A/N: Hello everyone! This chapter's a hefty one so we're going to get straight to it. I will just mention that there are a lot of characters and dialogue going on, so I wouldn't blame you if you needed to read this more than once to capture everything.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Recap: Brogan's turning six! Katie and Oliver and family learned that Marcus Flint is going to be released from Azkaban soon, and Cecilia's moving in with Louis (and Baxter)! Ally invited Teddy and Malcolm's old classmate Maura Monahan and her daughter Stella to Brogan's party. Chris got clocked by a bludger in a game and is in St. Mungo's with a serious head injury.
Onwards and Upwards
Saturday, May 18th 2024
10:30 AM
Victoire set a tray of glasses filled with lemonade down on one of the tables that was set up in the backyard.
"I thought Katie said that she wanted to keep Brogan's party small this year," She said the words even though they directly contrasted with the scene in front of her.
The Woods', rather spacious, backyard was filled to the brim with members of the Wood family, Weasleys, and Puddlemere United team members and staff.
"That's what she said, but I think she's giving Brogan one last big day before they start sticking to him like glue," Ally commented as she set down a tray of artfully arranged fruits right next to the lemonade.
Most of the Weasleys had been informed of Katie's history with Marcus Flint and about his release from Azkaban. Since most of the younger kids were often in company with one or more of the Woods, everyone thought it important to bring them in on the loop so that they could also be on the lookout for Flint's presence anywhere near them if they were out and about together.
"She knows at least that their home and everyone they've invited here is safe," Victoire replied as her eyes searched for the birthday boy. She spotted him a few moments later; he was playing in his sandbox with his cousin Callum and another one of Oliver's great-nephews.
Ally nodded, "I know that Katie was playing around with the idea of inviting some of the kids from Brogan's mini-league quidditch team to the party. In the end, she decided that it probably wasn't the best time to invite more people who'd never visited before, into their home. Her and Oliver have been discussing putting a Fidelius Charm on the property."
Her cousin whispered the last sentence to her in case someone near them was trying to listen in on their conversation. There was more than enough noise going around in the backyard to cover their conversation between the laughing and the chattering of all of the guests, but the pair of women still wanted to make sure that their voices wouldn't carry.
"I can't imagine what they're going through right now . . . the worry about them and their children being targeted again."
Ally was staring at her incredulously before she even finished speaking.
"What?"
"You can't imagine it? You're probably already on a hit-list for one of the most notorious magical crime families in the world. You live with that knowledge hanging over your head every day," Ally reminded her in a tone of voice that implied that she thought her cousin might just being losing her mind.
Victoire waved her off, "That's different-"
"Yeah, Katie's only got one boogeyman to worry about, whereas you need to worry about potentially hundreds of people being paid to target you-"
"So, like I said. Different," Victoire reiterated firmly.
Ally rolled her eyes at the blonde, but left the conversation there. They left the drinks table and walked back into the kitchen of the Wood home to see if Katie and Oliver needed anymore help distributing food. Katie had disappeared in the intervening minutes since Victoire and Ally were last in the room, but Oliver was still there arranging a tray with raw veggies and dips.
"Anything else we can do Oliver?" Victoire asked the retired quidditch player sweetly.
"You and Ally can grab the trays filled with pumpkin juice and butterbeers and I'll follow you out with this tray," Oliver instructed them.
Victoire batted her eyelashes at him, "Will do Oliver."
Ally rolled her own eyes and summoned the two trays. She grabbed one, while she sent the other hurtling towards her cousin. Victoire grabbed it before anything could fall, and as they made their way outside of house Ally told her cousin that she really needed to stop flirting with her future-father-in-law.
That was when Xavier found them.
"What are you two arguing about?"
"Nothing," The pair said at the same time.
Xavier definitely didn't believe them, but he knew better than to get involved in whatever it was they'd been discussing.
"Either of you see my mother lately? I need to ask her a question."
"No, last time we saw her she was in the kitchen, but we were just there once more and she disappeared," Victoire explained.
Xavier sighed, "I need to know where she wants us to set up the bounce house this year. She said something last year about wanting it in a different place."
When they had arrived at the party earlier, Xavier, Teddy, and Malcolm had been recruited to get out and set up the bounce house that had become a staple at Brogan's birthday parties since he'd first had one as a surprise a few years ago. They had unravelled the bounce house on the makeshift quidditch pitch in the backyard and double-checked that they had the appropriate number of pegs for it before trying to set it and inflate it.
Oliver, true to his word, had followed Victoire and Ally out of the house a few moments later with the veggie tray. He overheard his son's question.
"She's in the bathroom with Nadia. She apparated here a few minutes ago and it set off her morning sickness," Oliver explained succinctly as he set his tray down next to the fruit tray.
Malcolm had arrived for party set-up without Nadia, and had explained that his pregnant girlfriend hadn't gotten a very good sleep the night before so she was going to have a lay in and arrive at the party a little later. Katie had instructed everyone who was invited that lunch was going to be served around 11:30, but besides that she hadn't given the party a strict starting time.
Xavier's face took on a sympathetic expression when he heard about his teammate, "I'll make Malcolm go find them then. Thanks for the info."
While Xavier went back to the backyard pitch, Oliver went back to the front of the house to greet more of their guests who were still arriving.
Cecilia, who had been talking to one of her older cousin's and his wife, excused herself from them when she spotted a familiar face walk around the corner of the house and into the backyard.
"Eliza!"
Cecilia met Eliza halfway and immediately stretched her arms out to take Rowan from her mother.
"Hello Rowboat," She cooed to the toddler as she gave her a tight hug.
"Nice to see you too Cecilia," Eliza greeted her friend with a sarcastic roll of her eyes.
Cecilia pulled her eyes off of her goddaughter to glance at Eliza, "I got you an invite to the party, didn't I?"
"Only because Rowan and I are a package deal until she's seventeen and old enough to apparate on her own."
"That's ridiculous," Cecilia retorted, "Twelve is plenty old enough to floo somewhere by herself as long as there's someone waiting for her on the other side."
Eliza rolled her eyes again, and Cecilia continued, "Speaking of your invitation, did Benjamin not believe my sincerity when I said that he could come today too?"
"No, oddly enough he believed you," Eliza replied, "He just got called into work last minute."
Cecilia set Rowan down on the ground, the toddler had started to get antsy, and asked Eliza exactly what was on her mind, "Are you sure that wasn't just an excuse not to come?"
"I'm sure. He's low man on the totem pole right now and he was told that it'll be years before he gets the luxury of having a full weekend off," Eliza explained with a heavy sigh.
The two women were quiet for a few moments as they watched Rowan toddle away from them and towards the sandbox where Brogan and some of the other children were playing.
After pulling out her wand and summoning two butterbeers over to her, Cecilia asked, "So no luck on finding him another job then?"
"That would imply that he was actively looking for a new position at a different firm," Eliza said in a tone that distinctly sounded like a complaint as she accepted a bottle of butterbeer from her friend.
"I thought that he doesn't like the firm he's at?"
"He doesn't, but he abhors the idea of stepping out of the little zone of societal comfort he's encased in with his current position, even more," The taller of the two women replied bitterly.
Cecilia took a big swallow of her drink, "Don't hold back Eliza, tell me how you really feel."
"He broke off his engagement and told his parents that he wanted to be with me; which I know was difficult. He moved out of his parents' home and in with me and Rowan to further affirm his commitment to us; that was also difficult. His parents threatened to disinherit him if he didn't start dating someone they picked out for him, and he called their bluff; that was difficult. This, getting a new job at a firm where he doesn't feel like his soul is being sucked out of him on a daily basis, this should be easy."
When she was done ranting Eliza downed half of her bottle of butterbeer and Cecilia eyed her worriedly, "Perhaps that's exactly why he doesn't want to find a new job. After giving up so much of his security he's clinging to the last piece he has left in an attempt to keep things from changing, and the inevitable upheaval that comes with those changes."
