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(Kate) Truths
Author: Bronwyn Dewhurst
Date: 09-05-16 11:13
Kate had tagged along to Emrys Fest with her cousin Bronwyn and Bronwyn's husband Toby. Tessa had also come along, but she was already on the lookout for her friends and would probably leave the family group shortly. Kate, being charged with keeping an eye on her half-sister, would likely join Tessa and her friends when the time came.
The Pixies had just come out onto Stage One and were starting things off with one of their more familiar hits. Kate swayed to the music while scanning the festival-goers for anyone she recognized. She spotted Mark almost straightaway. He was standing alone and appeared to be drinking beer, even though it was just after 10 in the morning.
Kate indicated to Tessa that she should stay put and tapped Bronwyn on the arm to let her know she wanted to step away for a moment. Bronwyn followed Kate's gaze, grinned knowingly, and nodded her head before turning back to the girl band on stage.
With another look, Kate urged Tessa to stay with Bronwyn and Toby, and then she made her way over to Mark. He was gazing impassively at the lead singer of the Pixies, who was sporting cascading, wavy hair in bubblegum pink. Kate touched his shoulder to get his attention.
"Isn't it a bit early to be drinking?" she asked him with a small smile on her face.
Mark raised his glass as if in a toast and said, "It's five o'clock somewhere."
"My dad always says he never drinks before noon unless it's after midnight."
Mark laughed. "Like minds." He asked, "Are you here alone?"
"No. I'm with Bronwyn, Toby, and Tessa," Kate answered, and she pointed in their general direction. "In fact, I'm Tessa's official chaperone. She's supposed to be meeting up with her friends." She looked at him pointedly and asked, "What about you?"
Mark took a long sip from his plastic cup and then replied, "I wasn't even planning on coming today, but rather than greet my mother and her latest Magical Match date at the breakfast table, I thought it best to go out and do something."
"So you came here."
"Yes."
Kate chewed her bottom lip and then commented, "You could have gone to see your daughter. She's what… almost one?"
They'd both been tap dancing around the subject of Capri and Zoe Jane ever since reconnecting after both of their breakups. On the one hand, Kate didn't want to know anything about those two, but on the other hand, she knew that they would forever be linked to Mark. If she wanted to be in his life again, then they were included in the package deal.
Mark surprised her completely when he turned to her and said, "Zoe's not mine."
"What?"
"It's a long story and not mine to tell, but I'm not the baby's biological father. I'm not even in her life anymore."
Kate was stunned. This whole time she believed that Mark had fathered Capri's baby. The false knowledge had broken her heart, despite the fact that she and Mark had been broken up and had not been on speaking terms when Zoe Jane would have been conceived.
"All this time…" she started.
"Sorry." Mark took another swig from his cup and asked, "Can I ask you about Hugo?"
"There's nothing to tell. We haven't gotten back together and I'm not interested in him anymore."
Mark drank from his cup again and then murmured, "Good."
Kate felt a smile creep over her lips.
Mark turned to her and said, "Look. There's something I've been wanting to say to you for a long time."
But before he could tell her, Tessa was upon them. "Kate, I found my friends. Can we go to them now?"
Kate inwardly cursed her half-sister's bad-timing but nodded and said, "Sure. Do you want to tag-along?" The last was addressed to Mark.
Mark seemed amenable to chaperoning a group of tweenage girls and boys, though whatever he'd wanted to tell Kate didn't come up again while they were at Emrys Fest. Kate spend the rest of the day wondering about his confession and if she would ever actually get to hear it.
Content For The Moment
Author: Sage Porter
Date: 09-06-16 20:00
Jared accepts a butterbeer from Sage who says, "I'm happy you decided to come."
"Mum and Dad have been after me to come home for a weekend. I thought I'd appease them and see you and a few others. I hadn't realized it was Emrys Fest weekend until Etta said something during dinner last night."
"However it came about, it's great you're here."
"You're still coming to visit in two weeks, right?"
"Wouldn't miss it."
