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Easter Brunch At The Restaurant
Author: Phinfilius
Date: 03-21-10 10:38
Weeks ago there'd been a big debate whether to have the Crown & Cauldron open Easter Sunday or not. The desicion reached was to open that evening to the public and to use the restaurant during the day for a brunch for the large Hodfuffer family, extended relatives, and invited friends. With so many to be there Aunt Plagmelina had joked that if anyone else did wander in, the person could grab a plate and partake of the brunch buffet set up and no one would be the wiser.
Earlier this morning while those making most of the brunch fare were occupied, Phinfilius, his step-sister Jewel Reily, and Jewel's fiance Bailey Gray had hidden eggs for the younger kids to find once everyone else arrived. Now, approaching the buffet again, Phin nibbles on a chocolate egg he got from one of the eggs he'd hidden a few hours earlier, and contemplates what he wants to get off the buffet this time around. He'd made a couple of passes when the meal was first served and everyone sat down at one of the many tables both inside and out, each table decorated with a spring theme and for Easter. After that had been the egg hunt and now everyone's just sitting around chatting, playing, and still eating.
After loading a plate yet again, Phin goes outside to eat, sitting alone at a table. No sooner has he sat down then Jewel plops into a chair right beside him. She's looking in the direction of their not quite 2 1/2 year old little sister, Cassandra, who's dragging a basket behind her as she peers into, under, over, and behind everything within her line of sight. "Isn't she so cute?" Jewel asks with a grin. "Cassie thinks there are still eggs hidden and is determined to find more."
"That's because Dad keeps 'borrowing' an egg or two from her basket and rehiding them where she can find them. She's not yet caught on that her stash isn't actually getting any bigger."
"Which makes her all the cuter." Jewel grins again then pulling a breadstick off Phin's plate, breaks half off. "I'm so glad Mum and Virgil could make it and stay a few days at that."
"Have you decided if you're going back with them to visit or are you going to wait?"
"I'm going this week when they go. Bailey's coming too then Mum and I are getting together again in a few weeks to get some wedding planning done."
"Bailey's parents still not speaking to him?"
"They issued an invitation to a family dinner this evening."
"Let me guess. They don't consider you family."
I keep hoping they'll come around and accept the fact that he's marrying someone who doesn't have a pristine pure bloodline but even though that's a hypocritical attitude when their own bloodlines are so perfectly pure, I think it's only ever going to be a hope."
"That's too bad."
"I don't mind so much for me but once we have kids." Jewel leaves off there with a shrug. She changes the topic by saying, "Emerald and her family weren't here very long."
"Her aunt and uncle had already committed them to something with his family when Mom invited them here."
"When she was here, you two looked like there's a little tension. Is everything okay between you two?"
"I don't know. I think I blew it."
"What did you do?"
"Brought up something before she was ready for it."
Jewel's eyes dart around to see who might be within earshot. No one but some of the smaller kids are but she still drops her voice to ask, "Sex?"
"Marriage. We had, uh, the sex issue out of the way before she was sent to Happy Haven."
"How come I didn't know about that?"
Phin breaks off what's left of the breadstick both Jewel and he had been working on and chunks it at her. "Seriously? As if you tell me everything that goes on between you and Bailey."
"Of course not, you're a terrible gossip," Jewel teases before more seriously asking, "So you asked Emerald to marry you and she's not given an answer or she did and it wasn't what you wanted to hear?"
"I didn't out and out ask. I let Emerald know she's the one for me and want to spend my life with her but that we don't have to get engaged or set a date any time soon."
"So now you're doubting if your her 'the one'."
"Sort of."
Jewel wishes she had some helpful words of wisdom for Phin but right then nothing that's not only cliché or trite comes to mind. She's saved from fumbling for words when Cassie come rushing over, squealing giddily at them both. "Eggs! Hep me!"
Both of them being firmly wrapped around their little sister's thumbs happily oblige, with Phin secretly doing a multiply charm on a couple of Cassie's eggs for the toddler to "find."
