Newport RI- July 11th
I had been pacing back and forth in the library, trying to figure out what to do about the incoming guests.
I obviously didn't want to see them, nor did I want to be anywhere near them for the full extent of their trip.
But there wasn't much I could do when I consider the fact that they were coming tomorrow and were going to stay in this house.
But I wasn't going to let those factors get the best of me. I needed a plan and so I was going to make one.
The idea was simple: keep myself busy with my social life here in Rhode island and skip the fancy dinners with the Malfoys and my family.
I sent out invitations through owl to most of the girls and boys I knew, inviting them for a day out in the sun, sailing on one of my family's boats.
This was a rather classic hangout idea that everyone did with each other every summer. I hosted sailing parties in the past few summers, so I thought this would be a good cover to get me out of welcoming the Malfoys to the US.
And it was.
Everyone who got an invitation responded back with yeses, even the girls who hated me, which were most girls. But they had to come since a majority of them were still curious about my disappearance and they knew that they just could not avoid me for that information. They had to chat with me.
So, the next day I had the captain and the first mate contacted to know they had work that morning. I then went on to get the elves in the kitchen informed of what I wanted in a picnic basket and served on the boat.
Lastly I dropped the news to my parents that I wasn't going to be home when the Malfoys arrived.
"You are what?" My mother exclaimed, lowering her pen to glance my way. My parents were sitting in the breakfast room with half eaten food in front of them when I came in to tell them the news.
"I'm hosting a sailing party today." I replied simply.
"Cancel it. You have a duty to help the family host tonight." My dad responded absently before returning to his newspaper.
"She knows that Darious. And she can't cancel, which she also seems to know." My mother said coyly, turning to look my way. "I assume you invited everyone who is anyone to this event." I nodded again. Everyone knows that when you host a party in high society, you can't cancel it. It would make everyone who was invited gossip terribly about the family and would diminish the value of the parties thrown by the family. While my father may not have been thinking about this, my mother did.
"I even invited the French ambassador's daughters. Can't let them down," I said simply, causing my mother to sigh dramatically and look to my father for help.
"What should we do?" She asked him. He shrugged before returning to his newspaper. Giving my father an angry look, my mother then turned to me and waved her hand away.
"Go ahead. Just know that your French literature will increase tomorrow since you have had so much free time planning this." I faked a smile, no longer caring about that work and turned for the door.
Hosting the sailing party happened to be the most brilliant idea for me yet.
Over twenty four kids arrived at the docks just as instructed and the sails were going a quarter after eleven, making the seafood hot and ready to be eaten right at twelve.
The first mate and his crew lowered the anchor by the cliffs at a little after one, letting the group of us go out swimming in the crisp cool water, while one of the girls pulled out a few records to play in the background. One of the boys, Tobias, had brought enchanted beach flouts, like a bright pink flamingo raft that squawked aloud whenever someone jumped on it.
It was a little after three when everyone was back on the boat sun tanning when the main chatter started, most of which surrounded Elizabeth and Annie.
"My mother said I could get another dress for the opening ceremony this year, but I don't know if I want to waste my time doing that when I could just be out sunbathing in Hawaii," Elizabeth would gloat from one side of the boat while on the other end sat the French ambassador's two daughters who went on, non-stop in French about how much better Beauxbatons is compared to Ilvermorny. And in the middle sat the boys, eating third and fourth helpings of scallops and tossing the leftovers at the fat pelicans flying low to greet them.
"You don't get it," The French ambassador's eldest daughter said, flipping back to English to one of the American's sitting beside me. "Beauxbatons has wood nymphs singing to you while you eat your food every day. Ilvermorny has a choir sing Christmas carols once on Christmas eve. How pathetic!"
"Do you know if Beauxbatons would be willing to host an American born student?" Rosalie asked curiously.
The French girls looked at each other questionably before one nodded, adding, "As long as she speaks French she should be able to."
"Oh," I watched as Rosalie deflated at the news, making me nudge her to look up.
"I can help you learn if you'd like? You just need to practice."
"Or you could live in France for a year or so. Immersion into a new culture really does wonders," One of the French girls said quickly. The other nodded in agreement.
"Oh yes. Although it is true that Americans tend to have the most difficulty learning the language. Something about your vowels," The other added.
"You're not helping," I muttered in French making both girls stop and apologize.
"Collete", the one sister asked, turning to the other, "doesn't Mamen have that friend who houses family friends in Paris?" The other sister, Eliza, nodded, before turning to Rosalie who was watching what they did curiously.
