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City of Lovers
Author: Hermione Granger
Date: 04-29-12 12:20
Paris glittered at night. From their vantage point on top of the Eiffel Tower, Hermione and Ron saw a myriad of lights stretching as far as the eye could see. Most of the lights were white, yellowish or blue and looked like twinkling stars. Some were brighter, though, and clearly lit up monuments throughout the ancient city. Hermione and Ron had seen many of them already during their carriage ride and during the river cruise they'd taken along the Seine.
Hermione pointed at a landmark and said, "That's the Arc de Triomphe."
"Probably the only other landmark besides the Eiffel Tower I can identify on sight," Ron remarked.
Hermione moved her index finger in a straight line along a large thoroughfare that was mostly obscured by buildings. "The Champs Elysées," she said. "You can walk all the way from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe along the Champs Elysées."
"Looks like quite the workout."
"Yes, and see that white structure, way back there?" she asked, pointing in the distance.
"It looks like a church."
"It is, the Sacré-Cour. I remember my parents told me a story about their honeymoon. They came here to Paris, not only for the honeymoon but also for a dental conference happening around the same time. One night, they were walking below the hill where the Sacré-Cour is, in Montmartre, when a showgirl from one of the nightclubs there pulled my dad away from my mom and tried to get him to pay for a private dance. My dad was mortified, but my mum found it quite funny."
Ron chuckled. "Maybe some other time we should go check out that part of town."
Hermione elbowed him in the side. "If you need that sort of entertainment, you can ask me, you know."
"Oh, really?" Ron asked, waggling his eyebrows.
"Yes, really, Ronald."
"We're done here, then?"
Hermione shot him a very serious look. "Paris is one of the most cultural cities in the world."
"Yes, but it's also the City of Lovers," Ron countered with a grin.
Hermione pretended to yawn. "I am feeling awfully sleepy. Maybe we should go to the bed & breakfast now."
"Great idea. I'll get the lift."
A short while later, they strolled hand in hand to the B&B, which was owned by an English couple who had been living in Paris for thirty years. Their room had a tiny balcony, on which the couple stood for some time and gazed out at their perfect view of the Eiffel Tower. Like everything else in Paris, the famous landmark glittered in the night.
Better To Show Rather Than To Tell
Author: Charlie Weasley
Date: 04-29-12 13:52
Seeing the sitter off, Charlie joins Hendrika on the couch. She'd shed her shoes upon sitting and now slides her feet into his lap, lazily reclining back. "What time are you leaving tomorrow?"
"Fairly early. The meeting's at three, Beijing time. We want to be at least a half hour early so need to leave before 7:30 in the morning. I plan to be at the preserve by 6:45."
"You'll wake me before you go if I'm not already up?"
Charlie begins massaging Hen's feet. "You don't have to see me off."
"I know I don't have to, I want to. If I'm up early enough I'll even fix you breakfast. Do you think this meeting tomorrow will do any good?"
"I'm not expecting much but at least we'll have representatives from preserves around the world in one room, at least attempting to communicate. It would be nice if even just one person had a rational theory on why young, seemingly healthy dragons are being found dead thousands of miles from where they live and with no apparent cause of death."
"Have you ever wondered if it's the work of someone with a really odd, sick sense of humor?"
"It's crossed my mind a time or two. I'm sure it has a number of other people. Sometime to ask around about tomorrow."
"Late as it is and as early as you need to leave in the morning, you should get some sleep."
Gently sliding Hendrika's feet from his lap, Charlie takes her hand and pulls her upright. "I'm planning on going to bed right now, but am not planning in going to sleep right away."
"Oh? Do tell?"
"It's something that's better shown than told."
Hand in hand they rise from the couch to first look in on the sleeping Schuyler, Artie, and Ava, before going to bed.
(Ariella) Night Out
Author: Beck
Date: 04-29-12 14:46
Ariella lay on her stomach with her arms crossed under her cheek and watched as her husband slept. He had treated her to a lovely dinner at a Muggle restaurant called the Albermarle, which was located inside a hotel and was near London's theatre district. Dinner had been divine and had been followed by an even more delicious dessert.
Ariella loved the jewelry Lawrence had gotten her, though she already had a lot of gemstone jewelry and really didn't need any more. Over the years Lawrence had given her two diamond bracelets, a diamond and ruby tennis bracelet, an emerald, diamond and sapphire bracelet, and now the diamond and emerald bracelet. He'd also given her countless necklaces, some earrings and rings.
