RP Log: Carys and Louis
Who: Carys, Louis (and Dominique and the Rees grandparents)
Where: Carreg Goch, Llanfair P.G.
When: 10 am, Mar 9
What: Louis and Dominique come to pick up Carys for the World Cup, and run into some resistance.
The lane was deserted when Louis and Dominique appeared with a loud crack - probably a good thing, as it was mainly Muggles who lived around here, and having wizards appearing out of thin air wouldn't exactly be the norm. Glancing round, Louis dropped his sister's arm, and took a tentative step towards the nearest door. “I think here's the right place,” he said, more to himself than anyone else. On second thoughts, he glanced back to Dominique. “Do I look Muggle-y enough?” he enquired, turning back to the path when she nodded. After brushing a few strands of hair out of his eyes, he covered the rest of the distance to the door. He was slightly nervous, although he didn't know why. Maybe it was the concept of meeting Carys's grandparents that was worrying him - she'd mentioned several times that they weren't exactly big fans of magic, so it seemed logical to him that they wouldn't be overly thrilled at having him turn up on their doorstep. But he had nothing to lose, really. After waiting for Dominique to catch up with him, he raised his hand and knocked firmly on the door three times.
Carys had been waiting with nervous excitement ever since she'd received Louis's second (well, all right, first) owl. As she'd predicted, her grandparents were completely against her going off camping with other wizards -- and a boy, at that -- but she'd managed to convince them to at least meet Louis and Dominique. Now, upon the sound of the knock, she jumped out of her chair and nervously smoothed down her prim skirt and blouse. Behind her, her grandparents tried very hard to look like they weren't as nervous as she was.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the door, her face lighting up upon seeing Louis and Dominique standing outside the farm house. "Louis! Dominique! Please, come in. My grandparents are here." Feeling self-conscious and even more nervous, she gestured them into the modestly appointed building.
It was a simple split-level structure in the middle of a vast expanse of farm land; somewhere beyond the rolling hills, the twinkling lights of the next homestead could be seen, but Carys's home was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It was neat and clean inside, full of homey touches that had obviously been passed down through the generations. Carys led her visitors into the sitting room, where her elderly grandparents waited.
Louis smiled as the door opened, glad it was Carys who had opened the door rather than a member of her family. “Carys, it's good to see you,” he told her, stepping forward slightly and awkwardly wondering whether to give her a hug. Deciding against it, he followed her into the lounge, still wondering why he was feeling worried. He looked curiously around him as he entered the house - this was the first time he had been inside a completely Muggle home, and he was able to recognise some of the things Professor Hookum always talked about. Was that a telephone? How extraordinary.
Unsure whether to introduce himself to Carys's grandparents or whether to wait for her to introduce him, he balanced on the edges of his feet in the middle of the room, still glancing around him occasionally. Not wanting to be rude, he nodded to them. “I'm sorry my Dad couldn't come,” he said. “He's still sorting out some last minute arrangements, but Dominique consented to bring me instead.” Louis nodded towards his sister, who was stood by the door looking considerably more comfortable than he was feeling at that moment.
When there came that moment where Louis looked like he might have stepped forward to hug her, Carys stilled. They didn't have that sort of relationship, she and Louis, but she couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of disappointment that he didn't hug her after all. She hoped her blush didn't give her away.
Inside the sitting room, she was introducing them now. "Grandfather, Grandmother, this is Dominique and Louis Weasley."
Alwyn Rees was a hawk-nosed man who had the look of one who had been burly in youth. He frowned. "You didn't tell me they were French," he said in Welsh, and Carys winced. To her grandfather, the French were even worse than the English.
“It's nice to meet you,” Louis said, inclining his head again towards the elderly couple. He may not have understood Welsh, but his intuition told him that whatever had just been said wasn't quite a compliment. He felt like he was under scrutiny, and his hands were twisting over each other again and again. Not enjoying the silences, he cast about for something else to say. “You have a lovely home,” he volunteered, remembering what his mother had told him before they'd left. He made an effort not to meet Dominique's eyes - he knew she found it amusing when he was on the spot and to have one or both of them burst out laughing would be the last thing they needed.
“So, I expect you have plenty of questions about the World Cup,” he ventured again, trying to be helpful but not comfortable enough to make eye contact. He shot a smile at Carys, trying to appear confident. “Carys will be in good hands, we'll make sure to look after her.”
"They're really very nice," Carys was hastening to assure her grandfather. "Not at all swotty."
