda smiled, "Of course."
"By the way, what is Diroset?" Lily asked Miranda, as she flicked through the book of hair spells from Sky.
"It's a very popular magazine for girls." answered Amber before Miranda could open her mouth.
"Oh."
"The Diroset spell is a very well known cosmetic spell." Issy informed them, appearing in the doorway with Jo.
"Oh." Lily repeated with a blank look on her face.
"Miranda, la maman dit que ce Mario et Mimi viennent autour après le déjeuner." Jo said, looking over at Miranda.
"Et Lucille et les autres?" questioned Miranda, her brow furrowed.
"La maman a dit qu'il serait grossier pour les avoir excédent tandis qu'ils sont ici." Jo replied, a rude tone in her voice.
Miranda sighed, "Je devine."
"Er, English?" Issy asked, a confused expression on her face.
Jo laughed, "Two of my friends are coming over after lunch; Mario and Mimi. They're both very high-class muggles, but they're heaps cool -I'm sure you'll like them."
"Do they speak English?" Issy asked, a teasing smile on her face.
"Of course!" Said Jo, not picking up on Issy's sarcasm, "They both speak English, French, Italian and Spanish. In fact Mimi is Italian and Mario; French. They only came to -"
"Ok, ok! I didn't ask for their life story!" Issy said impatiently. "Now... who's up for cooking breakfast?"
Mario and Mimi turned out to be extremely nice. They even brought gifts over for Lily and the others. It was apparent that although Jo was great friends with them, Miranda seemed a bit out of place, finding more comfort in conversing quietly with Mario's older brother, Maurice.
Mario and Maurice were actually quite different in looks, apart from their tanned skin and long pointed faces. They were both very different in height and build, and while Maurice had black hair and blue eyes, Mario had dark blonde hair and hazel eyes. Maurice was also better looking than Mario, but it seemed their was no obvious sibling rivalry. Mario was also fairly accident prone, but managed to always laugh off his misfortune with joke and a grin. Mimi on the other hand was tall, graceful and made everything appear effortless. Her curly black hair and olive skin made her look every bit the Italian celebrity she was. According to Miranda, Mimi was a star in the making, having started acting and modelling two years ago.
Unfortunately, Mimi, Mario and Maurice couldn't stay long and were soon called home. But not before the twins mother could give them Christmas presents addressed to 'Mimi Iona Tontella', 'Mario Alexande Alleon' and 'Maurice Nicolas Alleon'.
At 5 o'clock, the twins' cousins and aunt and uncle arrived, all wrapped in fur coats.
"And where are my two delightful nieces?" cried the twins aunt, looking around eagerly.
"Hello Aunt Marie." chorused the twins, sighing.
"My, how you've grown!" she said as swept the twins into a bone crushing hug.
"Maman, les a laissés souffle." (A/n: Mama, let them breath) said a tall girl of about thirteen, as she took off her heavy fur coat.
"Fleur." her mother scolded, as she pulled away from the twins, "I thought I told you to help your brothers."
"Paul joue dans la neige et Christophe est toujours dans... Limoteen? Il le trouve fasciner fortement" (A/n: Paul is playing in the snow and Christophe is in the... Limoteen? He finds it highly fascinating...) she commented, rolling her eyes. "Je ne comprends pas pourquoi nous ne pourrions pas floo simplement ici..." (A/n: I don't understand why we couldn't just floo here...) and she stormed off in a huff, her caramel-brown locks swishing behind her.
"Zat was Fleur, as you may 'ave noticed." Miranda informed Lily, a regretful tone in her voice. "She turned thirteen last week, and believes zat being a teenager gives 'er ze right to parade around ze place like she owns it."
Amber and Lily laughed, "Typical teenager, huh?"Amber commented with a grin.
Miranda just smiled.
"Mianda!"
Miranda was suddenly grabbed around the waist by a small boy of about five, who was covered in snow. He looked up at Miranda with big brown eyes, a large grin adorning his face.
"Paul," greeted Miranda, "Je ne vous ai pas vu depuis Pâques!" (A/n: I have not seen you since Easter!) Miranda said, smiling down at the younger boy.
"How old are you?"Amber asked, bending down to the boys eye level.
Paul looked shyly up at Amber and Lily before detaching himself form Miranda's waist. He stuck his tongue out in thought and held up five fingers, "cinq." (A/n: five) he said softly.
"Don''worree Amber, 'e is very nervous around strangers." Miranda comforted Amber. Lily was about to speak, when a loud 'bang' came from the kitchen. With a quick glance at each other, they hurried down the corridor and down the stairs to face a hysterical Jo and a shocked Issy.
At first Lily believed Jo to be crying, but on closer inspection Jo was actually laughing so hard she had tears running down her cheeks. Issy, on the other hand, was covered from head to toe in flour and egg white.Miranda just stood their gaping at the sight in front of herwhile Amber and Lily couldn't help but let a small giggle pass their lips.
The door on the other side of the room burst open to reveal the twins' motherand their aunt. Both were shaking their heads furiously at Jo, whose laughter was the only sound in the room
"Joanna Chloe-Michelle Walker!" Their mother shrieked, silencing Jo's hysterical laughter. "Comment défi vous! Regardez ce désordre, ce qui vous vous pensent faisaient?!" (A/n: how dare you! Look at this mess, what do you think you were doing?!) she paused, only to hear a snort of laughter from Jo, "Annonce que vous pensez que c'est drôle?! Partout votre pauvre ami aussi bien! Votre soeur ne ferait jamais n'importe quoi de pareil... Attendez jusqu'à ce que votre père devienne à la maison! Ce que la volonté il indiquent... "(A/n: And you think this is funny?! All over your poor friend as well! Your sister would never do anything like this... Wait until your father gets home! What will he say...) As the twins mother continued her rant, Lily, Amber, Miranda and Paul slowly exited the room.
Dinner, however, ran smoothly and after the goodbyes between the two families, it was time to go to bed.
REVIEWS:
Nayda - thanx for your review, and you probably can hex me now...
EyesofEmerald - go LJ fics! yours is heaps good and thankfully you update yours ....unlike me! and i'd like to apologise for using internet lingo, i just talk heaps on msn and im too lazy to type things properly... hope there's none here though! and i believe that lily and james were just ordinary people who just really loved each other, so i'm gonna try and make my story seem close to reality. thanx again!
tai-04 - thank for ur review and their are no 'pairings' between the marauders and lily's friends, simply because i don't believe in happy endings.
kirst - thanx kirstie, and i know you've already read this, but yeh...
JacquiJack - really sorry for the lateness, hope you can forgive me! and thanx for your review!
UniMyth - lol, i just randomly chose the birthday... but hey, and yes i know i use netspeak... it's quite sad really, i've started saying 'lol' in real life! anyways, thanx for your review!
jachie - yeh, yeh -go shoot me, terrorize me, hopefully i'll write faster....
thank you so much for reviewing, i'm not worthy! send me some emails, it'll help me write faster... i've made the goal to finish first year by the end of this year! hopefully i can reach it!
laters
Limbo-gal