HAPPY 2015!
Hope you all had a brilliant time over the New Year!
So, without further ado, my first thank you's of 2015 go tooooooo:
ParadiseKeys for the follow and fave!
And thanks as always to my lovely reviewers:
Guest~ Look, another one! Thank you for your review, for reading and for understanding. It means a lot, and I'm really glad you like it! Happy New Year! :)
Plucie~ Haha! Glad you like the plan! Very cunning indeed but I reckon Dom is way too blunt to be a Slytherin. But she could totally rock those green robes! ;)
Lupin~ Hey you! Here's another one to ease that antsy-ness! I did think of that, New Years chapter on New Years eve but we're not quite there, so not up to matching dates just yet! Glad you liked the fight. It was fun to write! Happy New Year to you too!
Chapter 27- Christmas Morning, Hide-and-Seek, and a Little Invite
They'd all automatically gone downstairs to their den after helping clear up dinner plates. They sort of sat clustered together in the way they had been when they were planning earlier. Rose and Lily wouldn't know it echoed their planning session but they sat in the arrangement with the cousins all the same.
"Wow. That was a deep talk" Fred finally broke their silent contemplation.
"Tell me about it. I did not expect that." James answered. "I feel so shitty"
"I'm surprised they didn't send us all out of the room"
"I feel bad now, like we shouldn't go…" Lucy began but the silence she left was filled by another voice just after she trailed off.
"Don't be stupid. They needed to have that talk, all of them. And it needed to be a family talk, they dealt with some issues today and you guys helped" Teddy cut in as he descended the stairs to the 'den'.
"Thanks Ted" she replied. Not commenting on the fact that Ted seemed to know they had planned the dinner.
"No worries." he joined their little arrangement, "How did you all find out about this anyway?" He asked the group.
"Roxanne" they told him.
"Scorpius" she told him, almost defensively.
"Why now?" he asked.
"My bo-, " she coughed and Fred smirked at her, "um, my friend mentioned it to me and so we asked Scor about it. He had never mentioned it before because he thought we all knew and didn't want to come because of the War"
"Oh. Well, I'm glad this friend of yours mentioned it then. I had always suspected it, but never got round to asking Mum or Dad." Ted winked when he said the word friend, and Roxanne groaned internally she'd slipped up again- she was one step closer to her Dad finding out.
"What type of party is it anyway?"
"Formal Ball of course" she told him.
"Well, now that we've all got the go-ahead I'm sure you know what that means?" Dom asked the group.
The girls in the circle were quiet. They all knew what was coming, growing up so close meant you all knew each other pretty well… or well enough to know that shopping for clothes with Dominique was non-negotiable. Once she decided to take you shopping, you had no choice.
Rox cursed silently. Why was she doomed to be close to females who wanted her in dresses all the time?
Liv, Ari, Dom, her Aunt Ginny, even her Mum would love to dress her up. They couldn't bear to leave her to her jeans and hoodies. They should be thankful Rox thought, she might not dress particularly girly very often, but she knew for a fact she could be a lot more boy-ish if she wanted to. But that wasn't really her either- maybe one day she'd do it to show them all how much worse she could be.
Dom continued after not receiving a reply, "Well, I don't know why you're not all answering me but we're going dress shopping. You girls are all coming shopping with me. Vic too, she needs a new dress. And we all need a nice cousinly girly day out. " she paused looking at the boys, "I don't care what you guys do, but you should probably all get new suits, Fred that jumper doesn't fit you as it is"
Fred pulled a face at her defiantly. He must've found a jumper that he'd left at the Burrow last winter because Dom was right, it didn't fit. Roxanne noticed it was short on his arms and tight across his chest from where he'd grown and gained muscle last summer.
She laughed, paying more attention to it now and he just pushed up his sleeves and poked his tongue out at her instead.
"Does that include me?" Roxanne faced Rose as she addressed Dominique.
"Well that depends Rosie.." Roxanne watched as Rose looked a little confused.
"On what?" she challenged.
"Are you coming to the Ball?"
"Yeah." She pretended not to be bothered either way.
"Well then, of course it includes you. Is there any reason I'd exclude you?" Dom challenged back.
Roxanne wanted to laugh, Rose just smirked at Dom, "Of course not"
"So, up bright and early for shopping tomorrow then?"
"Sure thing" Rose smiled sweetly and left the den.
Lily lingered for a second or two after the door closed. "Dom are you serious?"
