La Vie En Rose -- Georgie

[Deleted]

Louis was excited the moment he woke up one sunny summer morning. It was August, which meant that Georgie was coming today so that they could go to France. Two full weeks traveling the Southern part of the country, just him and his girlfriend. Oh, and his mom too, and maybe his sister for at least part of it, but that was minor details. His mother had booked quaint little hotel rooms all over the countryside, and Louis was allowed to stay in a room with Georgie, but her condition was they had to have two twin beds. He conceded because he did not want to be the type of boyfriend to put that kind of pressure on her. She hadn’t even said ‘I love you’ back to him yet after he’d said it during the Easter holiday. Louis was okay with being the only one who had said it so far though; when it came to the Hufflepuff, slow was the best way to take things.

Louis showered and dressed quickly, bounding down the stairs with his bag packed and slung over his shoulder. “Is she here yet?” he asked his mother, who shook her head with a chuckle. Louis set his bag down and decided to head to the beach. There’d be beaches galore in Nice, but they all were stone pebble beaches, not sandy ones, so he wanted to savor a few minutes with some grains between his toes. He made his way down the sandy dunes before flopping down a few feet from the shoreline, watching the waves flow in and out of the sea. He wondered how much longer he’d have to wait for his girlfriend before she arrived and they could be off on their adventure.


@georgiana

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Georgie had spent all of July in her home country of the United States, which had been an adventure that was equal parts terrifying and exhilarating. She was still a little exhausted from all of the travel, but that didn’t matter, because she was once again departing Britain for greener pastures. This time, though, she was going with someone she knew and trusted, so it wasn’t going to be as scary, which Georgie was grateful for. She could really only take one life-threatening trip every summer before she started to go a little crazy. Arranging transportation to get to Shell Cottage had been a little bit of a hassle, since she didn’t know how to Apparate yet and the house had once been under the Fidelius Charm during the Second Wizarding War, but Georgie had managed to arrange a Portkey with Louis and his family, so she could leave her apartment whenever she was ready. For her part, Georgie hadn’t actually unpacked much of her belongings at all, since she had been anticipating the trip to France for a while. Georgie was more concerned with double-checking that she had everything, and after she had assured herself that she did, she said goodbye to her brother. Georgie gripped the Portkey and her luggage, said the key word, and was whirled off into space.

Appearing at Louis’s home was a little disorienting. She had spent a week there the previous summer, so she was familiar with its layout and tangentially familiar with its occupants, but it was still weird after not having been there for a year. Even though she had appeared at the front doorstep, Georgie didn’t knock, because Louis wasn’t inside – he was walking along the beach. “Louis!” Georgie called, waving.

@louis

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Louis perked up like a dog when he heard his girlfriend calling his name and whirled around. His face broke out into a wide smile as he raced back up the dunes towards her. He finally reached her and scooped her up in his arms, twirling her around twice before leaning in to kiss her deeply. “I missed you,” he breathed after they came up for air. He set her down and held her out at arms length, as though studying her features. “You definitely look more tan, more blonde too,” he mused, playing with a piece of her long hair. “Luckily enough I have a thing for blondes, particular those who are Hufflepuffs,” he said with a cheeky wink.

Letting his hand entwine with hers, he led her back into the living room where his mother was waiting. “Mum you remember Georgie,” he re-introduced, then continued speaking without a breath. “We’re all here now, can we go?” he asked eagerly. He had his bag waiting in the living room, and saw that his mother's suitcase was there as well. Fleur smiled gracefully and shook her head at her son before producing a silver and ivory backed hairbrush, explaining how it was a PortKey that would take them to a quaint wizards cafe her friend owned in Nice. Louis put his finger on the hairbrush and Fleur waited until Georgie did the same. A jerk in the navel meant the PortKey was ready to transport them. He wasn’t the biggest fan of this type of travel, but it did get them there much faster than flying.

As they landed in the back room of the cafe, Louis took hold of his girlfriend's’ hand again and followed his mother to the front of the cafe. With a kiss to Louis and an explanation that she’d meet them back here in a couple of hours while she got their accommodations sorted, he looked towards Georgie excited. “Where to first? Food, strolling the Promenade D’Angleterre?” he asked her, his eyes shining with anticipation. He was excited to show his girlfriend the laid back lifestyle of Southern France; it would be quite a change from the go go go attitude she probably had been around in the States.

