(Hopefully things will be easier to write now that we're back at Hogwarts, I have lots of plans for this year so watch out. Please remember to review if you'd like, it really makes my day. If you have any comments, questions, etc, that you do not want to be public please message me, I love talking to you all. I should be posting the first chapter to my Draco Malfoy story briefly if you're interested, and these two stories exist in almost the same timeline, with some changes near the end, and the characters cross over. just letting you know!)
There was another battle Josie had to face before she could return to Hogwarts, and it was even worse than the attack on the World Cup in Josie's eyes. Her grandmother's birthday was the week before school started, August 28th, and she was required to go despite her pleas to let her stay home. To ease her troubles, her father decided to make a day out of it, taking her out to breakfast before traveling to Diagon Alley to meet with Paxton to buy her school supplies.
Josie felt extremely out of place amongst the cobble stone and bustling crowds in her dress, already dressed for her grandmothers birthday dinner later in the evening so they would not have to change again after shopping. Andre led Josie through the crowds towards the large marble of Gringott's bank where Paxton was waiting for them. "Welcome to Diagon Alley, how you ever got through your first year at Hogwarts without going here I'll never know." Paxton exclaimed with a grin, throwing an arm around Josie and leading her down the stone street. "Dad came for me to get my books, and I can get everything else in Chateauroux." She replied, shrugging off his arm and rolling her eyes at his false pout. "At least here you can see some interesting people." He said with a nod towards the front of a store with a smile.
Josie followed his eyes to the pair of familiar blondes stepped out from Flourish and Blott's with another familiar face following behind them. "Josie!" Bijou cried when they locked eyes, running the short distance across the crowd and throwing her arms around the older girl. "Hello Bijou." Josie laughed, pulling the now flustered girl from her and turning to smile at Henri. "Hello Henri, Arya." She greeted them, turning when their eyes moved behind her. "Who's this?" her father asked, laying a hand on her shoulder and smiling brightly. "This is Bijou, she's two years below me, her brother Henri, and his-"she paused. She was unsure of if she should say the depth of Arya and Henri's relationship out loud in case they did not want to be exposed so freely. . "I'm Arya, Henri's boyfriend." He finished, his soft voice barely breaking the silence as his cheeks flushed. "He plays Quidditch, a beater like me and the twins." Paxton added, smiling and slinging an arm over his shoulder. "Why all the Quidditch players you know play the most violent position I'll never understand." Andre sighed with a pointed look at Paxton, reaching out to take Arya and Henri's hand. "That's not true, Wood was Keeper." Josie replied with a smile. "We're going to get ice cream after we meet up with our parents to finish shopping, would you like to meet us?" Henri asked, smiling softly. "Of course, we shouldn't take long anyway." Andre answered before Josie could; nodding to them as the three teens headed off and he pulled Josie into the book shop.
"All you kids fall in love so young now days, I don't understand how you all so easily find each other. It took me decades of failure to find your mother." Andre said, smiling down at Josie. "Took me three years to find Lana, then another to figure out I liked them, and we were in the same school. Then another year and a half to tell them I liked them." He said, grinning widely. "You're like a puppy." Josie said with a laugh, looking over the list of books she had to buy. "He looks the same as your boyfriends when they talk about you, so I don't know what you're on about." Josie turned bright red and went to smack her father's side, but the bigger many ducked between two book cases with a laugh. He barely fit in the small space, and the awkward position sent Josie into a fit of giggles. They quickly shushed each other and pulled him out before they got in any trouble.
The three quickly found all the books Josie needed for the year, and their team work made the rest of their shopping go by swiftly. Arya was standing in front of the ice-cream shop when they wandered close, arms crossed as he appeared to be lost in his thoughts. He looked up when they came near, a small smile pulling at dark skin as he pushed off from the wall. "They're finishing up paying for Henri's new robes; he grew without realizing so he had to be re-measured." Arya explained, raking his fingers through his hair and smiling as the two siblings joined them.
"How do you know Josie?" Andre asked when the group sat down with their ice-cream, Josie licking the drip of coconut ice cream that was trying to escape down her hand. "S-She sat next to me when she first came to Hogwarts,-"Bijou started, almost dropping her ice-cream cone when Andre directed a question at her. "And then she came to me for help on her studies." Henri finished for his sister, smiling brightly. "That was very nice of you." Her father continued to talk to the two siblings, Paxton and Arya falling deeply into a conversation about Quidditch. The sun was getting low in the sky when they finished, Josie's father standing and stretching before turning to the teenagers. "We should get going; it's getting to be that time."
