Taryn was SUPER NERVOUS. Was it wrong for her to be nervous about this? She'd begged her father to let her go up to the Goldstein's flat alone, it had taken a LOT of convincing, but eventually he relented, but he still insisted on dropping her off at the door.

He could always meet Auggie's parents when he came to pick her up again, but right now, she was far too nervous to add that extra stress. After her father left, Taryn took a DEEP BREATH and lifted her hand to knock on the door after a bit of rearranging of the things she was carrying.

August had been very excited all day. Cleaning his room and rearranging his mother's knick-knacks around the house were just some of the things he had been doing in order to pass the time before Taryn would get there for dinner. He had written to her for the past few weeks and had received stories and news about Greece from her but it would be fun to hear them first hand. As he thought about it, he went to his room and began to flip through her letters.

So Auggie's little friend was coming today, was she not? The girl hopefully wouldn't be late she had spent all afternoon preparing that roast in the crockpot and Sarah would be highly disappointed if she had to toss it out. Not to mention she would be pretty sour towards the girl for ruining her well-made dinner.

And she wouldn't get any of the green mint pie she had bought at the supermarket that day.

Just as the woman had shot a glance at the clock on the kitchen wall, she heard a knock at the door and she wiped her hands on her apron before passing through the door of the kitchen, through the dining room, into the living room (where Exekiel was sititng on the couch watching the news) and into the foyer where the door was.

She opened the door and smiled at the girl standing there. "Why you must be Taryn? That's a lovely dress you are wearing dear! Come on in." She moved to the side, gesturing for the visitor to enter.

"August! Taryn is here!" She yelled down the hall to where the two bedrooms were located. "He will be right out, honey. You can come have a seat in the living room while you wait."

Despite her nerves, Taryn still managed to be her lovely charming self as soon as the door opened. "Yes, I am." She blushed a little about the comment on her dress, she HAD torn through her closet all morning looking for just the right thing. Her room was an absolute mess now, but that would have to be taken care of later. She had bigger priorities at the moment.

"Thank you." HEHE. Blush. She stepped inside quickly, but not TOO quickly. She didn't want to keep the woman waiting with the door open. Glancing around for a quick moment, she turned her eyes back to the woman and smiled again, hopefully August wouldn't take long... it would make her LESS nervous when he was there and she wasn't alone with his family. EEK.

"These are for you." She said, holding out the bouquet of magnolias. "I hope you like them. I thought they were quite lovely." ALSO. "Oh, and these as well..." She gestured to the little tray/tree of cupcakes, yes... she'd brought presents.

Had she mentioned that she was nervous....?

"You're quite welcome." Sarah said as she closed the door behind the girl. When she turned around she was a bit caught off guard by the gifts of flowers and cupcakes Taryn had brought.

"Ohhh...they are beautiful!" Flowers AND cupcakes! "Well you are just all sorts of prepared, aren't you? Thanks so much sweetie I will just go put the flowers in a vase and then get these into the kitchen." she said grabbing the tray from her.

The woman left the foyer into the living room, expecting the young witch to follow. "Ezekiel, we have a guest!" She chirped as she passed through the room. "This is Auggie's girlfriend, Taryn."

She then passed through the door into the kitchen and started to run the sink to fill the vase. Sarah couldn't help but wonder if the flowers she held in her hand were conjured up by some weird magic but she wouldn't say anything. That was one thing that was nice when Auggie was away, she didn't have to worry about stumbling into one of his magic things and messing it up or having it break something around the house.

Wait, another kid in the house?

August's father looked at the young girl who entered the living room with his wife and took his glasses off and sent her a smile. "Hello there Taryn, Ezekiel Goldstein." He stood from the couch and waited for her to take a seat before sitting again.

...

"August should be out any moment."

She was here?!?

August wasn't wearing what he wanted to wear for their dinner together! *spazz* He needed to change.

"Be right out!!" the boy shouted before slamming his door shut again. He quickly grabbed a purple polo shirt and khaki pants from his dresser and threw them on and then walked over to his mirror to mess with his curly hair.

