Queen of My Castle ((Æddilyn)

[Deleted]

It was finally Saturday and Edmund could hardly contain his excitement. He'd gotten up nearly at the crack of dawn (which wasn't particularly a habit of his) so he could get everything ready for his date with Addi. In a way it felt like everything that happened between them was still a dream. He could hardly believe that just a few days ago they'd gotten over that terrible fight and decided to be together. Granted, nothing was official and they weren't telling anyone- his idea- but it was still real. Being with her brightened his days and made him happier than he could ever remember being.

Today was supposed to be a surprise. He'd told Addi to meet him in the entrance hall at exactly one o'clock, to eat lunch before she came and to wear something that she didn't mind getting wet or dirty. He himself was wearing an old pair of jeans and a casual white t-shirt. He wasn't trying to impress Addi, he knew she already knew everything about him. The whole goal of today was fun and if everything went as planned, they were going to have the best time imagineable.

He'd gotten the idea from his Dad. When he was a child, his father would often take special time to take Edmund out and do things with one another. Those were times that Edmund never forgot, nor did he tell anyone about them. They were precious memories to him and this date was based off of a few of them. 

At twelve forty he started heading up to the castle, already anxious to begin. Everything was ready and in place and he was positive that Addi would be surprised and happy with what he'd planned. When he got to the entrance hall he looked around to see if she was early as well, but he couldn't see her. A glance at his watch told him he was a little over ten minutes early. So he leaned up against a wall and closed his eyes as he waited for her. He couldn't remember a time when he'd felt so peaceful. 

@jill2

[Deleted]

@edmund
<3

Addilyn was extremely excited for today. She didn't know what exactly Edmund had planned for them, and even though he told her to dress to get messy, she still wanted to look somewhat good. It was slightly warm till, so she put her wavy hair up into a high ponytail. Addi only put on some mascara, not wanting to overdo it, and a pair of Jean capri's with a white spaghetti strap tank top.

At about 12:50 she began making her way out of the Slytherin Common Room to the entrance hall. He had mentioned he'd be waiting outside, and as soon as the doors opened she saw him, and they matched.

Addi giggled as she walked up to him, a big smile on her face. "Why hello, twinny! How are you?" They had already seen one another at breakfast that morning so she already knew how he had slept and that's also why she knew all of this other information about what to wear and where to go. Now, was just the date.

[Deleted]

She was here. He couldn't explain how he knew that if he wanted to, but once the doors opened he didn't have to open his eyes to know that Addilyn had arrived. And he was suddenly even more excited for their date, but he decided to hide a bit of his enthusiasm from her. After all, he didn't want to give away how much fun today would be before it even started. 

He slowly opened his eyes and looked over at her. She looked great, as always, and he could tell she'd put a little more thought into her appearance than normal. He smiled at her, and gave her a quick but tight hug. No one could make assumptions from a hug, right? "Hey Adds," he whispered into her ear before pulling away. "I'm all ready to begin. How about you?" He reached forward and grabbed her hand, pulling her towards the Black Lake. He just wanted to start already. There was a reason why he chose one o'clock for their meeting time, it was so most everyone would be at lunch and have no idea where they'd gone. 

As they walked, he turned to look at her and grinned, "I want to see if you can guess what we're going to do today," he challenged. "Come on now, Adds. You have three chances and if you guess right I'll give you a prize." His smile turned mischievous. There was little to no chance she'd be able to guess any of what he had planned, but he wanted to see what she was thinking. That was he could make sure he didn't disappoint her. 

@jill2

[Deleted]

@edmund
<3

Addilyn smiled brightly as Edmund gave her a hug. She hugged him back tightly, oh he smelled just delightful, she loved it. "Yes, I'm ready, Edmund. I can't wait to see what we're doing!

Hmmm, she thought. Three guesses for a prize? She'd sure do that. "Swimming, hmmm a picnic or... More dancing?" Addi had no idea what they were going to do, but hey , if she got it right she wanted to know what the prize was going to be. She smiled right back at him. It wasn't every day that she had surprises.

[Deleted]

He laughed when Addi finished guessing, somewhat relieved when she guessed wrong. He didn't know what sort of a prize he'd have given her if she'd been right. Probably a kiss, but he wished he had something more exciting to give her. Either way, it didn't matter because she was wrong. "Almost, but not quite," he told her with a wink. "Such a shame, I was looking forward to the surprise." Did teasing count as lying? Oh well, he was sure she'd forgive him ... if he ever decided to tell her. It wasn't that big of a deal after all.

