Surviving in Harmony

ChapterThirty-Five | Ivy House, November 2012

Chapter Thirty-Five

Ivy House, November 2012

 

                        In the early hours of the morning Charlie left Ivy House after kissing Sonia's cheek. His job made it so he had to leave the house three hours earlier than most to be in Romania at the right time, thanks to the three-hour time difference.

Sonia woke up a few hours later, rain pelting her window. She rolled out of bed in a hurry, rushing to the bathroom – the nausea she'd been having for the past few days had finally reared its ugly head fully.

"Gross." She mumbled, reaching for her toothbrush. It must have been the cottage cheese from the other day, it had smelled funny. She retreated back to the bedroom, where she crawled under the covers with a sigh. The other day had been Andrew's youngest daughters second birthday; Maeve Sonia was the sweetest, oddest toddler around.

Maeve was quiet, but in a different way than Robin and Hester had been – everyone had been afraid that she was deaf, but the healers assured Andrew and Amara she was just...engrossed in the smaller things. She rarely looked right at you, rather her eyes drifted to a spot just beyond you. As if her green eyes could see something you could not.

The party had been loud and rambunctious, with lots of aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters and cousins to celebrate. Mrs. Weasley, though not the Bowen children's actual Grandmother, was the designated Grandma and cake-baker. Niha was known fondly as Babi.

Usually being around the entire Weasley gang energized Sonia, but after less than an hour in she'd been dead tired.

"Are you okay?" Andrew had asked as they piled dishes into the sink. "You look completely worn out."

"Thanks, you look nice too."

"Seriously – what's wrong? You look worse than Emmerson." He referred to Amara's pregnant half sister less than a month from delivering.

She'd spewed some sort of lie about not sleeping enough coupled with a stomach bug and gotten away. Still, the comment had bugged her.

Sonia did not get out of bed for the rest of the day.

            The stars were out by the time Charlie got home, a light frost covered the yard and not a single light was on in the house. He unlocked the front door and was happy to find a letter from Max sitting on the hall table.

"Sonia?" he called out, but there was no reply. Not bothering to take off his coat, he grabbed the letter and went upstairs. Peeking into their bedroom, his heart melted; Sonia was curled up on the bed, fast asleep, dark hair splayed across the white duvet.

Kissing her forehead softly, he brushed back her hair before going into the bathroom. "Ouch!" he cried, stubbing his toe on something. Flipping on the lights, he stared quizzically at the floor. What could Sonia have been doing with their cauldron in the bathroom?

Then he saw the book, the potion, the tissues on the floor. "Oh Merlin." He breathed, glancing behind him. "Oh geeze." He practically jumped on top of his wife.

"Whaa?" she mumbled as Charlie stuck his extatic smile in her face.

"Are you really?" he said softly, tears in his eyes.

Sonia shot up, half her hair flat against her head. "You saw?"

He nodded. "Is it right?"

Chewing her lip, Sonia nodded. "Yeah. I mean – that potion has a very high chance of being correct."