Kace was excited to go to her girlfriends birthday party! He had his outfit all set. He was dressed up as a gangster He hoped Emmy didn't mind. He even brought his cousin Kaylee with him. She was squirming and saying,

"Don't hold my hand Kace! I know how to walk by myself!"

Kace looked at her and said, "Will you behave for this day please!? I just want you to meet Emmy's family plus she has cousins your age alright?"

Kayle pouted and decided to be quiet for the rest of the walk there. He was dressed up and so was Kaylee. She was dressed in a pink flapper dress. She looked pretty cute in it. He smiled and Kaylee asked, "What are you looking at? Do I have something in my teeth?" She was licking them and he shook his head. Then he made it to her house. "Now be quiet for a second? No attitude or I will tell Aunt Kellie.." he told her sternly. This is how you have to be with her. She is a little drama queen for a 10 year old. He knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer.

Dylan didn't normally dress like this...all nice and whatnot. But now that he had actually tried it just for this 1920's party, he didn't look that bad. In fact, he looked pretty good and sharp. Not that he'd dress like this more often, though. He preferred his other clothes. Heh.

Gift in hand, he made his way up to the house. It was an extremely nice place, he had noticed when he had arrived. It was huge too! He wondered what it looked like on the inside! When he reached the door, he saw that Kace was already there with some younger kids. Kace was dressed like a gangster, which was awesome. Dylan was relieved to know he wasn't the only guy who had dressed up. "Hey man, you look awesome!" he said to his friend with a nod. It was true, Kace really pulled off the look well.

Brady loved his costume so much. He thought he looked good in 1920's attire. The seven year old flailed in his costume as he ran over towards Kaylee and her older cousin, what's his name? "HEY GUYS, WAIT UP FOR ME, I HAVE LITTLE LEGS." Just when Brady caught up to Kaylee and what's his name is he tripped over something and fell on his face in his brand new costume. "Oooof!" He managed to say as he made a thud on the ground.

Knock, knock, knock.

The older woman's head looked up out towards the door, she couldn't see the door from the kitchen but she had heard it. Her hearing wasn't that totally gone yet. She just couldn't hear well when people would mumble. The big smiled grew on her face as she set the knife down on the counter. She would get back to that later. She only had a few more fruits to chop up and then she would be ready for this wonderful party. Louise walked down a medium length hallway and then out into the entry way. Before opening the door she patted her dress. Opening the door she saw two boys that looked about Emmylou and Marcel's age and a little girl and a little boy. She smiled brightly at the four children. "Hello, come in, come in." Her accent had a southern twang but also a french accent in it. Louise moved aside for them to walk in. She would soon introduce herself.

Lux was so excited as she made her way towards Emmy's house holding Bay's hand. She had never been here before, and had never been to the States before. It was a little adventure for this Puff. An adventure where she got to celebrate one of her best friend's birthdays and meet her family.

Seeing that the door was open and that Kace and Dylan were already there with a little girl, she was even more excited. "Hello!" she called out as she waved with the hand that wasn't holding on to Bay's.

As Kaylee and Kace were waiting for someone to open the door, Kaylee heard a voice. She turned around and noticed a little dude running towards the house. Her eyes went wide when she noticed it was Brady! She smiled and clapped her hands. Kace gave her a quizzical look and turned around. "You know that dude..?" he asked skeptically. She nodded and said, "Yeah we talked on twitter before.." she grinned. She went over to greet him but he fell. Oh my hippogriff....I hope he was okay.

"Brady are you alright?" she asked trying to fight back a laugh. Then Kace heard the door open and called out to Kaylee, "KAYLEE COME ON! SOMEONE OPENED THE DOOR..." Then he saw Dylan and he smiled. "Hey Dylan, Oh thanks! I am liking your look too especially the fedora!" he winked.

He smiled at the woman who opened the door. She seemed dressed for the event. He guessed this was Emmy's grandmother? "Hi I am Kace.." he said awkwardly since she just heard him yell. But he went on in and hoped Kaylee would follow soon.

A 1920's party for Emmy's birthday? That seemed like an awesome idea. But how would he dress? And what would he get her for a present?

