Josey ran into the Head’s common room (after being allowed through by the Darling Portrait), a broad smile covering her face even as she shouted happily. Antoine was pulled along behind her. All the people in the room looked up.
“You’ll never guess what’s happened!” Josey cried, waving a letter in her other hand.
“You found something out that made you really happy…” supplied Nikeia from her position in Sirius’s arms.
Josey playfully glared at her friend, but continued without missing a beat. “Yes! My aunt has invited us all to Montana!”
“Montana?” asked four voices.
“It’s a state in America,” offered Josey, Lily and Remus at the same time.
“Yeah, she’s got a ranch and she’s invited us all spend the week with her!” Josey jumped around happily, being careful for the essays and James’s Quidditch plans that littered the floor. Antoine watched her move around, an eyebrow raised above a bemused smile.
"You have a Muggle aunt in America?" asked Remus, curiously.
Josey stopped jumping around and nodded, not quite as exuberant as she was at first. "Yeah. My dad was a Muggle lawyer who came to Britain, and met my mum. He didn't find out she was a witch until I caused the parlor curtains to catch fire when I threw a tantrum when I was six."
"That’s a long time to keep such a secret. What happened?" Peter asked.
Nikeia, Lily and James looked at each other, knowing the answer was not a very nice one.
"My dad left us. Packed his bags and within two hours, was gone. My mum was pregnant with my little brother at the time. My aunt, my dad’s sister, was the first one to call when she heard something was wrong. She… she really cared about us, and she helped my mum through all of it," Josey informed them all, her expression asking them to think it didn’t matter anymore. The room was silent, and then Josey spoke again, her excitement back. "So. America. Montana. Ranch. Easter break."
“Good for you,” drawled Sirius.
Josey looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “You should be happy, too. You’re all coming with me. Didn’t I say that?”
By late the next Wednesday morning, seven of the eight students who had been in the common room were sitting in a compartment on the Hogwarts express. Normally, seven people would not fit in the compartment together, but as both Lily and Nikeia were sitting in the laps of James and Sirius, they were all quite comfortable.
Lily had already quizzed Josey on the traveling plans, and had already been told to relax, that everything had been arranged and was being taken care of. Lily had blushed and nodded, at which time James pulled her into his embrace.
When Sirius brought up the fact that Stacey Wilson had been from Chicago, Lily and James nodded silently, having forgiven”but not forgotten”what she had done.
Antoine arrived at their compartment not long after that. He had taken it upon himself to deliver copies of the Quidditch strategies James wanted studied over break to the other Gryffindor players. Before he had even stepped into the compartment, Josey had stood and met him at the door. She rushed him away from the compartment without a backward glance.
“Well…” Nikeia said, watching the door close and the couple walk briskly out of view. “Someone’s in a hurry for a snog.”
“Those two,” muttered Lily, shaking her head.
James squeezed her slightly, then looked around their compartment and the people in it: Remus reading, Peter going through a box of Bertie Botts, Sirius was rummaging through his satchel (which he had plopped into Nikeia’s lap) and Nikeia was watching him.
“Don’t let on that I told you,” began James, “but here’s a secret.”
“If it’s a secret, perhaps you shouldn’t tell us,” murmured Remus.
James ignored him and said, “Antoine’s actually talked to me about Josey, and said he’s planning on marrying her.”
A slightly shocked silence entered the compartment.
Lily and Nikeia stared at each other, their eyes wide. Lily let out an amused exhale, and fell back against James.
“Marriage?” muttered Nikeia. “It seems like we’re not even old enough to be thinking about such a thing.”
“Well, with Voldemort getting stronger, more people have gotten married young in the past couple years,” stated Lily. They had mentioned something like it in the past, but never with such finality as this announcement of Antoine’s intentions.
Remus began to smirk. “I’d be surprised if a second proposal from a pair of our close friends didn’t occur soon after we left school.” He shot Lily and James a pointed look, under which they both began to blush.
Remus’s eyes widened, and he sat forward. “I don’t know why you’re blushing; I wasn’t talking about you two. I was talking about Frank and Alice.” Nikeia laughed as James and Lily smiled awkwardly. “Then I’ll talk about James and Lily: If I don’t hear of three proposals before a year is up, I’ll be very surprised.”