Easter Dinner
Author: Carys
Date: 03-21-10 14:09
Carys opened the oven and bent to inspect the roasted lamb she'd decided to make for Easter dinner. She'd never cooked lamb before and hoped it would turn out edible. Carys didn't consider herself the greatest cook in the world, but she'd gotten a lot of practice ever since returning home to Wales without her grandmother. She cooked most of the family meals now, unless she had to work or attend class.
Using pot holders, she pulled out the pan in which the lamb was roasting in its juices and some spices. It looked and smelled done, so she set the pan on the stove and closed the oven door. Tristan had just wandered into the kitchen, but Griffin was right behind him and would have stopped him from getting too close to the open oven.
"Smells good," Griff remarked.
"Let's hope it tastes good, too," Carys replied, smiling.
She cut into the meat to verify it was cooked through and then cut a teeny tiny piece for Tristan to taste.
"It's hot," she warned.
He took it in his small fingers and didn't at all seemed fazed by the heat. He stuck the whole piece in his mouth and started chewing.
Carys watched his face, and when he didn't frown or spit out the lamb, she decided it passed the test.
"Egg?" Tristan asked, after he'd swallowed.
"You can have a chocolate egg for dessert," Carys said. "Supper first."
Griff said to his son, "Let's get you to the table."
It was already set for five, for the parents and their son as well as Carys' grandfather and Ruth Gainsborough.
Alun and Ruth were already at the table sipping wine.
Griff got Tristan settled and then came back into the kitchen to help Carys bring all of the food to the table. The roasted lamb was the last to go and went in the very center. Carys cut slices for everyone and then sat back to see how they liked it. When they seemed to like it well enough, she tasted her own handiwork and found that she hadn't done as bad a job as she'd feared!
Which House
Author: Briar Rose
Date: 03-21-10 14:47
Briar stirs a little honey into the tea Lisette's just served then takes a sip, wishing she could just lean back against the cushions and take a nap on the spot. Before coming to the Valentine's today, Grace and she had visited with her half brother Byron's family and then, both in keeping with the pretext of being Hendrika Tenbrook Weasley's half-sister and because of her long standing friendship with the Weasley's, Grace and she had gone to the Burrow for awhile. From there it had been straight off to the Valentine's to join Julian and Caerwyn with Lisette, Tiberius and other Valentine family and guests, who include Lysander, Charlotte, and some of the immediate Stratford family. Since arriving there has been food, drink, games for the children, entertainment for the adults, and good conversation, and small talk with a small handful of rather trying people. Yesterday had been extremely busy at the bakery, not only with long standing orders to finish filling but people rushing in for something last minute. With the nicer weather and students not in school more people were out and about in general so there'd also been a higher number of customers just wanting a single slice of cake or a few sugar biscuits and that sort of thing.
Briar is now tired and sitting here drinking tea and doing nothing is defititely making her feel lazy and wanting that nap.
Of the children present, there are two Valentine cousins who live in Canada and attend school there. They are 12 and 13 and are getting along swimmingly with Caerwyn. At the moment, they are doing something that has the younger set, which includes Grace and Charlotte, screeching hysterically and begging for more. Briar contemplates telling her daughter to not be so loud inside but with a wave of a wand by one of the other adults, the sounds emitting from the other room drop a few notches. They can still hear the children perfectly well, just not as loudly.
With light from the afternoon sun streaming in the window into the very comfortable chair where she's sitting, warming her body on the outside and the tea warming her from the inside, the drowsy feeling increases and Briar fights to hold her lids up. She sits up straighter though when Lisette sits down in the next chair, close enough to touch knees, and says to Briar, "At times Caerwyn reminds me so much of Julian at that age. It really is such a shame the boy is in Hufflepuff House at Hogwarts."
Setting her teacup down, Briar asks, "Why do you say that? From what I know of the Hogwarts houses and people who've been in each, Hufflepuff is a perfectly nice one."
"Nice, yes. Worthy of a Valentine, no."
"I'm the first to admit that I don't know all that factors into one's house assignment at Hogwarts, but from my understanding of Hufflepuff and what I know of Caerwyn, it's a good match."
