The Flood

Sitting outside on the beach was the most relaxing thing ever. Teddy and Vic excused themselves to the house, claiming that they had something to do. That being said, I didn’t really care to find out what that something was, so I let them be and dragged Anna out there with me.

“You’re gonna get burnt.”

“No I’m not.”

“Anna, unlike me you have Dad’s genes, which means you burn and freckle. If you get burned I’m not giving you the sunburn charm again, and I’ll make sure Vic doesn’t give it to you, either.”

“Fine. Either put the damn sunscreen on me or use the charm.”

I flicked my wand at her. “There that wasn’t so hard now was it?”

“It was so hard I couldn’t stand it.”

“Your ability to use sarcasm astounds me, please do it again.”

“You’re a freak, you know that, right?”

“Yeah, so? I’m your sister. You can’t do anything about it. Plus, you love me.”

“Sometimes I do. Other times I want to punch you in the face.”

“You love me even when you want to punch me in the face. Don’t lie.”

“Maybe I do. I can’t decide yet.”

“You’ve had 19, almost 20 years to make up your mind. So you love me.” I stuck my tongue out at her, and she responded by pushing me into the sand. I sat up, and as we just sat there, I began thinking about to my birthday before 7th year. I was turning 19. At Salem we started a year later, and switching schools just messed stuff up for me. Vic had talked to my parents and asked who I would want there if I could only choose one person. They told her Anna. Anna had experience England for the first time. Oh dear, we were so pissed. It was funny.

“Your birthday is tomorrow, and just so you know, Alan hasn’t called here freaking out about what to get you.”

“Really? He hasn’t come to you freaking out yet? Huh. He’ll probably call tomorrow and you’ll have an oober freak out on your hands with him. Have fun with that. Tell him to get me something nice.” I laughed. Alan always did this. He’d forget to get me a present until last minute, then call Anna freaking out because he has no idea what to get me.

“Doesn’t he always end up getting you something nice?”

“Yeah, but you know good and well that it’s only because you take his money and buy it for me.”

She rolled her eyes and gave a shrug. “Details.”

I spread my towel out and laid my head in Anna’s lap. I’m the little sister. I can get babied every once in a while, and her legs are a whole lot more comfortable than the ground. “Do you think we should have a party this weekend? Alan said something about having the weekend off anyways. Invite the guys out for a bash?”

“If we do that it’ll count as your present from me and Liza.”

“That’s cool. Oh, and where has she been? She hasn’t been around the house much since Warped”

“She’s got this really big thing she had to make a lot of food for and she figured, using her words exactly here, ‘Being out of the house will be good, I don’t know what you teenagers get up to these days and I doubt I could keep up.’ Before you even say anything, I don’t know either, that’s just what she said when I asked why she wasn’t cooking out of the house.”

“Our whole family has some serious issues. Before I left Dad was like, ‘Don’t get arrested. Well if you do, I really don’t want to bail you out, so call your mother.’ I don’t even know what I would do to get arrested. I would probably call Alan.”

“Alan would not bail you out. He’d laugh at you. I probably would to.”

“Well I wouldn’t be able to call Vic or Teddy, muggle money confuses them.”

“Well then you’ll be SOL, dear sister.”

“I totally wouldn’t! I could call Teddy’s Godfather, Harry. Yeah, totally. He’d get me out.”

“How do you know if he even has a phone?”

“I used it when I would stay with them to call our parents.”

“Oh.” We fell into silence, Anna still playing with my hair. Teddy and Vic had yet to come out of house, probably making some sort of wedding plans.

“NNYXXXXX!!!!!!!! Get in the house! Someone’s at the front door.” Vic suddenly yelled.

“Make Anna do it!”

“They asked for you!”

“Ugh dammit, I’ll be there in a second.” I said, standing up.

“You should probably put on shorts; you don’t know who it is.” Anna pointed out.

“You’re probably right.” I slipped on my shorts. “If you say I need to put on a shirt I will hit you because it’s too hot to do that.”

