It's okay, you're forgiven because of work and school and never answering me lol.
Tis little birdy is right!

Chapter 15: Birthdays, Engagements, Christmas, Jobs and Weddings, Oh my!


“So instead of going to a two-birthday kids’ party, we’re going to one for three,” Stephen complained, carrying about six heavy bags downstairs with him. Lexi and Aimee followed behind. Since they began dating again, Aimee was always spending time at Stephen’s house, but mostly learning to cook from his mom. “I bet Lori’s going to have a fit since she wasn’t made Nathan’s godmother,”

“Yeah, but she’ll most likely tell you since we barely talk and such. But why didn’t Lucy and Tyler make them the godparents?” Lex asked. Stephen shrugged, feeling Aimee and Lexi take his arms as they apparated to Chelsea’s house. The usual white walls were now decorated with green and blue streamers, balloons, plates, cup, hanging décor and snowflakes; indicating the winter time. “We’re here!” Lex called out.

“Oh good, you can place the gifts under the table,” Chelsea smiled, taking one bag from Stephen’s hand and sliding it underneath a table with a teal colored cover. She then proceeded to greet them each with a kiss on the cheek and a hug. It was something she only did to those she cared about and trusted.

“Everyone else is in the kitchen already. I have to go prepare some things before the rest of the guests arrive,” The trio nodded, watching as Chelsea headed towards her studio. Just then, more people began to apparate and the trio was pushed slowly towards a wall.

“Do the kids parents really have this much family?” Aimee asked, watching as people from different sizes moved side to side, greeting Tyler, Lori, Adam and Lucy. Let’s not forget their kids as well. Seeing two familiar heads walking towards them, Stephen felt someone grip his arm; only to find Kat trying to escape the massive amount of people that had just arrived.

“Hey guys, Leonard says we should go outside and have a snowball fight,” Kat jumped up and down, just to end up stepping on Stephen’s foot.

“Alright, as long as you don’t step on my foot again!” he retorted, shaking his right foot around. “Did you tell your grandma?”

“Yup and she says it’s alright since we don’t know most of these people and wouldn’t want to be around them,”

“Okay, let’s go!” Leonard said, making everyone in the group apparate towards the park. The small hills and large rocks, including the lake, were covered in white snow. There were only a few parts that weren’t touched yet due to restrictions for being too close to the trees. But other than that, it felt like the perfect place to be on a winter day.

“Are you mad!? You can’t just apparate us here in the middle of the day! And I thought I made it clear that I don’t want to apparate anymore after that incident!” Kat yelled, punching Leonard’s back with her small fists. Leonard brushed it off, ignoring what she was saying and wandered off towards another part of the park. “Where is he going?” Everyone shrugged, lost that Leonard had only walked away without saying a word. That was until something cold hit the back of Stephen’s neck, making him jump.

“SNOWBALL FIGHT!” Lexi called out, gathering a medium sized snowball in her hands and throwing it in Leonard’s direction. But were four against one really fair here? The group didn’t really care for that. They were just playing a game against the “old” member of the group. But just as their snowballs were heading towards Leonard’s direction, they were each hit in the face with another snowball; causing them to fall onto their backs.

“We got all of them!” A girl’s voice called out.

“Hopefully we didn’t get them too hard or else they’ll push us into the ice cold, dirty lake water,” a guy’s voice spoke to the girl.

“They’ve been through much worse than receiving a snowball to the face,” Leonard’s voice could be heard louder and louder as he stepped close to them. “Now get up pansies. We’re going ice skating,” he said pulling each of them to their feet. “Group, this is my girlfriend Judy. Judy, this is my brother, his girlfriend, his best friend and that’s just Kat,”

“Hey!” Kat argued, pouting her lips and looking away.

“It’s nice to meet you all,” Judy smiled. The girl had dark brown hair and brown eyes, like chocolate. She was a bit small, just reaching under Stephen’s chin. Though with her coat just stopping at her thighs and with ankle boots on, Judy looked much taller.

“As for the boy, everyone this is Cyrus, my boyfriend,” Lexi said, taking the boy’s hand. Cyrus was tall, but a bit shorter than Stephen. He had dirty blonde hair and green blue eyes. Only question was, why did Lexi keep it a secret?

