Children of the Gods

by inwardtransience

When the message came, there was little left of Cassiopeia Black in her — soon she would move on, shed her face and her name for another. But, at the last possible moment, she found a reason to carry on, the smouldering embers of her identity sparking to new life. Unfortunately, adopting the Boy Who Lived came with complications. (metamorphs, fairies, AU and very weird)

30. Rebirth of the House of Black — I

The Sunday before Violet's eleventh birthday, they went to have dinner with Muime's family at her grandparents' house. It was normal for Gaels to have a big family dinner on Sundays, and people tried to get big extended families together as often as possible — people were busy, and people marrying each other split families up funny ways, so they mostly only got bits and pieces of the family in, whoever could make it. Muime told her grandparents that she wanted to bring Mum and Violet — and also who Violet really was, with a promise to keep it a family secret — and the news spread through her aunts and uncles and cousins.

Including the three of them, Muime thought there were going to be over fifty people at her grandparents' farm — that was a lot. They were bringing some things and showing up early to help set up, it was complicated.

It was only the first of two big parties they were going to this week, though they were very different kinds of parties. They were going to have a small party at home on her birthday, just hanging out with the neighbours (Susan and the Tonkses were also coming), but later in the week they were having a big party on her birthday — sadly, it was going to be a fancy, rich-person party. They were holding it at Ravenhome, the nice place that the Blacks threw fancy parties at, and there were a whole bunch of nobles coming. Violet was a little annoyed that she couldn't invite most of her friends, basically just the people who were also in the Hogwarts club at school...who were going to go anyway, because so many fancy Society people were coming. Mum had said the eleventh birthday was important, and besides, like, the introduction teas and parties at the Malfoys', Mum had mostly been keeping her out of normal Society stuff, but her birthday just before starting at Hogwarts was convenient to introduce her to all the important people, so, the guestlist had ballooned until it was kind of crazy. The Blacks were a super wealthy and important family, she kind of got that, but it was still stupid.

Violet expected she was going to be very bored. At least she got to get a new pretty dress for it, that was pretty much the only good part.

Dinner with Muime's family was going to be, um... They were just normal people, not Society people — obviously, they were going to a farm. Like, one where they were actually growing stuff and keeping animals and stuff. It wasn't just Muime's grandparents who lived there, her uncle Éanna and aunt Dearbháil stayed with them, plus her cousins Mathúin and Niall, with Niall's wife Madailéin and their kids, Sadhbh and baby Oscar. (He was always called baby Oscar because Muime's grandpa was also called Oscar.) Because, you know, a farm that actually worked was a lot for two people to do themselves, so one of her uncles had stayed to help out, and so had her uncle's sons. (Muime said her grandparents' farm would probably be passed down through Niall — unless he and Madailéin didn't have enough boys, then it might go through her brother Fearghal or her cousin Lonán instead.) Even that wasn't enough people, when there was a lot of work to do Muime's cousins and nephews and nieces might be sent over, and the neighbours helped out a lot too. Though, the neighbours were also cousins, more distantly, pretty much everyone around there were was a Sirideáin or a Muircheartaigh...

The point was, they were very normal, and actually kind of poor. Not super poor, not like the Starlighters, but definitely toward the bottom end. Muime was one of only a couple people who were going to be there today who'd even gone to academy — trying to make sure she didn't say anything rude, Mum warned her that it was possible some of Muime's family didn't even know how to read. Unlike when Violet was little, they didn't have public primary schooling on the magical side? so if you wanted to learn to read you had to find somewhere to send your kid or just do it yourself. And sometimes that costed money, or you had to send them into town, which could be hard to do if you lived in the middle of nowhere, like Muime's family did. Some of her family could read fine, but not everyone, so, yeah, maybe don't assume, just so she didn't accidentally offend anyone. Also, don't assume people were going to school, or got to do things like travel around places — even Lasairín's family getting to go to Sicily once made them very much, like, middle-class? — or all kinds of things, actually, she didn't have to mind her fancy etiquette and stuff, just act normal, and try not to come off like a thoughtless rich person and annoy people...

It was a very different kind of thing than most parties and teas and stuff she was brought to. She was kind of nervous? They were Muime's family, and some of them weren't super happy about Mum, and they were kind of going to be Violet's family too! Because Síomha was marrying Mum which made her also Violet's mother, which meant they were all going to be family soon, and Violet wanted them to get along! She especially didn't want to offend people and make them even more unhappy about Mum, it, she wanted this to work, she was still so happy that they were getting married and they were all gonna be—

She didn't want to mess it up, was all.

After a late breakfast — the meal was going to start earlier than Violet was used to, like in the middle of the afternoon — they finished up some of the things they were bringing with before getting changed. Violet was actually ready earlier than she needed to be, occupied herself messing with one of her puzzles. She'd decided to dress a little nice, but not anything super fancy, a greenish-brownish muggle-made skirt and a fuzzy lilac jumper (it'd be kind of cool and windy where they were going), with some of the beaded bracelets and stuff she had sitting around. On the way out the door she pulled on the boots she wore to play iomáint — Muime's idea, said they'd be the most comfortable to get around in. Also, apparently some of the kids would play while waiting for dinner to be ready? So.

Muime gave the dress Mum was wearing kind of a funny look. It was pretty! It was one of those ones that laced up the back, sleeveless, the upper part close in and then the skirt all swooshy, this one a soft sunny yellow. Mum had a few like this, Violet really liked them, but she had to wait to grow up before getting her own — you kind of needed breasts for them to look right. Violet didn't know what Muime thought the problem with the dress was, she didn't spell it out...

Anyway, once they were all dressed and had their stuff packed up, they stepped out into the garden and Mum apparated them off to the public floo at Inis Laoi. They didn't stay for long, though — once Violet caught her breath, Muime took over, and apparated them straight there. Muime didn't bring them right to the house (that was rude), instead onto a dirt road a short walk away. In all directions were fields, the rows of green gently curving up and down with the slow-rolling hills. The curve of the hills and the tall crops on top of them blocked her view in some directions, but she spotted a small clump of buildings that must be a farm there, another over there, that way over there looked like a little village.

These were all Sirideáin lands, Muime said, the different farms speckled around 'owned' by different branches of the family. (Violet knew that it was technically all owned by the family as a whole, but their stuff was split up in a way they agreed was fair.) Over that way you could see some of the Muircheartaigh lands — the border was just a low rock wall, gaps in it here and there to let paths through — and that way you came to some stuff owned by the Flaitheartas — that was one of the big important families who were kind of like nobility in Ireland, but didn't have a seat on the Wizengamot (like the Caoimhes or the Ailbhes). A long time ago, this part of Ireland had been ruled by whatever local king, but then the Gaunts took over (after the one who ruled from Hogwarts was defeated, Mum said); eventually they got in a fight with a bunch of other Gaelic magical families, and they were basically kicked out of Ireland, and this area ended up being taken over by the Con Maras, and later the Inghams. The Inghams got into a dispute over the place with a few other powerful families, but nobody wanted to fight over it, so as a compromise they decided nobody should rule it — instead they passed control of the place down to the families who actually lived here. That little bit over there was still owned by the Flaitheartas, and there was a spring maintained by the Inghams that way (kind of a sanctuary or shrine or something, Violet guessed), but all the rest was owned and run by people whose ancestors a long long long time ago had basically been serfs here.

Muime explained all that as they walked, taking a turn into a narrow, curvier path, both sides lined with low bushes, maybe only a foot tall, dotted with little blue berries, um... Crap, Violet forgot what those were called in English — they were fraocháin in Gaelic, but the word wasn't coming to her. They looked like the blueberries that came from America, but they weren't quite the same. Anyway, Mum said that kind of compromise was actually pretty common in the first century or so after Secrecy started, since there'd been a lot of fighting before and everyone was tired, and couldn't really afford to keep killing each other. Some parts of Ireland especially had been in bad shape — the Refuge got through the war with the Cromwells mostly untouched, but other parts of Ireland hadn't been so lucky. Like, literally half of the whole island died in that war, it was ridiculous, and with the fighting over Secrecy and all, they really didn't want to fight if they didn't have to. So, sure, the peasants could be in control now, why not.

She was pretty sure Muime was just babbling about the family history because she was nervous, but that was still kind of interesting to know anyway. It did explain why Muime's family was so poor, since they'd been landless peasants working some lord's land until sort of recently. She meant, the Inghams had only handed over the lands here to the locals, like, two hundred years ago — that was practically yesterday by the mages. Violet's wand was older than that, Mum had been alive for almost half that time...

