Très Belle [James Potter II]

6. In which we eat lunch and James comes up with crafty ideas

We had finally got civilized enough to sit down at the table, and start a very awkward lunch. Casper and Molly sat next to each other, and Gabe insisted on sitting opposite Molly so they could ‘catch up’ or something, which made me wonder how on Earth they knew each other, and I decided to sit next to him, so I could watch Lucy, who was next to Molly, chat with Jem, who was next to her, and opposite from Lachy, who I was next to. Dad had sat on the other side of Gabe, to catch up with Casper, and Mum insisted on sitting on the other side of him, with Audrey at the head of the table gushing to her, and Percy stuck between his star struck wife and Casper.

Lachy and I chatted about his school, and friends and all that jazz, and eavesdropped on Jem and Lucy, who were really awkward. I generally got that Jem didn’t even know little Hufflepuff Lucy existed for the first five years of their schooling together, then in the sixth year he pursued her for like, a month, and then they went out, and things were just really awkward, and they decided to ‘stay friends’, and hadn’t talked since. But they still seemed to get along fine, and Lucy and I had nice little chat about Jane Austen, which was nice because hardly any wizards read Muggle literature.

I also eavesdropped on Gabe and Molly, and from that I caught that they knew each other from the times Gabe had spent at the Burrow during the holidays, where him, James, Freddy and occasionally Hugo had continuously pranked her. That made me feel bad for her – I understood her pain.

I noticed Dad and Percy had grudgingly talked, with Mum and Audrey watching anxiously, and it ended with all Dad’s hard feelings gone, and Percy’s snobby attitude whipped away. Mum also seemed to actually like Audrey, and after we had all finished eating they shuffled over to the kitchen, where Audrey was showing mum her ‘Fail-proof chocolate cake’. I bet Mum could fail it.

So, overall, Lunch went well.

We left that evening quite please, and Mum whisked off Jem and Lachy, whilst Gabe, Dad and I shambled home and had beans on toast for dinner.

No judging.

~~We sleep, get up and eat~~

Once I had finished breakfast, I got a call from Dom, saying everyone was going over to hers, and us girls had to figure out how to fix our holiday plan now that everyone was friends again, and the boys were just going to…be. Or something.

I got dressed, slipping on bikini under a loose shift dress, with my sandals, and flooed to Shell Cottage.

“Hey, hey, hey, Belle!” Celi giggled, munching on…sugar quills? Something sweet, anyway.

“What’re we doing today?” I asked, grinning.

“Well, the boys come in an hour, so we need to plan the rest of our holidays first.” Arianne said, coming in and plopping down.

Dom came in, carrying a tray of pastries, and we all sat on the floor, like we always do, and it was nice.

“Well, firstly, I can’t stay with you guys.” Ari said, “You know I’d love to – honestly, but I’m going to have a child. It wouldn’t work.”

We all reluctantly agreed, but we decided that Ari should get an apartment really close, so it would be easy for us to help out with the baby – we all knew she’d need cause there was no way she wasn’t going to work until the child could go to school.

“And, for the holidays…Well, this was the week we were supposed to spend at Celi’s, and as much as I was looking forward to that, I think that…We should just move on to Ari’s place.” Dom stated, and we all nodded.

“Okay, so we’ve got bits of the furniture, and we can get the rest in Paris. We can floo to Cecilia’s for a couple of days, and she can pack her stuff and we can go to the beach! And then, like we planned, we can go to Belle’s Dads’ house, and start moving into the apartment! I’m soo excited!” Dom finished.