Golden Boy

Chapter 1: Leaving Home😁

The gentle scent of lavender wafted through the lace curtains and ran through Camellia's hair, as did her mother's loving fingers.

"Sweetheart," Mrs. Larke said. "You're going to be around them all the time, why can't you just stay here for a couple days more? Make sure you're alright?"

Camellia Larke drew a deep sigh and avoided her mother's eyes, training them instead on a pigeon pecking at the cobblestones on the street just outside the window and feigning interest. Her packed trunk, nearly bursting at the seams, and her cloth bag sat beside her against the chair, just as anxious to leave as she was. The family owl hooted disdainfully at Camellia, and she shot him a look before her mother spoke again.

"Cami? Darling, is this about—"

"No, no, Mum, it's not about him," Camellia quickly interrupted, her cheeks growing warm. "Don't worry about that. It's just, I— I've already packed, you know? All of my things, my room is completely bare, I've been sleeping on the sofa—"

"No one told you you had to do that, though, did they?" came Mr. Larke's voice from the armchair just a few feet away. Camellia made the mistake of looking up and meeting her father's piercing eyes over his reading glasses. "We told you there was no rush to move your things out, we'd help you pack once you're ready. You seem in an awful rush, and your mother and I are simply concerned about you. Nothing more."

After she'd left Hogwarts at 18 following the abrupt end of the war, Camellia had moved back into her parents' home in Èze, a small coastal village in the south of France, where they'd lived since she was 13. It had been a year since she'd "finished" school a month early due to the war, and she'd only grown more and more desperate to leave home and go back to England with every passing day. Not that she didn't love her family, of course... but working with her father at his Muggle antique shop was growing tedious, and contrary to his hopes, wasn't the future Camellia was shooting for.

"I know, Dad," Camellia said. "I know. But it's been almost a year, and I'll be 20 in October. I love working in the shop with you, I do, but I just feel like I'm ready to leave and look for a different job. Plus, I told you both yesterday that I had a Portkey scheduled for today and you said it was fine—"

"Your mother and I hadn't talked about it then. We just don't know if this is right for you, darling," Mr. Larke said, now leaning forward in his chair. "We're all for you getting out of the house, but are you sure it has to be right now? London is still a dangerous place to be— and isn't the school still closed?"

Camellia let out another deep sigh. Her dad was right— London was still very much in tatters from the war that had ended nearly a full year ago, and Hogwarts was, indeed, still closed down— but her stubbornness and desire to leave got the better of her. "I'm going to go, Dad. I'll be okay, I'm staying with the Weasleys, and you know they're way outside the city. They've even got protective char—"

"The Weasleys?" her father interrupted. "I thought you were going to the Grangers'?"

There was a painfully quiet moment as Camellia felt the eyes of both her parents rest suspiciously upon her. She'd told them she was going to stay with Hermione until she found her own place, but a couple of weeks ago, she'd received a letter from her saying that she, too, would be staying with the Weasleys for a while around the time Camellia was to arrive.

Her mother resumed gently stroking Camellia's hair. "Why the sudden change of plans?" she asked.

Camellia went into a brief yet nervous explanation of what Hermione had told her, and at the end of it, her father had narrowed eyes resting on his daughter.

"Alright... but, um... the boys— the twins. They've got their own place, right? I remember you saying so."

"Yes!" Camellia quickly replied, feeling somewhat insulted. "Yes, they live in London above their shop. Not at their parents, where I'm going, don't worry. But either way, we're all just friends, so what's the problem even if they were there?"