Simon hoped that he was dressed properly. When he heard 1920s was the theme, the first word that popped into his mind was Gatsby. He was going to be dressed up and trying to imitate Leonardo diCaprio's portrayal of the great man himself. He would have to be suave, charismatic, and definitely not awkward at all. Not being awkward was going to be tough as Simon was an awkward fish.

Walking to the manor, with a present under one arm and flowers in his right hand for the family, the young muggleborn felt slightly out of place. Emmylou's house was HUGE. It was much bigger than his parents' modern townhouse back in Melbourne. Had he gone through some portal and was accidentally transported back in time? Simon dismissed these thoughts and continued walking. He was almost at the front door now.

Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the door and waited patiently.

Zander had never been out of the country before... Let alone, to AMERICA!? That strange land with strange accents and even stranger people. Except Emmylou because she wasn't really strange. She just really liked candy. Which was totally understandable because he really loved chocolate. So yeah. Anyways. Alabama. He wasn't really sure of what to expect. Honestly, he figured that there'd be a lot of trees and southern accents, but other than that he was clueless.

When he was dropped off at the house (if you could even call it that), however, he just stood there in shock. Almost like a fish out of water. BECAUSE WOAAAAH. Holy moly. Holy Merlin. Holy Merlin's greying underpants. HOLY FREAKING WHAAAAT?! Is THIS where Emmylou lived?! Because. Woah. Just. Woah. Holy. Freaking. Woah. His house was like a shoebox compared to this place. Like, woah.

With the present bag in hand, Zander struggled up to the door. The bag was SO heavy. He had basically stuffed every single peice of candy that he could possibly find at the store in there. He knew just how much the Gryffindor loved her candy. So he packed some Twizzlers, Starbursts, Nerds, Taffy, chocolate frogs, Bertie Botts... Basically everything into that small gift bag. Hopefully the lion would love it. And sure... maybe the candy was a bit cliche, but the Gryffindor had one last, more thoughtful, gift hidden inside on of the Chocolate Frog boxes. Hehe. Buying a present for this girl was easy peasy! It was just gathering all the money that was the hard part. But he had managed to save up just enough.

When he finally made it to the door he noticed that HEY, SIMON was there too! Thank goodness. He would've looked so out of place just standing there by himself. "Hiya Simon! I like the suit!" The Gyrffindor set the present down on the ground so that he could adjust his fedora properly unto his head. It must've gotten all tilty when he was walking to the door.

Simon continued to glance at the manor in awe. This was a castle compared to his house. As soon as he walked in, he could feel that he was going to understand what Jay Gatsby must have lived in (but obviously more classy then that). Plus the people that he had met on his way to the manor had very strange yet sweet accents down here. They'd all been very accomadating once they heard his voice. 'You're Australian? No way. That's so cool. There were a couple points during the conversation where he would have to withdraw himself, otherwise, he would have never made it out of the aeroport. Seriously. It was definitely a culture shocking experience for him to come over to the States. He'd only ever been to the States once when he was very little; however, he didn't remember it too well.

Someone called out to him. Huh? He thought and turned around to find it was his good Lion friend there. Oh hey it was Zanderman! His friend looked good dressed up. Simon eyed the fedora and grinned at his friend. "Hey Zander! Looking dapper in the fedora mate! How's it going?" he asked, easily slipping back into a more comfortable state. Wait. He had to be a gentleman, right? Pretend he was in the 1920s?

What would have they said in the 1920s?

His eyes widened when he remembered. Oh right. He coughed.
"I mean. Wow. We're in the 1920s. I have to use their slangs," he explained. Uhh.. Now where..? Oh yeah! " It's good to see you, old sport! How are you?"

Much better.

AH. Zander was definitely really thankful that his Super Siman was here too. It made standing in front of a huge mansion-house much less... intimidating. Yeah. It definitely helped him relax a little bit. Boy, he never knew that Emmylou had such a grand place in Alabama. No wonder she missed it here! If Zander had a house like this, he'd probably never leave. Actually no, he would. Did not need to be around his brothers any longer. So yeah, never mind. But still. It was HUGE.