Two dark brows rose up in shock on Eliza's forehead, "Have you been talking to your therapist about us?"
"No, I got that from my Mum," Cecilia replied.
"So, you talk to your Mum about us?"
Cecilia snorted, "No. I was talking to my Mum again about my upcoming move out of the house and she said that with Xavier's upcoming wedding, and with Brogan now officially closer to attending Hogwarts than he is to staying home with her, she was probably clinging to me a little too tightly. With all of the changes and upheaval she wanted something to stay the same, for a little while . . . I just thought her perspective might work in your situation as well."
Eliza sighed and glanced at her almost finished bottle of butterbeer, "You couldn't have waited until I had a nice buzz going on to start making sense?"
"You would have needed to drink like ten butterbeers to get a buzz from it," Cecilia pointed out.
Eliza finished her drink, "I don't doubt that your parents will bring out the alcohol once it's officially past the noon hour."
Cecilia nodded in response; Eliza was definitely right on that score.
"But enough about my problems-"
Cecilia interrupted her, "But we haven't even gotten to the part where we complain about Benjamin not having the guts to ask Colton Knott if he's got room for another junior associate."
"I think we'll have plenty of time to rehash that over the next upcoming weeks I'm sure," Eliza waved her off, "Anyway, what I was going to say was that your Mum feels better about your moving out now?"
Since she wasn't exactly the best at keeping secrets, Cecilia had gone to Eliza earlier in the week and had explained that she was going to move in with Louis (and Baxter). She kept the specific details to herself about her mother's assailant being released from Azkaban soon and how that related to her new decision to move out, and instead she told Eliza that she had finally womaned up and told her parents that she wanted to move out. Eliza hadn't been completely shocked to hear the news considering that she knew that Cecilia had been trying to broach the topic with her parents for the past few weeks, but she was surprised to hear that they had come to an agreement about it so quickly.
"She's had time to come to terms with why she was reacting so strongly to the idea, and she realized that it had more to do with her having trouble letting go than it did with any actual concerns about me and my relationship with Louis," Cecilia explained.
Eliza smiled, albeit a little weakly, "At least someone's life is heading in the right direction."
Cecilia bumped Eliza with her hip, "You have a beautiful toddler, a job that allows you to work from home so that you can spend this precious time with said adorable toddler, and a mostly okay boyfriend. You're doing fine."
"I knew that you'd warm up to Benjamin eventually," Eliza rejoined as she bumped Cecilia back.
"He won some points after Christmas when he called his parents bluff about disinheriting him, I'll give him that," Cecilia allowed.
Over near the, relatively large, sandbox the two women noticed Victoire walk up to the children and scoop Rowan up into her arms. They could hear Rowan's loud giggles from where they stood a few metres away, as Victoire peppered kisses all over the little girl's face.
"How did I get so lucky to have you guys as my support system?" Eliza asked softly as she watched her daughter babble to the blonde healer that was beaming at her and talking right back to her despite the fact that Rowan was only throwing out disjointed words and giggles.
Cecilia smiled at Eliza, "It's karma, you're a great person so good things have come to you."
Eliza suspiciously eyed the empty bottle of butterbeer in Cecilia's hand, "It sounds like you're the person who's getting buzzed off of butterbeer."
"What?" Cecilia said as she threw her hands up in the air, "Is Louis the only person who's allowed to be poetic around here?"
"Speaking of Lover Boy, where is he?"
Cecilia sighed, "He worked a night shift last night. Baxter promised to wake him up and bring him here in time for lunch. They should be here soon actually."
"Ahhh."
Back over at the refreshment table, Ally was speaking to Tabitha and Zachary Westin.
"Lemonade Zach?" Ally asked the eight-year-old kindly as she gestured towards the tray of drinks.
The little boy answered in the affirmative, and Ally grabbed the closest cup and then handed it to him. Zach very politely thanked Ally and then placed his mouth to the rim so he could take a sip. Beside Zach, his mother stood oddly still, excepting the slight flinch of her wand hand towards the pocket of her cardigan that Ally guessed Tabitha's wand was stashed in.
After a few more sips he handed the cup to his mother and told her that he was going to go play with the other kids. Tabitha nodded woodenly and he was gone within seconds, running off to join some of the Wood cousins who were close to him in age.
Ally glanced at Tabitha, "I'm impressed."
"With what? Zach's manners? I've been drilling them into him for eight years so I'm glad they're finally-"
"No," Ally interrupted, "I'm impressed that you didn't give in to the urge to cast a disinfecting spell on the rim of the cup before he drank from it."
Tabitha clenched her fists, "I'm trying to be better. It's just hard to let things go."
"He's healthy and his immune system is back to normal. He can handle everything that may get thrown his way," Ally reassured her as she patted Tabitha on the back.
"I know this in my head, but when I think about how tiny and sick he looked just before his surgery . . ." Her voice trailed off as she thought back to the memory she was describing.
Ally squeezed her shoulder comfortingly, "But you've made it through it. The both of you have. And you're stronger now for it. Heck, Zach's been back to his mini league quidditch team for almost the whole season and he's been completely fine."
Tabitha nodded, in acknowledgement of the truth of Ally's words.
"And now that this chapter of your lives is over, it's time to move onto the next one."
It took a lot of strength on Tabitha's part not to roll her eyes at Ally's words.
"Ally I-"
"Just look at him Tab," Ally insisted as she pointed to the part of the backyard where Mark Doyle was currently. He was knelt down next to one of their teammate's kids –one of Knopp's daughters– and was helping her fill up a bucket with sand that she promptly emptied half into the sandbox and half onto Mark's shoes, only to ask him to fill back up again.
"He's not here just because Katie and Oliver invited him, or because he thinks Brogan turning six is a big deal, or because he enjoys helping Sasha Knopp build sandcastles. He's here today because he knew that you were coming and because he wanted to see you."
Tabitha glared at Ally, "Honestly Ally? That's a stretch. Mark sees us all the time, he visits us when Clark visits, he coaches Zach's quidditch team-"
"All things he does just so he can see you."
"I-"
"Fancy him back? You did agree to go on a date with him-"
"Almost two years ago," Tabitha argued, although her tone sounded more than a little forlorn, "And then I walked out on that date and avoided saying anything to him that didn't involve my ill son for the next year and a half. Whatever interest he had in me is long gone by now."
Tabitha expected Ally to reply right away, and was surprised when she didn't. Instead, Ally was deep in thought. She has originally thought that Tabitha's hesitancy to get things going with Mark again was because she was still worried about how it may affect Zach and Clark. Tabitha's words however, hinted that her hesitancy may stem from a more self-conscious basis.
"If he was no longer interested in you, he would have started dating other women again," Ally pointed out finally.
She knew from experience that explaining to Tabitha that she was a catch would only end in Tabitha dwelling on what she thought she was personally lacking. Hitting the other woman with the straight facts seemed the better alternative.
It worked too.
Tabitha was speechless for several moments as she watched Mark patiently model for Sasha Knopp how to flip her bucket over so that her sandcastle would actually stay intact.
"In the last several years he hasn't even looked at another woman the same way he looks at you," Ally added softly.
Tabitha pulled her eyes away from Mark and glanced back at Ally, "Been watching him closely then, have you?"
"Yup. Just keeping an eye on him because he's my friend, and what I noticed in that time is that he barely notices other women. Even when you ended things and told him very specifically that you were not emotionally available, he didn't take that as permission to go find someone else."
"He just-"
"He's just in love with you," Ally said slowly and clearly. She made a mental note to apologize to Victoire for what she put her through in seventh year when she was denying being in love with Xavier. She hadn't been anywhere as difficult as Tabitha was being, but it was still probably difficult for her.