She smiled nervously as Louis spoke up, but from the look on her grandparents' faces, they weren't at all impressed.
"Tell him we don't want you in any hands," her grandfather said, still speaking in Welsh. Now Carys was sure she was blushing.
"It's not like that," she told him, painfully embarrassed. As much as she wanted to reply in welsh so that Louis and Dominique wouldn't have to hear about this, she spoke in English so they wouldn't be shut out. "I'll be staying with Dominique. It's a really amazing thing, Grandfather, like the World Cup of football! It only happens once every four years, and this is the final game. There will be lots of people there."
The disapproving look on the faces of Carys's grandparents wasn't lost on Louis, and he bit his lip as he struggled to come up with something more impressive to say. He shot Dominique a meaningful look, wanting her to contribute something. It was another few seconds before she spoke up, however, and Louis was suspicious that she was quite enjoying herself. “She'll be sharing my tent,” was her contribution, “It's an amazing opportunity, it really would be a shame to miss it.”
Louis turned back around, slightly more confident now his sister had added her two cents. “There'll be loads of people we know from school, plus loads of our family will be there.” He didn't know if this would help matters, but there was no harm in pointing it out.
“Plus, I'll be celebrating my sixteenth birthday while we're there,” was his afterthought, although that probably wouldn't be much of a plus point as far as they were concerned.
Evidently, her grandparents weren't impressed by the fact that his birthday was coming up, either. The fact that the rest of his family would be there, though, seemed to register.
"What does their family do?" That was Carys's grandmother now. She, too, spoke in Welsh, and had the thin, pinched look of a constant worrier.
"Mr. Weasley is...a curse breaker...?" Carys turned to Louis and Dominique for confirmation. "And Mrs. Weasley works in the Ministry in international affairs."
Louis nodded, perhaps a little more enthusiastically than necessary. “Dad works for the bank, basically,” he explained, thinking that 'curse-breaker' seemed a little scary sounding. “Our other sister, Victoire, works for the newspaper. She's not going, though. That's why we have a spare ticket.”
“I'm training to be a Healer,” Dominique said, flipping her long red hair over her shoulder and evidently not wanting to be left out of the occupation-sharing. “Like a doctor, I think you call them?”
Shooting a smile in the direction of his sister, Louis balanced on the outsides of his feet again, grateful that his family were in reputable occupations. Well, in the wizarding world at least. He had no idea about what any of this would mean to Muggles.
They were all respectable professions in most of the muggle world too, but not to a Welsh farmer. Carys, realising that this had been the wrong route to go, rushed in with more information. "Their grandparents live just outside Devon." She frantically racked her memory for information that Louis had told her about them. "with chickens that they raise, and they grow their own vegetables too, and their home is by some woods that they can fish in. Isn't that right, Louis?" There was a desperate edge creeping into her voice now.
Louis nodded again, feeling like he would soon get a crick in his neck. “We live not far from them, too. Our house is right on the Devon coastline, so we've got a nice big garden and Mum grows plenty of vegetables. Dad always said that her and Victoire had green fingers.” He was unable to meet Dominique's eye again, as he took her silence to mean that she was on the verge of laughing again.
He felt under even more under scrutiny than he had when they'd arrived, and glancing at the clock, he was surprised by how much time had passed. There was no point in bringing that up, though. Rushing wouldn't look good and besides, they had plenty of time.
That seemed to be along the right track. Alwyn's frown grew a little less fierce. "How long will you be gone?" he asked his daughter gruffly.
"The match is in a week, so...I suppose I'd come back then?" Again, Carys looked to Louis and Dominique for confirmation.
Now they were on more familiar territory, Louis felt himself relax a bit. “Well, the match is on the 15th so we'll come back on the 16th, probably. Maybe the 17th if we can't get a portkey straight away.” He didn't know whether they'd be familiar with portkeys, but he didn't want to treat them like they didn't know anything.
Dominique piped up again. “We're only going so early because of the type of tickets we've got. It's all meticulously organised, there's no chance for anything to go wrong.” Nobody was going to mention what happened the last time the World Cup final was held in Britain. Besides, that was years and years ago.
And still Alwyn frowned. "I don't like it," he grumbled, but Carys, having familiarized herself with all his frowns, realised that he had already agreed.
She managed to keep herself from bouncing on the spot, but she couldn't stop herself from breaking into a brilliant smile. "Oh, thank you, Grandfather, thank you very much!"
Still grumbling, Alwyn switched to English for the first time. "How much are the tickets, then?"
