***A/N*** Hey guys! This cute little chapter was inspired by a conversation I had with one of you guys! If you have any ideas that you would like me to incorporate into the story feel free to leave a comment or send me a private message, and if I like it, there's a good chance that I will bring it to life! Also, not that this book is near completion at all, but I've started to think about what I could do after I'm finished. I'm thinking about a book that takes place between the years after the war and Violet and George's kids' time before Hogwarts (so basically Violet and George being parents and not really having a clue what they're doing)! Let me know if you would like to see that, it would be told from Violet, George, Emma, Walter, and Lee's perspectives! I might also mix in a few chapters told from the kid's perspective about their lives post-Hogwarts. Oaky, I think that's all I have to say for now... enjoy!
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"You guys want to do something tonight?"
It's like midnight and all of the adults are asleep.
Well, all of the old adults, cause Kate, Dom, Molly Bridget, Teddy, Vic, Evie, and Freddie are all awake with us. Am I considered an adult too now? I dunno.
"Do what? This is a small town, everything closes at like nine at night." Molly says. She's lying in Bridget's lap, playing with her fingers.
"Well I don't just want to sit around here and twiddle my girlfriends thumbs for her," Dom says to Molly.
"Wife," Bridget laughs, "Her wife's thumbs."
"That's right," Molly sits up just so she can kiss Bridget, "My wife's fingers."
Victoire looks at Freddie and Evie, "Are you two excited to be husband and wife?"
Dominique snorts, "Don't take relationship advice from those two. They haven't been living with each other for two months."
Teddy sighs, "Dom, please stay out of it? It's not your business."
'You're saying that my sister isn't my business now?" We can all tell that this is going to end badly if we don't stop it right now.
"What about that street festival that you told me about Dom?" Annie asks, "We can go there?"
"You're not going anywhere." Freddie says all matter-of-factly, "You're too young to be out this late."
"I went out with you to get pizza..."
"Then you ran off chasing a cat. At a festival it will be a lot harder to keep an eye out on you I don't want to have to explain to Mum and Dad how we lost you in the middle of the..."
"Come off it," Kate says, "Let the girl come, it was her idea. She's old enough not to do anything stupid."
"I just don't want –"
"You're not her father. Don't tell her what to do." Kate and Dom stand from the chair that they were sharing, "You were a lot more fun on the quidditch pitch, Freddie. Come on Annie, I'll buy you an ice cream."
Theseus kisses my neck just under my ear lobe, "I guess we're going to a... what's it called?"
I laugh at my boyfriend, "A street festival, with rides and games and bad fried food and stuffed animals."
"Never been."
"Course you haven't." I look at everyone else that's still in the living room, "Are we really going to let Dom and Kate have all the fun?"
Teddy and Victoire decide against coming with us. Vic says that she doesn't want to leave Dora but I mean... they would be leaving her in a house full of adults who collectively have had thirteen children with two on the way. I think it's got to do with the fact that Dominique keeps managing to air their dirty laundry every time we get together. Whether it be telling everyone Vic never wanted to get married or have a kid, or how they haven't been living together recently. Just hearing about it is a lot so I can't imagine what it feels like to be going through it, then having someone who you trusted to throw it back into your face whenever they get the chance.
It's not a very long walk to the festival. According to Dom, it's a magical folk only thing so we can use galleons to pay for our entry and sickles to play the games and things. Despite it being one of many magic only festivals that pop up all over England in the summer months, Theseus has never been to one before. Which makes sense I guess, with a father like the one he has... had.
"What do you want to do first?" I ask Theseus as we swing our hands back and forth.
"Easy," Theseus says, "This." In one swift motion, he twirls me around so that we are pressed against each other and he kisses me passionately.
We break apart when Freddie claps us both on the shoulders, "We're at a festival to ride the rides, not ride my sister eh Theseus?"
"Er, yeah," Theseus says with a smirk on his face.
Annie runs by with Kate and Dom, each of them has a towering cone of multicolored ice cream and I watch as Theseus' face lights up, "Come on love, I'll buy you one."
