Summer vacation at last. I was delighted not to be spending it in France, this time. Not that I had anything against the country, but I did miss being here in England.
Of course, when my parents mentioned going to the shop in Diagon Alley, I declined everytime, stating that I rather missed being home. I didn't lie, of course, because I did, in fact, miss being home, but the real reason why I declined was because of the possibility that James' father, Astarion Lancaster, would show his face and ask to see me. As far as he was made aware, my name was Amirah Flowers, and we did not need to change that.
I wondered how James was fairing now that he was home again with his father. I did not forget what Malfoy had said about Astarion Lancaster being the reason why James' mother died. Sure, I wasn't sure that I believed him, but after having met the man at Hogsmeade, a chill did run down my spine thinking about him. He was indeed quite a scary man by the looks of him, at least.
While my parents were both at the shop, I ate my late breakfast at home. My father left some nice homemade bread for me on the table, so I contended myself with bread and butter along with an apple from the fruit bowl.
That's when Aiden came into the dinning room, his right hand lifted up to show me an unopened letter.
"For you," he said, tossing it over at me. He settled down in front of me at the table and served himself some bread and butter too.
"Why didn't you go to the shop?" I asked him.
"Miles is coming over," he said with a shrug. "Which means that you need to be out of here by noon."
"I'll do as I please," I said before taking a large bite of bread. As I ate, I looked over at the letter that was sent to me.
Hey Maeve,
Hope your start of the summer is going well. I was wondering if you would be interested in meeting up with the others to go watch a movie. There's a really good one that my neighbour said was worth watching. How about this Friday at 5 O'clock? We can meet at King's Cross on the muggle side of Platform 9 3/4 so it's easier to meet up. Send me an owl to confirm that you will be there.
Love,
Amirah.
Splendid. First official hangout of the summer.
"What's that?" Aiden asked, pointing at the letter with a slice of bread.
"A letter."
"Yes, I know that. What's it say? Is it from James Lancaster?" he asked, evidently trying to annoy me, although there was a hint of disgust in his eyes.
"Yes," I lied wildly. "Gotta go!"
I went looking for our owl so that I could send my confirmation letter to Amirah. I had never watched a movie before, so I knew that this was bound to be interesting.
Friday could not come any slower. I spent the rest of the week sorting through my potions and ingredients and figuring out what I could brew this summer, but while I was doing all of that, in the back of my head, I couldn't stop thinking about what we would be doing Friday.
I hoped James would be able to come. And the others too, of course.
When it was finally Friday, I was waiting all day with my outfit on, pacing around the house, the garden, and petting our owl — until I couldn't wait any longer, so I floo-powdered myself to Diagon Alley, from where I would easily be able to get to King's Cross.
My parents told me to wait for them to get home because they didn't like me going off on my own, but I was beginning to think that they had forgotten about me because it was already half-past four.
The sun was still bright and high outside, which surprised me because usually it just rained all the time in England, but I supposed we got lucky today.
Anyway, it didn't take long for me to find my way out of The Leaky Cauldron and into the streets of London. I knew the way, more or less, to King's Cross.
It was easy to find the others once I had arrived at King's Cross. They were already all there, standing between platforms nine and ten, apparently waiting for me.
"What took you so long?" Wyatt said with displeasure when I finally reached them.
Everyone looked exactly the same as they did a week ago at Hogwarts, but there was something endearing about seeing them out of their Hogwarts robes.
"Sorry, I had to walk here from Diagon Alley," I told them. "My parents were taking too long, so I went by myself."
"By yourself? In London?" Amirah repeated, surprised but also a little concerned. "My mum didn't want to leave me alone until one of them showed up."
"And it was lovely to meet your mother, Amirah," Isaiah said with a kind smile. Wyatt winced his eyes, as if he regretted not coming by sooner to meet Amirah's mom.
Amirah blushed (as always) and said, "I don't think she'll be able to get over your hair changing colours. She thought it was hair dye, at first."
Hair dye was the muggle way of changing your hair colour.
"Anyway, what's the movie we are watching?" I asked Amirah. At this point in time, I knew what a movie was, I had just never seen one before.
"It's called The Lion King. My friend told me it was good. She saw it the day it came out. It's an animated movie," she explained. We all marched together out of King's Cross.
"Animated?" James repeated, bemused. We were all wondering the same thing.
