A/N: Hello everyone, I know this update is a little later than you'd probably like, but it took me a while to get this chapter out. In fact, the day covered in this chapter ended up being three chapters long so I had to split it up, but more on that later.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Warning: Dom and Alexandrie like to annoy the crap out of Victoire, so as they wreak havoc they may say some things that are a little PG 13.
Recap: Vic's got a bridal shower in France with all of her friends and family from both sides. Nadia and Malcolm's article about them being pregnant would have come out the day before this chapter, and they were in Italy to tell her parents in person.
Bridal Showers and Steamy Showers
Sunday, April 28th 2024
11:42 AM
Victoire Weasley felt as though the muscles in her cheeks were going to cramp from all of the smiling she was doing, and it wasn't even noon yet. The official start time of her bridal shower –as listed on the well-priced invitations Fleur had complained looked too boring– was supposed to be noon, but it appeared that French veelas were more than punctual and enjoyed arriving at parties and appointments early. Or at least all French veelas who weren't her cousin Alexandrie were punctual and prompt. Victoire's face was sore because her mother had insisted that she personally greet all of her guests and she'd already had to smile at half a score of blonde women before the party had even formally started.
Between the blindingly bright smiles and double-cheek kisses for everyone, Victoire's face was getting the biggest workout it ever had. Since most of the guests that had arrived were from her mother's side, she had also been giving her French language skills a good rehearsal. It wasn't until after Victoire had a very detailed conversation with her mother's cousin Tatienne about the extensive process she and Healer McDavid's spell had to go through to get certified, that she was able to switch over to English to greet her guests.
"Oh thank Merlin you're here! Someone needs to go find Dom and make sure that she doesn't spike every punch bowl with liquor since there will be children and pregnant women present," Victoire exclaimed anxiously in lieu of a greeting.
Lucy Weasley gave Victoire a quick hug in greeting and then announced "I'm on it" as she stepped into the large sitting room of Victoire's Aunt Gabrielle's house and made a beeline for Dominique Weasley.
"Just take a deep breath Vic," Molly suggested helpfully as she placed her hands on her older cousin's arms and modelled a deep breathing exercise.
It was a testament to how stressed out Victoire was feeling about her bridal shower that she actually took Molly's advice –instead of saying something sarcastic as she was more likely to do– and began breathing in a few deep breaths through her nose and out through her mouth. While she did so she tried to pinpoint what exactly she was most worried about.
Victoire knew that she could handle her French family members, and she could handle her Dad's side of her family and her friends, but she wasn't quite sure if she could handle them all together in one place at the same time. Her mother had tried to convince her that her bridal shower would be a good test run for her wedding, but with only half the gender of all of the guests, but that only made Victoire worry more about the actual wedding.
As Victoire's deep breathing started to turn shallower and stepped into hyperventilation territory, her Aunt Audrey gently shuffled Molly to the side and pulled Victoire into a loving hug.
"Tell me what you're most worried about Sweetheart," Aunt Audrey said in that gentle tone of voice that Victoire had always loved to hear during her childhood whenever family gatherings got out of hand and it seemed like there was only one rational adult in the house.
Victoire breathed in the familiar smell of Audrey's perfume, "I'm worried that something bad is going to happen and that everyone's going to hate each other and think horrible things about each other but that they're all too polite to say anything like that to someone's face, which is just going to lead everyone being catty to each other behind their backs-"
"Even if that were to happen," Audrey interrupted her niece before Victoire's verbal spiral could continue, "Is there anything you can do to control it –short of casting an imperious curse on half of your guests that is?"
Victoire's face took on a suddenly guarded expression that immediately made Audrey and Molly suspicious, "So is that a suggestion of how to ensure that this goes over smoothly?"
Audrey rolled her eyes while Molly pinched the bridge of her nose, "Don't you have any idea what your fiancé, uncles, and godfather do for a living?"
"Someone's spending too much time with Ally," Victoire muttered under her breath as she ushered her cousin and aunt into the sitting room space of her Aunt Gabrielle's home, where the bridal shower was to take place, before her Aunt Audrey could question her on whether or not she was serious about imperious-ing a guest or two.
Her aunts Hermione Weasley and Ginny Potter were next to arrive, and since they had both collected their younger daughters before portkeying to the country, it gave Victoire a welcome distraction.
"I'm so glad you two made it!" Victoire exclaimed excitedly as she pulled Lily Potter and Rose Weasley into a somewhat suffocating group hug after she'd greeted her aunts.
Rose smiled kindly as she extricated herself from Victoire, "We're glad that you were able to convince McGonagall to let us floo home. This will be much more fun than a Sunday in the library-"
"Yeah, yeah," Lily interrupted Rose's words as she flattened her red hair down that had been disturbed by Victoire's bear-hug, "Where's the dessert table?"
Her mother rolled her eyes, "It's too early for sweets Lil. We haven't even had anything resembling lunch yet."
"Fine," Lily replied with a suspiciously easy shrug of her shoulders, "Then where's the beverage table? Dom said she was going to make some special recipe punch-"
Ginny reached forward to grab her sixteen-year-old by the back of her sweater before she could wander further into the room, "Nice try. You can have pumpkin juice or a can of soda as long as the seal hasn't been broken."
Lily crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. Ginny gave her a look that quickly put her sulking into place and Lily walked towards the beverage table while muttering something about wanting to see what kinds of different drinks French wizards produced. Ginny, Hermione, and Rose made to follow the pouty Potter, but Victoire waylaid Rose for a few more minutes to ask if Alice Longbottom had travelled with them. While convincing McGonagall to allow Rose and Lily permission to leave the castle grounds to attend her bridal shower, she had also mentioned to the headmistress that an invite to the shower had also been sent to Hannah Longbottom inviting both her and Alice to the shower and that Neville might also ask for permission for Alice to leave the castle for the day.
Rose sighed heavily at Victoire's question, "Well Hannah was busy today because she's short staffed at work, but Neville had originally gotten permission for Alice to come with us. Unfortunately, she got caught out of bed and in the corridors late last night by Linkwell and he gave her detention for today."
"All day?" Victoire asked curiously, not that it would surprise her to hear that Linkwell had gone above and beyond when it came to disciplining Alice's relatively innocent misconduct.
"Yes, she got an extra-long detention because Linkwell wanted her to give up who she was meeting with so late at night because the excuse she had given him was so lame even to him. Obviously he knew that it was Kieran that she had gone to meet with, but without any proof and with Alice not admitting to it one way or another she got the full brunt of his irritation," Rose explained.
Victoire held in a smirk as she remembered how little things like weekend detentions from Linkwell used to seem like the end of the world when she was back at school, and told Rose to go ahead into the sitting room as she had more relatives from her mother's side to greet.