Well, it WAS proper to bring a gift for your host/hostess, yes? Taryn knew that for SURE, her grandmother had raised her up right. Manners, she had them. "They're a special recipe that my grandmother taught me." She added, nodding at the cupcakes. Cupcakes were cupcakes, you know? There wasn't much one could change about them, but she was certain that her grandmother made everything better than anyone else.

Not that she was going to say that to August's mother. NO WAY.

"And the flowers are from her garden." She added just as the woman walked into the kitchen to fill up a vase. She glanced into the next room and at the man who had stood up and spoken to her. Auggie's dad. He looked nice. She smiled and stepped around to take a seat, noting that he was waiting for her. "Nice to meet you, sir." She chirped with another one of those lovely smiles she did so well.

She folded her hands in her lap properly and glanced in the direction that August's voice had come from. He'd better show up SOON or she was going to hit him the first chance she got.

"Lovely!" Sarah could be heard saying as the kitchen door swung on it's frame as she tended to the flowers and checked on the roast. Well it sort of calmed her down that the flowers were real.

Now she had a real delema...mint pie or cupcakes?

He had no idea what to do with his son's girlfriend sitting in his living room--not to mention she was a witch! She had, no doubt magical parents, which meant she was probably was more magical? than Auggie. Who knew.

Ezekiel looked at her again, and then back to the news. "Do you watch the news often?" He asked her kindly. He wasn't sure what kids were really up to these days, he was a math teacher after all.

Suddenly, a little head popped around the corner, brown eyes staring at the girl sitting on the couch with her father. This was Auggie's GIRLFRIEND?! And she was a witch, coinsidentally making her super awesome.

Slyvia stepped out into the living room in her teal dress and pulled on her pigtail as she sat down ont he couch RIGHT BESIDE Taryn. "Hi Taryn, I'm Slyvia."

Ok he was finished getting dressed and ready so he left his room and walked into the livign room to meet Taryn. But she wasn't alone.

Merlin, his parents were probably bothering her so much...what?!

"Slyvia, leave her alone." He said, blushing and walking into the room to sit beside Taryn. "Hey sorry about all of this." he gave her a quick hug and then looked around the room, trying to avoid catching eyes with his father.

Taryn glanced from the kitchen door back to Auggie's father. "Oh, no... not really. We actually didn't even have a television at home." Not her dad's house anyway. Her grandparents had a television though, and all they ever watched WAS the news.

She smiled kindly at the little girl when she seemingly suddenly materialized beside her. Taryn remembered her conversation with Auggie, about his sister waiting for her magic too. She tilted her head to look at the girl (finally, someone she was taller than!) "Hi Sylvia. I like your dress."

Taryn lifted her eyes again when August FINALLY made his entrance. She returned his hug with more of a squeeze than she'd meant. She was STILL nervous but SO glad that he was finally here to take a little bit of the pressure off. "She's alright." She was rather cute too. "Besides, you know I don't have any sisters of my own." So, Taryn was planning on befriending Auggie's sister. Yep.

If they had been alone, she would have expected him to COMMENT on her TAN, which was AMAZING, but... hehe. maybe later.

Really? "No televsion, huh? So you must read that newspaper Auggie gets then? The one with the moving pictures?" He had to admit he had read an issue or two here and there and just couldn't keep up with any of the stories. Without any background, there wasn't much to hold onto.

But hopefully she did read the paper, it was important for young people to be caught up on the day's news. Oh and Auggie was here now, he wasn't expected to keep up with the small talk was he? Surely she would enjoy his son's company than her's now.

Taryn was really pretty, Slyvia hoped she would be that pretty when she grew up. "Thanks, my mo bought it for me the other day. It's my favorite color." She took a second and then asked the question she was dying to ask.

"What's your favorite color Taryn?" Yeah, that was important for sure. Suddenly her older brother was in the room, taking the attention away from her. *pout*

"Hey Auggie. Taryn's very pretty." She didn't care if it embarrassed him, she was.

Taryn wasn't freaked out by Slyvia practically jumping in her lap from excitment? Well she was pretty understanding for not having little siblings then. "Ok, well she can stay then." he made an over-exaggerated face at his sister and then smiled at her to show he was joking.

"So Taryn, did you find the place ok? Was your dad ok with you coming?" He could stop looking at how nice she looked in her pink dress and tanned skin, the sun did her well it Greece it seemed.