As I walked away I heard, “If it’s some creeper, I’m not saving you.”

“Whatever.” I walked to the front door opened it to see The Wotters!

“James! Fred! Al! Scorp! Tab! Dom! Ashley! Josh! What are you guys doing here?!” This was accompanied by a huge group hug and a lot of squealing. “How did you even find out where I lived out here?”

“Well, Teddy told us in case of an emergency. So we just surprised you on the day before you’re birthday!” James put in, I had forgotten how tall he was. His black hair was sticking up at all different kinds of angles, as always.

“You’re looking good, have you always looked like this. I mean those legs, damn, woman, when did you get those?”

“Fred, stop being a perv you’re younger than I am. We’ve had this conversation before. But thank you. I do look damn good don’t I? Oh! Josh! Alan might be making an appearance this weekend, I’m not sure yet.” Josh Trice had transferred to Hogwarts from Salem during 5th year; his mom was the Hospital lady.

“Fuck yeah! I wonder if he’s still the same as he was when I left.”

“Of course he is. But you guys, come in. Vic and Teddy are going to show you the extra rooms. Josh come with me outside we must go see Anna!”

We all departed ways. “So how has it been being back in the states?”

“Ah it’s been great, I’ve seen Alan, gotten this badass tan that I could never get anywhere else, and have started to plan a party for tomorrow.”

“So how is he? I’ve heard he’s doing music now. He was always a great guitar player.”

“He’s exactly the same, except a little weirder; I know, I was surprised too. He is in a band, a very good one too; Teddy, Vic, Anna and I saw them at Warped tour.”

“Oh you got to go! I begged Dad to let me come back for that but he said he wasn’t dealing with mom until he had to. This is ridiculous because I’m of age, but he’s just weird.”

“Yeah it was great. I’ll tell you about it later.” I stuck my head out the door to where Anna was at “ANNNNNAAAA! I have a surprise for you. Come here!”

“Why?! It’s not Alan, is it?” She yelled back

“She still in denial about being in love with him? I thought that she'd get over that by now.” Josh whispered at me.

“Of course she is.” I told him “It’s not Alan. Just get your ass in here before I come and get you.”

“Fine!” She got up and threw on her little over-dress thing, and got up, trudging to the door.

“Guess who showed up with the Wotters!” I pointed to Josh.

“Ah! You bitch! When did you get here?” She practically yelled at Josh. They had a strange relationship.

“A bit ago.” He shrugged.

“We have to go inside before James and Fred take the good rooms and you have to share with someone.” I said.

“Who are James and Fred?” Anna asked.

“Dammit! I keep forgetting that you don’t know the Wotters yet. Fuck. I’ll fix it.” I walked to the bottom of the stairs “Oi! Wotter Clan get your ass down here. Drop your shit and do it!” There was a storm of footsteps before they all were gathered together, proving that my yelling was a really effective way to get my point across.

“Yeah, what do you need?” Fred asked.

“Line up, oldest to youngest, that way I can introduce you to her.” They lined up. “Alright. Tall, dark, and handsome at the first of the line is Fred. Next to him is James with his messy black hair. Then there’s Dom and Ashley which you have already met. Then Albus Severus. He looks just like his dad but a little more badass. Scorp is the blondie, Tabitha next to him is his twin, then Rose Weasley, future Hogwarts Head Girl. The last four are inseparable. And just guessing by the looks Ashley and Josh are exchanging, they’re dating and neither one of them have told me.”

“Alright, so Fred, James, Dom, Ashley, Albus, Scorp, Tabitha, and Rose. Awesome.” Anna repeated.

“Oh Wotters, this is Anna my darling older sister. Fred, don’t even try it. She’s in denial about another man.”

“Damn that sucks. Since I can’t have you and I can’t have her, who can I have?” Fred pouted.

“Well, you can have a random girl that shows up to my party this weekend. Dom, Ashley, Rose, Tabitha, Vic, Anna, we are going to go to my room and plan. Men… go do something else.”