"Oui, maybe you can stay with her! She could teach you French and can tour you around the country! Maybe you will even meet the sirens!"
"I also have a cousin living in Paris, Rosalie. She can help if you'd like," I commented, making Rosalie blush with the thought.
"I would love that. I just should speak to my mother first. But thank you, all of you," she said glancing at the three of us.
"Hey, watch this!" One of the boys stood up on the second deck where he held a piece of calamari out toward a very obese pelican.
"I'm gonna send it!" He called out, causing the rest of the boys and some of the girls to shout out "DO IT!"
The ambassador's daughters looked at one another questionably.
"What is he going to send?" Rosalie giggled while I said simply, "Just watch".
Moments after I spoke, the boy threw the calamari out toward open sea, causing the pelican to dive for the food. The boy gave the bird a moment to move before jumping toward it and off the deck toward open water. We all ran to starboard as we heard the loudest shriek, only to find the boy laughing heavily while flouting on the pink flamingo flout with the pelican flying off with ruffled feathers.
Dessert came next for us, sending in trays of lemon scones, sliced strawberries and vats of creamy French vanilla ice cream.
We continued to sit out in the sun, some of us already were red from the lack of skin protecting potion rubbed on skin while the Captain started to slowly sail us back toward the docks.
I was licking melting ice cream and strawberry syrup off my fingers when I heard my name shouted from out at sea, making me look up in time to see Xander with his two friends, Ralph and Troy riding up to the boat on separate jet skis of red and blue.
I couldn't help but crack a smile as Xander halted in the water, right in front of me with a comical look on his face while his friends raced up behind him.
"I feel betrayed! You're hosting one of your soiree's and we weren't invited!" I started laughing while some of the girls started to wave out to him and his friends and the rest of the boys shouted at him to come aboard.
"Sorry Xander, your invitation must have got lost in postage. You sure your dad didn't shoot down another one of my owls? That could be why..." I said jokingly, causing my arms to cross in front of me, my smirk was aimed directly toward him.
Xander leaned back on his jet ski, with his arms crossed around his life jacket, a half-hidden smile was just starting to show over him biting his lip as he looked back at me.
"Don't make us play pirate." The boys on deck stopped moving, as if they were dogs called to their master and the girls on the boat all froze while I dropped my smirk and responded with horror, "And ruin my party? You wouldn't dare.."
That sparkle in Xander Carmichael's eye was enough of a confirmation for me to know that he would dare.
And the boys on the boat seemed to get that idea too, as moments after this exchange, Xander revved up his jet ski and the boys charged at the girls tanning.
"What does he mean by play pirate?" Collete asked, grabbing hold of my arm.
"Nothing good!" Rosalie cried, starting for the stairs.
"It means the boys are commandeering the ship," I responded with glee making the French girls step away from the railings in a hurry.
"Come on, if we don't want to get thrown overboard, we need to get off bottom deck. Follow Rosalie."
Xander and his friends started to race around the boat while I and some of the girls immediately went into action, racing up to the second deck to avoid the boys who raced down below, throwing girls off the boat with themselves after them.
Izzy raced up the deck toward the captain's bell and started to ring it furiously making me turn to face her with a spark of irritation.
"Why did you do that?" She shrugged while breathing fast as if ringing the bell seemed to take all of her small supply of energy.
"It seemed like the right thing to do!"
"Merlin, Izzy all that bell does is tell the Captain to start for the docks. How many girls are going to be left in the water now?" The group of us survivors turned toward the water to find at least 12 of the girls floating in the water, hitting the boys who caught them on the head while Ralph came up with his jet ski to tag some boys along back to the boat.
A jolt was felt on the ship as the Captain raised the anchor and slowly started to depart, causing the girls in the water to screech and Xander, who was just about to hop aboard, barely made it back onto his jet ski before looking up to me on 2nddeck, calling out, "Not cool, Fountaine!"
I gave him a grin before turning back to the girls who were starting to crowd around the back of the ship as the boys left on board started for the stairs toward us.
"What do we do now?" Eliza asked as she looked on horrified, but no less curious at the game at hand.
"We get rid of them!"
The last of us girls, eight in all, started to grab anything that was not already nailed down to the floor or enchanted forward to block the stairs.
But even so, the boys started to make their way through, capturing one of the girls and throwing her overboard.