They were getting closer to the farmhouse now, coming around a bend in the path so Violet could see past the, um, wheat or barley or whatever that was. (She couldn't tell.) There were multiple buildings, one definitely a house, and another was probably a barn or something? and Violet didn't know what those were, she didn't know much about farming. Also there were cows! Past the building was a flatter, open field, and there were cows there! Not a lot of them, like...maybe five? Also she heard squawking somewhere, were those ducks or something? She knew a lot of mages raised ducks...

It wasn't the first time she'd seen cows in real life, like, at Millie and Daphne's places there were cows around, but it was always a little surprising, for some reason. There were plenty of animals you'd see around the Refuge sometimes, but not cows.

As they got closer, Violet started making out more detail. The house was pretty little, one floor and round, no wider across than theirs. (Since it was an oval, it actually covered less space, because that was how shapes worked.) The walls were made out of some kind of stone, the same greyish stuff that liked to poke out of the ground here and there in Ireland, in places with shapes carved into it she couldn't make out from here or painted with curls and spirals and knots. The roof was actually thatch — you know, dried grass bundled together, there might be tar or something under it? — the angles the stalks were sitting at shifting a bit in places to cover the whole oval shape. It looked super simple and old, but the frames of the door and the couple windows she could see were in ceramic, which she knew was much more modern, and she could make out a faint sparkle of colourful static in the air around it, magic.

There were hints of things happening, grey and brown and white ducks waddling around through the rows of vegetables and herbs set up between the house and the grain fields, and there was even a sheep! munching at something toward the end of one of the rows — um, was it supposed to be doing that? (Also, sheep looked so poofy in real life, they were funny.) The door was hanging open, and there was nothing in the windows, Violet could see movement inside, hear voices...

Violet took a long breath, trying not to be nervous. It didn't work very well.

There was a pretty big stone step outside of the door, they stopped there for a moment so Mum could quick clean off their shoes — they picked up some mud on the way, so. Violet twitched a little at a call coming from inside, "Aoife! Get in here and tell— Ah." A dark-haired woman hitched to a stop in the doorway, blinking out at them. Her dress was nice! It was kind of plain, Violet guessed, but it was still nice, linen dyed light green and orange, with curly stitching here and there in yellow or red or blue...

"You're staring, Madailéin," Síomha said.

"Of course, I'm sorry — I thought you were Aoife and Lonán! Well, come on, then, I—" Madailéin glanced at Mum, seeming oddly nervous for a second. But then she swept back into the house, waving them after her, raised her voice, "Grandmother! Síomha's here!"

Violet stepped through the door and then stopped, blinking. It was a lot nicer inside than she'd expected. It was more open than she thought it would be — the house was obviously bigger on the inside — a combined kitchen/dining/sitting area, the dining table and the chairs with only room for, like, six or maybe eight people, but with more open space to walk around in than it looked like from outside. She kind of thought the inside would look like the outside, but the floor and the walls and the ceiling were all made out of orangeish-brownish ceramic, new and nice and clean, the counters more ceramic and the cabinets and the dining table wood, the chairs wood or ceramic with embroidered cushions tied into place. It didn't look, like, super fancy or anything, and some parts were still clearly old — the fireplace in the sitting area was still the same grey stone as the outside...though even that was touched up, the yellow-orange flames flicking inside must be from an enchantment, no wood in there. It was pretty basic, some of the utensils and dishes about looking old and/or kind of iffy-looking, there were even what looked like hand-woven baskets on some of the counters with stuff in them, but it was nice! Way nicer than she thought it would be, from the outside.

They'd obviously done work in here, so, why did the outside of the house still look like that? Um, they were kind of poor, maybe they didn't have money to do everything, and they just thought the inside was more important? The outside just looked iffy, the inside being comfy made a bigger difference. Yeah, that made sense when she thought about it, that wasn't a hard question to figure out, actually.

And there were people in here, of course. There was cooking going on, the oven hot — the door propped open for some reason, she could make out a glow of fire — pots and pans on the hob. (That was new too, obviously, shiny ceramic and glowing hot metal coils.) So, since there was cooking going on, Violet wasn't super surprised that all the people in here were women — a mix of hair colours and dresses in different styles, most of them looking like they were about Síomha's age, maybe a little older, a couple noticeably older than that. And there were little kids in here too, two of them little toddlers and one obviously smaller, the three of them stacking up blocks in the space between the dining table and the sitting area. They were all wearing little dresses, but they could be girls or boys, apparently some poorer people didn't start putting boys in trousers until they were older. (They were harder to make than dresses, and little kids grew out of them quickly.) Violet thought the bundle in that basket over there was a sleeping baby? She couldn't see it very well from here.

Pretty much everyone (except the little kids) turned to look at them as they walked in, the chatter in the room falling off — Violet tensed, her breath freezing. But it was only quiet for a second before someone said, "Síomha Shorcha, you're early!" One of the women shuffled through the group, coming around the table toward them, one of the others taking over with something on the pan there without a word. She had light orangish hair, not quite the same shade of Síomha's, her eyes more blueish. Violet would guess she was the oldest here, looking middle-aged with the lines at the corners of her eyes and lips — older than her friends' mums, but not as old as, like, Julie — but with how long mages lived it was really hard to guess how old she was exactly. Assuming she was a mage, anyway, squibs sometimes aged like muggles and sometimes didn't, it was very confusing...

"I did mention Cassie wanted to help, didn't I?" Síomha's voice sounded a little high and tense, didn't know what that was.

Stopping a couple steps away, the woman said, "Yes, dear, I remember." She stiffened a little as she looked over at Mum, gave her a little nod. "Welcome, Lady Black."

Violet glanced that way in time to catch Mum force a smile — awkward, she thought. "Just 'Cassie' will be fine today. Caoileann?"

"Yes, I am." The woman, Caoileann, took a couple steps closer, holding out both hands. Violet didn't know why she was doing that, but apparently it wasn't confusing to Mum, because she just set her hands in Caoileann's... That kind of looked like how they held hands for some dances, now that she was looking at it, maybe this was just a thing some people did. "It is good to meet you, Cassie. I imagine today will be uncomfortable at times, but know that Oscar and I are happy for you and Síomha here — and Sorcha too, of course. If that helps."

"It does, a little. I have met Sorcha before, she seemed...enthused, about the engagement."

"She is at that! I think poor Sorcha had given up all hope of ever getting grandchildren out of this one," Caoileann said, nodding at Muime. Was that Muime's mum, Sorcha? Violet was sure she heard her name before at some point, and it did sound familiar...

Muime huffed. "You mean she'd given up all hope of me ever turning out halfway respectable."

"That too. And you must be Willow." Caoileann let go of Mum's hands, turned to Violet. She leaned down a little, closer to Violet's height, smiling at her all wide and warm. "Síomha told me about the colours in your hair, but that's even prettier in person!"

"Um...thanks?" She did think the chinks of rainbow colour that she put in her hair (and sometimes slipped in even when she didn't mean to) were really cool, but she didn't know what to say, exactly.

But it didn't seem like Caoileann thought she was being rude, just kept smiling at her. "Your new stepmother is my youngest son's daughter — so I'll be your great-grandmother from now on. Okay?"

For a couple seconds, Violet just stared up at Caoileann. Part of it was just, that, she wouldn't have guessed Caoileann was Muime's grandmother. Even after years and years living with mages, how much longer they lived still snuck up on her sometimes — Julie was a great-grandmother, and she looked older than Caoileann...though not really by that much, she guessed. But also, she was just– Violet didn't—

She'd thought this was going to be hard! That Muime's family didn't like Cassie much, and they weren't happy about the wedding, and they'd have to try really hard to get along and stuff? It didn't matter matter, like, the Master of the House approved so they didn't really need anyone's permission, but Muime wanted her family there, and for her dad to do the thing at the wedding and all. Violet was all prepared to try to be on her best behaviour, even if they weren't very nice, because it was important to Muime and Violet wanted her to be happy, but Caoileann just— Violet hadn't even done anything yet!

"Yes! Um, okay, I— N-n-nnn– I b– s– Hi." It didn't look like her voice was working, and she didn't even know what she wanted to say, really. So she just gave up, hunching in a little, feeling the heat on her face.

(So she had two great-grandmothers now — Caoileann wasn't a swan, but she seemed nice too.)

