A/N: Hi . . . I know, I know, it's been FOREVER and I'm awful. I am really sorry about the whole waiting all these months to update again thing, but RL has been so crazy busy, I hadn't felt able to finish this chapter until now.
If you're still with me, thank you, and I promise this is a great chapter to jump back in with because A LOT happens.
Warning: There is some swearing in here and several 'F-bombs' but you can't really blame the girls when you see what happens.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Recap: Ooooh boy. It might be better to go back and read the last few chapters, but I will do my best to give a recap here.
James is still putting in the extra work to take over for Nadia while she's pregnant, Eliza and Benjamin are still trying to make their little family work and validate their relationship to Benjamin's parents, Charlie Weasley's girlfriend is a muggle who still has no idea that he and his family are magical, and Victoire has a lot of issues with her great-grandmother the full-veela.
What a Way to Find Out
Sunday May 5th, 2024
10:40 AM
From a common viewer's standpoint, James Potter was doing a good job filling in for Nadia Cassano. He hadn't quite reached her average of shots taken on goal per game ratio yet, but it had only been a few weeks in comparison so he seemed well on his way to filling her roll. To an expert observer however, James still had a lot to learn. One skill that he needed to work on if he was going to fill in for Nadia, was his ability to complete a flawless backwards pass. Nadia of course had been schooled on how to implement a perfect backwards pass by Katie Bell, who had pioneered Puddlemere's use of the strategy back when she was a rookie. Before Katie, backwards passes were used sparingly during Puddlemere games and only when strictly necessary to keep the quaffle in their possession once all other methods and plays had failed.
If James wanted to really step into Nadia's position and fulfill her role as if she'd never left, he'd need to get much better at backwards passing. His steady practice with throwing and catching across his midline was vastly improving his skills, but if he was going to start using backwards passes regularly, he'd really need to speed up his learning curve.
Which was why James found himself spending his free time that next Sunday morning, after Puddlemere's successful win, practicing his backwards passes on the quidditch pitch at the back of his parents' property.
"You need to twist your body at the very least on a forty-five-degree angle to have any hope of releasing at the appropriate time."
James sighed and took a hand off of his broom to run it through his hair frustratedly, "Isn't that what I was doing?"
"Uh . . . no. You were about nineteen degrees short – give or take of course."
"Of course," James repeated tiredly as he grabbed a little more firmly at his slightly-sweaty hair.
"You could always make up for the difference in the angle by ensuring that you put the right amount of spin on the quaffle when you throw it, but that requires whoever is catching your pass to know how much spin you put on it so that they can account for that when they brace to catch and-"
"-And that would require even more work than my actually figuring out how to turn the appropriate number of degrees in the first place," James finished for her.
Her advice was sound, as he knew it would be, but it didn't exactly sound encouraging considering they had just spent the past fifty minutes trying to get him to turn the right number of degrees and were obviously not succeeding.
"Of course," She continued in a soft tone, "You could always forego using backwards passes in games until you get your mechanics down. Your repertoire of passes that you can complete flawlessly in game is already impressively large, I don't think your coaches expect you to be able to complete backwards passes as well."
James frowned and glanced down at the grass underneath where he was floating ten feet up in the air, "Well after that backwards pass that I sent to Knopp last night I think more people will be expecting it."
An eyebrow quirked up on her face, "Just because Okonkwo sent a backwards pass to you, doesn't mean that you were required to show off and do one too."
"I wasn't trying to show off!" James insisted with a flush that wasn't from exertion.
Her other eyebrow shot up to join the first one.
"I wasn't I–I–I ended up fumbling an attempted pass very badly and the only way to save it was to awkwardly turn it into a backwards pass attempt. I honestly don't know how Knopp was able to catch it and make a half-decent play out of it."
"Well, that explains why you can't replicate it now."
"You could be a little more sympathetic."
"When I said I'd help you I also reserved the right to make fun of you a little since I am your competition," Selene remined him.
James let out another sigh, "True."
"But if you still want to work on your backwards passing, I suggest you take up yoga to increase the degrees on your twist," She added helpfully.
He glanced at where she was perched on her own stationary broom and nodded, "Yeah, I should probably get on that."
"Good," She said with a nod of her own that made her dark hair bounce, "Now can we get back to flying?"
James looked at her confusedly for a moment before he realized that they had been hovering over the pitch on their brooms without much movement for pretty much the entirety of their conversation. Selene's face seemed calm, but he could see that she was griping the shaft of her broom incredibly tightly, which is when he remembered that she was afraid of heights.
"Sorry Selene! I didn't even realize-"
"It's fine James, lets just get back into motion."
She brushed off his concern with an impressive level of nonchalance, and before he could try to apologize once more, she told him to go to the other end of the pitch so that they could set up the backwards pass play again. They ran it a few more times with only middling success before James breathlessly called for a break. As he angled his broom down to the grass, he could feel a sharp pain on his left side, which was the side they had been practicing his backward pass on. He wouldn't have been surprised to find out that he'd pulled a muscle as he practiced twisting, he just hoped that it would get better before they left for Sunday night dinner at the Burrow later that evening. The last thing he wanted was to ask for Victoire's help to heal a pulled muscle and have to explain that it occurred because he hadn't warmed up properly before practice; that would just ensure that her healing would be accompanied by a lecture on exercise science.
"You know, Teddy tried to teach me how to complete a good backwards pass the summer when I was twelve, but I didn't want to put the effort into learning it because I wanted to run around with Freddie instead and annoy all of our cousins," James reminisced as he watched Selene touch down on the ground several feet from him and dismount off her broom.
Selene smirked at him, "I vaguely remember how easily distractible you were when we were younger, so that sounds about right."
"Yeah, and now that I'm a professional quidditch player you can bet I regret never learning how to do it before now," He continued wistfully.
She stepped closer towards James to minimize the distance between them so that they could have an easier conversation, "Don't beat yourself up, only about thirty percent of professional quidditch chasers on the circuit right now can effectively complete backwards passes."
"And you seem to be one of them," James replied with a raised eyebrow as he met her gaze, "In spite of the fact that I know for certain that you didn't learn any of that skill from me."
Selene shrugged unconcernedly, the sunlight hitting her bare shoulders and making what skin James could see glow golden.
"My Uncle Mihalis taught me how to complete a backwards pass when I was eight, once I had the basics it was impossible to forget."
James's expression showed that he was impressed, "When I was eight it took the combined effort of both my mother and my Aunt Angelina just to teach me how to put a basic spiral spin on the quaffle when I threw it."