Tabitha pinched the bridge of her nose and grabbed a butterbeer from the tray on the table, "I wouldn't even know how to do it."
"How to do what?" Ally asked curiously.
"How to talk to him about whatever is going on between us . . ."
"And?
"And where I would like the thing between us to go."
Ally held in what would have been a very girlish scream, but she couldn't help but fist-pump the air.
Tabitha rolled her eyes at her, "Take a calming draught Ally."
Ally ignored her sarcasm and pulled the other woman into a hug, "You know what a perfect first date would be?"
"I swear to Helga if you're about to say Victoire and Ted's wedding-"
Ally waved off her concern, "No way. That's still over a month away. You can't sit on this revelation for that long."
"Oh, I can if I want to keep the peace between my brother and his partner."
"Clark will come around eventually," Ally said a little dismissively, "You've just got to actually tell him about it first."
Tabitha sighed, "This would be a lot easier if Clark had a social life that consisted of more than me and Zach, Mark, and The Charity."
"Brilliant point," Ally replied as she excitedly snapped her fingers, "We should set him up with someone so he can be busy while you and Mark try to make things work."
Since her words were meant to be taken sarcastically, Tabitha was worried about Ally's exuberance on the subject, "Have you forgotten what happened the last time you tried to set Clark up with someone?"
"It was a learning experience for everyone involved," Ally insisted, knowing Tabitha was referring to Clark and Dom's very short relationship, "What I learned from it was that while Clark seems to like opinionated and career-driven redheads, it's best for him to stay away from the ones who are related to me and afraid of commitment."
Tabitha let out a breath she'd been holding, Ally seemed to have grasped her point about not getting involved with Clark's personal life again.
"-Which is why," The younger woman continued, "You're going to need to pick out his next romantic partner. You know him better than I do anyway."
"Nuh-uh. Clark and I have an agreement that we don't interfere with each other's personal lives," The beater's sister insisted.
An eyebrow rose on Ally's forehead, "If that's true, you don't need to worry about him saying anything about your budding relationship with Mark."
"Expect for the fact that Clark's always been more of a 'do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do' type."
Ally let out a sad sigh, "Yeah, unfortunately that's a rather distinctive trait with us Gryffindors."
"Another reason why I was very happy to be a Hufflepuff."
"Baxter's favourite part about being a Hufflepuff was also the fact that he stayed out of the middle of family drama. He got to watch safely from the sidelines and hear the play-by-play at a latter date from Louis and Cecilia," Ally mused.
Tabitha chuckled, "Was Cecilia often involved in Weasley family drama too?"
"She usually got a good view of it, when Weasleys had a blow-out in the Gryffindor common room everyone in the close vicinity was witness to it."
"It seems I should also be thankful that I graduated before the years when the majority of you lot were all at Hogwarts together."
Ally rolled her eyes a little as she thought of her family, "Yes, you should."
A little way away from the refreshment area where Ally went back to trying to convince Tabitha to help her set Clark up with someone, Louis and Baxter were sitting on the ground in a circle with half a dozen of the children. Brogan had coerced the two adults as soon as they arrived into joining in on a game of hippogriff, hippogriff, griffin, and they had mostly agreed because they figured that Rowan and another one of the children (one of Eilionoir Wood's many great-grandchildren) were too little to be able to follow the rules of the game without a little guidance.
Baxter sat cross-legged on the grass with Rowan in his lap, it was the only way she was able to sit still long enough for Ivan Knopp to tap her on the head and yell 'hippogriff', while Louis sat with a barely two-year old Allanah Wood in his lap for a similar reason. Ivan Knopp, the child who was stuck being 'it', pretty much ignored the adults as he went around the circle labelling each child as a hippogriff as he bided his time and tried to decide who he wanted to chase him.
"So, you're sure that you're okay with Cecilia moving in?" Louis was whispering to his cousin and roommate.
Baxter rolled his brown eyes at him, "No, now that you've asked me for the fourteenth time, I've changed my mind and decided that I don't want your girlfriend to move in. You'll just have to live with your current arrangement with her; which is her popping by after work, staying the night, having breakfast with whichever of us is up in the morning, and then repeating that routine for more nights out of the week than not."
Louis was grateful that the children around him were too young to comprehend Baxter' biting sarcasm, "Okay I get it. Godric, you don't have to be so dramatic."
"As if I'd say 'no' when we're talking about her safety potentially being at risk."
Louis was unable to respond for a moment while Ivan Knopp loudly yelled 'griffin' as he patted Zach Westin on the head and the two of them ran around the circle. Zach was unable to catch Ivan before he got to where the former had been sitting in the circle, and it was Zach's turn to be 'it'.
"Do you think he will try anything?" Louis finally asked his cousin softly.
Baxter sighed, "I don't know. That place can do crazy things to people. It's hard to tell whether he'll think rationally or not once he's released . . . I hope that they'll be successful in getting her a restraining order against him. But as of right now it sounds like Dom's being quiet about the odds of that particular outcome."
Cecilia and Xavier had already contacted Dom about helping them file the information for a restraining order against Marcus Flint. They didn't necessarily need a lawyer to act as a go-between for them, but it would help ensure that the information wouldn't leak to the press or the public.
"She's just doing her best not to get our hopes up, it's a difficult situation where there isn't much prior case precedent to refer to," Louis said with a sigh.
"Hippogriff!" Zach announced as he patted Allanah Wood on the head and kept moving around the circle.
The two-year-old jumped up off Louis's lap, but he was able to snag her around the waist before she could get too far. He gently explained to Cecilia's second-cousin that it was only her turn if she was called a 'griffin' and the little girl plopped back down in Louis's lap with a pout. The part-veela held in a chuckle and then made eye contact with Zach, who was starting on his second lap around the circle. He gestured above Allanah's head, and the older boy nodded at him in understanding.
Upon Zach's second turn around the circle he, in an exaggeratedly slow movement that only the two adults noticed, tapped Allanah on the head and called out 'Griffin'. Allanah jumped up and grabbed Louis by the hand to pull him along with her. Her little legs chased after Zach, who kindly jogged ahead of them at a slower pace to make Allanah think she was getting close to him, but he still made it to her spot before he did. Allanah giggled loudly and she continued to pull Louis around the circle with her as she tried to mimic the next step of the game. Louis guided Allanah's actions, and he suggested to her that she yell 'griffin' when she came to Rowan next. Rowan clapped her hands at the excitement, but Baxter had to help her to her feet and through the motions of the game.
Once Rowan realized she just needed to chase Allanah, the two girls took off with a giggle and ran around the circle two times before one of Allanah's other cousins intervened and told her to sit back down on the grass in Rowan's spot. Louis sat down first and Allanah landed on him, which left Rowan to toddling around the circle with Baxter quietly whispering to her that she needed to repeat the word 'hippogriff' as they went. After one circuit of the circle, Baxter moved his hand –the one that Rowan was holding– to tap Brogan on the head.
Her words came out more like 'grippin' but Brogan figured it out and he got up to chase her. Baxter let go of Rowan's hand so that she could run giggling away from Brogan. With the newfound maturity that only a six-year-old could muster, Brogan chased Rowan around the circle and pretended that he couldn't catch the twenty-one-month-old. Baxter sat back down in his spot and held his arms out wide so that Rowan would understand that as her signal to come to him and sit back down. She launched herself at him, giggling still, and Brogan started his role of being 'it'.
"They're having enough fun with this game that I don't think they'll even need the bounce house," Louis mused once Baxter was seated again.
"Nah, the minute that bounce house goes up these kids will be single-mindedly determined to climb into it and jump around until they puke up their lunch," Baxter disagreed.
Louis snickered, "Vic's the only one that happens to."
The part-veela's aforementioned eldest sister, was standing close to the far side of the house where Sandra and Kyle Line had just arrived.
