Some Hot Cocoa with Friends

“That was exhausting,” the witch sighed, as she unlocked her door with a tap of her wand. Giving the handle a twist, she gestured for her wedding planner to step inside first.

“And it’s freezing out there. My lips are all chapped,” Maria grimaced as she moved from the living room to the bedroom she shared with Jacob, unwinding the long scarf from her neck as she went,

“Do you want some hot cocoa, Di?”

“Hey, there kitty,” she crooned, bending down to run her fingers adoringly through the creature’s soft fur. Dianna straightened up to hang her scarf and coat on the nearby coat rack before wandering towards the sitting area.

“It is colder than usual,” the blonde admitted, “But then again, nothing compared to the bitter winds of England.” She pointed out with a wry smile, as she drew out a thick binder from the charmed depths of her purse.

Dianna smiled, “Some hot cocoa would be lovely. I don’t think I’ll be able to stay long though. Nicholas and I have an invitation to dinner with a colleague of his.”

Jacob was sitting, reclined on Maria's bed, listening to the radio and stroking Jolie, the small cat that Maria owned. He had talked to his fiance earlier that day and she had mentioned that she'd be shopping with Diana. So, Jacob had allowed himself into her home and had waited for her to return.

Jolie sprung off his lap at the sound of the front door opening and Maria's voice floating through the apartment. He got to his own feet and found his way down the hallway, creeping up behind Maria, he quickly stole a peck of a kiss on her lips. "Hello there," he greeted both she and Diana. "How was shopping?"

She turned, surprised by his kiss but happy to recieve nonetheless.

How was shopping?

Maria laughed, "Wouldn't you like to know?" she teased giving him a slight poke in the arm. The brunette couldn't be sure if Jacob knew exactly why they had gone shopping. After all, she was supposed to have found her wedding dress much earlier on. But, what did she knew? He was a guy.

"Make yourself comfortable," Maria told Dianna before moving in the direction of the kitchen, "So what have you been up to?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Came the witches reply. He smirked slightly, but didn't insist she tell him. "Were you productive at least?" he asked.

Jacob looked over at Diana, sure that she would be more inclined to give information away then Maria.

"Hey Jacob," Dianna greeted with an easy smile as she briefly looked up from her 'wedding planning' folder. Her fingers were curled around an uncapped ballpoint pen, which she used to (in a rather satisfied manner) tick off from one of her multiple lists.

"Well, the bride actually has a dress now. So yes, that's quite an achievement," she said wryly, raising her voice so that Maria could hear her even from the kitchen.

"We still need to find some shoes though," the witch admitted with a sigh, "And Merlin knows how long that'll take her to find."

Jacob laughed. "I thought you would have found yourself a dress ages ago," he told her with a shake of his head. Though, admittedly, Jacob hadn't even found what robes he would be renting for the day. Or even if he wanted to wear robes, perhaps he'd go with a tux. He noted to himself that he would need to get Julian and Russel together and figure out what they'd be wearing on the big day.

"Will you be staying for dinner?" he asked Dianna.

"Oh, no. I have something with Nicholas later. A dinner with a friend," the blonde woman replied breezily with a wave of her hand.

"Well, to be fair, she did look at some." Dianna murmured, making sure said-bride didn't over hear her next choice of words,

"But she's only made her decision now."

Dianna cleared her throat, and raised her voice, "Did you finish writing out the invitations, Maria?"

As Maria waited for the water to come to boil, she drifted back outside, wiping her hands dry.

"Yes," she answered in response to Di's question, "I did. I've written and sent most of mine. I have Papa's left, and I think he'd prefer it if it's given to him by hand."

"You on the the other hand..." Maria gave Jacob a mock-frown, "Are you thinking of inviting any other school mates?" she asked her fiance in a lower voice. The two of them had agreed to invite Russel, even though he was quite MIA these days. After further thought, the brunette decided to extend an invitation to Veronique, their junior by a year or two, as well. There was still a bit of a messy history between the two girls, due to the silly mishaps and mistakes all young teenagers make at some point or another, but Maria had done her best to patch things off before Jacob and herself had graduated.