Selene giggled as she imagined the situation James described, and as he watched her face light up with her laughter, an indulgent smile broke across his own face. He was watching her closely, so he immediately noticed when she stopped laughing and let out a startled shriek. She jumped almost a foot in the air and then hastily sidestepped three feet to the right, ramming into him as she did so.
James hadn't noticed whatever it was that had alarmed her, but he was paying attention enough to her subsequent movements not to be too shocked when she bumped into him. His hands shot forward to grip her arms to keep her from falling over after her impact, and hers reflexively gripped the front of his work-out tee-shirt to keep herself upright.
To distract himself from how close her body was to his, James asked her, "What was that all about?"
Selene's cheeks went red, her face so close to his that he could almost feel the heat of her blush coming off her skin, "There was a bee."
"A bee?"
She nodded, her face going an even darker shade of red in embarrassment.
"So, you're afraid of both heights and bees?"
"Aren't most people afraid of things that can kill them?" She quipped back.
James eyes snapped to her grey orbs, "Are you allergic to bees?"
"Anaphylactic," She confirmed, "My throat closes over if I get stung."
Without intentionally thinking the command, his hands tightened worriedly on her arms, "Selene I played quidditch with you for five years outside, and I was captain for four years . . . why did you never mention that you're allergic to bees?"
"I just didn't think it was that important . . . Norah knew that I was allergic," Selene replied, her eyes drifting from his so that she was no longer meeting his gaze.
James frowned at her, "So it was up to Norah Summers then to let us know why you stopped breathing, fell off your broom in the middle of a game, and died if you got stung by a bee?"
She rolled her eyes at his dramatics and met his gaze once more, "I always had an epi-pen stocked in my locker in the team room and Norah knew it was there."
"Even better, you were leaving your fate up to the woman who incessantly lost her left quidditch glove, despite the fact that Rose charmed it to always appear in Norah's equipment bag if it was off her hand, to find the life-saving medication you had stocked in your locker," James reminded Selene. His tone was a little sharp, but his worry for her had suddenly turned into irritation; he was appalled that he hadn't been aware of her life-threatening allergy before that moment.
Selene removed her hands from James's shirt and crossed her arms over her chest, "I haven't gotten stung by a bee since the first time it happened when I was eight. My epi-pen's just a precaution."
James removed his grip from Selene's arms but he didn't step away from her, "At least tell me you bring your epi-pen with you when you come here."
She moved her hand to the neckline of the sleeveless work-out shirt she was wearing and pulled a thin gold chain from underneath it. Affixed to the chain was a plastic capsule-shaped item that was about an inch long. It had an orange cap on one end, with a blue cap on the other. The capsule looked as though it was originally supposed to be larger, but had been miniaturized by a shrinking spell.
James nodded approvingly, "How'd you end up with an epi-pen anyway? Aren't your parents' purebloods?"
"I was in Greece visiting my grandparents the first time I got stung by a bee. For some reason that I can't remember, I was at a beach and had been left alone with one of my aunts, this was before she'd married my uncle so I think they were just dating or engaged at that point, and she was a muggle-born. When I got stung, she panicked and took me to a muggle hospital because it was closest and she was leery about magically transporting me while I was in the middle of what she rightly guessed was anaphylactic shock. The doctor diagnosed me with an allergy to bees and prescribed me an epi-pen once they'd gotten my reaction under control. By the time Mum and Dad got to me and I was allowed to be discharged, they figured it was a good idea to fill the epi-pen prescription since it was an efficient way of delivering the emergency medicine if I ever got stung again," Selene explained.
There was a pause before James spoke, "I still wish you'd told me about your allergy back at Hogwarts, that's something I should have known as the team captain."
"I just really didn't see it as important. Besides that first incident, and my strict avoidance of all bees ever since, it doesn't really take up a large amount of my thoughts," She clarified.
James still felt a high level of anxiety attached to the idea of Selene going into anaphylactic shock while playing quidditch, but he let it slide as he figured their argument about it had gone on long enough.
The pair moved through their cool down stretches in relative quiet, and Selene was stretching out her shoulders when she asked James what the rest of his plans were for the day.
"Sunday night family dinner with all of the Weasleys. I foresee Dom riling Victoire up about something concerning her wedding, and Molly not so passive but very aggressively telling Lucy that Pennington's a prat . . . so there should be at least one sibling throw-down at the dinner table," James mused.
Selene switched to rolling her neck, "Pennington? Austin Pennington? Wasn't he Ravenlcaw's Head Boy when we were like in our second year?"
"I don't know how you can remember that," James replied impressed with her memory.
"I'm good with names and faces. Especially of people with authority."
James nodded and stretched his left hamstring, "You got any exciting plans?"
"Nope, the rest of the day is just going to be me and my copy of The Magical Epidemiological History of England in the Late Middle Ages," She replied.
"That sounds like some light reading," He responded with a smirk.
Selene rolled her eyes at him, "It's for school."
That confused him, "Selene . . . we graduated from Hogwarts two years ago."
Her eyes widened as if she had only just now realized what she'd said to him and she looked down self-consciously at her trainers, "Yeah . . . we did."
"And yet you're still reading healing textbooks for school?"
Selene took a deep breath and then looked back up at James and met his gaze, "Do you remember our seventh-year when my parents wanted me to take all the courses I could so that I could be a healer, because they didn't think that being a professional quidditch player was a viable life goal?"
"Yes," James replied slowly.
His relationship with Selene had transformed in their seventh-year from quidditch teammates and slight acquaintances, to friends and confidantes. The change didn't really occur until they started talking to each other about their shared dream to play quidditch professionally after Hogwarts, and during their many conversations about their futures, Selene had been very honest about how her parents had wanted her to go into healing when she graduated instead of chasing the unattainable dream of playing quidditch professionally.
"Well, even though I received the Harpies' wonderful offer to be on their reserve team before graduation –thanks again for that by the way– my parents were still on my case about having a reliable backup plan since the chances of going from the reserve team to the first-string team is even less likely," She explained, the end of her sentence was said with an eyeroll and in a tone that made it clear that she was mimicking one of her parents saying the words to her.
James wanted to make the use of the pause in her speech to tell her that he empathized with her, but he couldn't. His parents never ever tried to tell him that quidditch wasn't a viable career choice, or that he shouldn't follow his dreams. They did impress upon him the importance of making sure that he got good grades in the courses he chose to take at Hogwarts, but besides passing grades in at least four courses (with the well-known additional expectation of at least an 'E' in his Defense Against the Dark Arts N. E. W. T.) they were liberal in their expectations as long as he was trying his best.
Obviously, Selene didn't grow up with the same type of support structure.