"Oh, it's good to see you!" Victoire exclaimed as she squeezed her best mate in a hug.
"You too!" Sandra replied with a similarly tight hug.
Kyle shook hands with Teddy, who was standing next to Victoire, and then rolled his eyes at the two women, "You're going to be spending practically the whole weekend together."
"Which is an exciting prospect!" Victoire retorted with a bright smile as she let go of the curly-haired woman.
Teddy glanced at Kyle, "Do you remember how she used to be when she was studying for exams?"
"You mean how she'd turn into a total nightmare?"
Before Teddy could reply, Xavier walked up to the group.
"Nightmare? You must be talking about Victoire."
Victoire sent the professional keeper a rude hand gesture.
"Anyway, if you've seen her in her 'study zone' then you're familiar with how she will be tomorrow when she's let loose in the Lestrange family library," Teddy finished.
Victoire pouted at her fiancé, "I love you too honey."
Despite her sarcasm, Teddy wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pressed a kiss to her temple.
"I'd hate to bring down the party atmosphere," Sandra said gently, "But any updates on Chris?"
Even though the group of friends had been ignoring Chris's existence for the better part of the last several years, they were still concerned about his health and his expected recovery from the bludger he took to the head in Puddlemere's quidditch game earlier in the week.
"Sarah sent me an update the last time she did rounds. The swelling is still going down, and he's in and out of consciousness," Victoire told them without inflection.
It was still too early in Christopher Mullin's situation for Healer Sarah MacGregor to give a detailed prognosis. According to the neurological healing experts, head injuries like Chris's could follow several different trajectories. The fact that they were able to get all of the bleeding outside and inside of Chris's brain under control was a good sign, as was the fact that the swelling around his brain was already starting to go down within the short time since his injury. Roughly a day and a half after his injury, Chris had very briefly woken from his coma. He didn't do much more than blink his eyes open a few times, mutter in pain, and roll over to lay on his side, but it was a very positive action that bode well for his recovery.
Unfortunately, Chris's loving wife Giavanna had expected different results from his recovery trajectory, and she was very vocal about her expectations. Healer MacGregor had been prepared through experience with patients' families –and a very detailed and explicit heads-up by her colleague Victoire Weasley– for Giavanna Tracey-Mullin's reactions and responses to every update she received on her husband's health. Apparently, Gia had decided that there should be some sort of spell to completely heal her husband's traumatic brain injury, and when Sarah had gently informed her that that wasn't possible, the professional seeker's wife went on the attack and threatened to get Sarah taken off of her husband's case if she was going to keep being incompetent. It was an idle threat as Healer MacGregor knew that her supervising healers would just take Giavanna's words as that of a distraught wife and not seriously, but Sarah did decide from that moment forward that she would be more circumspect with what she termed 'good news' in regards to Christopher Mullin's recovery. Nothing short of a full recovery, discharge, and prognosis of no noticeable brain damage would be consider 'good news' in Giavanna's books.
"So, he's no longer in danger of dying?" Kyle clarified.
Victoire shook her head, "Baring some sort of reinjury or reversal of the progress he's already made, he's out of the danger zone in that particular regard. The extent of his TBI however, is unknown until he fully regains consciousness and cognitive tests can be run with him."
"Has Puddlemere figured out what they're going to be doing about their starting seeker spot yet?" Sandra asked Xavier.
"As of right now O'Neill will still be playing all of the upcoming games in the starting seeker position," Xavier explained with a sigh. He was referring to Puddlemere United's second-string seeker who was, understandably, playing in Chris's position until more about his prognosis could be known.
Teddy frowned, "Even after he failed to so much as spot the snitch in your last two games?"
Xavier nodded sadly, "O'Neill's-"
"Garbage," Ally commented as she walked up behind her fiancé and heard the tail end of the conversation, "O'Neill is garbage-"
"O'Neill," Xavier repeated his teammate's name in a tone and with a pointed look in Ally's direction that made it obvious that they'd had that same argument before, "Is very effective and dependable during practice . . . unfortunately he seems to be suffering from the quidditch version of stage fright and freezes during games that matter."
Ally scoffed, "That's putting it politely. The only reason why you guys didn't lose the last game is because James was on fire and scored almost double the number of goals he usually does."
"Even if Chris does have a speedy recovery, will he be able to play quidditch professionally again?" Sandra asked Victoire.
Victoire pursed her lips, "I'm not the neuro expert . . . but most people who have head injuries like Chris does, even when they have what is medically defined as a full-recovery, have residual symptoms that make intensive sports difficult to withstand. Sometimes even flying at fast speeds are difficult to endure after a TBI."
Xavier glanced at Sandra and Kyle, "That's her diplomatic way of saying 'no'. Chances are slim that Chris will be back as our seeker."
"And chances are that O'Neill won't be staying on permanently as your starting seeker-"
"Not if I have any say in it," Nadia Cassano announced as she and Malcolm Wood joined the group of six.
Sandra looked at Nadia curiously, "Do you have any say in it?"
"Our coaches say that I don't, but I know that I can wear them down into at least considering my opinion," Nadia replied with certainty.
Kyle placed his hands in his pockets, "If not your second-string seeker, who else could take the spot?"
"They'll have to recruit someone new to the team," Ally explained.
"I even overheard Dad asking James if he thought Al would change his occupational trajectory and spend a few years playing seeker professionally before joining the Auror Department," Xavier added.
Teddy chuckled, "I take it James dashed all of those hopes?"
"He sounded adamant that Al wouldn't be convinced otherwise."
"What about Scorpius Malfoy?" Kyle asked, "Doesn't he play seeker at Hogwarts?"
Victoire nodded, "He does, but his dreams after graduation are to study architecture."
Kyle's expression changed from one of objective curiosity to keen interest, "Is there a specific firm he has plans of joining when he's finished his initial studies?"
"Hold your horses there cowboy," Victoire told him with a laugh, "I've told you literally everything I know already. Besides, I thought Line Construction was more into bidding on jobs that were already designed, than designing their own."
Kyle puffed up his chest, "We've expanded out in the past few years, thank you very much. We started a pilot program with our firm in France into designing buildings for our clients, and we've gotten enough positive feedback on the process that we're thinking of expanding our architecture department here in our home firm within the next few years. We've already got about four architects working for us, but Greg's working on a proposition to double it at the very least."
He would have gone on to talk more about work if his wife hadn't stopped him in his tracks, "Honey, no one wants to hear about the numerous amounts of propositions you've got on the burner right now."
"Fine," Kyle replied with a pout as he crossed his arms over his chest.
The group moved onto another topic, while Victoire began to speak quietly with Nadia.
"How're you feeling?"
"Like I need to get Malcolm a vasectomy before I ever agree to have sex with him again," She replied testily.
Victoire bit her lip to hold in a smirk, "That's a valid feeling."
"Except for the fact that last night while we were looking through a box of baby hand-me-downs that one of his cousins gave us, I had a wicked mood swing that ended up with me bawling my eyes out and declaring to Malcolm that we need to have another baby once the first one grows out of the adorable pair of booties I'd stumbled upon," Nadia said with a sigh.
Victoire was still holding in her smirk, "You guys will make a very cute baby."
"I know, that's the problem. That's how they suck you in."
"They?"
"Babies."
"Ahhh."
"What the bloody Hell is she doing here?"
Victoire and Nadia's heads whipped around when they heard Malcolm's outburst. Nadia seemed confused, but Victoire quickly realized he was referring to one of the three people who were coming around from the front of the house and walking towards them.
"Maura's here!"
"Surprise!" Ally announced to Teddy, Victoire, and Malcolm as she gestured to where Grace, Maura, and Stella Monahan were striding in their direction, "I ran into Maura and Stella earlier in the week and invited them and Grace to Brogan's birthday party. I thought it would be a nice surprise."
