Chapter two...
In which Lucy encounters two mysterious boys…
Lucy tumbled out of the fireplace and onto the carpet, snorting up a fistful of ash in the process, landing soundly on her stomach. Molly cast a disgusted look down at the spectacle her sister had become, splayed out on the floor, all grey and frizzy and sneezing. She certainly wasn't a graceful sight.
"Get up." She hissed, folding her arms over her crisp clothes. Lucy obediently clambered to her knees, smacking the ash from her clothing, face, and hair, inspiring a blackish cloud that Molly quickly batted away from herself, "You're making a mess!"
"Sorry." Lucy mumbled, trying to brush the smudged ash off her forehead. She had never liked the floo. She had never really learned how to use it properly and it always left her ears ringing, "Do I have anymore ash on me?"
"Yes, but it's not worth fixing I suppose." Molly grumbled in response. Lucy rolled her eyes, the ringing in her ears beginning to subside so she could hear the usual hubbub of life in the burrow. The clatter of pots and pans, laughing children, and the ever constant tiny ticking of the clock, two of the many hands hanging from a thin chain on the wall: Fred's and Audrey's. Lucy sighed at the memory of adding her mother's clock hand to that chain. It was something she hoped she would soon forget.
A blonde woman quickly emerged from the kitchen. She was dressed in crisp blue clothing and was carrying a folded apron which gleamed a sparkling white.
"Lucy! Molly! Zere you are!" Fleur cried , pulling the two girls into a hug. She smelled like perfume. "It eez so good to see you two!"
"It's nice to see you too, Auntie Fleur." Molly smiled as Fleur released her nieces.
"Ve are making lunch. Vould you like to join us?"
"No thank you." Molly quickly said, "I brought a book to read while I wait." She held out the thick book as evidence. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
"Ah, Molly! Vat a leetle scholar!" Fleur said, with an impressed smile, "I've been trying to get Dominique to read more. She just doesn't seem to enjoy eet much. Vat about you Lucy, you have a book as vell?" Lucy blushed.
"Uh, no. But I would love to help in the kitchen." It was a lie. Lucy was lousy in the kitchen, but it beat sitting silently next to Molly as she read.
"Vell, zat eez perfect. Louis eez already zere."Fleur replied, gesturing towards the kitchen, "Come vis me." She followed her across the den into the kitchen. It was a cramped space, with pots hanging from the walls and the air was filled with the aroma of stewed meats and thick sauces. Lucy's grandmother stood at the stove, carefully twirling her wand, causing trails of spices to jet through the air from their dispensers and into the pot before her. Louis was at the counter beside her, clumsily chopping carrots from the garden into uneven chunks, which were to be put into the stew. Molly Weasley looked up from the pot as the last ribbon of red spice flew into the mixture, her plump pink face pulling back into a grin.
"Lucy, dear! How are you?" She cried, quickly pulling her into a hug.
"I'm good." Lucy replied, smiling up at the older woman as she released her. Molly sighed and put a hand on top of her granddaughter's head.
"You're getting so tall! You need to slow down on the growing, I can't keep up." She said with a chuckle. "Why don't you help Louis cut the vegetables? We can chat while we work."
"Alright." She chirped in reply moving beside Louis who gave her his usual grin.
"Hey Luce." He said with a laugh, scooting over and handing her a carrot and a spare knife.
"Hey yourself." She replied with a similar smirk. She took the knife from him and began carefully cutting the carrot into discs.
"So, where has your sister gotten off to?" Molly asked, tossing some pepper and salt into the stew that she had returned to.
"She's reading in the den." Lucy replied. "The muggle book Grandad gave her for our birthday."
"The Dickens?" Louis asked, looking up from his sloppy work. Lucy nodded. Molly chuckled to herself.
"Your grandad has too many of those muggle books. Tell Molly that she's free to borrow any that she likes."
"I will."
"Vat about Percy? Veel he be joining us today?" Fleur asked as she put the folded apron back into its cupboard.
"No." Lucy said with a sigh, "He's working again." Molly made an irritated noise in the back of her throat.
"Good Merlin, I need to have a talk with him." She grumbled, lighting the fire on the stove, " We haven't seen him in weeks! How dare he leave you poor girls alone all the time like this. You've already lost your-" She stopped herself, and turned back to Lucy with a smile. Lucy knew what she had been planning to say. You've already lost your mother. Lucy had heard these sentiments from relatives relentlessly over the past months. Poor girls. What a pity, their mother is dead. Poor girls. "Um, why don't you two go join the others in the garden. Thank you for cutting the carrots." She said in an attempt to mend the error. Lucy nodded.
"Alright." She replied as Louis quickly took her hand and dragged her out into the garden.