"So, since my parents don't seem to believe that I can make it in the professional quidditch world long-term-" She paused here to see if James would try to interrupt her to contradict her words, but thankfully he didn't see the need to pity her and kept silent, "We made an agreement of sorts when I graduated. I would agree to take a part-time load of healing classes while being on the Harpies' reserve team, and they would stop verbally expressing to me their displeasure in my chosen career choice."
There was another pause after she finished speaking, and the fact that she didn't try to say anything else told James that she was waiting for his response.
"Well . . . there's a lot to unpack there . . . not the least of which being that you got into healing school when we graduated from Hogwarts. That's amazing Selene! I mean obviously I know that you're brilliant and that you put the effort into being as brilliant as you are, but it's also so hard to get into healing school, so that's just amazing, belated congratulations," James told her.
"Second, how in the world do you make it to all of your quidditch practices and still find the time to attend healing school?"
"I'm only taking two courses a semester and I'm doing it all long-distance from my flat, so I'm not really attending healing school," Was Selene's shy response.
James stared at her a little open-mouthed for a minute. He never doubted that she was capable of doing anything, but the amount of anything she could do at one time simply boggled his mind.
"How do you find the time to do all of that and then come here and put up with all of my mediocre attempts at being a centre chaser?"
Selene shrugged her shoulders, "You're not mediocre. Even though you're naturally a right-wing chaser your attempt at centre-chaser is more than adequate. As for where I find the time, well even though you've run into me at a club twice so far, it's not exactly a habit of mine. In fact, before the past two weeks at the club, the only way Teagan and Jordan were able to spend time with me was by coming to my flat and helping me study for a test. So, yeah, I wouldn't exactly be commending me on my work-life balance if I were you."
"Well, I haven't seen any of my friends that I'm not related to by blood in months, so I don't think I quite have it down either," James told her truthfully.
Selene sent him a small smile, "Well The Magical Epidemiological History of England in the Late Middle Ages isn't going to read itself, so I best get going."
"I'll walk you out."
He escorted Selene to the apparation point at the edge of his parents' property, thanked her for helping him practice, and they agreed to meet again next Sunday to see if James had anymore improvement. After she had disapparated away, James took his time walking the distance back to his parents' house. He would have preferred to disapparate away himself back to his flat at the Puddlemere complex to get cleaned up and maybe even a short nap in before heading to the Burrow for family dinner, but he knew that his parents were probably watching him practice from the kitchen window and would have some things to say about how his skills were coming along. So, instead of heading off to a shower and a soft bed, he trudged forward towards his mother's inevitable pitying advice and his father's sharp, knowing looks.
11:45 AM
Eliza smoothed the fabric of her skirt down for what seemed to have been the tenth time in as many seconds. She knew after the first time she levelled out the fabric that had come askew from her apparition that her primping wasn't necessary, but she couldn't seem to make her hands stop.
Benjamin noticed his girlfriend's nervous tick and he used the hand that wasn't holding their toddler to his hip, to grab Eliza's hand and give it a steadying squeeze.
"You look beautiful."
"I look like I was up half the night trying to get my teething toddler to stay asleep," Eliza retorted.
Benjamin smiled at her, "You look like a wonderful mother, which makes you even more beautiful than you were before-"
"Before you secretly knocked me up while we were still in school?"
"Well secretly was the only way you'd have anything to do with me back then, so yes," He replied with an eye roll, "But the point is, that not only do you look gorgeous, but that you don't need to worry about how you look because this is just brunch with my parents."
Eliza scoffed and nodded her head to the big house in front of them where it was evident from the many shadows she could see through the front windows, that there were more people in the building than just her sort-of in-laws.
Benjamin, who had been more focused on reassuring his girlfriend about her choice of clothing while simultaneously trying to keep a hold on their squirming toddler, looked up at his parents' mansion for the first time since they'd apparated there.
"They promised me they'd keep it simple," Benjamin groaned. Their previously brisk pace towards the mansion's front door slowed as the inevitability of what they were about to enter sank in.
Eliza used her one free hand to fidget with the skirt of her dress again, "Oh, I don't doubt that the twenty people that are probably already sitting around your mother's parlour drinking mimosas is what Grace Dickinson considers simple."
As they entered Benjamin's childhood home, they found that Eliza had only really exaggerated the amount of people drinking mimosas in the sitting room by like three people. Benjamin's parents greeted their son and their son's girlfriend with resigned ennui, which was honestly one of the warmest welcome's she'd ever received from then, but most importantly they seemed genuinely happy to see their only grandchild. Benjamin's mother pulled Rowan right out of his arms and gave her a hug, and Benjamin's father even deigned to give his granddaughter a kiss on top of her dark hair before turning to Benjamin and telling his son that three of the senior partners from his firm were already there and eating fancy appetizers.
Benjamin did try to stay by Eliza's side and tell his father that he'd visit with his bosses in a moment, but the elder Mr. Dickinson was very insistent and Eliza finally whispered to Benjamin that he better go ahead and make an appearance with his bosses and that she could handle the crush without him for a while.
Once Benjamin had left to schmooze his bosses, Eliza had the opportunity to have a ten-second-long polite conversation with her boyfriend's mother before Grace Dickinson unceremoniously handed Rowan back to her and announced that she had more incoming guests to greet. Eliza sighed heavily and brought Rowan with her to the sitting room where she hoped the number of guests would make it easier for her to blend in.
When she found a relatively quiet corner, she glanced down at her daughter and said, "When you're older you better appreciate everything your Dad and I have done to keep you in your grandparents' will."
In response, Rowan just repeated the word 'Daddy' three times in a row and pulled at the pretty ribbon bow that Eliza had spent fifteen minutes trying to affix to Rowan's head before leaving their flat.
Eliza sighed and tugged at a lock of Rowan's dark hair, "I love you, beautiful girl."
Rowan smiled back at her and babbled more sounds and word approximates, and Eliza spent the next few minutes pretending that they were having a conversation. When Rowan paused, one of Grace's maids came by and asked Eliza if she'd like a champagne mimosa. Eliza decided that one drink wasn't going to hurt her, so she agreed and within a few seconds she had a mixed drink in her free hand.
Eliza glanced down at Rowan, "Cheers."
She brought her glass up to her mouth to take a sip, and had an unattractive mouthful when she heard someone address her.
"Well, I guess we know that you're not pregnant again, so that must just be the fat from your last baby still hanging on."
Eliza swallowed her drink painfully and spun around to glare at the irritatingly familiar person who insulted her.
"Hello Winnie, fancy seeing you here," She responded to Benjamin's immature ex-fiancée.
