Aureliana Abercrombie deserves a drink (![]() ![]() @ 2017-12-24 13:56:00 |
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Ernie carefully set his broomstick in the thin closet in the mud room, then set about pulling off the warm jumpers and cloaks he’d been bundled in to keep out the snowy cold. His cheeks were bright pink, and at first look, perhaps it would be easy to assume that it was from the wind chapping his skin, but upon closer look, the blush was from embarrassment. There was no keeping up with his cousins and, though he could not prove it conclusively, he suspected that was the point. Maybe it was the fact that he’d been living in Scotland a full three months now and he felt so out of place with his chosen playmates, but this felt worse than the previous years where he felt every year of the age gap between him and his elder cousins. It seemed like neither friends or family would be a comfort; and still 9 months until Hogwarts. He left the warming clothes for Lilah to get and moved into the castle proper, moseying immediately towards the kitchens. Unlike the rest of her cousins, Aureliana never found herself comfortable on a broom or up in the air. She wasn't exactly comfortable on the ground either, but at least that was steady under her feet. So while everyone else was gallivanting outside, she was curled up in the library ostensibly catching up on some work from the Improper Use of Magic Office, but in all actuality she was flipping through the latest issue of Most Magical Bride. She was sure Jamie was going to propose any day now, after all how romantic would it be to propose during the Christmas season, and it was hard not to think about her wedding. Going to pick up her cup tea, Aureliana was disappointed to find that it was empty. The teapot sitting nearby too. Since she could not possibly finish her work (look at her magazines) without a hearty cup of warm tea to sustain her, she made her way to the kitchen to refill her pot and to maybe see if there were any scones left. It looked like she wasn't the only one with the idea to make a raid on the kitchen. "Hullo, Ernie," she smiled at her youngest cousin as she began to fix herself a pot of tea. "Did you have a good time flying?" Ernie looked up at her through the floppy fringe of his dark hair, unable to keep the mournful look off of his face. “Not really,” he said honestly as he immediately went for the cookie jar and stuck his face inside to see what was in there. It was, he sighed, empty. Of course. “They always say come and then they always fly away.” Aureliana frowned slightly at hearing that. Each and everyone should know better than that and she made a mental note to pull her brother aside that evening to bring it up when she was sure Ernie wasn't around to hear. "Well that doesn't seem very fair." Finding her scones, she turned and held one up for Ernie to see, offering it to him. "I know it's not cookies, but I'm sure we have jam somewhere. Or clotted cream if you prefer." Oh, that sounded particularly lovely and even if her cousin didn't want any replacements, she knew she would add a bit of jam to her snack. “Mmm... both,” Ernie said definitively as he bounced on his toes a little bit, obviously cheered by the attention. “What are you doing right now? Aside from eating scones,” he asked, then noticed astutely the tea pot, “and drinking tea?” "Both it is then." Aureliana bustled around the kitchen to get plates for the two of them, in addition to the requested jam and clotted cream. Also a napkins, because scones could be crumbly, sticky, and messy. "I was in the library, where," she got a slight conspiratorial look on her face, "I should have been doing some work that I took home, but I was reading a magazine instead." Ernie’s brows flickered a little on his forehead as his eyes widened at the admission. Work was a serious thing to his parents and he was sure it was to Aureliana’s, no matter how much it seemed like Electra and Melchior messed around. The expectation was always 100% completion, 100% correct. So he leaned back in, as if sharing a great and heavy secret. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell. I am an excellent secret-keeper.” He paused a moment. “What magazine was it?” Well she wasn't expecting Ernie to ask her which magazine, but she couldn't not tell him, nor could she lie to him about it. Her face turned serious for a moment. "You have to be a super excellent secret-keeper, Ernie, because nobody else knows about this." And the last thing she wanted was for word to get out that Jamie was proposing when he hadn't even asked yet. She did not want to scare him off. Rather than wait for Ernie to reaffirm his secret keeping abilities, she decided to trust him, hoping that it would not all blow up in her face. "It was a copy of Most Magical Bride." It took Ernie a minute to figure out what that would implicate -- he assumed initially