All Peppers, Spectres, Storms, Murrays, Extended Fam Welcomed!

---

Majority of the personal holiday festivities had come and gone over the course of the past few days, gifts and geese no doubt consumed twice, thrice over. With the highest buzzes of Christmas fuzzies dwindling down, one last hurrah was being held at the Murray Estate. Gabrielle, in her ever quest to bring families together in any form seen fitting, invited the lot of them. More of an excuse to bind the family ties better, to feast perhaps one final time for good measure, and to allow her own blossomed family to enjoy company with the extended lots of them.

It would be an hors d'oeuvres hour or so followed by a simple supper, nothing too formal nor too lax either. Jumpers and pants welcomed versus formal wear. Laughter and gaiety abound. Pleasantries and hopefully no uncomfortable measures to arise. But should they, soft, stern reminders could be employed.

The hostess herself was currently finishing changing the nappy on her eight month old, who was babbling away on some matter. Gabrielle was all smiles, leaning down to kiss Mia's stomach, then cheek. "You ought to tell your father if that's how you feel about it, dearie..." she suggested, receiving a sharp cry of Dada! as the response.

"Yes, Dada. Dada should be back at any moment. Your brothers and him have been out for a few hours. Want to watch the snow until they make it back?" Gabrielle asked, picking her back up and cradling her daughter as they stared out the window of the nursery, large flakes falling.  Mia cooed some more, hands reaching out to try and grab them. Gabrielle smiled.

Zeta was curled up in a very big purple easy chair with high wingbacks. She had her hair up in four pigtail messy-bun thingies and wore an oversized jumper made from iridescent yarn. (She'd have liked to have met that sheep...) In the Pepper family, Christmas was more than a day. There were much parties and many family and very very food and pressies and, lately, babies.

From over Aunt Gabriella's shoulder, Zeta was pulling faces at Mia. It was during this goofball charade that current Pepper-in-Charge Zeta saw someone outside the front window.[1]

"Someone's here! I've got it! Me, me, me!"

She pulled up her thick droopy socks, then popped up from the chair. She was expecting someone and every windblown branch had her at the ready for their arrival. Stocking-footed, she ski'ed across the hardwood floors to the stone foyer and haulded open the heavy door.

1.

Anyone!

“Gelukkig Kerstfeest!” Camille cried, raising her hand in greeting as she approached the front door. It was past Christmas, but this was the first she’d seen of Zeta since the end of term. “Merry Christmas!” She followed up, remembering herself in happiness to see family.

As soon as she stepped inside the front hall, she drew Zeta into an over-friendly hug, kissing one cheek, then the other, and back to the first. She leaned back, Zeta’s upper arms still clasped in Camille’s grasp.
“You’re looking so well!” She marvelled, as she did to her nieces and nephews, and Johann given half a chance. “So lovely to see you.” The faint cooing from deeper in the great house brought an end to the suffocating affection.

“Aie, where is the lady of the house?” Camille called, raising her voice to help it carry to Gabrielle wherever she was, as she unbuttoned her long winter cloak.

In the back garden, a moment later, two figures popped back into reality, arm in arm.

“When I’ve passed my apparition test I won’t have to do this any more!” Ambrose excitedly exclaimed.

He’d been gifted a series of apparition lessons for Christmas. They were all set with one of the better and more patient instructors from the Department of Magical Transport. With being away from Hogwarts and requiring a little more time to get to grips with his magic, Francis and Gabrielle had decided it was the safest and most sensible route.

“I can just apparate to work like you do, save a fortune in floo powder.” Ambrose had been flooing to work on his own, but paying into the family pot on the mantlepiece in Gabrielle’s grand Wiltshire manor. He’d not realised how dear floo powder could be until he’d started hoovering it up with his trips out and about. This adult business was expensive.

“Pity the same can’t be said for my rent,” Theta laughed. They’d been talking about how being an adult was expensive before they left, and she had filled him in on the many things her Ministry wage went on. It was only lucky that the Christmas season kept Ambrose’s mood buoyant after that realisation!

Theta took a deep lungful of air and dusted snow off her new dark tartan scarf which looked great with the long fawn city coat she’d bought in the Muggle boxing day sales. It was just the sort of thing to blend into the London population and not stick out as a wizard to those in the know.

“Come on, it’s freezing out here,” Theta thumbed to the back door. “Let us in, Amb.”

Together they trooped up the back garden path, and with a deft charm (Theta still held her breath out of habit), the door unlocked and they were inside.

“Hello, we’re back!” Theta called from the kitchen, slipping her scarf from round her neck as Ambrose closed the door behind them. “We had to leave Tim and Uncle Francis with Dad though…!”

Zeta returned Camille's greeting although it did become a bit much. The tangled family tree was difficult to follow, as it was with many old magical families, so it wasn't always worth trying to define relatives. It became more peculiar when the branches extended to your teachers, but Zeta didn't take Arithmancy and that made it easier to endure the kisses.

"Thanks, you do as well! Love the hair," she said with a bounce. Camille was a very pretty woman and graceful and Zeta felt a bit erratic around her, but not in a bad way.