"Georgia doesn't mind you're coming without her? She's welcome if you want to bring her."
"I know and she knows that but she also knows we're overdue for at least one best mates nights out."
Jared gives a small smile then asks, "Have you two set a date yet?"
"Not yet but we're working on it. You'll be best man no matter when it is, right?"
"That's the plan."
They clink bottles, falling silent as they listen to the song Polly and the Wogs are playing as their set comes to its end. When the last notes die off, the band is met with wild applause even as people in the crowd begin shifting to look in the direction of stage two where Spellorama is set up and ready to go on next.
Sage takes a pull of his butterbeer then comments, "Libby has asked me to reconsider marrying Georgia."
Jared laughs, a rarity for him these days. "She still hung up on you?"
"At a Quidditch Con session she tried to make it so I sat next to her in the only seat available there, forcing Georgia to sit somewhere else."
"How did that work out for her?"
"Everyone on the row shift down one so that there were two seats next to Libby."
"That girl is something else."
"Speaking of," Sage tilts his butterbeer bottle in the direction of Libby and Georgia coming their way, Libby with an ice cream and Georgia with the strawberry lemonade she'd been wanting. Not far behind them are their parents Bob and Connie carrying a picnic basket and blanket. Sage knew were coming but hadn't been aware they'd arrived as Connie had a couple of houses to show.
They get set up next to the blanket Georgia had put out earlier, Bob producing a few lawn type chairs from somewhere in the picnic basket. Jared settles into one looking more relaxed than Sage has seen his friend in a long time. If they can make it through the day without spotting Alanna or that husband of hers maybe Jared will have a great time. Sage hopes so and hopes that he doesn't run into his father, who Saffron had said may or may not show up at some point today. The last thing he wants to deal with is Lohengrin's continued rudeness to Georgia and having that rudeness extend to Bob and Connie.
Taking a seat next to Georgia, Libby for the moment too busy watching for friends to be a bother about them getting married, Sage gets settled in as well. Between the chair being comfortable, being content at the moment, having had a couple of butterbeers and too many snacks already, Sage thinks he could easily doze off despite the loud music vibrating the air around them.
After Performing
Author: Plum
Date: 09-08-16 15:25
Plum takes a long drink of water, caps the bottle, then flops back onto the blanket. "How are you not burning up?" she asks Anthony.
Sitting next to her, opening his own water he says, "I'm not all over the stage as much as you are."
While there are a few fans around, most are giving them their space, many focused on the band currently onstage. One, however, has come right up to the blanket. "Is that your baby? He's sooooo cute. What his name? Can he scribble in my autograph book? Will you sign?"
Plum starts to get up but Anthony pats her arm to stay where she is. He hands Plum the book to sign then signs it himself, simultaneously directing her to someone with a camera. He poses with her for a couple of pictures. By then she's spotted someone else and is off through the crowd.
Back at the blanket he sits back down, grinning when Plum says, "I'm starting to feel old. She was what, ten?"
He chuckles. "From here I thought the same but up close she looks a little older, thirteen or fourteen."
"Oh, so she's positively ancient. Did she propose?"
"No, but the way she was eyeing Kody across the crowd I think he might luck out."
"She's a wee bit late on that front. Can you believe it? All of us married. Drake has two kids, you and I have one, Phin has one. Ours is almost a year old."
The year old in question pushes up from the blanket, leaving the toy he'd been playing with, to take wobbly, tentative steps towards a girl with a purse so large and furry it could be mistaken for an animal. Plum is the one up this time, reaching Evan just as he's grabbing for the soft, plush looking fabric. "Sorry," she tells the purse's owner.
She redirects Evan's attention to an equally fluffy stuffed toy dog that runs a circle around him. "We need to start firming up the plans for his birthday party," Plum says to Anthony.
In the process of taking another drink Anthony meets her eyes to let her know he heard her. Alex running up behind has Plum turning her attention to him, the friend he's been with, and the friend's mother who says, "The music is so loud I don't know how Evan is handling it."