Caoileann apparently didn't care that Violet's voice was being stupid, leaned over, her hands cupping her (very warm) cheeks, and plopped a quick kiss on Violet's head, Violet warm and bubbly and trying not to squirm. (She'd been so worried this was going to go badly.) Then Caoileann was straightening again, "Come on, then, set that bag on the table here," a light hand on Violet's shoulder guiding her along...

Everyone quick said hello, Cassie and Violet being introduced to the other women in the room — half of them were Muime's cousins...or, cousin...-in-law? was that a thing? Saorlaith and Úna were her cousins, and Madailéin (the one who met them at the door) married one of Muime's boy cousins. Then there was Béibhinn, who was actually Muime's sister-in-law — her husband was Muime's eldest brother — and the little bit older blonde woman, older than Muime and the others but younger than Caoileann, was Muime's aunt(-in-law) Dearbháil...who was also Saorlaith's mum and Madailéin's mother-in-law. The sleeping baby (from closer to the basket Violet could see there was a baby there), was Ruarc, who was Saorlaith's, the younger boy playing with the blocks was Oscar, who was Madailéin's, that boy was Fiachra, Úna's, and the other boy was Muime's nephew Eoghán.

That was too many people too quickly, there was no way she was going to remember all of them. Or how they were related to each other, um, she was only mostly sure Dearbháil was Saorlaith's mum, she might have messed it up and she was actually Úna's...

There was a lot of chatter, people halfway talking over each other. That was a thing people did a lot, more in Gaelic or Cambrian than in English, and it was always very confusing — Violet wasn't following a lot of it very well. Everyone saying hello to Mum, a little awkward at first — not the sort of people who talked to nobility very often, not sure what they were supposed to do — but easing up pretty quickly. Um, she was pretty sure Muime's cousins were teasing them a little? She could tell by the way they said things, maybe, but she didn't get whatever the jokes were. Mum's bag, with all the stuff she'd brought with, was set on the table, bottles and dishes being pulled out...

"Willow, lovely, why don't you go out and play with the other children?" Muime called Violet lovely too, she was suddenly wondering if Caoileann was where she got it from. "Mathúin! Go show Willow out back, please."

Violet was confused for a moment — she didn't think she met a Mathúin yet — when a man suddenly appeared out of the sitting area from behind her. Tall and thin, with curly strawberry-blond hair and and blue-green eyes, he actually looked kind of a lot like Saorlaith — Violet guessed they might be brother and sister. She didn't notice him over there, too quiet, and with all the people grabbing her attention. There was a magazine rolled up in his hand, one of the plain-looking academic ones that Muime left all over the place back home, he must have been reading. Caoileann repeated the bit about bringing Violet out to the other kids, in case he hadn't heard, and then Dearbháil added something about setting up the tables. (She thought Dearbháil might be his mum, but she wasn't sure.) Without a word to Violet, just a little wave toward the door, he started walking off.

Um, okay. She glanced over at Mum and Muime — Mum was already busy helping, chattering with the other women, but Muime noticed Violet looking, gave her an encouraging little nod — before following after him. They stepped out the door and onto the little platform outside, Mathúin stopping to cast some kind of charm on his feet— "Oh! You have a wand!"

Mathúin turned halfway toward her (not actually looking at her), frowning a little. "Yes?" He paused for a second, as though not sure what to say, before helplessly shrugging and stepping down off the platform, started circling around the house. Violet, feeling the warmth on her face again, just silently followed.

She had the feeling that had maybe been a little rude, but she hadn't meant to be. Just, Mum made a whole thing about Síomha's family mostly not going to academy or anything, and wands were expensive. She kind of hadn't expected anyone to have any? Though, the women back in the kitchen had looked to be doing everything by hand, maybe only some people here had wands...

They walked silently in a little loop around the house, Mathúin not saying a word, or even looking back at her, and Violet feeling very awkward. Coming around to the back of the house, there was an open patch here, stretching out into the field the cows were on. (From closer up, she could see it wasn't covered in grass, but mostly clover, bunches of white and purple flowers speckled through it.) There was a big ceramic square box against the back of the house, almost at Violet's shoulder height — Mathúin tapped it with his wand, muttering something Violet didn't catch, and the box started floating along after him. "The younger children are that way," he said, pointing with his free hand toward what Violet was pretty sure was the barn, "helping feed the animals. The older children are probably messing around with camáin across the field over that way."

Violet perked up a little. "Camáin? They're playing iomáint?"

"Probably," Mathúin said, with a careless little shrug.

"Um, can we go that way?"

"Sure." Not saying any more than that, Mathúin just kept walking, toward the field with the cows. He dropped the box in the empty patch and left it behind, walking on without a word.

...Violet was starting to get the feeling her new uncle might be a little odd. Not that she was judging, she was also a little odd — very odd, sometimes — she was just saying.

The field the cows were in was filled with clover and these bunches of knee-high grass, apparently here for them to munch on? Though, maybe partly for them to munch on but also for farm reasons — Violet remembered from the reading she did planning her gardening over the last couple years that clover could help get stuff back into the soil, kind of like living fertiliser. Maybe they switched off which field was for the cows to keep everything nice? That would make sense, Violet kind of had to do something like that with the vegetables at home. Mathúin led her into the clover field, but not straight across it, curling to the right. They came within a few metres of one of the cows, Violet watching it as they went by — cows were big in person. After a bit they came to a path, a dirt track between the clover field and, um, whatever that was — she assumed it was grain, big tall stalks with bunches at the top, but she didn't know grain plants well enough to tell what kind — going up the slope of a shallow hill...

It looked like Muime's family's fields ended a bit past the top of the hill, a little rocky ditch cut through the ground. On the other side was a flat cleared area, and past that were more fields, another little farmhouse in the middle of them over there. Violet could see tiny little figures of people moving around — she guessed Muime's neighbours (and also more distant cousins) were having their own big Sunday dinner nextdoor. The cleared spot between the farms had a couple posts toward either end, rocks set every few feet in rows marking out boxes, Violet recognising it as a very basic pitch for playing iomáint. And there were already people running around and passing a couple sliotair back and forth, adult men (maybe dads?) and kids, her age or a little younger?

Mathúin stopped at the edge of the ditch, pointed at the wooden posts laid across it to make a rough bridge...and then he turned around and started back toward the house without a word. Um, okay then. Violet sucked in a long breath, trying not to be nervous, and crossed over the bridge and started toward the group of people.

It turned out, she again didn't really need to be nervous about it, it went perfectly fine. One of the kids spotted her coming and asked who she was, everyone stopping to watch, which made her kind of uncomfortable, yeah, but she just explained (stammeringly) that she was Violet Black, she came here with Síomha, and people instantly knew what she meant. Everybody knew Muime was bringing Cassiopeia and Violet Black with her today, so. Before they went back to playing Violet was given a rushed list of names that there was no way she was going to remember, ooh, she was so going to call someone the wrong thing on accident...

The grown-ups here were Fearghal, Muime's big brother, and also Aodhán and Marcach, who married Muime's girl cousins Úna and Saorlaith. (Violet immediately forgot which was married to which.) Fearghal's other kids were here, Violet's new cousins were called Colmán and Mairéad — Colmán was nine and Mairéad was six, both of them with long curly orange hair, a little bit darker than Muime's. Aodhán was also six, he was, um, Marcach's (she wasn't going to remember that), and Saorlaith was his big sister, she was ten. Um, wait a second, wasn't someone back at the house called Saorlaith? Yeah, Muime's cousin Saorlaith, Violet met just a couple minutes ago — Úna wanted to name her daughter after Saorlaith, because that wasn't confusing at all. The elder Saorlaith's daughter Aignéis was here too, but she didn't want to play iomáint with them, she was sitting at the edge of the field with her baby cousin Sadhbh, plaiting wildflowers together...

And that was without bringing in the other people who were here, from the other farmhouse, come to play with the neighbours/cousins while waiting for dinner to be ready. Violet was introduced to all of them too, but she didn't put any effort at all into remembering their names — she was trying to remember as many of the people they were having dinner with as she could, didn't have attention for it right now.

