"Gregory, open the door for Molly, she's arrived," Teddy yelled from the kitchen.

Greg picked up his wand and slide it in his jean pockets, did a quick sniff-test on a t-shirt on his bed, but decided against it. Finding and slipping on the jumper that Sophie just returned, Greg felt more secure. She'd puffed it with some of her fancy perfume, an earthy-warm scent with a hint of cinnamon spice.  He didn't really care if it made him smell a touch feminine.

"Gregory, stop staring at yourself and get your lazy arse to the door." Shouted Teddy. He was blending up the curried parsnip and pear soup between his insistent and annoyed call outs to his son.

"I'm going, I'm going!" Double checking his hair wasn't flat and funky, Greg padded to his door and opened it. Then closed it and shoved some of Sophies belongings under his bed.

Finally opening his door to get to the front door, their dad cursed under his breath as he used his wand to swing open the front door.

"Molly! You made it." Greg provided a sheepish grin. "Da's cooking, can you tell."

Greg wanted to shout, "Why couldn't you have used your wand the whole time?" but bit his tongue. He went to the kitchen to grab the warmed bread and set it out on the table.

"Molly, Gregory's got a box of your dishes in his room that he needs to return. Can you watch the stove, I've got to get changed." Their dad went over and planted a smooch on his daughter's forehead. "Gregory told you that my girlfriends coming over, right?" The emphasis was on right and Greg was sure that he forgot...

"Yeah, I did da! Why would I forget to do that?" Greg followed Molly into the kitchen.

Molly could hear her father’s muffled voice yelling to her brother as she stood outside the door of his home. Reaching out she tried to twist the knob, but it was still locked. Swaying to one side she tried to see through the swirling stain of the window aside the entrance, sighing as she failed to see anything remotely human shaped. An expletive from within had her straighten back up as the door swung open and Greg greeted her, looking a bit guilty for moving so slowly.

“Hi Greg. Hi Daddy!” she said, giving her father a squeeze as he left the spoon stirring itself on the stovetop to give his daughter a quick peck on the forehead.

“A box of-” Molly began to echo then interrupted herself with a gasp. “Gregory! That’s where my dishes have all gone?! I’ve been trying to figure out what's been happening to them for months! You’re absolutely rotten!” She scolded, swatting her brother on the shoulder before turning to head towards the kitchen and keep an eye on their dinner.

“Um-” This time it was Greg who cut her off, Molly shooting him a disgruntled look as he pronounced he had followed the instructions he had been given. “No you didn’t!” she whispered at him, grabbing a nearby dish towel and throwing it at him.

“How could you forget something like that?! You’re the one who told me about Dad having us to dinner!” she hissed once they heard the door to their Dad’s bedroom close. Molly rolled her eyes and walked over to the stove, watching the soup stir itself, making sure it wasn’t bubbling too much.

“You at least remember her name, right?” she asked, glancing over at her brother.

It always annoyed him when Molly used his full-name.

"Whattt?" He drew on the "t" and made a very exaggerated shoulder raise, rubbing his shoulder where Molly swatted at. "That hurt so much, Mols." Greg snickered, following Molly into the kitchen. He opened the oven manually, and used his wand to charm the baking pan so it landed on the overtop next to the self-stirring soup.

Greg caught the dish towel and threw it back at his sister. "Yeah, yeah. I remember her name! It's Autumn..no wait Edith? Ivy?" He shrugged his shoulders. "I can't remember, Molly. Hopefully dad mentions her name in passing." Greg whispered back.

Going back to the bread, he found a nice plate and stacked the toasted bread on it. There was a cooked and uncut English Sunday Roast sitting on the kitchen countertop with roasted potatoes/carrots and parsnips. Greg knew that his dad had left the side of horseradish in the fridge.

When was the last time Theodore King cooked a whole damn roast? Greg knew it had a lot more when they were still in school at Hogwarts.

"I should know her name...huh" Greg said, a tinge of guilt on his voice. He looked at all of the prepared food, and didn't know how he didn't register it all. Being so busy with his own life, he'd lost touch of what their dad was going through despite living with him. He gave himself a mental-note to ask his dad to a boys night out.