"Like drawings coming to life on the screen by moving," she said.
I sort of knew what she meant. Sometimes, at Hogwarts, students made their drawings move too, but we used magic for that. I supposed that was what an animated film looked like. I wondered how muggles made their drawings move without magic.
She led us outside, and we marched up the street to cross a bridge over a canal. Moments later, we were already at our destination.
The inside of the theatre was very bright and red. There were posters of characters around, people waiting in line to, I wagered, buy a ticket. Amirah purchased our tickets and we were off to another section of the building, which smelled like butter.
"I'll order us some popcorn," Amirah announced, getting into another line of people. "You lot want anything to drink?"
"I'll have a butterbeer," Wyatt said. I hummed in agreement, and so did the others.
"Er... muggles don't have that... You know what? I'll just pick for you guys," Amirah decided, laughing to herself.
At the counter, she asked for three large popcorns and six drinks of names I did not recognize. When the order was ready, we helped her pick up all of the food.
The popcorn had such a strong aroma of butter. I couldn't wait to eat it.
We entered this dim-lit room, which had a large white rectangle in front of rows of seats. It looked like a regular amphitheater, except that the stage was a white rectangle.
Amirah led us to our seats. I was going to sit next to her because I had a lot of questions about this strange theatre room, but Isaiah and Wyatt beat me to it, sitting on either sides of her. I ended up sitting between James and Elijah.
James accidentally spilled some popcorn on me as he sat down next to me.
"Oh. I'm so sorry, Maeve," he said.
I laughed and just ate the popcorn that fell on me.
Suddenly, the white rectangle lit up with moving images. It looked like muggles were trying to sell us things on the screen. It was very loud and very bright, but it was also very fun.
"Those are just ads," Amirah said to us all. "The movie will start a bit later."
I tried the drink as I watched the images move. It tasted... weird. Apparently James also felt like his drink tasted strange as he looked at me with a sour look on his face.
"Oh, fizzy orange juice," Elijah said next to me.
"Wanna switch with me," James asked. Elijah shrugged and switched.
I looked over at the others.
"Amirah, what drink is this?" I asked her, pointing at mine and James' drink.
"Coca-Cola," she said.
"Is there something else?" I asked.
"Oh, sure. You can have mine. It's Sprite."
Whatever Sprite was, it was better than the original drink I had. Sprite tasted like fizzy and slightly lemoney sugar water, which I liked.
Elijah seemed to be enjoying the Coca-Cola, however, as he did not complain. I did not know what Wyatt and Isaiah got, but they also did not complain.
Suddenly, the images shifted to something of a completely different mood.
"The movie is starting now," Amirah said in a whisper, indicating that we had to quiet down. The muggles in the theatre also quieted down as the movie started.
When the movie ended, I was so glued to my chair, amazed by what I had just witnessed that I hadn't realized we were leaving until James held out his hand to help me get up.
"That was so bloody wicked," I said in awe. Frankly, I was in awe during the entire movie — how interesting the way they made these beautiful drawings move, telling the story of lions in Africa — but now that it was over and words were scrolling on the screen, the awe hit me even harder. "Can we watch another?"
"Aren't you tired of sitting down for so long?" Elijah said, stretching his arms out.
At this point, we were shuffling out of our row and heading towards the exit.
"I could do this again, too," Wyatt said. "It's brilliant."
"Who knew muggles could be so clever?" Isaiah mused. Amirah laughed.
"Wizards are so sheltered," she mused with another laugh.
"So, what do we do next?" James asked everyone as we threw out our empty containers in the bin outside the theatre room. It was so bright now that we left the cinema room that I had to blink a few times to adjust my vision.
"Diagon Alley? Mind as well, right? Since we're already in London," I proposed with a shrug as I glanced outside the windows. It was still relatively bright outside since it was only 7 O'clock in the evening, and it was summer.
"I could go for a good meal," Wyatt agreed, patting his tummy to indicate his hunger.
"Why don't we try a muggle restaurant? I'm curious about how they serve their food," Isaiah said.
"Oh, that's a good idea," I said.
"Let's do it," James piped in.
"I'm up for that," Wyatt added.
Elijah shrugged in indifference, then we all looked over at Amirah. She stammered.
"Oh, uh, yeah. I think I know a place nearby," she said. "Fish and chips good for everyone?"
