"…Happy birthday to you!"
Lucy Wealsey blew out the 11 candles which were placed evenly on top of triple layered chocolate cake presented in front of her. Audrey and Caoimhe cheered enthuastically when she did this, making Lucy smile ear to ear.
Audrey reached down under the table after she did this, and pulled out a small, lilac coloured gift bag decorated with lace around the edges. She presented it carefully infront of her daughter with a smile,
"Go on, open it!" she said impatatiently, and watched as Lucy peered curiously inside the bag. From it she, pulled out a rectangular shaped box. Pulling back the wrapping paper which covered it, she unveiled a box with the title "Alice in wonderland" and was decorated with various designs. She opened it, and took out an ordiment of the tea hatters party.
"How did you-"
Audrey laughed, "Don't think I haven't seen you oogling at at through the shop window when we've been in town for the last month.
"Oh I love it," she said admiring the handcrafted work.
Lucy preceded to open the second gift. Inside was a knee length lilac dress, with layers of white lace underneath and decorating the neckline and cuffs. On the waist area, was a purple silk ribbon fashioned into a bow. It came also with a white, laced cardigan to match.
"Oh mum, it's beautiful," Lucy said, running a finger gently into the delicate fabric, "thank you,"
"No problem, sweet heart," she replied, kissing her daughter on the forehead.
"So what's the plans for the rest of the day, then? You're going over to your mums?" Caoimhe asked, as she sipped her tea.
"Yea," Audrey said nervously, she never really was any good at lying. Lucy kept her focus down on the slice of cake inforont of her, not looking up.
"Give her my love then, yeah?" Caoimhe said, as she got up off the kitchen table to leave for work, not noticing anything was off. "I'm sorry again I've gotta bail, Luce," Caoimhe said with a sad smile, as she heaped the teaspoon in front of her with a hearty amount of sugar and stirred it into the hot beverage, "I tried to get out, but boss wasn't hearing it."
"Don't worry, honestly it's fine," Lucy said with a smile, as she took the first fork full of birthday cake, and placed it into her mouth.
During the course of the day, Lucy could feel the nervousness grow stronger and every now and then when she looked at her mother, she could see it in her too.
It was during mid-afternoon when she could feel the butterflies in her stomach start to arise, and it was then she wondered how she could manage to eat a full meal in a few hours time. Vomiting infront of her long lost family would most certainly not make a great first impression.
It was only when Caoimhe left for work, that Audrey and Lucy could discuss that evenings plans.
"We should really get ready to leave soon, hm?" Audrey said gently after saying goodbye to her friend. Lucy glanced over at her mother, and all of a sudden began to feel light headed. Audrey smiled sympathetically at her daughter, sensing her nervousness, and walked over to where she was sitting on the living room sofa, and put an arm around her bringing her in for an embrace.
"Don't worry, I'm scared too," she said, laughing slightly, in attempts to cheer her daughter up, she then sighed, "but you know, Lucy, if you really don't feel like going, we don't have too. I mean it is you birthday after all…"
"No," Lucy said, trying to sound much more confident than she let out, "No… I want to go,"
Audrey smiled, "I'm proud of you," she kissed Lucy on the forehead, "And dad would be proud of you too."
Lucy could feel her eyes welling up, and leaned her head down on her mother's shoulders.
"Are you going to tell Caoimhe?" Lucy said, wanting to change the subject quickly.
"Well," Audrey sighed, "I mean I will at some stage, but I just haven't found the right time, you know? I mean I'm surprised she hasn't found out herself, you know how nosy she can be…"
Lucy chuckled.
"Come on then, you get wear the new outfit you got from gran, and then we can stop off at the shop to get some sweets on the way down how does that sound?"
Lucy's stomach ached badly at the mention of eating, so much so that she pulled a face in disgust.
"Oh dear," Audrey said, placing the back of her hand to Lucy's forehead, "You sure you're not coming down with something? Only the Lucy Weasley I know would never refuse sweets."
"No mum, my tummy just gets sore when I'm nervous, that's all," Lucy said, swatting her mothers hand away playfully.
"Well then," Audrey said, "I'm going to go and put some decient clothes on," she said, while looking down at her grey tracksuit bottoms and pyjama t-shirt she had sported all day, "want to make a good first impression, hm?"
After a half an hour or so, the pair were ready to leave. Lucy had managed to dig out a pretty, white silk hairband decorated with diamantes to wear with her dress. She also cleaned a pair of white formal pumps until they were sparkling. Audrey told her daughter that she looked absolutely stunning, but it was Audrey that Lucy thought looked amazing.