Several more cheek kisses later, some of Victoire's friends from England finally started to arrive. She greeted her healer friends from St. Mungo's Cassidy Hopewell and Sarah MacGregor with an amount of excitement that startled the pair at first, but she was just really glad to be speaking to two people whose first response to seeing her wasn't to narrow their eyes and inspect every inch of her until they found something about her appearance to comment upon.
"I'm so happy to see you guys! However did you get away today Cassidy? I thought you had to cover for me in the D. A. R. ward?" Victoire asked the two women that she had met years ago in healing school.
Cassidy smirked and threw a look at Sarah that made the other woman blush, "I was supposed to work today, but I got an owl from Wesley yesterday who said that he'd take my shift for me so that I could come to the party."
"Well that was kind of him," Victoire replied to Cassidy even though she was also grinning a little too brightly at Sarah as well.
Sarah rolled her eyes at their less-than subtle insinuations, "Maybe he just thought he'd do a nice favour for two of his colleagues."
"Even though he'd just come off a twenty-four hour shift in a different ward?" Cassidy responded with a snicker.
"Or maybe," Victoire said doing her best to hold in her own laughter, "Wesley did it because he wants to get on someone else's good side."
Sarah straightened her shoulders, and besides the light blush on her cheeks, she did not give her colleagues anything else, "Well whatever his reason it ended up working to your advantage, so I don't think we should question it."
Since a bit of a cue was forming behind the healers, Sarah took the opportunity to excuse herself and escape into the sitting room.
"I'll get some of that fancy French wine into her and then work on that topic just a little bit more later," Cassidy promised Victoire with a mischievous grin before following Sarah into the room.
Fleur's cousin Josseline and her daughter Aurélie were next, which gave Victoire the chance to ask them how late they thought Alexandrie would be to the party. Aurélie laughed at her twin sister's expense and then replied that she would be attending the party with her girlfriend and that she was much more punctual than Alexandrie was.
After pointing out Fleur's current positon to her cousin Josseline, the pair entered Gabrielle's trendily decorated sitting room and Victoire turned to the next group of guests.
"Oh it seems like it's been forever!" Victoire exclaimed as she unceremoniously pulled her best mate Sandra Line into a tight hug.
The curly haired woman returned the hug just as tightly and it made the other two women standing near them laugh. Anastasia Knott giggled with delight as she watched the obvious affection between the two embracing women, while Ally Weasley had rolled her eyes and let out a bit of an exasperated chuckle as she observed the pair.
"It's only been like a week since you last saw each other," Ally reminded the hugging pair needlessly.
Sandra pulled out of the hug a little and glanced from Victoire to Ally, "I think someone's a little jealous. C'mon and join the hug Ally-Cat."
Ally scoffed but couldn't sidestep the group hug that suddenly engulfed her as Victoire and Sandra set upon her. Anastasia kept giggling from where she stood but stood back from the madness that was Victoire and Sandra forcing a tight hug and an attempted hair-ruffling on the younger woman, as she was worried that their tangle of limbs might end with her getting an elbow or a forearm to the abdomen. Once they had decided that Ally had been subsequently squeezed enough, they let her go and Victoire bestowed a much softer hug on the four months pregnant woman.
"Go ahead in and get something to eat and drink, when I'm done with my greeting duties I'll find you guys," Victoire told them as she watched more people enter the house.
They were barely gone before Cecilia Wood came skipping up to Victoire and gave her boyfriend's sister a big hug, "Happy bridal shower day! Or whatever you're supposed to say at these things."
Victoire chuckled but then glanced curiously at the empty space behind Cecilia, "Did you not bring your mother with you?"
"Oh, we portkeyed to the end of the laneway about the same time Nadia did and she started vomiting. Mum said she'd take care of her and that I should come ahead in," Cecilia explained.
The blonde woman frowned worriedly, "Poor Nadia, she really needs to start taking a potion for that nausea or she's going to end up nutrient deficient."
"She promised Ally she'd fill the prescription Healer Jarvis wrote for her once she got back home from Italy. She portkeyed straight here from there while Malcolm took another one back to England. From what I could gather from her explanation to Mum, in between the dry-heaving, was that he wanted to travel with her here and then back to England, but that she wouldn't let him because it wasn't necessary and that he didn't need to treat her like an eleven-year-old muggleborn who'd never used magic before," Cecilia narrated as she shrugged her shoulders.
Victoire pinched the bridge of her nose, "Well at least her spirit is still intact."
Despite the grim picture Cecilia had painted with her words, Katie Wood walked in a few moments later with not one but two nauseas-looking pregnant women on either side of her. As they came closer, Victoire could hear the elder mother of three giving both first-time pregnant women some advice.
"So girls, we'll find some plain crackers and some sparkling water and those upset stomach should clear right up," Katie was saying as they came to a stop in front of Victoire and Cecilia.
The tallest woman on Katie's right side was the aforementioned knocked-up girlfriend of her nephew, Nadia Cassano, while the other woman on Katie's left was the much further along pregnant auror that worked with Teddy, Jilly Donaldson.
"Has your morning sickness started to bother you as well?" Victoire asked Jilly concernedly. Jilly was already three months pregnant and usually morning sickness abated after the first trimester finished.
Jilly waved off Victoire's concern with her hand as a bit of colour started to come back to her face, "It's only when I portkey or apparate. Besides that it hasn't been bothering me."
Nadia scowled at Jilly heatedly, and if the two women hadn't already discussed their pregnancies together at length during the last party they were at together, Jilly would have taken the glare she was getting personally.
"I hate you very much right now."
Katie patted Nadia on the back comfortingly, "It will eventually pass."
"The morning sickness?"
"And the mood swings."
Here Cecilia scoffed disbelievingly.
Katie raised an eyebrow at her daughter, "What was that for?"
"You had mood swings from Brogan's conception all the way through to his birth," Cecilia reminded her.
Katie shrugged her shoulders, "Your father brought the worst out of me when I was pregnant."
"Because he breathes too heavily?" Cecilia retorted.
Nadia let out a long sigh, "Malcolm does the exact same thing!"
Victoire bit her lip to hold in a laugh and then gestured for the women to enter the room. There was nobody else waiting behind them, so since there seemed to be a gap in the arrival of her guests, Victoire followed the pregnant women and the Woods into her aunt's sitting room to help get them situated. A few plain crackers and some surprisingly expensive sparkling water were rather easy to round up, and as Victoire watched the colour come back into Nadia's face she started quizzing her about how her trip to Italy had gone.