Teddy and Victoire grinned while Malcolm muttered 'well you thought wrong' in a tone loud enough for both Ally and Nadia to pick up.
Malcolm was still pouting, and Nadia was feeling rather confused, when the three women finally came upon them.
"Hey there beautiful," Teddy greeted Maura as he pulled her, and consequently Stella as well as the three-year-old was sitting on her mother's hip, into a hug.
Maura patted Teddy on the back, "Hey there handsome."
When they broke apart Victoire moved in for a hug and then started to fawn over how big Stella was getting. During that time, Ally reintroduced her friend Grace and her sister Maura to the others.
Maura introduced her daughter Stella, and then Ally took it upon herself to introduced Maura to Nadia when she realized that Malcolm wasn't going to.
"Nadia, this is Maura Monahan, she was in Gryffindor with Teddy and Malcolm at school," Ally explained.
"Nice to meet you," Nadia told Maura with a nod.
Maura smiled brightly, her pretty face lighting up, "It's nice to meet you as well. And aren't you being quiet over there Mr. Wood. What, are you afraid that I'm going to spill a bunch of your bad habits to your girlfriend?"
"Don't worry," Nadia responded with a smirk, "I'm already well aware of them."
Malcolm rolled his eyes at the two women, but he finally unfolded his arms from his chest and gave Maura a hug.
"Good to see you Monahan."
"You too Wood."
Nadia glanced at Stella, who was trying to look around her mother towards the direction where she could hear the sounds of the other children, "How old's your little one?"
"Chronologically she's three, but attitude-wise she's closer to thirteen," There was no bite to Maura's words as she looked down at her daughter like she was her whole world.
Stella kicked her legs out from where she was perched on her mother's hip, "And it seems like she's already tired of staying still."
Grace reached for her niece and took Stella out of her sister's arms, "I'll take her to the other kids, you stay and catch up."
Ally and Xavier went with Grace so that they could at least introduce the three-year-old to the birthday boy, which left Maura, Teddy, and Malcolm to talk and reminisce while Victoire, Nadia, Sandra, and Kyle listened in. The group chatted, Maura filling them in on how unglamourous and mostly demanding life as the Editor in Chief of the America scion of the Quidditch Weekly magazine empire was, and how she wasn't sure she'd be able to pry Stella away from her grandfather when it was time for them to leave England again in two months.
A short time later, Katie announced that a self-serve buffet-style lunch was ready and people began to congregate around the food and tables that were set up in the section of the backyard closest to the house.
Grace brought Stella back to her mother, and Victoire and Teddy slipped in line behind the pair, the two old Gryffindor classmates still reminiscing about their school days as they filled their plates.
"What else do you want Little Star?" Maura asked her daughter as they moved to a part of the table that held new platters.
Stella had decided that she wanted to stand on her own and hold her own plate, so all three adults around her were watching closely to make sure that she didn't drop it.
"Noodles!"
"Pasta salad?" Victoire questioned the three-year-old. She wanted clarification before she reached for the serving spoon.
Stella –and Maura, who was watching her daughter carefully– nodded in the affirmative and Victoire scooped out a half a serving onto the little girl's plate. The group passed through the rest of the tables in a similar manner, and then Stella, Maura, Victoire, and Teddy found themselves situated at one of the tables Katie has instructed the boys to set up earlier. At the table next to them Victoire could hear Sandra, Kyle, Ally, and Grace talking about Ally's as of yet undetermined plans to go bridesmaid dress shopping for her and Xavier's wedding.
Victoire had barely enough time to pop half a triangle of an egg sandwich into her mouth before Brogan Wood came flying at her.
"Vic!"
He maneuvered himself onto her lap before she had the chance to put the rest of her sandwich slice down, and Xavier airily announced 'tag, you're it' as he deposited his little brother with her. When he saw that Brogan was somewhat settled, Xavier placed a plate of food down next to Victoire's –no doubt filled for Brogan– and he moved on to join his fiancée at the next table.
Teddy already had his wand out and had conjured up a chair for Brogan to sit in by the time Victoire was able to convince the newly six-year-old that he'd be more comfortable eating lunch on his own chair.
"So, is this what happens when you get to your third child? He becomes communal property?" Maura teased as she watched Brogan simultaneously stuff his face with food while also telling Victoire about his day so far.
Teddy smirked, "Victoire was there when Katie gave birth to him, we're pretty sure he imprinted on her like a baby duck. It's the only thing that explains his attachment to her."
"Yes," Maura replied with a sarcastic eyeroll as she speared a piece of lettuce on her fork, "That's the only plausible explanation for why a child adores your kind and caring fiancée."
Victoire beamed at the two who were talking about her, "I knew we'd get along great the next time we met Maura. It's too bad you and Teddy grew apart after graduation."
"Sadly, that's what happens when one person it trying to prove themselves to the Auror Department, while the other is trying to prove that they earned their internship through talent and not just because her daddy was owner and CEO."
Victoire nodded at Maura sympathetically, "And look where you are now! Editor in Chief and making the magazine one of the most popular in North America."
"Cheers to that," Teddy announced as he picked up his butterbeer and raised it.
Maura smiled brightly and clinked her glass of lemonade against him.
Victoire watched to make sure that both Brogan and Stella seemed absorbed in their meals before she asked Maura another question.
"So, Maura, is there anyone special in your life right now?"
Maura's eyes sparkled wickedly, "Stella."
"Besides your offspring."
Maura sighed wistfully, "No one important enough to make me reconsider this two-month long interlude. The muggle men I meet can tell that there's something different about me. While all of the wizarding men know exactly who I am, and as a result they usually overcompensate to try to poorly hide that they're intimidated by the fact that my career is more important than theirs."
"That has to be an overgeneralization," Teddy commented before taking a bite of a ham and cheese sandwich.
"Yet, it's not. Unfortunately, I have a very distinctive type. Confident and cocky, with a side of crippling commitment issues that crop up once they realize that I have a three-year-old and no intentions of putting their needs above hers," Maura explained in between bites of food.
Victoire nodded sympathetically, "It can be very hard to break out of bad habits like that."
"I could do it if I tried harder. In the past I've definitely been guilty of using Stella as shield and an excuse to keep men from getting close to me," Maura replied with a healthy dose of self-introspection, "Not many men choose to keep pursing a woman after she's spent the majority of their relationship insisting that she barely cares about him."
James Potter, who had just stopped by the table so that he could pat Brogan on the head and wish him a Happy Birthday on his way by, heard the tail-end of Maura's account.
"Unless that man is Freddie Weasley and the woman is Norah Summers," James muttered with an eyeroll.
Victoire nodded in agreement, "I can't keep up with what goes on between those two."
"Neither can they," Her younger cousin retorted.
"James, this is Maura Monahan and her daughter Stella, we went to Hogwarts together. Maura, my godbrother James Potter," Teddy introduced the two.
James waved at the redhead sitting across the table from Teddy, "Nice to meet you. I loved Quidditch Weekly North America's recent editorial on the under-league's players and their involvement in lobbying for added safety precautions."
"Thank you."
"Which one of your writers was it that had the guts to cut Northman out of the entire piece once the allegations about him came out in the press?"
"That call came from me actually. I don't believe in giving a platform to people who have proven through their words and actions that they don't deserve one," Maura clarified.
James smiled at her, his expression shewed that he was honestly impressed, "Way to stick to your principles, it's admirable."
"Thank you, James, and may I compliment you on your playing? You've done an excellent job filling in for Cassano these past few weeks," Maura complimented him in return.
The younger man's ears turned red and James quietly thanked her before escaping with some lame-sounding excuse about needing to call Freddie and seeing what was taking him so long to arrive at the party.
Maura inspected James closely as he retreated, "He's very polite and charming, I'm surprised that Puddlemere doesn't having him doing more press."