“Pleasure to meet you all,” Cyrus said.

“Alright, enough with the introductions, let’ go ice skating!” Leonard said, pulling everyone over to the nearby ice skating rink.

“Why am I the only one not dating someone!?” Kat complained, waddling around like a penguin.

“Don’t know, maybe that’s why,” Stephen said, looking at her as she waddled onto the ice skating ring. Leonard huddled everyone into a circle and transfigured skates onto their shoes. “I’m assuming everyone’s magical here,”

“Yup. Cyrus is a half-blood and so is Judy,” Leonard explained, looking around to make sure no one had noticed sudden skates appearing on their shoes. “Everyone grab a partner and let’s go”

“But I don’t have a partner,” Kat said lowly, looking down on her feet. “And I don’t know how to ice skate,”

“Come on, I’m sure Aimee won’t mind teaching you. She taught me back in my seventh year,” Stephen said, taking Kat’s hand and slowly bringing her to where Aimee was.

“Yeah, and it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world!” The blonde spoke, taking Kat’s hand; showing her how to keep proper balance.

“Yeah, and I’m pretty sure I still have the bruise for it,” he laughed, following Kat around, making sure she didn’t fall too hard on the ice. For a beginner, Kat was way better than Stephen ever was. She was better at keeping her balance, posture and doing it on her own much sooner than him. Off in the distance, the trio could see Lexi and Cyrus, spinning around. Stephen was a bit upset she never told him, but as long as she was happy, he really didn’t mind. Towards Lexi and Cyrus’ right were Leonard and Judy; who stopped skating and were now in what seemed to be a deep conversation.

“What do you reckon they’re talking about?” asked Lexi, skating her way towards the trio. Stephen shrugged; watching in what he thought was Leonard reaching down to fix his shoelaces. Instead, the brown haired kneeled on one knee and took out a small box from his pocket. Stephen could hear everyone’s breathing stopping, including his. Feeling someone clutch onto his arm, Stephen felt himself breathing again and looked onto the couple; where Judy was nodding her head ferociously and kissed Leonard. Just then, Leonard turned to the group, putting one finger on his lips and quickly apparating with Judy back to Chelsea’s house.

“I think that’s our queue too,” said Aimee, holding Stephen’s arm as Kat buried her head into his chest, with him wrapping his free arm around her, holding Kat tight. Cyrus and Lexi joined them, also quickly apparating back to the home where they had to join the party. In that hour or so that had gone by, not much had changed, and Stephen actually got a good glimpse of the Stemp twins.

“Her name’s Saffron and his is Corbin,” Lucy said, approaching the birthday table with Stephen. The table had three cakes, each for the birthday kid. Nathan’s was blue, close to the color of his eyes but with a hint of hazel, making the icing look almost olive colored. Saffron’s was hot pink; Stephen guessed Lori had definitely picked the color for her daughter’s cake. Corbin’s was a typical sky blue color, not much excitement in the icing color. But he was sure the sparkling birthday candle would give it a pop. “They’re Lori and Adam’s twins. They were born towards the end on December, but since it’s all of their first birthdays and we’re like family, we decided to celebrate them together this once,”

“Except I wasn’t named the godmother!” Stephen jumped to Lori’s loud whispering in his ear.

“If you have godmother issues, take it up with the actual godmother,” he pointed to the brunette who was playing peek-a-boo with Nathan on the ground. “I’m the godfather so I only respond to godfather issues,” he chuckled, just to have Lori flick the top of his ear. Saffron had dark brown hair and eyes like her mother, sat in the middle high chair, clapping her hands in anticipation of tasting the cake. Then again, she wasn’t one until the end of the month so Stephen didn’t really know if she was excited or not. The twin boy, Corbin, looked just like his father. Blue eyes and brown hair. He might as well be twins with his dad and not his sister.

“I wonder what it tastes like,” said Kat, taking the tip of her finger and reaching for a bit of frosting off of Saffron’s cake. Without knowing, Stephen and Kat were being stared at by Lori. Without giving them a moment to think, Lori pounced towards them like a wild cat. “Run!”