"The Daily Prophet?" Taryn smiled, "Well yes, I do. I also enjoy Mu-" ERRRRRRRRRRR. DONT SAY THE M WORD. "Other forms of literature." She trailed off, slightly red faced at her silly slip and glanced at August. Oh gosh. Oh gosh.

Well, August's dad had seemed to go back to watching the news, so hopefully he hadn't even noticed her slip.

Taryn turned her attention back to Sylvia as she blurted out a question at her. "My favorite color also happens to be the color of my dress." She smoothed her dress and smiled at the girl, smiling even bigger when the sister told Auggie that she was pretty.

HEHE. HEHE. She nudged his leg. "You know you're supposed to agree with her, right?" HEHE. She shrugged, "It was fine. I managed to talk my dad into letting me walk up on my own, but I suspect he'll be here to pick me up later."

"That's the one!" Ezekiel exclaimed, slapping the knee of his crossed over leg. That was the name of that wacky paper that talked about self-stirring cualdrens and exploding cats or whatever.

Utter craziness. But it was pretty neat all the same. After hearing her go on about other forms of literature he was thoroughly impressed and glad she was well educated. The slip up of almost calling him a Muggle went unnoticed because he thought she was just going to call him Mr. Goldstein. Back to the news.

Slyvia giggled when Taryn badgered Auggie about agreeing that she was pretty. She was right, boys never did what they were supposed to do though. "Well I really like pink too. It's probably my second favorite color." Yep, just that she knew.

"I do agree." Auggie said, tiny pink splotches erupting on his cheeks. He wasn't about to gush all over her in front of his father and little sister was he? So her father would be back to pick her up, "That's good." He was about to ask her about her trip with Mo but was cut off bye a shout from the kitchen.

"Dinner's ready everyone!" Mrs. Goldstein came through the kitchen door, her arms carrying the large platter of roast beef, potatoes and carrots. "Sylvia, will you grab the rolls dear?"

Auggie looked up and then stood, reaching for Taryn's hand. "Come on, let's grab seats." He wanted her to sit next to him rather than Slyvia. That would have been pretty bad.

Taryn had begun to feel less nervous sitting in the living room. Auggie's father had an oddly soothing presence, Sylvia adored her and so did Auggie, obvs, so it had all settled her nerves.

Until, of course, it was time to eat.

Then she got nervous all over again.

EEP.

"Yes, let's." She held on to his hand tightly and followed. "Smells lovely." She commented lightly, directing it towards Auggie's mother. For some reason, it was Mrs. Goldstein that made her the MOST nervous.

Auggie chose his normal seat on the left side of the table, beside his father and sunk into it, gesturing to Taryn to take the one next to him beside his mom. "Now you get to experience a dinner at my house." he said with a smile and then began to help himself to some of the potatoes from the platter, some carrots, and a bit of roast. He gave Taryn some too.

Slyvia reentered the dining room carrying the basket of rolls, her mouth dropping open in surpise. "August! I wanted to sit next to Taryn!" She glared at him and then stomped over to her chair across the table from her and sat down, pouting a bit as her mother spooned her food onto her plate.

"Oh thank you Taryn, it should, I've spent hours on it." Yep, lots of effort to be sure this dinner went perfectly. Auggie had been nervous about Taryn coming to meet them. He hadn't told her, really, but she could tell. He was her son.

After she had responded to Taryn's wonderful compliment, she turned to the ruckus Sylvia was causing over something so ludicrus. "Oh Slyvia, calm down. She's Auggie's guest. Eat your carrots." After she had gotten her own food, and the same for her husband, who was the last to join them, Sarah sat down and then took a few bites before speaking again.

"So Taryn, what's your family like?"

"Are they all wizards too?!" Auggie's little sister blurted out, sitting up excitedly. Obviously she had been bursting to talk about magic ever since the new person had arrived.

Auggie practically spit out the food he was chewing and look at Slyvia, angrily. He then turned back to Taryn, "I'm sorry, she doesn't know how to act to guests."

She SO did like it when Auggie made her plate for her. She liked being served sometimes, hehe, like she was a PRINCESS.