James grabbed Peter’s box of beans and began pelting Remus and Nikeia with the candy.
After saying goodbye to Frank and Alice, who would be spending the break with their families, and after meeting Josey’s mother (a petite woman who had shared her looks with her only daughter) and brother (a small, ten-year-old boy who talked as fast as Josey and was not at all shy) on the platform in London, the seventh years began to get very excited about their Easter break.
For one Marauder, that afternoon was a less-than-glamorous beginning to his Easter break. For the other three, it was hysterical.
James had been talked into a game of football and Josey’s brother, Timothy, was literally running circles around the older boy. James actually seemed to be rather uncoordinated on his feet.
Lily was endeavoring to not laugh too much at her boyfriend, though she would be the first to admit it was quite difficult. Nikeia was having no such trouble, though her attempts to get Sirius into the game to help his mate out were proving to be a waste of her breath.
After a few more minutes of laughter”James actually managed to dribble the ball for a few feet before Timothy stole it again”Josey came out of the house, her face blank. She had been talking with her mother.
On the King’s Cross platform, Mrs. Bretten had smiled at Antoine and seemed to really like him, and Timothy had taken an instant liking to Antoine, but she had left little room for debate when she said that she’d like to talk to Josey once they reached their home.
Lily and Nikeia could sense the frustration that lay bubbling under the surface of Josey’s visage. They left James to struggle and walked over to Josey. “Hey, Jo,” murmured Nikeia. “You all right?”
“Yeah, I’m good,” she said, looking over her friends’ shoulders at the football game. She chuckled. “It looks like Timmy’s whipping James pretty good, eh?” Lily and Nikeia looked to each other, and then back at Josey. They nodded simultaneously, and started laughing.
“I guess I should go and help him out then, eh?” she said, a Marauderette Smirk on her face.
She slipped between her friends (who shared unsatisfied glances) and out onto the grass. Quickly, she stole the ball from James’s feet”effectively tripping him onto his back”and started dribbling it down the yard. Timmy cheered, and then stopped suddenly as Josey kicked for a goal. Timmy just missed the save. With a thump, he fell to the ground, and started laughing.
“Nice work, Jo!” laughed Lily, kneeling down beside her boyfriend. “But I thought you said you were going to help James.”
“And I did,” laughed Josey, reaching down to help her little brother up. “I saved him from further embarrassment.”
The others laughed as James glared at his girlfriend’s best friend. “Thanks, Josey, I really appreciate it.” There was no doubt about the sarcasm in his voice.
“You’re welcome. It’s nice to know that you do,” she said as she curtseyed in a teasing manner.
Antoine laughed and came over to hug her. “How was that talk with your mom?” he asked softly, holding her close.
The others watched Timmy bounce the ball from one knee to the other, acting as if they couldn’t hear.
“It was fine. We didn’t yell at each other, but I did get rather frustrated.”
“At least you know she cares about you.”
“Yeah,” she murmured. “She married so young, and was abandoned so soon, that she just worries about me. Doesn’t want me to make the same mistake.”
Those on the grass shared meaningful glances at the word “married”.
“Well, I won’t leave you,” Antoine murmured before kissing Josey.
A football to the back of Josey’s knees ended the kiss, and with a shriek of frustration she ran at her little brother and tackled him to the ground. He laughed uproariously as he was tickled without mercy.
“Oi, Josey, move over!” shouted James, before pushing Josey away from her little brother and tickling young boy himself.
Antoine helped Josey to her feet, and watched as Sirius got involved in the wrestling-slash-tickling match.
Nikeia and Lily looked on with laughter. Remus looked to Peter with a look that said, “What did I do to deserve this?” Peter laughed and shrugged.
The next afternoon, found the Hogwarts students, Mrs. Bretten and Timmy at the Muggle airport. Mrs. Bretten”who asked to be called simply “Mary””and Timmy would be accompanying them. When the sevenths years had found that they would be traveling with Josey, they quickly wrote into the Ministry and applied for wizard passports. They were magically created but accepted without question by the Muggle authorities. There were also symbols that could be brought out with an incantation that showed that they were wizards. To their joy, the Ministry was very prompt in issuing the passports, which Mary had picked up the day before.