Nadia spoke favourably about her parents and her family's reaction to her and Malcolm announcing their pregnancy to them on Friday. Apparently Nadia's parents had been so excited to hear that she was going to give them a grandchild in eight months that they didn't care that it had occurred accidentally. The professional quidditch player had rolled her eyes when she recalled the next part to Victoire where her mother had gone so far as to thank Malcolm for knocking up her daughter because she had given up hope on getting a grandchild out of Nadia for several years. She thought she'd have to wait for Nadia to retire from quidditch before that would occur. Nadia's best friend Dante Azzarà hadn't had quite as cavalier an attitude as Nadia's mother did about the accidental pregnancy, but ultimately he was happy to see Nadia happy and he only ribbed Malcolm just a bit about him knocking up his childhood best friend.
"And since Malcolm's article was published yesterday, everybody knows about the pregnancy and you don't have to worry about telling anybody else," Victoire told Nadia comfortingly.
"Actually," Nadia said as she shifted on her feet uncomfortably, "Malcolm got a howler from Grandmother Eilionoir this morning. She was furious that she had to find out from his article in Quidditch Weekly that he impregnated me."
Victoire's jaw dropped, "You–you guys didn't tell her about it earlier?"
"I thought that stupid Malcolm did," Nadia grumbled, "But it seems with all of the other things he was worried about, he was putting off telling her to the last minute and then ended up forgetting to mention it to her."
"So she had to find out from a magazine article that her grandson is having a baby?" Victoire asked with a wince as her mind conjured up an image of an irate Eilionoir Wood glaring at Malcolm's well-written article about Nadia's pregnancy.
Cecilia, who was very poorly hiding a smirk, piped up, "I for one particularly enjoyed the look on her face when she found out. Obviously she doesn't keep up with Quidditch Weekly, but she saw the article because Duncan had brought a copy of the magazine to Saturday morning brunch. She was so shocked to hear about the pregnancy that she didn't even appreciate how well written and entertaining Malcolm's article was."
"I read that article too, Malcolm did a wonderful job on it," Jilly added helpfully.
Nadia pinched the bridge of her nose, "Yeah, if only that was enough for his grandmother."
"Don't worry, I'm sure I'll end up doing something to inadvertently displease Eilionoir within the next week that will shift her disdain. Being angrily petty at me is usually her default setting anyway," Katie reminded Nadia cheerfully.
Jilly took a sip of her glass filled with sparkling water, "And here I thought my life had issues because my boyfriend and the father of my child lives in a castle in the Scottish wilderness for ten months of the year. At least I won't have half of England talking about my pregnancy."
"You can be sure that it will be a topic of discussion among all of the students of Hogwarts once they find out though," Victoire added unhelpfully.
Jilly sent her a look, "Thanks Victoire."
Victoire chuckled good-naturedly at Jilly's expense but then excused herself so that she could pace back to the other side of the room where she saw Eliza Parker just entering the room with her toddler attached to her by the hand. The bride greeted Eliza sincerely, but didn't waste time before scooping little Rowan Parker-Dickinson up in a hug. Rowan squealed lightly and squeezed Victoire tightly around the neck. Victoire's duties as sort-of the hostess were then required near the front door of her aunt's house again, so she took the adorable toddler with her while she directed Eliza to go have a good time.
"I see someone stole your daughter," Cecilia said to Eliza in lieu of a greeting once Eliza had wandered over to her.
Eliza pulled Cecilia into a hug, "I'm not too worried, I'll get Rowan back when she starts to get fussy."
"That'd be true of anybody else holding her, but I think we both know that Vic'll just calm her down and then get back to business," Cecilia said as she reached for an opened bottle of red wine from the beverage table and started to pour some into a glass.
Eliza pushed a piece of her long dark hair behind her ear, "Yeah I guess that's true."
Cecilia handed her friend the glass of wine she poured, "You're not really worried about Rowan are you? She's like the best behaved toddler I've ever met."
"She's just been a little short on patience lately. Benjamin told me to leave her with him today and just come by myself, but she's the flower girl and I knew that Vic would want to see her-"
"Finish that glass and I think you'll feel better about your choices," Cecilia offered with an earnest nod.
Eliza eyed the wine skeptically but then she shrugged as if to say 'what the heck', downed her glass of wine as if it was a tequila shot, and then told Cecilia to give her a refill.
"If you want something stronger I've heard some whispered gossip about a particularly potent bowl of punch Dom made," Cecilia offered with a raised eyebrow.
"Does it have the potential to destroy my liver?"
Cecilia shrugged, "Well Dom's been hiding the bowl itself and keeping its existence on the down-low so Victoire doesn't find out about it . . . so it can't exactly be good for you."
Eliza clenched her teeth together, "I've still got a toddler to look after this afternoon, so I think I'll pass on that and stick to wine."
"Good choice," Cecilia said with a nod, "C'mon let's get something to snack on."
Eliza got fifteen minutes of child-free time before Rowan came running up to her, Victoire following after her and laughing while Rowan started to ask for treats from the table that held the sweets. Eliza told Rowan that she needed to eat something first that wasn't sugary, and after handing her daughter a napkin filled with cheese and crackers, Rowan toddled off to the closest corner of the room where Victoire's twin ten-year-old cousins Émilie and Esmé had created a game out of playing with some of the balloons and streamers they had snatched from some of the party decorations.
Eliza looked like she was going to go after her daughter, but under Cecilia and Victoire's combined reassurances allowed her daughter to be entertained by the two young girls while she stood a few meters away so that she could keep sight on her from the corner of her eye.
Victoire wandered away from Eliza and Cecilia as the two women began to chat in a way that only two best friends could. She made a stop at the beverage table for herself for the first time that afternoon, and she reached for a bottle of wine made from her Uncle Marc's vineyard before deciding at the last second that she needed something a little harder if she was going to go interact with more of her family members, so she poured herself a shot of straight Firewhiskey and downed it in five seconds flat.
From behind her a voice addressed her in French, "I wasn't informed that this was going to be that kind of party."
Victoire spun around and her face broke out into a bright smile when she laid her eyes on Noëlle Varens. She even let out an uncharacteristically girlish scream that was immediately matched by Noëlle as the two blonde woman threw their arms around each other in a tight hug. When Victoire first met Noëlle Varens during her last year of Hogwarts when they were both chosen as Tri-Wizard champions for their respective schools, she would never have imagined that they would have become friends by the end of the year let alone that they'd stay in touch for several years after the fact through infrequent visits and more frequent letters.
"Can I have some?" Noëlle asked Victoire cheekily as she pointed to Victoire's empty glass when their hug had run its course.
Victoire grinned and poured a few inches of Firewhiskey into the empty wineglass Noëlle held in her hand, "As long as you don't tell my mother that it's that kind of party."