They had extra camáin waiting here — rather older and more rough-looking than the ones they had at school, the blades uneven like they were carved by hand, but they should work just as well — Violet was handed one and joined in passing the ball back and forth. Then they could just talk about what they were doing and iomáint and stuff, which was way easier for her than trying to figure out what to say to a bunch of brand-new cousins and uncles. It became obvious very quickly that the other kids weren't great at this yet, basically just trying to get the hang of bouncing the sliotar where they wanted without losing it — but that was fine, they were all younger than her. Yeah, she was in the club at school for a couple years now, see, like this, bap, bap, bap, bap, bap...

They were messing around a bit when a whole bunch more people turned up, all at once, several kids and teenagers led by a single grown-up. The man was Oisín, Muime's uncle — he definitely looked dad age, but his hair was still a bright pretty orange, and he moved like a younger man...even though all the kids and teenagers with him were his grandchildren. (Saorlaith and Áodhán ran up to give him hugs, he was their grandpa too.) The kids were all right around Violet's age, Fintan and then Éimhear and Bláithín, who were identical — that is, twins who came out looking exactly the same, matching auburn hair and the same faces and everything, exactly. Their hair styles were even the same, though their dresses were similar but in different colours, one mostly green and the other mostly yellow. The middle teenagers were the twins' brother Dáire and Fintan's brother Laoise — like mid-academy age, fourteen or fifteen? — and the older one was Fintan and Laoise's brother Conchúr, who was seventeen, Dora's age. Though, Dora normally made herself look whatever Violet's age happened to be when they were playing, most of the time she didn't really think about how much older than her she was...

Once names and stuff had gone around, they split into teams — everyone who wanted to play, anyway, some of the younger kids went aside to watch instead. They tried to make the teams mostly even, with about the same number of adults, teenagers, and kids on each side. It ended up not being perfectly even, but close enough to play around for fun. Violet tried to remember everyone on her team — she wasn't going to remember all their names, but she was usually better at keeping track of what people looked like — but then the game was starting and it quickly got very confusing.

The version of the game they played at school was more...orderly? Like, players had particular jobs, they were supposed to stay on the same part of the field — it wasn't super strict, they moved around a bit, but the rough idea. Here they didn't do that at all, just, people could run around and do whatever. Violet was a little surprised, at first, she thought they were going to talk about who was going where, but then suddenly the game was starting...

So, she was confused by the rules being different — not just the positions stuff, but a few other things too — kind of scrambling to keep up the whole time. It didn't help that most of the players were grown-ups or teenagers, Violet and the other kids tagging along but not really helping much. Sometimes the older players would make a point of passing the ball over to one of the kids — she could tell they were doing it on purpose, because everything seemed to suddenly slow down, the pass smoother and easier and the others keeping back to not get in the way. Sometimes they'd even let one of the kids take a bat at the posts, it...

After a while, Violet got the feeling that it was like they were teaching the kids? Or, partly, anyway — still playing, but in the way that the younger people could get a better idea of how this was supposed to work. That was nice of them, she guessed, but she was used to proper games where she was actually supposed to do stuff. This way where she was only kind of playing and only doing anything when the older people made a time for her wasn't nearly as much fun.

She did take a good whap at the other goal when she got a turn, just because — and actually got it in too, the sudden shot taking the grown-ups by surprise. Ha, so there.

But this wasn't fun for her, so she quit pretty quickly. She went over toward where Mairéad and Aignéis and, er, Sionnan, that was it, sitting over by the side of the field plaiting strings of wildflowers together to pass the time. There were a bunch of them, several different kinds, scattered across the hill here between the fields, even though Violet was pretty sure it was out of season for some of them to be blooming right now? The other girls just shrugged — maybe Violet was remembering wrong, or maybe it was because of all the magic here, magic did funny things to plants sometimes...

They mostly had single big flowers on long stalks that could be plaited together, a pile of them they'd picked while Violet was playing iomáint. Mostly daisies and poppies, some roses, those were forget-me-nots, some craga phortáin (forgot the English name), some potentillas — the muggle name, she forgot what mages called them in English, it was different — and, um... Violet wasn't sure what these ones were — the girls called them meánna drua, but that wasn't familiar. Maybe chamomile? They didn't smell like chamomile...

Anyway, Violet played around plaiting away, helping the littler girls every now and then — they were having trouble getting the stalks to behave for the plaits to sit right. Which was fair enough, doing this was flower stalks was way more awkward than yarn or hair or whatever. You know, making the circle was fine, but it felt like this could use something else to her. Um, she was gonna go look, be back.

There were actually more flowers around than she thought — she'd been distracted by the cows and the farmhouse over there and all the people around, not paying that much attention. Some were in bunches in the ditch, here and there in the empty field, and there was a bunch of trees a short way over there, flowering bushes spreading out along the edges. (That was where the girls got the roses, she thought.) In the field there was some, um um, milkwort, maybe, which would maybe work a little, a couple patches of goldenrods, which might be good! And there were stalks stretching up with these big bunches of tiny flowers, that were, er...yarrow or valerian? Not sure which. Those would be really good for what she wanted it for, she could—

Oh! She glanced over at the ditch while she was picking the yarrow/valerian, and there were orchids! The kind that had a bunch of little flowers on a stalk, she didn't see them at first — they were way shorter than the bunch-orchids she'd seen before, she guessed maybe this ditch wasn't the best spot for them. They were super pink and smelled really nice, she grabbed a few bunches of those, and ooh, there was some speedwell down here too, climbing along the rocks, she'd take some of that...

She got more flowers than she needed on purpose, when she got back to the girls she showed them how to stick one of these bunches through the plaited stalks, bending the shorter ends of the stem around to hold them in there, and look, you had an extra bunch of flowers hanging off of your thing, isn't that cool?

Just an idea she had, her brain does stuff like that sometimes. The trick she was doing to tie on the bunches was a stitch she borrowed from embroidery — you had to do it kind of bad and sloppy though, since the stems were so much thicker and stiffer, but it still worked. Of course she knew how to do stuff like that! Why wouldn't she? Oh, well, yeah, the Blacks were stupid rich, so they could just buy whatever, but it was more fun to make things yourself, you know? Like the embroidery along the hem of her skirt here, she did that herself, isn't that pretty? Aignéis said she helped do the needlework on her dress (both the sewing to hold it together and the decorative embroidery), and that was cool! You did good work — stammering very badly on "rinne" (not rinnis, she noticed they always used the plain ones here) — this curly bit here is so pretty. Well, even if your grandma gave you the pattern you still had to do it yourself, that was way better than what Violet could do when she was eight...

Talking to Aignéis and the younger girls, she was getting the idea that most people's clothes here would be handmade by someone in the family...which she had kind of already known? It came up a long time ago, when Mum was first getting her magical clothes and starting with textile stuff at school, that it was pretty common for poorer people to just buy fabric and put things together themselves — seamsters and stuff would take a cut, with the guild setting standards and needing to pay workers and paperwork people it made stuff way more expensive, so. It just wasn't something she thought of most of the time, since her neighbours mostly had enough money to buy clothes. Not super nice clothes like the kids at her silly pre-Hogwarts tea parties got, but.

Making all of your clothes yourself sounded...hard. She'd stick with just stitching pretty patterns and putting beads in things, thanks.

The twins showed up after a little bit, apparently tired of the game, and Violet and the younger girls played around plaiting flowers together and talking about, like, sewing and stuff. Aignéis and the twins definitely knew more about making things than Violet did — they did a couple of the things as part of the classes on it at the Academy, but she had way more practice just with embroidery and stuff. She really couldn't guess how long they were at it, any awkward questions about Violet being a Black and Mum and Muime long past, but eventually someone came back over the hill — a man, Violet didn't meet this one yet — and the game quickly broke up. It was time for dinner, okay then.

Violet and the other girls picked up their flowers and stuff, by the time they were ready most of the group were already well ahead of them, they skipped along to catch up. When they got to the top of the hill, the farmhouse coming into view again, she saw it was a little different now. In that open space between the house and the clover field — the one with the cows in it, they were still there — a few big tables had been set up, with things laid out on them, too far away for her to make anything out from here.

Also, there were so many people bustling around the tables, jeez...

Crossing the clover field, Violet slowed down, watching the crowd around the tables. That really was a lot of people — she was suddenly nervous all over again. But before she could fall too far behind, the twins were looping their arms around hers by the elbow and dragging her along. Okay, then.

There were far too many introductions when they got back to the group, too many new names and faces, Muime's aunts and uncles and cousins and nieces and nephews, and more and more and more, Violet was getting a little dizzy trying to keep them all straight. She definitely forgot so many names like right away, there were just too many! And it was loud, all talking over each other, hard to keep track of what was going on...