"Yeah Lil, She can come shopping with us if she wants. I'm not forcing her though. But you should come."
Lily smiled a little, "See you guys tomorrow then?"
"Yeah. Be down for breakfast at 8. We're going to need a full day"~
"No. Absolutely not"
Rox suppressed a giggle as Molly came out of the curtained changing rooms to show the girls the next thing Dom had forced her into. It fitted her well actually, the dress was black and shimmery, cinching in at her waist and tight to her hips, flaring out a little below her bum. It was long like she'd wanted but they all knew Molly's real problem lay with the way the dress fitted her chest. It had straps, also like she'd wanted but a circular cut out displayed her full cleavage anyway.
"Molly! You look amazing!" Dom protested.
"I look like a whore!"
"You and I have very different ideas of the word whore. You look elegant and sexy"
"I'm not wearing it Dom" she told her as she strode back into the changing room to get undressed.
"Ugh!" Rox smiled as Dom screeched a little. The shop assistant came back round to check everything was okay. Dom sighed at her exasperatedly gesturing to her cousin coming out of the changing room and she smiled; Dom'd been coming here for years, they knew her well enough now.
"Okay, fine. Molly we'll come back to you, who else is left?"
With the help and approval of Dom, Lucy had managed to find a dress to wear, the short, smoky grey flared number suited her really well, it went with her pale skin and deep red hair. Lucy smugly looked at Rox as she raised her hand in the air for her. Dom's eyes zeroed in on her.
"Roxy, have you not found anything yet?"
Rox glared at Lucy. Thanks a bunch, Luce.
The rest of the cousins were milling around the shop, looking through the racks for dresses they liked. Rox had done that for about ten minutes before giving up. There were too many to choose from. Instead she had joined Lily and Lucy who had their dresses and so now had the privilege of sitting and watching Dom curse her cousins for their poor choices.
It was way more interesting. Besides she felt the tension between her and Lily was slowly drifting away.
"Er nope. Let me go have another look!" she hastily replied but Dom stood in front of her before she could scuttle off.
"Not so fast Roxy"
She groaned.
"Just tell me what kind of dress you want and I'll help you find it"
"I don't know what kind of dress I want but I'll tell you when I see it, okay?" she smiled and ducked behind Dominique.
She moved towards the back of the shop, looking for nothing in particular, mostly just running her hands across the material. Her eyes were drawn to a deep blue dress. She smiled noting it was almost the same shade as her robes at school. She pulled it out and her smile grew.~
Dominique held the dress up by the window, inspecting it in the light.
"Hmm. Rox, you have amazing legs… I was hoping you'd pick a short dress. Plus, the navy? You're a Ravenclaw, you wear it all the time" She grumbled a little.
"Just, wait till I try it on okay?"
"Fine" she huffed as she sat with Lucy and Lily and now Vic who had found the dress she wanted.
Rox smiled and went into the changing room, pulling the curtain shut behind her. She took all her clothes off, bar her underwear and unzipped the dress. She pulled it over her head, "Could someone come zip me up, please?" she added quickly, "Not you Dom"
She heard a huff followed by a laugh as Victoire came in and stood behind her in the mirror. She zipped the dress up and Roxanne was glad that she didn't seem to have too much trouble doing it.
"Go on, give me a twirl then"
Roxanne twirled around for her eldest female cousin. She stopped facing her.
"What do you think, Vic?"
"I think you look amazing, and I cannot wait to take you shopping for your bridesmaid dress" she whispered the last part and kissed her on the head. "Ready to face my little gremlin of a sister?"
"As I'll ever be"
Vic smiled and drew back the curtain humming a little tune as she did.
"Roxanne. I cannot describe how disappointed I am in you right now"
"What? It can't that bad!" she looked down at herself.
"You promise I can take you dress shopping and then you don't want to look, then you want to look for yourself, then you find the perfect one before I can even get stuck in!"
"So is that your approval Dom?" Rox smiled a little.
"You bloody know it is Roxy"
They grinned at each other. ~
"IT'S CHRISTMASS!"
Being in the loft, Rox and Dom were the first to receive Teddy's excited Christmas cries at seven am. He bounded into their room through the bathroom they all shared. He jumped first on Roxy then Dom, startling Iri who gave a little frightened roar. Blowing steam through his nostrils.
"Victoire! Control your overgrown man-child" Dominique called out to her sister, shoving Teddy on the floor, the fall not dampening his spirit.