She smiled at him and hoped that she didn't LOOK as nervous as she felt, but one thing was for certain, the food definitely tasted as good as it smelled. She chewed carefully and swallowed fully before opening her mouth to reply to the question Mrs. Goldstein had posed..

Though, she was interrupted.

She glanced at August, who seemed to be annoyed with his sister, and then she glanced at both of his parents. "It's alright." She spoke, but it was mostly for August, since he was the one apologizing for his sister's question, "My father is a Wizard." She nodded. "My mother was not, her family is non magical." Taryn smiled then and it occurred to her that was probably why she was so nervous about Auggie's mom, because she didn't HAVE one.

"I spend a lot of time with my grandparents on my mom's side, my dad works a lot." Yeaaaaaaah... that was about it.

During all of this conversation, Ezekiel Goldstein just ate quietly. He had learned a year or so after his marriage to Sarah that she was a talker and pretty much, the talker of the family. In return he became a great listener.

He winked at Slyvia after her little outburst and then continued to eat.

August wasn't as nervous when Taryn began to speak. He seriously was going to start getting grey hair if this sort of thing happened all the time. The boy was far too stressed for a meal, but it wasn't just any meal, it was the one where his girlfriend met his family for the first time but he must say, he will be relieved when it was over and he could just go hang out with her.

Her mother WAS non-magical?

Sarah listened intently and then scrunched her eyebrows, much like Auggie did when he was trying to figure somethingh out, but then her eyes opened widely and she composed her face after the realization came to her. "I'm so sorry sweetheart. But at least you still have such a wonderful family."

She was motherless, and that was horrible. Sarah couldn't believe it. And she had been worried the girl would ruin something.

"So Auggie's told us a lot about you, you're in a different house than him at school? Do you still get to see each other often?"

Taryn shrugged her shoulders at the response she got to that, but then remembered how her grandmother was always complaining about how 'young people these days' always shrugged their shoulders.

So, she smiled a little, "It's alright, I was quite young." Yeah, like.. a newborn, but whatever. She didn't want to upset Sylvia or something...

She smiled more when the woman revealed that Auggie had told them a LOT about her. HEHE. Had he now? She glanced at him, saying that with her face. HEHE. "Yes, I'm in Slytherin house, our common room and dorms are in the dungeons of the castle." As opposed to the Gryffindor tower, but she was sure his mother knew all about that, right? "We see each other in class and as often as possible." HEHE.... she blushed about that and glanced at Auggie out of the corner of her eye.

August nodded towards his mother about the time he spent with Taryn at Hogwarts. "Yeah, usually we have most evenings free, unless we have an Astronomy lesson, but most of the time we spend it together or with other friends." So basically they had plenty of time together, regardless of their different houses. No worry there.

Now he was just waiting for the time after the meal when they could be alone.

"That's lovely."

Sarah nodded kindly at the remark about her being young and not really knowing what had happened when her mother passed. That was at least better than if it had been recent.

After their plates had been emptied of food from their meal and after finishing the cupcakes Taryn had brought (they would save the mint pie for later) Mrs. Goldstein stood and began to clear the table. Mr. Goldstein took Slyvia into his office to help her with her studies leaving Auggie and Taryn alone.

"So you want to come see my room?" Yeah, they could just hang out now and not be so nervous about his family.

Taryn nodded eagerly, "Yes. I think that's a good idea." Auggie's family was super nice and all, but she wanted to have a few minutes where she didn't feel so NERVOUS.

She patiently waited for him to show her the way, looking much more patient than she actually felt.

"Excellent." He said, quietly so that Taryn could hear him and not his mother in the kitchen.

"Thanks for dinner mom! We're going to be in my room if you need us!" And with that the fifteen year old took his girlfriend's hand and then led her back through the living room, into the foyer and down the hall the direction they hadn't been to before. They entered the first door on the left and were now in Auggie's room.

The place was much cleaner that it had been in a while. The walls were plastered with Manchester United football team posters, a few muggle movie posters were placed here and there aswell. His book shelf of novels and comic books was in the corner by his bed and a desk with a computer stood on the opposite wall with his tv and school trunk.

"Here's my chambers." Auggie said with his hands spread wide, as if showing off the grandeur that was his living space. He walked over to his bed and plopped down on the navy bedspread.