Even though it had been more than a year since Benjamin had broken it off with the woman his parents had arranged for him to marry, Winnie still liked to prance around anytime they were unfortunately in company with her and pretend as if Benjamin hadn't chucked her over to be with Eliza instead.
"I guess it's true what they say about a woman never getting her figure back after she has a baby," Winnie continued to mock Eliza with a hand on her hip. While Benjamin was still engaged to Winnie, her vitriol against Eliza was slyer and more subtle because she was still trying to stay on Benjamin's good side. Ever since Benjamin dumped her however, Winnie decided to forgo subtly and just straight up slander her both behind her back and to her face.
"And despite that, it seems that Benjamin would rather be with me and my baby-ruined figure instead of you and your perky everything," Eliza replied with a faux chipper tone, "It's almost like he loves me for me and not just for superficial reasons. Imagine that."
Winnie's face went red, "Sooner or later he's going to regret you and your little indiscretion."
"Oh Winnie Dear, we've already hit that that river, built a bridge, strolled over it, and gone on to fight about and make-up over twelve different other things. I appreciate your concern for our relationship, but you don't need to worry, because even if we were to break up, Benjamin would never turn to you."
Winnie stomped her high-heeled shoe clad foot, "Your dress looks totally cheap."
Before Eliza could volley back with another insult, someone else joined the pair.
"Eliza! Rowan! So good to see you!" Anastasia Knott called as she strode over to Eliza and pulled the woman (who was still clutching her toddler to her hip) into a side hug.
"Hello Anastasia," Eliza replied with a bit of a bemused smile. She felt a little weird going from trading abuses with Winnie to sincerely greeting one of the only acquaintances of Benjamin's parents' that she actually liked interacting with.
Anastasia was obviously pregnant by this point, and absolutely glowing. She hadn't hit the weird mood-swing stage of her pregnancy yet, so she was still just extremely happy knowing that she and Colton were so close to the thing they'd wanted for so long.
"I love your dress, is that a Colombe Clément?" Anastasia asked her sincerely.
Eliza laughed, "I actually have no idea, Cecilia gave it me so . . ."
"Cecilia Wood gave you a dress from an up-and-coming Parisian designer? Dom or Victoire must have given her a hand picking it out," Anastasia replied.
"Most likely, yes."
Anastasia glanced at Rowan, "And don't you look beautiful this morning Rowan? Your bow is very pretty."
"For as long as it will stay in her hair it is. I'm trying to train her to keep it on, she's going to have to wear much more in her hair when she's Victoire and Ted's flower girl," Eliza replied with a bit of a sigh.
Winnie must have decided that she was tired of being ignored by someone as high up in society as Anastasia Knott was, because she obnoxiously cleared her throat until both Anastasia and Eliza turned to look at her.
"Oh, hello Winnie."
"Stasia doll, it's wonderful to see you. You're just glowing!"
Eliza rolled her eyes at Winnie's fake compliment while Anastasia plastered a big fake smile on her face and thanked Winnie for her words.
"You and Colton must be so excited for your son to arrive," Winnie continued as she pretended that she hadn't just been dishing out child-birth related insults to Eliza before Anastasia had showed up.
Anastasia's fake smile faltered a little, "We're actually not finding out the baby's sex until it's born, and we don't particularly care whether it's a boy or a girl. I just hope that it will be as adorable as Rowan here is."
"Well with your and Colton's superior genetics I'm sure it will be the cutest baby."
"I'm not sure I'd call our genetics superior," Anastasia said through a tight mouth. She then glanced at Eliza, "Apparently far sighted-ness runs in Colton's family."
Eliza smiled at Anastasia's attempt to turn Winnie's blood-purity-centred comment into a joke, but kept silent while Anastasia continued to respond to Winnie's attempts at conversation. She only had to be privy to Winnie trying to be nauseatingly charming for a few moments before Anastasia skilfully pointed out a very eligible bachelor who was on the very far side of the room from them. Winnie quickly made her goodbyes and when she was finally gone, Eliza let out a sigh of relief and downed the liquid that was left in her champagne glass.
"She's not still giving you a hard time about her break-up with Benjamin, is she?" Anastasia asked Eliza after she watched the younger woman chug the rest of her mimosa.
"I don't blame her too much," Eliza admitted, "I'd be mad too if I had fallen in love with Benjamin only for him to chuck me over for some other woman."
Anastasia scoffed, "Winnie was never in love with Benjamin, she was in love with what she thought Benjamin could give her i.e., more money, more social status, and more influence."
"Well, if those are her requirements, I'm sure she'll find someone else soon."
The ladies changed the subject to Anastasia's pregnancy and Eliza was sharing some tips with her when Benjamin and Colton happened upon them.
"Having fun?" Benjamin asked Eliza as he sidled up to her.
Rowan reached out for him and Eliza handed her over to her father, "Well I had the distinct pleasure of having a chat with Winnie earlier, so not until she was gone."
Benjamin sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand, "Was it very bad?"
"It would have been for her if Anastasia hadn't showed up," Eliza muttered to Benjamin only quiet enough for him to hear.
Colton cleared his throat and captured everyone's attention, "I was just telling Benjamin that all of the law interns we received this year are nowhere near as talented as he was when he was interning for us."
"That's very kind of you to say Colton, but I'm sure they're not all that bad," Benjamin replied humbly. He knew better than to be smug or arrogant around Colton Knott, that kind of attitude might have worked well for him at his current firm, but it wasn't going to slide with the man he was hoping would be impressed with him.
Anastasia chuckled, "Oh, but they are. Trust me I hear about it almost every night."
"Are they really that awful?" Eliza asked sympathetically.
Colton nodded, "They are. The new litmus test for office cohesion is to see how all the new interns work with Dominique, and unfortunately pretty much all of them have made the grave mistake of asking her to get them coffee at one point or another."
"Ohhh," Eliza and Benjamin commiserated at the same time.
"Which is why I hear about how dreadful these interns are every day, if not from Colton, I hear about their gaffes from Dominique," Anastasia continued with an indulgent smile as she thought about her friendship with the middle child of Bill and Fleur Weasley.
Benjamin smirked, "How can they not tell that Dom's an associate and not a secretary? She has a monogrammed quill and legal pad stating that she's a junior partner."
"And that is why I specifically ordered those for her, so that these mistakes would not keep happening," Anastasia replied with a sad shake of her head.
"Anyway," Colton continued, "I don't think we'll be hiring any of them when their semester is over."
Eliza's eyebrows raised and she gave Benjamin a specific look, "So are you looking to hire new associates?"