Vic appeared in the doorway, giving Ted a disapproving look which he ignored, quickly kissing her cheek and then descending the stairs no doubt to ensure the rest of the household didn't get any extra sleep.
"Sorry Dom, you guys should have known to lock him out. And you're lucky, he almost woke up at 5.00; I had to cuddle up to him so he wouldn't get up"
"Should've cuddled him a bit more then shouldn't you" Dom grumbled as she rolled out of bed and strode into the bathroom. She shut the door behind her loudly, making it clear she didn't appreciate the early start.
"Merry Christmas to you too Dommie!" Vic laughed.
Vic received an Ugh! Followed by the shower turning on.
Vic shook her head smiling and she turned to Roxanne. "Merry Christmas Roxy"
"Merry Christmas Vic" she replied with a little yawn as Vic strolled over to her.
Rox threw back her covers and patted the space next to her. Vic smiled and sat next to Roxanne, pulling the covers back up.
"I didn't get to say Congratulations in person... I'm so happy for you two"
"Thanks Roxy, I'm really glad you agreed to be a bridesmaid"
"I'm really glad you asked me. And how could I not? "
Vic laughed, "Of course I asked you, you're like a little sister to Teddy. And you're not too bad a cousin to me I guess." She crinkled her nose up at Rox and Roxanne elbowed her in the side softly. Vic laughed.
"You know, I always imagined you two getting married one day."
"You and just about everyone else in this family" she laughed, "that's the problem though"
"Ah. I see, we've all been imagining you two getting married for years... I can see why you're not telling Grandma for a while"
"Yeah. It's not that I don't want her or Mama to help me, I do. It's just..."
"They'll go overboard. The more time you give them, the worse they can get"
"Exactly"
"So what do you want? What kind of wedding are you thinking of?"
"Well... I'd like to have it here. Like Mama and Dad did. I want a huge canopy in the back garden but enchanted so you can see the sky, with loads of round tables, and in the middle I want wildflowers from the Meadow where we first kissed. Bridesmaids in a soft lilac. I'm thinking bright and open and airy and with splashes of colour. I want a white dress, simple and fitted and classic, nothing poufy. Then I want my hair to be curled and tied up loosely, Teddy likes it like that…"
"Merlin, Vic. You've really thought it all out."
"Roxy, I've been planning my wedding to Teddy since the first time I got him to kiss me." she giggled, "Don't tell him I said that"
Roxanne smiled, "Your secret's safe with me"
There was a bit of silence as Roxanne nestled into Vic's shoulder, she still wasn't fully awake yet.
"Talking of secrets, Roxanne. What's this I hear about your boyfriend?"
Roxanne blushed, but remained with her head on her shoulder she still was not used to the idea of everyone knowing she had a boyfriend now.
"Me? No, you must have the wrong cousin Vic. Easy mistake to make"
Vic moved so Roxanne had to sit up, she looked at Roxy and raised a perfect, blonde brow.
She wiggled her fingers poised to tickle her like she used to do whenever her and Ted would babysit her, her brother and Lily and her brothers.
"Rox-anne" she chimed sweetly.
"Ugh fine." She laughed, not wanting to unceremoniously fall out of her bed that morning, "Yes I have a boyfriend. His name's Logan, fifth year, Slytherin"
"Describe him to me" she laughed.
"Do I have to?" she moaned.
Vic nodded.
She groaned. "Well, he's tall, quite built-"
"Beater?"
Rox nodded. "Hm. I always found chasers more to my liking."
"You always found Teddy more to your liking Vic" Ted had been a chaser at Hogwarts.
Vic poked her tongue out at Rox. "Go on…"
"Well if I wasn't so rudely interrupted-"
Vic arched her eyebrow again, making her laugh, "Okay, okay. Well, he's tall and muscly. His hair, it's light brown and curly, like small curls and really soft too. His eyes are this amazing shade of green, but they're also kind of grey. And they sparkle, and when he smiles, he gets the cutest little dimples. And Merlin, Vic he's so sweet, and charming and quite funny actually-"
Victoire was smiling at her younger cousin fondly, "What's that look for?"
"Nothing, nothing. Just sounds like you like him is all"
"Yeah, I guess I do." she blushed again.