Molly sighed, looking over at her twin brother. Sure he was annoying and a bit self centered at times, but she knew he tried as best he could in his own way.

“It’s Evangeline.” Molly gave in and reminded him. She could have let him suffer, could have kept the information to herself and watched him casually try and bring it up in a way that wasn’t so glaringly obvious he had forgotten. “Dad told me a while ago….I think he has a pet name for her now though, Evie or something like that. It’s rather cute if you ask me. I think she has a child too, although Dad hasn’t mentioned much about them.”

The sound of the door closing from another part of the house followed by footsteps clued the two into their father’s return just before he appeared in the kitchen, smoothing the front of the button down shirt he had put on along with dark brown trousers.

“How’s everything looking? All good? Good.” he said, surveying the spread he had worked so hard to create. Molly noticed a hint of nervousness in his voice, like the anticipation was building. It was sweet to see their father branching out, finding love again. He deserved it just as much as their mother did, even if they found it with other people.

“You look great Daddy!” Molly complimented, bringing an arm around him in a side hug of reassurance.

“Everything looks absolutely delicious, right Greg?” she added, peering over at her brother, trying to signal him to chime in.

"Evangeline, Evangeline, Evangeline." Greg repeated over and over, under his breath. He didn't want to be the dunce saying the wrong name during their dinner. "Does he?" That was quick. How long did the pair of them date? He'd realized their dad was leaving the home base more frequently, so that must have been where he'd been going to all those weeks.

When was the last time their dad had dressed up like this? Even for family holidays he didn't look so put-together. "Mols is right, da. You're looking fit today." He added, giving his dad the briefest of side-hug approvals.

This must have been important to their dad, and he supposed he could be on his best behavior. "Yeah! Can't wait to dig in." Greg added, understanding the cue his younger sister was giving him. "Let's get all this to the table?" Greg motioned to the roast.

"I'll cut the roast, Gregory why don't you get the horseradish to the table, Molly, can serve up the soup. Evie's on her way, and will be here any minute now." Their dad looked a bit nervous, and Greg patted his shoulders, reassuringly.

Opening the fridge, Greg brought over the horseradish and wondered why his dad had given him the easiest tasks. Oh well. "Molly, you need any help?" He asked after putting the side in a decorative china bowl, and setting it on the table. Their dad was using magic to cut the roast, he didn't want to get any of the meat-juice on his nice pressed shirt.

"What's she like da?" Greg asked, probing for some basic information about his newish girlfriend.

Molly set to work gathering up enough bowls for everyone, and carefully ladling the soup into each one. Glancing over at their father, she caught his eye for a moment and smiled before he returned his focus with laser precision back to cutting the roast. There was something so sweet about seeing him so happy again, not that he hadn’t been before, but Theodore King was a kind good man who deserved someone to share life with other than his twins. Molly recalled seeing some moments of happiness between him and their mother, though it was obvious something soured along the way, they weren’t who they had been, and while she was thankful their divorce had been as painless as possible for her and Greg, sometimes she wondered if it had been worse for their father, if that’s why it had taken so long for him to find someone new. On the other hand, he had basically raised them 90% of the time after everything was said and done. Maybe now was just his first opportunity in a long time to actually focus on himself.

“Here, can you put these on the table?” Molly asked, taking Greg up on his offer to help, and passing along two of the bowls to him. “Careful, they’re the charmed ones that’ll keep the soup warm. They get a little hot on the outside.”

Turning back to their father, she nodded in agreement with her brother.

“Yea Daddy, tell us.”


Theodore tried to hide the pink that had come to his cheeks.

“Oh kids, she’s lovely. She’s really, really lovely.” Molly shot a look at Greg, a look of amusement in her eyes. Their father didn’t always have a way with words, which they usually found funny in a sweet way. “She’s very kind, does loads of work with charities for underprivileged young wix, it’s brilliant work really. Oh and she’s funny, absolute riot! You’ll see.”

“He’s so happy!” Molly mouthed at her brother as she grabbed the last two bowls and brought them to the table.

“She sounds great Daddy!” she said more loudly for her father to hear.

"Yeah, I can get them Mols." It was impractical to bring the bowls over to the table without magic. There were a lot of things they were doing that would have been easier with a swipe of a wand, but acting with their hands was grounding. Connecting together. Greg grabbed the rarely used mits and took the bowls over to the table, depositing them in front of the chairs.