Zander let out a laugh when Simon went all olden lingo on him. "Their slang?" BUT WAIT! He hadn't done any research or anything! How did 1920s people even speak?! He should've probably looked that up too... But after looking through pages of costumes online, he got all distracted with funny justice league videos! Ah, the internet is such a beautiful place with so many beautiful distractions. Ahem, anyways. "It's good to see you too!" Way good. "Oh, old sport!" he added as an after thought. He felt kind of lame to use Simon's slang right after he had said it, but again he didn't really have time for his own research

"You look pretty spiffy yourself, nice suit!" Spiffy? Wasn't that old time lingo too? Dapper... Spiffy... Nifty...? Yeah? "But I'm good! I mean... I'm dandy? I'm excited for this party! How are you doing?!"

Just as Louise was about to close the door she saw some more friends of Emmylou's arrive. She hadn't really met any of Emmylou's friends because of how far away they lived. It was hard for Emmylou's friends to travel such a great distance and America was just so different. Louise had remembered when she had first came to America. It was exciting and scary, she was only sixteen when she had first come here. But that was so many years ago. She beamed at them. "Come in, come in." She said happily, her Southern accent had some french accent in it. Oh, she just loved little kids, they were so cute and innocent and always wanted to eat sweets and she was willing to make anything they wanted. Louise scratched her head. She really needed more than one grandchild. She love Emmylou to pieces but she just wanted more grandchildren to spoil.

The little boy sat up on his knees and rubbed his head and wiped the little grasses off his face. He spit out a few pieces of grass out of his mouth. He was very glad that he had fallen on the grass and not on the concrete. Bradson pulled himself up off the ground and ran up the stairs to the front of the house towards Kaylee and whats his name. "I'm good as new." He smiled. Then Brady noticed the lady and waved at her. She seemed really friendly.

Louise beamed, at the two younger children and then at the older one who said his named was Kace. "Yes, yes. You're Emmylou's boyfriend. It's so nice to finally meet you." Louise smiled. "I'm Mrs. Duchannes, Emmylou's grandmother." This was going to be so much fun. There were so many family members for Kace to meet. They were going to love him.

Simon nodded. Yes, yes. It was important to be in the know, now wasn't it old sport? "Don't worry about not knowing vocabulary. It's all jake. I've got something to help us out," he said as he reached into his jacket pocket. And he pulled out a handy dandy notebook. Holding it up in the air, he grinned. "This notebook is a life saver. If you need any vocabulary, just ask. It's pretty weird but I've written down a bunch of sayings but we probably won't need it," said Simon as he wiggled his eyebrows maniacally just cause he could. Ehehehe. "Grand to see you too," he nodded.

His blue eyes widened when Zander used the word spiffy. Ooh, good 1920's word. He grinned. "See you don't need my help, old sport. You already know your onions," he said, trying to fit into that era. He blinked. Know your onions? Wow. He didn't understand how someone could have come up with that. He knew that meant that Zander knew his stuff but how on earth did it translate to that?

Merlin.

Anyway. "I'm doing quite well thank you. I'm glad to see you hear. We can stick together," he said with a nod. Yep, Zander was the only one that he knew other than the birthday girl herself and her boyfriend. So he'd meet new people which would be cool.


Before Simon could say another word, an elderly lady came to the door and asked them to come in. She must have been Emmy's grandmother? he assumed. He grinned at her. He loved her accent. It was so warm and nice. "Why thank you, ma'am," he said, trying to sound as American as possible to get into character. The accident didn't work at all. He just sounded Australian still. "Oh and these flowers are for you and the family. My mum insisted on bringing some over," he explained with a kind smile. Hostess gifts were very important. "I'm Simon. Simon Holden," he said with a wide grin.

Kaylee giggled at Brady. He was a funny little guy. Oh right introductions. "Oh Brady this is Kace.." she said gesturing towards her cousin. But might as well get it out of the way right? Then she saw the door opened she saw the nice woman open the door. She smiled politely and was being on her best behavior because then Kace would rat her out to her aunt. "Nice meet you Miss. Duchannes.." As she stepped in, she noticed how huge this mansion was. "Wooaahhhh nice place.." she said in awe. She held motioned Brady to follow her.