"We've put a muffling charm on his ears. He hears everything but the music comes through at a much better level for his little eardrums."
"Now why didn't I think of that for myself?" she laughs.
Plum smiles in return before saying, "Thanks for putting up with Alex. He behaved?"
"Better than my own," she laughs again.
"If you want to leave them both with us, take a break, feel free."
"Thank you. I think I'll take you up on that. My daughter is off with a friend as well so my husband and I can have a little alone time, if you call being in this throng alone."
Plum laughs with her this time then they arrange the details of getting her son back to her. She's not out of sight when Alex asks, "Can we walk around and look at the booths?"
"Sure. Let me put Evan in his pram and we'll all go, unless Anthony wants to stay here relaxing."
Anthony shakes his head. "I'll go too. We didn't get a chance to walk around and look before we went onstage."
They're not even off the blanket yet when Alex and his friend let Plum know that as long as they're walking around they wouldn't mind some ice cream or other sweets. Warm as she still is, Plum wouldn't mind some ice cream herself.
(Anthony) Ice Cream
Author: Beck
Date: 09-08-16 18:44
The Beck-Lancaster clan and Alex's friend started to head back to their picnic spot after grabbing ice cream cones, when Anthony's gaze zeroed in on none other than Jared Wynbourne. Anthony had been wanting to talk to Jared about Alanna since gaining his freedom but hadn't been able to, since Jared had left the country and hadn't made his address known. Just when Anthony made the resolute decision to walk over and interrupt Jared's conversation with Sage Porter, Plum reached out and touched his arm.
She'd followed his line of sight and knew what he'd been thinking. Anthony had told her about his wish to talk to Jared many times.
"Not here," she gently advised. "It looks like he's having a good time, and if you bring up Alanna, you'll probably upset him."
"It needs to happen sometime or another," Anthony insisted. "If we question what's behind Alanna's strange decisions lately, then why wouldn't he?"
"His heart got broken. It's probably easier for him to overlook the things the rest of us see more clearly."
Anthony wrapped his free arm around Plum and murmured, "It's probably a good thing she isn't here."
Not only was Alanna not at Emrys Fest, but Ariella wasn't either. The former hadn't indicated any reason for not attending, while the latter had said she had more packing to do. Anthony knew that Ariella had more or less gotten moved out of Hogwarts and into their grandparents home and that the need to do more packing was just an excuse for staying home.
The family got back to their picnic area and got settled again. A few more blankets had spread out around them, and the father of the family to Anthony's left immediately invited him into conversation about the recent goings-on in the Muggle World. Being in law enforcement, Anthony knew a little about the investigation into the apparent Death Eater attack on the Millennium Bridge in London.
Obliviators had done their best to modify Muggle memories after the attack, but too many had witnessed it and it had also gotten coverage on the news. The fact that the Muggle's Prime Minister had given a statement raised other questions. For example, wizarding law enforcement was trying to determine whether the attack had been random or deliberate. The Muggles were still looking for Kingsley, whom the Prime Minister himself knew to be a wizard. What if the attack on the bridge was meant to incite further distrust against wizards?
"My ice cream is melting!" Alex exclaimed, pulling Anthony temporarily from the conversation with his neighbor. He noticed that a stream of melted mint chocolate chip ice cream had run down Alex's hand.
"You have to eat it faster!" Anthony responded, and realizing his own cone was melting, he made quick work of finishing his.
Leaving
Author: Marzipan
Date: 09-09-16 09:59
"But I'm almost six!" Carter exclaimed, after Marzi announced that it was time for the family to depart Emrys Fest.
Marzi ran her fingers through Carter's hair and said, "I know you think you're grown-up, but it's been a very long day and if we stay till the end, then it'll be well past your bedtime."
"I'm tired," Vallon announced. His eyes were heavy-lidded, and his shoulders were slightly hunched as if he no longer had the strength to stand upright.
"That's because you're only a five year old," Carter said.
"You're only five too!" Vallon responded, suddenly a little bit more awake.