"My best guess is that they're trying to stagger the players' media availability to ride out the increased interest in the team's players. Nadia's really popular right now because she's pregnant, and that interest will only have barely died down by the time Xavier and Ally's wedding rolls around. He'll be super popular, then. I'm assuming that once that dies down the main attention will shift to James," Teddy mused.
Maura considered his words, "I can understand that approach. Mullin's sudden injury in that game last week will be a big topic too within the upcoming weeks, I'm sure."
She glanced at Victoire next, "If I remember correctly, he was a friend of yours at Hogwarts, wasn't he?"
"Was," Victoire repeated with emphasis, "We . . . drifted apart over the years."
Maura knew better than to keep that vein of conversation going.
They discussed Teddy's current work training younger aurors at the department as they finished their meals, and then Katie announced to their guests that the bounce house was open for the kids to play in. Brogan scrambled off of his chair excitedly and without so much of a by-your-leave so that he could be one of the first ones in the bounce house. Stella looked over at the large inflatable enthusiastically, and Maura helped her daughter off her seat and yelled after her to 'be careful' as the preschooler joined the throng of children moving towards the bounce house. Teddy trailed after the children as he, Malcolm, Clark, and Mark had already been conscripted by Katie to help supervise the children as they played in the large inflatable.
Victoire planned to help Katie and Oliver tidy up some of the food platters, but she took it upon herself to get Maura situated with other adults before she abandoned her. Standing so that they had a pretty good view of the children jumping in the bounce house were Cecilia, Eliza, and Tabitha. Victoire brought Maura over to the group of women and introduced her to them. She was already briefly acquainted with Cecilia, so Victoire left her to do the more specific introductions.
"This is my friend Eliza Parker, her daughter Rowan is twenty-one months old and she's the little girl that's currently kicking Malcolm as he tries to help her take her shoes off," Cecilia explained to Maura as she first gestured to Eliza, and then to the bounce castle where the small dark-haired toddler was presently making Malcolm regret his offer to help the kid with her sandals.
"And this is Tabitha Westin, she's Clark Westin's sister and her son Zach is eight," Cecilia continued the introductions between all of the mothers.
Maura waved her hand and repeated her name, "My daughter Stella's three, she's over there trying to climb up Ted's leg."
Eliza laughed, glad that she wasn't the only one who had an excitable young daughter, and then Maura addressed Tabitha, "I think I met your son on Monday. I ran into Ally at Diagon Alley and she was talking to your brother, I believe he had your son with him."
"You're probably correct, Clark did convince Zach to play hooky on Monday," Tabitha responded.
"So, what do you do Maura?" Eliza asked the other woman curiously.
Maura chuckled, "You're not a quidditch fan, are you?"
"Not exactly."
"I'm editor-in-chief of Quidditch Weekly North America," Maura explained.
Eliza's eyes widened, "Wow, that's impressive."
"Thank you, but it's less impressive when you learn that my father owns Quidditch Weekly and all of it's subsidiaries. Nepotism takes a bit of the remarkableness from it."
Cecilia scoffed, "Even if nepotism got you the job Maura, which you and I both know it didn't, it doesn't account for the fact that you've pretty much built that magazine and it's North American readership from scratch."
"From what I hear from Grace –who obviously gets all of her information from Ally– you're doing pretty well in the world of quidditch writing yourself Cecilia," Maura told the younger woman.
Cecilia raised an eyebrow at the redhead, "Did Ally talk you into trying to convince me to jump ship from Up in the Air and over to Quidditch Weekly? Because she's organically brought the subject up around me like three times so far this month."
"Of course not, Dad's got a strong 'no poaching policy'. I personally don't see the problem with offering writers more money and respect if they're worth it, like you would be, hypothetically speaking of course, but I'm not in charge of UK personnel," Maura told her.
"I appreciate the praise Maura, but my current position with Up in the Air gives me a lot of flexibility when it comes to arranging time off to do things for The Charity," Cecilia explained.
Maura shrugged her shoulders, "Fair enough. Like I said, I don't have a say in UK personnel, so you're safe from me. What do you do Tabitha?"
The main intention behind Maura's question was so that she could involve the other woman in their conversation.
"I work at a bakery," Tabitha enlightened her.
"Godric your son must think you're so cool. My daughter would definitely think I'm a lot less lame if I baked her favourite desserts for a living," Maura observed.
Tabitha smiled at her response, "I wish. Unfortunately, being a baker isn't anywhere as cool to an eight-year-old as being a professional quidditch player like Uncle Clark is."
"Still more interesting than my three-year-old thinks my job is, she tells people that I write boring things for a living."
"Really?" Eliza asked curiously.
Maura chuckled, "Yes, my three-year-old has more sass than a teenager."
Cecilia was called away at that point, one of her aunts said that she needed her help with something, but she had dispersed some of the awkwardness between the other three women and left them to happily discuss their children.
Eliza was just explaining that Benjamin had been under the terrible misunderstanding that Rowan wouldn't hit her terrible twos until she actually turned two, when Clark Westin came walking up to the group of women carrying Stella Monahan in his arms.
"Is she hurt?" Maura asked Clark as she took several steps forward to meet him. She inspected her daughter as she asked the question and noted that there was neither visible blood nor tears on her.
"Well," Clark began a little awkwardly as he held the three-year-old out to her mother, "She fell down when she was in the bounce house and it seemed as though she got stepped on by one of the older Woods. She popped right up though and hasn't shed a tear yet. The real reason I had to pull her out was because once she got back to her feet, she tried to hit the kid that stepped on her, and Katie gave us explicit instructions on what to do if any of the kids started throwing punches."
Maura, who had taken Stella from Clark as he explained the situation to her, sighed heavily, "Sadly, that doesn't surprise me."
She caught her daughter's eye, "Stella, we don't hit people."
"He stepped on me!"
"It doesn't matter if people hurt us on purpose or by accident. We don't hurt them back. Do you understand?"
Stella's expression turned into a beatific smile and she quickly nodded her head at her mother's words.
Too quickly.
Maura set her daughter down on the ground and Stella ran back towards the bounce house, the reprimand barely registering in her mind.
"Like Hell she does," Maura groaned as she ran a hand down her face. She glanced at the other three adults, "If you've ever wondered what raising a child who's destined for Gryffindor is like, look no further than that."
Tabitha nodded her head sympathetically, "I know how you feel. I've already resigned myself to the fact that Zach will be following in his Uncle Clark's footsteps and be sorted into Gryffindor."
Clark pouted at his sister; he was offended that being sorted into Gryffindor was being treated as a bad thing.
"The jury's still out on my toddler. While Cecilia and Victoire are already doing their best trying to turn her into a Gryffindor, I think she'll be split between Ravenclaw or Slytherin," Eliza spoke of Rowan.
"Which were you?"
"Ravenclaw," Eliza explained, "Rowan's father's a Slytherin. She's already a cunning little thing when she wants something, so I'm not ruling either one of those out yet. What's Stella's father?"
Maura snorted, "A sorry excuse for a human being."
Tabitha and Clark looked at her with wide eyes.
"Uh . . ." Eliza mumbled.
Tabitha decided to change the topic of conversation. She glanced at her brother, "I thought you were playing with Zach?"
"He found a ten-year-old in the mass of Wood cousins and is now trying to be super cool. Apparently having your uncle watch over you as you play is decidedly uncool. Even if said uncle is a professional quidditch player," Clark complained.
Tabitha patted his arm comfortingly, "Happens to all of us at some point. Where's Mark?"
"Luckily, hanging out with a professional quidditch player who isn't your uncle is still cool. Mark's going to keep an eye out for him," Clark explained.
Eliza turned to Maura, "How do you get your kid to listen to you when it comes to the whole 'don't hurt others' thing?"
"I have no idea," Maura replied airily, "Chances are she's going to get into another fight before the party's over."