Kace finally got to meet Miss Duchannes. He smiled and bowed his head slightly. "It is an honor to meet you. I have heard great things about you." he smiled politely. As he made his way inside with his gift in hand, he noticed how huge Emmy's mansion was. He whistled at how huge it was. "What a lovely home you have.." he commented on it. He was glad Kaylee was on her best behavior. "I am hope you don't mind, Kaylee brought her friend with her." he gestured to them both. "Do you know where Emmy is? Or should I got wait outside?" he asked Miss Duchannes.

Dylan smiled at Kace. "Thanks!" he said, grinning and tipping his fedora. Heh. It was a pretty cool fedora. Then, he heard someone coming from behind and he turned to see Lux with Bay. "Hey guys!" he said, waving at them just as the door was being opened. He turned his attention to the lady who stood holding it for them. "Hello, thank you!" he said, beaming as he made his way inside. She seemed quite nice. "I'm Dylan, Dylan Callaghan." he added with a small nod once he was in the house. He glanced around. It was very nice on the inside just as well as the outside. He'd sure like a place like this someday!

Louise couldn't help but beam at the adorable little boy. He was just so cute. Look at the those cheeks! Louise knew that Emmylou would be making lots of friends at Hogwarts and she was so proud of her granddaughter but was concerned that she had so many boys as friends. There was nothing wrong with that but surely her boyfriend would have the slightest big of jealousy in him. Louise knew that Emmylou wasn't the type of person to do anything like that. The woman couldn't help but laugh a little when she heard the boy attempting at an America accent. "Don't worry sweetie, the longer you stay here the more the accent catch on." She reassured the boy. "Believe it or not I used to have just a French accent, now I have a combination." she whispered to the boy. "It's lovely to meet you, Simon. The flowers are lovely." She smiled down at him.

"Hiya! Kace!" Brady looked over at the lady. As soon as the door opened Brady bolted right to it. "HIYA MRS. LADY DUCHANNES!" Brady waved at her. "ARE YOU ROYALTY? YOUR NAME SOUNDS REALLY ROYAL." This lady was so nice and she was wearing blue which made her super duper awesome! Bradson jumped up and down happily as the lady said that he could stay here and eat all of her food!

The fifty-two year old looked at the blonde haired boy after talking to the Simon boy. She nodded at him. Very polite. "Thank you, sweetie. You need a large house when you raise five boys here and have a granddaughter that loves to spend time here." Louise chuckled at him. Louise looked at the bouncing little boy in front of her. "No, sweetheart we're not royalty." She looked at the little girl and boy. "I don't mind at all just as long as they love food and sweets." Louise looked around the entry way and into the hallways. "I think Willa and her Aunt Raeanne are helping her get ready for the party still but I'm sure she will be in here real soon." She looked up at the stairs to see if they would be coming down soon but she was pretty she they weren't.

Louise turned towards the other boy that popped out of nowhere. "Hello, it's nice to meet you, Dylan." she smiled at him.

__________________________________________

Louise looked at all the little children and thought it would be best to get them all out in the open so they could run around and be normal magical children...with some Muggle perks. "Now, please follow me as we out on to the back patio." She motioned them to follow her. The woman walked down straight down the hallway and would look back every so often to make sure that everyone was keeping up. Emmylou had insisted that they have her party on the back patio near the fire pit and the pool. Just in case they all wanted to go swimming. Louise pushed two large french doors out to reveal the back patio. "You can sit here while I go and see what's taking Emmylou so long." Louise smiled. "There's some sticks, giant marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers for you all to make s'mores." She smiled as she walked back into the house to see what was talking so long.

He brought a notebook with 1920s slang?! Man, Simon was so prepared. First that research stuff he was doing about the winter and now a notebook filled with other research. Is Simon sure he's not an actual Ravenclaw? Because this was a whole lotta research for a snake mhm. Zander felt kind of underprepared after seeing all that Simon had thought through with. "Wow!" Wait lingo. "I mean... Golly, Simon you've thought of EVERYTHING!"

Know your onions O_______o Huh? What did that mean? "... I don't think I know my onions... I don't know any vegetables..." Yeah, he did not go anything near those things. Veggies are gross! Eugh, why have veggies when you could have CHOCOLATE! "Wait Simon... What does 'knowing' your onions even mean?" This called for the handy dandy notebook!



