August 20th, 2037 II (18)

"Dominique!"

She looks up at the sound of her name, glancing around and wondering if she can sneak away before she's forced to speak to its owner. She's made it the whole day without running into anyone that's recognized her or at least tried to talk to her, and she'd like to keep it that way.

"Dominique! It's really you!"

And then she's practically knocked from her chair by a tumble of red hair that smells like apples and sour candy. It's all happening very fast, and she's dragged from her chair and held at arms length and oh - it's Lily.

"Lily," she breathes, the sight of the younger woman resurrecting so many memories that she'd almost forgotten about.

Lily looks lovely with her eyes bright and hair as long and tangled as ever. It's nice to see that some things never change.

"You cut your hair."

Dominique is so caught off guard that that is what comes out of her cousin's mouth, and all she can do is nod and mumble a reply.

"Uh, yeah."

"We thought you might have been dead, you know." Lily's brown eyes - Merlin, those eyes, they never get easier to look at do they? - pin her with accusation.

"I was in Ireland," Dominique shrugs, casting a flicker of a glance over Lily's shoulder and through the glass window of the ice cream shop.

"Ireland..." Lily muses. "We didn't think to look there. Although Louis always told us you probably didn't want to be found anyway."

Her little brother was right, but she thinks it might be insensitive to tell Lily that.

"Lily? Who're you talking to?"

Dominique cringes at the voice that comes from over her shoulder because this one she recognizes, and she is so not prepared for a family reunion.

"It's Dominique!" Lily shouts excitedly, tugging her around to face several more people she doesn't feel like talking to.

"Dom?" Teddy's hair flashes no less than fourteen different colors at the sight of her.

"Yeah, it's me."

He blinks several times, seeming unable to process what's happening.

In his distraction, she takes in the sight of his companions.

One is a girl that looks about twelve with light brown hair, Weasley-blue eyes, and Victoire's chin. The other is a boy - so obviously her brother and around a year younger.

So she's an aunt twice over now. She realizes that she doesn't even know the boys name, and that feels wrong somehow.

And then there's Rose with a very blonde toddler in her arms and a steely glint in her blue eyes. The icy expression doesn't settle well in Dominique's stomach, and she finds herself wishing possibly for the first time that things had been different between them. Between all of them.

Maybe then she wouldn't feel like she were standing in front of a bunch of strangers instead of her own family.

"What are you all doing here?"

Merlin's beard it's a ridiculous question because she's the one that's been in hiding for twelve years, but it's all she can think to ask. Because what are they doing here making a day that's already difficult that much more challenging?

"Back to school shopping," Teddy offers into the tense silence. "Gabrielle needs her books, and Quincy's starting Hogwarts this year."

"And Rose and I decided we'd come along with little Leo here for the entertainment," Lily offers brightly, almost lessening the tension before adding with a wink, "And the ice cream."

"What are you doing here?" Rose asks harshly.

But because her life so often seems like some ridiculous cosmic joke, the answer to the question comes not from her, but from the voice of someone behind.

"Mum! Can we go get my wand now?"

Dominique cringes.

Teddy looks like he's seen a ghost, and Roses' eyes go impossibly wide.

Lily covers her mouth with her hands, and finally Dominique turns around.

He's eleven years old with a fresh ice cream cone in one hand, and his dark hair sticks up at the back, and maybe his eyes are more green than brown, but he looks so much like his father that some days it makes her want to blind herself in a vain desperation to make it hurt a little less.

She must look as overwhelmed as she feels, because her son's face flickers with confusion before she forces herself to school her features.

"Ben, sweetie, there's some people I'd like you to meet," she beckons him closer with a shaky hand.

Of course he knows all about his family and more specifically his parents, and she's never been more glad that she decided upon a policy of honesty with her son from the very beginning. She hopes it will lessen the disaster of this interaction.

It still feels like a train crash.

Teddy, Rose, and Lily are still stunned silent, and even Gabrielle and Quincy look a little confused.

"Ben, this is your Uncle Teddy and your cousins Rose, Gabrielle, Quincy, and Leo." And she locks eyes with Lily, trying to somehow prepare James' little sister for what she's about to say. "And this is your Aunt Lily."

Rose's sharp intake of breath is somehow impossibly loud over the din of Diagon Alley.

"Hullo. I'm Benjamin!" Ben waves at them with the hand not containing an ice cream cone, charming and over-confident and so very like James with his disarming smile. "We're doing my Hogwarts shopping for my first year today!"

Teddy splutters, but nods his head nonetheless.

Rose goes from pink to puce to white as she blinks furiously and clutches her son ever-tighter in her arms. "I - I just - can't. I'm sorry," she bites out in a rush before turning on her heel and rushing away, getting swallowed by the bustling throng of shoppers almost instantly.

Teddy looks apologetically back and forth between Lily, Dominique, and Ben before ushering his children off after Rose.

Lily turns to Dominique and her eyes are shining a bit wetly, but the smile on her her face is brilliant, so Dominique returns it with a little one of her own.

And then Lily turns, offers her hand to her nephew and says, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Benjamin."

.

End

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I'm very very proud of this, and it would mean a lot to me if you'd let me know what you thought. If you like it enough to favorite, please leave me a review and let me know why!

xx thebluefeather

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Dates in order as promised:

April 1st, 2012 (1)

July 12th, 2016 (2)

September 1st, 2016 (3)

December 24th, 2016 (4)

September 1st, 2017 (5)

November 11th, 2020 (6)

May 31th, 2021 (7)

September 15th, 2021 (8)

August 31st, 2023 (9)

July 19, 2024 (10)

April 5, 2025 (11)

December 24th, 2024 (12)

August 19th, 2025 (13)

August 20th, 2025 I (14)

August 20th, 2025 II (15)

August 25th, 2025 (16)

August 20th, 2037 I (17)

August 20th, 2037 II (18)