that girls just read those sort of magazines and dreamed in the same way that he read adventure books and imagined some future life -- but with Aureliana looking at him so seriously, it couldn’t just be fantasy. “You’re going to get married?” he asked. She was old enough, he knew, that it wasn’t crazy… except it felt a little crazy. "Maybe," Aureliana cautioned. While Ernie was correct that she had dreamed about her wedding over the years, it had certainly not been anything serious. Now, with Jamie, it was looking more and more likely with every passing month of their relationship. "Jamie hasn't said anything yet." She looked down for a moment before looking back up at her young cousin. "But I really want him to ask." Ernie’s head tilted slightly as he stuck his finger into the jar and licked it off his finger. “Wow.” He paused a moment, his mind always drawn to patterns. “Aureliana Abercrombie. Double A. It sounds nice.” She frowned slightly and pulled the jam jar away slightly. Nobody wanted dirty fingers in their jam, but she did not say that aloud. It wasn't her job to scold him. "It does sound nice, doesn't it?" Aureliana quickly latched onto his comment, glad that her young cousin was either not yet old or aware enough to notice that Abercrombie wasn't among the typically pureblood name. The more time she had to think about the answers to those inevitable questions the better. Ernie picked up a scone and munched on an edge of the triangle-shape. It was better than his Mum’s, that he could admit. “It does. But I don’t understand why you’re sneaking about with it. Do you think you’ll jinx it?” After spreading plenty of jam on one side of her scone and clotted cream on the other, Aureliana put down her knife and nodded. "It's a little silly and superstitious, but sometimes it's almost like if I want it too much, then it might not happen." And she so loved the idea about being married. Having a house and home of her own. Babies. "That and I really should get the work done. But it's the weekend." Ernie shrugged his shoulder - he didn’t yet know what it was to have deadlines in his life. He gave the jam a miss and went straight for the clotted cream, putting a large spoonful on the edge of his scone and eating more cream, honestly, than scone in the next bite. “I think I’m too young to be an uncle though. All the uncles I know are old.” Somehow Aureliana managed to cover her mouth to stifle the little laugh that escaped. Technically Ernie wouldn't be an uncle, but she didn't see the need to correct him. "Well, it's going to be a long time before that's going to happen," she promised him with a firm. Nod. Their engagement would be at least a year, if not eighteen months. Factor in another year or so for the pregnancy and it would easily be three years before Ernie ever had to worry about losing his spot as youngest in the family. "And Mel and Fraser will still be years older than you. They can be the old uncles." He compared Mel and Fraser to their respective fathers - his uncles - and found that a strange thought; he couldn’t see the comparison. And, if Ernie was honest, the same went for him: he barely looked like his father, let alone acted like him. “Is he going to come to Christmas? Jamie?” he asked before taking another bite of scone. That, Aureliana did not know the answer to. Their respective families had different traditions and she did not want Jamie to feel pressured one way or the other. Though she had no doubt that Ernie would likely keep their conversations confidential, there were such things as silent cues. "He may come over on Boxing Day," Aureliana hedged her bets. "He might be busy with his family during Christmas Day." Ernie popped a bit of his scone in his mouth and smiled a bright, inclusive smile. “With a ring,” he teased as he put another scone on his plate despite having not finished his plate yet. "Maybe." Using her discarded knife, Aureliana cut the split scone into quarters and took a bite, chewing thoughtfully. "But there's no promise of him bringing a ring or not." She didn't want to get Ernie's hopes up because that almost seemed worst to her to some degree. It was alright to hope and become disappointed herself, but she didn't want to disappoint her younger cousin. Checking the pot, Aureliana was pleased to see that it had steeped nicely. "Do you want tea or something else?" To her eye he didn't look terribly cold, but hot drinks were always welcome this time of year. "Hot chocolate perhaps?" Ernie’s smile broke even wider as he nodded brightly. “Chocolate, please,” he said with grinning politeness. "Chocolate it is then." Aureliana could hardly imagine herself a mother, though that would be a natural progression after marriage, but if was anything like this short snack with Ernie she could see it as being something she could enjoy. Maybe. But that was a long time coming. She had to wait for Jamie to propose first. |