Before Zander could respond back to Simon, he saw a woman approaching them! Probably one of Emmylou's family members or something. Wow. Simon was so charming. He really knew how to talk to grown ups. Woah. Zander felt a twinge of embarrassment as he had not come with anything for the family... He was only prepared for Emmy's present. "Hi, I'm um, I'm Zander," he tried to give his best charming smile, but of course he was no match for Simon. Man, Simon why'd you gotta go making him look all bad and stuff. "I'm in the same house and year as Emmylou," he'd try at the charming smile once more. This was hard. Maybe he'd just hide under his fedora or something. That'd save him from this utter embarrassment!




Zander followed the woman who had greeted them at the door. AND WOAAAAAH. The hallway was way prettier than the front of the house- if that was even possible. This place was like straight out of a magazine or something! It was like a Hogwarts x2. O____o They had a pool!? WOAAAAAAH. And a fire pit?! See Zander actually appreciated fire pits now. Especially after having to make one for the groundskeeper. Yeah. Definitely a greater appreciation towards firepits. That's for sure. "Woaaah, than you so much... This place is really pretty."

Pretty was an understatement though.

Zander turned to Simon and gave him a huge wide eyed stare, one that just screamed 'WOW!'

"Nice to meet you as well," he replied with a smile. He then glanced around once more, then back to the lady. "Where do I put this?" he asked, holding up Emmy's present he had brought so that she could see it.



He then followed the group that was there outside. It was very nice out back too, they seemed to take pretty good care of the yard! He glanced towards the pool and wondered curiously if they would go swimming later, because he had indeed brought his swimming shorts. Heh. Dylan took a seat on one of the empty chairs and looked to see if anyone else had shown up.

Kace chuckled at Brady. "Hiii Brady" he nodded towards him. Now onto the woman who opened the door. Aahhhh so now Emmy was still getting ready. He chuckled. It was typical girlish behavior. He nodded and said, "Don't worry we can wait.." he told Miss Duchannes. Now onto the present. "Erm excuse me Miss Duchannes were do I put Emmy's present?" he asked kindly.

The present was from Kaylee as well. As Kaylee and Kace were following her to the back patio, they were both looking at each other in awe. This house was amazing. He wished he could live here. As they reached the patio, Kaylee asked..."Kace can I be with Brady for the rest of the night!? I promise I will be good.." she battered her eyelashes. Kace grinned and chuckled and said, "Alright, I trust you. If you do anything I will tell Auntie Kelly." he told her sternly.

Kaylee beamed and went to Brady. She was soo happy to be with Brady right now. She didn't like being glued to Kace all the time. He was too controlling. She loved him at the party. She went to him and said, "Hey Brady you know any games we can play?"

Kace then sat near the fire with Dylan. He got a marshmallow from the bag and began to roast. "Hey mate...how did your winter break go? Get any cool christmas presents?" he asked him. The fire felt nice today.

With the door opening Simon quickly passed the magical handy-dandy notebook to his lion pal. "It's all in there," he said with a wink. Yes, they would share this notebook and both profit from its information. Oh yes. That's what friends did. No mate would get left behind. "It means you know your 'stuff'"

So he had made the elderly sweet lady laugh? Score! His mother would have been proud of him being all good. Yes, yes, he was determined to make her proud. "I hope so. I'm trying my hardest to get into character," he explained, sounding more Australian by the time he had finished that very sentence. He blushed slightly. It'd take time to perfect that accent. It was just so difficult. He had to close down all of his vowels. It was such a foreign concept. His blue eyes widened at the mention of Louise having a french accent! Aha, he knew that he had been able to detect some sort of different accent that was not American. "It's a really swell combination. It's nice to meet you too," he said.

Simon hadn't been thinking how bad he must have been making Zander feel. He glanced at his friend and saw something was up with his friend. "Also those flowers are from Zander too. He helped me pick them out," he explained, adding a little white lie in there. Would that make his friend feel better? He hoped so. He loved spending time with his best Lion mate.

He returned Zander's 'WOW' glance with several quick nods. Yeah, this place was huge. He gave his friend a quick 'mind-blown' sign before Louise led them to the back patio to meet more people.