Most of it just slipped right in one ear and out the other, the next person pushing the last right out of her head. But she did meet Muime's mum, she was nice! Violet didn't really hear what she said, it was too noisy, but she was all smiling all nice, blue eyes warm, blonde and light-brown hair fluttering in the wind, bending down closer to Violet to say...something. Too loud, and all the people were too much, it was hard to focus on the words enough to make sense of them.

Muime's mum stopped talking, still smiling at her — probably waiting for Violet to say something? But she didn't know what she was supposed to be saying, she hadn't really been taking in anything. So for a bit she just stared up at...Sorcha? was that her name? Violet thought her name was Sorcha. She didn't know what to say, just blinking up at her, and...

"Here!" Violet said, holding up the ring of flowers she'd plaited together. Actually, with her leaning over, she could just reach up and plop it down on top of her head, there. "I, um, I m-mmade that, um. Hi."

Sorcha grinned. "I love it, thank you, sweetheart. Come here." Her arms were coming around Violet, and, hugs were easier than talking, she could do hugs right now. Hugs were nice.

Violet was sat down at a table...somehow. She honestly wasn't super sure how it happened? Just, there was a lot going on, and there were so many people, and it was, just, hard to keep track of. She felt very warm — she was pretty sure she was blushing — and twitchy, and kind of grating, like, she didn't know, just. Could people stop moving around and talking over each other so much? It was starting to get to her...

(She was kind of wishing she was back out in the field playing with flowers — that had been comfortable, but this was a little much.)

She sat there for a little bit, ducking her head with her eyes squeezed closed, all the talking a meaningless rattle in her head. She understood the Gaelic just fine, just, too many voices, too loud — like sometimes at duelling events or crowded restaurants and stuff, it was confusing. Eventually it got quieter, though, she blinked her eyes open and looked up. Someone, er...she thought that had been Caoileann, actually. Anyway, someone had lead her to a seat at a table with the other kids, around Violet's age and younger. The twins were nearby, and Aignéis and her sister, and a girl around her age she hadn't met yet. Violet made a mental note to ask, to be polite, when she was distracted by someone talking.

A man was standing at one of the grown-up tables — there were more than one grown-up table, because there were just so many people here — welcoming everyone here, thanking the women for their work cooking and all, that kind of thing. There was a little bit about Mum and Violet being here, that, as they'd all heard, their most stubborn cousin had somehow found a way to cheat and marry a woman — but hey, she'd managed to land one who'd pay for the drinks, so good going there. It sounded kind of mean, but Violet was pretty sure he was just teasing? People were laughing about it, and, she could see Muime from here, and she was just smiling and shaking her head, so, it was probably fine. After a bit more teasing, there was a prayer, to Áine and Fliodhas and Bríd. Then he added Clíodhna, in a way that sounded like a joke, and some of the adults were laughing, but Violet didn't get it. She knew Clíodhna was a goddess, did stuff with, like, beauty and music and love and stuff, but she didn't get what was funny...

She was still trying to figure that out when there was a shouting of something, Violet ducking her head, too loud and too many different voices overlapping for her to pick out the words...and apparently they were supposed to start eating. Okay, then.

The food was fine, if not anything super special. Just basic stuff, you know, bread and meat and vegetables, a couple bowls of some kind of stew thing that had barley and, um, some kind of vegetables in it. Parsnips, maybe? (She was pretty sure it wouldn't be potatoes, those were from America, mages mostly didn't have them.) There didn't seem to be a lot of spices, but she could definitely smell herbs, parsley and rosemary and sage and mint. There were also these honey-cake things she'd seen before — thin little circles of soft bread drizzled with honey, sometimes with cheese or ground hazelnuts on top — and berries with cream...

Violet didn't feel like eating, really. She was feeling all tense and small and spiny and blech, and... She hadn't really felt so hungry before, but she definitely didn't now. That was in her head, though, she was just in a weird mood for some reason, and she didn't want to be rude! They might think she was, like, too snobby for normal people food or whatever, when really she just felt bleh and her skin felt all thick and slimy and her head was filled with fuzz — and it was loud out here, why was it so loud — so eating really didn't feel like something she wanted to do right now. But she still should, just for being a good guest reasons, and also it had been a while since she'd eaten last. So, she should...do that.

She was putting together a plate of stuff, slowly bit by bit — just little bits of stuff, kept far away from each other, because she only had the one plate, and she didn't want things to mix and get all gross — and, um, those beans over there looked good. Violet tried to ask someone to pass the bowl over for her, but it was so loud, her voice coming out in a stammery whisper. The second time she tried her voice wasn't wanting to come out at all, locked like a hard cold rock in her throat.

So instead of trying again, she tapped at the twin on her right (Éimhear, she thought) until she got her attention, and just pointed at the bean bowl. Éimhear seemed confused for a second, glancing back and forth, but then she asked someone to pass the beans over here, so, good, that worked. While Violet was putting a scoop of beans on her plate — looked like there were mushrooms mixed in here, and maybe bits of something else, not sure what — Éimhear leaned in a little, muttered as quiet and private as she could with how loud it was. "Are you okay? You look all..."

Oh, so you could see how very uncomfortable Violet was — hopefully that wasn't rude, she couldn't really do anything about that. Her voice still wasn't cooperating, so she just shrugged, wiggled a hand in the air a little. She could tell she was getting looks, other kids at the table were talking about her, but she ignored them, just split off a bite of the roast, cooked enough it fell apart with just her fork. This was Mum's, she thought, the gravy looked like hers. It did taste fine, but the gravy felt all slimy, the strings of meat like little warm worms in her mouth, her stomach squirming and her skin prickling, uuuuggghhhh...

After a little bit, Éimhear leaned over again to ask, "Are you like Uncle Mathúin? He doesn't like crowds either — he's eating alone inside right now."

...Sometimes she didn't like crowds, but it was only sometimes, and she could never guess when it was going to happen. She'd been just fine a few minutes ago! She didn't know what was going on. Well, okay, she did know what was going on — her picky sensitive autistic brain was being stupid — but if it could really just stop and go back to normal again that would be nice. But her voice wasn't working right now, so she just shook her head, and went back to trying to eat.

The food didn't stop feeling weird in her mouth, enough that she didn't even really taste it half of the time, but she was managing to eat anyway. Slowly, yeah, and she probably didn't look like she was having very much fun right now, but she was eating stuff, so. She thought people were maybe trying to talk to her sometimes? All the talking going on, too many voices at once, it was all mixing up into a solid wall of noise, pressing in on her making her ears buzz, it was hard to pick out words, just a babble of nonsense sounds. It was starting to make her head hurt, kind of badly, the back of her neck itching, but she tried to ignore it, and act...sort of normal. As normal as Violet could ever be anyway — most little girls didn't have rainbow swirls in their hair, or voices that stopped working when they got too uncomfortable.

She felt like she was sticking out, that everyone noticed that she wasn't talking like everyone else, and that her hair had rainbows in it and she was staring down at her plate and eating really slowly and awkwardly (like she was trying not to be sick), she could feel the heat on her face, her stomach squirming, but she tried to ignore it. She didn't want to be rude, or make problems for Muime by being a mess who couldn't make it through a family dinner like a normal person.

(She almost thought the word freak, but caught herself just before.)

It wasn't working well, she didn't think — she couldn't understand what people were saying, the words overlapping too much, but she could tell that other kids at the table kept looking at her. Which then made trying to eat even more awkward, food feeling slimy or gritty or stringy in her mouth, her stomach squirming and her skin prickling. She was doing it, it was just...hard.

Until she picked up her bread, and it was soggy on the bottom. The beans, the sauce the beans were in had oozed across her plate when she wasn't looking, soaking into her bread — it was on her fingers. Her skin crawling, like her arm was filled with bees, she dropped the bread, something hot and thick jumping up her throat, jerking back away from the table, she slapped her hand down on her thigh, wiping the sauce off—

With her skirt. She hadn't meant to do that, it was just the only thing she could think of, even grabbing at her skirt with her other hand and tugging it around so she could get at the stuff between her fingers (ick ick ick ick), and now she had sauce all over her clothes, and people were looking at her, she felt herself shrinking under their eyes, her face burning and her skin pinching and stinging, the buzzing fuzziness in her head starting to throb like a bruise, the hot thick thing in her throat hurting, her ears ringing and—

Violet stood up — a little stiff and teetering, it took her a couple steps to find her balance — and walked away.