The girls followed me up to my room.

“Wow Nyx, this is a fantastic room. It’s so pretty.” Rose breathed as we walked in there.

“Dang, look at all those pictures! And who’s the beautiful ginger man? I want him for my birthday.” Tabitha agreed.

“Ginger boy’s taken, he loves her sister. Trust me I already tried.” Dom threw in. Both of them sighed.

“Ginger boy has a name and it’s Alan. He’s the bestest friend I could have asked for.” I said. The looks on their faces were priceless as my phone rang, blaring Alan’s ringtone.

“Yes, Alan?”

“Get on Skype. Like now. I wanna see your face.”

“Fine. I’ll do it, but you’re signing up for something you’re never going to get over.”

He hung up.

“Alright first of all, yes I have a muggle cell phone, it was a present. And second, Alan’s going to video chat me, He will be able to see and hear you; please do not embarrass yourself. Him, I don’t care about, but seriously if you thought I could give you hell Alan’s worse.” I told them. Anna laughed at the shocked faces. I signed into Skype and the second I got on he immediately called me. I answered.

“Yes, dear?”

“I just wanted to see your face. Holy shit, what’s with the bitch-fest in your room?” He looked over the phone. “Hey Austin! Come look at all these women Nyx has in her room.”

“Alan, really did you have to bring him over there? He’s going to get mentally molested by someone. And by someone I mean Dom.”

“Hey! I will not mentally molest him! That’s so untrue.” Dom whined.

“Lies.”

“Holy shit Nyx. It is a bitch-fest in there. Who are the ladies?” Austin asked.

“Alright, mental molester back there with the blonde hair is Dom. You should remember her. Ginger is Rose.”

“You know another ginger?! Holy shit! Where is she? I can’t see her!” Alan practically shouted.

“Rose come beside me,” she scooted “The ginger is Alan, the other dude is Austin.”

“Hi.” Rose said meekly.

“But back to my point. Girl beside Dom is Ashley. You already met her as well. The dark haired girl with the open mouth is Tabitha. Oh! Anna say hi to your lover.” Anna hit me.

“You say hi to yours first.”

“Shove it.”

“Okay, back to me! I’m the important one.”

“Alan, who told you this and when?”

“You did, and last night on the phone.”

“Damn my judgment at three in the morning.”

“Whatever, you love me.” He stuck his tongue out at me. I returned the gesture.

“Details, but what’s the point of this? I have a party to plan which is in like tomorrow, and it’s been like a week and some odd days since you told me to expect a surprise. So I expect you, Austin, Tino, Phil and any other peoples you want to bring. Oh and Alan, you’re in charge of the entertainment and by that I mean I want a badass band to perform at the party, which is Saturday, which is tomorrow”

“Really I’m not even there and I have to help with your party? That’s bogus.”

“One: Yes you do. You have resources so you can do it. Two: Never use that word in my presence ever again or I will bitch slap you.”

“Are you always this mean to him?” Austin asked.

“Yeah pretty much, but he knows I love him.”

“Sometimes I have to think about it.” Alan retorted.

“Do you want me to give Austin any more black mail? Because I have a whole wall full of pictures that he could use against you?” He offered.

“Fine. No promises on it being someone big.”

“It’s fine dear. But I really do have to go. I have things to do and people to occupy. I’ll call you tonight. Hey, get the others to where I can see them.”

“Tinnnoooo!! Phillll!!!! Come here! Someone wants to see you!”

“Coming, dammit!” I could hear Tino’s voice shouting tiredly.

“OH! It’s Nyx! Hey Nyx!” Tino and Phil both said.

“Hey guys! Make sure he does what I’ve asked of him. And party, my place, tomorrow. Alan knows where it’s at. If you’re not here I will magically appear where ever you are and get you.”

“How are you gonna….?” Phil started to ask

“Don’t ask her that, she won’t tell you. But she’s serious. She will do it.” Alan said.

“But I have to go. I love you Alan! I will talk to you others on my phone.”

