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Coughing and spluttering, Freya stumbled out of the kitchen like she was returning to safety from a particularly violent warzone. She was bright red, with smudges of ash on her cheeks and her hair was sticking up in various places in a very comical way. The girl clutched a half burnt tray of muffins in her mitted hands as if her life depended on them. “I saved them!” she called, a streak of triumph ringing in her light voice. Wiping her forehead against one arm while carefully balancing her muffins, Freya breathed a sigh of relief and trotted downstairs.

Ruari was staying at the Trickett household. She and Hal had finally gotten together and the two were home visiting. Aside from those guests, though, the house was pretty quiet. When Hal had gotten called into the hospital, Ruari and Freya had almost had the house to themselves (anything under five or six people felt like an empty house to Freya). Despite some wary looks from her parents upon announcing that she was going to try to bake something, there wasn’t anything to stop the two trying to make muffins. Needless to say, it had gone horribly.

“I think four or five of these are edible? But the icing is definitely a no-go ” the girl called. She made her way outside to the cute little outdoor table and chairs she and Ruari had set up for their afternoon tea. Smiling at her sort-of-older-sister-in-law, Freya dropped the tray on the table, obviously not too bothered about the kitchen disaster they’d just caused. She took her seat.

It was very nice to be invited here.

Ruari had always liked the Trickett family. They were always so warm and welcoming to her when she and Hal were dating in school, so much so that she felt like they were her family. The family home was so breathtakingly beautiful in the summer months, too. The south coast of the country was always so lovely, awash with bright blue waters and vivid green hills.

For a few hours, she and Hal had been cuddling in a summer house in the bottom of the garden. It was great, just hanging out and it made her realise how much she missed him when he was busy. He'd been happy to let her use him a pillow but he when he'd had to go to work, Ruari'd tried really hard not to look utterly crushed. But she understood. He was a Healer. Well suited and qualified, they probably needed him more than she needed him. With a pout from her and a goodbye kiss from him, she was glad for Freya.

Ruari didn't have any sisters. Oh sure, she had plenty of cousins that were like sisters but Freya was as close to the real deal as she could possibly get, honestly.

The idea of baking was just that: a nice idea. Things had started out haphazard but okay. The batter smelled and looked like cake batter, if not a little too yellow and lumpy. Maybe someone had made a mistake with the oven temperature because Ruari's batch had actually caught on fire. Cue flailing and screaming and running around in circles. It ended with her lobbing the flaming tray into the sink and listening to the horrible, low hiss when the water hit the hot metal.

She looked much like Freya with charcoal on her cheekbone and flour on her dress, a sprinkle of vanilla sugar on her bright blonde locks which caught in the sunshine and made it sparkle. "Nah, mine are all rock solid," the dressmaker announced glumly, dropping one blackened lump onto the work surface and watched it make a dull and heavy thud!

The kitchen looked like a war zone. Stood in the middle of the smoke filled room, Ruari winced, hoping Hal's mother wasn't home. It wouldn't take her long to clean everything up using her wand but didn't mothers want to know that their son's partners were at least capable of preparing a Sunday lunch? Whoopsie daisy.

"They look good!" Ruari enthused with a grin as she happily trotted behind the younger girl, inhaling the scent of fresh air that was most welcome after her nose had been assaulted with the smell of charred cake and burnt sugar. "Don't need icing," she said cheerily. She'd also made a batch, too. Her initial idea had been to make some lemon chiffon cakes but the icing had been so bitter, it actually made her choke in the kitchen.

"The last time I cooked for your brother, I nearly killed him," the Irish woman told Freya with a wan smile as she sat opposite her, picking up a still warm muffin. Delicately, she peeled off the paper with some difficulty and gently picked out the cooked parts and it was actually pretty good. The flavours weren't too clear but it was cooked and it was sweet.

Deftly, Ruari poured two cups. She felt rather sophisticated sat here in a beautiful house, having afternoon tea. It did occur to her that she should maybe ask the others to join them but having some girl time was precious and much needed indeed. With Dash moving out, her small apartment felt far too big and she was cautious not to make Hal feel suffocated. Though she felt welcome here, she was still a little anxious. Their sister, Ingrid, was decidedly unimpressed with Ruari. So much so that she was actually ice cold, causing Ruari to make sure the other woman wasn't present when she called to visit.

"You know, these are pretty good, Freya. You should save Hal one," she said with a broad smile. Maybe they could charm them? Though they were perfect the way they were. "Thanks for having me over," she told her genuinely. "I've not seen you since Christmas. How's your summer going so far?"