"But wizards also have fish and chips," Isaiah said. "Why not try something really muggle-ly like those drinks you got us."
"Er..." Amirah appeared to be rummaging through her brain for ideas.
"Let's walk and find out," I proposed. "Any famous street?"
"Yeah, but too many to pick from..." Amirah said. "Okay. How about pizza? It's not commonly eaten amongst wizardkind, I noticed — at least, not in this part of the world."
"That's true, and I wonder how muggles serve it," I said.
"Let's go for it. I have never tried it before," Isaiah said.
"Pizza it is, then," James said. Elijah and Wyatt agreed.
Amirah led us down a few other streets, turning left and then going down again a few times. I thought we would be walking all the way to Scotland, at this point, but then we reached a nice and neat place with bright outdoor lights.
We entered, buzzing with excitement — except for Amirah who obviously wouldn't get excited over food she probably ate all the time — and we were greeted by a good-looking waitress.
"Table for six," Amirah said. Seeing her take charge of our entire outing, essentially, was impressive, to say the least. I never would have thought that this shy and reserved girl could also be leader-material. Maybe she had a bit of Slytherin in her too.
We were promptly guided by the kind-faced waitress to a booth not too far from the entrance. I loved booths at restaurants. Glad muggles had them too. The place also had tables with chairs, but apparently waiters led most customers to the booths, which was nice.
I once again ended up seated next to James. I thought it was a coincidence, but then I noticed Wyatt wiggling his eyebrows at James. I raised a curious eyebrow at them both, but neither of them elaborated.
We were served water as we looked over the menu. It smelled like cheese and bread in the restaurant, which only worsened my hunger. I had had pizza before, though only once, at this place in Diagon Alley. I would be ready to wager, however, that muggles did not serve their pizza with dragon meat and pumpkin toppings.
Although, maybe pumpkin. They did have pumpkins in the muggle world, though perhaps they weren't as crazy for them as we were.
"I recommend we try the Hawaiian pizza. I want to know who here likes pineapple on pizza."
"Pineapple on pizza?" Elijah repeated in slight disgust.
"Sounds delicious," James said.
"Let's try it. I'm curious," Isaiah said, still looking at the menu.
"Okay, so one Hawaiian pizza — anything else that interests you guys?"
"What do you like, Amirah?" Wyatt asked her, looking at her intently. Her eyes bounced around as if flustered by the way he was gazing at her.
"I, uhm — I like the chicken barbecue one with bacon bits," she said. "I also like the four cheese and pepperoni one — it's like a classic pizza with a lot more variety of cheese."
"Let's go for both, then," Isaiah said, enthusiastically closing his menu. "I trust your taste buds."
Everyone else agreed. Personally, I thought the menu was too large to choose from, so having the muggle food expert pick for us was easier.
"Oh, uh, alright," Amirah said.
It didn't take long before the pretty waitress came back to take our order. When she finally asked for drinks, Amirah ordered for us again.
"She's really pretty, isn't she?" I told everyone, once the waitress was out of earshot. The waitress that was serving us had golden curly hair and bright blue eyes. Her nose was small and dainty and her lips were plump and glossy. Obviously, she had makeup on, but I could tell that even without makeup, she would be just as beautiful.
"I've seen prettier," Wyatt shrugged, glancing at Amirah for a second. I doubted that she noticed him looking at her for that short second, but I did, and it was enough to make me giggle.
"I've also seen prettier," Elijah said, passing a hand through his dark hair, his blonde streak of hair landing on his forehead first. "And by that, I mean myself, of course."
"Yeah, should've known it would've been a narcissistic comment," I groaned, though I was still amused by him.
James laughed snidely.
"Elijah could never love anyone more than he loves himself," he said.
"Jealous, James?" Elijah said cockily, though his tone was laced with humour. "Jealous I could never love you more?"
"Oh, yes, that's right," James deadpanned.
"Get a room, you two," Isaiah interrupted, rolling his eyes.
"Only if you join us in that room," Elijah said daringly, grinning as if this were peak humour, in his opinion.
I rolled my eyes too, though I secretly thought their silliness was funny.
Suddenly, the waitress came back with our drinks, which she carried on a platter. The drinks were in large glass cups with ice and straws.
"Brilliant," Wyatt said, slipping from his Coca-Cola happily.