She had pinned back her dirty blonde hair into a basic, yet formal looking bun. She wore a red and black lace dress which came down to the knees, and a pair of sparkly black pumps. Lucy noticed that her mother was wearing a pair of silver earrings, ones which she recognised to be the ones Percy gave her for their anniversary last year. In fact, Lucy doesn't think her mother wore those earing, not even once, ever since he died. Though she decided to best not mention it.
The drive to the burrow was agonising. It seemed to take days, but in reality was only about 2 hours, give or take. Lucy managed to nod off on the journey, which seemed to have helped ease her stomach. Audrey woke her up to inform her that they were about 10 minutes away, and she then had a sudden urge to use the bathroom.
"How many people are going to be there?" Lucy said, after a brief period of neither talking, each in their own world.
"Well, that professor woman told me that's it's a rather big family, but I doubt they'll all be there,"
"Are they're any my age?" Lucy asked, suddenly aware that she would be obliged to socialise with this mysterious long lost family of hers.
"Um, I'm not too sure, I would assume so though," Audrey replied, not completely in tune with the conversation, and Lucy could tell she was getting nervous too.
Lucy secretly prayed that there would be no teenagers there, as she always had a irrational fear of them. She suddenly thought to the teenagers that sometimes hung around the town. Wearing baggy trousers, smoking and shouting bad words at people who walked past.
Audrey looked at the piece of parchment paper she had received in the post, and slowed the car down slightly to know which turn to take next.
"Rosewood lane…" she said to herself looking around her.
"There," Lucy said, pointing to the left, which went down a narrow route.
Audrey frowned, and looked around her once more, "Funny, I could have sworne that there was only two turning points."
She shrugged it off, and turned the car and headed down the lane. It was certainly the more pecular lane Audrey had ever driven down, as it suddenly opened up to show a wide space of land. And further up was the strangest house either had ever seen.
Slowing down to stop the car, Audrey laughed.
"My god, I've never seen a house like that before! How didn't we see that coming up the road? Must have been covered by the trees…"
It was strange alright, Lucy looked mouth agape, and suddenly wanted to get a better look. Her and her mother stood out of the car, both looking in wonder at the house.
Lucy jumped slightly when she heard a high pitched voiced getting louder,
"Yey!"
A red headed girl with a chubby face and rosy cheeks ran up to Lucy, and gave her massive hug. Lucy "oofed" at the sudden impact of the girl, who was only a few inches shorter than her and looked around the same age.
Audrey laughed, "and who might you be?"
The girl gasped, "is that your mum?" she asked Lucy, who nodded in amazement.
"She's so pretty!" Audrey got the same treatment as Lucy, as she too was brought in for a hug.
"Why thank you, as are you!" Audrey replied in amusement. Audrey noticed that she looked up at her hair and smiled.
"Auntie Fleur is going to like you! She's the only blonde grown up, and I think she feels left out. But now she has you, oh yey this is so fun!" the girl cried, as she grabbed Lucy and Audrey's hands and practically dragged them in the direction of the house.
"MUM! THEY'RE HERE! DO YOU WANT ME TO BRING THEM IN!" the girl cried at the top of her voice, much to the dismay of Lucy and Audrey.
Audrey and Lucy noticed that a few other children were approaching in the direction of the house. Lucy suddenly become quite nervous as she noted that most of them were older than her, and to the small girl they looked almost threatening.
"I'm so sorry about her!" one of the children, a girl with frizzy red hair, the same shade as the young girl's said sympathetically.
"Yea, she just gets over excited," one of the other children remarked, giving the young girl next to her a deadly stare. Lucy noted that he was the tallest of the lot, and looked to be quite a bit older than herself. He had dark brown hair, and a very broad, almost athletic frame.
"Oh my," a voice said, coming from the direction of the house. The group turned around to see the furious, almost frightened, stares of a short, plump woman.
She bustled towards where Audrey and Lucy were standing with the other children, and was followed by a couple of other adults.
"I'm so sorry about these lot," she said, her face becoming flustered. Her eyes kept wavering between Audrey and Lucy, as if she were watching a tennis match.
"No, no, it's quite alright," Audrey said with a chuckle, her hand still grasped tightly by the small girl.
"Molly, it's lovely to meet you," the woman said, after a brief period of silence.
"Audrey," Audrey replied with a smile, "and this is Lucy," she said, putting her arm around her daughter, after the young girl had finally released her grip on the pair.
"Yes…" Molly replied, staring intently at Lucy, as if she were an animal at a zoo. Lucy suddenly became quite uncomfortable, as she began to notice that everyone was staring at her. The man behind molly must have noticed this, as he broke the silence with a, "well, let's introduce you to the clan, hm?"
Hey guys, so I hope u enjoyed the new upload. Just so you know, I am totally open to any constructive criticism or suggestions. Just message me or write in the reviews if you want to :)
Peace! xx