"What...?"
I smile really big and stand on my tiptoes so I can reach his cheek and give him a peck, "Anything you want, I'll get it for you."
"Oh, I can't ask you to do that for me."
"You're not asking, I'm telling you what's going to happen tonight. Come on." I take his hand in mine and tug him in the direction of the ice cream stand.
It takes a minute but soon enough Theseus has completely shed the shell that he had when we first got here and now he's wearing a dumb balloon animal hat eating a hotdog and staring at everything like it was his first time using his eyes.
"Can we do that?" He points at a game where you have to shoot water into the mouth of a clown. Not a real clown of course, but it's been hexed to laugh and scream profanities at you to distract you. All these games are totally rigged. Mum and Dad usually take us to a muggle festival during the summer and it's so easy to cheat on their games cause we can use magic. But here? It's damn near impossible.
I wipe a bit of ketchup off of Theseus' face with my thumb and lick it off carefully. Theseus watches me for a second before attaching his lips to mine. He tastes like hotdogs and fried food but I really don't care, "We can do anything you want. As long as you promise to do me after." I say to him when we part.
Theseus laughs and kisses me on the forehead, "Trust me darling, it'll be worth your while."
We go over to the game and I had the carny three sickles each. He hands us water guns and very briefly explains what we have to do in the time limit provided. It's super easy, shoot as much water into the clown's mouth. The more water that gets in, the bigger the balloon attached to the clown's head will grow. Explode the balloon first to win.
"You're going down Pia," Theseus says to me.
"Thought you were the one going down later?" I say.
Theseus laughs and kisses me hard right before the carny rings the bell for us to begin.
Did I expect Theseus to have near-perfect aim? Yeah. Did I expect him to win though? Not in the slightest.
But his balloon explodes almost as soon as we start and he's awarded extra points for his time.
"Any prize from the top," The carny says, lazily pointing to all the big toys hanging from the ceiling of his booth, "You did good kid."
Theseus looks at me and smiles, "What do you want princess?"
"It's your prize."
"I've got the only prize I need," he pulls me into him and wraps his arm around my waist, "What do you want?"
I decide on the bright green cuddle monkey. Which is really just a huge stuffed monkey nearly the size of me that is charmed to snuggle and cuddle the person that's carrying it.
We walk away from that stall laughing. Annie, Ophelia Theo, Dom, Kate, Freddie, and Evie are all waiting in line for The Waltzer and I drag Theseus over to them.
"Christ, you trying to replace your boyfriend with a monkey or something?" Evie giggles. She's obviously high, and the more I chat with her, Freddie, Leah, Dom, and Kate the more I realize that they're all high.
"Oh totally, Theseus just wasn't cutting it anymore," I joke. Theseus wraps himself around me, giving me a hug from behind. The line we are moving in moves up to the point where we are next then the carny shuts the gate.
"What does this do?" Theseus whispers into my ear. He won't say it, but he's embarrassed with how little he really knows about the world, muggle or otherwise.
"It's a ride, see?" I point to the people getting into one of the carts, "You sit in those... and then the ride starts..."
Just as I say that the ride itself starts to go. The whole ride spins in circles, and the carts of people go up and down the bumps on the track. While the ride is spinning, each individual cart is spinning as well, making the whole thing very... spinny I guess.
The grip that Theseus has on me tightens, "And you're sure that's safe? It doesn't look very safe."
I smile and kiss the bit of his arm that is closest to my mouth, "I used to hate going to these things, and when I did, Dad always stood beside the ride with me cause I was too scared to go on any. But I grew up, changed, got more confident, and now..." The ride stops and the people that were on it stumble off laughing and clearly very dizzy, the carny waits till everyone is off and out through the other gate before he opens it for us, "Now I bloody love these things.
I practically drag Theseus into the cart that Annie, Theo, and Ophelia all sat in.
"This does not look safe," Theseus says as he holds the bit of seatbelt that he has to put around his waist.