"My father and Cunningham Sr. don't see the need to hire more yet, but I do plan to work less hours once Stasia gets closer to delivery and once the baby is born. It'd be unfair to put all of my extra work onto Dominique when the time comes, not that she'd complain about it," Colton explained.
Benjamin sent Eliza a specific look in return, "So you're only looking to hire someone short term then?"
"That's how I plan to bill it to my father to get him to agree, but it'll definitely be longer than short term. I don't want to be a workaholic while we have young children at home, so I'd like to work a few less hours in the week for the next few years," Colton continued.
Anastasia chuckled in a teasing tone, "So what he means is that he'd like to work forty hours a week instead of seventy."
Colton poked Anastasia in the side, "For your information Mrs. Knott, I'm going to be around our house so often that you're going to be begging me to go back to work."
"I'll believe it when I see it," Anastasia responded.
"You will see it. I'll hire someone to join the firm and start to take over some of the extra work before the end of June," Colton announced to his wife.
Anastasia winked at Eliza so briefly she almost missed it, and then faced her husband, "And since all of your present interns are awful, you'll have to hire someone who's already working for another firm."
"Yes, although I abhor poaching talent, it seems that that is what I'll have to do."
"And whomever you hire will have to get along with Dominique of course," Anastasia remined him.
Colton nodded, "It's a tall order, but we can do it."
"We?" Anastasia asked.
"Oh, if I'm going to poach someone from another firm, I am definitely going to put some of the blame on Dominique. We'll go through resumes and interview people together," Colton reasoned.
Anastasia snickered, "Well I can't see anything going wrong with that future endeavour."
Colton considered Benjmain, "So . . . how are things going on at your firm?"
"Oh, well they're-"
"Benjamin!" Grace Dickinson sauntered up to her son with her perfect hostess smile, "There you are my dear. Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell have just arrived and I think you would get along just marvellously with their child."
Benjamin pursed his lips as he looked at his mother, "Their child? Who just so happens to be an eligible single young woman I'm guessing?"
Mrs. Dickinson glanced from Benjamin to Eliza as she thought about what she wanted to say. Her son had asked her to stop trying to set him up with other women, so she knew she had to be delicate.
"Their daughter has just graduated from her law classes that she took in Germany, I thought you'd like to talk to her as a colleague."
Benjamin gritted his teeth to avoid saying something rude to his mother in front of the Knotts, "Well in that case I'll of course bring Eliza and Rowan with me so that my new colleague can meet my family." He grabbed Eliza's hand, the pair made their goodbyes to the Knotts, and Benjamin pulled Eliza and Rowan away without saying another word to his mother.
4:37 PM
"Got any headache curing potions lying around Ally?" Freddie Weasley asked his older sister as he planted himself down on the couch cushion next to her.
Before Ally could respond that even though she worked with potions it didn't make her a walking apothecary, Freddie was very loudly shushed by three other members of his family.
"Be quiet Freddie!"
"Shhh!"
"Are you mad?"
Freddie sent Molly, Victoire, and Lucy a raised eyebrow in turn and whisper-called to them, "Calm down, it's just a headache."
"Do you really want to make a scene like that? Couldn't you have just asked for some headache medicine instead?" Lucy asked scathingly.
"Right now, the only one who's causing a scene is you Lucy," Freddie shot back as quietly as he could to the cousin who was seated on a chair half the distance of the living room away from him, "And furthermore, Daria's so far into the kitchen that she wouldn't have been able to hear me."
The only reason why Molly, Victoire, and Lucy had wanted Freddie to be quiet was because he had dared to utter the word 'potion' while being in the same house as a muggle.
"If she were to overhear you, we'd all be in trouble for breaching The International Statute of Secrecy-"
Freddie cut Lucy off, "She's been dating a wizard who takes care of dragons for a living for the past three years, if she hasn't figured out by now that there's something odd about Uncle Charlie, I don't think her overhearing the word 'potion' is going to do it."
Charlie Weasley's girlfriend Daria was a great favourite among the Weasley family. He had met her at a muggle cooking class he was taking in her birth country of Romania, and had fallen for the pretty, intelligent, and charming younger woman very quickly. Although Charlie had insisted that he was very serious about his relationship with Daria, and had brought her home on many occasions to meet his family, he had yet to tell her that he was magical. Therefore, every time the Weasleys and the Potters were around Daria they had to pretend to be muggles and all mention of magic in front of her was forbidden.
In Freddie's defense, the family hadn't been expecting Charlie and Daria to join them for their family dinner that day. It wasn't a special occasion, and since Daria didn't know about magic, or more specifically the convenience of magical travel, they usually didn't have the opportunity to travel to visit Charlie's family unannounced. For whatever reason though, Charlie and Daria had showed up at the front door of the Burrow a half hour ago and everyone needed to stow their wands and put the kibosh on anything magical that was in the works, such as the dishes magically being washed in the sink.
"Let's just all agree on the fact that Uncle Charlie is overdue on telling Daria about our little family secret," Dom said boldly from where she was sitting on the floor with James, Baxter, and Cecilia trying to remember the rules to a muggle card game they had learned two Christmases ago to convince Daria that they were a normal muggle family.
Louis rolled his eyes from where he was standing near the empty fireplace with Teddy and Xavier, "Our little family secret being that not only are we all extraordinarily talented, but that within our community of talented people that our family's also famous?"
"Mer–My gosh, she's going to think we're all clinically insane when Uncle Charlie tells her," Baxter piped up.
Daria worked as a clinical psychologist in Romania and was very intelligent and well-read. This was one of the many reasons why the Weasley-Potter family were surprised that Daria had yet to suss out that there was something off about Charlie and his family.
"And how are things going in here?" Charlie called to his nieces and nephews' way before he and Daria made it within hearing distance of them.
All of his nieces and nephews replied with an overly enthusiastic 'good' and then there was a beat of awkward silence.
"So Victoire, Ally, how's the wedding prep going?" Daria asked the two eldest of Charlie's nieces.
"It would be going wonderfully if someone could remind me how our guest list grew to include five-hundred people," Victoire replied sarcastically.
Dom snickered, "Four-hundred and ninety-nine Vic, remember how we ended up not sending out the invitation you'd set aside for Arrière grand-mère Séraphine?"
Teddy raised an eyebrow at Victoire. As much as she threatened not to invite her great-grandmother to their wedding, he wasn't quite sure she'd go through with it when the time came to send out the invites.
"Really?"
"She hasn't shown me that she deserves it yet," Victoire explained to her fiancé as she crossed her arms over her chest.
Teddy held his hands up, "No arguments here."