Still, there was one other person on the list of invitation that kept the former Eau hesitating. Armelle Champney. Not one of Maria's close friends, no, but one of Jacob's old flames...and Veronique's good friend.

She had been afraid to bring it up with Jacob; afraid that he might take it the wrong way and afraid, that should she offer an invitation to Armelle, she too, might not take her offer of peace the right way. It left things all in a muddle, and Maria hated feeling muddled.

Jacob reclined in the sofa chair near by and listened to Dianna and Maria chat about the wedding plans. He was supposing that he should try and help a bit more with the wedding, Maria seemed to be doing most of the work, he, however had no idea what to do. When it came to floral arrangements and decor, to the reception plans, who was coming, what they would be wearing... Jacob had no idea. Truly, it was really in the best interest of Maria that she have the day planned the way she wanted it to be. He only wanted to marry her, have her as his wife, and never let her go.

"You on the the other hand..." She had directed this comment at him and it stirred him from his thoughts "Are you thinking of inviting any other school mates?"

"Well, Russel, Julian and Veroinque are already coming..." his voice trailed off. He hadn't had that many friends from the school. He had managed to get along with most of them, but many, he had lost contact with in the past few years upon graduating. "Can you think of anyone else?"

Maria pursed her mouth slightly, as she trailed into the kitchen to check on the boiling water. Should she bring it up? She glanced backwards at where Dianna sat, perusing her List of Things to Do, quite lost in her own world.

“Well, what about Armelle?” The brunette finally suggested quietly, her eyes flitting quickly up at Jacob to check his expression.

“You two were close in school,” she added lamely.

Though they had dated for nearly over a year, and had remained good enough friends with each other, Jacob had decided that he would not bring up Armelle as someone to invite. He had thought it inappropriate to mention it to Maria. "Oh..." he said as though the idea had not come to mind at all. "Well, if you think so..." he had not really kept in contact with her after leaving school. But they had remained good friends after their break up. Both seemed to think it necessary to part ways once they'd left school.

"It'd be good to see her there I guess, we could invite her. Maybe she'll turn up?"

She took a deep breath, moving away from the counter and wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Only if you want to," Maria told him, "It was only a suggestion. But I didn't want to be the reason for you not inviting her if you had wanted to."

"She's your friend," The witch assured him, "I can understand that."

"I can't promise if she'd turn up though, like you said." A faint crease appeared in Maria's forehead as she pondered this possibility,

"But there's no harm in trying."

(Because I happen to like the last part of Russel's post in Meeting an Acquaintance for a thread ending, I've decided to barge in here! I hope it's alright with the timing and such.)

After several minutes of walking from the conservatory to the bus stop; then a funny bus ride where Julian's head nearly got smashed through the window by a drunken punk who thought the pianist was the one with whom his girlfriend had been cheating him (which was of course, not entirely true); then another uneventful walk towards Maria's (and now Jacob's) apartment building, Julian finally managed to lead Russel to the floor where the married-couple-to-be are probably working on wedding details right now.

The scruffy-haired musician, now sporting a purple bruise on the left cheekbone, gingerly raised a knuckle to knock on the apartment door, but not before turning to Russel and saying, "Not a word to Maria, please. She still likes to laugh at me, and it's the last thing I need right now." Maria would probably figure things out eventually, but Julian would very much like to be spared from further inspection under his bestfriend's cute nose in front of Russel, and perhaps Jacob if he was there. If Julian knew right then that Dianna was with them as well, he would have made some lousy excuse, ditch Russel, and save whatever face he's got left.

Julian hid a morose sigh, his good mood seemed to have vanished with the bus incident. But for the sake of his friends, he decided not to ruin the general atmosphere and instead shook off the incident as a funny anecdote to tell Faye later. He then rapped on the door, the sound reverberating through the empty corridor.

