I'm very glad for the interest in this story so far! You've no idea how terrified I was that the only ones interested would be my dear friends who pushed me to write this. But the reaction was thrilling!
Enjoy another chapter of antics!
After much planning and thinking, a few Muggle phone calls and quick Floo pop-ins, and a couple letters, everything was set. Ron and Rose would head over to Shell Cottage first, to make sure the lights were working and the heat and air conditioning charms were both intact, and then get Annabelle and whoever. Eryn and Harry already told Sam to take her and her cousin and they'd head over, so Sam would get Neville from his grandmother (how she would manage that was still a bit of a mystery). Then they'd head to the summer home, too. And lastly, Kenzie would get Draco and Draco would get Blaise, since no one besides him knew where the latter man lived.
But it hadn't been part of Kenzie's mental plan that she would have to retrieve Draco from his home, Malfoy Manor, alone.
The butler who opened the door was dressed pristinely, complete with a pair of starched gloves. It was a bit of a hassle trying to convince him that she truly was a classmate of Draco's and he had one of her textbooks. He kept eyeing her apparel of shorts and a tank top – the English summer sun was uncharacteristically warm that day – but finally allowed her to step into the first sitting room.
Who the hell needs more than one sitting room? Kenzie thought as she stood at the window. The butler cleared his throat and caught her attention again.
"I shall alert Young Master Malfoy of your arrival, Miss…?" He looked at her expectantly.
"Thorne. Miss. Thorne." He nodded again and strode away quickly. She waited for his footsteps to fade completely, for all the echoes to stop sounding throughout the big empty house, before letting her shoulders loosen up.
The gasp that she took was warranted, in her opinion, as she took in her surroundings. Never in her life had she come across a room with so much blinding white marble. Everything was glistening in the light that streamed through the large window, bright and absolutely breathtaking. The sofa and loveseats behind her looked completely untouched, even though this was the sitting room. On the shiny walls were large paintings of beautiful far-off destinations that were likely bought at stupid rich people auctions. And just by the door she entered through were a massive mirror and a small table holding several ornate statuettes and hand-painted eggs.
Kenzie felt her feet carry her towards the mirror, not noticing that her flats left a black streak on the otherwise immaculate floor. Once she caught sight of herself, she understood the butler's reluctance. How many young people came by every few days to try and rob this place, claiming things like knowing the owners of the home? She had to tell him where she was attending school, what House she was in, and show him her broom that she rode over on before he finally said yes.
"Well, you definitely look a hot mess," she muttered to herself, trying tiredly to fix her limp ponytail. She tugged her top up enough to cover the lace of her bra and nodded to herself that this would do.
But as she turned to take a seat on the couch, she didn't notice her hand hanging idly at bust-level. The swing of her turn sent it crashing into a small, but likely costly, glass whale. And the glass whale was sent crashing to the floor.
The sound resounded throughout empty corridors. The walls missed nothing and sent the noise bouncing until Kenzie heard from somewhere upstairs the sound of a young man crying, "You left her alone in a room of priceless artefacts?!"
She couldn't help the wince as she listened to the quickened footsteps of her boyfriend. They were followed by that of, she assumed, the butler who let her in. She hurriedly went to sit in the only armchair in the room and look inconspicuous, as though she hadn't just shattered a crystal masterpiece.
Poor thing, it was kind of cute. Even if his little black beady glass eyes were staring at her cleavage the whole time.
"What are you doing here?"
Kenzie looked up and couldn't help the smile that slid onto her face when she saw him. Draco hadn't changed whatsoever in the few days she hadn't seen him. He was still just as perfectly pale and platinum-haired as usual. She stood up in courtesy when he arrived and tried her best to look innocent.
The butler who rushed behind Draco was quickly shooed away, told to fetch a broom and dustpan. Once he left, Draco and came closer to Kenzie and looked at her seriously.
"Kenz, what are you doing here? I thought you were staying at Weasel's house for the summer?" he said quietly, even though they were alone. His tone was displeased, both at her sudden appearance and at the mention that she had intended on staying at the Weasley home for the summer. She smiled more naturally now and didn't fail to notice his disregard for reprimanding her on the broken item.
"I have a proposal for you, Mr. Malfoy," she said. He quirked a brow at her.
"You do realize we've only been dating for a few weeks, right?"
She rolled her eyes. "Not that kind of proposal. Don't get your hopes up. I'm curious what you are doing all summer long." Draco shrugged at this and crossed his arms.
"Sitting round, hoping Mother doesn't need me to do too much shopping with her," he replied. She nodded, summoning all her strength into the next bit she had planned to say.
"How would you like to go to a summer house on the water for the duration of two months? It'll be a bit small but you'll be with friends and me and it'll be nice and you won't even have to think about your parents or school or anything for the entire time! I mean, I guess I understand why you wouldn't want to come but I wanted to see-"
She was cut off by a finger being pushed against her lips. Kenzie looked at her boyfriend with a bit of hope and waited for him to process her quick words. Once he moved his hand, he took a deep breath and spoke.
"A summer around you and your friends, doing fuck all on the beach?" The nod he received made him grin at her enthusiasm. He never got tired of that. "What's the catch?"