"On the other hand, weddings are a great opportunity to reconcile with people who we've had disagreements with in the past. People naturally feel optimistic when discussing weddings so it can ease a lot of tension. I wouldn't recommend a reconciliation at the wedding itself, but discussions during the lead-up to it can have the same effect," Daria offered the advice good-naturedly, "And its always good to remember when talking about disagreements between people and others who are older, such as great-grandparents, that elderly people do not have the same amount of time as we do to reconcile grudges."
Victoire bit her tongue and abstained from telling Daria that no only will her veela great-grandmother live long enough to develop hundreds and thousands more grudges, but that if Séraphine were to die tomorrow without Victorie being to reconcile with her, well the younger woman wouldn't lose any sleep over it.
Ally, bless her, glossed over Victoire's family problems and began telling Daria about how planning for their wedding was going. As Ally informed their uncle's girlfriend about the most benign and least magical details of their wedding, Victoire quietly mused on the fact that Charlie needed to tell Daria the truth about their family before either wedding could occur.
"So, we're leaning towards waiting to see how Vic's wedding goes before we start thinking about seating charts. I figured we'd just learn from her mista-"
"What is that buzzing noise?" Freddie called much too loudly as he looked wildly around the room as if he was expecting a swarm of bees to slip out from underneath a closed closet door.
The sounds of the dozen people in the living room talking stopped and the buzzing sound that Freddie had been referring to was much more obvious than before. Victoire frowned at the sound. It didn't sound like bees, or even the hum of some sort of muggle electronic that her grandparents didn't even own. The humming noise did sound vaguely familiar, but she couldn't place it.
Automatically her eyes shifted to Teddy's. He was doing his best to keep a calm and collected expression on his face, but she could tell from his eyes that he did recognize the sound, and that it worried him. While everyone else was still looking for the source of the noise that Freddie had alerted them to, Teddy quietly slipped from the room and went towards the front foyer. Victoire didn't think much of it until a few seconds later when Uncle Ron and Uncle Harry came striding out of the other room and also made a bee-line for the front foyer. Their uncles' actions seemed to help Louis clue in on to what was going on, and his eyes widened in surprise before he followed after his uncles.
Victoire still wasn't quite sure what was going on, but if all of the aurors in the house were all running to the front foyer it couldn't be good. Her thought had barely finished, and the rest of the family had started streaming into the living room, when Victoire very distinctly heard Louis toss out a string of French swear words.
Dom seemed to hear them at the same time and she caught Victoire's eye just as Harry called out, "Fleur! Bill!"
The pair of sisters dashed into the foyer just ahead of their parents, and even in the other room Victoire could still hear the rest of her family in living room quietly whispering about 'what in the world is going on'.
In the foyer, Teddy, Harry, and Ron all took a step back from where they had been crowded around the windows to allow Victoire, Dom, Fleur, and Bill the chance to look out onto the Burrow's expansive front yard. One glance out the window was all it took to cause Victoire, Dom, and Fleur to let out their own French swear words. Bill muttered something out in English at the same time as his family.
"That's-" Dom began, only to stop in shock and disbelief at the word that should have come next.
"Séraphine," Victoire finished for her with no little amount of venom.
Dom growled, "What, did she cast a bloody Taboo on her name?"
"Do you have any idea why she's here?" Harry asked Fleur and Bill specifically. Teddy and Louis had obviously already informed Harry and Ron who the person slowly walking up towards the house was.
"Non," Fleur responded with a frown. Her mind looked busy behind her eyes, as if she was trying to figure out why her veela grandmother had apparently deigned to visit her in-laws for the first time in her life.
Victoire glanced at her fiancé, "Am I to conclude that the buzzing sound was some sort of dark magical creature safety ward she triggered?"
"Safety ward, yes; dark magical creature, no," Teddy explained, "That ward signals that someone's crossed the property with malicious intent."
"Well, considering that spite and maliciousness is what keeps her looking ageless, I'd say that's par for the course," Dom announced in a rather spiteful tone of her own.
Fleur let out a long-suffering sigh, "I'll go speak to 'er."
"I'll come with you," Bill offered with a nod.
Fleur raised and eyebrow at him, and they spent a few seconds having a silent conversation with their eyes before she shrugged her shoulder as if to say 'do what you will'. She raised her hand to the doorknob, but paused in opening it when Harry addressed her.
"What are the chances that your grandmother is only here to talk to you?"
Fleur let out another tired sounding sigh, "Low. She 'as yet to pass up a chance to antagonize t'e cheeldren."
"That's true," Bill agreed.
"I'll come too, it's usually me she likes to harass the most," Victoire replied with a sigh of her own.
Dom scoffed, "Excuse me, I'm the one she hates the most thank you very much."
"Maybe its about the both of you. Perhaps she found out you got arrested the last time you were in France," Louis offered almost offhandedly.
Dom narrowed her eyes at her brother and told him in harsh French that he wasn't helping.
"She's getting closer," Teddy pointed out as he noted that his soon-to-be great-grandmother-in-law was almost half way to the house.
"Fuck it," Victoire announced before grabbing the doorknob her mother had momentarily abandoned and unceremoniously throwing the front door open.
Normally Fleur would have admonished her daughter for swearing in front of half of their family, but there were obviously more important issues they needed to deal with. Fleur led the way out the door, Bill, Dom and Louis following directly behind her. Victoire glanced up at Teddy and he nodded at her and then gestured for her to go ahead through the open door. He closed the front door behind him and utilized his long legs to catch up to Victoire, who was only a few paces behind the rest of her family. Fleur and the others came to a stop several metres away from Séraphine, who had stopped on the spot when she saw Fleur's family leave the house and walk towards her.
"Good afternoon family," Séraphine greeted the group in perfect English.
Victoire frowned, Séraphine had commented almost every time she had seen them that it was a crime that Fleur had chosen to raise her family in England and allowed their French to fall by the wayside (her great-grandmother refused to acknowledge that Victoire and her siblings' French was impeccable) and would insult them for speaking English for Bill's benefit. The fact that Séraphine had spoken in English meant one thing; whatever she had to say she wanted to make sure that they could all understand it.
"W'at are you doeeng 'ere?" Fleur asked her grandmother, her imperturbable French mask in place.
Séraphine's multi-coloured eyes flared, "I was visiting Aurélie today-"
"Bloody brown-noser," Dom muttered to Louis in reference to their admittedly sweet second-cousin who compulsively needed to be on everyone's good side, and was therefore obviously one of Séraphine's favourite great-grandchildren.
"And I noticed that she had an invitation to Victoire's wedding sitting on her coffee table. She told me that she had received it weeks ago and that she needed to send the RSVP back as it was due soon," Séraphine continued as if she didn't hear Dom's remark.