Not really looking where she was going, she just wanted to be away for a bit, curling around the house. It was quieter on the other side, there were patches of vegetables and herbs over here, and fields of taller plants... She thought those rows right there were flax, actually. All the way across the house from the dinner, the stone building blocked most of the noise — she could still hear them, but it wasn't that bad, stopped ringing so badly in her head. Violet picked a spot between the rows of herbs against the house and the patches of, like, cabbages and carrots and stuff (a couple ducks waddling around in the rows), and plopped down onto the ground.

She hugged her arms around her ankles, leaned her head against her knees, and tried to, just, calm down. Her stomach was sill squirming, her skin hot and prickling, and her head still hurt, buzzing, pounding behind her eyes. It was better without all the noise, but it hadn't gone away yet. She took long, slow breaths, as deep as she could kind of scrunched up like this, blotches of colour blooming and fading and swirling around in the darkness behind her eyelids, and just...

She hoped she hadn't ruined it. This whole dinner thing was important, Muime wanted them to get on with her family, she wanted her parents at her wedding! Or, her dad, really, Violet didn't think her mum was a big problem. They wanted to make Muime's family like them, so they'll be happy about the wedding and all, this was important, and Violet couldn't even get all the way through dinner...

She really hoped she hadn't ruined it for Muime. She wanted her to be happy! and that they were getting married was great, and...

Violet wasn't really feeling sick anymore, but worrying about maybe messing up getting Muime's family to like them wasn't helping make her headache go away.

She didn't know how long she was sitting here on the ground curled up alone — there wasn't that much time for her to keep going around in circles and feeling terrible about maybe ruining the wedding, so maybe only a couple minutes — when she heard footsteps rustling on the clover. (She thought it was clover, most mages didn't use grass for groundcover, like she remembered from Privet Drive.) Violet tensed up, pulling in on her ankles, squeezing into a tighter ball — nnnoooo, why couldn't whoever it was leave her alone? At least it was only one person, but still...

The person sat down next to her, not touching Violet at all, but still really close. They were fiddling with stuff over there, things being set down in the grass. After a few seconds, Violet caught a tiny hint of rosehips and oranges — Muime.

Her throat burning and her head pounding, Violet just squeezed in tighter.

"Willow, lovely, can you let go for a second? Use this instead."

Violet was curious enough that she tilted her head, to see what Muime was talking about. She was holding a poofy round pillow, a greenish colour, the fabric fuzzy and soft-looking. Where did she get that from? Oh wait, magic, she must have conjured it. Mostly because she already felt bad about maybe messing things up, she did what she was told — she let go of her ankles and loosened up out of her ball, her hands and her legs aching a little, sore. Muime stuck the pillow between her chest and her legs, Violet wrapped her arms around—

Oh, it was soft. She let her legs go limp, squeezing the pillow against herself, pressing her face down against the top. It was a little cool, and smooth and nice, and Violet immediately started feeling a little better, the prickliness in her skin softening and her headache weakening. That was really fast, for no real obvious reason, she kind of suspected Muime might have put a calming charm or something on the pillow...

Magic pillows sounded like a great idea, really. Why did she never think of that before? She knew you could stitch runes into fabric to make it do magic, it was mentioned at school, she should ask if they could make a pillow for her when she got all bleh. A lot like this one, actually, but she was pretty sure this would disappear when the magic ran out, she needed a real one.

"There we go. Can you talk right now?"

Violet shook her head. The pillow was helping, but she still felt too tangled and scratchy and bleh to try to talk.

"That's okay, sweetheart. Do you think you can eat something? We should try, at least — we probably won't be having anything when we get home."

She shook her head again, for the same reasons, really. If her throat was too tight and hot to talk, eating would be a problem too.

"How about a drink? I have some cider here. I warmed it up, I think it should be nice on your throat."

...She could try, she guessed. Lifting her head from the pillow, blinking against the light, she didn't let go of the pillow all the way, still hugging it against her stomach — but she did worm out one hand, so she could hold onto the cup Muime handed her. The cider wasn't super great, probably not the expensive stuff Mum bought, with less of the spices and whatever else, but it was warm and sweet and appley, the alcohol aftertaste barely there. (She remembered there was cider at the kids' table, probably weaker than the stuff for adults.) There were maybe some berries in it too, and...a kind of pine-y taste. Juniper, maybe? She might be imagining that. And it did feel nice on her throat, kind of loosening it up a little, all nice and smooth and warm in her stomach. She took a second sip right away, because that was helping.

Muime gave her a little bit — just sitting there next to her without saying a word, to not make her feel like she had to talk back, sipping at her own drink — for a little while before trying to offer her food again. She had little pieces of bread, with some kind of soft cheese spread on them, with a little drizzle of honey.

...Violet could try one, she guessed. The bread was a little chewy and gritty (like the flour wasn't quite ground down proper), which got some bad prickles going, but then the cheese and the honey hit, smooth and thick enough to cover it up. For her second bite, she was smart and turned the piece of bread upside down, so the soft side hit her tongue first — there, better.

It stayed quiet, the party behind them muffled from the house, and they just sat there, sipping at the cider and eating the cheesy bread. Slowly, just a little bit now and then — she thought Muime was only having one when she had one, so she didn't eat them all while Violet was still feeling bleh. They didn't talk at all, just sitting silently, and...

"I'm sorry," Violet whispered.

"It's all right, lovely, you don't need to apologise."

"No, but– I— I d-d-did—" She cut herself off, took a long shaky breath, another sip of her cider. "We're sup-p-pose– To be nice, and, and, your d-dad, for the wedding..."

Peeking through her hair, she thought Muime looked kind of confused — which made sene, Violet wasn't being very clear. It was just hard, her voice wasn't working, and her brain was all fuzzy, she didn't know what... But then she twitched, her eyes widening. "Ah! No, don't you worry about that, it's all right."

"But, but I, but, I rr-r-ruined it, I rran away, and, and—"

Muime sighed. "It's okay. Come here, Willow." She was lifting an arm, scooting a little closer. Moving for a funny sideways hug here on the ground, obviously. Violet still wasn't feeling very nice, all crawly and bleh, and she did a bad thing...but she already did a bad thing, and she didn't want to do more bad by not letting Muime hug her...

Awkward, Violet sidled closer, ducking under Muime's arm, coming down around her and— Oh right, hugs were nice. She set her cider cup down and leaned into Muime's side, smooshing her face into her breast a little, Muime's other arm coming around too, squeezing her in, her head leaned over her, her breath tickling a little through Violet's hair. All warm and soft and nice, and she smelled good, the stuff she put in her hair and the light bit of citrus and baking bread from home that kind of soaked into everything in the house. Violet felt herself relax a little, not just because of all that, but also Muime was hugging her all nice, so, she really must be telling the truth about not being annoyed with her for messing up.

"You didn't ruin anything," Muime said, her breath warm on the top of Violet's head. "Sometimes children have a hard time with something, and you have to go take care of them — that's just mum stuff."

...Oh.

"Besides, it'll look good that I'm comfortable leaving Cassie back there without me. As long as she doesn't say anything completely mad, anyway."

Her voice coming out muffled, mumbling against Muime's shirt, Violet said, "But she's Mum though."

Muime giggled, low and light, shaking against Violet a little. "I'm sure it'll be fine — Cassie can behave herself when the situation calls for it. When it's something she actually cares about, anyway. Honestly, Willow, you didn't ruin anything. It's okay."

Oh, well. If Muime said so, she guessed.

It took a little bit for the rest of Violet's bleh feeling to go away, but Muime didn't seem to mind, just kept holding her, one hand rubbing at her back and the other combing through her hair. Eventually she asked what set Violet off this time — there were just so many voices all at once, it was just noise, and then Violet had to eat things, and she was already feeling nervous, she guessed put together it was just too much. Muime was actually less surprised about it than Violet was. Apparently when they were travelling and stuff, Muime noticed that she got really quiet in crowds, and in noisier restaurants she didn't tend to talk much at all, and sometimes ate extra slowly...

Yeah, she guessed it wasn't a big surprise, when she thought about it. Sometimes crowds and stuff were fine! She thought, maybe, it was just the combination of already wanting to make sure everything went okay and Muime's family liked them, and too many people talking at once, and also needing to eat things, and then accidentally getting gravy on her hand, put together it was too much.