“I love you Nyx!” The screen on my phone went back to the picture of Anna and I that we took on the beach earlier.

“Okay. So about this party.” And then started the planning.

---

All these words you said to me,
You know they mean so much.

---

“You can’t think that I’m really gonna have a birthday party and not invite you?”

“I don’t even know if I have a show to play or not this weekend.”

“You don’t. I know because I already asked Austin before I called you. So you have to be here. Also, you owe me a surprise this weekend. Tomorrow has been two weeks since you told me to expect a fantastic surprise from you. So I win.”

“I know, I know. But you really asked Austin if we had a show just so you could plan your party?”

“Of course. I’m not spending my birthday weekend without you this year. I did that for the past two years. Not gonna happen again, fool.”

“You better be glad that I love you. Also, be prepared for my birthday. That’s gonna be crazy.”

“Dude, your birthday already passed.”

“Dude, I know. I’m just saying.”

“We really need to stop with the dude stuff. It’s catching on with the Wotters. I heard Fred, after hearing me call you one, call James one. I mean it’s cool for Fred because he’s Fredr.”

“That’s probably a good idea, then. Let’s not influence the little British children to be bad kids like we are.”

“Yeah. We’d get hunted down by Harry, Gin, Ang, Draco, Astoria, Bill and Fleur for incourgaing their kids to say really annoying SD words . And I really don’t feel like facing the wrath of Ginny Potter. It’s a scary thing.”

“Wait. The Wotters that you speak of are the Weasley/Potters?”

“Yeah.”

“HOLY FUCK CAN I MEET HARRY?!”

“Alan, calm yo self. One day I’m sure you will meet Harry. As long as you don’t hit on Ginny everything should be fine.”

“Damn. She’s hot too.”

“Get over it. I’m not going to be the one standing in the middle of that to save your ass.”

“Boo.”

“NYXXXX!” Fred yelled through my bedroom door.

“Hold on, Alan, and cover your ears. FREEEDDDDDDD! What do you want? And you can come in.”

“That was loud.” Alan said.

“Don’t be a wimp.” As I said that Fred walked in my room and plopped down on my bed. “How may I help you, Fred?”

“I just wanted to come in here. I’m bored.”

“Whatever. Just entertain yourself while I’m on the phone.”

“Okay.” He said and then started looking around my room at all the pictures and books.

“So, anyways, Alan. You’ll meet them later. “

“I want to meet them now!”

“Too bad. But anyways, I expect you, Austin, Tino, Phil, and whoever else you feel like bringing to make this a badass party. I will see you tomorrow since it’s my birthday and my party. I’m going to entertain Fred now. I love you. Tell Austin he can stop texting me every five minutes now.”

“Boo. And I’m bringing ass tons of people to gate crash. I love you, too. Have fun entertaining your British people. And he won’t. He’ll do it more often now.” Click.

“Fred, how about you go put on your swim trunks, and we can go to the beach.”

“There’s a beach here?!” He squealed. Yes, Fred Arthur Weasley squealed.

“Yes there is. If you aren’t back in here in four minutes I’ll do something bad to you.” He ran out of the room. I went digging through my closet for my favorite bathing suit. It was a blue two piece; the top was halter and it had an anchor on it. I loved it. I put in on and then sent a charm towards my legs making them smooth and free of any hair. I pulled my hair up, and as I was reaching for my flip flops my door banged open and there was Fred, followed closely by James.

“I’m ready!” Fred yelled at me.

“I wanna go to the beach!” James whined.

“James, if you’re changed in the next minute you can go. And don’t bring anyone back with you. Now go.” He stood there and looked oddly at me. “James, your time started fifteen seconds ago.”

“Oh shit!” He ran out of the room

“Countdown starting at ten?” Fred asked.

“I’ll let you know when to start counting.”

“Sweet.”

20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13…

“Now.”

“TEN, NINE, EIGHT, SEVEN, SIX, FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ON---“

“I’m here, I’m here.” James yelled as he skidded to my door.