"Good. Be careful though Roxy-"
"Vic, I'm not there yet. I promise you-"
"I was going to say, before I was so rudely interrupted, be careful not to get too involved too quickly. I don't just mean physically, I know you're smart enough about that, plus you're way too young. I mean emotionally too, I don't want to see you get hurt okay?"
"Yeah, okay"
"Good!" Vic exclaimed, cuddling Roxanne to her, she shifted and got out of the bed, throwing Rox's covers off of her completely. Roxanne groaned in protest.
"Now go get showered before Dom turns into a prune and before Teddy gets back up here"
~
Roxanne was later informed by Lily that Ted and James had been no different that morning, they had gone round like the excited children they were and had jumped everyone awake, the only people who got a pass were their Grandparents who's room they always left be. When they met in the corridor they had apparently chest bumped and made sure those who the other person had woken stayed awake. After doing their rounds of the rooms about twice they ran down stairs and started on breakfast.
It was up to the children of the family to make breakfast come Christmas morning every year. There all had their roles.
Roxanne was quite good at making pancake batter (which she pretended was a potion recipe) so she made that, knocking it out in batches for Louis and Freddie who made pancakes and waffles respectively –neither had patience for the batter, they just liked the actual cooking process. Vic made amazing scrambled eggs. James was a dab hand at bacon and sausages. Teddy made the best fried tomatoes and mushrooms. Lily opted for toast duties; which were more important to everyone than you'd think- people had been banned from toast duties for a poor turnout in the past. Molly made orange juice, insisting it be fresh at least once a year- not that cartooned stuff from the Magi-mart. Lucy set the table and Rose was charged with heating charms on everything as it was made, so that no food got cold in the time it took them all to make enough.
Albus and Dom where tried and tested disasters-waiting-to-happen in the kitchen and were unashamedly kicked out and sent off to pick flowers from the sheltered meadow and collect them for a vase on the table. When they came back they were then allowed to brew the tea and make pots of coffee. That was it, nothing more dangerous than hot water for them- it was the job that had been given to the youngest children in the family once upon a time. Now, it was given to those who were the worst in the kitchen.
The breakfast went without a hitch, the cousins all somehow working around each other seamlessly. It was lucky Grandma Molly never came to see them cook; she'd probably have a heart attack at the sheer number of bodies in the kitchen at once.~
Their breakfast was as lovely as it usually was. Roxanne's (and she guessed all her cousin's) favourite part of the morning came just before they were all able to eat. It was the moment the entire family sat around the table all assembled when their Grandma Molly and Granddad Arthur walked in.
It was the smiles on their faces and the little tear that always slid down Molly's cheek that warmed them that morning more than any tea or elaborate food spread could on Christmas morning.
"Oh, you children really are lovely aren't you?!" She told them all in her grandmotherly tone, before making her rounds about the table, giving all her children, children-in-law, and grandchildren kisses on the head and telling them Merry Christmas.
"Merry Christmas Dear" Molly told Roxanne before kissing her soundly on the forehead. Roxanne smiled back, "Merry Christmas Grandma".
When Molly had done her rounds, Arthur pulled her chair out for her and then sat next to her.
"Merry Christmas kids!" He told the whole family- who were all still kids to him and the family chimed Merry Christmas back to him before all starting to pass food around, fill their plates and then fill their bellies.~
"That's it! Breakfast is over, what a wonderful job you all did but now, out! Out, out, out! Everybody, out of my kitchen!" Molly's age did not alter her ability to order her massive family around without help.
The plate Roxanne was washing jumped out of her grasp and into the sink, the scrubber she was holding also escaping her hands and started furiously scrubbing the plate itself.
The cousins laughed as they scurried to get out of their Gran's way as she now orchestrated the kitchen with magic, flying plates and bowls around the room as everything washed, dried and put itself in its place. Their own washing up was all clearly too slow for was time to get started on the biggest meal of the year. She needed her space.~
They all escaped through the nearest door; down into the den. With the adults going off for a drink in the adjoining living room. Roxanne heard a cry of frustration from Freddie as she descended. The magic must have stopped the TV working. Roxanne correctly guessed, giggling as Freddie fell into the sofa with sadness. She slipped into the spot next to him.
"Hey Fred, you know there are other things to do Christmas morning that aren't video games right?"
"Yeah but we can't open presents till 1 and this mug woke us up earlier than usual" he moaned, elbowing Teddy in the side.
Teddy just grinned; his hair a mixture of red and green almost sparkling, like he'd been dipped in tinsel.
