I hate family gatherings.
I can’t stand the noise, the meaningless redundant chatter, the exchange of hugs and kisses, the talk about school, the questions about the future. Every single moment grates on my nerves, and today is no exception.
I’m sitting here in Grandma’s kitchen, inhaling the warm smell of the shepherd's pie which must be about the only thing that lightens my mood. Fred and Louis have apparently gone to Diagon Alley to get some wine. Roxanne is intently listening to Victoire discussing hair-care products with her mum. Dominique isn’t here. Lily will be late because she is meeting her boyfriend’s parents for lunch. Rose is in Germany, doing some research. James has Quidditch practice which he can’t miss. Hugo is outside, probably discussing dragons with Uncle Charlie. Molly is with Aunt Hermione “ I honestly don’t know what they are talking about. Could be house-elf rights. Could be some news which was in the Prophet today.
Really, I can’t be arsed in the least.
Nothing significant, nothing of importance is happening here, and I would have preferred not to come at all. I was happy in my room, not doing anything but I had my books to occupy myself with. I had an excuse. But Mum and Dad wouldn’t let it go. I had to come, didn’t I?
So, here I am, looking out the window, and I suddenly see Albus with Hugo and Uncle Charlie. He must have just arrived. They are laughing at some joke that Uncle Charlie has probably shared with them. Albus looks so different now. He is tall and even attractive in a way I never thought he’d be. He’s one of the two cousins who make an effort to talk to me. Dominique is the other one. They do it for different reasons, though. Albus is just kind, and Dominique because she is quiet, too. Though far older than me, I'm the one she would talk to if she had to. I wonder where she is these days.
“Lucy, dear.”
It’s Grandma. Mustering up some courage, I turn towards her. “Yes, Grandma?”
“Why are you sitting here alone?”
I hate this question; it is the one question which has been asked so often to me it doesn’t feel like a question anymore. It is like…like something that validates my existence, something that makes me Lucy Weasley. I dunno, grandma, you tell me.
“I just wanted to smell the shepherd's pie.”
"It’ll be done soon,” she says happily.
And she leaves me. Sometime later in the day, I’ll wonder if this conversation even happened.
I turn back towards Albus, but he’s no longer there. There is a burning pain in my throat.
Sometimes, I wish I was a boy. My male cousins seem to have so much fun, and unlike Lily, I find it hard to join them. Rose doesn’t bother. She and Molly tend to get together when we are here, the bookworms in the family. Roxanne just sticks to Victoire, and if the latter isn’t here, she’ll run off with Lily. Dominique is the only one who’ll come to me, but I don’t think she’ll be coming anymore. She had a big fight with her mum a few months ago. Dominique likes girls, and that didn’t go down too well with some members of the family, particularly Aunt Fleur.
“Hey,” says someone.
“Victoire,” I greet her. “How’s everything?”
“Great. Why are you here alone?”
Smelling the shepherd's pie.
“I “ ”
“Come with me,” she says, grabbing my hand. She has never touched me before. Victoire is a nice girl. Actually, she’s perfect. Beautiful, intelligent, and all that. She has talked to me before, but my unwillingness to thaw usually throws her off. Today, she’s grabbing my hand and leading me somewhere, and the contact oddly thrills me.
“Where are we off to?” I ask her.
“Out in the garden. Let’s go get some gnomes.”
Victoire isn’t the type to get so hands-on with menial tasks, especially when it comes to cleaning The Burrow’s garden. “Oh,” I say. I feel Roxanne staring at my back as we walk out of the kitchen.
“Actually,” says Victoire as soon as we are outside.
“It’s not the gnomes,” I finish the sentence for her.
“Yeah.” There is a sheepish smile on her face. I don’t return it. “I wanted to ask you something.”
“Go on.”
“Have you…have you heard from Dom?”
“No.”
She stares at me, considering my answer. Yes, I replied too quickly, but that isn’t because I’m hiding something. The question just caught me off-guard.
“Why would she be talking to me instead of you?”
“You were…close to her.”
That’s funny.
“We just talked a bit whenever we gathered here.”
“Right.” She looks worried. “Right. Sorry. I’m just…Nobody knows where she is.”
“I’m sure she’s fine,” I tell her, wanting to walk away, eager to leave her. “She wouldn’t do anything stupid. Perhaps she’s staying with some…friend.”
“Do you know if she was close to anyone at school?”
“Well…I dunno. We weren’t in the same house, she was five years ahead of me. Dom was usually with the cousins whenever I saw her, or alone. She was pretty thick with a Ravenclaw girl for a while. That’s all I know.”