Mary led them swiftly through the various processes and then onto the plane as if she was a Muggle. Lily assumed that hiding one’s true identity from a Muggle husband had proved difficult on the woman, and had forced a near complete adaptation.
The full-blooded wizards of their group, namely Sirius and James, found the entire experience thrilling and exciting. Lily had a sneaky suspicion that if she, Nikeia and Josey were not there to keep them in check, they would be running up and down the aisles of the plane, laughing hysterically. As it was, they took the aisle seats to keep their young men contained. Remus was calm and collected, like always, and started up an easy conversation with Timothy. Nikeia and Peter both seemed to find the prospect of flying higher than a couple hundred feet on a broomstick rather frightening. Lily discreetly performed the Anti-Motion Sickness Charm she had found in an old book just for this occasion. They visibly relaxed almost immediately.
Moments later, the plane took off.
From the airport in Chicago, a wizarding taxi service shuttled them into the downtown area. The young wizards found great delight in viewing the many and varied Muggle fashions on display as their wearers walked down the streets.
They arrived at the Headquarters, which had been disguised as a boarded-up store front for rent. Not long after that, they found themselves in the Long Distance Floo Department, being briefed (in a rather amusing Chicagoan accent) on the perils and requirements for such a journey. Eventually, they were deemed ready to go, and one by one, they passed through the fireplace.
Stepping through the fireplace after a very long and quite dizzying ride through more fireplaces than they had ever seen into a large, wood-paneled room, each wizard was greeted by a pair of people they all liked on sight. The woman was older than Mary, but the laugh lines around her eyes and mouth and the grey in her hair did nothing to hinder the laughter in her eyes. She hugged each person as they came through. A tall, very sturdy looking man helped move the luggage away from the fire, bestowing lopsided smiles on each person.
When Mary stepped from the fireplace, she was instantly scooped into and held for a few minutes in the warm embrace of the older woman. Mary’s eyes began to tear up, and the seventh years realized that while this older woman was not of blood-relation, she was as close as a sister to Mary.
Once she was released, Mary introduced the seventh years to Chelsea and Nicholas Prescott.
“Please, call me Nick,” said Nichol”uh, Nick. “We’re incredibly pleased to have you here.”
“Oh, you sound so stuffy,” Chelsea complained, hitting her husband’s shoulder. “Though, we are very happy to have you here.” She bestowed another bright smile on all them, before pointing to each one and requesting their names. She chuckled at Sirius and Remus, mumbling something about names of American wizards being a bit simpler and not quite so historical.
“You should meet the rest of my family,” Sirius returned. Chelsea smiled broadly at first, but noticed the tight expression on his face, and her smile faded slightly.
“The nuts on your family tree, right?” Chelsea said. Sirius’s face broke into a lopsided grin as he nodded.
“Yeah, something like that.”
“Well, my dear brother-” Chelsea’s gritted teeth attested to her sarcasm- “Mary’s ex-husband isn’t the nuttiest in my family. You should hear about Great-great Uncle Sam. So delusional that he challenged a gunslinger to a fight because the other guy just asked him what time it was.” Chelsea shook her head. “Anyway. I would assume you’re all a bit tired. Probably didn’t sleep on the plane, did you?”
They shook their heads, since the two hour naps they took on the planes didn’t really count as sleep.
“Then, we’ll bring you upstairs and get you settled in.”
With that, she began to lead them towards the door on the right, when facing the fire. However, she stopped suddenly, realizing they had luggage. She dithered for a moment, wondering how she and her husband would carry it all, when the seventh years pulled out their wands and levitated their luggage with wry smiles. Chelsea just looked on with wide eyes, then said, “Well, there is something to say for wizardry when you can do fancy little tricks like that.”
She continued on her way through the room, calling this room the den. Chairs and a sofa were situated around the fireplace, and the walls were hung with photographs and paintings. Through the doorway was a very large room, with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, plenty of seating, another fireplace and a grand piano in a corner. The dark wood walls, combined with thick throw rugs and dim lamps added to the cozy feeling of the room. Long windows were uncovered, and the wide expanse of land outside them amazed the newcomers. They wanted to linger at the windows, but Chelsea began ushering them up a wide, wrought-iron circular staircase. Only when she said that the view was better from the upper floor did they finally move.