I roll my eyes as Annie, Theo and Leah start trying to rock the cart that we are in back and forth so that we can start spinning before the ride even begins. I help Theseus with his belt and the carny comes by to double-check that we did it properly.
"Hey," Ophelia says to the carny, "You think uh, you could make this one a little faster than the rest?" I do my best not to laugh cause she's clearly flirting with this much older, much greasier old man to get her way, "My friend here has never been to a festival, and well... I'm sure you can use that big wand of yours to make this cart a wee bit faster than the rest?"
The carny smirks but doesn't say anything. He moves on to the next cart and Ophelia rolls her eyes, "You want the talk Annie, here it is. No matter what gender you're attracted to, flirting with men will always feel disgusting."
Annie nods, then stops and looks at Ophelia confused, "That was flirting? All you did was ask if he could use his wand... which by the way, wouldn't be very long if you look at him. Wand length is normally based on height and he wasn't very tall."
Ophelia rolls her eyes, "Not his actual wand dude. Who even raised this kid?" Leah asks us, "His dick. Penis. I was using the word wand to reference his penis. They come in all shapes and sizes so I'm told, dunno I've only ever seen one. But men want to have a big dick so you should compliment it, pretend it's big when it's not."
Annie nods and I clearly watch her take a mental note of what Leah just said, "Annie? Don't listen to a word she says. You do not have to compliment a man's penis to get what you want in life."
Our cart starts to spin before everyone elses. The siren on the ride starts blaring and I can hear all the gears moving underneath my feet. Theseus grabs onto my hand so tight I'm worried I may lose circulation.
The ride starts going faster, I can't even see the faces of my siblings on the other side of our cart cause we're going so fast. Everything blurs together. I think I'm screaming? But my mouth just is open with no sound coming out. The gravity that the ride starts building forces Theseus to squish into me.
"PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!" Ophelia screams before throwing her hands up and laughing wildly.
Theo and Annie follow her lead with no question.
I do my best to look at Theseus but I really can't see anything. I should have tied my hair up before getting on this thing.
But he lets go of my hand, and throws his hands in the air just like my siblings. I scream with laughter before I do the same. We probably all look like idiots, screaming and laughing with our arms flying around above our heads like wet spaghetti noodles but I can guarantee that we are having the most fun on this ride.
It ends after a few minutes. We're all out of breath and smiling like total idiots. Theseus turns to look at me and my heart melts. His hair is standing up in a hundred different directions, like he just woke up, his cheeks are flushed because of the wind, and he's got the biggest smile I've ever seen from him spread across his face.
We all clamber out of the cart that we were in and Theseus wobbles over to the spot where I left my monkey and lets it wrap itself around his back so that I don't have to hold it and he can still hold my hand.
We go on every ride about three times before our group meets back up with each other in the middle of the festival. Freddie hands each of us a giant pretzel and we eat in silence, the world loud and bright around us.
"This is probably the most fun I've ever had in my entire life," Theseus whispers. But despite his quiet voice everyone could hear him.
"Purebloods are so weird man," Freddie says.
Evie swats his arm, "You're literally a pureblood dumbass."
"I mean like real purebloods dumbass," Freddie says back.
Evie rolls her eyes, "You're tryna tell me you're not real? This whole relationship has been a figment of my imagination?"
Freddie gives her a peck and she breaks into a smile, "I mean like radical purebloods. Course those don't really exist now cause mouldy Voldy is gone and everything..."
"Hold on," Molly puts up her hand, "Did you just say mouldy Voldy...?"
"Yeah," Freddie looks at her like it was the dumbest question he was ever asked, "It just blows my mind that you didn't know anything about how muggles live and stuff."
"Mum still gets all confused sometimes," Darcy chimes in, "Aunt Violet is better at it cause she lived in muggle London for a bit and in turn, Uncle George is better. But Mum and especially Dad," he makes a woosh sound as he brings his hand up over his head.
"Isn't your Dad a muggle-born?" I ask.
Darcy takes a bite of his pretzel, "Yeah?"
"Then why does muggle stuff go over his head?" Evie asks.