“Who? The Rawal girl?”
“Yeah. I think they had a falling out while in school, though, so I don’t think she’s with her.”
“Anyone else?”
You see the problem of talking with a family member, especially one older than you. You’re under obligation to answer their queries, each and every one of it, and you can’t escape even if you want to, even if you’re fed up.
“No, not that I know of.”
“Thanks.”
“Can I go now?”
“Yeah.”
I don’t go in but walk off towards the field. I just want to be left alone. Alone is good. Alone is devoid of disappointments. Alone doesn’t let you get hurt by others. I’m quite familiar with it.
The field, which used to be nothing but a patch of land infested with tall weeds when I was just born, now looks something like a small park. Over the years, the adult members of the family cleared off the weeds, planting shrubs and flowering plants and trees. Although not as beautiful as a regular park, it is prettier than what I have seen in photos of how it used to be. I head towards there with one purpose - namely, to be left alone. And it feels great when I lie down on the grass, ruining the pale cream blouse which Mum got for me, and the light cotton trousers I just bought last week.
It feels great, seriously, and I swear that people wouldn’t notice I’m gone even if I don’t go back in for hours. See, they are used to this without being conscious of it. They would ask me “Why are you alone?” when in the back of their mind, they know that ‘alone’ is what I’m always doing. I’m mistress of it.
“What are you doing here alone?”
It’s Albus.
“Hi,” I say, a little out of breath. “What are you doing here?”
“I saw you walking off,” he says simply, and he comes and sits down by my side. I hope he doesn’t notice my chest rising and falling rather heavily.
“Yeah…I love this place.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“It is.”
“Last year at Hogwarts then?” he asks me.
“Yes.”
“What are you going to do after that?”
“I don’t know,” I tell him. “I haven’t really thought about it.”
“Mmm.”
He slowly lies down by my side. Together we lie on our back, facing the open sky. I wonder if he’d like to play cloud games.
“Give it some time,” he says instead. “I was clueless when I left school.”
“Yep.”
“But this is your last year, Lucy,” he says, and his tone is now rather earnest. “Make sure you have fun, yeah?”
“I will.” I give him a smile to make it more convincing.
“I’ll never understand how you got into Hufflepuff,” he says, eyebrows furrowed, “and not have a good time.”
“I’ve been into the kitchens,” I blurt out. “And I thought Gryffindor was supposed to have all the fun.”
“We’re just louder,” he says dismissively. “Hufflepuff are supposed to be the real party people.”
I laugh. Somehow, I can find it funny when it is Albus.
“Don’t you ever go to Hogsmeade with your friends and just…let it go?”
“I…well, I only go to Hogsmeade when I have work.”
“Work? In Hogsmeade?”
“Yeah, like buy stuff.”
“Lucy!” He sits up. “C’mon.”
“What?” I ask him, sitting up myself.
“You seriously need to start living.”
“I…am living. I’m alive.”
“No, you aren’t.”
He looks into my eyes and cups my face with his cool hands. “You aren’t.”
Then, he pulls me closer and kisses me. I’m shocked at first “ I can’t be kissing Albus. He has always been like an older brother to me. Except, not really, he hasn’t. He has indeed been one of the only people in the large family to talk to me and not be condescending about it. He has been one of the few people to acknowledge me at school and genuinely care about what I was up to, even though it was only on occasions when we happened to meet in the Great Hall during mealtimes, or the library…I don’t remember where else because it was years ago.
But then, over time, especially after he left school, it became so much more than that. He was there when I was crying over O.W.L. preparation. He was there when somebody in my house said I was the most uninteresting Weasley rather loudly in the common room. He was even there when Betty and Eliza went off to Hogsmeade without inviting me, although I was the one who had originally refused to go, but then they should have asked me again.
Albus was there, though he never knew it. And he is here right now, kissing me.
“But this is your last year, Lucy,” he says earnestly. “Make sure you have fun, yeah?”
Of course, this is where I really am, where I have been all this time. He has his arms - not around me - but folded below his head. Sometimes, I try not to make out what is real.
“I will," I tell him.
“Whew.” He winks at me, and then says, “I think I can hear Grandma calling.”
I think I can, too, except it doesn’t matter to me.
He sits up quickly. “Let’s go join them for lunch,” he says, holding out his hand to pull me up.
I oblige, yet it is my body which walks with my cousin back to The Burrow and the people inside it. I stay behind, still kissing Albus.
One Day in the Life Of by hestiajones
Chapter Endnotes: This is the first from a series of character studies I'm planning to do on the Next Gen kids. Do let me know what you thought of Lucy. :)