Once outside, Simon noticed that another familiar face was there. Oh hey! It was Emmy's boyfriend and his first Hufflepuff friend, Kace. "Hey Kace! How are you?" he called out with a grin.

Zander watched as Simon was his charming self. Man, he really needed to learn from his friend. The dude was goood. But then, when Simon looked over, Zander could tell that the boy was thinking up something. And then he spoke. WHAT. He looked over at his favorite Slytherin and gave him a 'what are you doing!?!' sort of look. Though, that was actually so sweet of Simon. Hm, Zander would have to repay him for that one later.

Zander looked around as Simon went to greet Kace. Oh, what?! Zander was in such complete awe of the house that he totally missed the fact that there were others there! He walked up to Kace, following Simon's lead. "Hiya Kace." That was the guy Zander had eaten breakfast with. Even though the boy was supposed to be at the hufflepuff table hehe. They were both pretty tired that day, huh?

Then, Zander looked over to the other boy (Dylan) who was sitting there. Hmmm... This one Zander didn't quite know... Should he introduce himself? Well it would've been rude if he didn't. And new friends and stuff... Hopefully. WAIT, where was Emmylou!? Why do girls take so long all the time. His mother was the same exact way back home. Anyways, "Hi, uhm, I don't think we've met... I'm Zander."

Dylan smiled as Kace joined him by the fire. "Hey, Kace! It was good. I got a new guitar strap and amp, oh and some records from old Muggle bands." he said with a nod. "What about you?" he asked, noticing Kace roasting a marshmallow. He had never quite roasted one before...but it didn't look hard! Grabbing a stick, he popped a marshmallow on like he had seen Kace do and he held it over the fire.

Then, another boy who looked around his age joined them around the fire. He didn't believe he had ever met him before, but he did recognize him from around the school. "Hey," he said to him with a smile. "I'm Dylan. Dylan Callaghan."

And another person Dylan didn't quite know too well joined. "Hey, it's nice to meet you, Zander!" he replied with a nod. Zander. Now that was a pretty cool name! "I'm Dylan." he smiled.

Oh. This guy was nice! That helped a lot. Normally meeting new people was always an intimidating experience for the Gryffindor, but it always helped when the people were nice. "Nice you meet you two, Dylan." Okay so this guy definitely looked at least a little familiar.... But how? "Do you go to Hogwarts too? Because I definitely think I've seen you around before even though we've never met..." Was that okay to ask? Uh.

As Kace was sitting by Emmy's firepit, he noticed Simon! Ah the third year slytherin he met in the dungeon corridors. Well the secret passageway. "Hey Simon!" he replied. "I am doing well waiting for my girlfriend to come out. You haven't seen her yet have you?" he asked curiously.



Then he noticed Zander was here! He remembered eating breakfast with the dude. Ahhh fun times. He was quite a hungry fellow that morning. "Hey Zander!" he returned the greeting. "How was your winter break?" he asked.



As he was roasting his marshmallow, he realized it was golden cripsy on the sides. He smiled and then grabbed the marshmallow with his hands and ate it. Yummmm tasted soo good! He nodded impressed he got a new guitar strap and amp. "Maybe we can jam out together what do you say?" he asked. "Oh and my winter break was fine. I was chilling a little with Emmy and with the family. I didn't do anything too big." he shrugged and grinned. He went over and got a second marshmallow. "I wonder what take girls soo long to get ready.." he wondered out loud with a smirk.

Awesome! Bay was so glad to be surrounded by friends, holding Lux's hand he brought her over to the fire pit where he was pulling out a seat for her. Smiling at everyone while he did so.. "here you go babe" he said. while going to go sit in his own chair.. This was totally going to be a fun time.

He still hasn't seen Emmy yet.. he yelled over to Kace… "hey mate.. wheres your girl?" he joked as he knew she would be out eventually.

Lux was having so much fun already and she had only just arrived. Smiling, she waved to all her friends and walked to the back patio with Bay. Happily she sat down in the seat he got out for her. "Thanks, honey." Aaah, this was amazing.

Bay's question to Kace made her laugh. She really did want to know where Emmy was. It wasn't nice to be late for your own party. "i want to see her and Cinna. I wonder where Willa is..."