"Aunt Gabrielle's with the baby," she supplied helpfully but was already moving towards the sound of more arriving far in the back. It was Ambrose and Theta! Zeta remained a bit jealous that the both of them were out in the world doing interesting things while she had another decade to finish at Hogwarts, but the holiday made it better to feel like things were normal.

"They're back...!" Zeta quickly padded into the kitchen to meet more Peppers.

Theta she'd just seen, but Ambrose had been bit. She gave him a hug.

"Oooh, you look so grown up," she said pinching his cheek. They were the same age, Ambrose even a bit older. And taller. But something about him welcomed nurturing.

Ambrose gave Zeta a rather enthusiastic hug. With all his time outside lugging equipment around and covering ground he’d got a lot fitter since his exams. His forearms threatened to crush his cousin.

“Ooh, you look so grown up.” She pinched his cheek like the adults would when they were kids and he laughed, batting her hand away.

“That’s what happens when you’re of age.” Ambrose teased, given that his birthday (which he shared with cousin Theta) was in September, and Zeta had to wait until January to turn seventeen.

“Has it been awful, studying when I’m free?” Ambrose asked, “Free having the time of my life as an apprentice beast handler. You know, grown up, not in the classroom…” He continued to tease Zeta, only when Ambrose teased it was entirely good-natured.

“Pfft, hardly.” Theta remarked at Ambrose as she squeezed past them, heading further into the house. She could hear footsteps on the stairs and the muffled sound of female voices above them. A long winter cloak hung from the line of pegs in the manor’s hallway. Someone else had arrived while they were out then.

Theta added her new coat and scarf to the hooks, stroking it over, paranoid at getting something on it.
“Mum, we’re back, are you down here?”
“In here, Theta.”

Catherine Pepper’s voice came from the nearby sitting room. As the sole Muggle amongst the rest of the family, she had opted to stay put while the rest of the family apparated everywhere to do the errands. She had insisted on doing everything at Christmas in her own way, so Theta reckoned this was a good rest. Catherine was busy playing an enchanted scrabble set, pouring over her line of letters while another set hung in the air like an invisible opponent.

“Where’s your father?”
“We left him with Tim and Uncle Francis. I brought Ambrose back with me.” Theta explained, straightening her outfit before perching on the sofa beside her mother.
“Was that his suggestion?”
“Er…” Theta paused, reconsidering her actions. She really hoped dad didn’t turn up in one of the cars. Her mum might force-feed him the scrabble set.

Gabrielle began to hear the hustle and bustle that came with family arrivals. Thanks to Zeta and her ever informative tone, Gabrielle now knew that one on her mother's side had arrived along with quite a few Peppers, her stepsons included. A smile was there as she began walking with Mia in tow, who herself was occupied with wanting to figure out the voices as well.

“Yes, yes! Gelukkig Kerstfeest!” Gabrielle responded brightly as her eyes fell on Camille. It had been a bit since the witches had come into each other's presence in the physical body sense. Owls were often the exchange and with it, advice, laughter and perhaps a photograph or two of the baby were sent. After all, Camille was a mother herself and Gabrielle valued her advice just as much as Catherine and Jane Pepper. Mia cooed, eyes a bit wide, her hands smacking her body frame as she laid eyes on Camille - Gabrielle gave a hearty laugh. "For someone who hasn't seen the other in months, goodness, my love, thou art loose," she teased her daughter who only began babbling away, staring at Camille with eagerness.

Once the voices of Theta and Ambrose were heard, Mia gave a pleasant squeal that carried throughout the house. Gabrielle patted her head. "I know, I know! More people! One being your older brother. I know you hear him, but I wonder...." Gabrielle moved Mia closer to Camille. "Would you like to see Camille first?"

An affirmation of bubble spit.
Gabrielle looked to Camille.

"If you'd like?"

“Have you spotted it, young Tim?” Monty asked, glancing into the mirror to regard his nephew in the back seat. “Do I need to go lower through the clouds?”

Behind, behind a set of enchanted binoculars, Timothy Pepper was having the time of his life. He scoured the fields and towns below, the rivers shining in the December sunshine as they skipped between clouds. Up here, the weather always seemed brighter and full of optimism.

“Hang on,” Tim called, following the pattern of roads coming from the town, spotting the bridge, and then, half a mile there, left at the fork… “There! Turn us right!” The metalwork of the car creaked in sympathy as his uncle turned the wheel and repositioned the car. He changed gears, and the engine hummed a new note, slowly descending.

“It looks like something out of a toy set up here,” the Ravenclaw grinned, lowering the binoculars. He slotted them back into place between the driver and passenger seats. As the car adjusted altitude and the bonnet tipped down, he found himself leaning forward to see over uncle Monty’s shoulder and out the car’s windscreen.

“Buckle up!” His uncle glanced back, and Tim scrambled to obey. At the click of his belt, the car began to descend at quite the pace, wind whistling and bodywork rattling. Tim gripped the back of his uncle’s seat, eyes not leaving the view out of the windscreen as the Wiltshire countryside got larger and larger. He held his breath as the ground approached.