"We could always play hide-and-seek?" Roxanne suggested, a memory of Teddy's tinsel hair coming back to her.
It was Christmas day and Roxanne was five. They had all just finished breakfast and Teddy and Victoire had brought the cousins into the living room and been told to entertain them for a few hours. Teddy asked Roxanne what her favourite game was; what did she want to play?
"Hide and Seeeek!" she yelled. Lily agreed and started chanting it next to her. The two girls laughed and jumped up and down, pulling on Teddy's shirt.
"Hide-and-seek, Hide-and-seek, Hide-and-seek, Hide-and-seek,!"
"Okay! Okay Roxy, Lily... We'll play, but you've got to keep quiet okay, otherwise you'll be found" Victoire whispered to them.
Lily whispered 'okay' back and Roxanne nodded sincerely.
Vic and Teddy managed to convince the room of six to twelve year olds to play hide and seek with their youngest cousins. They pretended to moan about it, Ted remembered being 11 and thinking he was so cool too but he knew they really liked the idea. Hide and seek was a favourite at the Burrow. Their Grandparents moved things in the house over the school terms so hiding spaces moved too each time they all came home.
Roxanne asked to count, excited about all the new numbers she had learned.
"You can't count Roxanne, you're only four!" Fred told her.
"I'm five Freddie!" she shouted indignantly.
"Don't be mean to your sister Fred." Teddy told him, "I'll count with Roxanne, is that okay Roxy?"
"Yeah" she shrugged. Really she had wanted to count on her own but Teddy was fun so she didn't mind.
"Okay then… everyone, you've got one minute! Go!"
Her cousins ran for the door, and then split off. She didn't know how long one minute was but she started counting anyway.
"One, two, free, four…um…eight, nine, eleven..." Teddy smiled down at her and helped her when she forgot her numbers. He checked his watch.
"You see this hand, Roxy?" she nodded, watching the thin line tick around the clock face.
"You tell me when it gets to the five and then we can go looking, okay?"
"Okay Teddy" she nodded again and stared at the hand with all her concentration, not blinking in case she missed it.
When the second hand reached the five, Roxanne looked at Teddy with excited eyes, "Has it been one minute now?"
"Yes Roxy, here jump on my back and you can look for everyone from up there"
Roxanne grinned and clambered on to Teddy's back with her legs around his waist and arms linked in front of his neck. She immediately began looking out for signs of her brother and cousins, peering past his green and red hair tinsel-y hair.
"Hide and seek? Really Rox?" Hugo joked from her side.
"Yeah, like we used to, come on, it'll be fun" she laughed back, aware of how silly she might sound.
Fred shrugged. "I'm game, nothing else to do"
"Guys?" she asked the rest of the room, some who had heard her, some who hadn't.
She asked them all if they wanted to play and actually seemed to get some nods in response.
"Sure why not?"
"Hey Jamesie, look another thing you can lose at" Dom joked.
And he glared mockingly at her, "You want to seek first then Dom?"
"Sure" she accepted his challenge.~
Granted they were all bigger than they used to be so a lot of their old hiding places were now out of commission for the majority of them except for Lily who was still quite small. Even still, with Dom seeking, smaller stature probably wouldn't have helped much. Roxanne reasoned it was an Auror thing because she managed to find everyone pretty quickly, except Teddy of course.
Into their third round of hide and seek, Roxanne was running past the clock; she had approximately 20 seconds to hide before Albus opened his eyes. The time was what made her stop though; it was gone one, nearing two in the afternoon on Christmas morning and no one had opened any presents yet!
She changed her path and ran into the living room where they had agreed no one would hide. All the adults of the family turned at her entrance.
"Pay up" George muttered to Ginny who groaned and handed her brother some money.
Roxanne smiled, "Why didn't you come and tell us it was one?"
"Well, you all sounded like you were having so much fun."
"We thought we'd leave you to it, Honey"
"I'm just shocked it wasn't Teddy who came running in here first" Ginny commented in a moan. She'd obviously been so sure she'd bet on it.
Rox laughed, "Nope. He'd really good at hide and seek"
Ron clapped Harry on the back with a large grin, "That's us mate, the kid has super stealth"
"Do you want to call everyone here now then, Roxy?"
"Will do" Roxanne told her mum and left the room.~
The rest of the day was like it always was. Present exchanging, opening and mounds of wrapping paper; followed by a large Christmas dinner that left the whole family practically rolling back into the living room to sit by the fire. The Muggle board games Hermione had bought years back came out along with the competitive Weasley nature and as they always were; family ties were severed by Monopoly and trivial pursuit.