From this level, looking out more long windows , they could see the house was shaped in a “U”, with the library downstairs taking up the whole left wing. The hallway they were in now appeared to wrap around the whole inside of the U, with rooms opposite the windows. Above the library were the master bedroom and a study, and the guest rooms where Mary and Timmy would be staying were above the den. The two rooms where the seventh years would be staying took up the upper left wing and had been made with hosting a large group in mind, apparently. Two bunkbeds stood in each room, and two large bathrooms would accommodate them nicely. Nick supplied that the kitchen and dining room stood below these rooms, and that a late lunch would be served in an hour.
With that, Chelsea and Nick left them to get settled. Mary and Timmy took off for their own rooms, Timmy stumbling with sleep.
“Oh, Josey this is wonderful!” cried Lily, hugging her friend. A round of “thank-yous” followed Lily’s exclamation. Josey smiled at them all, expecting the thanks with a very content smile.
“I’m glad you’re all with me. This should be a lot of fun,” she said, wrapping her arms around Lily’s and Nikeia’s waists. She looked at the boys. “It’ll be especially fun to find out who has to sleep on the floor.”
The five boys froze, then slowly looked at each other.
“What?” asked James, his voice shaking slightly.
“Didn’t you see? There are only two bunkbeds. There are five of you. Someone’s sleeping on the floor, though I guess we can find a cot.”
Before she had finished speaking, the boys threw themselves at the door. The girls laughed, and slowly walked into their room.
Accented with a deep red and a dusky pink, the wood walls and floor looked just as homey as the library downstairs, despite their natural light pine color. A long pine dresser stood against one wall, with a long mirror above it.
The girls chose their beds, with only Josey taking a top bunk. Lily stepped into their adjoining bathroom as Josey and Nikeia began unpacking, happy to find two shower stalls and two enclosed toilets.
A sudden loud thud came through the wall, and she jumped.
“I, uh, think we should go see what the boys are doing to each other,” Lily said, hastening through the bedroom, using the doorframe to pivot herself around the corner and into the hall,
She and the other two girls came to a halt in front of the boys’ door, and sighed.
Antoine and Sirius were wrestling, apparently for the last upper bunk. Remus was unpacking, and Peter was sitting quietly on his bed, though the bedspread was being wrung quite fiercely in his pudgy fingers. Apparently, Remus and Peter had thrown their things onto the bed before anyone could challenge it.
James was sitting on the bunk above Remus, and his cut lip made it obvious that he had won his spot.
The wrestling match didn’t last much longer, and Antoine came away the victor. He limped slightly toward the bed, following his duffle up the ladder. He fell to the mattress, moved briefly, and then went still.
“Did he just fall asleep?” whispered Josey.
“I think he did…” responded Nikeia, chuckling.
Sirius moved over to them, his hands on his hips.
“Just thought of something, lassies.”
The “lassies” raised their eyebrows at him.
“You’ve got an extra bed in your room since there’s only three of you; I could just sleep there.”
The three girls laughed loudly. When they didn’t stop after a few moments, Sirius narrowed his eyes at them and pouted.
“I guess that’s a ‘no’, then?”
James didn’t offer him any consolation, just a wry grin.
An hour later they were seated in the dining room, finished with plaster walls painted light blue and whitewashed floorboards, awaiting their late lunch.
Lily was talking eagerly about the vast library, an enthusiasm that only Remus and Peter reciprocated, and James and Antoine were excited to mount their brooms and fly. Sirius was half-asleep on his hand, with Nikeia leaning against his shoulder. Josey was watching Antoine talk.
Delicious smells were wafting through the doorway from the kitchen, which they had found to be all stainless steel, wrought iron, white ceramic, and cream-colored linoleum.
A voice declared, “Here it comes,” and a wide tray entered the room, carried by someone they hadn’t seen yet.
The three girls stared at the young man who brought their breakfast. Tall, tanned and well-built, they had every reason to.
Nick was right behind him, carrying a second tray, and he began to apologize. “I should’ve mentioned him earlier. He was out in the barn when you arrived, tending the horses. This is our son, Cole.”
Nick and Cole set the trays down on the sidebar, and Nick said in his deep, decidedly American drawl, “Grab a plate and grab some grub.”