She turned her gaze to where Victoire stood with Teddy at her side, his hand resting comfortingly on her lower back, "My discussion with Dear Aurélie made me realize that I have yet to receive an invitation to your wedding Victoire."
"That's because you're not invited," Victoire told her great-grandmother point-blank.
Séraphine's expression stayed smooth but her eyes were full of flames, "Just as I feared. I had hoped that you wouldn't have been audacious and thoughtless enough to ignore me and everything I've done for you. But I should have known that disrespect was one of your many flaws."
Victoire's hands felt hot and Teddy softly squeezed the blouse and skin underneath his hand and whispered into her ear, "Careful, Daria might be watching with the others from the window."
She took his warning to heart, and did her best to take a calming breath as she thought about how she wanted to handle her great-grandmother.
"Ignoring your ridiculous claim that you've done so much for me, we didn't invite you to our wedding because we want our wedding to be a happy celebration. Anytime you're around you make everyone around you feel wretched to match your miserable existence. So, seems like an easy decision to me, don't invite you, guarantee everyone a good time. Win-win."
Séraphine's lips twitched slightly, the only indication that she was offended by anything Victoire had just said, and she twisted to glare at Fleur.
"Do you hear how your daughter just spoke to me Fleur? Is this who you raise your children to be, senseless plouc who disrespect their superiors?"
Fleur clenched her fists in a manner that made it apparent that she was also trying to hold in some of her part-veela anger, "We 'ave raised our cheeldreen to be smart, strong, and eendependent. T'ey are eexactly 'oo t'ey need to be and eef you t'ink t'ey are deesrespecteeng you, t'an per'aps eet ees because you deserve eet."
"You need to tread more lightly Fleur," Séraphine warned her granddaughter, her gaze was still blazing and even though there were no other visible flames being produced from the full-veela's body, it felt as though the temperature of the air around them had gone up several degrees.
"You are my descendant Fleur; you would not exist if it weren't for me. You would not be where you are if it weren't for me. Do you really think your husband would have ever looked your way in the first place if you weren't pretty? Do you think you would have any magical ability above the most basic mediocrity if it weren't for my genes? Your beautiful perfect children, would be indolent and dull without my blood running through their veins. You would be less than ordinary if it weren't for my hair in your wand. Everything you have Is because of me, so you should be more grateful."
Victoire felt her mouth pop open in shock. Teddy's hand at her back tensed in surprise, and she heard Louis's sharp intake of breath just before Dom's blurted 'Holy Fuck' echoed in the silence.
"Eef I am not appreceeateeng eet properly, per'aps I should give eet back t'en," Fleur announced angrily as she reached into the pocket of her cardigan and took out her wand. She waved it in front of her, not with any magical intent, but to bring Séraphine's attention to it, and then threw her wand out of her hand and towards her grandmother.
"'Ere you can 'ave eet back."
Victoire's eyes went wide; she couldn't believe that her mother had actually just thrown her wand back into her grandmother's face. The wand that had a veela hair core; Séraphine's hair. At her side Victoire noticed Teddy glancing away from the broom wreck in front of them and back towards the Burrow, no doubt wondering whether everyone else -including Daria- had just seen Fleur thrown her wand at Séraphine.
"You simple, unremarkable, child. You're a blight on my reputation and you've been an embarrassment to my family since you decided to ignore all of my good advice when you were at school. Your family brings shame on my legacy-"
"Well, eet ees a good t'eeng t'en t'at I changed my last name to Weasley twenty-seven years ago," Fleur interrupted spitefully.
Séraphine's ice-queen expression finally started to crack and she glared maliciously at her granddaughter, "You are nothing to me. The only reason I have any remote connection to you anymore is because I'm trying to stop your children from throwing away all of the potential I've given them, as you have."
"I'm sorry Arrière grand-mère, but I do believe that Vic already told you that you can Fuck off," Dom reminded her great-grandmother helpfully, "And unless there was any ambiguity in her words, I'll tell you that it goes ditto for me."
Victoire heard Bill mutter Dom's full name under his breath, but she was too focused on watching her grandmother for signs that she was about to explode. No one had dared to ever speak back to her the way they had just been, and she knew that it was only a matter of time before Séraphine's firm grip on her own emotions slipped.
Her imperious glare transferred to Dom, "I already knew that you were a lost cause Dominique, you've never been more than mediocre and you never will be. I was talking to your brother and your sister, the only two who have ever shown any real ability-"
"Arrière grand-mère, what's my girlfriend's name?"
Séraphine stared at Louis," Excuse me?"
"I asked you what my girlfriend's name is. You've met her more than once by now, and you keep telling us that you interfere with our lives because you care, so what's my girlfriend's name?" He asked her breezily.
"I . . . it doesn't matter-"
Louis shook his head sadly and put his hands in his pockets, "And this is one of the many reasons why I am also completely done with you. Pretend that you never actually had a great-grandson. It should be easy for you since you never expected my existence in the first place."
"So, you're just going to throw your life and your potential away as well? Is Victoire really to be the only one who's existence I am not to be ashamed of?" Séraphine sneered at them with acidic contempt.
"On the contrary Séraphine, I'd love nothing more than for you to be ashamed of me. In fact, I'm thinking about getting lessons from Dom on how to get you to cut me out of your life," Victoire announced airily.
Dom smirked at her sister, "The first step is to dye your hair red so that you look like the devil's spawn."
"I would do that if it meant you'd never speak to me ever again," Victoire told her great-grandmother sincerely.
Séraphine scowled at Victoire, "You have more potential than what you are achieving Victoire you could-"
"Not achieve anything more than I already am. It's humanly impossible. I'm a full-time healer in the most demanding field of magical medicine in the most demanding career field, I'm in the process of getting a spell I co-created authorized, and I am a kickass fiancée and friend. I literally could not be doing more than I am right now," Victoire proclaimed as she put her hands on her hips.
Séraphine rolled her eyes, "The only thing you should be focusing on right now is carrying on my line. You have all of the working parts at your disposal, put them to use."
The anger that bubbled up in Victoire as a direct result from Séraphine's words took her by surprise with its urgency. Her whole body tingled with anger.
"What is or is not presently going on with my uterus is none of your concern!"
Victoire stomped her foot to emphasize her fury and frustration, and not even a second later she heard the loud cacophony of the windows of the Burrow behind her shattering sequentially. She froze as the echo of the sound slowly faded. With all of the front facing windows crushed by her anger-induced accidental burst of magic, she could hear the surprised gasps and responses from the rest of her family even so many metres away in the house.
One voice in specific stood out.