Freya blew across the surface of her tea eagerly, holding the cup with two sticky hands. Cooking was hard work! She needed this tea. The kitchen looked like the two of them had been dueling inside, rather than cooking. “We can clean up later,” she mused out loud, tucking a loose strand of blonde hair behind one ear.

Seeing Ruari again was lovely. Freya was so relieved that Ru and Hal were finally a thing again. It wasn’t that Freya was at a lack for older sister type figures – or older sisters, for that matter – but Freya was very appreciative of her presence. Maybe she’d just been coddled too much by all of her older siblings and family members, but being around someone in that role made her feel very safe.

“We can just make new ones,” she replied with a bright smile, though a mouth full of muffin. The girl forced herself to swallow the whole thing and placed her cup back on the table gently before continuing. “And its been pretty good, you know, fairly quiet…” Some of her friends had gone to the summer camp thing that was happening in Greece. How Freya would have loved to go to Greece! Her parents couldn’t really afford to send her, so she hadn’t even asked about going.

“…Oh, and Kerr and I broke up just before the holidays… and I finally got my apparating licence…” Yeah, that. Against her best efforts to control her facial expression, the girl’s cheeks flushed pink. She wasn’t sure if Ruari would know about her and Kerr yet. It had only just happened before the holidays, after all. She avoided the woman’s gaze as she held her tea up to her lips, poking the surface with the tip of her tongue to check the temperature.

Ruari smiled. Freya seemed to be having some sort of sixth sense about her insecurities and worries. Her older brother seemed to have the same sort of talent, too. If she seemed blasé about the state of the wrecked kitchen, then who was she to start hassling her? It wasn't that bad. For the most part, both girls seemed to be relatively unharmed.

Ruari delicately picked at her muffin as she ate, accidentally dropping chunks of the cake into her tea without care. She looked elegant but she really was horribly dim and she had a bad habit of dropping almost everything: food, plates, pets, the lot. With a practised movement, she added milk and sugar, nodding along as Freya spoke.

She understood. Her friends must be busy with other things. When Ruari was in school, she'd found it difficult to make plans. Quiet summers weren't always a bad thing. Ruari would have loved growing up here with the garden in full bloom. "Well you know you're always welcome to hang out with me sometime," she said with a bright smile. "Have you ever been to Dublin?" She asked, sipping her tea to test the milk and sugar ratio and found herself suitably satisfied.

Then she choked on her tea.

Ruari swallowed and tried in vain to breathe and make it a little more lowkey but she ended up with a hacking cough, her grey eyes watering as she fought against her body's natural reaction. "Oh," she said, watery eyed and her voice coarse as she took a calm sip of her tea, digesting the bombshell that Freya had just dropped. "Congratulations on passing your test," she said as she wiped at the corners of her eyes with a napkin. "Did you pass first time? Of course you did. I bet it was still difficult," she burbled, trying in vain to ignore the elephant in the room.

It was going so well until she finally cracked. Kerrigan hadn't told her anything about him and Freya, not really. But he was a teenage boy. They didn't usually tend to tell their family about crushes or girl problems or anything. Was she offended? Maybe a smidge but it really wasn't any of her business. Holding her tea, her fingers tightened on the hot china, turning the knuckles white as she folded her lips into a thin line, trying desperately not to comment.

"Okay what's going on?" Ruari finally asked, her words coming out quickly, her eyes wide as her muffin sat forgotten. Ruari wasn't sure how to take this. Offering advice wasn't really her strong point. After Hal had broken up with her, she didn't date anyone for three years. She became reclusive, broken almost, a shadow of her former self. When she did finally start to feel better, she had a few one night stands and then got herself engaged to a man she wasn't really in love with. She'd be damned if she let Freya go down the same path.

She didn't…look particularly heartbroken. Had she been crying? Sad? Who had broken up with who? Who had initiated it? Was it amicable? It could go either way, really. First loves were tough. They were beautiful, magical, passionate. A whirlwind of feelings and lust and dreams for the future but they were fragile. Sometimes, it felt like trying to cup water between your hands.

Ruari watched Freya carefully, trying to catch on to how she was feeling but she wasn't meeting her eye. With a sigh, she placed down her cup and leaned back in her chair gently. "It's okay," she told her with a gentle, encouraging smile. "He's family but that doesn't mean I'm going to bite you or anything."