"Aren't you worried she'll get hurt if it's with an older kid?"
Maura shrugged her shoulders, she was the picture of nonchalance, "If she doesn't listen to my warning, then she'll just have to deal with the natural consequences of her actions. Back home at the park in New York, I've seen her take on a six-year-old before I could get to her and intervene. She left the altercation with barely a scratch. I'm not too worried about her sturdiness."
"So, she's a scrapper?" Clark asked Maura. The idea of the cute little preschooler habitually throwing punches was both paradoxical and endearing.
"Unfortunately, when her words fail her, she immediately moves to a physical reaction. I've been trying to replace her bad behaviours with more appropriate forms of communication, but she's only three so it's slow going," Maura admitted.
Tabitha smiled at the other single-mother, "Zach went through a hitting phase when he was about Stella's age. He grew out of it after a little while."
"Thanks," Maura told her with a smile, "I'm just grateful that she didn't go through a biting phase. One of her friends from preschool went through one when she was a toddler and it was not an easy behaviour to break."
Teddy, Malcolm, and Nadia ambled over to the group while Maura was explaining her last statement.
"Dom was a biter when she was younger," Teddy informed them with a smirk at his soon-to-be sister-in-law's expense.
Clark snickered, "Why does that not surprise me?"
"Lucy's even got a scar on her shin from one time when Dom bit her when they were two," Teddy added.
"Domnall said that Duncan used to be a biter," Malcolm said of his oldest brother, "He'd grown out of it by the time I came along, but they were telling Nadia horror stories about it at our last family brunch."
Nadia's face turned green, but this time it wasn't from morning sickness, "Just when I resign myself to some aspect of parenthood, someone introduces me to a brand-new aspect I'd never even heard of before."
"I've got a story for you that won't scare you Nadia," Teddy told her before glancing at Tabitha, "Do you remember the first time we met? I told you that I remembered you giving me detention back when I was in my fifth year."
"Yes actually, you said something about you taking the fall for a friend, and then I felt bad about giving you detention," Tabitha recalled.
Teddy nodded and began to tell the story to everyone assembled, "So in our fifth-year Malcolm and another kid in our year had a grudge against each other. He let him temper get the best of him-"
"No," Nadia fake-gasped and looked at her boyfriend, "Not you."
He rolled his eyes at her.
"And did something that would have ended up with him getting detention. Longbottom had already told him that if he stepped one more toe over the line that his Hogsmeade privileges for that upcoming weekend would be revoked. Malcolm couldn't let that happen because he had already made plans to go on a first date with this girl-"
"Who was totally fit if I remember correctly," Maura interrupted Teddy's story and sent him a wink.
Teddy grinned back while Malcolm seemed to be trying to hide behind his own hands, "A first date with this totally fit girl. So, I, as any good friend would do, took the fall for Malcolm's incident which ended up with one of the Hufflepuff prefects-"
"Oh, this is the part where I come in!" Tabitha realized excitedly.
"So, seventh-year Tabitha Westin gave me detention instead, which allowed Malcolm to go on what would turn out to be his most memorable first date ever with the one and only Maura Monahan," Teddy finished the story.
Malcolm groaned and muttered under his breath about his best mate betraying him, as Nadia looked between Malcolm and Maura with interest, "Wait, you two used to date?"
"Only in the loosest sense of the word," Maura clarified, "We went on one horrible Hogsmeade date, and then avoided making eye contact with each other for a month until we silently agreed to pretend that it never happened."
Nadia glanced at her boyfriend, "Was it really that bad?"
"Yes," Malcolm and Maura replied at the same time.
"It was also very entertaining for those of us who had the pleasure of witnessing it," Teddy added with a grin as he teased his two friends.
"This news surprises me, if I had to guess who dated who at Hogwarts, I would have guessed you and Teddy considering your closeness," Nadia told Maura.
Maura shook her head, "Nah, Teddy wasn't my type. He was too stable and reliable, even back then my taste in men was already appalling."
Her tone was distinctly self-deprecating, she continued speaking, this time specifically to Teddy, "I might have told an old school acquaintance earlier this week, who was very derisive when she asked me who Stella's father was, that you were the baby daddy though Ted."
"Which acquaintance was this?" Teddy asked shrewdly.
Maura grinned at him, not at all ashamed, "Tasha Bennett."
"You did not," Malcolm asked her, momentarily forgetting his embarrassment at Teddy outing his and Maura's horrible first date.
"But I did. She was being a witch as she asked me about Stella and my life, and when she was so nosy as to ask about Stella's father, I thought I'd give her the shocking answer she was looking for," Maura reasoned.
Malcolm laughed, "Merlin that's a good one, I would have loved to see the look on Big T's face when she heard that."
"Obviously she won't believe it, and even if she did, nobody she told would believe her."
Teddy shrugged unconcernedly, "I just ask that I get custody on the weekends, and every other major holiday."
"I'll have my lawyer set something up with your lawyer," Maura informed him, playing along with his game.
"My lawyer is Dom, so be prepared for a fight."
"Oh, I will."
As the two bantered, Tabitha noticed, from the corner of her eye, Zach climb out of the bounce house and stagger off to the side of the inflatable where she couldn't see him. She automatically went towards him, and when she found him on the secluded side of the bounce house, she saw that Zach was leant over his knees dry-heaving, while Mark stood just behind him and had his hand placed on his back. The closer she got, the better she could hear the soothing words Mark was whispering to her son.
"What's going on?"
Mark straightened up, glanced back at Zach, and then walked towards Tabitha. He held his hands out towards her as if he thought she needed help calming down.
"Zach's just feeling a little bit nauseous-"
"What!" Tabitha exclaimed.
She moved to step towards her son, but Mark stayed in front of her, his hands still out and halting her from going any farther. He gently held her by her forearms.
"He ate a little too much during lunch and all of the jumping around is just making it difficult for it to sit in his stomach," Mark tried to soothe her.
"But what if he caught something and that's why he's feeling sick? He could-"
Mark cut Tabitha off before she could spiral even further into 'what ifs', "Zach told me that he just ate too much. He made me promise to tell you this, and to convince you that he's fine. He hasn't actually thrown up yet, he said his stomach was just bubbly."
"And you believe him?" Tabitha demanded.
Mark stood up a little straighter, "He's the best person to know how he's feeling."
"So, you're putting his opinion on his health above my opinion of his health, his own mother?" She asked, hands on her hips.
The determined expression on Mark's face fell a little, but his tone held firm, "Yes."
Tabitha frowned so a split second before she swiftly moved forward. Instead of trying to push through Mark –who had still been somewhat blocking her path to Zach– or side-stepping him, she placed herself directly in front of Mark and wrapped her arms around him.
She hid her face against his chest, "Thank you."
His body froze in shock at her sudden movement, but he was most astonished by her words. There were a few moments where they the both of them stood in the awkward silence before Mark's brain and mouth started to work again.
"For what?"
Tabitha moved her head so that she could meet his gaze, but she kept her arms around him in an embrace, "For putting Zach's needs above my own."
"But weren't you just angry at me for that?"
While he didn't want to feed Tabitha's anger at him by questioning her, he was also pretty confused by her change of heart.
"I was. But you're right, and I know it. I need to trust Zach's assessment of his own health, and how he thinks his body feels. Chances are that he did just eat too much and then go jump up and down for forty-minutes straight, and I shouldn't jump to conclusions about it being anything else unless other symptoms show up," She told him, her tone still soft.
Mark nodded at her words. He hadn't been thinking quite that far ahead, but he was glad that she wasn't angry at him. The fact that she still had her arms wrapped around him was also a good sign.
Tabitha swallowed thickly and then she spoke again, "I've also never explicitly thanked you for being there for us over the past two years . . ."