@georgiana

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Reuniting with Louis was easily one of the highlights of Georgie’s summer. She hadn’t realized how much she had missed him until he was right there, in front of her, and kissing her. It was weird, because even last summer they hadn’t seen each other that much… but being an ocean away made the separation feel more real somehow, because she couldn’t just take the Knight Bus to see him. “I missed you too.” She sighed, squeezing him tight to her for a moment before he held her out to inspect her. Louis commented on her tan and blondeness, and Georgie laughed. “We spent a lot of time outside.” She explained. It had seemed silly to travel across an ocean just to stay cooped up inside the whole time. Even when they had been driving, Georgie had insisted on having the windows down so that she and Rosie could experience a little bit of the summer heat. And, as Georgie had found out, it was possible to get sunburned through a car’s windshield, so that was a fun experience. Louis said that he had a thing for blondes, especially Hufflepuff ones, and Georgie rolled her eyes. “I would hope you’d only have a thing for one blonde.” She responded just as cheekily.

Louis led them back to the living room of the cottage, and Georgie waved a little at Louis’s mother, finding that she was less nervous around the woman now than she had been. Whether that was because of familiarity or she was still riding the high from her trip to America, Georgie didn’t know, but she also didn’t really care. She put her hand on the hairbrush that Louis’s mother produced, wincing a little as the portkey took them across the channel and into France. She had never liked portkeys much, which was one of the reasons she was glad to be learning how to Apparate that year – then she wouldn’t need to take portkeys unless she was travelling huge distances.

When they arrived in France, Louis’s mother said that she was going to get their lodging worked out, which meant that Georgie and Louis had a few hours in which to go sightseeing unaccompanied by his mother. Louis was obviously excited by the prospect, and Georgie smiled at him when he looked at her, asking where they ought to go first. “You’re the expert, Mr. Frenchy French.” Georgie teased. “But I’m in the mood for a stroll.” She and Louis had a lot to catch up on, and she didn’t want to be trying to relay her American adventures through a mouthful of food.

@louis

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Louis chuckled and he offered his arm to his girlfriend.  "Then madamoiselle, let's stroll," he said as debonair as he possibly could.  They began to stroll around the streets, the old buildings on their right, the sea on their left, its' stony beaches causing the most beautiful noise as the waves washed up the shore and back out into the water.  He loved the sound, which was why he slowed to a snails' pace, walking them closer to the water.  "Listen to the sound," he told Georgie, holding her hand and squeezing it lightly.  He wanted her to feel exactly what he was feeling; peace, balance, bliss.  His favorite place with his favorite girl.  What could get better than this?

After a few moments, he opened his eyes and took her arm, leading her down the promenade again.  "So you know I want to hear all about your summer," he started, grinning over at her.  "But since mine was dramatically uneventful compared, so if you may, I'd like to go first."  He cleared his throat and chuckled.  "I went to the beach, and for Bastille Day Dom and I went to Paris for the night.  All night dance party with some of mum's cousins.  That is...pretty much it," he told her, then grinned.  "And now I am with you, the most beautiful blonde Hufflepuff I never imagined I could love this much, in the most amazing place in the world." He kissed her on the lips, dipping her as he did so.  He brought her back up and smiled, kissing the tip of her nose.  "Now, let's hear about your summer adventures," he told her, starting to walk again.

@georgiana

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Louis offered his arm to her, and Georgie took it gratefully. It was a lot easier to peer around at everything when she was holding onto Louis and knew he wouldn’t let them accidentally run into someone else who was on the promenade. There was so much to look at, from the buildings to the ocean to the sky to the other people, and Georgie’s eyes hardly stopped moving as she tried to take it all in. Louis told her to listen to the water, and Georgie closed her eyes instinctually so that she could focus on the sounds instead of the sights. The water splashing against the rocks and then running through them as it ebbed back to sea sounded like music, and Georgie smiled to herself, enjoying the moment of relaxation and the feeling of Louis’s hand in hers.

Louis said that he wanted to hear all about her summer, but that since his was so dramatically uneventful, he ought to go first. Georgie chuckled a little, but listened as Louis recounted a trip to the beach and another trip with his sister. He said that other than those two things, and a dance party with his mother’s cousins, he didn’t do much, and Georgie raised an eyebrow. “I’m surprised you haven’t gone stir-crazy yet, Lou.” He never seemed like the kind of person to sit still, and the fact that he hadn’t done much that summer was strange to her. Shouldn’t he have been going on adventures!? Naturally, though, Louis wasn’t finished with just talking about the past – he mentioned the present as well, and Georgie’s hands cupped his face as he dipped her, figuring that was probably more acceptable than flailing at the sudden motion. Louis mentioned her summer adventures, and Georgie laughed. “I’m probably going to forget something.” She warned him. Georgie didn’t want her boyfriend thinking that she had intentionally omitted something if she came up with a new story later in their trip. “But we basically went to America and saw… everything, I guess. We went to the capitol for Independence Day and Rosie wanted to go to Disneyland so we drove across the country to get there, and we went to see a show in New York City, and before we left I put some of my dad’s ashes in the ocean…” Georgie let out a breath, aware that her sentence had been a run-on and didn’t actually offer that much detail. It was such a long month that trying to condense it into a sentence or two was patently impossible.

