Disclaimer: The OC's and parts of the plot are all that belong to me within this story, everything else you see is owned by J.K Rowling. Thank you for reading!
“You couldn’t even begin to believe how much auguring went into keeping Tyler from dressing up as a muggle aeroplane again this year. I thought I was going to have to throw a sheet over his sheet and call him a ghost.” Sarah explained to Coralie as she sat down next to Coralie and Nathaniel on James’ couch.
It was Halloween weekend and while everyone had agreed that a big party wouldn’t have been a good idea, James had insisted on throwing a small get together at his house so that everyone could dress up.
In true Tyler fashion. He’d dressed up as something that no one really understand and got annoyed every time someone asked - of course, only the ones who weren’t as used to Tyler’s antics were silly enough to ask him directly.
“What is he supposed to be?” Lily whispered from her spot in an armchair directly across from them, they all quickly checked that Tyler wouldn’t be able to hear them before Lily sent a look to Sarah who sighed in response.
“He’s supposed to be a Pumpkin,” Sarah responded with an eye roll, all four of them turned to watch Tyler who was on his knees and trying to eat a piece of cake off Sirius’ plate who was talking to Remus- he was yet to notice. However, Tyler seemed to notice their eyes on him and turned to face them- his head whacking against Sirius’ arm causing the remaining crumbs to fall to the floor.
“Oh, come on!” Sirius groaned, causing Remus to chuckle loudly which allowed Tyler to make his speedy escape towards Kiki.
“I’ll go get us some cake,” Nathaniel stated, feeling slightly overwhelmed by the number of girls surrounding him.
“You two are good then?” Lily asked Coralie once he’d disappeared.
“Never better, how are you and James?” Coralie grinned widely at her.
“We’re doing okay,” She answered, Sarah and Coralie shared a look with one another.
“Really? You look like you are going terribly good.” Sarah replied with a wink.
“Now, Miss Barrow- Don’t you go using oxymorons on me!” Lily teased, nudging Sarah in the side slightly.
“You are both ridiculous, honestly.” Coralie sighed, chuckling slightly as her two friends as they shot her mock glares.
“We are hardly the ridiculous ones here, thank you very much.” Lily replied with a glance over at Tyler who had begun to bother Nathaniel as the latter attempted to cut two slices of cake and move them onto plates without Tyler eating them.
“Point taken,” Coralie added, the three girls turned their attention back to one another as an attempt to avoid the craziness of Tyler for a few more minutes.
Halloween had barely passed and it seemed like everyone had hardly spent a moment apart from one another when all fourteen of them squished into the Three Broomsticks for Marlene’s birthday.
While it was hardly a surprise party, or even a party at all for that matter everyone but Marlene had been given a job to do. While Coralie and Nathaniel had been put in charge of bringing streamers to decorate the practically empty bar with and had turned up earlier than everyone else to do so, Tyler had been given the job of picking out and bringing the cake. Needless to say, that didn’t exactly go as planned.
“I asked for green icing!” Tyler exclaimed loudly, causing everyone else to turn towards him and stare at him while he stared open mouthed at the cake in front of him which happened to have yellow icing.
“Does it really matter?” Nathaniel asked, his eyebrows raising slightly as they all watched Tyler gape like a fish for a few more minutes.
“Yes!” Tyler yelled in outrage, glaring down at the white box which held the cake. “How are we supposed to have a party with a cake that has yellow icing? This is terrible!”
“Oh Merlin, why did I put Tyler in charge of the cake?” Lily whispered from the other end of the table, she rested her head on the table and let out a loud sigh.
“It’s a cake, that’s all that matters.” Marlene added, handing around plates for everybody while Miranda began to slice up the cake. They all fell silent once given their cake, eventually building up small conversations as one by one they finished eating. Once everyone was done, Alice stood up.