Though, by the end of the day, once they had all changed from their new Christmas jumpers to their new Christmas pyjamas, Roxanne came to the conclusion she couldn't ask for a better family. As strained, tense, argumentative, competitive and downright large as it may be; she loved it. And it was in moments like these, watching everyone exchanging stories and memories from the years past, she realised just how lucky she was to be even a little part of it. Even if that little part got forgotten every once in a while.
She stopped off at the kitchen on the way up to bed, it was empty now, with everyone either in their rooms or still up in the living room. She wanted a drink of water for when she woke. As she filled her glass she heard the door click shut behind her. It was her mum.
Angelina Weasley walked over to the kettle and started the water boiling.
"Tea?" Roxanne had been about to sleep but she also hadn't spent much time with her mum this holiday- and the time she had spent with her had always been with other people. She nodded, and sat at the table to wait. Angelina sat with her. Her mum seemed like she wanted to tell Rox something, the way her hands were folded and resting on the table. It was her 'news' posture.
"Roxanne, what do you think of the idea of inviting Scorpius over tomorrow?"
"I'd love to. But I'm not sure how well that would go down mum"
"I mean, you saw how everyone reacted to the New Year's thing"
"Roxanne, don't focus on the negatives, the majority of your aunts and uncles thought it was a good idea."
"Yeah I know, but it only takes one person to make someone feel unwelcome" she shrugged.
"I've discussed it with everyone. While you were all playing" she smiled, "we think it would be good for everyone to meet Scorpius. After all, it's his house we're going to be at for New Year's."
"And his parents?" Roxanne asked.
"Are welcome, of course." She had hesitated.
"You don't think they'll come"
"No, I think they'd rather have a reunion on their home turf, in a larger crowd." She chuckled, "It's understandable. I wouldn't want to meet us all here either"
"But you do think it's a good idea that Scor comes?"
"Yes. I think it is. It will make New Year's easier, and if he is like you describe him, then maybe some of the family will get to like him. Besides, you've been friends with him for four years, he's important to you, I'd really love to meet him"
Roxanne groaned. "You won't be embarrassing will you?" she pleaded with her eyes.
"Oh honey, of course I can't make that promise" she smiled at her daughter who just rolled her eyes in response, but not able to keep a straight face.
"Fine. I'll owl him tonight. He might already have plans though"
Angelina shrugged, "You never know unless you ask"
Angelina remembered their tea and then summoned it from the counter.
She turned back to Rox, and cradled her mug in her hands. She looked up after taking a sip. Her movements were slow and deliberate. Uh-oh. That was different body language.
"Now, I did say we'd come back to this… tell me a bit more about this boyfriend of yours"~
After nearly an hour of answering all her mum's questions about Logan, Roxanne felt drained. Yet reaching her room and sitting down with her parchment and biro she felt a little excited. She penned a quick letter to Scorpius.
Hey Scor,
Hope you had a great Christmas. Mine was exactly as you might imagine it to be. Pure food. Haha! I'm joking, it had its other perks.
Anyway, so what I really wanted to ask is, are you and your parents free tomorrow?
If so, would you like to come over?
Boxing Day is kinda Quidditch day here, we burn off Christmas dinner then have Boxing Day Lunch and put it all back on. Liv, Mel, Elliott and the twins will be over too. We can always use extra chasers, and we have multiple seekers too, if your dad will play.
So, yeah that's it really, not much news just an invitation, excuse it's lateness and my scrawly writing. I've been up for over 12 hours and you know how I get.
It'd be great to see you if you can make it!
If not, well I'll see you on New Year's eve,
Love Roxanne xx
P.S: Look out for the girl tripping over in her heels, that'll be me!~
Freckles' tapping woke her from her sleep. She quickly let him in and read Scor's reply. The bird left, not waiting for a return letter.
Hey Rox,
Glad you had a nice Christmas. Mine was actually surprisingly pleasant. I haven't spent Christmas day at home for years, so that was new.
Mum's getting really excited about the baby, but also quite worried, I'm afraid they can't make it tomorrow. She's been getting pretty nauseous lately and dad refuses to leave her side. BUT, I can come!
I got a new broom for Christmas too, made by one of your cousins' I believe, I'd love to test it out!