@louis

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Louis laughed. “I came close a time or two, but thankfully Dominique is still living at home; she’s a pretty good cure for stir crazy,” he admitted with a smile. Dominique was almost as crazy as Louis was when it came to down time, so he always could count on her to tag along with any new and exciting adventure. “That’s okay,” he confirmed, as she admitted she would likely forget something in her retelling of her American summer. He listened as they began walking again, taking in all the places she had visited even though he had no idea what some of them were. New York City was a given, and Louis had made a new friend from there a few weeks ago during a run in in Diagon Alley. “So you must have been there when the attack on the school was announced; I met a bloke from New York City just last week in Diagon Alley. He seemed nice enough but it’ll definitely be interesting with the influx of students this year,” he mused. He was curious of course how the news had been handled, as American papers were vastly different from British ones.

Louis squeezed Georgie’s hand softly as she mentioned her fathers’ ashes. His girlfriend was one tough cookie; she had thought her parents were dead for so many years, and for them to come back only for her father to be killed for real this time? He had no idea how she was still mentally capable of thinking; he liked to think that perhaps his presence helped a bit, but he would not be self-centered enough to take all the credit for it. “I’m sure he liked that, wherever he is,” Louis said quietly, gesturing to nothing in particular to define the beyond, whatever that may be. “Er...I have to ask, what’s Disneyland?” he asked her, curiosity finally overtaking his self control.

@georgiana

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Georgie smiled when Louis said that his sister was still at home, and that she had kept him from going stir-crazy. She was glad that Louis was just as close with his sisters as she was with her brother – and hoped to be with her other brother, someday. It occurred to her that they were the exact opposite of each other, as far as their siblings went. It wasn’t the only way that they were opposite, but Georgie didn’t mind the ways they were different; some of the things she loved most about Louis were the ways he was completely different from her. He said that it was okay if she forgot things, and Georgie flashed him a quick smile, which disappeared when he mentioned the attack on Ilvermorny. “We were there, but we spent most of our time in Muggle areas, so I didn’t learn about it until I got word from over here.” Georgie said. It was weird, that she had been closer to the source of the attacks but was still one of the last people to know. It was even weirder to think that, come fall, she was going to be with all of the kids that she would have grown up with, if things had been different. “I wonder if they’re going to be upset about being Sorted into different houses.” She mused. A lot of people seemed to assume that the Ilvermorny houses were the same as the Hogwarts houses, but with different names. Georgie didn’t think that was the case, from what she had learned about the school.

Georgie squeezed Louis’s hand back when he squeezed her, wishing that they were someplace a little less public so that she didn’t have to hold back the tears that were burning her eyes. “When I’m gone, I want to go to the ocean.” Georgie said thoughtfully. “Because then, the future won’t matter.” It would be the only time Georgie would be able to be in the water without fear of having a vision. In any case, being in the same place as her father was a nice thought… as long as Louis was there, too. Before she could get too depressed, Louis asked a question that sent Georgie bursting into laughter. “I can’t believe you don’t know what Disneyland is!” She half-said, half-shouted. “Though I guess you never watched Disney movies as a kid.” Georgie added pensively. “I guess… if a bunch of people dressed up in Beedle the Bard costumes and you got to go on rides centered around different stories, it would be kind of like that.” She said. It wasn’t a perfect analogy, since Disney was far more widespread than Beedle the Bard ever would be, but it was close enough.

@louis

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Louis squeezed Georgie’s hand even tighter; he knew the subject of death weighed heavily on his girlfriends mind, especially after this year. “Just put in your will your ashes should be launched in a canon from the deck of the ship so that they go ALL over the ocean,” he suggested, privately thinking it was not a bad idea too. He didn’t want to think about dying, or growing old, but in his young seventeen years of life he was pretty sure that if Georgie was a part of growing old, it wouldn’t be so bad.

He listened as Georgie explained just what Disneyland was, and he was a bit...bemused by the whole idea. If someone dressed up as Babbity Rabbity for a living, he’d personally question their sanity. Still, he was glad his lack of understanding amused Georgie and seemed to push the topic of demise from her mind. “I shall take your word for it,” he promised, laughing a little at the idea. “Do they have rides?” he asked; if Disneyland had thrill rides then he’d be more interested. He was already considering doing the paragliding off the beach here in Nice, but he wanted to make sure Georgie would be okay if he went first. “So over here you’ll see the Hard Rock Cafe, very famous. They have those in America don’t they?” he asked her, pointing out the restaurant across the street. He knew there was one in London, but someone had mentioned there was another one somewhere in the United States. Perhaps Jacob, whom he had met while in Diagon Alley.