If Carys had been standing close enough, Louis probably would have high-fived her, but instead he had to settle for clasping his hands together and grinning. His smile faltered a little when her grandfather spoke, understanding him for the first time since stepping inside the house.
Fortunately, Dominique stepped in. “I think they're around 30 galleons a ticket,” she said, and Louis wondered how much that would be in Muggle money. “But don't worry about it, it's our treat.” She smiled brightly, in a way that reminded Louis very much of their mother. He was glad he'd brought her.
...oops. Instantly, Alwyn's eyebrows beetled together. "We can pay our own way," he growled.
At the same time, Carys interjected, realising that this might fall apart after all. "Oh! I can pay you back, really. I've been saving for something big, and this is...yes, well, I'll pay you back."
She nodded franticlaly to Louis, willing him to agree. She hoped he would, and that they could go quickly. As much as she loved her grandparents, she knew how antagonistic they -- especially her grandfather -- could be, and she hoped that Louis and Dominique weren't going to think that she was going to be too much trouble to take along after all.
“I'm sure we can sort it out at a later date,” Louis said quickly. He'd never planned on asking for money in exchange for the ticket, but he could sense that it was important to go along with it right now. “I wasn't implying anything about... well, I'm sure we can come to some sort of arrangement.”
He shut up quickly, privately thinking about how scary he found Mr Rees. He tried not to compare him to his own grandfather, the enthusiastic eccentric that he was, which led him to wonder what would happen should the two men ever meet. A smile twitched at the corners of his lips and he struggled to keep a straight face. Behind him, Dominique looked pointedly at her pocket watch.
"Arrangement?" Alwyn barked, switching back to Welsh again. He fixed an accusing look at this granddaughter, who cringed.
"No, no! It's nothing like that!" Carys switched into Welsh now too. "I'm going to be sharing a tent with Dominique. Just Dominique."
"You will not go into his tent."
"No, Grandfather."
"Nor he yours.
"No, Grandfather." Was it possible to die of embarrassment? Carys was close to finding out.
Alwyn's nostrils flared as he pinned Louis under his gaze. Finally, after a few long, dragged out moments, he finally said, "Go."
As they conversed in rapid Welsh, Louis felt unnerved again. He couldn't quite figure out what he'd said this time. He bit his lip worriedly, chancing a glance at his sister who fortunately did not seem on the verge of giggles. Carys appeared flushed and he bit his lip, hoping she'd be allowed to come. As Alwyn Rees fixed him with his gaze, Louis held eye contact with him, suddenly very conscious of the way he was holding himself.
However, the last word was the one he had been waiting for, and it was all he could do to stop himself laughing out loud to relieve the tension. He was even more tempted to hug her now than he had been earlier, but something told him that it would not be a good idea.
“Thank you, sir!” he said happily, before turning to Carys. “Are you packed? Dom will have to apparate us back home first. You can meet Mum, she'll probably insist on feeding us up a bit before we go to find our portkey.” He was babbling and he knew it, something which was unusual for him. “It's going to be so great.”
"Oh, thank you! Thank you, Grandfather!" Carys turned to Louis, grinning uncontrollably, and nodded happily. "I am! I'll bring it right down. Thank you!" This was tossed to the group at large, and she ran up the stairs to her room.
Scarcely before her grandparents had a chance to say anything else, she was back. She didn't want to leave any chances that Dominique or Louis would say something else well-meaning but obliviously offensive and have her grandfather change her mind.
"I'll be back soon," she promised. She didn't hug her grandparents; they simply weren't the hugging type, but her grandmother spared her a gentle - if worried - smile.
That was the extent of her goodbyes, and now she turned to Louis and Dominique. "Thank you," she said again.
Louis had by now learned his lesson about saying things that may be taken as offensive, so nothing more than a few strained glances passed between them as Carys was fetching her stuff. When she returned, Louis followed Dominique back to the front door, meaning to leave Carys to say good bye to her grandparents, and was surprised to find her catching up with them so quickly. “Ready?” he asked her with a smile.
Back out in the lane, Dominique took told of Louis's arm with her right hand and Carys's with her left. “Have you ever apparated side-along before?” Louis asked Carys briefly. “It only lasts a second or two, just hang onto your bag.” He shot her another reassuring smile and looked back over at her house one more time as Dominique turned on the spot.
Carys hadn't Apparated by side-along before. She hadn't Apparated at all, really, so it was with some trepidation that she held on to Dominique's hand. But she was going to the World Cup! She returned Louis's reassuring smile with a glowing one of her own. This was going to be brilliant. She just knew it.