“I know this year that we have gained some more people, though we also lost some.” Marlene frowned slightly at this, but motioned for Alice to continue. “We are stronger than ever now, we’ve got each other’s backs and we’ll be able to make it through this. Today, we celebrate the anniversary of dear Marlene McKinnon’s birth-so Happy Birthday Marls!”
“Happy Birthday Marls!” Everyone cheered, leaving Marlene with a massive grin on her face.
“Now, present time,” Lily declared, passing her present- a sturdy leather wand holder, down the table. Soon enough, presents and wrapping paper had begun to take over the table and were surrounding Marlene almost completely.
“Thank you guys,” Marlene grinned, hugging each of friends as they all went their separate ways. When it was only Coralie and Marlene left over- while Nathaniel pulled down the streamers, the two girls turned to each other.
“It’ll get better,” Coralie whispered, hugging her friend tightly as Marlene’s grin began to fade.
“I just miss Mary so much.” Marlene whispered into Coralie hair, a few stray tears streaming down her face.
“I know, we all miss her.” She added solemnly, squeezing Marlene tighter before they broke apart. “We won’t forget her though, ever.” Marlene nodded, brushing away her tears before she said goodbye to Nathaniel and headed out of the Three Broomsticks. “Happy Birthday Marlene.”
Nathaniel shut his eyes tightly, listening carefully to the rhythmic beating of Coralie’s heart beside him. A week had passed since Marlene’s birthday and the weather had everyone believing it was really the start of December.
To Nathaniel, it seemed like the weather was affecting Coralie’s emotions more than she would like to admit. While she pretended to be happy with her family and friends, and even Nathaniel to a point there were moments when she thought he wasn’t watching that she seemed to change completely.
He wanted to bring this up with her, he’d even tried on multiple occasions but he could never find the right words. He knew she was sensitive, even more now than usual but he was worried for her. He thought about mentioning something to one of their friends- Lily or Alice probably, then at least he’d have someone to help him but then it never seemed like the right time. He also thought about sending Violet an owl to let her know, but he had no idea how she could help from Paris and he didn’t want her to race back to England either. Instead, Nathaniel ended up suffering in silence much like Coralie.
Despite his worries, the one good thing coming out of Coralie’s mood was that she spent an awful amount of time just curled up in front of the fire with him in his house. She had spent so much time there lately that Nathaniel’s father had started cooking enough breakfast for her every morning that week.
Much to Nathaniel’s delight, it turned out that Coralie had well and truly grown on his father. In her sleep, Coralie let out a loud sigh that spread a wide smile on Nathaniel’s face. He buried his face into her mess of hair and pulled her closer to him without waking her- he had another ten minutes before he would need to get up.
Today he had a job interview- admittedly not his first one since leaving Hogwarts though he didn’t dare tell Coralie or his father about any of the previous failed attempts. He knew while neither of them would be bothered really, he didn’t want to feel like he had let either of them down.
While his father had never pushed him towards a certain job, Nathaniel was still determined to make his father proud in whatever field he decided.
His appointment was with the Department of Magical Games and Sport within the Ministry of Magic that day, with Hamish MacFarlan- the head of the department and ex-captain of the Montrose Magpies (Nathaniel’s favourite Quidditch team). To say that he was excited would have been the understatement of the century.
Eventually, he managed to push himself out of bed- placing a small kiss of Coralie’s forehead before heading to the shower. He was quick in the shower, determined not to be late for his appointment- he knew the kind of message that would give his possible future employers. He dressed quickly and quietly as to not wake Coralie who was still in a deep slumber.
Once he was fully dressed and ready to head out of the door, Nathaniel leaned down and placed another kiss of Coralie’s forehead before slowly leaving his room without tearing his eyes from her for a moment. When she nestled her head further into the pillow, a smile appeared on Nathaniel’s face.
Authors Note: I'm so sorry for the amount of type this took to get out, honestly I had a lot of trouble getting this up to the standard I wanted though I am still not completely satisfied with it. I'd like to thank you all for sticking by me, I promise I will try and update more regulary from now on. Thank you for reading, and see you next time!
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