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Christmas

The white snow was slowly and gracefully falling in the backyard of Grandma Fanelli. The Fanellis, including Lexi, would spend Christmas Eve here, bad or good weather. It was either that or have Grandma Fanelli go to their house and drag them to hers. Adriana and Giovanni were sitting in the living room, near the fireplace with Grandma. They were chatting away about Leonard’s engagement, Lexi’s idea to most likely be a model for Chelsea and the anticipation of waiting for Stephen’s healer results. The conversation was cut short when many footsteps were heard coming down the stairs and heading towards the backyard. They could hear the sliding doors of the backyard open and close continuously until all the youngsters were out of sight. One of the aunts set a charm on all the windows, in case they decided to break one in their chaos.

“Isn’t it wondrous to see them all grown up? Going their own ways soon and possibly starting a family of their own one day?” Grandma asked, specifically eyeing the eldest Fanelli boys and girl.

“Yes, it is. I didn’t know time was going to pass by so quickly,” Giovanni smiled, watching as the youngsters threw snowballs at each other. When Stephen threw one at Leonard and hit him in the face, Leonard charged for Stephen, falling to the ground with him. If only there were one day those two won’t argue or fight about the silliest things.

“You did a great job, with all three of them,” Grandma said and with a small smirk on her face, she walked towards the Christmas tree. Both Adriana and Giovanni were taken aback by what was just said. But then it hit them on who she was including. How could they forget the girl who was always following them around? The girl who left her old friends at their first school to join her best friend at Hogwarts. The one who always puts Leonard and Stephen in their place when they fought. Like now. Lexi managed to pull Leonard off Stephen, whose both faces were red from drowning each other in snow.

“Adri, an owl just sent a letter for Stephen with a note saying that it’s urgent he opens it now!” Adriana’s younger brother, Marcus, walked up and handed her the letter.

Looking at the envelope, Adriana sighed, opening the sliding door and yelling out to Stephen. “Stephen, get off your brother and get in here! You have a letter that needs to be opened now!” With that, he raven-haired boy rolled off his brother and made his way back into the house. Along with every other person in the yard to follow him. Taking the letter from his mom, Stephen carefully tore it open and read it out loud.

Dear Mr. Fanelli,
After carefully reviewing your application and test results, along with hands on exams on patients, the St. Mungos Admission Department hereby congratulate you on becoming a healer. With having one of the tops scores and determination, it was no doubt you’d be one of the very first to be picked. You may work at any St. Mungos hospital that is certified. Along with this letter comes a list of supplies you will need once you’ve decided to take on your job. You may also pick what department you’d like to work on and schedule that works most for you. Your healer certificate is included with this letter as well. Hoping you are well and enjoying your holidays.
- Melanie Rumford

After Stephen had finished reading, he went numb. He couldn’t yet process the letter he had just read to everyone and himself. Without thinking, he checked the larger envelope to see if it was all a joke. It wasn’t. Inside was a certificate indicating that he was now an official healer of St. Mungos. Everything around him went too silent. You may even be able to hear a pin off in the distance. It wasn’t until he heard hands clapping and cheering, that Stephen snapped back into reality.

“I did it. I actually managed to become a healer,” he said, feeling his mother’s arms embrace him. Without second thought, he embraced her back; trying to contain his excitement from the recent news.

“We’re so proud of you,” Adriana whispered into his ear.

“Stephy is all grown up now! Make sure you say hi to Kat for me whenever she’s in the hospital,” Lex joked, hugging him and letting go when Grandma Fanelli approached them.

“To congratulate you, I want to give you the first gift of Christmas,” said Grandma, handing him a box wrapped in penguin pattern paper and a red bow. Tearing the wrapped off and opening the box, Stephen laughed.

“Bright green scrubs,” he chuckled, taking them out of the package and placing it against his body. “Should come in handy,”

“Grandma, can we eat already? I’m hungry!” Leonard complained, throwing himself onto the red couch nearby.

“Fine, then we’ll open the rest of the gifts. And since you’re so hungry and can’t wait to eat, I’m sure you won’t mind your grandfather telling the story of our first Christmas together,” Grandma Fanelli smirked, chuckling as she signaled everyone else into the dining room.

“I’m not so hungry anymore,” Leonard sighed, but headed towards the dining room anyway. Lexi and Stephen laughed to themselves, knowing Grandma Fanelli always liked to mess with the small minded.