"Cross my heart," Noëlle replied with a nod of her head before she chugged back the drink.
"So how'd you sneak in here without my noticing?" Victoire questioned her curiously as she contemplated taking another shot of Firewhiskey.
Noëlle shrugged her shoulders, "I believe you were attending to a pregnant woman at the time, and then after that I got waylaid by one of your cousins that I knew at school and I only just escaped her."
"Fair enough," Victoire replied as she decided to give in to temptation and pour herself another generous helping of Firewhiskey.
Noëlle smirked and gestured to the bottle of Firewhiskey, "Deal me in for another round. But a little less generous than yours."
Victoire mirrored her smirk and dispensed Noëlle another, much smaller, pour of alcohol in the wineglass. She clinked her glass against Noëlle's and they saluted each other before drowning their drinks in unison.
"I see you haven't changed much Noëlle," Announced the annoyingly familiar voice of Gisèle, Victoire's Aunt Gabrielle's step-daughter.
Noëlle recognized the voice too, and when she turned to face Gisèle her eye roll upon seeing the skinny blonde was larger than even Victoire's had been.
"Hello Gisèle," Noëlle replied in very contemptuous French, "Fancy seeing you here. I didn't know that you were friends with Victoire."
"I'm not-"
"She's not-"
Gisèle and Victoire replied at the same time.
"Well obviously not, I doubt you'd be that desperate for friends Victoire," Noëlle replied in a tone of voice that made it clear to Victoire that Noëlle was not a fan of Gisèle. And based on the eye roll and huff Gisèle emitted, it was also clear that she disliked Noëlle as well.
Noëlle tapped her fingernail against the glass of her wineglass, "So Gisèle, how did you end up here? Did you hear about the free alcohol and decide to freeload?"
"No I live here."
Noëlle shot Victoire an unbelievable glance.
Victoire sighed, "We're step-cousins."
"But I am curious to find out why you're here Noëlle," Gisèle said condescendingly, "It's not like there are any guys here to tempt you. No boyfriends to steal."
Noëlle smirked, "Well colour me surprised that Gisèle Rousseau is still not over the fact that Gaétan Charpentier would rather date immature me at fifteen than boring you at seventeen."
Victoire was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the conversation, and was going to sneakily slip away and let the two old schoolmates go at it, until Dom happened to accidently wander by and decided that she was enjoying how the conversation was going and blocked Victoire in so that she could eavesdrop.
"Gaétan Charpentier was enchanted by me, the only reason why you turned his head was because he knew you were easy," Gisèle replied angrily.
"Oh," Dom whispered to Victoire, "This is getting good."
Noëlle rolled her eyes, "Honestly Gisèle, I probably did you a favour there. Everybody knew that Gaétan Charpentier was a womanizer. I doubt I was the first girl he was secretly snogging while he was publicly flirting with another."
"Gaétan Charpentier was a gentleman!" Gisèle insisted.
Victoire did see her cousin Alexandrie coming up behind the arguing pair in front of her, but apparently Alexandrie didn't see her frantic head shaking that she was trying to utilize to signal that Alexandrie shouldn't enter the mess of whatever was going on between her friend and her step-cousin.
"Gaétan Charpentier, now that's a name that I haven't heard in a while," Alexandrie exclaimed as she came to a stop right beside Noëlle and Gisèle.
Noëlle blinked a little in surprise at Alexandrie's sudden entrance, but she took it in stride, "Alexandrie, tell us what you knew about Gaétan Charpentier's history with women while at Beauxbatons."
"Well I personally know that he was a wonderful kisser," Alexandrie said after thinking over Noëlle's request.
"As always Alexandrie makes things even better," Dom told Victoire as she summoned a bowl of chips to her and started to snack on them while she watched the drama unfolding.
"What?" Gisèle asked Alexandrie sharply.
Alexandrie shrugged, "It's true. We snogged once or twice over our latter years at school. He's got a talented mouth and he was pretty free with his affections, so he was fun to use to whittle away the time. But he was about as flighty with his affections as I was so it never really turned into anything but that."
"He wouldn't just snog anybody-" Gisèle tried to defend only to be cut off by Alexandrie and Noëlle's sudden snickers.
"Sure he wouldn't," Alexandrie said sarcastically before she glanced around and called out her twin sister's name loudly.
Aurélie popped up out of nowhere in a way that Victoire just realized was rather common to her French relatives as well as herself, and Aurélie glanced at her sister enquiringly, "Yes?"
"Were you acquainted well with Gaétan Charpentier back in school?" Alexandrie asked her twin.
Aurélie shrugged, "He grabbed me once in between classes during sixth year and started snogging me because he thought I was you. Although, I thought that that was all a load of crock because we're not exactly identical."
"He's a good kisser isn't he?" Noëlle asked cheerfully.
Aurélie smirked, "Well he definitely had a lot of practice with a lot of different girls by then."
Gisèle did not look happy with this new information, but she didn't seem quite as agitated with Alexandrie and Aurélie's presence as she had earlier when it was just Noëlle taunting her. Victoire had decided that she was going to unceremoniously change the topic –not that she was very annoyed with how everybody was teasing her least favourite cousin (non-blood related or otherwise) but because her mother and Aunt Gabrielle had put a lot of effort into organizing a classy and tasteful shower for her and encouraging an argument between her step-cousin and her old friend would decidedly ruin the atmosphere– but she was unable to intervene because she spotted a newcomer to the party enter the sitting room and knew she had to go greet her.
"Make sure that this doesn't turn into a full on duel will you?" Victoire whispered to Dom in a quiet enough tone that didn't register with the four blonde women who were still arguing about some bloke they knew back during their Beauxbatons years.
Dom raised a disbelieving eyebrow at her older sister, "You really think I'd want to stop Noëlle and Gisèle from hexing each other?"
Victoire pinched the bridge of her nose, "I'm the bride and you're my maid of honour. You're supposed to make wedding related issues easier for me!"
"Fine," Dom muttered with an exaggerated pout. She moved her hand to her chest and made an 'X' motion with her finger to mime crossing her heart, "I'll make sure this doesn't break down to Weasley-dinner level of confrontation."
"That's all I'm asking for," Victoire sighed.
After quietly excusing herself from the other women, Noëlle and Aurélie heard her and waved while Alexandrie seemed more concerned with giddily adding fuel to the fire that was Gisèle's temper, Victoire paced across the room. Before Victoire had the chance to greet the slightly late newcomer, she saw that the short red haired woman was in good hands as she had already been intercepted by Sandra Line. After Sandra and the redhead shared a tight hug the latter woman went on to greet Ally and Anastasia enthusiastically before pulling Nadia Cassano –who was probably a whole foot taller than the redhead– into a supper tight hug along with a few squeals.