Nick introduced the students to Cole as they walked forward. Josey, however, threw herself happily into her cousin’s arms, greeting him exuberantly.
James noticed that the tall, handsome man’s eyes lingered on Lily just a bit longer than necessary. He wrapped his unused hand around Lily’s waist, bringing her just a bit closer, and glared at Cole.
Cole’s eyes flicked up to James, and his lips twitched.
“Oh, we forgot the juice,” Nick said, and exited the room again. Cole followed him, glancing over his shoulder once.
When they were gone, Lily elbowed James. “What was that about?”
“I saw the way he was looking at you; I just made sure he knew you’re mine,” James explained.
Lily rolled her eyes (not that she was exactly displeased). “You could’ve just mentioned it to him; you didn’t have to try to stare him down. You should work on your first impressions.”
James scoffed. “At least I didn’t do this.” He bent down and pressed his lips to hers.
“Yeah, that woulda been a pretty bad first impression,” drawled Cole, coming back into the room.
James pulled back from Lily, who bit her lip as she blushed.
“Are they always like that, Jo?” Cole asked.
Josey sighed as if the weight of the world rested on her shoulders.
Cole let out a great laugh, full of richness and mirth. Timmy, coming through the door right then, demanded to be told why he was laughing. Cole just ruffled his hair and continued to laugh.
Lunch continued without any more embarrassment on James and Lily’s parts, but Josey did get teased when Cole found out just who Antoine was. His nickname of “Witchy Woman” for Josey earned a good long laugh form her friends. It earned Cole a slap on the shoulder from his cousin. Josey explained how Cole had found out about her being a witch, a realization that came a few years after his mother and father found out; something to do with her overreacting one night during a vacation and starting the library on fire.
The Hogwarts students found Cole to be an eager listener, as well as amusing and wry. He also ate a great deal, refilling his plate a few times.
When the mean was over, Cole pushed his chair back, saying, “If you’re up for it, I can take you all for a ride.”
The girls immediately rose from their seats and rushed to bring their place settings into the kitchen, then ran out of the dining room to their room. The Marauders and Antoine sighed, but stood at a slower place. Mary pulled Timmy back into his seat, saying that he would be able to go riding later. Timmy pouted, of course, but remained in his seat.
“Change into warmer clothes and meet me outside,” called Cole as the students left the dining room.
Fifteen minutes later, the girls and Cole were waiting for the less enthusiastic boys. When they finally arrived, Cole led them into the stable and paired them up with a horse. He and another hand, named Jake, showed them how to put on the various pieces of tack.
When they were mounted and given basic instructions, Cole led them out of the paddock atop his own large black horse.
Eventually, once Cole felt they were doing well enough, he let them walk off on their own. They assured him they could use magic to direct them back to the camp. He nodded, but they heard him mumble something about a “good old compass and orienteering” and “silly old magic”. Peter and Remus remained with him to discuss orienteering, magic, and the other differences in their lives.
James, who proved to be more coordinated on a horse than playing football, turned his bay horse towards Lily’s dainty-looking palomino, which was immediately given her head and took off across the field at a canter. James laughed and urged his horse to follow, which it seemed to do gladly.
Nikeia and Sirius, both of whom seemed a bit unsteady on a pair of grey mounts, chose to trot toward a wide swath of forest, while Josey and Antoine took off in the opposite direction and practiced riding-and-kissing, their singular distinction of being perfect at walking-and-kissing not quite good enough.
When they returned to the ranch a few hours later (some by using directional charms), they helped cool down the horses and replace the tack, which Jake said he would take care of.
James, Sirius, and Peter began complaining about saddle sores, as Cole called them, but Sirius and Peter didn’t object to playing a quick game of football with Cole and Timmy, though Cole called it soccer. He also said that if “you wizards were taught the actual game of football, you’d be really sore”. The boys shared worried glances and kindly deferred. James and Antoine retrieved their broomsticks and a stowaway Quaffle. The girls changed clothes, and then sought to aide in the kitchen. Remus grabbed a book and sat quietly on a bench in the front garden, though he spent more time laughing at his friends than reading.
After dinner, the Britons retired to their bedrooms and were asleep within the half hour, from and excess of fresh air, riding, football, good food and jetlag.
.