It was really bad, actually, the skin-crawly stomach-squirming head-pounding feeling she got sometimes — sort of like the nails-on-chalkboard feeling for normal people, but Shannon had said that autistic people sometimes get the same feeling for lots of stuff. Which was annoying, but she guessed if it was just the way her brain was it wasn't really her fault...

When Violet asked how you were supposed to keep track of what one person was saying in a crowd like that, like, tune out everything else so you could understand it, Muime got confused. Apparently normal people just...did that? without thinking?

Violet pouted into Muime's chest — that wasn't helpful.

At Hogwarts, all the meals were in the Great Hall, the whole school in there all at once (which Muime knew despite not going there for some reason). Violet would probably have to go like everyone else, but Muime would tell Mum to make her an amulet before she left to deaden the voices of everyone she wasn't trying to pay attention to, which was something enchanting could do — that was helpful, super helpful, thanks.

(Violet might just wear that whenever she was in public, honestly, would make trying to talk to people when there were things going on a bit less confusing.)

After she was feeling better they got back to eating the pieces of cheesy bread Muime brought with — though there weren't very many left, they already ate most of them. No, Violet didn't really want to eat anything else, she wasn't hungry. She wasn't still feeling all gross and bleh, mostly better now, just...kind of tired? Not a physical tired, from like gardening or running around with Lasairín or playing iomáint or anything but, like, a brain tired, from spending a long time reading or painting or something. Going back there with all the people and the talking, and the other kids would ask her what happened, all that sounded hard.

Muime said that was fine, they could stay out here. Violet felt kind of bad about that — that was her family back there, and she didn't think Muime really saw them very often these days — but she really didn't want to go back, so.

All of the bread was gone, Violet only with a couple last sips of cider left, the two of them talking about whatever. The farm, which was interesting — Muime didn't live here when she was little, but she had to come over here to help for chores sometimes, she knew a lot about how everything worked — and Violet's big birthday party coming up, which she wasn't really looking forward to — it was going to be a fancy thing for the nobility and future Hogwarts kids and all, which usually weren't fun parties, the only good part was that she got a new pretty dress for it. (Also, now she was worried she was going to freak out again, there were going to be a lot of people there.) They were talking about fun games and stuff they could maybe do — the party was already planned, but there was room to add little things if she wanted — when Violet heard someone coming. She looked over her shoulder, spotted a woman coming around the house their way, a plate in each hand.

As she got closer, Violet noticed she was younger than she thought at first — a teenager still, probably around Dora's age. (The clothes on most everyone here were a little old-fashioned-looking, threw her off.) She had long hair, bright orange tumbling in curls over her shoulders and down her back, freckles dotting her cheeks, picking over here barefoot, on the balls of her feet, she...

Violet blinked. She looked at Muime, and then back at the girl. They looked really similar. The younger girl had bits in her hair that were a lighter almost blonde-ish colour, her freckles denser and darker, like she spent more time in the sun — those were the biggest differences, their faces not quite the same but pretty close.

Of course, most of the people here looked a little bit like Muime, they were all related. This girl just looked more obviously like Muime than most of them.

"Hello there, you two," the girl said as she got close. Her voice didn't really sound like Muime's at all, so at least that was different.

"Aoife. Bring something for us?"

"Sure. We were moving on to the cakes, thought someone should bring something over to you. That fancy lady of yours was talking with Fearghal, Dad, Grandpa, and Éanna and Lonán and Aodhán, so I volunteered." The girl came to a stop in front of them, her skirt swishing around her legs a little. "So, did you want to eat these out here, or...?"

It didn't really seem like Muime was listening — she grimaced a little when she heard who Mum was talking to. "And, ah, how is that going? With Cassie and Dad and the others."

The girl, Aoife, shrugged. "Nobody was throwing insults or fists, so I think fine? Am I handing these to you, or are we going back? Or inside, maybe — I don't think Mathúin would mind just the two of you intruding on his quiet."

"Inside, I think, and I'd like to go steal some wine while we're at it. Willow?" Muime asked, turning to her.

Violet didn't want to go back to the party, still sounded like way too much, but in the house with just Mathúin was okay. "We can g-g-g-go inside. Bleh." Finally letting go of Violet all the way, Muime collected their used things, the nice pillow vanished, Violet pushing herself up to her feet. She felt all stiff and tired and ugh, way harder than it needed to be. "Hey, do you think Mathúin has autism?" She had to ask the question in English, mages didn't really have a word for it.

Standing up now, their cider cups balanced on the empty plate, Muime frowned, thinking about it for long enough that Aoife spoke first. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. Was that thinking something about Mathúin? Or..."

"She was asking if Mathúin has the same difficulty she does," Muime said to Aoife, before turning back to Violet. "I don't know, Willow love, we aren't as specific about these things as muggle healers can be. You can ask him about it, if you want, I don't think he'll mind."

...Was that rude? Violet thought that was maybe rude. Though, she guessed she wouldn't mind if she were in Mathúin's place, if they were polite questions — especially if the person was asking because they were autistic, and was curious if she was too. Maybe she would ask him about it, but not if it looked like they were already making him uncomfortable.

They started walking, Aoife still carrying their cake. Violet could maybe take those, but Aoife didn't seem to be in a hurry to get away from them, so. They weren't even to the end of the herb patch she'd sat down in front of when Muime said to Violet, "By the way, my baby sister Aoife," pointing at her. "I don't know if you've met already."

"I g-g-guessed, you l- you look similar." Violet leaned around Muime so she could wave up at Aoife. "Hello, n-n-nnnice to meet you."

Aoife grinned. "Nice to meet you too, Lady Potter," she muttered — and then winked.

...Um.

The nice if kind of simple kitchen was way emptier than the last time Violet saw it. There were still some dishes and bottles and stuff on the counters, but the only person in here was Mathúin — sitting at the table with a plate and a mug, poking over some kind of book. Aoife set the cake plates down on the table, joked about going easy on them. Mathúin seemed about as confused by the comment as Violet was, frowning down at his book. Muime actually asked if it was okay for her and Violet to stay here, but he just shrugged, so. Violet sat down at the table, Muime grabbing some wine for herself and more cider for Violet, asked Mathúin if it was okay to turn on the radio. There was some professional duelling stuff going on, apparently, Muime did follow that...

The cake was okay, Violet guessed — it tasted fine, she just didn't think she was in the mood for it. It was really thick and heavy, there were berries speckled through it, and some kind of really thick almost caramel-y sauce? She didn't know what that stuff was made out of. Probably not sugar, like cane sugar, maybe like a syrup they made by boiling...something? Whatever. It was really berry-y, and the cake was really moist and almost even juicy — there was some kind of sauce or something it'd been soaked in overnight, Muime said — and it seemed good...except the caramel-y stuff sticking to her teeth was setting Violet off again. She ate most of her piece, cutting off bits of cake and leaving the caramel-y stuff behind, she ended up just giving the rest of hers to Muime at the end. The cup of nice warm cider was far better for the mood she was in right now.

Mathúin didn't have the cake either, because it turned out he was super picky about food. Apparently, his big issue was with consistency — he didn't like it when things were mixed up, or you had parts that had different feels to them in the same thing. (There were other things that bothered him, but that was the big one that was the most trouble with actually eating things.) So, for him, the berries in the cake would be the biggest problem...though he didn't like how sticky it looked either. And yeah! Violet always had to kep food things separate too — sometimes foods could go together, like if it was in a pasty or a sandwich or a sausage roll or something, or if they were just things that worked together for whatever reason...though Mathúin couldn't have those either, he did—

Oh no! He didn't think bread and melty cheese went together! (Bread and soft, spreadable cheese was fine, but not melty.) That meant he couldn't have cheese buns, or pizza! He really didn't like pizza? But pizza was so good! He really didn't like melty cheese at all, apparently, that was sad...

When Violet said that the thing that set her off today was some gravy stuff getting on her bread roll, and then getting on her hand, Mathúin made a face at her — Violet couldn't help giggling a little.

The book Mathúin had was some enchanting journal, reading through the articles and making notes in the margins to talk over with his master later. Mathúin didn't go to academy — Muime was the only Sirideáin here who had — but he did go to craft school. (Though he started really late, they didn't say exactly how late — Violet thought he'd been a teenager already maybe?) He got an enchanting apprenticeship around the same time Síomha started her Mastery study, but the old-fashioned master-apprentice track and the academic track with proper classrooms and stuff were different, and also the subjects worked differently, and also Síomha finished her Mastery extra early, so he was still in his apprenticeship.

