Bea escaped the dining room that was full of her French relatives and sneaked up the stairs to her temporary bedroom. Her family was visiting Grand-mère and Grand-papa in their enormous house in Lyon and all their relatives were incredibly successful Muggles. Bea loved them all, truly, but they could be so bloody pretentious and not a lot of them knew Bea was a witch and Thomas a wizard, so they had to keep that quiet.
She could hear laughter when she was going up the stairs and she wondered if they knew it sounded forced or not. Maybe it was their way of passive-aggressively telling people they found them boring. She didn't care, really. She had just spent half an hour listening to a middle aged man boasting about his law firm and some case he had just won and how he was able to get a second summer house. Bea tried very hard not to claw her own eyes out during the conversation and she also resisted the urge to yell at the man. It was hard and the witch thought she deserved a few minutes to herself now.
Locking the door behind her, Bea dramatically threw herself on the couch in her room and closed her eyes. Up here, she couldn't hear her extended family and she smiled, thinking about that.
The room was a mess, almost every piece of clothing the girl brought with her was out of the suitcase, either on the floor or strewn across a chair. There was a sock on a windowsill, something Bea didn't want to particularly think about too much. There was also ripped wrapping paper on the floor, along with some cheerful ribbons and some Christmas cards.
Her friends from Hogwarts and Beauxbatons have sent her either presents of cards and Beatrice didn't really wait for Christmas morning to open them. She didn't have the patience. Her Beauxbatons friends sent her rich, extravagant gifts, but she liked the other ones better. Allie sent her an amazing terrarium with a special plant inside and it was probably the best gift she had ever received.
She sent her collection of Captain America comics to the Mexican girl in exchange with a little note, saying which ones she liked best. She couldn't wait to talk about Stucky with Allie and had actually printed out some of the best fanfiction on the topic. That wasn't all, she bound the pages together like a book and was planning on giving them to the witch as a late birthday present. The thought of Allegra not liking Bucky and Steve being together never even passed her mind.
Bea also sent a bottle of Firewhiskey (Acquired at the Hog's Head. The owner didn't even ask her about the age, only overpriced the liquor enormously.) to Georgina and a couple of books on the newest research on Potions to Victoria. She knew the Hufflepuff liked Potions and thought new research would interest her.
The girl rolled to the edge of her couch and tried her best to get a book that was lying a few feet away from her. She really didn't want to get up. In the end, she fell off the couch, but she got the book, so she remained on the floor. There was a rug, it was comfortable.
It was one of Felicia's presents, some Muggle bestseller and Bea figured she could at least give it a try. Fe's always been trying to get her best friend to read romance novels, claiming they were very well written. Bea disagreed whole-heartedly, but she loved Fe and so she gave the books a chance.
She was halfway into the first chapter and was already growing annoyed and kinda nauseated when a knock came to her door. She ignored it, thinking it was Maman or Papa, trying to get her to go socialize again. If she kept quiet, maybe they would go away.
"It's me." a quiet voice came and Bea jumped to her feet to let her brother in. She loved Thomas with all her might and would do anything to save him from her family. It was even worse for him, because he was expected to hang out with the little ones and most of them were annoying as Hell.
Once he was in her room, Bea locked the door again and turned to the little cutiepie with a grin. "So, did you get anything good for Christmas?" They talked in English most of the time, as it was good practice for Thomas and talking French all the time would just increase his accent.
"We're not supposed to open them until morning." he teased, but Bea could see he was barely containing his grin. She waved him off with a small chuckle.
"When have you ever waited to open your presents?"
"Oh okay." he laughed and then his face lit up as he told his big sister all about the vintage comics his friends sent him. It turned out one of Thomas' new school friends' Aunt used to work for DC Comics and the friend was able to get his hands on a few rare editions. Knowing Thomas was a huge nerd, he gave some of them to him for Christmas. Bea didn't even try to hide her excitement.
The rest of the evening was spent with the Lamarche siblings arguing over who would win the Hunger Games; Batman or Black Widow. Beatrice won, which wasn't really all that surprising. She would defend Natasha Romanoff to her grave if she would have to.
They forgot all about their pretentious relatives and Christmas suddenly became awesome. After the Batman/Black Widow debacle, Bea and Thomas threw themselves in the vintage comics and then they marathoned Avatar: The Last Airbender series, with some of the less annoying cousins coming to join them.
They all swiftly ignored that there was ever even an idea for a movie and they all pretended they weren't crying at Iroh's son's episode.
In the end, they all fell asleep on the huge couch in the upstairs living room and when Beatrice's Maman found them, she couldn't even be angry at them. They were adorable, all cuddled up and she had a nagging feeling her children were responsible and it made her be proud of them.
Home 