"You like that crap?" James said, grossed out.
Elijah sipped happily from his too and said, "I also love that crap. Don't know what's in there, but whatever it is, we need it in the wizarding world."
Amirah had a Sprite, Isaiah had the grape one, and James and I both had the orange-flavoured one. There was something about fizzy muggle drinks that hit the spot (excluding the Coca-Cola, for me). Maybe wizards needed to steer clear of pumpkin juice for a while and try those muggle drinks instead.
Amirah was looking over at everyone fondly, her cheeks pink as she took a sip from her drink too.
"Thanks for inviting us today, Amirah," I told her. "Really, this is such a nice experience."
"Yeah, thank you, Amirah," everyone else said, more or less in those words and at different times.
If it were even possible, Amirah's cheeks grew even pinker, and she buried her face in her sleeve for a moment before saying, "Well, thank you all for coming. I'm having fun as well."
"Lovely, then," Isaiah said. "Let's do this more often."
Our pizzas arrived all at the same time. The mouth-watery smell of them filled the air and we barely even said a word before we all dug in. Even the pineapple pizza one smelled good.
"This is divine," Wyatt moaned into his slice of barbecue chicken pizza.
"Why don't they serve this at Hogwarts?" I said as I stuffed my face with the Hawaiian one — yes, I ended up enjoying it. James liked it too, while Isaiah and Amirah didn't care for it as much. Both Elijah and Wyatt, however, thought that it was disgusting and outrageous.
"You both have rotten taste buds," Elijah said to me and James.
"Yeah, how the bloody hell do you not like Coca-Cola, but you like pineapple on pizza. Mental, the lot of you," Wyatt added with aversion.
"What can I say? We've got refined palates," James said with a smirk.
"Refined, my ass," Wyatt grumbled, which made me giggle.
I looked over at James and he was quietly laughing too, the corners of his eyes crinkling ever so slightly and his brow curving up. James' mirth sort of made him look like he was in pain, which was adorable.
Okay, maybe I shouldn't use the word adorable to describe James. That made it sound like I fancied him, which I obviously didn't. Right?
"Yes, Maeve?" James asked me curiously.
"Huh?" I blinked back to reality.
"You've just been staring at me for a whole minute," he said. He took a bite from his pizza and stared right back at me, patiently waiting for an answer.
"Oh, sorry. I didn't realize. I was just er, I don't know, nothing," I stammered like an idiot. James chuckled.
"Alright then," he said.
He kept eating his pizza, and there was a smear of tomato paste on the corners of his lips. I was going to say something, but he just kept eating. Then, I figured I should still say something.
"James, you've got, uh," I began, grabbing a napkin on the table. He peered over at me curiously, and I dabbed at the corners of his lips. Then, I realized there was a bit on his cheek too, so I cleaned that off as well. For a second, our eyes met, but I cleared my throat and pulled away. "There, all gone."
Maybe I was imagining things, but I thought I saw James' face turning slightly pink for a moment. He cleared his throat and went back to eating, careful not to smear his face again.
I didn't want to be caught staring at him again, but I couldn't help but think about how cute it was that James had tomato sauce on his face — okay, maybe not cute because that would almost entail that I fancied him, and we had already established a long time ago that I didn't. Probably not, at least.
How the bloody hell did people know if they fancied someone or not? I'd have to ask Daphne. But then, she would probably harass me to tell her who it was.
"Maeve," James said. I blinked back to reality, again. "You're staring again."
"Uh... sorry. I just..." I cleared my throat uncomfortably and looked away from him with wide eyes.
"You're not beginning to fancy me, are you?" he teased.
This was one of those moments where I needed to not blush to make my statement believable, but alas, my face was burning up. "Hah, no. You wish."
He shrugged. "You sure?"
"I was just thinking about stuff, and you happened to be there, where I was looking," I said.
"Wouldn't your natural field of vision land on Wyatt, or something? He's right across from you," James pointed out.
"Yeah, but, I don't know, my neck, er, feels nice at this angle," I managed to say. Okay, someone needed to punch me in the throat because the more I spoke, the worse it got for me.
But James just chuckled and accepted my answer.
Thankfully, I did not make a fool of myself again that evening. When we all finished our meal, there were only two slices of pizza left. Amirah got them "to-go," which apparently meant bringing them home in a small cardboard box.