Where: Carreg Goch, Llanfair P.G.
When: 10 am, Mar 9
What: Louis and Dominique come to pick up Carys for the World Cup, and run into some resistance.
The lane was deserted when Louis and Dominique appeared with a loud crack - probably a good thing, as it was mainly Muggles who lived around here, and having wizards appearing out of thin air wouldn't exactly be the norm. Glancing round, Louis dropped his sister's arm, and took a tentative step towards the nearest door. “I think here's the right place,” he said, more to himself than anyone else. On second thoughts, he glanced back to Dominique. “Do I look Muggle-y enough?” he enquired, turning back to the path when she nodded. After brushing a few strands of hair out of his eyes, he covered the rest of the distance to the door. He was slightly nervous, although he didn't know why. Maybe it was the concept of meeting Carys's grandparents that was worrying him - she'd mentioned several times that they weren't exactly big fans of magic, so it seemed logical to him that they wouldn't be overly thrilled at having him turn up on their doorstep. But he had nothing to lose, really. After waiting for Dominique to catch up with him, he raised his hand and knocked firmly on the door three times.
Carys had been waiting with nervous excitement ever since she'd received Louis's second (well, all right, first) owl. As she'd predicted, her grandparents were completely against her going off camping with other wizards -- and a boy, at that -- but she'd managed to convince them to at least meet Louis and Dominique. Now, upon the sound of the knock, she jumped out of her chair and nervously smoothed down her prim skirt and blouse. Behind her, her grandparents tried very hard to look like they weren't as nervous as she was.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the door, her face lighting up upon seeing Louis and Dominique standing outside the farm house. "Louis! Dominique! Please, come in. My grandparents are here." Feeling self-conscious and even more nervous, she gestured them into the modestly appointed building.
It was a simple split-level structure in the middle of a vast expanse of farm land; somewhere beyond the rolling hills, the twinkling lights of the next homestead could be seen, but Carys's home was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It was neat and clean inside, full of homey touches that had obviously been passed down through the generations. Carys led her visitors into the sitting room, where her elderly grandparents waited.
Louis smiled as the door opened, glad it was Carys who had opened the door rather than a member of her family. “Carys, it's good to see you,” he told her, stepping forward slightly and awkwardly wondering whether to give her a hug. Deciding against it, he followed her into the lounge, still wondering why he was feeling worried. He looked curiously around him as he entered the house - this was the first time he had been inside a completely Muggle home, and he was able to recognise some of the things Professor Hookum always talked about. Was that a telephone? How extraordinary.
Unsure whether to introduce himself to Carys's grandparents or whether to wait for her to introduce him, he balanced on the edges of his feet in the middle of the room, still glancing around him occasionally. Not wanting to be rude, he nodded to them. “I'm sorry my Dad couldn't come,” he said. “He's still sorting out some last minute arrangements, but Dominique consented to bring me instead.” Louis nodded towards his sister, who was stood by the door looking considerably more comfortable than he was feeling at that moment.
When there came that moment where Louis looked like he might have stepped forward to hug her, Carys stilled. They didn't have that sort of relationship, she and Louis, but she couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of disappointment that he didn't hug her after all. She hoped her blush didn't give her away.
Inside the sitting room, she was introducing them now. "Grandfather, Grandmother, this is Dominique and Louis Weasley."
Alwyn Rees was a hawk-nosed man who had the look of one who had been burly in youth. He frowned. "You didn't tell me they were French," he said in Welsh, and Carys winced. To her grandfather, the French were even worse than the English.
“It's nice to meet you,” Louis said, inclining his head again towards the elderly couple. He may not have understood Welsh, but his intuition told him that whatever had just been said wasn't quite a compliment. He felt like he was under scrutiny, and his hands were twisting over each other again and again. Not enjoying the silences, he cast about for something else to say. “You have a lovely home,” he volunteered, remembering what his mother had told him before they'd left. He made an effort not to meet Dominique's eyes - he knew she found it amusing when he was on the spot and to have one or both of them burst out laughing would be the last thing they needed.
“So, I expect you have plenty of questions about the World Cup,” he ventured again, trying to be helpful but not comfortable enough to make eye contact. He shot a smile at Carys, trying to appear confident. “Carys will be in good hands, we'll make sure to look after her.”
"They're really very nice," Carys was hastening to assure her grandfather. "Not at all swotty."
She smiled nervously as Louis spoke up, but from the look on her grandparents' faces, they weren't at all impressed.