"Your mom won't mind?" She asked belatedly, glancing over her shoulder back towards the direction the rest of the family was in.

She sure hoped that his parents wouldn't mind that she was in his room, she would be so embarrassed if they got upset about it. Glancing around the room, Taryn took in EVERYTHING, memorizing it all, committing it to memory. Surely all of this would come in handy, especially around Hanukkah and birthdays, right? "Ooooh. You have a computer." Taryn touched it. She didn't have a computer and her grandparents SURELY didn't have one. "My dad has lots of them at work." But nothing she had ever been interested in, really.

She wandered toward the bookshelf and picked up one of the comics, flipping through it.

Huh.

Boys.

"I wouldn't see why not. She's just down the hall." His mother had agreed to allow Taryn to come over after all. His father didn't mind at all on that sort of thing but his mother was usually the one all over guests and such.

Auggie watcher her with a smile on his lips as she looked all over his room and then came to the computer, eyeing it. "Yep, I've got a few games on there too. But I haven't played them much recently, I've just mainly been on the internet on it nowadays. You know, Muggle stuff." he chuckled.

Coming over to her and taking the comic book from her and placing it back on the shelf, Auggie spoke again. "So did you like them, my family. I know they were nervous to meet you. At least mum was."

WELL. She wasn't quite done looking at the thing yet, but August seemed to think she was. So... okay. She was done now. Taryn smiled at his question. "I do like them, they're all so nice." His mom had been nervous about her?!

"I was most nervous about meeting your mother." She admitted. It was the whole MOTHER thing, she'd realized this now, but wondered if August had picked up on that. Probably not though, right? Boys weren't exactly intuitive. Now that she had answered his question, she grinned, "Here's a question for you." HEHE. Without even thinking about it, she reached for his hand. "Did you miss me?"

OF COURSE he had, but she definitely just wanted to hear him SAY he had. Duuh.

Phew.

August had been nervous Taryn would have disliked his parents for whatever reason and then wouldn't want to come back and spend time here with him. But he didn't need to worry about that now since things had gone well, his parents liked Taryn, and nothing exploded.

His mother...? Well he guessed that had made sense. Taryn didn't have a mom and most likely didn't know how to act around them. "You did well with her, she likes you. Believe me." he took her hand that had been extended out to him and squeezed it gently.

"Are you seriously asking me that Taryn? I missed you so much." Hadn't the letters shown her that? "I just didn't want to go over the top when my parents were in the room." He wasn't going to kiss her infront of them. And with that he kissed her on the cheek.

"Did you miss me? How was Greece? What's Mo up to?" He fired the questions at her, excited to hear the answer to at least the first two.

Taryn was well pleased with this. Auggie's family LIKED HER. She hadn't been expecting them not to, to be honest. She knew how to be a polite guest and SHE thought she was an awesome girl, so.. obviously other people thought that too, right?

"Are you seriously asking me that, August?" She repeated what he had JUST said and grinned some more, quite cheekily this time. Speaking of cheeks, she gave him a cheek!kiss too. HEHE.

Then she SIGHED. It was a longing sort of sigh, like her SOUL had been torn in two. "I love Greece. It's SO beautiful. I wish I was Greek. I want to LIVE there forever." Yep. THAT was how Greece was.

She wasn't sure what to say about Mo, though. He'd been SO happy to be home, but at the same time... there was that THING.

"Did you know that Mo likes me?" She asked. "Like... LIKE likes me?" LIKE... YOU KNOW.


.....DID HE KNOW?

The kiss on his cheek spread from his face and made his whole body warm.

He had certainly missed those. Auggie was glad to see how Taryn's face lit up as she spoke about Greece. She had seemed to have so much fun. "I really wish I had been able to go with you. We need to take a trip together one day." That was for sure, his parents wouldn't mind if they stayed together and were serious. They had been dating for a year now--almost.

Auggie was smiling until he heard one bit of information at the end of the retelling of her trip that didn't settle right in his head.

"Wait, he what?" Auggie was stunned. She had to be joking right? Mo was her friend, what did she mean he liked her. "I don't understand, he likes you? What did you tell him?" She had better told him to back off. She was dating Auggie, that was why the boy had seemed to try and avoid him at all costs.