"Listen Daria I can explain-"
Victoire didn't have the time to worry about how the Hell Charlie was going to explain to his muggle girlfriend how all of the windows had shattered in time with Victoire throwing a tantrum, she was too worried taking in the expression on her great-grandmother's face.
"That," Séraphine said as she pointed to the now windowless house, "Is why you need to be striving for more. Imagine the kind of powerful children you will create-"
"I am more than what my ovaries can create you heinous, shellfish, bitch!" Victoire yelled at her great-grandmother, "Myself, Teddy, and whatever may in the future come out of my uterus, want nothing to do with you, ever, again."
"Yeah Séraphine, jog on and never darken our lives with your poison again," Dom threw in for good measure.
Séraphine's body seemed as though it was about to crackle with electricity, and she whipped her head around to look at Fleur, "Do you see the monsters you've created?"
"T'e only one 'ere who ees a monster ees you!" Fleur yelled at her, "Or 'ave you forgotten t'at you are a level t'ree dark creature?"
Séraphine's eyes flashed and all of a sudden there was a bright and blinding burst of light from where she stood, momentarily obscuring her form from view.
"Aaaand there it is," Bill muttered as his hand shot into his pocket and he pulled out his wand.
Beside her, Teddy did the same thing and Victoire realized a second after he must have, that the flash of bright light was her great-grandmother going full veela.
The light disappeared, and in her beautiful grandmother's place was a bird-like imitation of herself that had sprouted long scaly wings from her shoulders and was holding a ball of blue fire. Victoire, Dom, and Louis had their wands pulled out a moment later. The only one of them standing in front of a now full-firebird-veela in all her glory without their wand was Fleur. Although out of the group of them, she seemed to be the only one who was unconcerned about her grandmother turning into a dangerous fireball wielding magical creature. She stood in front of her with her hands on her hips and an expression on her face as if she was tired of all of her grandmother's shit.
"You are always so dramateec," Fleur called to her grandmother in a taunting tone of voice, "T'is ees why we do not want you een our lives. Leave us alone!"
Victoire wasn't quite sure how she had done it, or which of that command was the magic word, but somehow in her fiery devil-bird state Séraphine had finally grasped what they were all trying to tell her; that she should leave. She quickly transformed back into her mostly-human looking form, and then a second later she had disapparated away with a loud crack.
Dom and Louis both let out sighs of relief while Victoire's tense stance relaxed. Her body softened into Teddy's and he wrapped both arms around her and pulled her to his chest; she was one-hundred-percent emotionally drained.
Bill walked forward towards where Séraphine had last stood and picked up Fleur's discarded wand, he turned back and glanced at his wife.
"Non."
"Fleur-"
"Non Beell. I do not want eet back!" Fleur told him.
Bill sighed and walked back to his wife, "You need it to keep you safe. It's the best tool you have-"
"I am done wi't 'er and I am done wi't eet and eef t'at means I am putteeng myself at reesk t'en so be eet!"
"Love-"
Fleur turned on her heel and started to stomp back towards the Burrow. Bill followed after her, still trying to convince her to take her wand back.
Victoire groaned and Teddy pressed a kiss to her forehead, "We'd best get back to the house so you can apologize to Grandma Molly for destroying all of her windows."
"Ugh."
Victoire and Teddy followed her parents back to the Burrow, Louis and Dom quietly trailing behind them. The closer they got to the now windowless front of the house, the more voices they heard. Most of them seemed to be yelling at each other.
"Are you really trying to convince me that I didn't see everything I just saw?" Daria's voice could be heard asking Charlie over the din.
"I'm not saying that, I'm just saying that some people can see events differently than others-"
"You are not trying to gaslight me right now Charlie Weasley!"
"Aww shit," Dom muttered from behind Victoire, "Now's the time to think on your feet Uncle Charlie."
Victoire glanced back at Louis worriedly, "Is someone going to have to Obliviate her?"
"I don't think Uncle Charlie has it in him," Louis replied with a shake of his head.
In the house Victoire could hear some of the other adults trying to help Charlie come up with a ridiculous answer for everything she had just heard and saw. It didn't sound like it was working. Not that Victoire blamed Daria, magic was a hard concept to grasp, let along being introduced to it because your boyfriend's niece shattered all of the windows in the house and then made her great-grandmother turn into a fiery demon bird.
"Welcome to the wizarding world Daria," Victoire muttered as she and Teddy entered the chaos going on in the house.
A/N: So yeah, a lot happens. James learns more about Selene; Eliza's still being disrespected by half the people Benjamin knows; and Victoire and Dom show why they are true Gryffindors, while Fleur's starting to make everyone wonder whether she would have been sorted in Gryffindor if she'd gone to Hogwarts too.
I know I've made you wait a long time for this chapter, and that that was unconscionable of me, but please let me know how you felt about this chapter and if it was worth the wait.
Good News: As I was trying to power through finishing this chapter, I ended up writing a James/Selene on-shot that shows exactly what 'The Incident' in their seventh-year was between James, Melanie, and Selene, and why Will 'bloody' Dyson is the worst. The one-shot takes place between the end of How to Adult and before First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage. It's called The Incident and if you are on my Author Alerts you will have already received a notice that I've uploaded the story. If you do not have me on Author Alert, you can click my name and search my profile for it, or you could always just search the James S. Potter tag for new stories, I uploaded it just before this new chapter.
Next Update: I'm not making you any promises because I don't want to disappoint you guys, but I want you to know that I am not and have no intention of abandoning this story. I've started back at school and am in Teacher's College for the next two years, so once I get a handle on school work and my practical I will work on squeezing in time to write.
Next Chapter: I had a bit of writer's block with this one and didn't quite know how I wanted to finish it, which is why it took so long. I think I've worked through the block, and will start working on the next chapter right away. It's going to have more Vic at work doing her healing thing, and we're finally going to get a look at Cecilia and 'The Charity'.
*Also, next chapter I'm naming Cecilia's quidditch charity, so if you'd like to drop a suggestion in a review feel free to do so!
Thank you to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and especially reviewed!
Thanks as Always to:
Katie2001, Rensk3N, , Guest (1), loverloverlover, Guest (2), Ginevra Hope, NicoleTheSmith, Izzy, jwjanjanwongg, Lenkner0407, Hensha, Imanantivist, ntlpurpolia, Potterhead192007, Aakanksha, Chad Gadya, Guest (3), Shruthiiii, princess midnight16, Guest (4), J, M, and TheProphetBVB.
Thank you to everyone who has decided to stick around :)
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please check out the James/Selene story The Incident for all of the tea on what happened before graduation.
I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter,
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Until next time, DFTBA!