Lawrence stirred in his sleep and then opened his eyes. The light was still on in the room. He blinked and turned his head to look at Ariella, who smiled at him.
"You fell asleep," she told him.
"I did? What time is it?"
"Not even 9:30," she said to him.
As if he didn't believe her, Lawrence turned his head in the other direction and looked at the digital clock on the nightstand. When he turned back around to face her, he smiled sheepishly. "It feels later than it is."
"That's because you're tuckered out."
"In a good way," Lawrence grinned impishly.
Ariella rolled her eyes. "Yes, well, you also packed your day too full. You had classes today, those you taught at Hogwarts and those you took at St. Emrys. Then you did this." She raised her head and gestured the room with one of her arms.
"Are you complaining?"
"You know I'm not," Ariella replied with a smile and put her head down again. "I just think you do too much."
"I like to."
"I know." Ariella reached over and ran her fingers through his hair. "We don't always have to go on trips or overnight visits to a B&B. I'm perfectly happy staying home with you."
"I thought you like traveling."
"I do, but we don't have to do it all the time. Besides," Ariella added, grinning facetiously, "it's not really a surprise anymore because you're always taking me somewhere. I half expect it now."
Lawrence laughed. "I get your point. I've become too predictable."
"I'm not complaining."
"I don't know," Lawrence said, feigning hurt. "I feel bad now."
Ariella knew he was joking and said, "Well, let me make you feel better then." And she leaned in for a long kiss.
Third Dad
Author: Briar Rose
Date: 04-29-12 15:41
Despite the middle name she goes by, Grace is anything but graceful when she gives a jarring leap to bounce onto the bed next to the prostrate Briar. "I've a question, Mum."
Tired beyond words and finding her head weighs far more than she remembers, Briar says into the mattress, "You've always a question. Answer one for me. Why did you jump on my bed."
"I didn't jump, not really."
"Okay. So why did you not really jump on my bed?"
"To get your attention better. You looked asleep."
"Why are you even up, Molly Grace Valentine?"
"I was awake and bored. How come you didn't have a Valentine's date?"
"What do you know about Valentine's and dates?"
"My class at school learned all about Valentine's the day we did hearts for art."
"You know how the past few days I've been working longer hours?"
"Like at Christmas."
"Yes, like at Christmas. Valentine's is considered a special day so there were more orders to be filled and today there were people rushing in last minute to buy something. Mummy is very, very tired."
"Did anyone ask you on a date?"
"Yes, actually. Matthew McQuillen did and do you remember Harvey Moss?"
"He bought us ice cream one day in Diagon Alley."
"Yes, that's him."
"He's nice, you should go out with him again. Not Mr. McQuillen though."
Briar musters the strength to roll over so she can better see her daughter. "I thought you liked Matthew."
Grace crinkles her nose. "I do mostly but I don't want him to be my third dad."
"A date here and there does not mean I plan in marrying him."
"He wants to marry you."
"I know he likes me, poppet, but that doesn't mean he wants to marry me."
"He does." Grace sounds supremely confident in her pronouncement.
"Has he said something to you?"
"No, but I can tell."
Briar would like to know more but she's so tired at the moment, pursuing this would take more thought than her foggy brain can handle. It will have to wait until later. "Grace, what did you mean by third dad?"
"Daddy is my first dad. Uncles Lysander, Byron, Charlie, and Bill all make up my second dad. If you married Mr. McQuillen, that would put him in third. Since you didn't have a date tonight but Dad did, why aren't my babies here?"
"Daddy knew how tired Mummy would be."
"Aegean could have come home."
"Aegean's own mummy is very sick, honey. It's more important that she get to spend time there."
"May my babies come tomorrow?"
"Perhaps in the afternoon Jasmine and Xavier may come for a bit. We'll stop and ask Daddy on the way to school."
"Mummy, I'm a little hungry."
"Would you like some cheese toast and hot chocolate?"
"Yes, please."
Briar's wearily lifts her arms. "Help me up, please."
Grace jumps up, again causing the bed to shake. She straddles Briar, takes hold of both hands and starts walking backwards, tugging Briar up as she goes. Once upright on legs that have a rubbery sensation, Briar smooths the skirt of the wrinkled robes she'd not bothered divesting herself of being falling face first on the bed.