Victoire caught the tail-end of the squealing/greeting as she got closer to the group, ". . . and when Dimas told me that there was something in Quidditch Weekly that I needed to see I rolled my eyes and reminded him that quidditch isn't really my cup of tea, but my dear husband was so insistent about my looking at it that I finally relented and then lo and behold! There's a beautiful picture of you and Malcolm announcing that you're going to have a baby!"
Nadia, who had been smiling politely at Charlotte Cabrera upon first seeing her, was staring to look a little green from the tightness of the hug and the jumping motion the shorter redheaded woman was inflicting upon the nauseous quidditch chaser. As Nadia's face started to issue major warning bells, Charlotte seemed oblivious and continued to chatter on.
"And it's just so exciting that you and Malcolm are going to have a baby at the same-" Charlotte finally spotted the look on Nadia's face and immediately let her go, "Oh dear. Morning sickness?"
Nadia nodded and then turned to her left where Ally was already waiting with a handful of crackers and a glass of sparkling water that she had hastily summoned to her when she saw that Charlotte's habitual enthusiasm was literally making Nadia sick.
"You poor thing," Charlotte told Nadia with an apologetic smile, "I'm so sorry about bringing it on. I remember how awful I felt during that phase. The first few weeks of my first trimester were awful."
Victoire, who was just about to politely welcome Charlotte and alert her to her presence, emitted a choking disbelieving sound upon hearing Charlotte's admission instead of the greeting she'd intended to say.
"Hel–Wha?"
Short red haired Charlotte Cabrera, who was an ex-girlfriend of Teddy's from his last year at Hogwarts, was such a happy and bubbly person that Victoire couldn't ever really recall having seen her in a sour mood before. Charlotte always seemed to have an endless amount of energy and cheerfulness, and her reserves still seemed pretty full as she smiled brightly at Victoire and bestowed upon the blonde a look that anybody else would reserve for only their closest friends.
Victoire wished that she could have reciprocated Charlotte's bright grin upon seeing the other woman, but unfortunately when Charlotte turned to face Victoire, the latter woman's face took on an expression of surprise that anybody but Charlotte might have found offensive. Charlotte had a rounded stomach underneath her designer wrap dress. There was either half a quaffle hidden under Charlotte's dress, or she was sporting a baby-bump that was about the same size as Anastasia Knott's.
"Hi Victoire!"
"You're pregnant."
Charlotte chuckled good-naturedly at Victoire's response and pulled the blonde bride-to-be into a hug which allowed Victoire to feel the baby-bump she was sporting, "Yes I am. I'm four months today actually!"
"Wow, congratulations," Victoire finally forced her mouth to say, "But we've been in contact via letter over the past few months and you never mentioned it!"
Charlotte grinned, "I was going to let all of your know when I was passed ten weeks, but then I got Victoire's invite to this bridal shower and I thought that I'd surprise you!"
The 'you' in this equation was obviously Victoire, Sandra, and Ally whom Charlotte had gotten to know pretty well over the past few years, although she didn't seem to mind that Anastasia and Nadia were around for the announcement either.
"Well it was a surprise," Victoire said, her brain starting to work again even though she felt her heart clench a little upon hearing that someone else she knew was pregnant, "But a wonderful one. I hope you're doing well, and Dimas too?"
"Dimas is great, he's so excited about the baby. And the baby and I are both doing wonderful. Once I got over the morning sickness as I was telling Nadia–" Charlotte paused here and then glanced back at Nadia excitedly, "Rowena Ravenclaw! Nadia yours and Malcolm's baby is going to be the same age as mine and Dimas's. This means if I can convince Dimas to let our kid go to Hogwarts they'll be in the same year!"
While this news was obviously thrilling to Charlotte, just the mention of the next twelve years as a parent were enough to make Nadia's face tinge green again.
"How about we don't mention Hogwarts for like another decade?" Nadia suggested a little desperately.
"That's going to be one busy school year," Ally mused with a bit of a smirk, "There will be Malcolm and Nadia's kid, Jilly and Caleb's kid, Stasia and Colton's kid, and Charlotte and Dimas's kid-"
Sandra smirked too, "And of course Vic and Teddy are getting married in two months so they should be able to pop one out before next September."
Victoire rolled her eyes while Charlotte started to jump up and down on her toes at the thought of what Sandra said, "Ohhh!"
"Wow Charlotte, you're really giving Auntie Fleur a run for her money with the excitement over the prospect of Vic and Teddy having a baby," Ally chuckled.
"I'm just happy when my friends are happy," Charlotte insisted so sweetly that everyone had to smile at her.
"I'll drink to that," Anastasia said as she raised her glass of pumpkin juice, "Or I would if I wasn't presently a human incubator."
Charlotte giggled and rubbed her baby-bump, "I love this little peanut, but I will admit that I do miss mimosas at Sunday morning brunch."
"I told Malcolm that he's not allowed to drink in my presence for the next eight months," Nadia chimed in unconcernedly.
Victoire fidgeted with her hands, "It'll be a little longer than eight months if you're planning on breastfeeding."
"Cazzo," Nadia swore not-so-quietly, "Well, who wants to break the news to Malcolm?"
"Oh, I do," Victoire said excitedly, even going so far as to raise her hand up in the air.
Sandra tossed an arm across Charlotte's shoulders, "Let's get you a drink."
"Did I hear the word drink?" Dom asked as she slid into the group of women with a smirk on her face.
Victoire glared at her younger sister, "Aren't you supposed to be babysitting Noëlle and Gisèle?"
Dom shrugged, "Alexandrie's girlfriend Stephanie came by and between her and Aurélie they calmed the situation. Steph's getting Gisèle a drink –hopefully to loosen her up– and Noëlle found another one of our cousins that she went to school with and is having an actual polite chat with her. And all of this is making me grateful that I didn't end up attending Beauxbatons with all of them."
"Well since you're younger than all of them you would only have been attending with them for a few years," Victoire reminded her.
Dom rolled her eyes, "Either way, I'm glad that Maman didn't pressure us to go to Beauxbatons like she did. I can only imagine how insane that would have been to go to a school with a bunch of our part-veela second and third cousins. I mean as annoying as some of our Weasley and Potter cousins are, at least they respect and fear me enough to do what I say."
Victoire eyed her sister oddly but forewent informing her that her memory of how respectful their younger cousins were during their Hogwarts years seemed to be tinted by time having passed.
"I'm also really glad that I chose Hogwarts over Beauxbatons, if I hadn't gone to Hogwarts I wouldn't have become such good friends with Xavier, I wouldn't have met Sandra or Kyle, I probably wouldn't have played quidditch at Beauxbatons because Teddy wouldn't have been there to encourage me, I–"
"Wouldn't have met me!" Sandra added since she had been eavesdropping just at the end of the conversation.
