Chapter Thirty-two: Toujours Poor

"We're having our cousins over tomorrow," announced Lummy when everyone had finally settled down to the dinner table. Sirius nearly spat out his glass of water that he had been chugging. James turned a deep shade of purple as he choked on a stalk of asparagus.

"I didn't know that you had cousins. Weren't you supposed to be orphans?" asked Lily, who was thumping James on the back.

"Actually, it turns out that they used to live in England. Not really cousins, more just the one cousin and our aunt and uncle. They moved here about thirteen years ago," replied Harold, munching on some baby carrots.

"Where in England are they from?" said Sasha, who had finally stopped throwing dirty looks at Sirius.

"Harterford or Lancastershire, I think," answered Lummy, looking rather confused. Remus gave her a strange look, and gulped down chicken he had just finished chewing.

"I hope that means Hartford or Lancashire, because those aren't real places. I don't even know if those two are near each other."

"Oh well, where do they live now, Lummers?" asked Sirius, exercising his new nickname for Lummy and changing the subject in a single blow.

"I think he said West Virginia, but I couldn't really tell, with that accent."

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Lummy and Harold had just finished wiping down the kitchen, and they had given Sirius and Gerald the unenviable task of dusting. Lily and James were vacuuming, which meant actual cleaning for Lily, but James just fought with the vacuum cleaner.

"You know, these cords are impossible. Who knew they were so long? And stringy? Quite amazing, when one thinks about it," remarked James, nearly tripping over said cord. Sirius materialized in the corridor, and appeared to be molting.

"What happened to you, mate?" queried Remus good-naturedly.

"Well, the deather fester just fell apart when I was deathering the cabinet. And then the festers jumped on me. Lummy told me they were just regular feathers, but they stick. Anyhow, the festers kept coming, so I Apparated away," explained Sirius rather nervously.

"Sirius, I don't think they are called festers or deathers," added Gerald, barely hiding a grin as he followed Sirius down the stairs.

"What are they called then?" put in Sasha, who had been plumping up the cushions.

"A feather duster," corrected Harold before she burst into laughter.

"Alright everyone, they'll be here in about a half hour, so we'll go get dressed and everything," reminded Lummy as she dashed off to her own room.

Remus and James stayed behind while everyone went off to their respective rooms. Remus spoke first,

"Did you get that all on tape?"

"Of course."

"The kiss at dinner. And deather fester?"

"Wouldn't have missed it for the world."

"Good man, James Potter."

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The bell rang almost an hour later.

"That must be them," cried Lummy, "How do I look?"

"Like a doll, Lummers," praised Sirius, mock smacking her to hurry her up. Remus and James exchanged a look, and James pointed to the hidden cameras he had hung at every corner.

Three characters stood at the door, if one had not known that they were all related, it would have been impossible to guess. The woman was hunched over, with dirty black hair, lopsided brown eyes, and a smiling face. She was wearing something akin to overalls, the floral print stretched over her spherical figure. Her husband was an elderly man, who may have been handsome in his youth, Lily really couldn't tell. He was very thin, almost emaciated, but his eyes were a dark glittering black that sparkled with life. He too had a very kind face. Their son, however, was what Lily would call striking. She would venture to guess that he could give Sirius Black a run for his money.

The thirteen year old boy was tall for his age, with jet black hair and the dark eyes of his father. He was incredibly handsome and possessed a confident, commanding air that gave him an entirely different demeanor from his parents. He gave Lummy and Harold a weak, unassuming smile that immediately gave his face a less startling feel. Lily had a feeling that if she had not seen the smile, she would have found their cousin rather alarming.

"Hey y'all, I'm awful pleased to be visitin' finally," began the boy, his authoritative air disappearing as soon as the word 'y'all' was issued from his lips. Lummy beamed at him, her green eyes looking fondly.

"Well then, on with the introductions, shall we? Now, this is my cousin Bonaventure (1), but we call him Jude (2), my Aunt Maia (3), and Elder Benjy (4)." Sirius whispered to James –

"Does everyone in this family have impossibly long names with completely unrelated nicknames?"

Ignoring the interruption, Harold continued,

"Now then, the girl with the lovely red hair is Lily Evans and that kid with the messy black hair…"

"Which one is it, honey?" asked Aunt Maia.

"Er…the one with black eyes and glasses is Gerald Afbetoqui Potter, and the one with hazel eyes is James Potter…" Lummy quickly put in –

"And the stunning one with perfect black hair and sapphire blue eyes is…"

But before she could say, Elder Benjy blurted out,

"Sirius Black, we know."

"How?" asked Sirius, confused, but gratified from his girlfriend's extreme praise."Well, all y'all are on the telly. I mean, I don't go for them tabloids, but I seen y'all's pitchers on them fair enough times."

"I dunno where they go off callin' our Lummy some foul name Narcissa," complained Aunt Maia.

"Neither do we," muttered Sirius conspiratorially as Remus elbowed him in the stomach. Harold used the lull to continue introducing the crowd –

"Now then, this one with the light brown hair is Remus Lupin, and his pretty black-haired girlfriend is Sasha Tsukino."

"Why did you decide to move here from England," asked Lily briskly, trying to make conversation and distract James from staring at Aunt Maia's crossed eyes.

"A bit of family trouble, his brother and my father, mostly," replied Aunt Maia, amicably. Lily noticed that she didn't lapse into her accent when she didn't remember.

"We thought that the lot of them up in Lancashire was a bit crazed, and they weren't none too fond of us neither," added Elder Benjy.

Lily also found that Elder Benjy wasn't quite telling the truth when he said that Lancashire was his home. In fact, Aunt Maia had categorically stated that Hartford was her birthplace, even though Elder Benjy and she were apparently from the same town. It was all very fishy.