"Two orders of cheese toast and hot chocolate coming right up."
The far too awake and alert Grace follows behind, stopping only to grab her current favorite storybook to read aloud as Briar makes their snack.
(Kate) Three Little Words
Author: Bronwyn Dewhurst
Date: 04-29-12 15:55
Kate and Mark had done a little bit of dancing. It had been their second time at it, the first having been at Emrys Fest this summer. Now they sat at their table and cooled off, sipping from their goblets and watching everybody else. The Great Hall had already begun to empty, with some students heading for their beds and others for the Astronomy Tower. Kate was lucky in that she didn't have class tonight, but Mark did have Astronomy with Professor Quigley this evening.
"Shall we go, then?" Kate said, after she emptied her goblet.
Mark sighed. "I guess it can't be avoided." He didn't have any motivation to go to class but knew it would be bad form if he skipped. He got up from his seat and held out his hand to Kate.
She took it and walked with him to the entrance hall.
"What did you think about Gus and Johanna?" she asked him, when they stopped to linger near the staircase that led to the dungeons.
"I think Johanna better watch her back," Mark said. "A lot of girls gave her the evil eye tonight."
Kate laughed. "I think she can handle herself. Besides, I think they went as friends, not as a real couple."
Mark shrugged. "I think most girls are jealous of any girl at his side, whether she is dating him or not."
Kate smiled. "Who knew that Gus would turn into such a stud. Remember how he was when we first met him?"
"I remember."
"Felicia seemed to be having a good time," Kate went on. "She was quite the exhibitionist, wasn't she?"
"I'm surprised Professor McGonagall didn't try to tear her and Baltus apart," Mark agreed.
Kate laughed, picturing it.
"Well, I guess we should say good night." She leaned in to kiss Mark. He kissed her back and when she pulled away and prepared to go down the stairs to the cellar, he reached for her hand and said, "Wait."
Kate turned to face him.
Mark reached into the pocket of his slacks and pulled out an extremely small, rectangular tin. The lid was cream in color and had four pink flowers on it.
"It's not much," he said, "but I saw it and thought of you."
Kate took the little tin from him. It could be used as a pill box or maybe a mint tin. It was very cute.
She smiled at him. "Thank you. I love it."
"Open it."
Kate opened the box and found a single candy heart inside. It read I LOVE YOU.
Kate looked up at Mark. "I mean it," he said. "I love you."
Kate beamed at him. "I love you too." She kissed him, a bit more fiercely than what he might expect from a Hufflepuff, and then broke off breathlessly. She squeezed his hand and then bounded down the stairs and out of sight.
Mark lingered in the entrance hall for a moment and then went to the dungeons in a bit of a happy daze.
Keeping It Simple
Author: Jared
Date: 04-29-12 16:49
Nestled together in front of a sofa, a fire crackling over which they are roasting marshmallows, Alanna nudges Jared. "Yours is about to go up in flames."
Hastily extracting the marshmallow, the toasted fluff gets sandwiched with pieces of chocolate between two digestive biscuits. Trading off with Alanna so she can try the gooey treat first, he does the same with the marshmallow she'd been toasting.
After an initial bite Alanna asks, "What are these called?"
"S'mores."
"They're good."
"Etta showed me after Olive Green, you know, Emerald's sister, showed her and some other of their friends. Olive used something called graham crackers. I had to look them up and read that digestive biscuits are the closest thing. Maybe I'll give Emerald some money to bring graham crackers from the States sometime since she's there about twice a week. Want another?"
"Yes, I do believe so, thank you, and thank you for dinner. I had no idea you could do more than scrambled eggs or heat up soup."
"Mum's been showing me and ," Jared pauses, finishing his first s'more and because he's hadn't meant to admit where else he's been learning cooking."
Alanna leans her body into him prompting, "And?"
"And, I've been taking a cooking class at St. Emrys."
"How did I not know this?"
"Because I wanted to be able to surprise you with dinner."
"You did. I had no idea when we left the dance we weren't going to a restaurant. This flat is really nice."