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The chilly fall air swept through the raven-haired boy’s head as he waited patiently for his brother’s wedding ceremony to start.

“Are you bummed he didn’t ask you to be his best man?” asked Lexi, sitting down to Stephen’s left. Aimee had saved them both a seat, due to her arriving early for once.

“Not really. I’m relieved in a way. At least now, I won’t have to make a speech,” he confessed. Looking at his watch, Stephen noticed that the bride was now twenty minutes late.

“Someone needs to talk to her,” he overheard one of the bridesmaids say to another. Stephen felt a nudge on his right side. He turned to see Aimee, nudging her head. It could only mean one thing; she wanted him to go talk to Judy.

“I’ll be back,” he sighed, getting to his feet and heading to the room where the bride was. Of course all of the bridesmaids were there; trying to convince Judy to come out. “Excuse me,” he said as he pushed them aside. Knocking on the door, he hoped she would open the door for at least him. “Judy, it’s Stephen,” he said, which seemed like the magic words. Judy opened the door, just enough space for Stephen to squeeze through. But she quickly shut the door, making sure no one else was able to get in. “So what’s wrong?” asked Stephen, leaning on the wooden door. The bridal room had windows in the shape of the ends of the swords; three on each window. Judy’s dress had one strap, which was on her left shoulder. It flowed down with ease, including the few ruffles here and there that were an off white, like the rest of the dress. Her dark hair was done up in curl, few strands hung loose for a more formal look. She sat down on a circular stool, and leaned an elbow on the small dresser in front of her.

“I’m scared,” she answered.

“Of what?”

“I don’t know. I’m just not good in front of so many people,”

“Oh, so you’re not afraid of marrying my brother, you just have stage fright,” Judy nodded. “That’s normal. Just pretend that my brother, you and the person marrying you are the only ones there. No one else matter, nor are they there. It’s just you guys. Besides, I think half an hour is enough time to scare my brother that you stood him up at your wedding,”

Judy laughed, realizing the monster had a point. “How do you come up with these things?”

Stephen shrugged. “We must never speak of this again,”

“Promise. Just make sure you spoil your future nieces and nephews,” Judy smiled, hugging Stephen and opening the door as he leaned off of it.

“Alright, to a point where I go bankrupt,” he answered, following behind the swarm of bridesmaids who followed behind Judy to the altar. He quickly squeezed through them and headed for his seat.

“So what happened?” Aimee asked, with Lexi listening intensively.

“She had stage fright, that’s all,” answered Stephen, rising to his feet again as the traditional wedding music began to play. It wasn’t at least one minute into the song when Lexi and Aimee began to get teary eyed. This was going to be a long ceremony.

Reception:

“Dance with me, Stephen!” Kat said, pulling him off his chair and onto the dance floor. It wasn’t formal dancing, just them going crazy, not really paying attention to everything else around them. It was another fifteen minutes of dancing when Stephen escaped from Kat and went outside for some air.

“I can see you finally got away from her,” someone behind him laughed. He quickly turned around to see Lucy walk out behind him. “Nice dancing, by the way,”

“Thanks,” he laughed, sitting down on the small steps where Lucy joined him too. “Can I ask you something?” Lucy nodded. “What type of person did you think you were going to marry?”

“Hmm, in all honesty, I wanted to marry a city type of boy. I just didn’t know I was going to marry a city boy who is also a model,” she smiled, looking back towards the glass door with Stephen, where they both could see Tyler carrying Nathan, while talking with Lexi, Aimee and Kat. “Why the sudden question? Are you thinking of marriage?”

“No, not really. I mean, we haven’t said those three big words to each other yet so no marriage between Aimee and me anytime soon. I just always wondered if people marry the type of person they want,”

“They do, once they stop looking,”

“Well, I stopped looking,”

“Then you’ll marry that person you want. Plus, I betted you’d marry Aimee someday,” Lucy smirked, getting to her feet and heading for the doors.

“You bet that I would end up marrying Aimee? What? How can you bet on me?!” Stephen called to her. Luce just laughed and ran inside back to the party. “Hey! I’m not done talking to you! Come back here, you red head and explain this to me right now!” Stephen chased after her, but was obviously not going to catch her nor ever get his answer.

AN: There's an epilogue to follow. So this little adventure isn't over yet.