Summer
Before everyone knew it the end of the year had come around and they were on the train to Kings Cross station again. Wisteria rode on the train with her friends, each of them discussing summer plans.
“My brother wants to go to a game for the Quidditch World Cup for his birthday, but other than that I’m free all summer if any of you get bored.” Christine tells them.
“Unfortunately I’m spending most of my time out of the country. My sister wants me to go with her to Japan. She’s considering living there and wants my opinion on the place.” Penelope says.
“My brother also wants to go to a Quidditch World Cup game.” Shannon tells them. “I’ll probably go with him to that. Maybe I’ll see you there Christy! Other than that my older sister is getting married, so I have to go to that wedding and I’ll probably spend most of my summer with her before she leaves for Australia with her fiancé or husband or whatever.”
“Aww! A wedding sounds like fun!” Christine exclaims. “Can I come!”
Shannon laughs. “Sure Christy. You can be my date.”
“Are your sure about that Shay?” Jane asks in a teasing voice. “I would’ve thought that you wanted to ask that Alderton boy to be your date.”
Shannon’s face turns bright red. “Shut up Jane. What are your plans anyway?”
“My parents decided that we’re moving, so that will take up a good bit of my time because we have so much stuff. Apparently we’re staying with family friends for a while before we move into the new place.”
“What family friends?” Christy asks.
“The Lovegood’s.”
“Oh, Xenophilius is only a few years older than us and he’s so nice!” Wisteria says.
“What do you mean ‘only a few years’? He’s a seventh year. That’s more than ‘a few’.” Penelope tells her.
“Whatever, the point is that he’s nice. I’m sure you two will get along fine. Anyway, I’ll probably visit you from time to time Christy because I have no plans at all.” Wisteria says.
“Did I hear you say you have no summer plans Wisteria?” Fabian asks as he sticks his head into their compartment.
“Why yes you did Fabian. May I ask why you were listening into our conversation from outside our compartment?” Wisteria asks.
“No you may not.” He says as he pulls the rest of his body into the room and plops himself down next to Wisteria. “You know Wisteria, you’re always welcome to come hang with Gideon and I for a while.”
“Speaking of which, where is your other half?” Penelope asks him.
“Oh he’s around.” Fabian says vaguely. “You really should come around though. Molly would love to meet you sometime and I’m sure you two would get around great.”
“Is that so?” Wisteria asks. “Well if that’s the case then I’ll have to make my way to your house sometime. Perhaps she can replace you and Gideon as my favorite red heads out side of myself and Lily.”
Fabian feigns injury. “What a wretched thing to say! No one could ever replace us, certainly not our own sister!”
“Who knows. The future is never certain.”
“Speaking of the future, have you decided what classes you’re taking next year?” Fabian asks.
“I went with Study of Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures.” Wisteria tells him.
“We decided as a group to take Care of Magical creatures and then each chose our own second class.” Penelope explains. “I’m taking Divination along with Christy, Jane is taking Arithmancy and Shay is taking Muggle Studies.”
“That’s a shame.” Fabian says. “I was hoping to have some more classes with you next year.”
Wisteria feels the eyes of all the girls flick to her and a blush rises to her face.
“Fabian! Come on mate let’s go!” Gideon says as he suddenly pops his head into the compartment. Fabian looks slightly annoyed, but still smiles genuinely.
“I’ll see you later Wisteria.”
“Bye.” Wisteria says back and then does her best to ignore the girls as they bug her about his obvious crush on her for the rest of the trip.
The next day Wisteria and Lily are back at home and halfway unpacked when they decide to take a break from unpacking.
“Mom, Wisty and I are gonna go to the park with Sev!” Lily yells as she drags her sister out the front door. The twins run down the street to the park and find Severus already there, sitting under a tree.
“Lily! Wisty! How are you?”
“We’re great, how have you been?” Wisty answers.
“I’ve been fine. I’ve hardly seen you at all though Wisty. Was your second year enjoyable?”
“Of course she enjoyed it. She had Fabian Prewett practically drooling over her the whole year.” Lily jokes.
“It was.” Wisteria says to Severus, ignoring Lily. “I’m really sorry about not talking to you much by the way. I’ll try to see more of you next year.”
“Lily did bring up a good point though. I saw you hanging around those Prewett boys a lot. I’m not sure that they’re the best influences on you. Those two get into lots of trouble.”
“Thank you for your concern, but they aren’t that bad. They just have a large sense of humor is all. Besides, I don’t necessarily approve of your friends in Slytherin.”
“Who? Regulus? What’s wrong with him?”
“Not Regulus, he’s not horrible, but his brother is.”
“Mercury is graduated anyway and he is in no way worse than Sirius.”
“At least Sirius has a heart! Mercury is just cruel.”
“Sirius bullies me!”
“And Mercury bullies me!”
“Hey!” Lily interjects. “Let’s stop talking about that okay? It’s summer, we’re supposed to have fun and make plans with friends.”
“My plan was to just hang out with you two.” Severus says, calming down a bit.