They both turned slightly so that they could look at Zach, he was no longer doubled-over and instead seemed preoccupied with re-tying his shoelaces that he just realized has just come undone. There was colour in his face and if Tabitha hadn't seen him dry-heaving the few minutes previously, she wouldn't have thought that there was anything wrong or out of the ordinary.
"You don't need to thank me Tab, where else would I have been?"
"Out living your own life with whoever you moved on with."
Mark looked down at Tabitha and placed his hands on her back, it was his first attempt to reciprocate the embrace, "I don't want to move on from you."
She moved her arms from where they were around him and slid them up the front of his chest, "I've realized that . . . and I think I've known it for a while. I just–I just-"
"You're just worried about what will happen with Zach, or Clark, if something goes wrong," Mark whispered.
"Is that so wrong? To be worried about how this might affect others?" Tabitha wondered.
He shook his head, "No, that's not wrong. But you've been worried about that before and . . . overcame it. What did it the last time?"
"Ally convinced me that I deserved something for myself."
The corners of Mark's mouth turned up into a smile, "Well if that's the case I don't think this is going to work. I'm gonna want to hangout with Zach too."
Tabitha felt her eyes start to water, but they weren't tears of sadness, "I think that can be arranged."
"So . . . unless I've been reading this whole conversation wrong, I believe this is my chance to-"
She could see where Mark was going with his speech, and she cut him off, "No."
His eyes lit up with shock, but she quickly continued.
"You asked the last time . . . it's my turn now," Tabitha took a deep breath and locked her gaze with his, "Would you like to go out to dinner?"
Mark smiled softly at her, "I'm free on Thursday. No game and no Charity meeting."
"I'll have to see about getting a babysitter for Zach . . . but barring any other catastrophes it's a date."
His smiled turned blinding when he heard the word 'date'.
Tabitha didn't have time to decide if she wanted Mark to try to kiss her right then and there, or not, because Zach came running up to them and pulled on the end of her sweater.
"Mum, someone said something about cake."
Now that her and Mark's little bubble had been broken, Tabitha also registered the magically amplified sound of Katie's voice announcing to the occupants of the backyard that it was time for cake. Tabitha nodded her head at her son, made a mental note to remind him to stay out of the bounce house until after his dessert had time to digest, and then realized that she was still standing in the circle of Mark's arms. She automatically stepped back from him.
Mark let her go, but he did try to calm her down, "The bulk of the bounce house has blocked us from view of everyone except Zach. No one saw us."
Tabitha bit her lip, immediately feeling a little ashamed, "It's not that I don't-"
"I get it Tab," Mark interrupted her. He didn't think she needed to apologize for worrying about people finding out about them, "We're going to have to have a few conversations with Zach and Clark before letting other people in on it."
She teasingly raised an eyebrow at him, "We are, are we?"
"Of course, I'm not brave enough to handle Clark on my own," Mark replied with as serious of an expression as he could muster.
Zach had decided that he was tired of waiting for his mother, so he went ahead in the direction of where he knew he would find the cake. Tabitha saw it and she and Mark followed behind him, but at a slower pace.
"Well, if you need my protection, I guess we could do that chore together . . ."
Mark smiled at her but they dropped their vein of conversation as they came around the corner of the bounce house and joined the small crowd of people who were gathered around a table where the birthday boy had been seated.
Brogan's birthday cake for that year was train-themed in accordance with his newest obsession, and he almost blew out the birthday candles before they were finished singing 'Happy Birthday' to him as he was so excited to get to the eating part. Katie very smoothly oversaw the process of cake cutting and distribution, and once everyone who wanted a slice had one, Victoire and Ally insisted that she sit down and spend some time with Brogan while they started on the clean-up from the people who were starting to finish their cake.
Ally was collecting used dishes while Victoire went ahead to the kitchen to start boiling water for tea and coffee.
Victoire had only just gotten the kettles filled and heating charms placed on them when she heard someone enter the kitchen via the backdoor. She turned slightly and smiled when she saw Sandra. With there being so many people at the party, Victoire felt that she had hardly spent anytime with her best friend that day despite the fact that she had been there when they were discussing Chris's health.
"Coffee or tea?"
Sandra shook hear head, "I've already had my limit of one cup for the day. I'm not allowed anymore than that now that I'm taking pre-natal potions."
If Victoire had been holding a piece of crockery, she would have dropped it.
"What?"
Sandra grinned at her, "I took an early response pregnancy test and it was positive."
Victoire pulled her friend into a tight hug, "Oh my Godric that's so exciting! Congratulations!"
"Thank you," Sandra replied hugging her back, "We're going to wait a little longer to announce it to everyone else, but I couldn't keep it from you once I found out."
"Have you had it medically verified yet?"
"Saw Healer Jarvis this morning. The baby should be due next January."
Victoire hugged Sandra tighter, "I'm so happy for you and Kyle."
"Me too," Sandra replied, once Victoire took another good look at her she could see that her friend was beaming, "I didn't think that it would happen quite this quickly, but I think we're ready."
"This is so exciting!" Victoire cheered, squeezing Sandra one more time, "If you need anything at all, I'm here for you."
A/N: Oh my gosh, Mark and Tabitha are going on a date! Oh my gosh, Sandra's pregnant! Oh my gosh, I've created so many OCs and apparently I can't help myself because I've just added a few more, what is wrong with me?
In all seriousness, which was our favourite part(s) of this chap? If you have any questions about this chap (which I would understand because I threw a lot at you) please let me know.
Next Chap: Vic, Teddy, and co. go to France on a research mission, and James and Selene are practicing again.
Next Update: The chapter has not been finished yet, so it may be a little longer than I hope, but it shouldn't be more than a month. (Barring a partial mental break down from all of the school assignments I have going on in RL.)
Thanks as always to everyone who follows, favourites, reads, and especially reviews!
BIGGEST thank-yous to:
Janeth16, Nobothersgiventoday, Dthea33, M, NicoleTheSmith, Guest (1), kit94, Coralsea, Potterhead192007, MegLovesToRead, CrackHeadBlonde, LilyEvans005, and Imanantivist.
Janeth16: I know, I wish the wedding would just get here too. My initial plan for this story was for it to mostly be about the wedding, but then all of the other Weasleys, Potters, and OCs were complaining about their lack of 'screen time' and here I am trying to appease them ;)
Dthea33: As Baxter snarkily explains to Louis in this chapter, Cecilia is already kind of living with them. She's there most of the time, so this change to her 'living with Louis', while still a change, isn't exactly as big as it may seem. I don't think the living on her own after moving out of home stage is necessarily something that everyone needs to do, or something that everyone has the ability to do. Most people when they move out from home need to have a roommate of some sort for financial or practical reasons, so she's kinda moving to that stage where she's getting two new roommates. She's already sort of established in her career and her and Louis have been working on their boundaries for so long, that I don't think it's necessary for her to move out on her own to develop any sense of independence, she already has it.
NicoleTheSmith: Glad I could still surprise you, I feel like after we've been through so many stories together my writing may become predictable.
kit94: Thanks for the review, and don't worry, I totally get the busy thing :) Thank you for all that you do!
Coralsea: I'm doing fine now, all of my symptoms have abated and I've even got my 3rd shot so I'm also boosted up. I've got all of the immunity, to the Omicron strand at least. James and Selene will be in the next chapter. A lot of them.
Potterhead192007: In the last story Al asked Teddy for advice about a friend who was cheating (I understand the misunderstanding, because in the same chapter James asks Teddy for other relationship advice) and no, I have not yet revealed who that friend was. It will be revealed in this story, but we may have to a wait a little bit.
LilyEvans005: Well welcome to my wizarding world, I hope that you enjoy your ride :)
I hope you enjoyed this chapter,
Please leave me any thoughts, questions, or concerns in a review or PM,
Stay safe and follow all of your local public health guidelines,
Until next time, DTFBA!