We walked all the way back to the Leaky Cauldron where we could floo powder home — except for Amirah whom we dropped off at a coffee shop nearby. Her mother was apparently waiting for her there, but Amirah insisted that we do not go in with her because her mother would "fuss all over" us and "ask a lot of annoying questions." But Isaiah did not acquiesce and went in right after her.
"Ladies first," James said to me when we arrived at the fireplace of the Leaky Cauldron.
I was about to move forward, but then, Wyatt slipped past me and grabbed a handful of floo powder, saying "Thank you, James."
Then he called the name of his estate and dropped the floo powder. The green flames enveloped him until he disappeared with it.
"Indeed," Elijah said. He slipped past me and grabbed some floo powder too, and then, after loudly exclaiming his destination, he also disappeared in the green flames.
"Well... now that they're both gone," James began, turning to face me again. I panicked a little, not knowing what to expect. "Ladies first — for real, this time."
"Well, Wyatt and Elijah have the right to be ladies too if they want," I pointed out.
"Of course, we can henceforth call them Wanda and Elizabeth," James said.
"Indeed."
I inched forward to grab some floo powder, but James stopped me, grabbing me by the arm.
"Wait, Maeve," he said. I peered back at him.
"Hmm?"
"We should do something, this summer. Just the two of us."
My heart pounded in my chest, and my fingers tingled as they hung over the floo powder container by the fireplace. Just the two of us.
The thought of hanging out with James, just the two of us, was... terrifying? No, not terrifying, but perhaps... nervewracking. Of course, we had spent time alone just the two of us before, but it was the first time James had specifically asked for it to be just us two.
"Oh, yeah. That'd be fun," I said, feeling my cheeks warming up.
"I'll owl you," he added.
"Great. I'll be seeing you, then," I said.
With that, I grabbed a handful of Floo powder, stepped into the fireplace, and loudly declared my destination, "Blackwood Estate!"
When I arrived home, my brother was lounging on the leather couch. He had a wide grin on his face when he saw me standing there in the fireplace after apparating.
"You're so dead," he snickered.
"What?" I asked, wiping the soot off my clothes.
"Mum! She's back!" Aiden called as he sat up from the couch. I looked at him curiously.
Aiden snickered as we heard footsteps hurrying down the staircase that led to the dining room and kitchen area. Was I really in trouble? What did I do?
"Maeve Veronica Blackwood!" My mother's stern voice boomed through the hallways as she neared the living room. When she finally emerged from the doorway, she did not look pleased to see me.
"Er... am I in trouble?" I asked.
"Am I in trouble—? Maeve! You left on your own when we explicitly told you to wait for us to be done with closing up the shop for the day—"
"But, Mum, I was already late — I couldn't just wait around all day!"
My mother's face blanched in surprise at my retort.
"Maeve, darling, do not raise your voice at your mother," she said softly, which hardly seemed fair seeing as she was basically just yelling at me too.
"I just — look, I even got there late. I was supposed to arrive at five—"
"Maeve, dear, you can't just wander around London all by yourself. You could have asked your brother, at least, to accompany you."
'Well, it's not like he would want to anyway..." I grumbled.
"Hey — don't drag me into this," Aiden said, raising his hands in surrender.
Our mother sighed. "The two of you are responsible for this—"
"What?" Aiden said. "Mum, that's not fair—"
"Why did you leave your sister to go off on her own? She could have gotten hurt — she could have died!"
"Okay, Mum, I am not that helpless, come on," I huffed.
"She never would have let me take her — you know how Maeve is, Mum. She's Miss Independent—"
"Aiden, please," I said with an eyeroll.
"I don't want to hear it," our mother said. "You're both grounded—"
"What?"
"Two weeks," she said. "And I'm being generous."
"Mum, you can't do that," Aiden started, but our mother gave him the look, so he quickly shut it down.
I kept my head low and just accepted defeat.
"And you, young lady," she said to me. I peered up at her. "Two weeks, and I don't want to hear any excuses about not coming down to the shop. You're taking over the shop when you're older. You must learn as much as you can now about how to manage it."
I desperately wanted to protest, but I knew that it would make everything worse, so instead, I accepted my fate and said, "Yes, mother, I understand."
I couldn't avoid meeting Astarion Lancaster anymore.