“So close. You almost lost.” Fred sighed. He seemed disappointed. He liked torturing James.

“Alright! To the beach!” I jumped on Fred’s back “Forward ho, good stead!”

“Why am I the steed? I was the steed last time.” He huffed.

“James can’t carry me. But seriously, move. To the beach!” He ran down the stairs, then stopped the bottom and James effectively ran into me.

“Which way do I go?”

“Through the kitchen out the side door.”

“Okay.” He almost ran into the glass door, but lucky for him I opened it with a spell so he could continue to run. So he did, all the way to the beach, out into the water, then I chose to jump off his back and push him under. James came toward me in a threatening manner.

“Don’t you dare, James.”

“I dare.” And then I got thrown into the water.

“Fred! Where are you?” I yelled. I got splashed in the back, so I turned around. “Let’s get him.”

“Alright.”

“No! I surrender. I will not go out this way.” He conjured a white flag out of his wand and waved it. Fred rushed towards him and threw him in the water anyways.

“You never surrender! Or else you bring shame upon the Potter/Weasley family!” He roared. He legit roared like a lion.

“Fred, dear. I think you took being a Gryffindor a little too seriously.”

We spent about three hours in the water, every time a new person would show up from our group Fred, James, or I would throw them in the water. We were the Beach Royalty, as James put it.

“I am king of this beach. You will either be thrown in the water or kicked out of Paradise.” James and Fred had picked up on calling it Paradise.

“James, if anyone’s king, it’s Fred. He’s not the one who surrendered.” I said. “You’re totally the prince.”

“Sorry bro.” Fred laughed at him.

“You guys suck.”

Eventually we all went inside and ate some of Eliza’s fantastic cooking. When she got home she was shocked at the number of people in her house, but didn’t care because that meant she got to cook my favorite. Chicken Alfredo. She never made it in small enough portions for just Anna, her, and I.

“Nyx, take a picture of the food and send it to Alan.” Anna said from beside me.

“Why?”

“Remember the last time we had this meal and Alan got so excited over it he about passed out. I wanna make him jealous.”

“Good idea.” I pulled out my phone took a picture of it. Isent it to Alan with a message that said, ‘I have better food than you do, yes it’s what you think it is. Yes, Eliza cooked it.’ I thought for a second “Who wants to take bets on how long it will take him to call me after I sends the message?”

“I got 5 that says he’ll call within the next five minutes.” Aunt Eliza said.

“10 says that he’ll call in the next two minutes.” Vic and Teddy shouted from the end of the table.

“20 that says he calls immediately after he looks at it.” Anna shrugged.

After all the bet placing was done and Aunt Eliza had the money “Start the timer.” I sent the message.

And not even a minute later my phone rang with his annoying ass ringtone.

“YOU LUCKY WHORE.” Click.

“And the money goes to Anna, Fred, and Josh.” Aunt Eliza spilt the money and gave it to them.

“Whoo! I don’t even know the guy and I got some of the money on it.” Fred said, jumping up and dancing around his chair.

“Fred, you’re weird.” Dom said from beside him.

“I know, and I’m directly related to you.” He smiled at her. We all continued eating and talked.

“Alright, if you don’t want to wash dishes you gotta be out of this kitchen. Now.” Aunt Eliza said as everyone was done eating. Everyone else flew out of the room but me.

“Why’d you stay?” She asked.

“I haven’t got to spend much time with you since I’ve been back. So that’s what I’m doing now.”

“Okay.” She gave me a hug and we started on the dishes.

“So, tell me about this Austin fellow Anna and yourself have been talking about.”

“How did you know?”

“I’m your aunt. The two of you lived with me for most of your life. I know you.”

“Alright. I’ll talk. So I officially met him at the concert. He’s super nice, he acts like Alan, but calmer and a lot more… I don’t know how to put it….”

“Sensible?”

“That’s it. He’s more sensible than Alan is. He’s got a nice laugh. He’s a cool person in general.”

