"Remind me why we agreed to do this?" Molly whispered to me.
I looked at her, rolled my eyes and continued on our way up the garden path.
Molly (my older sister) and I had, for some reason that seemed to escape both of us, agreed to our mother's plan of a 'spa' day.
Though, we weren't going to an actual spa. That would be far too ordinary.
And, even better, after the 'spa that's not actually a spa' day, we were heading over to the Burrow for a family gathering. Today's going to be just spiffing.
My sister, looking like she was knocking on death's door, not our parents', raised her hand and rang the bell.
"Cheer up, Mol. It won't be that bad." I said, bumping her shoulder gently with mine.
"Luce, you know I hate all things...girly. Makeup, pedicures, manicures, Mum in general..."
I rolled my eyes at her again, and the door opened.
"There you are!" My mother exclaimed, pulling as both in and engulfing us in a hug.
"Hi, Mum." I said through a grimace, carefully extracting myself from her clutches.
Molly had already done so, her customary glare in place.
"How have you been?" Mum said, ushering us into the living room.
"Alright." I reply whilst Molly grunts.
"How's the internship going, Lucy?" Mum asks as we sit down on the couch.
"Well enough." I replied vaguely, helping myself to one of the many biscuits constantly available at my parent's house.
"And you, Molly? Angelina was telling me just the other day that Roxanne had told her about your new boyfriend." Mum said, shocking both Molly and myself.
Molly almost choked on her Chocolate Hobnob, quickly going red. I stared at Molly, my mouth open (probably displaying half-digested biscuit to the whole world, quite a disgusting view I'm sure).
Molly hardly ever dated. And when she did, she never, ever,wanted Mum's input. Molly's not your typical prissy girl at all. Dating, for her, rarely goes past a couple of drinks at the Leaky. She's hardly one to bring a bloke over to meet the family, even less the type to scrutinize her relationship intensely on a Sunday afternoon, particularly not with her mother.
"You have a new boyfriend?" I finally managed to choke out, grabbing another biscuit just for something to do with my hands. My mother was sitting quietly, her hands folded in her lap, waiting for Molly's response.
"Err...yeah." She said sheepishly, clearly wanting to change the topic.
Mum, however, would have none of that.
"Oh, lovely! Did you meet him at work?" Mum asked eagerly, her eyes bright with enthusiasm.
Molly was a Healer at St Mungo's, where practically every person is a workaholic, not to mention definitely not boyfriend material. The males in her workplace were the type that talked only when necessary, and mumbled when they did so, and spent most of their free time playing in wizard's chess tournaments.
"No, I knew him from school." Molly mumbled in reply, stuffing a biscuit in her mouth so that next time Mum assaulted her with a question, she wouldn't be able to answer.
It was then that I decided I should save my sister from death by interrogation, so I swiftly diverted Mum's attention.
'So, Mum, when's this 'spa day' going to begin?" I asked, my voice full of fake cheerfulness.
Molly, when she should have been relieved about the change of topic, glared at me. I raised my eyebrows at her in response, as if to say 'what?', earning yet another glare.
Whilst we were having a silent conversation, Mum had summoned her massive supply of make-up and various other beauty products.
Ah. So that's why Molly was glaring. The time for beautifying, or in Molly's words, torture at Mum's hands, had begun.
After several hours of being plucked, prodded, primped and beautified, all three of us Apparated over to the Burrow.
Half an hour early, of course. My mother couldn'tbear being late.
"Audrey!" Grandma Weasley exclaimed, jumping from her seat when we appeared in the living room.
"Hello, Molly dear." Mum replied, kissing Molly senior on the cheek.
"Do you need any help with food?"
And just like that, the two of them retreated to the kitchen, leaving Molly (junior) and myself standing in the empty room half an hour before anyone else would arrive.
Fun.
"Do you wanna play Exploding Snap?" Molly said, gesturing to the slightly smoking deck in the corner.
"Sure."
By the time everyone else had arrived, we'd started an Exploding Snap tournament. Albus was currently against Fred, in the 'grande finale', as Roxanne was calling it.
It'd been two hours since Molly, Mum and I had arrived, but Exploding Snap has a way of making hours seem like mere minutes. I mean, the look on James' face when his eyebrows burst into flame is quite entertaining.
"Oh! It's time, everyone!"
We all rushed to gather around the wireless, eagerly awaiting the announcement.
Of course, we already knew what was going to happen. It was obvious.
According to Kingsley, the ex-Minister for Magic and our close family friend, Dad's a shoo-in for the post. The only person who could beat him would be Uncle Harry himself, and he refuses to run.
Shame, really, he'd be a fantastic Minister.