"Yeah, but I'm older," Carter pointed out, as if the six months between them made all the difference.
"Okay, no more arguing." Marzi flicked her wand at the picnic blanket, which folded itself and landed neatly in the basket at her feet. "We're leaving. You both need baths, and maybe a healthy snack, and then it's off to bed for the three of us."
"I don't want a healthy snack," said both boys simultaneously.
"After all the junk we've eaten today, I think some carrot sticks or a banana sounds like a good idea."
"Ice cream's not junk," Carter said.
"Yeah," Vallon agreed. "Ice cream is good."
Marzi laughed. "Good doesn't mean good for you."
Carter, who'd been trudging along toward the edge of the grounds, stopped in his tracks when Werewolf Code of Conduct bounded onto Stage One. They were dressed in suits made out of fur and howled into the evening sky.
Marzi gave him a gentle nudge to keep moving.
"But I want to watch the werewolves!"
Vallon tried to look interested, but his eyes were winning in the battle to stay closed. Marzi ended up scooping him up, with his head resting on her shoulder. Even with all the noise from the band and the crowd, Vallon managed to fall asleep before they even left the university grounds.
It didn't take long after they got home for Carter to finally show weariness from the extremely long day. He murmured about werewolves as he drifted off to sleep. Not long after that, Marzi called it an early night too.
Observations
Author: Lee Sickleby
Date: 09-09-16 14:42
"So you are here."
Lee looked up from where he had been studying Alaia's pale face and saw Divina standing in the doorway to the hospital room. She had her arms folded across her chest and didn't look the least bit happy to see him.
"There's no place I would rather be," Lee simply replied.
He knew that Divina was still angry with him for going on a business trip for work, while Alaia remained hospitalized and deathly ill. Lee hadn't been able to tell Divina the whole truth for leaving the country, but his version of why he went had been entirely honest. If he hadn't gone, then he would have lost his job, and with Alaia in the hospital and needing round the clock medical care, Lee couldn't afford to get sacked.
His mission in St. Petersburg had been successful, as well as revealing. Lee and Newell had infiltrated an archive belonging to the Russian Ministry of Magic and had stolen transcripts, which had to do with cars and explosive potions and how they were to be used as weapons in future attacks (though against whom was still unknown). While making their escape from the archives, the two covert agents observed none other than Roman Travers in conversation with the mob boss Zukovsky. To both Lee and Newell's knowledge, Travers wasn't supposed to have been there. In fact, he was supposed to have been in Kyzyl, repairing the destroyed brewing stations, while Zukovsky was supposed to be in Madrid.
Lee and Newell had left the archives undetected, returned to London, and conferenced with Rowle about what they'd found and seen while in St. Petersburg. If Rowle seemed bothered by the revelation about Travers, he didn't show it. Ordinarily, Rowle's behavior shouldn't have unnerved Lee. After all, Rowle was in a high position and knew more about what was happening in the agency than Lee and Newell ever would. The fact that Lee didn't trust Rowle lately gave him pause about the latter's reaction to the possibility that Travers may have gone rogue.
Divina stared Lee down and then crossed over to his side of the bed. She asked, "Do you need a break?"
He didn't immediately answer, wondering if the affirmative would give Divina reason to judge him more.
She sighed and said, "Go on. Get something to eat. I can hear your stomach growling."
Lee murmured, "Thanks. I won't be long," and got up from the chair. He headed for the door and then paused to look at his sick wife and her best friend, who was seated now in the chair he'd just vacated. Divina held onto Alaia's frail hand.
Lee sighed inwardly and headed for the Visitor's Tea Room. He suddenly experienced déjà vu when he saw Rowle down the corridor with a healer, the same one Lee had seen Rowle pass something to in secret on a previous occasion. Rowle turned swiftly and disappeared into one of the lifts, while the healer slipped whatever it was into the pocket of his robes and strode down the corridor all business-like. Lee made up his mind and walked towards the healer but with no intention of making conversation.
