Almost

Chapter 27: Light

Keeping the answers written on the paper didn't last very long, nor did keeping score. It devolved quickly into shouting and giggling and a lot of judgment about Katherine's favorite store.

"I'm telling you," she said again, "the grocery by my house in Iowa is the best store in the world when they're on their game."

"Your father owns a store," Fleur exploded, her blonde hair swishing around her. "How is that not your favorite?"

"Or Flourish and Blotts," Molly agreed.

"I'm with Molly on this," Grouse said. "You were always begging to go to Spieller's Binding. Even Mairead's has to win out over the grocery store."

"The question wasn't what was my favorite thing to shop for, it was where was my favorite place to shop," Katherine clarified. "The grocery store has a clear system, no one bothers you, there are nice wide aisles to push your cart down—"

Lee scoffed. "And to think I was going to make you an Ollivanders jumper as a wedding gift."

"I'm just saying, that wasn't the question," Katherine asserted again, feeling better filled with water and shortbread.

"Okay, okay, next question," Ginny said. "What was your first impression of Ezra Crawley?"

"That's not fair," Angelina laughed, "Hermione was there!"

"I don't think any of you will have trouble imagining..." Hermione laughed. "And Grouse had to deal with most every impression after that."

Grouse shivered like she was remembering a particularly traumatic experience, making Katherine roll her eyes as she thought back to their first interview at the Ministry.

"What I remember most was that he didn't take his own notes. He had one of those quills that writes on its own, and it was moving fast. Like he wanted a perfect transcript he could analyze."

"That's not the question," Audrey mimicked her jokingly. "What was your first impression."

"I remember the first time I met Ron, he had dirt on his nose," Hermione laughed. "We were looking for Neville's toad. I knew immediately he didn't like me. But nothing a fully grown mountain troll couldn't fix."

The other women laughed, but Katherine and Lee exchanged a look as they clearly missed something. She didn't know Hogwarts had a troll.

"When I first met Bill, during the Triwizard Tournament, I was struck immediately," Fleur said wistfully. "And he barely noticed me, he was so worried about Harry and the Tournament. It wasn't until Gringotts that we spent any time together. But I was right—we were engaged in a year."

"Yeah, those private English lessons were really informative, I'm sure," Ginny retorted with a sly grin, making Victoire grimace into her champagne next to her mother.

"My Eenglish is much improved," Fleur responded, letting her accent get thicker than normal. "And if I remember correctly, you were getting Defense Against the Dark Arts Lessons from Harry at one point..."

"That was in a group. And he was making eyes at someone else the whole time."

"You dated Michael Corner and Dean Thomas that year, didn't you?" Hermione asked with a feigned curiosity, tapping her fingers against her chin.

"Enough, enough," Molly chided with a chuckle. "Katherine, dear, your answer?"

"Arrogant?" Grouse offered.

"Condescending?" Hermione added.

"Harry said he was a prick," Ginny agreed.

Katherine laughed, looking down at her empty plate. "I had quite the litany of words for him at that stage of the game. And I'm sure he'd have his own about me. And Nestor, for that matter."