Victoire smirked at her best mate, "I already mentioned that."
"I know, I just thought that you didn't seem to emphasize how important that moment was in your life."
"Oh, my bad."
Anastasia popped up beside Sandra, "And let's not forget that if you and Colton hadn't met at Hogwarts and become enemies then you would have never have pushed each other in academics or quidditch. And if you hadn't become enemies, there wouldn't have been any reason for you two to be around each other so much and eventually turn into friends."
"Maybe I should have gone to Beauxbatons then if it would have meant no Colton in my life," Victoire said sarcastically.
Anastasia rolled her eyes but didn't take Victoire's words seriously, she knew that it would figuratively kill Victoire for her to admit that Colton had played even a somewhat important role in her life.
"But if you'd gone to Beauxbatons there would have been no reason for me and Teddy to break up back in our seventh year and I might be married to him right now," Charlotte supplied as she played devil's advocate.
Victoire played along and shrugged unconcernedly, "I would have stolen him from you eventually. You can't fight fate or true love."
"T'at's my girl!" Alexandrie said as she joined the group with an armful of shot glasses and a bottle of Firewhiskey, "All is fair in love and war. Especially with someone as somptueux as Teddy."
"But just imagine the road you might have taken to get there," Ally told Victoire with wide eyes.
Dom nodded sagely and held her hand out for Alexandrie to pour her a shot of firewhiskey, "I know, I mean in a world where you're in France during the school year and England during the summer can't you just imagine what you might get up to? I mean think about it, you knew Xavier before Hogwarts so obviously you would have made sure to spend time with him in the summers but without spending every single day together and discovering that you annoy the crap out of each other because you're like siblings, you might have even started fancying the good-looking, very fit, charming quidditch player who didn't figure out what to do with girls until he was halfway through his seventh-year."
Victoire scoffed at Dom's description but both Sandra and Ally started to nod sagely.
"Oh I can definitely see that. If you'd gotten to Xavier back when you lot were sixteen and I was still fifteen, he'd have been a goner and you could have easily spent an entire summer having a fling with him," Ally said as her expression shifted from humorous to frightened as she thought about the imaginary situation, "And if you'd had a summer fling with Xavier I never would have even thought about going out on a date with him because you're my cousin and your cousins' exes are off limits . . . which means that if you had gone to Beauxbatons not only would Teddy be married to Charlotte right now, but I wouldn't be marrying Xavier."
Ally stopped to take a deep breath and tried to calm herself down, "So . . . thank you so much for not attending Beauxbatons."
"You're welcome," Victoire told her with a sarcastic eye roll, "But I stand by the statement that even in an alternate future where I attended school in France and didn't connect with Teddy right when I did, doesn't automatically mean that I would have started dating Xavier Wood."
During this discussion Alexandrie had started pouring shots of firewhiskey for everyone in the group, and did her best to avoid offering alcohol to the visibly pregnant women around her. Unfortunately, since Nadia was so early in her pregnancy, and still rather fit, Alexandrie offered her a shot without realizing that the woman had a moratorium on alcohol for the next year at least.
Nadia waved off the alcohol and muttered something quietly to Alexandrie about her being pregnant, and then glanced at Victoire, "Wait, in this alternative world would I still be unexpectedly pregnant with stupid Malcolm Wood's baby?"
"Well in this alternative future Malcolm is still Xavier's cousin, Xavier would still be playing quidditch for Puddlemere, you and Xavier would still be teammates, and you probably would have still met Malcolm at some point and still found him smarmy or whatever it is about him that gets you going, so I'm going to say yes. You'd probably still be pregnant with Malcolm's baby right now."
Nadia frowned and then waved her hand, "Damn, well carry on anyway."
"There's nothing to carry on about," Victoire complained, "Even in an alternative future I would not have fancied Xavier Wood."
Dom snickered, "Uh huh, sure. You're telling me that you don't find Xavier Wood even the littlest bit attractive? I mean even I would have tried to hit that at some point if Ally hadn't been in the picture."
Charlotte glanced at Ally worriedly, "Doesn't that bother you?"
Ally shrugged, "Not really. She says the same thing about Teddy every other week so it's not exactly personal."
"I'm curious, have you ever thought about Kyle that way?" Sandra asked Dom interestedly.
Before Dom could answer, Victoire rounded on her sister, "I do not find Xavier Wood attractive, I-"
"Be 'onest wit me 'ere Vic," Alexandrie interrupted her as she handed said cousin a shot glass filled with firewhiskey, "I know t'at you're desperately in love with Teddy and all t'at rot. But if you could 'ave any ot'er man wit' no repercussions, 'oo would it be?"
Victoire opened her mouth to say something –most likely that she wasn't going to play along with Alexandrie's games– but before she could a scarily familiar voice directly behind her replied for her.
"My husband."
Victoire spun around and started to stressfully tap her feet on the floor upon seeing the mischievously smirking visage of Katie Wood.
"Well?" Katie asked as she raised an eyebrow at Victoire, "Am I correct?"
"Uh . . ."
"Excusez-moi," Alexandrie said politely as she stepped up next to Katie, "'Oo's your 'usband?"
Ally decided to complete the introductions, "Katie this is Alexandrie, she's one of Victoire's cousins. Alexandrie this is Katie Wood. She's Xavier's mother and my soon-to-be mother-in-law."
Alexandrie's face took on a devilish expression as she collected this information, "And why do you t'ink Victoire 'as t'e 'ots for your 'usband?"
"Because she's had a crush on Oliver Wood for longer than she's had a crush on Teddy," Sandra supplied with an equally devious look on her face.
Victoire's face was red, "That's not true-"
"Yes it is," Dom and Ally said at the same time.
Victoire tried to put on a nonchalant expression, "So I might have fancied Oliver when I was like six-"
"Through to age ten," Ally interrupted.
"So when I was a child-" Victoire insisted.
Dom snickered, "And when you were thirteen, and fourteen, and fifteen-"
"A silly teenage crush," Victoire asserted.
"I caught you practically drooling over him at Ally and Xavier's engagement party last year," Sandra added with a raised eyebrow.
Victoire spluttered a little and threw her hands up in the air, "He was wearing a navy suit. Of course I'm going to look twice at Oliver Wood in a trim navy suit."
"He did look really good that night," Katie aided Victoire in her defense.
Alexandrie had started to rub her fingers across her chin as if she was stroking an imaginary goatee, "And Katie, would you say t'at your 'usband and your son look alike?"
