Très Belle [James Potter II]

2. In which we get drunk and do stupid things

Wow.

I wasn’t really expecting that, but wow.

“That’s great and all, but guess what I’m doing?” Dom squealed. She’d been going on about her shop for a while.

“We know – start a fashion shop.” I say monotonously.

“No! Well, yes, but I’ve got news! Tante Ginny got me a shop place in Diagon Ally, and she said that she’d work with me on the running-it part, since she stopped Quidditch commentating half way through the year!”

“That’s amazing Dom!” Ari says.

“Wow, it’s going to be so good, especially now that you’ve got someone with experience helping you!” I chime in.

Now, the one thing I’ve got out of this little conversation is that my three best friends in the whole world are all moving the England once we finish school.

And my plan was to stay in France.

“So, Belle, what’s your plan?”

“Ahhh…Well, I was going to stay here, but maybe if you’re all moving, I might to England too…but I dunno.” I sigh.

“Oh! I didn’t even realize! I thought Dom would have her store in Paris…” Ari says.

“Yeah, and that Ari would get a spot at the French ministry…” Celi says.

“I could stay here, get Ginny to move her store?” Dom offers, but I know that she really doesn’t want to.

“Well, in all my time off I’ll spend it here.” Celi nods.

“And I could go back to the French Ministry, I got some job offers there too…” She trails off, and I can tell she felt compelled to say that because of the other two.

“It’s okay guys, honestly. I’ll come to London. Seriously, and my parents would hate it if they knew my friends had all moved here and I hadn’t. Plus, Gabe will have finished school, so I’ll be able to see him too. It’s all gee.” I say.

So, I re-formulated my plan.

At the start of the holidays, I would go to Diagon Alley, and visit Patterson’s Wands (since Olivander’s had been destroyed, a new one had popped up), and get a part-time job there, and do my writing for the rest of the time.

Nice.

“Okay, since we’re all in London, maybe we could share a flat? You know, get a really big one, and share the cost and stuff? We’re all going to be out working a lot, so…” Dom says.

Back in fifth year, we had all promised to share a flat when we graduated. But, at that time, innocent little us hadn’t been thinking of boyfriends and England. But, I knew that I really wanted this. I could tell Celi did too, as she didn’t want to rent/buy a flat she’d hardly spend any time in. I wasn’t sure about Arianne, but we could do it with the three of us.

“Yeah, I’d really like that.”

“I’m in too. Much better to share.”

“I guess so. But you can’t mess up my stuff, okay?!” This last one was, of course, from Ari.

We all agreed that we would spend the first week of the holidays staying with our own family. Then we would go to my Mum’s place in London, and go flat searching. I would pack up all my stuff (from her house), and have everything I’d be moving neatly done up.