"I don't want to get thrown onto open sea! It's dangerous!" Another girl cried out, rushing to the back of our pack.
Her mistake.
Unknown to most of the girls and what I had momentarily forgotten about was a ladder attached to left front of the boat. It was angled to get anyone who dares climb this ladder to land on the top of the roof overlooking second bay.
And while I may have forgotten this crucial detail of my parents' boat, Xander and his friends on jet skis did not.
How did they know about it in the first place? Probably from all the old birthday parties Dad would host on the boat back when we were younger. That and Xander had a fascination with no-maj technology, boats and motors included.
So, when poor scared little girl tried to hide behind us, she marked herself as target number one in perfect reach of the any of the boys who decided to swing down from the roof of 2nddeck and take us.
One of the boys, Lucas, was the first to do this, grasping hold of the girl's shoulders, she screeched, making the rest of us screech as we pushed away from the sides.
More boys started to drop themselves down from the roof and into our barricade, with Ralph in the lead followed closed behind by Troy.
I decided in that moment to make a rash decision and bolt, ditching the girls who were all goners.
Jumping behind me toward the barricaded stairs, is a downslope of wood that parallels the stairs but had nothing other than a few peak windows on it for decoration. It made for a perfect slide when an emergency like this one arose.
I jumped on and slide down this piece of wood, passing by the boys who were trying to get through the barricade and hopped off it toward bottom deck as Troy and the other boys called after me.
Now all I needed was a jet ski out of here and I was safe.
Too bad there was no jet ski ready for me. But who was ready for me was Xander, who jumped out at me from his own ride, grabbing hold of me as I screamed and tried to get out of his grip.
By Xander was taller than me, and had more muscle then my mother would ever allow me to build up, so he and I both knew that I had lost.
But there was something so satisfying about playing cat and mouse like this, so in the end, I didn't stop racing away until Xander had me trapped in a corner where my only way out was to jump over board.
And he was grinning like any boy would in this situation.
Got you, he said, pushing me playfully.
"You ruined my party! How dare you." I responded back with a laugh, pushing back at him.
"Hey Ava!"
We both stopped and turned in the direction of the voice.
The ship was now nearing the docks and on said docks stood my brothers, Ed and Theo, and to my upmost surprise, Draco Malfoy.
Draco did not know what shocked him more. The fact that a massive size sailboat filled with people his age were screaming and hanging onto each other or the fact that Ava, the girl he always saw glaring his way back at school, was laughing, sunburned, while standing close to a boy that definitely knew what he was doing. I don't think it helped either that everyone was in swimsuits, Ava included.
But whether there was a connection there to how Malfoy felt in relation to Ava, he did not figure out what his feelings meant in that moment. Rather, he did as he always had done, and looked toward his peers to copy their expressions and shrugged off his own emotional response.
Both brothers seemed to be smiling deviously, even the nerd of the lot, Edward.
"Playing a game of pirate are we, Xander?" Theo called out to the boy still standing rather close to Ava.
This boy grinned, before calling back, "Well what else was I to do. Your sister's parties are boring!" Ava reacted with a surprise look up at the boy before quickly pushing him off the deck and into the open water.
When we docked, I said goodbye to everyone, making sure to give Xander another glance before proceeding to my brothers and the unwanted Brit, who stood off the dock waiting for me.
"So," Theo drawled out curiously. "How did the party go?" I wrapped my towel over my shoulders, feeling my skin pinch in protest before raising my chin up at him defiantly.
"It was amazing, actually. One of my bests!"
"One of her bests? D'you host parties every summer?" Draco asked with a frown, obviously finding it difficult to imagine me hosting parties.
"Not every summer," Ed said as we started to walk off the dock and toward the car parked out front for us.
"Our little sister just likes to think she hosts lots of glitzy parties," Theo stated teasingly making my expression go flat.
"I do so host many parties! I hosted plenty of them last year!"
"Do you count your little get together of breaking a certain friend's leg as one of your fancy parties, Ava?" Theo asked wickedly, causing Ed to turn toward his brother and whack him over the head.
"Hey!" Theo cursed, rubbing his head irritably as he went to push Ed forward toward the car.
No matter what fun I had on that boat with Xander and the girls, none of it mattered when I caught Draco's accusing gaze throughout the car ride home.
The Malfoy's had been here for a solid three hours and already I felt belittled all over again like I was at Hogwarts.
And we still had a whole week ahead of us. What more could go wrong?