He nodded, at what Maria had said. It made sense. He would have to find out where she was residing currently and send her an owl.

But at that moment there came a knock at the door, Jacob moved to open it and find out who was there. Julian perhaps, he was the most common visitor. He turned the handle and swung open the door to reveal two men, one who he saw quite often, the other someone he hadn't seen in quite a while.

"Russ!" He exclaimed happily, he was esctatic to see his old, school friend. "Hey Julian," he greeted the other man standing beside him. "Come on in," he ushered the two men into Maria's home. "Look who turned up," he said to his fiancee.

“I love you,” she reminded him, “So do whatever you feel is best. Your friends will always be welcome in our home.” Maria smiled, reaching up on her tiptoes to give a quick kiss before he moved to answer the door.

“Is that you Julian?” The brunette called as she swiftly prepared the hot cocoa before emerging from the kitchen once more, smoothening her hair back from her face.

Her mouth dropped open in surprise at the dark-haired man framed between Julian and Jacob.

“My Merlin, is that you Russel?” Her lips curved up into a pretty smile as stepped forward to embrace their Flamme friend from school, and give him a shy kiss on the cheek, French-style.

“It’s been too long,” The witch exclaimed, stepping back to give him survey him from head to toe. Although barely a few years older than Jacob and Maria, Russel seemed weary, with the haunted look of someone who had seen unpleasant things in life and had lived through it. It made her shiver slightly to compare this colder man to the light-hearted, witty young boy who had always attracted the Eau as a student.

Maria turned to Julian, greeting him the same way, “Hey, you.”

“Please come in, and have a seat.” She offered, “I just finished making some hot cocoa.”

Having been used to the familiarity of the Muggle transportation systems, Russ was entirely shocked to find such a scene involving a pianist, a drunken hobo, and an old lady carrying a chicken--oh wait, that was a joke he heard about the other week! Not to be confusing his good friend for such a scallawag, Russ stepped in momentarily with unseen reflexes. His time in training proved to be highly successful, (they would have too or otherwise, he'd be dead by now!) as soon as Julian's face met the bus window, Russ was behind the man, his left arm around the man's back, pinning his arm across his throat, while his right hand was prodding his wand into the man's back, without so much as a blink, the man had been confuddled, and was now looking quite dumbfounded in his seat.

Helping Julian back to Maria's was entirely a different battle in itself. Russ couldn't exactly manage to remember the bruise healing spell, he had to use it a couple times before when he was acting as a set of twins during an under-cover job, but the incantation had simply slipped his mind for now. "Don't worry, I won't say anything, unless you did sleep with that kid's girl." With a grin, he quietly delivered his pun as the door was ripped open.

Russ!

"Hello Jacob," Russ grinned at his old friend as he was shoved inside. Not nearly a moment later, he was practically strangled in a embrace by his former classmate. "Yes, and I know I haven't been around--at all." He replied, biting his lip for a second as he took in the appearances of his old friends. "Okay, let's have it already, time to yell at me for being bad."

Julian wished he could smile tearfully at the dramatic reunion that was taking place inside the apartment, and he even mock-wiped imaginary tears with an imaginary kerchief, but his knuckle slightly bumped against the purple bruise that decorated his normally healthy complexion.

"Ow," he winced, and returning Maria's kiss with a half-hearted smooch, Julian left the three happy friends to find the bathroom and tend to his fresh wounds. On the way, he saw another figure, quite lost in her own world. Dianna was there too? Julian promptly hid half of his face and quickly opened the bathroom door.

But wasn't Nick's wife a therapist? Abandoning his hideaway, Julian almost sailed towards the witch and presented her his woes.

"Ah, Dianna, the lovely Mme. Doloresta, I need your help!" he called out in a singsong voice.