A thick blanket of fog was still covering the sky in grey and lilac tones. Across the garden clumps of children were paired off together, something which had happened naturally as they grew, mixing with the children of family friends. Lily, Hugo, and Alice Longbottom were darting about underfoot, engaged in a high spirited game of tag. From a tree a good distance away, Teddy and Victoire sat watching the three children, their fingers intertwined in a comfortable silence. James, Fred, Roxanne, and Dominique were lying on the grass, mulling over trinkets they had nabbed from the shelves at WWW, or that George had simply given them when the other adults' backs were turned. Albus and Rose were watching a pair of garden gnomes who were cursing at them and each other, as if they couldn't decide who they were upset with. The former part seemed highly amused by this. Finally, Lucy spotted Franklin Longbottom, reclining on an old bench, chewing an obscene amount of bubblegum.
"Frank!" Louis called, catching Franklin's attention. he turned to them and grunted some sort of greeting around his mouthful of gum, giving them a mock salute. He quickly moved over and the two of them plopped down in the space he left for them. Lucy, Louis, and Franklin had been friends since they were about three.
Lucy had spotted the two of them from her mother's lap during the May 2nd memorial. Louis was seated on the ground, playing with a muggle toy car between the legs of the adults and Franklin was asleep beside his father. Lucy had hopped off her mother's lap and waddles over to the two boys and kissed them both, startling Farnklin awake and caused Louis to break into a fit of laughter. All of the adults laughed as Audrey ran to grab her daughter, who was smiling happily.
"Lucy, why did you kiss Louis and Frankie." Audrey asked, amused. Lucy shrugged.
"Because I like them." She said. Later that day Audrey found the three of them asleep at Victoire's birthday, blue and pink frosting smeared across their faces, and pudgy hand in pudgy hand. They had been best friends ever since.
Franklin spit out the gob of pink gum and stuck it on the bottom of the bench and reached into his pocket, pulling out a cellophane bag of sherbet lemons, which he held out to Lucy.
"For you, Luce." Lucy snatched the bag excitedly.
"You're an angel." She squealed, tossing one into her mouth and happily crunching on them. Louis laughed.
"You're going to break a tooth like that."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." She rolled her eyes, suddenly catching sight of a pair of green eyes they were staring at her from the other end of the garden. They belonged to a boy Lucy hadn't seen before. He was a pale boy with a large nose and sandy blonde hair, sitting next to an identical boy, probably his brother. They were plopped down on the edge of one of the planter boxes, dressed in mismatched socks and pants that were a little too short. The boy studied her one last time and looked away as his brother observed something inside the planter box.
"Hey, who's that?" Lucy asked as she swallowed the crushed candy. Franklin raised his eyebrows, following her gaze to the boys.
"I don't know." He said, propping his elbows on his knees. "I've never seen them here before."
"Are they family friends?"
"I don't know. Maybe." Louis replied. Lucy studied the two boys again.
"I'm going to go say hi." She decided, standing up. Franklin nodded.
"Alright. I'll wait here." Louis glanced at him.
"Me too." He added. Lucy shrugged.
"Alright. I'll leave you two alone." She teased. Louis blushed and she walked off the the mystery boys. They didn't look at her as she came up, not even flinching as she cleared her throat.
"Hi, um. I'm Lucy." She said to them. The one who had been watching her slowly raised his eyes to meet hers.
"Hi." He said shortly.
"What are your names."
"I'm Lorcan Scamander." He said with an irritated sigh. "This is my brother Lysander." Lysander looked up from what he was examining, a small caterpillar, and smiled at her.
"Pleasure to meet you." Lucy returned his smile.
"Are you two coming school shopping with us?"
"Yeah." Lysander said. "We're staying here at the Burrow until school starts, because our parents are doing research."
"Oh, really? Who are your parents?"
"Luna and Rolf Scamander."
"Oh, yeah!" Lucy said, finally putting the pieces together. "They write for the Quibbler right?" Lysander nodded, while Lorcan's face grew redder and redder.
"Where are they now?" Lucy asked. Lorcan groaned in response.
"Dear Merlin, can't you leave us alone?" He snapped suddenly. Lucy took a step, taken aback.
"I'm sorry I-"
"Who cares what you meant." He spat, standing up so they were eye level. "My brother and I are just trying to have a moment to ourselves. Can't you just get lost?" With that he shoved her away. She stumbled dangerously and fell onto her backside. Lorcan looked down at her seething for a moment, but then his expression changed, his eyes growing big. Lucy glanced behind her and saw Louis and Franklin standing above her, staring Lorcan down.
"What's going on here, Luce?" Franklin asked through gritted teeth. Lorcan sat back down next to his brother, turning his eyes on his shoes.
"Nothing," Lucy said after a moment. Lysander raised his eyebrows incredulously. Lorcan didn't move a muscle, "This is Lorcan and Lysander." She pulled herself to her feet and looked back at the Scamanders. "It was nice to meet you two." Them she turned on her heel and walked back towards the house, Franklin and Louis a few steps behind.
"Lucy, what happened?" Louis asked. Lucy shook her head.
"Nothing." There was now one thing she knew.
Lucy Weasley didn't like Lorcan Scamander, and the feeling was mutual.