"Tell him we don't want you in any hands," her grandfather said, still speaking in Welsh. Now Carys was sure she was blushing.
"It's not like that," she told him, painfully embarrassed. As much as she wanted to reply in welsh so that Louis and Dominique wouldn't have to hear about this, she spoke in English so they wouldn't be shut out. "I'll be staying with Dominique. It's a really amazing thing, Grandfather, like the World Cup of football! It only happens once every four years, and this is the final game. There will be lots of people there."
The disapproving look on the faces of Carys's grandparents wasn't lost on Louis, and he bit his lip as he struggled to come up with something more impressive to say. He shot Dominique a meaningful look, wanting her to contribute something. It was another few seconds before she spoke up, however, and Louis was suspicious that she was quite enjoying herself. “She'll be sharing my tent,” was her contribution, “It's an amazing opportunity, it really would be a shame to miss it.”
Louis turned back around, slightly more confident now his sister had added her two cents. “There'll be loads of people we know from school, plus loads of our family will be there.” He didn't know if this would help matters, but there was no harm in pointing it out.
“Plus, I'll be celebrating my sixteenth birthday while we're there,” was his afterthought, although that probably wouldn't be much of a plus point as far as they were concerned.
Evidently, her grandparents weren't impressed by the fact that his birthday was coming up, either. The fact that the rest of his family would be there, though, seemed to register.
"What does their family do?" That was Carys's grandmother now. She, too, spoke in Welsh, and had the thin, pinched look of a constant worrier.
"Mr. Weasley is...a curse breaker...?" Carys turned to Louis and Dominique for confirmation. "And Mrs. Weasley works in the Ministry in international affairs."
Louis nodded, perhaps a little more enthusiastically than necessary. “Dad works for the bank, basically,” he explained, thinking that 'curse-breaker' seemed a little scary sounding. “Our other sister, Victoire, works for the newspaper. She's not going, though. That's why we have a spare ticket.”
“I'm training to be a Healer,” Dominique said, flipping her long red hair over her shoulder and evidently not wanting to be left out of the occupation-sharing. “Like a doctor, I think you call them?”
Shooting a smile in the direction of his sister, Louis balanced on the outsides of his feet again, grateful that his family were in reputable occupations. Well, in the wizarding world at least. He had no idea about what any of this would mean to Muggles.
They were all respectable professions in most of the muggle world too, but not to a Welsh farmer. Carys, realising that this had been the wrong route to go, rushed in with more information. "Their grandparents live just outside Devon." She frantically racked her memory for information that Louis had told her about them. "with chickens that they raise, and they grow their own vegetables too, and their home is by some woods that they can fish in. Isn't that right, Louis?" There was a desperate edge creeping into her voice now.
Louis nodded again, feeling like he would soon get a crick in his neck. “We live not far from them, too. Our house is right on the Devon coastline, so we've got a nice big garden and Mum grows plenty of vegetables. Dad always said that her and Victoire had green fingers.” He was unable to meet Dominique's eye again, as he took her silence to mean that she was on the verge of laughing again.
He felt under even more under scrutiny than he had when they'd arrived, and glancing at the clock, he was surprised by how much time had passed. There was no point in bringing that up, though. Rushing wouldn't look good and besides, they had plenty of time.
That seemed to be along the right track. Alwyn's frown grew a little less fierce. "How long will you be gone?" he asked his daughter gruffly.
"The match is in a week, so...I suppose I'd come back then?" Again, Carys looked to Louis and Dominique for confirmation.
Now they were on more familiar territory, Louis felt himself relax a bit. “Well, the match is on the 15th so we'll come back on the 16th, probably. Maybe the 17th if we can't get a portkey straight away.” He didn't know whether they'd be familiar with portkeys, but he didn't want to treat them like they didn't know anything.
Dominique piped up again. “We're only going so early because of the type of tickets we've got. It's all meticulously organised, there's no chance for anything to go wrong.” Nobody was going to mention what happened the last time the World Cup final was held in Britain. Besides, that was years and years ago.
And still Alwyn frowned. "I don't like it," he grumbled, but Carys, having familiarized herself with all his frowns, realised that he had already agreed.
She managed to keep herself from bouncing on the spot, but she couldn't stop herself from breaking into a brilliant smile. "Oh, thank you, Grandfather, thank you very much!"
Still grumbling, Alwyn switched to English for the first time. "How much are the tickets, then?"