Katie nodded vehemently, "If I didn't have the stretch marks that proved that I carried Xavier for nine bloody months you'd think Xavier was Oliver's clone."
"Really?"
Sandra, Dom, Ally, and even Nadia and Anastasia started nodding, "There is most definitely a strong family resemblance."
Alexandrie then looked Victoire in the eyes, "And you were trying to convince me a few minutes ago t'at you don't find Xavier Wood attractive w'en you've got t'e 'ots for 'is fat'er?"
"Just because Xavier looks like his father doesn't mean that they're the same-"
Katie scoffed loudly, "Xavier is so much like Oliver that I want to hit him upside the head sometimes when he makes the exact same mistakes that Oliver did at the same age."
"You're not helping Katie," Victoire informed the older woman as politely as she could.
Katie snickered, "You're lucky that my husband's as oblivious to female attention as he's always been or I wouldn't let a young, smart, part-veela like you anywhere near him Vic."
Alexandrie, Dom, and Sandra all started to laugh at Victoire's expense.
"I just like to look at him sometimes okay?" Victoire grumbled embarrassedly as she finally admitted it in the hopes that all of her friends would finally lay off of her.
"Well I for one don't blame you," Anastasia said coming to Victoire's defense.
Katie smirked, "Me neither." She patted Victoire on the shoulder and decided that she had injected enough chaos into the atmosphere and went off to find Angelina or Audrey.
"Well t'ere is our proof t'at our alternative t'eory was correct," Alexandrie said puckishly.
"I have never felt physically attracted to Xavier Wood," Victoire enunciated loudly and clearly for everyone who was left to hear.
Nadia pursed her lips at Victoire, "But you fancy Oliver Wood?"
"Hey, you're currently impregnated by a male Wood of your own so I wouldn't cast stones if I were you," Victoire pointed out.
Nadia rolled her eyes, "At least there isn't a twenty-four year age gap between me and my Wood."
"Let's not kink shame 'ere . . . maybe Victoire 'as a daddy t'ing," Alexandrie tried to defend her cousin.
Victoire pinched the bridge of her nose, "You're not helping."
"If you'd just admit that you find Xavier the least bit attractive then this would all stop," Sandra told her best mate.
"But I don't!"
Dom sighed, "I can solve this." She then took the bottle of firewhiskey and shot glasses from Alexandrie and filled one up for Ally and Sandra before shoving them into their hands. She made sure that Victoire's glass, Alexandrie's glass, and her own glass were still filled, and then she conjured water into three other shots glasses and handed them to Nadia, Anastasia, and Charlotte.
"Alright, we're playing 'Never have I ever'. If you've done it you have to take a shot. I'll start, 'Never have I ever seen Xavier Wood naked'."
Ally took her shot immediately while Victoire stared her sister down and glared at her. She mouthed the words 'I hate you' at Dom before knocking back the alcohol and glowering at all of the women who were suddenly looking at her with shocked expressions.
"Why 'ave you seen Xavier naked?" Alexandrie asked the question everybody else was dying to hear.
Before Victoire could reply, Nadia intervened and tried to help, "Was this when you were interning for med school at Puddlemere and you healed his pulled groin?"
"No," Victoire admitted with a pout, "It was back in fourth year at Hogwarts."
Nadia glanced at Ally, "So she saw Xavier naked before you ever did?"
"Yup."
"Why?"
"It was an accident and it was in the quidditch locker rooms," Victoire tried to explain.
Nadia raised an eyebrow at her, "I've played quidditch with Xavier for six years and I've never accidently seen him naked in the locker room. Clark Westin however, is a completely different story."
"Well if you really want to know the truth it was Malcolm's fault," Victoire complained as if Nadia could have had control over her boyfriend's actions from a decade ago.
"Malcolm and accidental nudity in the same situation? Colour me shocked," Nadia announced with a heavy exhale.
"How come I've never heard about this?" Sandra asked a little offended.
Victoire grabbed the bottle of firewhiskey from Dom, refilled her glass, downed the second shot and then explained, "I was trying to find Teddy so that I could tell him that I had decided to take up his offer to play seeker on the Gryffindor quidditch team. I found Malcolm first and asked him where I could find his best mate, which was my first mistake. Malcolm told me that Teddy had gone for an extra practice run and that he was in the changing rooms doing his cool down stretches and making sure that everything would be ready for the game the next day. So I went to the locker rooms. I will have you know that I did knock on the door, but that apparently whoever was inside couldn't hear me because the shower was on. I pushed the door open and walked into the room to find Xavier Wood naked and just having come out of the shower."
"Wait," Alexandrie requested as she pulled her wand out and summoned a bowl of chips towards her. She shoved some in her mouth and then gestured to Victoire with her hand, "I've got snacks now. You can keep going."
"There's nothing else to tell. I got a split second look at him before turning my back on him and letting out a screeching sound. Xavier summoned the closest piece of clothing to him and let out a very high-pitched scream. We embarrassedly talked over each other for a few seconds before I yelled out an apology and ran out of the locker room," Victoire said, physically flinching as she thought back to the embarrassing memory.
Anastasia reached across Dom and grabbed a handful of chips from the bowl Alexandrie was eating from, "Tell me there's more to the story."
Victoire looked perplexedly at Anastasia's enthusiasm before continuing, "So Xavier found me once he'd put some clothes on and without looking each other in the eyes we promised never to talk about the incident ever again. It was going to stay between me, him, Teddy, and bloody Malcolm after I finished hexing him into a pile of goo for arranging the incident."
"Wait," Sandra interrupted, "Teddy was there too?"
"Well he was in the team room that was attached to the boy's locker room at the time and heard our screaming. He came running into the room just as I backed out of it."
Dom joined Alexandrie and Anastasia in their snacking, "And was he also naked?"
"No-"
"Well that's not how this fantasy's supposed to go," Dom grumbled, "Was he at least in some state of undress?"
Victoire pinched the bridge of her nose, "Well he had taken his shirt off because he was sweaty and hadn't put a new one on yet-"
"I can work with that," Dom said with a point of her finger.
"Me too," Alexandrie announced with a devilish smirk.
Anastasia giggled, "Same."
"And you'd mentioned something about Xavier having just come out of the shower . . . had he fully dried off yet?" Dom enquired after sipping some more firewhiskey.
Victoire scowled at her younger sister, "He was fourteen at the time Dom."
"Yeah well when he was fourteen I was twelve. Besides, I'm not imagining him as fourteen in this scenario."
"And exactly 'ow sweaty was Teddy?" Alexandrie asked, she seemed as if she was seconds away from conjuring up a pen and paper to write everything down.
Victoire groaned, "There's something seriously wrong with you right now."