@georgiana

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Georgie wasn’t sure whether to laugh or be disturbed by the fact that her boyfriend suggested shooting her ashes out of a canon. It didn’t seem like something that she could have taken seriously, even if she wrote it in her will or whatever. Besides, the ashes would get everywhere in the ocean anyways – the tide would carry them far enough out that they’d be caught by the currents, and from then on it was history. She could go back to the water, and it would all be deeply symbolic. Georgie hoped that didn’t happen for a very long time, though – she wanted to keep living for now.

Louis said he would take her word on the whole Disneyland thing, and Georgie shrugged her shoulders. She understood how the idea could be strange to someone who hadn’t grown up with the idea of Disney or Disneyland, but it was equally strange to her that someone could not have grown up with that sort of huge cultural influence. Georgie nodded when Louis asked if Disneyland had rides. Most of them weren’t super big or dangerous, since the theme park was meant for families and small children wouldn’t very easily ride huge roller coasters. Louis pointed out the Hard Rock Café, and asked if they had them in America. Georgie nodded again. “There’s one in Myrtle Beach, where my brother is from.” Georgie supplied. She and Rosie hadn’t visited one, because the food was pretty expensive, but they had driven past it on their way up to D.C.

@louis

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Louis looked confused as Georgie mentioned that Myrtle Beach was where her brother was from, before realizing she was talking about her other brother, Lucas. This was of course a fairly recent discovery of the Linley’s; indeed Georgie hadn’t had much of a chance to talk to him about her brother before she had jetted off to America. “Is it weird, referring to him as your brother?” he asked her, holding the door to the Hard Rock Cafe open so she could enter first.

They were seated immediately in a window booth so that they could still see the sea. “The view never gets tired,” he said, taking in a deep breath of the sea breeze floating in and the heaps of food being prepared over in the kitchens. “So how are things going with this new brother you’d never heard of in your life before this year?” Louis blurted out, then shook his head. “Sorry, I just...didn’t know how to bring it up. It’s a bit crazy; first your parents aren’t gone, then your other brother shows up this summer. I can’t imagine how much that is to take in,” he said sheepishly, gladly sipping the water that was proffered to them at the table. He didn’t know what he’d do if his parents had a secret love child they’d never told them about. To be fair, Victoire was born on the first anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, and there was not really a lot of time for Bill and Fleur Weasley to have had a child beforehand.

@georgiana

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Georgie shrugged when Louis asked if it was weird to refer to Luke as her brother. It had been at first, but she had accepted it in a rather resigned manner; her parents were batshit crazy and she was just having to deal with the consequences. She stepped into the café when Louis held open the door, smiling at him. Batshit crazy parents or no, it was nice that there were people in her life that she could count on.

Their booth had a view of the sea, but Georgie took the moment to study Louis’s face instead. She had missed that face – that smile – when she had been away. Letters just weren’t the same. “Never does.” She agreed easily. When asked again about Lucas, Georgie again shrugged. “I haven’t spent as much time with him as I’d like, since I’ve been away for so long.” She chuckled when Louis said that he didn’t know how to bring up the subject. “I don’t mind. I think it’s easier than walking on egg shells.” She hated when people thought they had to hold their tongues around her; it was much easier when they just said what they meant. “I think it’s easier to accept a new brother than my parents coming back. I mean, obviously it’s still kind of weird, but.” She shrugged for the third time in as many minutes. “I think he has better intentions than my parents did. And he actually knows what it’s like to be a part of a functional family, so that’s new.” Georgie was hoping she could get some lessons from Luke on how real families worked in the near future.

@louis

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Louis glanced over at Georgie, who he saw was looking at him and grinned widely. “Aww, you missed this face didn’t you?” he asked, before leaning over and kissing the tip of her nose. The waiter brought them water and Louis ordered the two of them a Jumbo Combo, which would sample a bunch of different foods to tide them over until dinner later that night. “Merci,” Louis said, finishing off the order in perfect French. “Might as well use my bilingual skills when I can,” he added with a laugh.

Louis’ shoulders visibly relaxed when Georgie told him she didn’t mind him bringing up Lucas; it was easier to talk about him than walk on eggshells. He listened as she explained how it felt easier to accept a new brother than her parents coming back from the “grave”; that made a lot of sense to him. Lucas was unaware of his two younger siblings existence and vice versa for so many years, and one cannot miss something they don’t know exists. Her parents coming back though, after spending time at the orphanage and grieving them in their deaths, was far harder. “I see what you mean. I suppose I’ll have to meet him one day, if he is going to be a part of your life as well,” he said, giving her an easy smile. He got on well enough with Lance, Georgie’s brother in his year, but Lucas was a different story. He was older for one, and had never set foot in Hogwarts. “Hey, you do pretty well as a functioning human being in my book, so that’s one step closer to functional family, right?” he added, taking her hand and squeezing it gently. He knew his girlfriend could be hard on herself, and he liked to remind her that she wasn’t quite the mess she believed herself to be.

@georgiana