"So I went off to Argentina in 1925 with my youngest sister, hoping for bigger and better things. I was terribly naïve then, a mere girl of fifteen, and your ma a wee babe," explained Aunt Maia.

"And I fled to Canada, to become a traveling salesman. Of course, Canada wasn't quite Canada then," said Elder Benjy. Sirius quirked an eyebrow questioningly,

"What was it then?"

"Part of jolly ol' England, I mean, it was a darn piece of the old country," explicated Elder Benjy, recognizing that he had fallen out of his hick drawl inadvertently.

"Is the old country Poland?" asked Remus, who had clearly not been paying attention.

"'Course not; it's England, ain't it? Anyhoo, I ironed boots and blacked 'dem trousers for me livin' for a good twelve years, and 'den I got de itching in me feet 'gin," blathered Elder Benjy, attempting to make up for his previous lapse by adopting a drawl that was bigger and better than ever. Sasha sighed as though she could not quite figure how one would "iron boots and black trousers", but knew better then to ask outright.

"And in Argentina, we joined a group of indigenous peoples and helped them make crafts. It was rather fulfilling," continued Aunt Maia, who appeared entirely oblivious to the fact that she had completely fallen out of her drawl.

"I moved to West Virginy in forty-seven, a good time after the end of the second war, and I took up farmin'. It was a good haul, that," reminisced Elder Benjy, giving little indication of just what he did in Canada for twenty-years.

"Your mum grew up in Argentina for a time, and then when she was a good bit older we moved up to the states. We lived in Jersey for a time, but when she was seventeen she joined them riveters to help the war effort. She got herself a good steady job after the war in Delaware in an industrial city not far from here. I moved o'er to West Virginia to work as a mine aide."

"What's a mine aide?" asked Lummy, who was very curious about her long lost family.

"Well, mines require all sorts of pulleys and sorts to bring food and such down. Mine aides help set those up and run the shops in mining towns," proclaimed Aunt Maia rather knowledgeably.

"And that's where I met darling Maia," added Elder Benjy.

Once again Lily, who was one of the most perceptive in their circle, noticed that something was very slightly amiss with how Aunt Maia and Elder Benjy talked about their past. And why did they keep slipping in and out of those accents? Remus may have noticed such sundry details, but Sasha Tsukino seemed to preoccupy the majority of his time.

Gerald Afbetoqui stared for a long time at Elder Benjy, and whispered "Elder" to himself and then looked straight at Jude.

"I 'spect I came 'long after that, Maw and Paw," remarked Jude, a boyish smile filling his handsome face.

"What about Mum?" questioned Harold inquisitively, who had never properly heard the story about her parents. Lummy nodded her assent as Sirius squeezed her affectionately.

"I known this story, Maw and Paw. Can I tell it to cuzin' Harold?" asked Jude, his dark eyes sparkling.

"Sure, sweetheart," answered Aunt Maia, ruffling her son's hair.

"Well, I 'spect Aunt Selene was a-workin' as a riveter, you know, like Rosie. And Uncle Drake – well, I s'pose he was Drake de La Warr back then, some Lord's son. You know, Mum, I always did wonder how Lords were around so long…"

"Jude, tell the story properly to your cousins, we don't need to know about some sort of English history this side of the ocean," snapped Aunt Maia, her sweet demeanor disappearing as her eyes flashed at her son. Jude looked frightened for a moment at his mother's about face, but continued –

"Anyhoo, Uncle Drake was a soldier in the war. He was hurt awful bad when he came back and your ma took care of him in the hospital. She was the prettiest nurse, and he was the handsomest soldier…"

'Papa was handsome," thought Lummy Delaware, remembering her father's almost Scandinavian blonde hair and deep, almost forest green eyes. She felt a weight on her shoulder. Sirius had fallen asleep listening to the story that was fascinating to her, but incredibly boring to the Marauders. James appeared to be holding his eyes open, and Remus was staring blankly as though he were snoozing with his eyes open. Sasha was not much better, but Lily Evans was drinking in every drop of the story as though her life depended on it.

"She wasn't as handsome as your father, but she never did seem to take after our family. My father said that our family used to look like her, but something had happened," interrupted Aunt Maia, her face suddenly serious, "He always liked her best."

"They…um…fell in love? But Uncle Drake's family didn't want them to marry, because Aunt Selene wasn't their kind. I'm not sure what that means, but Uncle Drake waited until his paw died, and he got the farm," finished Jude rather lamely.

Harold had a tear in her eye. She looked over to her sister, and found that Lummy was still smiling. Didn't she remember how papa died?

Lummy watched Harold cry. She supposed that she ought to feel sad, but something was missing from the story.

"We'd best go," said Elder Benjy, grasping his son and holding his wife's hand. They left quietly, as everyone else stood up and waived goodbye.

Lily Evans stood and stared at the window long after Elder Benjy and Aunt Maia had driven away. Why did even Jude, who had grown up in West Virginia, sometimes lapse into such perfect English? And at times, his handsome face demonstrated such strong emotions. Once again, his joy seemed contained only by his kindness, and for the second time, Lily thought that Jude must have been a very frightening little boy.

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Name Meanings:

(1) Bonaventure – means lucky­, the same as Hermes

(2) Jude – means praise, the same as the name Aeneas, a friend of Hermes

(3) Maia –In Greek and Roman mythology she was the eldest of the Pleiades, the group of seven stars in the constellation Taurus, who were the daughters of Atlas and Pleione.

(4) Benjy – homonym of "Banji", the word for the second born of twins

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