Reluctantly Josie parted with the three other students and her cousin, following her father out of the alley and towards what she was sure was going to be the worst night of her life. "It will be alright, mon lapin." Her mother said as they walked towards the white arches of the front entry way. "Just ignore her and be yourself. We're right here. " Her father added, patting her shoulder and kissing her cheek as the door opened. "Hello!" Delephine said cheerfully as the door opened and Josie's grandfather looked out at them. "Hello, I'm so glad you're here." He replied in French, smiling at the three before settling eyes on Josie. "Josephine, you've grown more, and you look so pretty." He said, taking her hand gently and squeezing it. "Thank you." she replied softly, smiling at the elder man before following her family inside. "You can take the pastries to the kitchen; everyone is in the living room." He instructed, motioning Josie and Andre to the large glistening kitchen to set down the pastries they had brought for the meal.
Josie hesitated in following her father into the living room, gripping the cold marble counter till her knuckles turned white. She didn't want to face her grandmother and her other family, not after her outburst at their last get together. "It will be alright. Stay with me and no-one will harm you." her father said softly, taking her hand in his and leading her out of the room. As soon as she entered the living room all eyes turned to her, except for her grandmother who kept looking directly into her glass of wine as Josie's cousins ran to her side and began talking to her for the first time in years. "You look so pretty!" "I love your dress, where is it from?" "How's school, do you like it?" "Tell us about those friends of yours, what are they like?" "Leave her alone, she can't answer you all at once." The male that broke the chatter confused Josie, causing her to spin around and come face to face with a boy she didn't entirely recognize.
"You remember your cousin Marius, you two used to play in the garden at his parent's house for Easter." Delephine spoke up, placing her hands on the seemingly older boy's shoulders. Josie looked over his soft features, rose tinted hair and sparkling amber eyes until she recalled the boy. The last time she saw him was at New Year's when she was 9, and then he was a very small boy with darker hair and braces. When she was six she had accidentally exploded a rose when her magic began to show, and his memory had to be obliterated of the incident so his parents and the rest of the muggle side of the family wouldn't know of their wizarding relatives. "Of course, your hair is lighter but I remember. It's nice to see you again." She said politely, holding out her hand for him to take. He smiled widely, taking her hand and pulling her across the distance into a hug. She barely heard him with her nose buried in his chest. "I tried to go blonde a couple of years ago, it's never been the same since." He said with a smile, pulling back to look at Josie.
"All right, all right. Enough of this pointless chit-chat, it's time for dinner." Her grandmother's voice caused Josie to flinch, her eyes returning to the place they had been at the floor as she followed Marius and her mother to the table. Josie took her seat between her parents, Marius and his mother sitting across from her as all eyes turned to her grandfather. "Thank you all so much for coming, it means so much that you all could make it this year for a milestone, my wife's 50th birthday." "For the 10th year in a row." Andre muttered under his breath as her grandfather was talking. Josie had to keep herself from laughing as the speech continued, finally finishing in a toast to her grandmothers good health and beauty. Josie ate slowly, picking at her food in order to keep attention off of her.
"Josephine, how has your summer been so far?" Marius asked from across the table, sipping on a glass of wine as he looked at her. A bit upset her plan to not bring any attention to herself failed, Josie set down her fork and looked up at him. "It's been all right, the same as usual. And yours?" she replied. "It was fine, I took an apprenticeship at a law firm for the summer to gain some experience. Did you do anything interesting?" It took a minute for Josie to figure out what she was going to say. She didn't want to say anything about the World Cup, nor her going to the twin's house in fear of her starting something up from her grandmother. Finally she sighed and spoke. "I spent a lot of it reading, spent some time with my friends, nothing unusual."
"Which friends?" Josie froze, her throat tightening and her mouth going dry. "Well, Josie and I went to visit her very close friends at their house. We had a very nice dinner with their family. And then I had the pleasure of meeting some of her friends from school when we went shopping for supplies, a student younger than her and two more one year ahead of her." Andre answered for her, his hand slipping below the table to take her hand and hold it tightly. Josie could still feel it shake even in his grip. Chancing a glance at her grandmother, Josie felt her blood run cold as she met the judging gaze that was looking her up and down. Josie stared down at the grey fabric of her dress, pulling at the sleeves of her sweater to keep her from making herself bleed. "I suppose I would not be wrong to assume that the close friends were those two boys she's gotten herself tied up with." She said, glancing at her mother.