They were walking by the Lake, hand in hand. Honestly, Edmund would be find just doing this with her, but he had more in store. He squeezed her hand and pulled her so she moved a little faster. "Come on Adds," he said with an excited smile. He knew both her parents were magical, but he honestly had no idea what one did growing up when they had parents who knew magic. So, he had no idea if she'd ever done this before or not. 

Finally, they rounded a bend and his plan- part of it anyway- was right in front of them. On the beach of the Black Lake, Edmund had found buckets and tubs of various varieties, along with hand-sized shovels. The goal: sandcastles! Actually it was a little more than just sandcastles, but that was a surprise for later. He turned to Addi, grinning. Did she have any idea what this was? "So what do you think?" he asked as he watched her expression curiously.

@jill2

[Deleted]

@edmund
<3

Addilyn gave him a playful glare, not exactly positive what he meant. It was still going to be a surprise for her, she had no idea what he was talking about or what they were going to do. Sticking her tongue out at him, she began glancing around the area they were walking in and tried to put pieces together. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get it.

Edmund began pulling her faster and with a small laugh, she tried to jog to keep up with him. Hand in hand, her ponytail flying behind her, and the warm weather, she was in such a great mood. Ed was someone that could make Addilyn smile by doing absolutely nothing, but here he was doing something, just for her, and like her middle name, she was extremely joyful.

When they stopped walking, they ended up at the beachy end of the Black Lake, where there were what looked like to be shovels as well as ... buckets? Addilyn tilted her head, slightly confused. Edmund looked at her with a large grin, and Addi rose a brow and grinned back. "I don't know what I think, E. I'm still confused." She laughed and squeezed his hand. "I don't know if I can guess again, this is hard."

[Deleted]

The look on her face was priceless. Apparently she'd missed out on one of his favorite childhood activities, so it was about time for him to educate her. He laughed and pulled her over to the equipment he'd gathered, releasing her hand when they'd reached it. "I am about to educate you on what muggles like to do at the beach," he said as he sat on the sand, gesturing for her to join him. "Since I can't take you to the castle I live in, I thought we'd build some of our own here." 

"Now, this is a muggle game, so we're going to start off doing it their way, got it?" he told her with a smile. "What you do is pack the wet sand into a tub or bucket and then when it's as tight as it can be, you flip it over and carefully pull the plastic off," he demonstrated what to do with one of the larger buckets. "Generally the buckets make towers and the tubs make long walls, but we can make it however we want." He smiled nervously at her. Would she think this was stupid? He hadn't done it since the summer before his dad died, so maybe they were too old for something like this. "What do you think?

@jill2

[Deleted]

@edmund
<3

Addilyn rose her eyebrows at Edmund and laughed. She still didn't get it, but it seemed fun. As they sat down on the sand, she picked up some of the items to observe them.

Edmund began showing her what do himself and when he was done he looked up at her and seemed nervous or embarrassed. Addilyn smiled shyly at him. The butterflies his smile gave her was a wonderful feeling. She laughed and nodded her head. "This is very sweet, Edmund. I think it's a great idea." Addi grabbed, what did he call it? Oh, a tub! She grabbed a tub and began putting sand into it with her shovel. When it was full, Addilyn picked it up, flipped it over and became nervous. She looked up at Edmund, eyes wide, then pulled the tub off. It stayed! Her mouth dropped open in excitement. "I did it!"

[Deleted]

Edmund was relieved when she said she liked the idea. He wasn't sure if she actually meant it, she seemed a little hesitant about this new activity. Still, it was fun to watch her while she tried it out for herself. Then, her smile when she succeeded. It was perfect and he was glad he'd decided to do this. It was a way of giving something personal to her, something that had been a part of his growing up. He hoped she appreciated it. 

"You did," he told her with a congratulatory smile. "And now the fun begins. How do you feel about a little game?" He smiled wickedly, hoping it would convince her to join him. He had big plans and for those plans to work, he needed two awesome castles. "All right, so I'm thinking we should have a healthy competition ... who do you think can build the coolest castle the fastest?" he asked, a daring look in his eye. Hopefully she would join him. 

@jill2

[Deleted]

@edmund
<3

Addilyn rose a brow at him. "Oh trust me, Ed, I'd beat you in anything." She teased Him right back, hoping he'd know she's joking. Addi probably couldn't beat him at most things. "But that's not fair! You've been doing this forever!" Addi was sure hers wasn't going to be as good.