Startled, she glanced up to see Julian approaching her. So that was who at the door. Dianna shrugged it off, used to the ever daily appearences of Julian Auriole; in fact, for those who didn't know or understand the level of intimacy between the bride-to-be and the messy haired rascal, would have trouble distinguishing who exactly was who's fiance.

Di made a face, "I don't think I'll ever get used to being called that," she admitted, "I keep expecting to see Nicholas's mother standing behind me or something."

"So what can I so for you on this fine-" she stopped, her eyes zeroing in on the fresh bruises on Julian's face.

"Is there a reason as to why someone decided to make a bloody canvas out of you?" Dianna enquired, "Or were they just experimenting with a new medium of art?"

Julian cheerfully took a seat beside Dianna, content on being her supplicant and awaited the gracious remedies that a wizarding therapist provides to her poor patients. Whether physical or mental therapy was Dianna's expertise, Julian didn't care; as long as Maria's cousin-in-law didn't laugh at his latest adventures.

True enough, it was sounding all good. Dianna's inquiry was devoid of sarcasm, and Julian was more than happy to reply, "I want to say it's art, but I can hardly take it as a compliment if it's my face being used as canvass."

"The truth is, I got into a bit of misunderstanding on the way here, Muggle-wise," he explained in a low voice, glancing furtively at Maria to make sure she wasn't hearing anything.

"If not for Russel over there, I might be dead as of this minute," Julian added, nudging his head in the direction of their Auror friend.

“Ah…” Dianna made a non-committal noise as rested her pen and folded her slender hands together, her wedding ring glittering in the light. She wondered when the best time would be to explain to Julian that her job as a wizarding therapist was equivalent to that of a Muggle psychologist- meaning, if he had gotten himself into a scratch, she wouldn’t be able to provide any actual physical ‘healing’ so to speak.

The truth is, I got into a bit of misunderstanding on the way here, Muggle-wise. The woman's eyebrow's rose a fraction of an inch as she carefully surveyed her newest patient toss her cousin-in-law a rather furtive look.

If not for Russel over there, I might be dead as of this minute.

Years of professional practice was the only thing that prevented Dianna from snorting at that statement; she doubted it, but chose to humour Julian instead.

"I see," she said carefully, glancing at the tall, broody-looking man that stood beside Jacob. The witch was surprised at how she seemingly neglected to realise this Russel's appearence.

"And how do you feel about that, Julian?" Dianna enquired, her brown eyes drifting back to the blonde-haired rascal who was perched beside her.

"I don't know, really," Julian paused to think. "Gratitude perhaps, that I'm alive and relatively well?"

If not for the confused look on Julian's face, one might think he was merely pulling Dianna's leg with a stupid antic, but the pianist was clearly confunded from his latest encounter with physical pain.

"Do you think there's a cure for vanity?" he then asked Dianna, much interested that he had forgotten how his cheekbone resembled a plum.

Do you think there's a cure for vanity?

The young woman hid a smile as she realised how serious Julian was, "Do you believe that you're afflicted with this ah, problem of vanity?"

"People often say so, yes," Julian answered, looking back on his life and realizing how many has referred to vanity as one of his traits.

"Do you think I'm vain?" he asked her back.

Do you think I'm vain?

Yes! No. Maybe?

"What I do think, is that we should get you cleaned up before Mrs. Daniels notices," Dianna suggested, gently easing Julian up by the elbow and steering him in the direction of the bathroom.

"You need to settle down, Julian." She remarked cheerfully as she fiddled about the hot and cold water knobs for the perfect temperature, "I'm married, Maria's getting married- you need to find yourself a good a girl, and propose to her." Dianna dipped the face cloth she had summoned and carefully dabbed at his injuries tenderly.

"It would probably prevent these rather macrabe masterpieces from happening, don't you think?" she asked amused, glancing sideways at Julian, wondering if her assumptions of the reasons for the row was in fact, something to do with his love life.

What I do think, is that we should get you cleaned up before Mrs. Daniels notices, she said.