"No, there's something seriously wrong with you if the idea of a naked Xavier and a partially clothed Teddy doesn't do it for you," Dom told her without shame.
Victoire looked at Ally for help, "You can't tell me that you're alright with this."
"As the person who has seen Xavier naked most recently, I can't really blame other people for thinking he's fit," Ally reasoned level-headedly.
"And he is fit," Anastasia agreed with a nod of her head.
Everyone turned to look at Anastasia with shock.
"What? It's a pregnancy hormone thing," Anastasia explained with a casual shrug.
Charlotte nodded, "I can confirm."
"Really?" Nadia asked inquisitively.
"Yeah, once the nausea and breast tenderness goes away," Charlotte explained openly.
Nadia tapped her fingernails against her water-filled shot glass, "What about the mood swings?"
"Oh, I haven't had any," Charlotte announced happily.
"Me either," Anastasia added.
Nadia scowled, "I hate you both. Where's Jilly? She'll commiserate with me."
"She's over there talking to Sarah and Cassidy," Ally pointed out helpfully as she gestured to the trio of women standing sitting on a couch near the empty marble fireplace.
"Oh, invite them over. We'll play more 'Never have I ever' once we get Victoire to admit that she thinks Xavier's sexy," Dom said with a wide grin.
Victoire rolled her eyes, "That's not going to happen."
"Will you at least admit that you think that Oliver's sexy?" Sandra asked.
Victoire pouted and crossed her arms over her chest, "Fine. I can do that."
"And then separately admit that Xavier looks like his father?"
"If it will stop all of this talk about a naked fourteen-year-old Xavier . . . fine. Xavier looks a bit like his father. In their colouring," Victoire said slowly.
Dom scoffed, "It's like pulling teeth with her."
"Well this has been fun, but I think I'll go spend some time with people who aren't obsessed with talking about attractive men," Victoire said handing Dom back her empty shot glass.
Alexandrie raised an eyebrow, "In a room full of part-veelas? Good luck."
"Fine, I'll just go join Lily and Émilie at the dessert table," Victoire grumbled.
She was trying to sound put out, but the idea of dessert was really starting to sound good to her, so she and Anastasia –who was also suddenly craving something sweet– left for the dessert table while Sandra, Ally, and Charlotte started to discuss the business Sandra and Charlotte's husband were working on together. Nadia did leave to find Jilly so that they could commiserate about unwanted pregnancy symptoms together, which unfortunately left Dom and Alexandrie together to do firewhiskey shots and get into some new sort of mischief.
A/N: I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, which is why it took so long to write because I wanted to get it correct. I hope you enjoyed it and the little silly moments between the girls.
Let me know what your favourite part of this chapter was!
Next Update: Good news! Since this chapter took so long and I had to split the day it covers into three chapters in total, the next chapter is already finished. I will update in exactly two weeks, once I give all of the readers a chance to catch up with it.
Next Chapter: We get a look at what some of the boys are doing back in England with the girls gone in France, James gets some extra practice from the surprise coach Cecilia has arranged for him, and then a bit more of the bridal shower in France where Victoire learns something very interesting.
Also, I'm taking a poll, so let me know in a review who you think Cecilia has arranged to teach James how to be a centre chaser!
I want to thank everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and especially reviewed this story.
Biggest thank yous to:
Guest (1), Dthea33, LilyGinnyLunaMcGonagall, Break This Spell626, B. arendes, audrey3horses, ASlytherinGal, CookieCreme13, carbo21, no cure for crazy, Guest (2), Dakota1, zvc56, zalavi0309, selenao, Sozin's Flame, Jily71102, and Guest (3).
Dthea33: We will see Katie and Cecilia having a convo about Cecilia moving out in a bit.
LilyGinnyLunaMcGonagall: We shall see next week who Cecilia picked for James, so let me know your final guess in a review.
Break This Spell626: Don't worry, Vic won't let the mystery of the wolfsbane issue go by without sticking her nose into its business.
audrey3horses: There might be a bit more of Draco later because he is Scorpius's father, but unfortunately there won't be a lot of him.
ASlytherinGal: Thank you so much for the lovely long review! I'm glad you like these stories, welcome to my wizarding world and I hope you enjoy the ride. I definitely still have lots of ideas to keep writing at least a few more stories after this one is done, but it all depends on my time and what the future holds for me. I can promise that if these stories end it won't be because I've run out of ideas. I'm glad that you think I've avoided sugar-coating and stereotyping, I've consciously strived to avoid those things so I'm glad that it's working in practice.
CookieCreme13: Well thank you for the review and for following along! Motivation is hard to come by sometimes, for me it usually comes in waves where I'll write half a chapter in one day, and then struggle to with the other half for maybe another week. It also depends on the specific scenes I'm writing, sometimes the words flow, and other times it's hard to drudge them up. If I have the inclination and the time available I can probably do an average of about 2000 words in four hours as long as myself, or my fingers, know where the story is going. To answer your other questions: 1. The Holmwoods are so far reaching that it probably wouldn't be a shock if they did show up in some respect in every story I write. It was intentional for their connection in the last story to feel a little incomplete, even though at the beginning Teddy and the gang were able to put away LaChappelle the Holmwood crime family was still able to carry on most daily activities without too much being affected. That's what happens in such a wide-reaching organization. 2. I don't know if I'm quite up to writing a lemon yet just because if I did I'd have to change the rating of the entire story to M because I might as well go big or go home, so it's something I've runimated on but I need to decide if I could reason it out for the entire story. 3. We will definitely see more of these couples as time goes on, especially since they're both going to have babies, but they need to share screen time with a lot of characters so it may not be as quickly as you'd like. Don't worry about your grammar, its commendable that you can write in two languages to my basic one.
carbo21: I'm glad for the coincidence!
no cure for crazy: Thank you for the lovely long review! I'm glad that you find the process for getting the spell approved interesting. I wouldn't have been able to just say 'they got it approved, it's done' and then left it at that. I would have needed more detail.
Dakota1: Cecilia's mentioned before that she thinks Baxter's attractive, since Louis was making her breakfast without a shirt she would have been perfectly content to have two men without shirts on surrounding her while she ate breakfast. She's a little cheeky. that being said, she wouldn't have wanted Louis to get jealous when he was making her breakfast.
zvc56: Thank you :)
Zalavi0309: Sometimes a cigar's a cigar . . . and sometimes Greek food is foreshadowing. We'll find out next update, let me know your final guess before then!
Sozin's flame: Is that your final guess? We find out next chapter!
I hope everyone enjoyed this chap,
Please let me know in a review who you think will be James coach in the next update,
Leave me any questions or concerns you have in a PM or review,
I will be updating in two weeks, so until then,
DFTBA!