Darcy thinks for a second, "Oh... I guess I meant Fred. He tries really hard to get caught up with everything but it's been a lot. Ever since I got home it's always 'Darc, what's this do again?' or "Hey, how do you turn on the telly?"
"I'm tired," Annie yawns. She stretches her arms up in the air and leans her head onto Theo's shoulder.
"Ferris wheel? Then we head back home?" Kate suggests.
Theseus leans over to me and whispers, "Ferris wheel?"
But before I can answer Freddie asks, "Why do you only ever ask Cass your questions?"
Theseus looks a little awkward but he answers all the same, "How do you mean?"
"I mean..." we all get up and start walking over to the Ferris wheel. It's bound to be nearly three in the morning now but the festival is still alive with laughter and noise, "You always ask her the questions when you're confused. We're your family too mate, you can ask us anything."
Theseus looks at Freddie and smiles, "It's just embarrassing you know? I feel like I haven't lived a life worth living when you lot know everything there is to know about anything."
Freddie and Theseus fall in line at the back of the group so they can continue their conversation without interruptions. It makes my heart soar knowing that my brother gets along with my boyfriend to the point that he called him family.
"Hey," I say as I slow my pace so I can walk beside Darcy.
"Hey back."
"You called Uncle Fred your Dad."
Darcy doesn't say anything right away, "Yeah. I haven't said it to his face or anything but... yeah. He's been more of a father in the what? Few months that he's been with Mum than my actual Dad has been my whole life? Sure when I was a kid he had me over every other weekend and whatever, but once I started Hogwarts it slowly became a Christmas and birthday present. And now it's just a card with some galleons in it for my birthday."
"You never told me that."
"You haven't really been around much to tell," Darcy looks at me, "I'm not blaming you or anything. Mum told me what happened the other day with Theseus' Dad and whatever. You have other things on your mind right now."
"I know but you need your best friend. Your mum's childhood boyfriend came back from the dead and asked her to marry her after a few months and now you have this bloke living in your house."
Darcy sighs and puts his arm around my shoulders, "It sounds a bit mad when you put it like that."
"I'll be around more often, cross my heart," I say to Darcy as we reach the line for the Ferris wheel.
Ophelia comes up on my other side and looks up at the ride, "Remember when I came out to Mum and Dad on that Ferris wheel?" She sighs.
"You really didn't need to come out at all. We all knew it." I say back.
"I was literally nine years old, there was no way you could have known."
"Oh, we knew," Molly says, "We all knew."
Ophelia laughs and rolls her eyes, "Should have invited Ash, she loves dumb festival rides."
"Why didn't you?" I ask.
She shrugs, "Same reason I didn't invite her to that movie night we had at the beginning of holiday. I wanted to spend time with you fuck faces without any interruptions."
The carny opens the gate and gestures for a few of us to come forward, "Theo! With me love!" Ophelia shouts before walking through the gate. Theo pushes past us with a big smile on their face. Ophelia plops herself down in the cart and Theo sits right beside her. The carny pulls down the bar and the wheel spins around for the next people.
Darcy and Annie go next, then Molly and Bridget, Kate and Dom, Freddie and Evie, and finally me and Theseus.
"When's the dinner that we're, er, you're having?" Theseus asks once we are situated in our cart and the wheel is slowly moving around.
"Saturday, and Sunday morning we head back to Kings Cross."
Theseus nods, "Do you think maybe I could, uh, go home with my Mum after the dinner? I'll meet you at the station."
I never really thought about the fact that Theseus would want to go back home now that his father isn't a problem anymore. Sure his mum doesn't remember any of it but he does, and he has to learn how to be around his Mum again.
"Uh, course you can. I don't control you."
"No I know, but I was worried that you may think that the only reason I've been with you and hanging out with your family was to wait till someone did something about my father and now that he's gone I'm just running back home and forgetting you."
"No one's thinking that. She's your mother."
Theseus kisses my temple and sighs, "I'm so in love with you, you know that?"
"I know, but it's nice to hear it."
"Good cause I don't plan on stopping any time soon."