Now, the Minister elections were a strictly private event. You see, even though all fifty million of us were family, we weren't allowed to be actually present. The election would be decided, and then a poor intern would have to go and announce it to all the waiting media. It's a bit of an odd system; I think they just want to exclude the press as much as possible.
Hence why we were listening to the evening news program, waiting to hear the announcement shoved between the latest add for the new Firebolt, and the Quidditch scores.
"Wizarding Britain, we are pleased to announce your new Minister for Magic, Mr. Percy Weasley!" We all cheered, Mum started crying and Nana Molly hugged the radio. I grinned wryly at my sister before heading out to find some more biscuits.
And possibly some butterbeer…
"Already looking to get drunk, Luce?"
I whirled around, hitting my head on the fridge door (which Grandma Molly had finally invested in last year, to Grandpa Arthur's great delight) to glare at James, now with eyebrows.
"Oh, very funny, James. I was looking for a butterbeer, I'll have you know," I retorted, pulling said butterbeer out of the fridge.
"Well, I wasn't." He said, pushing past me and grabbing a large bottle of firewhisky.
"What? We're all adults, they can't do a thing about it. This is a celebration after all. You can't get a buzz off butterbeer."
And that was how I came to be surrounded by a rabble of drunk cousins. The only ones who weren't under the age of 40 and drunk were myself and Victoire.
Victoire was pregnant, a valid excuse for staying sober, I guess.
And me? Well, I had no excuse, other than I had to work tomorrow. Clearly, I'm a sad workaholic.
Oh, and Roxanne too I suppose but she'd knicked off an hour ago to go meet up with some friends at the Three Broomsticks, so she didn't really count.
"Are you sure you don't want another Pumpkin Pasty, Lucy dear?" My Grandma Weasley asked later in the evening, the plate of said pasties floating under my nose.
"No, thanks." I replied, pushing the plate away, which promptly floated away to bother Uncle Bill.
The older generation were all lounging about, not particularly worried about the state of their children. Grandma Weasley, for instance, was trying to fatten everyone up.
I watched as the pasty tray floated from relative to relative, bemusedly looking on as Molly Senior tried, and failed, to get everyone to eat another bite.
Uncle Ron was the only one who ate any. I swear I've never met anyone with a bigger appetite than him.
"Ollie's going to kill me tomorrow." Louis said out of nowhere.
Victoire and I both turned and looked at him.
"Why?" I asked.
I really should learn never to ask that question to a drunk person.
"Well... I'll be all hungover, you see, even though I'm not, not drunk... no, not... and he'll yell, and it'll hurt..."
Whilst Louis rambled on, I slowly edged away, only to be attacked by my cousin Rose.
"Lucy!" She screamed in my ear, making my wince.
"Hi, Rose. Having fun?" I said, extracting myself from her grasp carefully.
"Yep." She said, taking another sip of the drink in her hand.
"You know, Rose, there's this really wonderful thing called water..."
She looked at me, nearly tripping over in the process.
"Water? What, you think I'm dr-drunk?" She shook her head, her drink tipping precariously.
"Nuh-uh." She finished, tottering off after Albus.
Honestly. What is it with my cousins? You give them a bottle of firewhisky and they turn into a bunch of five-year olds, denying doing anything wrong.
It really is quite amusing, but after an hour...it gets rather tiring.
"Hey, Lucy, I'm going to take Teddy and head home. I think I've seen enough." Victoire said, dragging her husband behind her by the wrist.
"Okay." I said, smiling at her.
"Tell your Dad I said congratulations!" She said, throwing powder into the fireplace.
I looked around me. The whole house smelled like a mixture of firewhisky, pumpkin pasties and gunpowder (I'm really not sure why... I blame Uncle George). In the corner, Lily, my cousin a year older than me was crying, clutching a bottle of some unknown liquid and a pillow like her life depended on them. No one seemed to even be contemplating helping her, and I sure as hell wasn't going to try, knowing how emotional Lily could get.
Albus, Fred and James had started some sort of conga line in the backyard, and they were trying to coax Dominique to join whilst fighting to stay upright.
Uncle Harry, Uncle Ron, Aunt Hermione and Aunt Angelina were looking over old photo albums at the worn wooden table. Grandpa Arthur was asleep in his chair, the wireless in his hands spouting out some old Celestina Warbeck song. My mother, on the other hand, was busy cleaning the dishes.
Typical.
I was fairly certain no one would miss me, and I did have work tomorrow. I quickly grabbed a handful of powder and flooed home, though not before I saw Rose to a spectacular nosedive into the carpet, spilling her drink all over Aunt Fleur, who squealed and started swearing in rapid French.
I was still shaking my head in amusement when I arrived in my apartment, dusting myself off.
My family might be slightly mad, but they were entertaining. Especially when intoxicated.