"There isn't really a catch, per say," she explained, now walking round him in a bit of a nervous circle. This was the bit she'd have trouble with. "You'd just have to, y'know, put up with me and my friends… andRonandHarryandNevilleandtwopeoplewedon'treallyk nowtoomuchabout, but you can bring Blaise!"
"Weasley and Potter and Shlongbottom?!" Draco whined, pouting now. He stood up to his full height and looked down at her with annoyance. "I knew this was too good to be true. I'm not going."
"But you have to!" Kenzie exclaimed. She wrapped herself round him in a tight hug and pouted as well, even though he couldn't see it. But she knew he could tell it was there. "I'll be so lonely without you, and I need someone to keep me sane! I can't be the only one without a cuddle buddy!"
Draco whined again, but this time it was in sheer aggravation that he had been wrangled into this with barely a fight. Stupid girlfriend, he couldn't help thinking. Gets me to do anything with just a tilt of her head.
Kenzie's sad act only lasted a few seconds longer before she was bouncing off the walls again. "Now c'mon! Go pack up everything, leave a note for your parents that you're staying at Blaise's, and then we'll go get him! Once we say Annabelle's coming, he'll follow like a moth to a flame!"
He took hold of her hand before she could hop out of the room like a three year old. His eyes went from hers to the mess of shards on the floor, then back up to her. She bit her lip slightly.
"It was the cat."
"We don't have a cat."
"…Just go pack!"
"MUM! I'M GOING TO A REMOTE COTTAGE WITH MY FRIENDS FOR THE SUMMER!"
"FINE, BUT YOU HAVE TO BRING WOOD!"
"I DON'T WANT TO BRING MORNING WOOD! THERE'LL BE TOO MUCH TESTOSTERONE THERE AS IS!"
"TOO BAD!"
"FIIIIIIIIINE!"
Sam bounded down the stairs in her small home and found her cousin, Oliver Wood, sitting with a Quidditch book in front of him in the living room. But his attention was solely on the screaming match that had just gone on. Since Sam had been upstairs and her mother had been in the basement, it had been rather loud.
"Go pack up, Ollie!" she said excitedly, shaking her own suitcase in emphasis. He looked at her curiously.
"I thought I was staying with your mother and you for the summer holiday, since my parents don't want me housesitting as they think I'm irresponsible-"
"Yeah, well, change of plans!" she interrupted. "Go, go, go! We're wasting daylight!" As she shuffled him up the way she had just left, she added, "Oh, and you know how to drive a Muggle car, right?"
Ding-dong!
Sam had never in her life looked so utterly conservative. The tight shirt, short shorts, fishnets, and Converse were traded in for a high-necked blouse and pleated skirt. High knee socks and a pair black kitten heels were heating her up as she stood on the front step of the Longbottom house. It was all she could do not to scratch at her neck that was too covered up for her liking.
But everything she had heard about Augusta Longbottom led the girlfriend to want to take the safest road possible. One that would assure the old woman to allow her grandson to go out for the summer with the nice, kind, and completely pure and virginal Samantha Calloway.
Yeah. As if.
Just metres away, at the end of the driveway, Oliver had Sam's mother's car parked. It was a good thing that he was such a clean-cut looking boy, or the scheme would be even harder to believe. Luckily, Sam's clothing that she'd stripped herself of on the ride over was strewn across the backseat, flattened down so no insinuations could be made.
This plan was definitely not foolproof, but it was the best that they had after just a day of thought. And it was too late to turn back now.
The tall mahogany door slowly swung open to reveal Neville, standing tall and immediately taking on a shocked expression when he saw his girlfriend. She watched his eyes just continue to stare at her clothing and when they finally landed on her face, she giggled. She closed his gaping mouth and kissed his cheek.
"Shut your mouth, sweetie, or you'll catch flies," she told him with a grin.
"Sam, what's going on?" he asked quietly, cautiously, as though trying not to be overheard.
"I am going to convince your grandmother to let your lovely, wholesome girlfriend take you to a beach house for the summer!" Neville's laugh at this was interrupted by a voice in the background of the house.
"Neville, who's there? Close the door, you're letting out the cold air."
Sam smiled and winked and pushed him aside a bit to step in. It was now or never to make a good impression.
Neville had to admit that Sam did an absolutely amazing job of holding herself strong in the eye of his grandmother. Her scrutiny was overturned with ease, sliding off Sam's shoulders like it was nothing. As Neville watched from the doorway of the living room, he could see the younger woman beginning to crack – she was, after all, only human – but it wasn't too long before, finally, Neville was able to pull them apart and be dragged out to the car again.
"Your cousin is Oliver Wood?" he asked when they were in the Toyota. He'd taken the front seat as the man in question drove and Sam was getting changed in the back again.
"You never wondered where he got his good looks from?" she called back as she shimmied into her shorts again. "Auntie Lor and cousin Sammie are, after all, stunningly gorgeous."
"Shut it, cousin Sammie," Oliver called back, but he was smiling. "Now tell me where I'm going or we'll get lost."
"Back home, dear family member of mine. It's time to Floo."
Have you noticed yet that I'm being kind and not giving any massive cliffhangers just yet? Fear not, they'll come soon enough!
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