“I don’t have any set in stone plans” Lily says, “But I’ll probably see Mary, Marlene, Alice, and Emmaline from time to time. What about you Wisty? Are you gonna hang with Christy, Pen, Jane, and Shay?”
“I was planning on spending most of my summer here and then the last month or so with the Prewetts. They want me to meet their sister Molly and her family.” Wisty tells them and takes notice of how Severus doesn’t seem too upset at the idea of it just being him and Lily for a while.
“Well while we are all here, what do you guys want to do?” Lily asks.
“We should go swimming! I got so busy with finals at the end of the year that I haven’t gone swimming since September!” Wisteria says.
“I think I’ll just watch.” Severus tells them.
Wisteria laughs. “Still not much of a swimmer huh Sev?”
“It’s fine. You can sit and talk to us like usual.”
Severus smiles at the girls and follows the to the pool.
A few hours later the friends were walking back home from the pool and Lily was walking a few meters in front of Wisteria and Severus.
“Hey Sev.” Wisteria says. “I’m sorry about what I said earlier about your friends. I shouldn’t make assumptions; I should trust your judgment. But about Mercury…”
“I don’t really consider him my friend Wisty, I’m friends with Regulus who was always around Mercury so I was around him a lot too, that’s all. Besides, Mercury is gone this year, whatever he did that upset you, he wont be doing it again.”
Wisty smiles at him. “You’re right. Thank you Sev.”
“Of course Wisty. What’re friends for right?”
At the beginning of August Wisteria’s parents drive her to the home of Fabian and Gideon’s sister, a place they referred to as “The Burrow”. When she got there she found it to be a small place that almost resembles a shack with a couple extra rooms built onto it. Wisteria kissed her mom and dad goodbye and ran up to the house. She didn’t even get a chance to knock on the door before Fabian and Gideon came barreling out of the house and tackled her into a huge hug.
“Hi boys.” Wisteria says, laughing.
“Wisty! How are you! We’ve missed you! Molly is cooking in the kitchen right now, let’s go say hello to her!” Gideon says, dragging Wisteria back up to a standing position.
Fabian wraps an arm around her shoulders to lead her into the kitchen and Wisteria tries fiercely to stop a blush from rising to her face.
“Molly! Wisteria is finally here!” Gideon yells as they walk into the kitchen.
Wisteria sees a short, slightly plump woman with flaming red hair pulled up in a messy way.
“Ah. Wisteria, I’ve heard a lot about you. These boys simply wouldn’t shut up about you.”
“It’s nice to meet you Mrs. Weasley.”
“Oh please, call me Molly. It makes me feel old when people call me Mrs. Weasley.” Almost as soon as the words leave her mouth a little boy with hair just as red as Molly’s comes wandering into the room. “Oh, Wisty this is my son Bill. His little brother is upstairs sleeping right now. “
“How many kids are you planning on having?” Wisteria asks.
“I want a little girl, but I don’t think I’m going to have another kid for a few years. Arthur and I need to save up enough to support another young one or two.”
“Well I wish you all the best of luck with that. I have two sisters, an older one and a twin.”
“Yes, the boys have told me about them. They say your older sister isn’t a wizard. Is that true?”
“Yeah. She hasn’t spoken to me or Lily very much since we got our Hogwarts letters the first time, but we hope that she’ll come around one day.”
“I hope so too. It must be difficult to have a sibling not talk to you.”
“Oh it’s not so bad, as long as she’s happy I don’t mind so much. Do you need any help cooking?”
“It should be done in just a few minutes, so I don’t think so. Thank you for the offer though.” As she says this Bill walk up to her and begins tugging on her leg. “Bill, sweety, mommy is trying to cook. Go back to your room.”
Bill’s face starts to scrunch up and it looks like he’s going to cry, so before he can Wisteria scoops him up and spins him around a couple of times before resting him on her hip. “You mommy has to cook little one and the less you bug her the faster it’ll be done. Why don’t you play with me for a while, yeah?”
Bill looks back at his mom and asks in a small voice. “What’re we gonna play?”
“Whatever you want to play. What’s your favorite game?” Wisteria asks as she walks out of the room with Bill in her arms and Fabian and Gideon trailing behind.
About 15 minutes later Molly finds them playing in the yard and tells them that dinner is ready. As they are sitting at the dining room table eating, Molly is helping Bill eat his food and she looks at Wisty to say, “You’re very good with kids. Do babysit often?”
“Yeah. Growing up I had tons of friends that had little siblings and we used to use babysitting as an excuse to hang out.”
“Well then, I just might use you as my babysitter from now.”
“I would love that. Bill is very well behaved, isn’t that right little one?”
Bill giggles and Molly smiles. “Hey Wisteria,” Fabian says. “After dinner would you want to go outside and play Quidditch with Fabian and I? We’re trying to make the team again next year and practice makes perfect.”
“That sounds like fun. I’m trying to make the team too.”
“Are you trying for Keeper again?” Gideon asks.
“Yeah, are you guys trying for Beaters again?”
“Actually we were gonna try for Chaser this time. The Gryffindor team needs some decent Chasers this year.”