Who: Llewellyn Wynne and his sister, Jennifer. When: 25 December, 2001 Where: Jennifer's place. What: Christmas Rating: PG Status: Private/Complete
His sister may have deserted him on his birthday but they always had Christmas together. Always at Jennifer's house too, since their dad had died. She claimed travelling with kids was too hard. Llew joked that the kids were easy, it was the husband that didn't travel well. Jennifer never really appreciated his sens of humour though and so they always went to her house.
Llew arrived at his sisters doorstep just after 12 and was greeted with a brief and slightly awkward hug. "Lunch is almost ready, just come into the kitchen and help quickly." she greeted. "And close the front door behind you."
"Where's the rest of the family?" He enquired curiously, looking around for them.
"Outside." she answered shortly, walking towards the kitchen.
"Playing Quidditch?" he asked, hopefully. So far his Christmas wasn't too bad but playing Quidditch would improve it.
"I swear that's all you think about. There are other fun outdoor activities." she said, opening the door to the kitchen.
Llew rolled his eyes. "Of course I know that but Quidditch is more fun."
"Toss that salad, would you?" she answered, pointing towards a salad bowl that was sitting on the kitchen bench.
"I'm your brother, not your slave." he complained, tossing the salad as he spoke.
"There's a difference?" Jennifer quipped back.
"Oh. A sense of humour. Was that a Christmas gift?"
"Because you have such a better sense of humour, right Llewellyn?"
Llew shrugged in response and the conversation dropped for a few minutes. The sibling banter was easy enough but neither liked delving into deeper conversation. It was always uncomfortable and usually ended badly. Still, the silence was bothering too so eventually Llew spoke up again. "So, how's the family?" he asked, pushing the salad bowl aside and finding a knife to cut the bread with instead.
"They're great. The kids are excited about Christmas, of course."
"Yeah, Christmas is fun when you're a kid." Or when you didn't have dead parents to think about.
Jennifer nodded in agreement. "How are you then?"
"You know, great. Just perfect." he replied, unenthusiastically.
"I love the enthusiasm Llewellyn."
"Someone's picked up the art of sarcasm too. Another present?"
Jennifer crinkled her nose in disgust. "Ugh. No. No more sarcasm for me. I wouldn't want to turn into you."
"Haha." Llew replied, glaring at her.
"What's not so great about your life then?"
"Oh, nothing. Everything's great. Quidditch is great, my friends are great, my family is great. Life is just great."
"That's..." she knew he was lying but as fun as it sounded she wasn't going to start a heart to heart with him about all his problems. They'd both hate that. "...great." she finished, using what had obviously become a favourite word of Llew's. "How was your birthday then?" she asked, in an attempt to change the subject from his 'great' life.
"Fantastic." he mumbled. "Let's not talk about it though."
"That good?"
"Something like that."
"Look, I'm sorry I couldn't make it, I was-"
"Busy. I know. So you said." Llew cut her off. "But don't you think it's a little late to apologise now? It was almost a month ago."
"I'm sorry Llewellyn. What did you want me to do? Drop everything in my life to come and see you?" she asked meanly. "It's not like I play around on a stupid broomstick for a living and can just drop everything to visit you."
"Your work is so important that it can't even give you two days off, to see a Quidditch match and then spend some time with the only remaining member of your family?"
"I have my own family to think of now too, Llewellyn."
"Well, that's just great for you Jennifer. I'm so happy for you. Really. I could not be happier that you barely have time to owl or make a call me because you have your new perfect family to look after." He sliced the bread, angrily, thinking maybe choosing a food preparation job with a knife hadn't been such a good idea. "Not all of have that though."
"You sound really happy for me." Jennifer grumbled. "Look, I'm sorry but it's not like I'm preventing you from finding your own family or anything."
"No, but it's not like I can just walk onto the street and marry the first girl I see and start a perfect family. You're lucky, you fell in love, got married and Dad even got to come to your wedding. I'm not going to get that so forgive me for being a little unhappy with my sister deserting me."
It was silent for a long time before Jennifer finally spoke up again, with another attempt to change the subject. "How are the Robins? I haven't seen them in forever."
'Maybe that's because you never visit.' he though to himself. It was Christmas though and he'd spent all month trying to put up with it and acting happy and he didn't really want to ruin that act just yet. "Nina's directing Oliver!, Diggory's back, Rose Gareth is back, Brae and Howell are fine last I heard and Demelza's becoming great friends with this prat of a guy."
"Do you hate him because he's a prat or is he a prat because he's Demelza's friend?"
Llew glared at her again, not liking what she was implying. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Everyone knows you've liked Demelza for years."
"Really? I thought it had only been a matter of days."
"And the sarcasm is back." Jennifer commented. "Maybe if you had a better sense of humour, like me, she wouldn't be spending so much time with that 'prat' as you called him."
"If she had the same sense of humour as you then I probably wouldn't want her to like me."
Jennifer gave a small laugh. "Take this stuff to the table outside, would you? We're eating out there, the boys were just setting the table."
Llew laughed this time. "That was the 'fun outdoor activity?" he asked, incredulously.
"Just shut up and carry the food."
"Fine, but after lunch we get to play Quidditch."
Jennifer sighed. "Because what's a Wynne family Christmas without Quidditch?"
Llew grinned at her. "I think after thirty years you're finally catching on." As far as Christmas went, this wasn't so bad. Well, so far, he probably shouldn't speak before the day was over. You never know how the rest of the day was going to pan out but with the promise of Quidditch he was sure it's be alright.