“I’m unforgettable, aren’t I, sweet?” Camille spoke to the wriggly body in the crook of her arm with old experience.

The two witches made their way back downstairs, Camille carrying Amelia with all the love and care of the babe’s own mother, who was surely grateful of a bit of a break. It was one of the advantages of the larger family gathering - an abundance of potential babysitters brought forth.

As Camille set foot off the last stair into the hallway, there was a rush of wind and gravel outside the front of the house. A faint but sure double-toot of a car horn.

“I knew it!” Catherine Pepper stalked out of the sitting room door, a displeased look on her face, and Theta in her wake. In the other direction Ambrose and Zeta appeared from the kitchen, all eyes on the front door.

Francis Pepper waited for the ground to feel solid before he considered standing up from the passenger seat and onto their front drive. He braced his arms against the tops of his legs while his brother enthusiastically continued to explain the workings to a fascinated Tim who had ridden in the back seat for the journey. The two of them seemed to bounce around him both in voice and in life.

He slipped his pocketwatch from his waistcoat pocket and gave it a closer look.
“Er, Octavius…” he addressed his brother with his Christian name, rather than the middle name he’d clung to with his time in America masquerading as someone else to avoid a time turner paradox. “How fast did you say this went, because it’s mathematically impossible it was limited at that speed if we’re here already.”

Don’t get the unspeakable wrong, it wasn’t that he was upset the journey was over. Quite the opposite, glad it was and he was safely back on the ground. He wanted to see his darling wife, young daughter and both his sons again, and riding in his brother’s flying cars always put that nagging doubt into his mind.

But here they were, in front of Gabrielle’s family home, in one piece, and as he got to his feet and checked the skies around them, they had not been pursued by aurors, nor Muggle helicopters. The car’s cloaking seemed to be reliable at long last. Such efficiency would only encourage his brother. Especially as he was still buoyed up by Minister Glass’ mild interest.

He took tentative steps across the gravel, and reached to open the front door, revealing a small audience in the front hallway, led by a sharp looking Catherine Pepper.

“Oh,” Francis exclaimed at his sister in law, “we’re… we’re home.”

“And there we have it,” Monty exclaimed to his nephew, flicking the last switch just as the front door opened. The grand family car in chrome and deep Gryffindor red appeared out of nowhere on the driveway. It was the strangest thing to get in and out of an invisible car, and he always felt like a magician for the reveal.

“Octavius Montgomery Pepper!” His wife was on the warpath, all stiffly bent elbows, her fresh Christmas haircut flapping in the breeze as she stalked towards him.

Monty seized his nephew’s shoulders and dragged him in front as a mock human shield.
“H-Hello aunt Catherine-” Tim stumbled, adopting his most polite smile and throwing in some open arms for good measure in aid of his uncle.
“You’ve been flying that car again!”
“No, no, just apparated it here, my love-“ she was following him round the car jabbing her finger at him through the air. It was times like this he was very glad his wife did not possess a wand.

Gabrielle could only grin at Camille's reply followed right with Mia's bubbled raspberries response. They were a pair and a half and the witch could hardly even begin to be mad at it as it gave her a glimpse of what could have been if Mina had made it through the decades. Mmn, yes. Mina would have fawned all over her granddaughter and smothered her with the best affection a grandmother could.

These thoughts soon were abruptly halted with the all too familiar rumble of an automobile arriving to the estate. Well, this would end somehow badly or dangerously for whomever came through those doors soon enough. Gabrielle heard the voices and surveyed the situation soon enough. Francis, Monty, Tim....

A hesitation to speak and approach her husband was there as Catherine took the lead to let her husband know exactly how she felt about his recklessness. Gabrielle was reminded herself about the escapade that her, Francis and Monty personally had endured versus a nasty band of dementors a while back. Hm.

Her eyes looked to Francis, her lips curling into a gentle smile as she finally came into contact with his warm body, hugging him as though one of them had been on some major travel and this was the reunion. Mia babbled out her 'dada!' spiel, causing Gabrielle to grin in his chest.

"I can't decide who's longed for you the most, beautiful man...."

“Your dad is so busted.” Ambrose spoke in a low voice to Zeta as his own father arrived with Tim in one of Uncle Monty’s cars. Aunt Catherine was chasing him round the car. Someone needed a camera to capture this, though even Ambrose knew this was likely to repeat on a future occasion, given this wasn’t the first time he’d seen Aunt Catherine chase his uncle around wagging her finger.

He was a bit jealous of Tim for the trip over in the car. It must have taken some convincing to get their father back in the car. Francis Pepper had told his sons about the time he, Uncle Monty and Gabrielle had fought dementors off in a flying car. It had become one of Ambrose’s favourite family stories. But Ambrose and Tim knew he had great reservations around the whole flying car business. As soon as Ambrose had finished his apprenticeship, he had dreams to go out there and see some American magical beasts.

“Family Christmas times already off to a good start!” Ambrose announced, wearing a huge grin.