"But Slytherin would have been so much better given that Tiberius and I are his grandparents and our parents and their parents were all in Slytherin. It's a tradition."
"You exaggerate slightly, Lisette." Briar chuckles dryly. "I happen to know for a fact there are several from boths sides who were not in Slytherin."
"I can pretend, can't I? And it's not as if any of them were extremely closely related."
Briar laughs again at Lisette's pronouncement. "Not if you don't consider your own brother extremely closely related."
Lisette's eyes travel across the room to where her brother sits in a card game with Tiberius and a few others. She lowers her voice and says with a conspiratorial wink, Well, you've met him. Can you really blame me?" She looks Briar up and down and speaking normally again declares, "If you had attended Hogwarts, I think you would have been either Hufflepuff or, your parents are rolling in their graves as I say this, Gryffindor."
"I'm sure I would have been happy to have been either."
"Grace, I think, will make us proud and be sorted into "
"Ravenclaw," Julian fills in as he sits on the arm of his mother's chair.
"That's not what I was going to say."
Julian gives his mother a deeply dimpled grin. "But it should have been. Grace is so intelligent that I'd be shocked if she didn't get sorted to Ravenclaw. That said, I shall be proud of her whichever house she's put in, even Gryffindor.
Lisette jabs a finger at Julian and teases, "I should wash your mouth out with soup for that, you cheeky boy."
Julian's dimples show again. "Maybe later. I came to ask Briar if it's okay to cut the cake she brought. All the children are asking and I have to say I'm ready for it and some of the other sweets I saw on the table."
Briar stands, glad for something to do to help get her mind off taking a nap. "Yes, that's fine. I'll come help serve the children so that you aren't ambushed quite so badly once they know they can have more sweets, though none of them really need it as much candy as they've already had."
At Hogwarts
Author: Ronan Eastwick
Date: 03-21-10 15:25
Unlike a lot of Hogwarts students, Ronan had stayed behind at Hogwarts for spring break. He didn't have a family to go home to, and even though he was a legal adult and could just go to his mother's empty house, he simply didn't want to. He rather wanted to spend his days roaming the castle and the grounds than go where there was no one else but him.
It helped that Illyria had planned on staying at Hogwarts all week too. He knew that even if all his friends had gone home––and the Fitzgeralds had––he could just go see his former guardian if he felt like spending time with someone. Spring break had only just begun, however, and Ronan wasn't bored out of his mind or too lonely yet.
Also, earlier that day, Illyria had taken him out of the castle to her sister Arsinoe's house to celebrate Easter and have lunch. Arsinoe was an apothecarist at St. Mungo's and was married to a healer. They had a small daughter and had just found out that they were expecting again.
Illyria's sisters Olympia and Urania were also there. Ronan liked Urania best because he knew her better than all the rest, except for Illyria of course. Urania had dated Ronan's brother a long time ago and though the relationship had ended badly, she was sorry that he had died.
Not present at the family gathering were Illyria's parents and her sister Erigone with her husband, who were all living in Mumbai these days. They had moved there during the bad times when Euphemia Smythe-Jones was in charge of the country and had liked it so much that they hadn't returned after things stabilized back home.
It had been nice getting off the Hogwarts grounds, even if only for a couple of hours, but Ronan didn't regret opting to stay at the castle during spring break. He knew he was much happier there than he would be anywhere else.
Illyria, however, seemed unhappy, and she wouldn't tell Ronan why. "I don't want you worrying" and "It's not your concern" were just some of the things she said when Ronan asked her what was wrong. He could sense it was an adult issue of some kind, and though he was an adult, he supposed he understood that Illyria still looked at him as a kid. She didn't want to burden him with her problems, but she knew she could if she wanted. It was the least Ronan could do after all that she had ever done for him. He wanted to help her, as she had helped him.
Ronan didn't push her to confide in him, though. He knew there were probably some things he was better off not knowing, and maybe this was one of those things. Still, he wished he knew how he could make things better for her. Besides his mother, she was the closest thing he had to family.