As Mia left the Potter's temporary household, she couldn't help but smile at the way that Lily's brother had looked at her. She shook the idea out of her head as she walked through the door of her own house, only to be attacked by her little brother.
"Meems! You've GOTTA help me!" he said, running up to her, "Mom is making me pick those awful tomatoes again!" he squealed. Mia's little brother had always had a problem with tomatoes, something about a nightmare when he was seven or something.
"Fine, fine I'll get the tomatoes." She patted her little brother on the head as she continued to walk through the house and into the kitchen.
"Oh Mimi, you are the BEST sister anyone could EVER ask for!" he said, jumping onto her back and hugging her from behind.
Mia and her little brother Danny had always been close. Danny was only four years younger, but had the same dark, chestnut brown haircolor that Mia had and the same sparkling blue eyes.
Mimi walked into the kitchen with Danny on her back.
"Mia! You've been gone for quite a while, dear. I was starting to worry." Adrianna Beauvais said with her thick Italian accent, then rushed over to her daughter and kissed her forehead, "And I was about to make your brother get the tomatoes." She smirked.
"NO! NOT THE TOMATOES!" Danny screamed, then hid his face in Mia's hair.
"Dan, that was my ear." She said, looking over her shoulder.
Danny then hopped off her back, then went to help his mother with other dinner preparations.
Mimi stepped out onto the back porch where her family kept a small garden of herbs and a few fruits and vegetables. With her mother being from Italy, and her father from France, fresh food was never in short supply. Every evening, Mrs. Beauvais would spend hours cooking homemade Italian food, while Mr. Beauvais got up early every morning to make a wonderful French breakfast for his family.
As Mimi was picking tomatoes, she noticed a tall, black haired boy walking into the house next door.
'That must be James.' She thought to herself, and then walked back inside with tomatoes in hand. She quickly diced the tomatoes, then used her mother's ancient family recipe to make sauce.
"Mom, Lily invited me over to watch TV after dinner. Is that okay?" she asked her mother as she stirred.
"Who is Lily again?"
"Lily Potter. One of the people that are staying next door. She'll be in my year at Hogwarts next year."
"Oh right, right. Of course you can go." She smiled at her daughter.
"Cool. Thanks Mom."
After a great Italian dinner, Mia took her plate to the kitchen then told her parents she was leaving and walked over to the Potter/Weasley home.
"Hey, Mimi! Come in." Lily answered the door. She then led Mia to the television room where Rose was yelling at the TV for the show to start already.
"Rosie, Mimi's gonna watch with us." Lily said, taking a seat next to her cousin.
"Great." Rose smiled at Mia, then she sat down.
"So what show is this exactly?" Mia asked.
"To tell the truth, we have no idea." Rose laughed.
Once the show began, she realized that it was her favorite show as well.
"Guys, this show is called Glee. It's huge all around the country." Mia informed her new friends.
"That would explain the singing." Rose nodded in a daze while staring at the television.
"Ooh! Ooh! I like him…" Rose screamed at the screen when Puck was talking to another character.
"Good choice, Rose. Good choice. My favorite is still Finn though." Mia noted.
"I like Kurt." Lily smiled while Mia laughed.
Once the show was over, Rose still sat staring at the screen.
"Rose are you okay?" Lily asked.
"I think she may have gone into shock." Mia whispered.
"THAT. WAS. SO. GOOD!" Rose screamed, then hopped off of the sofa and began pacing around the room talking about the episode. Mimi and Lily stayed on the sofa watching Rose as she squealed about the show.
"Those brownies that you brought were really good I guess. My Uncle Ron ate them all." Lily told Mia with a laugh.
"I'll tell my Mom you said so. She's the one who made 'em." Mia then looked at the clock and saw that it was past ten o'clock.
"Oh my gosh, I should really get home. My parents are probably wondering where I am." Mimi jumped off the sofa, hugged Lily and Rose goodbye, then headed home and straight to sleep.