“Sweetie, I just want you to consider what you’re feeling about him and take it slow. I don’t want you getting hurt like you did in your fourth year. I know you’ve grown up since then, a lot. I can see that. England was good for you. After that in fourth year and what happened to Alan in fifth year you needed to get away. I know you got better grades there, even though you got good grades here, you’ve matured a lot even though you’re still the same crazy girl that used to pull pranks on me and your mother when you were five. I just want you to take things slow, dear. I don’t want to see you hurt like you were then.”

“I know, Aunt Eliza, I am. I’m really trying. I haven’t told him about fourth year yet. I don’t know how I’m supposed to do that, when I’m not even sure if I like him. I mean yeah, I talk to him every day almost as much as I talk to Alan, but I’m not going to be sure about my feelings until I get to spend more time with him. In person, not texting, or talking on Skype. It’s the first guy I’ve ever felt remotely attracted to since then. So I am taking things at the pace I need to, to make sure that I’m going to be okay.”

“Good, I love you. Now please go make sure they aren’t tearing my house apart. I’ll finish the rest of the dishes.” She kissed my forehead and shoo’d me out of the kitchen. As I was out the door I heard, "Oh dear, tell Teddy and Vic that if they actually clean that room I wouldn’t mind so much about them sleeping together.” I laughed.

I went upstairs and stepped into my room. I hadn’t realized that it was technically past midnight there for my birthday, so when I walked in and saw everyone standing there screaming happy birthday to me I almost pee’d my pants.

“I love you guys!” I tackled them into a hug. We spent a few minutes sitting on my bed just talking. I don’t even know how we all fit but we did it.

“Alright, out. I’m going to call Austin then go to bed. I love you guys. Shoo. Anna, show them their rooms.” They exited out of my room as I picked up my phone dialed his number.

“Yello?”

“So, I’m going to ignore that greeting and pretend that it never happened.”

“That’s rude.”

“Eh, not really. Rude would be hanging up on you and calling Alan instead.”

“Touché.”

“So what’s going on in the world of Austin today?”

“Well, we played again today, Alan almost tripped over Squidgy.”

“I’m going to stop you there, what the hell is a squidgy?”

“Squidgy is the band mascot.”

“Oh! That octopus looking thing?”

“Yeah that’s squidgy. But Alan almost tripped over him, and then Tino dived in the floor to save him, Squidgy not Alan, and then he tripped over Tino instead and then it turned into a weird dog pile thing in the middle of the bus. Kellin and Vic stopped by during this and they looked worried. We invited them to your party. Well I did, Alan was getting beat up by Tino. But after that nothing really fun happened. Other than Alan calling someone and calling them a lucky whore and then sulking for the rest of the night.”

“Really he’s sulking? Ha! That’s great. He called me the lucky whore by the way. I sent him a picture of his favorite food that my aunt makes. Last time he had it he got so excited he almost passed out. Yes, you’re allowed to make fun of him about it.”

“I’m going to do that now. Wait what was the food?”

“Chicken Alfredo.”

“Hey Alan!” I heard a distant what in the background. “How was that chicken alfredo?” I then heard him running to Austin, a series of grunts and one ‘no you can’t have my phone.’

“You’re a bitch.”

“You love me Alan. Now give the phone back to Austin. I’ve talked to you enough today. I’ll call you in the morning.”

“Yeah, yeah, I love you.” I heard him walking away.

“So I have my phone back now. Maybe a bruise or two. I think he bit me.”

“No, he doesn’t bite anymore.”

“He used to bite?”

“Yeah, until I bit him back one day.”

“You are really mean to him.”

“I love him, only I and a few select other people are allowed to be mean to him.”

“I understand. But anywho, we have a lot of driving to do before we pick everyone up and head your way. So I will talk to you tomorrow, and Happy Birthday.”

“Thank you! Adios!”

I curled up in my bed and went to sleep thinking about how awesome tomorrow was going to be.

--
It’s all in your head, if you see it.
Just close those blue eyes, like you mean it.