If Carys had been standing close enough, Louis probably would have high-fived her, but instead he had to settle for clasping his hands together and grinning. His smile faltered a little when her grandfather spoke, understanding him for the first time since stepping inside the house.
Fortunately, Dominique stepped in. “I think they're around 30 galleons a ticket,” she said, and Louis wondered how much that would be in Muggle money. “But don't worry about it, it's our treat.” She smiled brightly, in a way that reminded Louis very much of their mother. He was glad he'd brought her.
...oops. Instantly, Alwyn's eyebrows beetled together. "We can pay our own way," he growled.
At the same time, Carys interjected, realising that this might fall apart after all. "Oh! I can pay you back, really. I've been saving for something big, and this is...yes, well, I'll pay you back."
She nodded franticlaly to Louis, willing him to agree. She hoped he would, and that they could go quickly. As much as she loved her grandparents, she knew how antagonistic they -- especially her grandfather -- could be, and she hoped that Louis and Dominique weren't going to think that she was going to be too much trouble to take along after all.
“I'm sure we can sort it out at a later date,” Louis said quickly. He'd never planned on asking for money in exchange for the ticket, but he could sense that it was important to go along with it right now. “I wasn't implying anything about... well, I'm sure we can come to some sort of arrangement.”
He shut up quickly, privately thinking about how scary he found Mr Rees. He tried not to compare him to his own grandfather, the enthusiastic eccentric that he was, which led him to wonder what would happen should the two men ever meet. A smile twitched at the corners of his lips and he struggled to keep a straight face. Behind him, Dominique looked pointedly at her pocket watch.
"Arrangement?" Alwyn barked, switching back to Welsh again. He fixed an accusing look at this granddaughter, who cringed.
"No, no! It's nothing like that!" Carys switched into Welsh now too. "I'm going to be sharing a tent with Dominique. Just Dominique."
"You will not go into his tent."
"No, Grandfather."
"Nor he yours.
"No, Grandfather." Was it possible to die of embarrassment? Carys was close to finding out.
Alwyn's nostrils flared as he pinned Louis under his gaze. Finally, after a few long, dragged out moments, he finally said, "Go."
As they conversed in rapid Welsh, Louis felt unnerved again. He couldn't quite figure out what he'd said this time. He bit his lip worriedly, chancing a glance at his sister who fortunately did not seem on the verge of giggles. Carys appeared flushed and he bit his lip, hoping she'd be allowed to come. As Alwyn Rees fixed him with his gaze, Louis held eye contact with him, suddenly very conscious of the way he was holding himself.
However, the last word was the one he had been waiting for, and it was all he could do to stop himself laughing out loud to relieve the tension. He was even more tempted to hug her now than he had been earlier, but something told him that it would not be a good idea.
“Thank you, sir!” he said happily, before turning to Carys. “Are you packed? Dom will have to apparate us back home first. You can meet Mum, she'll probably insist on feeding us up a bit before we go to find our portkey.” He was babbling and he knew it, something which was unusual for him. “It's going to be so great.”
"Oh, thank you! Thank you, Grandfather!" Carys turned to Louis, grinning uncontrollably, and nodded happily. "I am! I'll bring it right down. Thank you!" This was tossed to the group at large, and she ran up the stairs to her room.
Scarcely before her grandparents had a chance to say anything else, she was back. She didn't want to leave any chances that Dominique or Louis would say something else well-meaning but obliviously offensive and have her grandfather change her mind.
"I'll be back soon," she promised. She didn't hug her grandparents; they simply weren't the hugging type, but her grandmother spared her a gentle - if worried - smile.
That was the extent of her goodbyes, and now she turned to Louis and Dominique. "Thank you," she said again.
Louis had by now learned his lesson about saying things that may be taken as offensive, so nothing more than a few strained glances passed between them as Carys was fetching her stuff. When she returned, Louis followed Dominique back to the front door, meaning to leave Carys to say good bye to her grandparents, and was surprised to find her catching up with them so quickly. “Ready?” he asked her with a smile.
Back out in the lane, Dominique took told of Louis's arm with her right hand and Carys's with her left. “Have you ever apparated side-along before?” Louis asked Carys briefly. “It only lasts a second or two, just hang onto your bag.” He shot her another reassuring smile and looked back over at her house one more time as Dominique turned on the spot.
Carys hadn't Apparated by side-along before. She hadn't Apparated at all, really, so it was with some trepidation that she held on to Dominique's hand. But she was going to the World Cup! She returned Louis's reassuring smile with a glowing one of her own. This was going to be brilliant. She just knew it.