Freya hadn’t been to Dublin, no, but the topic moved on too quickly for her to answer that. Ruari started coughing and Freya guessed that she probably hadn’t heard. Oops. “Thanks!” she answered, a little too brightly, still avoiding the blonde woman’s gaze in preference for staring at the much more interesting ant that had crawled its way into her tea and was flailing about in there. It was much easier not to look at Ruari’s reaction. She didn’t know what she was thinking, and that made it a little awkward. Freya squirmed internally.

The Gryffidor chewed her lower lip as she poked her finger into the surface of her tea, encouraging the little ant to crawl its way to safety on her hand. “Not too hard,” she replied, still blushing and spending a little too much energy and focus on saving this ant. When she was finished, Freya shook it off of her hand and watched the bug drop to the grass, still alive. The sight brought a little too much satisfaction to her.

She cracked when Ruari spoke again, and Freya finally gave the woman what she hoped was a reassuring sort of smile. “It’s okay,” she replied quickly, echoing Ruari’s words by accident. “I’m okay. We didn’t like… fight or something like that. I didn’t go cry in my dorm or anything.” Little white lie. There were a couple of teeny tiny tears in bed. “We just sort of… I don’t know… fizzled out? We were both busy and we weren’t hanging out and we had a talk and just sort of… decided to… not date?” the sentence came out so awkwardly that Freya blushed again.

Thinking about it made her sad, but her description of the way it had ended wasn’t wrong. No one had been dumped. It had been a good idea not to be together anymore. She hadn’t been a total mess afterward or anything like that. She offered a smile. “I’m okay, just a little… I don’t know… bummed out?” That was it. Bummed out was a good description. Not distraught, not flippant. Just sort of bummed. “We won the quidditch cup though,” she offered, raising her eyebrows.

Oh dear.

The silence that passed between the two women wasn't really comfortable. Gathering her thoughts, she watched Freya rescue a stray ant and she smiled softly, remembering just what a ray of sunshine she really was. Kind and sweet, she'd always liked the petite blonde and knowing that she was possibly experiencing her first heartbreak was painful.

Without speaking, Ruari switched cups, passing the Gryffindor the ant-free one. Carefully, she tipped out the rest of the other girl's tea before refilling it swiftly.

Ruari frowned, her big grey eyes watching Freya carefully. Was that why they were hanging out? Maybe she didn't feel comfortable talking to her parents about that. She knew she wouldn't be. Perhaps the dressmaker was close but not too close for Freya to feel comfortable talking to. She could accept that, sure. She nodded, understanding completely. "It's good you didn't fight," she told her gently. The crying thing worried her a little, though.

"That does happen sometimes," she said, idly stirring her tea, watching the recently added milk swirl like a delicate cyclone in her cup. Freya's relationship had strange, eerie echoes of her own in school. She and Hal had drifted but it wasn't mutual, the entire breakdown of their relationship had been her fault. Had they still been together, perhaps they'd be married now. Maybe they'd even have kids. It was just all of the wasted time that was particularly difficult for her to swallow.

"Breaking up is always a bit shit," Ruari offered with a soft smile. She'd been completely in the dark and maybe a bit upset that Kerrigan hadn't told her. Then again, he was entitled not to. His life wasn't her business and their family was so large, it was easy to accidentally suffocate one another at times.

Her smile turned sympathetic as she sipped at her tea delicately. Did she feel uncomfortable? Yeah. Sure. A little bit. The similarities were stark and it brought back awful memories. Perhaps Freya and Kerr weren't in love like she and Hal were. It was good that the teenagers seemed to have ended things on amicable terms.

Her break up with Hal had been horrendous. It was so sharp, so sudden and so completely out of the blue for her…though not really. She should have realised that he was unhappy sooner than she did. Typical, really. It felt like having the rug pulled from underneath her. She wished she and Freya's brother had an opportunity to talk about it like they had. It was a very smart and grown up way of dealing with things and she was in awe of Freya's ability to handle things. Freya had always remained stubbornly at nine years old in Ruari's mind. She had a sharp, clear picture of her at a family party in a pretty dress, surrounded by her family and friends. The Trickett was not a child any more. She was a fully frown lady.

"Do you still like him?" Ruari asked, flicking her eyes up to the other girl's face. She just didn't want her to waste time like she did. She didn't want Freya to make mistakes like she did, to go years of latent unhappiness, to agree to marry someone she didn't love like she almost did. "I wouldn't worry too much," she said as she curled her slim fingers around her still warm porcelain tea cup. "I don't think you meet your soul mate when you're sixteen," she replied, glassing over the fact that she'd done just that.

