You Shouldn't Have Lied

#13

On the 29th, Harry made sure the spare room could hold all six if them. It was larger than his room, due to the lack of additional furniture and other personal items Harry had. His parents helped him move the bedframe to make more room for the mattresses, so there was now two single mattresses and two double. The doorbell ringing disturbed him from his drawing.
"I'LL GET IT!" he yelled to his parents, going downstairs to the door. Opening the door, he saw Hermione, along with her mum.
"Hi," he said, standing in the doorway.
"Hi Harry," Hermione replied.
"Harry, dear, can I talk to one of your parents? I would just like to know who I'm leaving my daughter with," Hermione's mum told him.
"Yeah sure, hold on," Harry told her, going back to the stairs, "POP! HERMIONE'S MUM WANTS TO MEET ONE OF YOU!" He walked back to the door, and Remus came down to greet Dr Granger.
"Hi, I'm Remus, Harry's pop. You must be Hermione's mum," he greeted her, shaking her hand.
"Hi, yes, I'm Jean. Sorry, I just wanted to meet someone in the house I'm leaving my daughter in," Hermione's mum replied.
"No, that's understandable. I would if Harry was going to the house of someone I've never met as well."
"Um, could I just ask who is here, adult wise? It's just... I know there ate six of them."
"Yeah, sure. So I'm here, obviously. My fiancé Sirius, James, who's Harry's dad, and Regulus, Harry's uncle."
"Great. Um, my husband and I are staying about fifteen minutes away in a hotel. We saw this as an opportunity to get out of the house, particularly as we're not too close. Do you have a phone? Is that something wizards have? If so, I can give you the number in case of emergency."
"Yes, we have a phone. Most wizards don't, but I grew up with a muggle mother. What's the number?"
"I don't know of the top of my head, but here is the card from our hotel room."
She hands him the card and he puts it in his pocket.
"Thank you. I'm sure everything will go fine though," Jean told him.
"Yeah, me too. At least, I hope so," he agreed.
"Well, I'll be off. Have fun Hermione."
"Bye mum," Hermione responded, hugging her mum goodbye and walking behind Harry into the house, holding her backpack with her overnight things.

Minutes later, the fireplace was lit with a greenflame and Faolan and Draco walked out together. Harry and Hermione were already in the living room, playing battleships on a piece of paper. The two pairs greeted eachother gleefully, hugging.
"I feel like I haven't seen you guys in ages," Hermione said.
"Same," Faolan replied.
"I saw you last week. We talked yesterday," Harry told them.
"That was so long ago. Plus, I had to deal with purebloods. And my parents."
"I'm standing right here," Draco told them.
"You know what I mean."
"Faolan, is your face okay?" Hermione asked them.
"What?"
"Your face. You have a new cut on your cheek. It looks painful."
"Oh, it's not as bad as I looks. It's just going to be another scar."
"Why? Can't you just magic it?"
"It doesn't always work like that."
"Why not?"
"I don't know. It just doesn't."
"How was the ball?" Harry asked Draco, purposefully distracting the other two from their conversation.
"It was good. Most pureblood balls are, don't listen to what Faolan tells you. Live music, dancing, food. Plus, it was at the Byrnes', so we had a really beautiful hall," he replied, sitting down.
"It sounds fun."
"It's all about appearances. You dress up, you ballroom dance. You have to use the right fork to eat cake and turkey and the right spoon to have soup. If you perform badly, you get punishment," Faolan told him, bitterly.
"Learn the act, you can learn to have fun."
"Seeing you was the only good part. I got to talk to someone I know."
"We've been going to the same things for years."
"Yeah, but I was avoiding you then."
"What?!?"
"Not you as a person, you as an idea. You're my future husband."
"I still find it weird," Hermione said, scrunching her nose.
"Me too," Harry agreed.
"Me three. And it's my marriage," Faolan told them. Draco rolled his eyes.
"Anyone would think you didn't want to marry me," he said sarcastically.
"Of course of I do honey. Love of my life. It's my dream," Faolan replied satirically.

Another ring of the doorbell interrupted the conversation.
"That'll probably be Jace and Ron," Harry said, going downstairs. He opened the door, and the two boys were standing there.
"Hi Harry," Jace greeted.
"Hi guys," Harry replied, "come in. The others are upstairs."
He lead them up to the living room, where they were greeted by the others.
"So, how were your Christmases?" Jace asked.
"Good. My grandparents came round and we played boardgames all afternoon," Hermione said.
"That sounds fun."
"What about you?"
"My mum and stepdad cooked dinner for us. It was fun. Dumbledore came round, but other than that it was good."
"You don't like Dumbledore."
"He's...alot. Particularly when he's there all the time."
"I had a great time. Bill and Charlie came home and we had fun," Ron said.
"You also got matching jumpers?" Harry asked, looking at Jace ans Ron's matching Weasley jumpers.
"Yeah. Family tradition. Mom makes them for the whole family. And Jace is basically family."
"Cool."
"What about you Harry?" Jace asked.
"My family and I just spent time together. My dad really likes Christmas, because when my grandparents took him in, it was one of his first celebrations."
"Cool."
"I had lunch and dinner with my parents," Draco said, "then my mother and I played chess and scrabble."
"That sounds fun?" Hermione told him.
"Yeah, it was. I enjoy spending time with my mother."
"How about you Faolan?"
"I had to stay with my parents. My seanathair came over and we ate lunch. I had to have a hair lengthening potion and my itchy skin one and I had to wear a dress. Plus, my seanathair is mean."
"Itchy skin potion?"
"It hides my scars. My parents don't like showing them. But it feels bad."
"I'm really sorry, I'm probably an idiot, but what's a seanathair?" Jason asked, confused.
"You're not an idiot. I forget you fecking sasanach don't speak my language after you forced me into learning yours. My seanathair is my... ugh what's the word in English?"
"You'll have to be more specific, darling. There are lots of English words," Draco told them.
"You know. Your athair athar."
"Using more irish word we don't know won't help."
"The male above your mother or father."
"Grandfather?"
"TÁ! Grandfather. My father's father."
"Do you not speak English as a first language?" Hermione asked.
"Níl. I speak Gaeilge at home. I only speak Béarla, sorry, English because I have to live in English pureblood society."
"Interesting."
"Did you just call Faolan darling?" Ron asked, going back to what Draco said, scrunching his nose.
"Hm? Oh, yes. I'm training myself into it," the blond replied.
"Why?"
"Well, a) I will be their husband. So, it's good to train my brain for that early, and b) it avoids me saying their name. At family events, I cannot call them Faolan, and I will if I'm not focused. And if I train myself into their deadname, I'll slip up everywhere else. It took me forever for me to get Faolan into my head, so I don't want to undo that. If I call them darling, it avoids saying their name completely in a way that purebloods see as understandable and not very suspicious."
"We had a conversation about it a few weeks ago. We decided this was the vest way," Faolan added.
"Smart," Harry said.
"I know spéaclaí. I came up with it."
"Actually, we came up with it," Draco reminded them.
"Eh, details."