Atropos → george weasley

xxxvi. the visit

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thirty six

the visit

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"Lottie, I need to warn you. When your father's parents come up from Southhampton to visit, they're going to be staying in your room."

Ottilie nearly dropped her book. She stared at her mother in horror.

"Please, god, no," whispered Ottilie. "How long will they be here again?"

Kanna scratched her arm uneasily. "Three nights."

"Oh, you can just kill me now."

For a moment, Kanna looked annoyed. Then, she pursed her lips to keep herself from laughing. "They're family, my love. Don't be so mean."

Ottilie scoffed. "Tell Eleanor the same about you and me."

Kanna frowned, a sympathetic shine in her eyes. Simon's parents did not like Kanna, Chiyo, or Ottilie. Especially Ottilie.

"I get it, I really do. But, please, for the sake of us all, try to be polite." Kanna reached out to ruffle Ottilie's hair like she used to back when Ottilie was a little girl, even though she was now taller than Kanna.

The morning before Henry and Eleanor van der Hoeven arrived for lunch, Ottilie and Simon worked together to hide all of her Hogwarts things in a chest in Adelaide's room.

The decision had been unanimous to keep her being a witch a secret from Simon's side of the family. They already thought Ottilie was odd. The otherworldliness of attending a school for witches and wizards would be too much.

"Just kick it under the bed," her father said, looking at her Comet resting on Adelaide's wildflower-patterned bedsheets.

Ottilie frowned. "Why don't we just lock Adelaide's door?"

Simon gave her a pained look. "We can't lock your sister out of her room the whole time your grandparents are here."

Ottilie turned to Adelaide, who was sitting in front of the chest, flipping merrily through Ottilie's second-year Charms textbook. Even though she was supposed to be helping, she was unearthing more of Ottilie's things than hiding them.

"Addie, are you okay if we keep your room locked during the day so Gran doesn't go snooping around in here?"

Adelaide shrugged. "Yeah, sure. Don't want her looking through my paintings either."

Simon grimaced at Ottilie. "Trust me, locking it will only make it worse."

Annoyed, Ottilie got up and left Adelaide's room to go to the kitchen. Kanna was making lunch while Nana Chiyo prepared dorayaki for dessert. Ottilie sort of wished Chiyo wouldn't because she was certain Eleanor and Henry would make passive-aggressive comments about them.

When Simon's parents arrived, Ottilie was sitting at the table answering the last letter George had sent her.

It had only been a few weeks since they'd gone home for the summer, and they'd already exchanged several letters. In the first, he'd asked for help brainstorming a potion that would make its consumer turn briefly into a canary. The project was infinitely more complex than the potions they'd worked on previously.

She was making some progress but would have to wait to send it. Guinevere had been sent to Ernie's, so Eleanor and Henry didn't ask too many questions.