Did Ruari believe in soul mates? She wasn't sure. Did she think there was just one single person out there for everyone? No. If there was, then everyone would be happy but she did believe that there were people who were better suited to one another. Taking a bite out of a squishy muffin, she chewed. She realised that their little tea party may have taken a particularly dark turning on accident. Whoops. But she thought Hal would be pleased that his little sister was currently unattached. She thought he was super cute when he got all protective and had his chest puffed out like an angry puppy.

"You did?" Ruari asked, eyed wide. "Well done! That's amazing," she said, genuinely pleased for the younger girl. Ruari had very little hand-eye co-ordination. She was the type of girl who could fall flat on her arse, walking on a perfectly smooth surface. It wasn't endearing. It was a load of poo, really. "You're turning seventeen this year, right?" She asked brightly. "Are you having a party?"

"Breaking up is always a bit shit"

Freya nodded. The blonde thought that this summed it up pretty nicely. It wasn’t the end of the world, she wasn’t a mess, but it was still a bit shit. The blonde tugged at a stray curl, her eyes staring far into the distance; she fiddled with her hair a lot when she was thinking about something. Her honey brown eyes turned back to her brother’s partner as she spoke again and Freya offered a half shrug. Did she still like him? Freya hadn’t had a chance to unpack any of this stuff with her friends yet. That was her usual method of debriefing and processing things.

“I do,” she answered after a moment’s thought, “but I don’t know if it’s just friendly or just lingery stuff or what. I mean, we broke up because we weren’t really hanging out and things just fizzled, you know?” Freya briefly entertained the idea of Kerr showing up on her doorstep or something. If he wanted to get back together or something, she’d probably agree; Freya was a romantic, and a pushover. She was a sucker for romantic gestures, and extremely sentimental. She kept everything everyone gave her. Ever. Seth’s jumper was still at the bottom of her wardrobe somewhere. She kept the necklace Kerr had given her on her bedside table.

Freya beamed at the quidditch praise. “Oh! And I’m the new quidditch captain for Gryffindor!” This wasn’t really a surprise to anyone, since she’d been co-captain for the past two years, but she’d still cried her eyes out when her badge had been delivered by owl. She’d sent a letter to Finn straight away, of course. Not that she’d be able to see him for another two months or something ridiculous like that.

Ruari's smile faltered just a little as Freya spoke. Her situation with Kerrigan had eerie similarities between hers and Hal's when they were at school. Freya was a young, delicate little thing and she was just having her first taste of love. It seemed inappropriate to say that Ruari'd already had her heart smashed, twice, by her age. Rather than replying, she simply sipped her tepid tea and dropped her gaze to the untouched plate of rather ugly looking cakes.

She nodded thoughtfully. "It's probably best not to beat yourself up about it," the dressmaker said gently. Teenage hormones were a nightmare and poor Freya was probably being thrown around by them. If they wanted to make it work, then they'd make it work. Simple as. But they were so young. Maybe they were destined just to be in each other's lives. Maybe it was meant to be beautiful but brief.

"Boys are strange," came her reply as she absently picked off the burned bits of her cupcake distractedly. "I'd like to say it gets easier the older you are but," rather than replying, Ruari offered Freya a wan smile. Ruari had only been broken up with once and that was by Hal. Usually, she was the dumper, not the dumpee. She lived her life like a thistle being blown about by the wind, never staying too long, never causing problems but this family was glorious. She was flattered that the flaxen haired girl wanted to spend time with her. It was just a shame that the conversation was a bit of a wet blanket.

"Oh wow!" Ruari gushed, her rain cloud grey eyes wide as she stood up, sending her wonky cake flying as she applauded, bouncing on her heels excitedly. Stepping around the table and without waiting for permission, she pulled Freya to her in a tender embrace. "You're doing so well!" She exclaimed, happiness exuding from her like a golden aura.

She was so grown up and the thought hit her like a bludger to the face. She was now a woman and a successful one at that. "Oh you should have let me know before I came, I would have gotten you a gift," she said with a deep frown. Ruari was an obsessive gift-giver. Someone got married? Gift! Someone got engaged? Gift! Someone got a new job? Gift! Someone successfully housetrained their dog? Gift!

Ruari looked over Freya's shoulder absently, hoping her sister, Ingrid wasn't at home. The last time they'd met, the two women had a blazing row. Frankly, the Irishwoman had actively avoided the older woman since. Jerking herself back into the present, she smiled softly. "So, Quidditch Captain, are you looking forward to your final year?"