"Good idea," and Julian obediently followed the missus like a child.

You need to settle down, Julian. I'm married, Maria's getting married- you need to find yourself a good a girl, and propose to her,

Settle down? Julian's wince came more from the suggestion than the face cloth that Dianna was using to help clean his face up. The idea of settling down, at Julian's age, seemed ridiculous, even if his friends have gone ahead and tied their knots already.

"I'll marry when I reach the ripe age of 35," Julian answered.

I'll marry when I reach the ripe age of 35.

Unlike Maria, Dianna chose merely to smile and drop the subject than press and probe Julian into admitting if he really believed that. She rummaged through the medicine cabinet to see if her friend any medi-ointments of some sort.

"This may sting," she warned, dabbing a blob of pale blue gel and spreading it evenly with her fingertips.

The blonde woman stood back satisfied, "I think you're presentable," Dianna remarked, turning to wash her hands and wring out the face cloth.

"Try not to get into any more rows before the wedding, hmm?" she suggested, "Cosmetics can only help so much you know." She gave him a sweet smile,

"Speaking of which, I left a message on your phone today to help tell Faye to go for her last dress fitting. But that reminds me, I believe you and Jacob still haven't gone for your tux fittings." Dianna gave him a reproving look.

(OOC: Apologies to Ira and Steph, but everything is against my online life today! ))

Julian winced once more, but lessened as the ointment worked its way through his bruise. Gingerly he took a quick glance at his cheek in the mirror, and true to Dianna's word, he looked less mugged now than he was a couple of minutes earlier. Add the quick run of his fingers through his hair and Julian was finally satisfied.

"Try not to get into any more rows before the wedding, hmm? Cosmetics can only help so much you know."

"You're a gem, really, you are," Julian proclaimed before giving Dianna a brotherly kiss on the forehead. He followed her back outside the bathroom, feeling better than before he had entered it.

Speaking of which, I left a message on your phone today to help tell Faye to go for her last dress fitting. But that reminds me, I believe you and Jacob still haven't gone for your tux fittings.

"Well, I don't believe the groom has contacted me about it yet, but maybe I missed a message? I had been rather busy lately, I'm sorry," he said, trying to think of the last time he did something for the wedding.

Okay, let's have it already, time to yell at me for being bad.

She couldn't help smiling at the look of remorse that crossed his face, and consequently helped soften her heart.

“It’s all right. I’ll leave that to Jacob,” Maria cast a side-along look at her soon-to-be husband, wondering if he had known all along the Russel was in town. She reached up to pat the Flamme's cheek in an absent-minded gesture,

“We’re just glad to see you home,” she said with her familiar sweet smile that seemed to reach up to her eyes. The brunette moved to the kitchen to finish up. If only she had known sooner, she would have prepared something for a proper tea. Russel looked like he needed a good, hot meal.

She ducked her head around the corner, hearing low voices, “Julian? Di? What are you two whispering about over there?”

The witch gave a disapproving cluck of her tongue, “Next weekend, 2 o’clock. I’ll meet you and Jacob here.” It was an order, not a request. After all, if there was one thing the woman was firm about, it was wedding plans. Nothing, dead or alive, was going to mess up this wedding without her having a say in it.

Julian? Di? What are you two whispering about over there?

“Nothing, love.” Dianna answered with a warm smile. Her eyes moved to the clock in the hall. Damn.

“Look at the time, I have to be off. Don’t worry about the hot cocoa.” she added, reaching over to give her friend a kiss, “I’ll see you soon.”

“Try not to stress about anything.” Di fixed her with a stern gaze, “Everything is under control. Really.”

She summoned her coat and scarf with a lazy waggle of her fingers, “Just remind your husband that I’m scheduling a tux fitting for him and his best man next Saturday.”

"Bye Jacob! Oh, and nice meeting you, Russel." The blond added with a backwards smile as she threw her scarf across her shoulder and disappeared out the door.