[Deleted]

His eyebrows raised in pleased surprise at her little competitive streak. "I think I'm going to have to make you prove that," he told her, even though he knew she was teasing. They got about equal marks in their schoolwork, as far as he was aware. 

Edmund grinned- she was in! Laughing, he picked up some wet sand and threw it at Addi playfully. "I wouldn't be too worried about that if I was you, Adds. I haven't done this for years. I think I was about seven the last time I did this with my Dad," he told her with a shrug. "I know how to do it, but there's not really too much skill involved. Besides, once we finish making them the muggle way, we're going to make them even better with magic," he confessed, unable to keep the whole plan a secret. "So I guess we'll make that a part of the race too. Or ... we can build two sandcastles together and then race to see who can decorate theirs cooler with magic," the idea occurred to him suddenly. That could be just as fun. "You get to choose which way we do it." He waited for her decision, though he was hoping she'd say work together. He liked competitions, but working with her on this would be a whole lot more fun.

@jill2

[Deleted]

@edmund
<3

Addilyn laughed out loud at his next comment. Oh, she'll prove it. And she'll great at it. "Just don't let me win, give me some competition, E."

She listened to him speak again and Addi thought about it for a moment. They could either have fun doing something together, which would be good communication for them in general, or they could do it separate and have a good win lose competition. Biting her lip, she watched his expression. "I'd like to do it together it that's okay... And what do you mean make it better with magic?"

[Deleted]

Edmund grinned, pleased by the challenge. "Oh don't worry about it, Adds. I'll beat you easily, just as long as you promise not to get mad when I do." 

She chose to work with him! "Alright, we'll save the competition for later," he said, smiling as he started to fill another bucket with sand. He was thinking ... four towers. "Let's just build the same castle twice," he said when he was on his third tower. "That way, the castles will start out the same and we can see which one really ends up cooler." He looks over at what she's doing and smiles. He can hardly believe that they're here, building sandcastles of all things. Even doing that, she's beautiful. Focused, definitely and he can tell she wants to do this right, but that only made her seem more adorable to him. 

He moved on to the little tub that would create the perfect roof for his towers. "So what do people with magic do during their summers and growing up? I really can't imagine, since you're not allowed to do magic ..." He wanted to find out more about her childhood. What better way to do so than to ask?

@jill2

[Deleted]

@edmund
224
<3

Addi shook her head. "Don't you worry, Edmund, I'm not that easy to beat."

Nodding at Ed, she started filling her buckets with sand. She did it very intently, and when the bucket was full, she made sure to scrape off any excess sand so that it was evenly placed. Addi flipped the buckets over fast, trying to make it so no sand fell out and that it was even in the spots she placed them. Once she had a couple of towers up, she grabbed another tub with some nice designs on it and started to do those. Out of the corner of her eye she peeked at Edmund's castle's, and she tried to make hers look better.

Smiling as she looked up at him and then back down to her work she shrugged. "We do a lot of things...my mum is muggleborn, like you, so she'd take us swimming and to parks and stuff. I learned how to ride a...ah, what's it called? Bike? Which I thought was pretty fun but I got hurt a few times, I like flying more." Addi laughed. "But the one thing that is extremely important to me is the holiday Halloween...that's my birthday as you know, but it's mum's favorite holiday and we'd go all out. Decorating the house, making costumes, making desserts and scary foods...I kind of miss it."

[Deleted]

"As long as you're not a bad loser, just in case," he teased.

Addi caught on quickly, not that it was a surprise. She always was a fast learner and keeping up with her had been hard for Edmund, at times. However, he'd always managed to do very well. She was so precise with how much sand she put in the buckets and where she placed them; she was pretty good at this! Still, he caught her sneaking glances over at his castle and knew what she was up to. "Hey Adds, I thought we were supposed to be working together right now," he told her innocently as he looked over at what she was doing. They were both pretty far along with their castles, just needed some more additions before they were done. He didn't expect this to go so fast.

Edmund laughed when she talked about learning to ride a bike. "Yeah, those aren't exactly as easy as brooms, are they?" he asked sympathetically. He, also, preferred brooms but he could bike well when he wanted. "Oh, I've only heard of those kinds of parties," he told her, interested. "My mum didn't think they were really appropriate for us, so we never really got to try them out. It sounds like fun. How did you decorate the house, and what do you mean by scary food? What did you like to dress up as?" He asked curiously. This was a side of Addi that he'd never seen before and he was entirely intrigued. He knew he was asking lots of questions, but oh well. It shouldn't cause a problem.

@jill2