Chaos... or Christmas Dinner (Ferreras)

[Roland Ferrera]

Roland smiled back at her. "You're welcome," he said. "I know that if anyone can deal with what happened, it's you."

He rolled his eyes at the mention of the Malfoys. He really didn't remember much of that side of the family. His aunt Emelia he remembered being very beautiful and loving, and his uncle Blake being cold and insincere. But he didn't remember much else about the man. Jamie and Amandine sometimes talked about Noah and Axel, but he really didn't know much about them, either. All he knew was that for the last years or so, the Malfoys had apparently considered themselves too good to visit with his side of the family. It didn't make him particularly anxious to meet with them now.

"Yeah, I guess we'd better get out there," he said. At the very least, he could get back to Riley. He wished the thought of her didn't make him feel a little more anxious. "There's a good chance that you've been roped into staying for dessert by now. The Malfoys... they don't like waiting. I imagine we're already serving dessert."

He was still smiling as he led Christine back out to the dining room. But the smile soon slid from his face as he looked over at the new additions to the table. Noah and Axel seemed harmless enough. And his aunt was as beautiful as he remembered. But his uncle... Roland froze in mid-step.

He recognized the man's face. He was one of the death eaters from his last case. He was the one who tried to kill him.

[Christine Montgomery]

Christine followed him into the other room and she smiled at the mention of dessert better equipped now to give an honest reply rather than one she forced upon herself, "Wonderful." she stated with enthusiasm.

When she stpped outside with him however she could almost feel Roland's enthusiasm disappear, she looked to him and opened her mouth to ask what was wrong but he seemed to be transfixed on someone in the room so she tried to see what he was seeing but all she could see was Blake Malfoy.

[Riley Neves]

Riley looked up as the Malfoys were introduced, and her eyes almost narrowed as Blake's gaze lingered on her. She didn't like it, but then his gaze moved on and she was left to wonder if she simply imagined it.

Roland was back a moment later, and she looked at him, rolling her eyes towards Malfoy, whom he seemed to be staring at as well. She was quick to judge a person; Roland knew that about her, and her snap judgement on the whole family, but Blae especially, was that they were pretentious and too judgemental.

[Axel Malfoy]

Axel felt awkward. He didn't know whether he could talk or not, since his brother and mother weren't. As usual, it seemed that Blake was the one doing all the talking for the family. He sat down when his father indicated they should and looked around at all the somewhat familiar faces of people he wasn't supposed to know. But he didn't speak, as usual. Axel would just wait until spoken to.

[Blake Malfoy]

Blake's icy smile spread as Roland entered the room with the Montgomery girl. He could instantly see from Roland's expression that he recognized him. Blake almost laughed. He was enjoying this moment far too much.

He stood up. "And I take it this is Roland?" he said brightly. "My, my. I remember you very well. Such a scrawny kid you were... It seems you've grown up quite a bit. Come, say hello to your uncle."

[Roland Ferrera]

Roland's hand twitched as if about to reach for his wand, but then his uncle was speaking to him. Roland cast a quick eye around the table to see if anyone thought anything was wrong. He caught Riley's eye and could tell from her expression that she didn't care for Malfoy already.

"Hi, Uncle Blake," he said numbly as the man approached him.

[Blake Malfoy]

Still smiling, Blake threw his arms around Roland. As he did, he leaned in and whispered in Roland's ear, "If you don't want anyone to get hurt, you'd better not say a word about who I am," he whispered. "Don't forget, I have backup."

Then he pulled away and went back to sit down. "It really is good seeing all of you," he lied. "We've been away for far too long. We'll have to change that in the future. Won't we, my pet?" He turned to Emelia and patted her hand.

[Roland Ferrera]

Roland tensed up at his uncle's comment, but managed to force a tight smile. Here he was, with the man who had probably been sending him the threatening notes, sitting in a dining room full of aurors, and he couldn't do a bloody thing about it.

As Blake sat back down again, Roland continued over to his seat between Lina and Riley. But he couldn't take his eyes off of his uncle.

[Emelia Malfoy]

The hopeful smile Emelia gave her husband was heartbreaking, and any man who could do that to a woman should never get away with it. She nodded, and turned back to the rest of the family.

"Yes, it's been too long," she agreed.

While a few of the family members were getting their desserts, Emelia waited, though she enouraged her boys to go ahead. She would wait for Blake to choose something for her.

[Riley Neves]

When Roland sat down, Riley smiled softly at Christine, then leaned over to Roland.

Whispering so no one else could hear, she said, "That was weird. You're the only he hugged. Seems he likes you better than the rest of the family."