What time do you want me over?
Scor xx
P.S: I'm kind of scared of meeting everyone. You'd better not leave me alone with all those Gingers!
(Burn this. It probably makes the worst first impression ever!)
Oh, also. Get that diary of yours out. Flick to the page where I did that wonderful doodle of Lorcan. Then write to me just under the drawing, if I've cast it correctly, I think I managed to link it to my parchment.
She summoned her diary and flicked through the pages quickly, smiling when she reached Scor's doodle of Lorc, it was enchanted and showed him picking his nose.
She scrawled a quick test message that surely enough disappeared.
I do believe you're underage. This is technically illegal Scor.
Yeah well, I'm pretty sure Ministry employees don't care about a little spell like this one. They probably think I'm sending corny, romantic messages to my Hogwarts babe in the dead of the night.
Well, I hope they don't follow the trail, I'd hate anyone to think I was your 'babe'. Ew, Malfoy germs.
Haha. Very funny, Weasley.
Jokes aside, I've got some bad news Scor.
What is it?
When your letter came, Dom just opened it and read it aloud! Ginger joke included. I think most of my family liked the joke, but well they haven't met you yet… and well my uncles aren't too happy about you coming over now.I think it's best if you stay at home…
Oh...
SYKKEEE!
You little-
I hope that you got a little scared. It's only a taster of what's to come tomorrow!
Still joking!
You, Roxy are a very mean woman. To think I believed you.
Sorry Scor. Couldn't help myself. But honestly, they're going to love you. Just keep the ginger jokes to a minimum okay?
I vow not to make ginger jokes to their faces.
Smart move. Guess you are an Eagle after all.
I was an Eagle before you were.
That's only cos you were born first. Age aint nothin' but a number.
Funny, I don't remember you taking that stance when you commented on the age of my girlfriends.
That's different. That rule only applies to me.
Hmm, what can i infer from that?
Infer nothing you, man whore.
Only joking, remember I'm not a man whore now, you're meant to be helping me find the girl of my dreams.
But then she'd have to put up with you. It's a hard task.
You manage it well enough, therefore you're the best one to search for me.
So basically, I have to find someone as perfectly patient as I am. As tolerant, as smart as... well there's just too much to list really.
Hmm, well it'd be nice to have someone less annoying than you.
Oh you lie, you love it.
Keep telling yourself that, Weasley
Will do, Malfoy. Oh and by the way, come over for 10.
You guys kick off early.
Quidditch won't start till gone 11... But well, if you want to impress Grandma Weasley, you're gonna have to eat.
I guess that means I should be ready to stuff my face like you do then?
Yup!
Hm. I guess you guys can teach me how to eat in return.
Return for what?
Me teaching you how to play a real game of Quidditch of course!
Bring your game, Malfoy. But just so you know, we don't take it easy on our guests.
That's fine with me. And trust me Weasley, I'll bring it.
You'd better hope we're on the same team.
Same goes to you, I'd hate for you to lose on Boxing Day.
Whatever, Malfoy. It's late, go to sleep. The tiredness must be getting to your mind. You're confused.
You'll be the confused one tomorrow. But actually it's early. We really should sleep.
I can actually see the sunrise. It's beautiful. Look out of your window.
You're right. It's almost as beautiful as you...
Roxanne paused.
Oops. I meant me. You're right, I am confused.
She stifled her laugh.
There I was thinking you were being sweet for once.
I'm always sweet, and charming and- well I could go on but...
But you've forgotten the words your charmed mirror used to describe you this morning?
Oh please, my reflection speaks for itself. I've told you before. I'm a God.
God of disappointment? Below-average looks?
You wound me Weasley. You really do.
I'm sorry.
No you're not.
You're right. I'm not!
Goodnight Roxanne, I'm going to cry myself to sleep now.
Don't cry too much. You'll need some tears for tomorrow. Goodnight Scor x
Sweet Dreams x
Don't let the bed bugs bite.
What?
Muggle thing. I'll explain tomorrow.
Okay.
A/N:
Sooooo, what did you think?
Sorry for all the jumpiness, I sort of wanted to get through the Christmas. Also apologies for the few borderline- sappy Family Christmas moments, I couldn't help myself!
But yeah, hope you guys enjoyed it! Let me know if you did (or didn't)!
Happy New Year again to you all!
Thanks for sticking with it/me.
Lots and lots of New Year hugs and kisses,
Cookie xxxx