Woah...

Their dad was seriously smittin'! Greg felt worse that he didn't spend the time to ask about her, his guilt mounting. When Molly mouthed "He's so happy!" He felt a little more poopy. A little more disappointed in himself.

"Yeah da'. She sounds great. I'm excited to meet her." He beamed at their dad who seemed to nervous to cut the roast, even if it was through a charm. "I can finish with the roast, da. Why don't you wait by the door?" Greg suggested. Their dad hopped away from the roast and looked through the doors eyehole, anticipating Evie's arrival.

"Oh my god, Mols. I had no idea." Greg mouthed to his twin as he finished cutting the roast. Greg had been so absorbed in his own life, he'd forgotten about the people on the peripheral. Being in love had that side effect....? Right? His ears had turned a tinge of red.

"She's here!" Their dad called out to the twins, swinging the door open.

Greg's head snapped up from the cut roast. He took a deep breath in and brought it to the table as she entered their house.

“Evangeline!” Their father’s voice carried from the entryway where he was greeting his girlfriend.

“Theo, hello! Is everyone else here? I’m so excited to meet them!” an unfamiliar female voice replied, the sound of quick kisses following

“Theo?” Molly whispered at Greg as she quickly wrapped up what she was doing and wiped her hands off on a dishtowel. She had heard people call their father mainly by Theodore, or Teddy, but Theo? Who the heck was Theo?

Giving her brother a quick shrug she began making her way towards the foyer of their home, her father immediately hurrying to introduce her the moment he saw her.

“Ah, Peanut, come over and meet Evie. Evie, this is my daughter, Molly.” he said excitedly, whisking his arm behind Molly to usher her closer towards their guest. Molly hadn’t envisioned her father’s future girlfriend to look any particular way, but one thing stood out, she was exactly the opposite of their mother. While their mother, Celeste, had an angelic sort of beauty to her, with her fair skin with golden blonde hair, Evangeline was beautiful in a more striking way. She was taller than Molly, probably just an inch or so shorter than her father and brother, with flawless olive skin and thick dark curls that were effortlessly pinned back with an ornate hair comb.

“Molly! It’s so nice to finally meet you! I’ve heard so much about you! Your father talks about you and your brother constantly!” she said, reaching out her arms, Molly smiling brightly and opening her own arms to accept the hug she was giving.

“It’s nice to meet you as well.” Molly said warmly as they released from each other, Evangeline’s eyes now moving to find Greg.

Greg's head swerved to the entryway, his ears pricked by the unfamiliar nickname. Their twin senses must have collided as the shared thought passed between them. A few seconds slower then his sister, "Theo?" he whispered back in her direction. "She sounds nice?" He mouthed at her.

From behind Molly, Greg couldn't help but gawk at their dad's girlfriend. Pinching himself, he stood awkwardly as Molly and Evie made their introductions. When did their dad have game? No wonder he spent so much time fretting over his outfit!

"Gregory, don't be so shy." Theodore shot at his older son. He ushered him forward and Greg took a step up towards them. "Evie, this is my son, Gregory or Greg. The twins I've told you so much about." He beamed at his children.

Greg scratched the back of his head, "Yep, that's me." He wasn't not expecting the stranger to come up and breach his personal bubble, bringing him into a warm and comforting hug. He felt a little bit odd, like he was betraying their mom, but the warmth of the woman felt nice. She seemed to have such a calming demeanor, and he'd never seen his dad so nervous before.

They broke apart and she went back to their dad's side. He gave her a quick peck on her cheek. "Let's get to dinner!" Their dad announced.

"So...how did you guys meet?" Greg asked as they walked towards the table.

"Can I answer, Theo?" Evie asked their father.

"Of course." He held her hand.

"Theo started volunteering for my agency a few years ago and I was the volunteer coordinator at the time. We'd become friends and a few months ago he asked me out...of course I said yes." She was so happy, holding their father's hand so tight.

Greg felt a bit nauseated at the PDA, but he guessed he couldn't really argue. "Oh man! That's where you've been going!" Greg shot off.