Maybe he was just the oldest, so the only one Blake remembered? Still, there was something off about the man, but he wasn't Riley's family, so she would keep her comments to Roland.

[Axel Malfoy]

Axel looked at his father questioning when he hugged Roland. What the hell was that? Blake didn't hug people, he just wasn't the hugging type of person. So when Blake hugged Roland, Axel became curious. What was up with him?

[Roland Ferrera]

The entire encounter had Roland feeling jumpy, so when Riley whispered to him, he gave a strange sort of twitch before turning to her. If she looked closely, she would easily read the panic in his eyes. "It was... weird," he murmured. "I have to talk to you later."

He stared back at Blake, as if expecting the man to start firing off death curses left and right.

[Riley Neves]

Riley frowned, sitting back in her seat.

Okay. What was more weird than Blake hugging Roland was Roland's reaction, and she was undeniably curious about whatever he wanted to talk to her about. "Roland," she said softly, reaching between them and setting her hand on top of his to try and catch his attention. "What's wrong?"

[Christine Montgomery]

Christine was usually much more suspicious by nature, she might have noticed that something was off about this uncle of her cousin's. As it was her first thought was to look for her father and see if he was really going to make them go home, upon second inspection however her mind had returned to it's hyper-aware state and she noticed the hushed whisper Blake gave to Roland, she didn't know what he said but he gathered by Roland's tense expression something was definitely not right on scene.

Once more her eyes scanned the room for her father.

[Roland Ferrera]

Roland tensed even more when Riley touched his hand. His mind was working almost frantically, trying to figure out what to do. The man who had nearly killed him and who was probably sending threatening notes to him was sitting right next to his family, helping himself to a piece of pecan pie. Roland was severely tempted to lunge for the guy, and tell his family to take cover.

But what would happen? All Blake needed to do was get one shot out and an innocent member of his family could be killed. Furthermore, the other two death eaters were still out there, Who knew what instructions Blake would have left for them? He wouldn't have come in here without some kind of exit strategy...

"It's... it's nothing," he lied, not looking at Riley. "I'll tell you later."

[Blake Malfoy]

Blake, meanwhile, was now enjoying himself immensely. He had helped himself to a piece of pecan pie and was now placing a small slice of apple pie on Emelia's plate.

"This is quite an impressive array of desserts, Cara," he said. "If dinner was half as impressive as dessert was, I'm really quite sorry we missed it. Right, darling?" He flashed a toothy smile at Emelia.

[Geoffrey Montgomery]

Geoffrey, meanwhile, was completely oblivious about the drama concerning the Malfoys. He was focused on his sister and the fact that her expression seemed a little brighter, a little more... normal. Whatever Roland had said to her seemed to have helped, and Geoffrey felt immensely grateful to him. He actually almost felt guilty about deliberately provoking his cousin earlier. Especially if he was falling in love with Riley, who didn't seem to share his feelings.

He waved over to Christine. "Have a seat. It looks like we're staying for a while, after all."

[Noah Malfoy]

Noah sat back in his chair, not having taken anything to eat. Instead, he decided to observe. He and Jamie had already avoided gaze, and he sat next to Emelia. His father had given Roland a hug. Noah almost shuddered when he saw that. It was definately suspicious, and Noah didn't like it. He glanced around the table at all the people he already knew and spoke to occasionally. It felt incredibley uncomfortable to be here, but Noah's expression hadn't changed since he walked in the door. H'ed bear it for his mother, who hadn't looked this happy in a while.

[Amandine Ferrera]

Ama waited a moment before moving to get her own dessert. Things had become overwhelmingly awkward since the Malfoy's arrived. Before today, Jamie had told her that they weren't supposed to know Noah and Axel, and never had met. He explained everything about thier relationship with the Malfoys and honestly, it made her angry that her Uncle Blake had kept Aunt Emelia from her brothers that long. If anyone had tried to keep her from seeing her brothers ever...well, they had another thing comming.

Amandine grabbed a piece of Apple pie, her favorite, but the piece she picked up was rather large. Normally, she would have just split it with Sheena, but Axel was only a couple empty seats away from her, so she scooted over one and pushed the plate of pie toward him a bit. "Wanna split it?" she asked. "I'm Amandine, by the way," she added as if she had never met her cousin before.

[Mathieu Ferrera]

If dinner had been quiet, dessert was beyond awkward. Blake seemed to be the only one talking, although Amandine was whispering something to young Axel. Mathieu just wanted to reconnect with his sister, and he wanted Judah to have a chance to talk to Emelia as well.

"So, Emelia, what are your usual holiday traditions in the Malfoy family?" he asked brightly.