At around midnight, Mia was awakened by rocks being thrown at one of her windows. She groggily got out of bed, then opened the window and looked down to see Lily and Albus standing outside her house.
"Lily? Al? What are you doing?" she asked.
"We need your help with something, come outside." Lily whispered.
"I can't. My parents won't let me out this late."
"That's a problem." Lily pouted.
Mia then remembered a way that she had snuck out earlier this summer without her parents knowing and said, "Hold on. Go stand in front of the porch. I'll be right down."
Mimi quickly took off her pajama bottoms and replaced then with jeans and put an oversized black zip-up hoodie on over her simple white tank top.
She opened the window in her room that looked out over the beach and ocean and climbed through it, finding herself on the porch shelter.
"Oh my god, Mimi. What are you doing?" Lily whispered.
"I'm coming down. What? It's not like I haven't done it before." She stated, then climbed down the porch wall, jumped onto the sand, and turned around to her friends.
"So what's up? You said you needed my help with something?" she asked, wide awake now.
"Mia are you okay?" Albus came rushing over to her.
"I'm fine." She smiled up at him and lightly rested her hand on his arm to reassure him. Even just touching his arm made her light up inside.
"Mimi, do you know how to make s'mores?" Lily asked her friend.
"Yeah, absolutely. Why?" she asked, cocking her brunette head slightly to the right. This small gesture made Al's heart skip a beat.
"Perfect. That's where you come in." Lily smiled, then grabbed Mimi's hand and pulled her over to the spot of beach behind the Potter's home. She could see all of the residents gathered around a bonfire and talking and having a great time. Once they had reached the group, Lily introduced her new friend.
"Mum, Dad, this is Mimi. She lives next door." She winked at he parents, letting them know that this was the girl that Albus had fallen for only a mere few hours ago. Ginny smirked then stood up to greet Mimi.
"It's very nice to meet you, Mimi." She smiled warmly.
"Nice to meet you as well Mrs. Potter."
"Hello, Mimi. It was very kind of you to keep everyone company this afternoon while we went into town."
"It was my pleasure Mr. Potter. It's an honor to meet you." She smiled politely.
"Thank you." He nodded in reply.
"Mimi, this is my Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron and you know Rose and Hugo. This is my God-brother Teddy and my cousin Victoire. And my Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur. This is my other brother James and these are the Longbottoms." Lily introduced everyone in the circle.
"Don't overwhelm the poor girl, Lils. There are far too many of us." Ginny giggled next to her husband.
"So Lily told us that you will be joining us a Hogwarts next year." Neville began.
"Yes, I will. Along with my little brother Danny, he's going into his first year."
"That's wonderful." Hermione smiled at Mimi, somehow seeing herself in this fifteen year old.
"Here's the problem," Began Lily, shoving a graham cracker, a marshmallow and a piece of chocolate in her hand, "We have no idea what to do."
Mimi glanced around the circle to see many expectant faces staring at her.
"Well," she picked up a stray stick from the beach below her and stuck the marshmallow in the end of it, "First you have to roast the marshmallow over the fire, then you break the graham cracker in half and put the marshmallow on one side of it, then the chocolate on top of it, then the other graham cracker." She demonstrated, "And that's it." She smiled, taking a small bite out of the s'more in her hand.
As the group began to get the hand of what they were doing, many voices began to speak. Mimi watched as the families attempted to do what she showed them.
"Do we have to put the chocolate on this?"
"This stupid cracker won't break."
"Ron, you dolt don't use your wand to roast the marshmallow!"
She then glanced across the circle to see that Albus had made a perfect s'more and had begun to eat it. She smiled, then he looked up at her. Her face was glowing in the firelight and her dark brown curls had fallen into waves and had been pulled up into a messy ponytail. She was beautiful. No, downright gorgeous. Stunning. There were so many other words her could use to describe her, but chose not to continue when their eyes met. She smiled at him and he smiled back. Little did either of them know, that those smiles had melted each other's hearts like the marshmallows before them.