"Yeah. You should see her with the kids. She's amazing." Their dad replied. He'd gotten into volunteering at the local children's agency where he supervised visits for families. It was very part-time, but he loved it.

A soft smile lingered on Molly’s features as she joined everyone and settled in at the table, listening as Evie told the story of how she and Theodore met. It still felt odd to hear him called Theo, the name felt strange in her ears as she looked at the man who was so happily embarrassing his newest nickname. Though new to Molly it was clear is wasn’t anything new to her father, who looked completely enamored with the woman who had him grinning like a love sick school boy.

"Oh man! That's where you've been going!"

Molly resisted the instinctive reaction to shoot a raised eyebrow at her brother. All this time their father had been out and Greg hadn’t thought to even ask what he was up to? Then again, the only time he has inquired about her whereabouts was when she hadn’t been home to scrape him off the hallway floor outside her flat one evening when she had been called into work for an unexpected dragon incident. Instead of allowing her brother’s somewhat selfish habits to root and grow into frustration, Molly simply shrugged it off, keeping her attention on their father and Evie.

“It sounds like a wonderful place to work for.” Molly chimed in as they individually started helping themselves to the food that had been laid out.

“It really does so much good for those young wix who are struggling. I’m so lucky to get to do what I do.” Evangeline said humbly. “And your father has put in so much work as well. He’s certainly got a talent for getting even the most stubborn teen to open up a bit.”

 Molly noticed Theodore give her hand a squeeze as they caught each other's gaze. Glancing over at Greg, Molly tried to gauge his reaction to their guest. She wasn’t all that surprised about her complement of their father. He had always been a good and supportive father. Looking back, Molly wasn’t sure how he had managed to wrangle the two of them as teenagers. While they were naturally very close, what with being twins and all, it hadn’t made them immune to countless sibling arguments that Theodore had been in charge of diffusing.

“Oh it’s nothing.” Theodore said, a hint of pink visible on his cheeks as a result of Evie’s high praise.

“What about you two?” he said, seamlessly changing the subject so he wasn’t in the spotlight. “Greg, Molls, what have you two been up to lately?”

Molly, having just taken a bite of her dinner, looked to her brother to take the lead on this one.

Greg nodded at Molly's chime-in; he didn't really have much to contribute. He reached over to grab a few slices of the roast after their dad served Evie and himself and plopped it into his serving of soup. Once the roast slices were sufficiently soaked, he picked up a slab and took a bite out of it. Greg was hoping to morph into the walls and be forgotten, he had other things on his mind.

"I'm glad Da's met you, Evie, you guys seem happy." The comment in-between bites. It was in these quiet moments that he could feel his fingers itching for a cigarette and a drink. He declined the wine offered, and begrudgingly stood to get himself an iced cup of water, returning back to the table a minute later.

Kicking Molly under the table, Greg answered, "I'm finishing up my studies! I've got until the summer and I think Talisha's going to let me stick around." Stars, it annoyed him whenever Molly would defer to him without signaling it was going to happen. "Sophie's kind of mad at me right now." He took another bite, "We're fine!" Greg corrected, "I just pissed her off recently. It's your turn Mols." He added in quickly so they didn't have a chance to ask him more. All of it was embarrassing.

Molly glanced over to Greg as he mentioned his recent relationship troubles, catching his gaze for a fraction of a second. They may not have been identical, or look so similar as twins that people immediately caught on, they also weren’t exactly each others best friends, but they still had that innate bond, the twin telepathy that meant all it took was a look sometimes. In this moment, Molly’s eyes communicated that while Evie and their dad may have been just distracted enough to miss the mention of his love based issues, she hadn’t.

As Greg almost instantaneously turned the topic over to her, Molly hurriedly swallowed the sip of wine she had been taking. Normally she would have taken the opportunity to grill her brother and find out what had caused him and Sophie to get into it, but with Evie having only met them moments before, now didn’t seem like the time for her to kick it into sister mode, and instead take the spotlight off Greg.

“Oh! Um, well, work is good, nothing new to report really, all the dragons have stayed in their lane as of late.” she said, trying to think of something noteworthy to talk about. Thankfully, her dad had already decided to chime in.

“You’re still living in that small flat, aren’t you?” he confirmed.