He did have a wand, but he hadn't had it very long — his master actually bought it for him, as part of the deal they worked up for his apprenticeship. It was kind of like the contract Mum signed for Violet to be taught by Master Walter — Mathúin was a little surprised that she was doing something like that already, less when he learned it was an art thing, those often started really young — but with a different kind of thing, so the terms of the agreement were really different, it was complicated. (Violet thought Mathúin had to pay off the cost of the wand working for this master person, and probably other stuff too, she wasn't sure.) So, he had a wand, but almost no one else in the family did. There were six wands on the property right now: Mum's and Muime's and Violet's, obviously, and Mathúin's, and Fionn's — Síomha's aunt's husband, his family was rather more well off than theirs, some of them went to an Ollscoil — and their grandpa Oscar had a staff, which was the same kind of thing as a wand and should count.

Though, the staff wasn't really Oscar's, exactly — it was part of the farm, kind of? The staff belonged to whoever was in charge of the household, when it was passed down to the next person the last one handed off the staff. It was kind of a symbol, you know, the person with this thing is in charge, but also it was to do some basic routine magic things around the place, and sometimes for emergencies. Mathúin's brother Niall was getting lessons in how to use it, since the farm was probably passing to him next, but for now it was Oscar's.

Violet didn't realise people actually used staves anymore. She'd seen priests with them, a few times, but she thought that was, like, a religious thing? Apparently they were just really rare these days, wands came in and mostly took their place. Okay, then.

(After talking to him for a while, Violet was pretty sure Mathúin was autistic. She didn't ask, though — he probably wouldn't know what it meant anyway, and it didn't really matter.)

Eventually, people started coming into the house, Síomha's aunts and cousins and uncles and stuff. It was fine at first, but then it started getting noisy in here, and there were too many people and too many conversations going on at once, Violet felt herself going quiet again. (She noticed Mathúin pick up his journal and his cup and disappear through a door further into the house, apparently too much for him too.) Dishes were coming back in, looked like dinner was over...

It looked like people were going to be hanging out more — there were snacks and more drinks and stuff. But it wasn't very long after people started to come back into the house that some people were getting ready to leave, especially the ones that had little kids. Violet was kind of hoping they were going too, feeling kind of bad about it. Like, this was Síomha's family, and she was living with Mum and Violet now, so she wasn't sure how much she got to see them, and they were trying to be nice to get along and everything? But Violet was tired, and all the people in here being noisy were giving her a headache again...

They were going, it turned out, Mum showed up leaning over her chair and asking if she was ready to go. (Violet thought so, it was loud in here, she was having trouble picking words apart again.) There was a flurry of goodbyes, which, Violet was trying to be nice and talk when she was supposed to, but their voices were all buzzing in her ears, and her voice was being stubborn about not working right. She did manage to fight past it to say goodbye to Aignéis and the twins, and there were hugs and stuff, from Sorcha (still with the flower ring Violet made) and Caoileann and some aunts and cousins, it was kind of a lot, Violet feeling all hot and flushed and squirmy...

And then they were leaving. Violet was a little relieved, honestly, letting out a big breath as they left the house. She wasn't trying to be rude, just...not so many people next time, please.

They were walking back the way they came, along the path curling between a couple fields of some kind of grain, quietly, Violet relaxing bit by bit. Mum and Muime were holding hands, but they let Violet just follow behind — she thought they noticed she was getting kind of overwhelmed, and thought it was better to not touch her for now. Which was probably a good idea, she didn't mind. (Besides, they were being kind of cute.) They'd been walking a couple minutes, maybe halfway through the fields, when Muime said, "So."

"So?"

"How did it go?"

"I think it went rather well, all things considered. Everyone seemed to like the roast and the bread and the wafers well enough — not to mention the mead, of course. And, well, nobody tried to murder me, so it wasn't the worst family dinner I've ever been to."

Muime gave Mum a look, Violet didn't know what she was thinking. Not that she was joking about that, hopefully, because she was very sure someone actually had tried to kill Mum at a family dinner at least once. Violet had been at a holiday party once when that almost happened, years ago now... "Aoife said you were talking to my father."

"Mhmm."

Muime waited for a few seconds, for Mum to say something about it — but it didn't seem like she was going to. "And?"

"Big lover of music, turns out. You never mentioned your father could play...what, three instruments?"

"...Five. I think."

"Entirely by ear too, he claims to not be able to read music very well at all. That's just natural talent, very impressive."

"Cassie..."

Her voice dropping out of the casual bouncy jokey tone she'd been using into something flatter and more serious. "Give it time, Síomha. There's generations' worth of distrust for the nobility to work through — and as it happens, some of his friends have family who've had unfortunate experiences with the Blacks specifically. And there's the family's reputation from the war, and... I think he also doesn't approve of us both being women, but. I think it'll work out, honestly. Just give him some time."

They walked silently for a few seconds, Muime thinking about that. "Well, good. He'd barely even talk to me about the wedding at all, so. Good."

"Ah ha... He did make a face when I was explaining to Oscar how the legalities are going to work out, obviously not particularly happy about it, but I think he'll come around. It might take a little while, though — depending on how stubborn he is about it, we may have to delay the wedding until next summer."

"That's all right. I can wait that long."

...Violet didn't want to wait that long. It was so cool that Mum and Muime were getting married, that Muime was going to be family for real! Also, pretty dresses, and cake, and later on baby sisters, which also sounded cool — if a little scary, she'd never been a big sister before, didn't want to mess it up. But it sounded like she hadn't messed up the dinner, that it actually went okay — if not quite as well as it could have — so that was good. Even if none of them wanted to wait that long, it sounded like Muime's dad even talking to Mum was progress, so.

"Also, I'm pretty sure your mother likes me, so there's that."

Muime let out a scoff. "Mum likes that I'm settling down — that her granddaughter is going to be Lady Black one day is a nice bonus. There was almost no way she was ever not going to approve of the marriage."

"Yes, well, regardless. On a mostly unrelated note, have you heard of a set of Muircheartaigh bonded triplets?"

"Ah...I think so. They don't live around here, they're on some other Muircheartaigh property, um...across the River somewhere in County Luimnigh, I think." Muime meant the an tSionainn, a lot of Irish mages just called it the River, capital-R. "I might have met their mother once or twice ages ago, I can't remember — I don't think we're related at all, it's a big family. Why?"

"Turns out they're Blacks."

Muime suddenly ground to a stop, Violet nearly ran right into her, Mum continuing on a couple steps, stopped by the tug from Muime's hand. "What?"

"I'm as surprised as you. I meant to look into where all the Blacks got off to, but I've been busy, I never got around to tracking down some of them. Your cousin-in-law Aodhán said their grandfather was Alphard — that's my brother Pollus's youngest child, he was disowned ages ago when he refused a proper marriage and instead shacked up with a common squib. That's what I was told at the time, anyway, I guess I have no idea whether she's actually a squib or not..."

Mum's brother Pollus, she meant Uncle Pollus, the same one who visited them around Lord Arcturus's funeral? His son married a Muircheartaigh? What were the chances of that? Muime said it was a big family, but still.

"...You mean Alpháirt? Alpháirt Uí Mhuircheartaigh?"

"I knew him as Alphard Black, but yes. I might have to sponsor the girls now, just on principle — especially since their mother didn't get any legacy from Alphard at all, due to his disownment. Doing right by my nephew might cause a bit of a scandal in your family, so, sorry about that."

"Mother have mercy, you've got to be joking..."

Violet wasn't really following all that, but she was pretty sure Mum was saying that she got three extra cousins all of a sudden. She had far too many of those to keep straight these days, it was very confusing.

(All the things going on today were giving her a headache — she'd really like to just go take a nap now, please.)

---

Bluuuuuhhhhhhh. Hated writing this one, fought me so fucking hard. Hopefully it's not as bad as I feel about it.

Anyway, welcome to the overly-complicated first year arc. There's various plots all going on at the same time, Violet's first year at Hogwarts is actually only like a quarter to a third of it, so it ballooned up to an absolutely absurd length — my outline has a total of 42 points on it. Not saying it'll be 42 chapters, necessarily, I might end up fusing or deleting some, but that's what my outline says. Now that I've actually done the planning we should hopefully be starting quicker updates again...unless scenes continue to fight me. We'll see.

Bye then.