When they crossed paths, Lee brushed up against the healer as if on accident, dipped his hand into the pocket of the wizard's robes, lifted a small bundle out, and slid it up the sleeve of his own robes.
"Sorry!" Lee exclaimed. "My equilibrium's a bit off. Ear infection." He pointed at his ear, smiled, and then ducked into the nearest bathroom.
Once locked in a stall, Lee unwound the linen bundle, which consisted of a roll of galleons and a thin glass vial with a rubber stopper. Lee couldn't identify the contents of the vial by sight and didn't want to open it in the bathroom, but he could guess what it might contain. As for the roll of money… it looked like Rowle was paying off the healer, who just so happened to be one on Alaia's health team. Was Rowle paying the healer to not only poison Alaia, but to keep her condition a mystery?
Lee's heart thudded in his chest. He knew he was thinking wild thoughts, but his theory was not out of the realm of the possibility. Rowle had said all along that Lee would do better without making attachments, and he'd disapproved of Alaia since the beginning.
Lee needed to have the contents of the vial analyzed, but he'd have to do it without Rowle knowing, which probably meant doing it anywhere but at work or using his usual on-the-job contacts. The sooner he got to the bottom of it, the better.
Ready To Go, Or Not
Author: Charlie Weasley
Date: 09-09-16 21:07
Emrys Fest isn't over, not quite yet, but Charlie looks to drained looking Hendrika, "Ready to go home?"
Before Hen can answer, as he yawns hugely, Artie declares, "But I'm not tired. I want to stay."
Hendrika holds out a hand to him. "But Mummy's tired."
Charlie can tell by Schuyler's expression he's not wanting to leave just yet either. Ava, on the other hand, is passed out on a small pallet next to Hen's chair. Hen and he exchange a look, he nods then says to the boys, "How about we let you two stay while I get Mum and Ava home?"
The two boys can't say yes fast enough. Charlie takes a moment to let some of the other family know the plan then after helping Hendrika into a wheelchair he gathers their things, and carefully scoops up Ava. Hen looks up at him, "I'll carry her."
"You're sure?" Though Hen spent part of the day resting she still looks more wan than usual; plus, she's far enough along in the pregnancy that she has a visible bump, something she'd had with both the boys but never when pregnant with Ava.
As if reading his mind she smiles, "As big as I got with the boys and seem to be getting with this one, it's hard to believe Ava didn't make her presence known until she decided to arrive."
Charlie pushes the wheelchair to a spot that would be good for disapparating. Never the best apparator in the family Charlie has improved a great deal since Schuyler came along and even more so since the cursed caused health issues that still plague Hendrika. He soon has Ava and Hen home where Barley is ecstatic to see them.
As they get Ava into pajamas and into bed, all with the five year old never waking, Hendrika says, "It's too bad Percy's got a Molly."
"Ron said the same thing to me before Rose was born though I'm not sure if they were ever serious about naming her Molly."
"Isn't Grace Grace's middle name. Molly is her first name?"
"She is, and named for my mother at that. What about your mother's name?" he asks as he helps Hen to their room.
"Anneke. I suppose we could do a version such as Annika but we have Artie and Ava. Do we want another A name with Schuyler left out?"
"You think he'd care?"
"I'm not sure. With him something like that is hard to tell. What about Muriel?"
"My aunt would LOVE that. It's definitely a thought. Okay, I'm going to walk Barley around for a few minutes then get back to St. Emrys. You'll be all right?"
"I'm fine. We're fine. If you can't pry the boys away until the very end, forgo the baths as we did with Ava, though she's nowhere near as dirty as they are. I think Artie magically attracts dirt."
Chuckling at that, Charlie gives Hendrika a kiss then goes to get Barley's leash. He feels badly that it's a short walk so decides he'll take her for a longer walk once he's got the boys home and in bed. He quietly peeks in on Ava and Hendrika, whom he'd left reaching for a book but is now asleep with the book open on her chest, then gives Barley a dog chew before returning to Emrys Fest.