“Yes. In London at the moment. It’s small but it does the trick.” she said as she snuck in a spoonful of soup between her sentences. Theodore turned to his new love.

“I keep telling her to try and find a roommate. Living all alone in London, it worries me.” he explained, Evie nodding with the understanding only a fellow parent could have

“Daddy, I traveled all around the world for years! If I can do that, I can handle myself just fine now.” Molly reminded him.

“Yes, you did. Which did nothing for my nerves I must admit. My Peanut has always been the more adventurous one of the twins.” Theodore said, his last sentence was more of a sidebar to Evie than directed at the group as a whole.

He looked down when his sister's eyes made contact with his own. She could tell that there was something troubling him, perhaps he'd talk about it with her it after dinner. Greg knew he could trust Molly, their bond was close enough.

He didn't want to bring the energy down in the room anymore then it needed to be. Especially with their father, "Theo" being as excited as he were with his new beau. He hoped Molly could tell.

Thankfully, the stars and moon were on his side and his sister took the cue, and they moved the conversation on. He ate his food in relief, needlessly minding his own business when he heard his dad start to talk about his sister's living situation.

Then a brilliant thought formed in his mind. He'd asked Molly if she wanted to live with him already, but she'd said no. What if...what if he asked while they were eating together?

Greg's face perked up, "I'll live with you, Molly." He looked over at his dad, smug, "Wouldn't you like that?" He dared not look back at his younger sister, he knew that she was completely opposed to the idea. Greg made the suggestion loud enough that it caught their dad by surprise.

"You want to live with Greg, Molly?" Their dad's tone raised, excited at the prospect. "When did you guys start talking about moving in together."

Greg's eyes smiled, "A while da. We were solidifying plans for after graduation." He lied through his teeth, but hoped Molly wouldn't oppose it. It'd be nice to move out, he supposed.

Molly nearly choked on her soup when she heard Greg’s response to their father. Dropping her spoon as quietly as possible she grabbed her glass to take a sip and clear her throat.

"You want to live with Greg, Molly? When did you guys start talking about moving in together?" Theodore asked his children. Molly cleared her throat again, trying to be quick.

“Well-uh-” she began, ready to correct him regarding the situation, but Greg was quicker. Had Evie not been sitting there, bearing witness to it all, Molly would have damn near thrown her fork at Greg, but instead of making a scene, she simply narrowed her eyes as she stared in her brother’s direction. She knew he could feel her gaze metaphorically burning a hole through his head as he sat there, too chicken to actually look at her. She had only said “maybe” back when he had first badgered her about it, and the only reason she had even given him that sliver of hope was to get him to stop asking until she could come up with a better reason other than the fact that she didn’t want to play babysitter to him more than she already did.

“Well, Peanut! That’s wonderful! Why didn’t you mention it?” Theodore asked, snapping Molly out of her thoughts. Turning to look at her father she could see the overjoyed look on his face, as well as a soft smile from Evie that came across as though she thought the whole idea of siblings getting along well enough that they chose to live together was just about as charming and sweet as ever. Molly's eyes darted back to Greg one last time, wanting to tell them all the truth and remind their father of his son’s incredible talent for coming up with a lie, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She couldn’t ruin her father’s perfect evening. It had been so long since she had seen him so happy.

“I, um, I just didn’t want to mention it until we knew for sure it was going to happen.” she said, once again covering for her conniving twin brother.

Greg could literally feel the flames of rage flicking off Molly as he sat next to her. He kicked his foot at her leg to grab her attention, with the biggest shit-eating smug-as-a-bug I-kicked-your-ass-sucker grin he could muster, turning away when he saw the I'm-fucking-murking you death glare that bore into his skull. Did their dad see this? Could he see that Molly was bullying him right now?

Greg shoved more bread in his mouth when Molly started talking. With his mouth full, he swallowed it down and chugged the remaining glass of water. "Yeah da, we wanted to surprise you and this would be the perfect time to!" Greg let his voice carry.

Their dad started laughing in the middle of their dinner. "What's really going on here?" He filled in, "I can tell they've been arguing." Their dad grinned at Evie. She would surely understand, right?

"I'm being serious da. Molly thought it was a good idea, and you know I've been looking to move and get out of your hair. Right Molly?" He posed back.