"Isn't it? I offered to pay Jerry for letting us use it but he wouldn't hear if it. He said it was just going to be empty anyway while he's gone this week." Living as much at home as he does in one of the St. Emrys residence halls, Jared had given a great deal of thought as to where he could cook dinner for two for Alanna. Home would have meant his parents possibly coming home before he wanted them to, that's if they were going out tonight at all. The dorm room has a sort of kitchenette but it's not that conducive to cooking a special dinner like tonight's was. There's also the fact that the dorm mate who replaced Sage when Sage got a place with his steps is a shy, stay in the room all the time when not in class sort. Little chance of privacy there.
After a few minutes of companionable silence spent eating their s'mores, and a little chocolatey-marshmallowy snogging Jared pulls away, getting up. "Be right back."
Content to finish off another s'more, Alanna doesn't ask where he's going. Jared's quick about it, returning less than a minute later with an oblong wrapped box. "Got you something."
"I thought this was my gift," she says, one hand gesturing to the remains of supper on the table and the flat as a whole.
"It's nothing much."
Jared has always tended to stress on what to give Alanna for any occasion. This Valentine's Day he decided to go simple. He'd given her some of her favorite flowers when arriving to pick her up for the St. Emrys dance then brought her here to cook supper for her. The gift, as he said, is really nothing much.
Alanna opens the box then lifts out the two tickets inside, a grin breaking across her face and lighting her features as much as the glow from the fire. "The butterfly exhibit I saw advertised."
He explains, "We were getting together Saturday anyway but didn't have real plans. Now, we do."
The exhibit is one of those special, large indoor gardens with hundreds of flowers and numerous species of butterflies.
She tucks the tickets back inside the box. "Thank you. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect night."
Musings by Firelight - Mockridge Dower
Author: Nephele Mockridge
Date: 04-29-12 22:45
Nephele sat quietly in her parlor, staring into the fire. Valeria was tucked into bed, the house-elves taking care of cleaning the downstairs. There was only one room of the house that they did not enter and that was her potions laboratory, built into the basement of the old dower house.
The main estate had fallen into disuse in the last ten years, all of them moving to the dower house after the death of her brother and his wife. Idly, she wondered if they'd be proud of their daughter, and of her. She and Kirley had been left joint guardianship, but they had been Seventh Years when their older brother died, too young, some said, to raise a child of less than a year's age.
They had planned to come home for the break, but at the last minute, Cloris had owled and requested that they stay at school, that Valeria's first Christmas would be no fuss because of the War. There were still nights she closed her eyes and saw her brother's mischievous smirk and his wife's smile as they saw her and Kirley off on September 1st. And then the horrible news of their death, delivered with as much compassion as their Head of House could provide.
She had been in shock, and she wasn't quite sure how, but after today, she suspected Kirley had something to do with it, she'd wound up crying on his shoulder. Kirley had quickly gotten control of his emotions, at least until he was out of the room, but she was certain he'd found a quiet spot and either a willing bit of skirt or a shoulder he could lean on. Either were acceptable options, so long as the first was discrete and careful and the second was discrete and trustworthy. It was always wise, especially in Slytherin House, to choose your friends carefully.
Potions had been the only thing that brought her any relief the rest of that term. After N.E.W.T.'s, she'd barely been able to wait for the train ride back to King's Cross to get back to Mockridge Dower. Cloris had met them at the station, a rarity in itself, with Valeria, just over a year old. They'd gone straight to the family mausoleum, surprised they'd been given the right to bury their dead in peace given their allegiances and the Dark Marks burned into their arms, but Mockridge money bought a lot of things, including silence.
Pulling herself from her reverie, she allowed a hint of a smile to cross her lips as she glanced at the parchment partially hidden on her desk. She'd have never let anyone see the way her fingers traced over the initials scrawled across the bottom of the page, or how carefully she put this letter with the others in the concealed box she kept carefully hidden. After all, a Slytherin learned to hide their weaknesses along with their emotions. Playing a situation to one's advantage required control of one's self and one's environment, but especially of one's self.
She glanced at the reply she'd composed, before a hint of a smirk caught her features. It was tempting to do as Kirley suggested, but she was better than that. Instead, she included the recipe for a potion she'd been experimenting with, asking what he thought and if she should go ahead with her plans to have it tested by the Ministry. She would rather have his respect than nothing at all.
Sealing the parchment, she prepared it for one of the family's Great Gray Owls to take in the morning before changing her mind and heading for the cage she kept in her own rooms. He should know her own owl well by this point.