"Yes, they are." Her mother said proudly. "How big is their family did you say?" Josie wanted to yell, tell her grandmother had no business knowing anything about the twins or the Weasley family. But she didn't. "There are seven siblings. Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron and the youngest Ginny. Then there's Mr. and Mrs. Weasley." Josie answered, trying to keep her tone as even as possible. "It's not very nice to speak when you're not the one being spoken to." "I'm sorry but I thought it would be alright since my father answered for me but a minute ago with no objection from you." Josie replied, finally looking up from her lap and looking her grandmother in the eye. "I know the Weasley family better than my mother, I attend school with the five youngest of the seven, have talked to the two eldest casually, and have met their parents. My father has met the twins and the rest, but has only really talked to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. My mother has met the twins once and talked to them briefly. When someone is asking about a subject it is best for the most informed person to give them an answer to keep from misinformation being spread." She was surprised she didn't stutter, but she felt her neck heating up as she turned red. The table was silent for a long time, before Marius final spoke up to break the silence.
"I agree."
"That's our girl!" Josie squeaked as she clung onto Lee Jordan for dear life as he swung her around the slowly filling platform. "Lee put her down, well, as much as you can put her down." Marina said with a laugh, earning a glare as Lee set her down the couple of inches to the platform. "She's gaining on you Lee, she may be taller than you soon." "Oh shove off, I'm not that short." "You're shorter than me." Josie laughed as the two argued, finally stopping them to make Marina hold her scarf while she took off the red sweater she had been wearing. The steam from the train was making her quickly overheat, and she wasn't about to stand there sweating waiting for the Weasleys to arrive or for the train to leave.
"Holy shit Josie!" Marina cried, staring at Josie as she shook out her hair till it fell properly again and tied the sweater around her waist. Glancing nervously at her parents talking with Marina's, the smaller girl shot her a warning look before questioning. "What?" she asked, her still thick French accent tripping up Marina for a second. "First you turn into a badass telling off your grandmother, and now you turn into a total babe? What happened?" Marina talked excitedly as she circled Josie, pushing aside the sweater to look at her thighs and rear before her victim swatted her away. "What the hell are you talking about?" Josie asked in a hushed whisper. "I thought your thighs looked thicker than usual in those shorts, but I couldn't tell the rest with that giant sweater on you so I assumed it was just the bleaching." Josie felt hurt for a moment, assuming Marina was hinting that she had gotten fat and quickly moving to put her sweater back on.
"Honey," Marina said as she threw Josie's scarf back around her neck. "You got curves! Well, more curves than you used to." "I swore I gained weight though, with not walking around as much." Josie added, thinking back to how her pants and skirts had been fitting tighter when she was packing for the school year. "If you did, it all went to your hips and thighs. Even if you're still chubby, and that's not a bad thing, you definitely filled out. Look at your waist; it's so much smaller than I remember." Marina chattered on, her hands poking at the curve of Josie's wasit. Josie felt herself heating up at Marina's choice words, crossing her arms over her stomach and tugging her white t-shirt down. Turning to look at herself in the reflection in the windows of the Hogwarts express, Josie guessed Marina was right. She did seem a little bigger in places than before, but she didn't find it that noticeable. She still looked like the same chubby girl as she usually did, her stomach poking out over the top of her shorts and her knee highs barely fitting around her calves.
The train whistled and the three students immediately turned, Josie running to her parents and hugging them both tightly. "We'll miss you sweet heart, make sure to write." Her mother said, gripping her tightly and kissing her cheek before passing her to her father. "Be safe, and remember to have fun. We're so proud of you." he said before turning her and pushing her towards the train. She pushed passed people as she stuttered out excuses to get to the train, falling in line behind Marina. In a momentary stop, she turned to find herself face to face with Charlie Weasley. "Hello Josie, you look nice." He said with a grin, looking her up and down before patting her shoulder. "Have a good year; hopefully I'll be seeing you soon." She didn't have time to respond before Marina was pulling her into the train and down the hall to what had come to be their compartment.