Glamours

In the Kitchen


For now, as she sat in the Hogwarts staff room listening as Minerva McGonagall recited the minutes from the last meeting two weeks ago, she yawned and crossed her legs in the big armchair she had managed to grab next to the fire. Her 3-inch heels were hurting her feet. She winced and unconsciously loosened her robes to ease the uncomfortable heat she felt from the warm wool that chafed the skin on the tops of her bare thighs. Damn. Why'd I ever let Angel talk me into the leather mini skirt?

Severus Snape looked towards her questioningly. She shook her head in a manner that said it wasn't anything he had to worry about. Strangely enough, the sour faced man who was old enough to be her father had become her closest friend since she'd begun teaching at the school. "˜Advanced Prophecies, Glamour's, and Wandless Magic' was the title of the class she taught to the 6th and 7th year students of the school. Severus periodically would guest lecture, as potions was an integral part of the process of prophecies, glamour's, and the overall takedown of demons. Indeed, it was also through their knowledge of the dark arts that they connected with. Many an evening had been spent in his or her rooms trading war stories and tales of their travels in the darker forms of magic. Their friendship also had a lot to do with the fact that very few people in the magical world knew who she really was. Indeed, it was comforting to have someone to talk to who she could be herself with; everyone else besides Minerva, Dumbledore, her friends back home, and Willow's former coven member her "˜Aunt' Molly Weasely and "˜Uncle' Arthur knew her as the smouldering Professor Lucy Emerson, teacher of wandless magic, daughter of Molly's fictional sister anbjecbject of the male population of Hogwarts wet dreams.

It beenbeen with amusement that Willow had travelled in August from her placement at the council to stay at the Burrow before starting her new job at Hogwarts. Willow had never been there before, having met her coven at a remote location in England previously. So remote in fact that she still didn't know where she'd been for those lost months.

She had shown up late on the Friday evening before the school season began straight from the new council headquarters, having previously shrunk her luxury luggage to the size of marbles in her pocket that morning before work. This had taken some getting used to; both the ability to shrink her luggage, (the novelty was still new) and the fact that Lucy Emerson, heiress to a vast fortune thanks to her dead parents, did not carry anything but the best luggage. Willow shuddered again, picturing the sweatshops in third world countries her "˜luxury luggage' must have been made in. She had been so late to the Burrow in fact, that she hadn't had time to change out of her business suit, one which would have been perfectly decent would it not have been for the magenta-red bustier top which she wore under her black pant suit jacket and the 3 inch heels that poked out of the base of her tailored black pants, heels which to Willow's chagrin and the Scooby's entertainment had become a staple product in her everyday life since becoming Lucy Emerson.

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"Hello?" Willow called into the kitchen as she cautiously opened the door.

"Lucy sweetie? Is that you?" Molly cried from her place at the kitchen table where she and three other redheads' sat-an older man she assumed to be in his late twenties to early thirties and a set of twins that Willow guessed to be close to her age. Swiftly, Molly rose and drew Willow into a hug. "Oh you're here finally! You must be exhausted. How are you sweetheart?"

Willow smiled and genuinely returned the smile. "I'm fine Aunt Molly. Work took longer than I thought to wrap up. Damn vampires. You'd think London was turning into a Hellmouth!"

"Well, we're just glad you're here now dear. Are you hungry?"

"Ravenous." Willow said, grumbling ruefully, remo her her jacket, placing it daintily on the back of her chair and taking a seat next to the older redhead who Willow assumed was either Bill or maybe Charlie if she remembered correctly. From her time spent with the Coven she had learned that Molly had 6 sons and 1 daughter. "I swear, is it just Watchers or is it all English people who enjoy only tea and scones for meals. That's like all I've eaten for the last week and a half."

She stopped talking for a moment and stared at the table that had gone dead silent as she sat down. "What?"

"Wha..you"¦.that is"¦" one of the twins stammered.

"Oh!" Willow suddenly realized what was wrong, having gotten used to sending most of the population of London into stammers and blushes with her new outfits. "I'm sorry. I didn't have time to change out of my work clothes."

"Work? This is what you wear to work?" the man beside her asked.

"Yeaaaah," she drawled and crooked a smile at her "˜cousin.'
"Draws the vampires and general baddies in. Don't worry. I don't wear this all the time," she paused and leaned closer to him, "most of my wardrobe's worse." She turned to Molly, who was having a hard time keeping a straight face when it came to Willow's new look and the effect it was having on her boys. She knew sometime in the very near future "˜Lucy's' male cousins would be on her case about giving the wrong message to members of the opposite sex. They were always on Ginny for the same reason and Ginny had never worn anything remotely resembling the risqué nature of Willow's current ensemble.

"What would you like to eat dear?" Molly asked, swiftly changing the subject to safer matters. "And where did you get that tattoo?! That was not there the last time I saw you."

"Just a sandwich please, but I can make it if you'll show me where everything's located. And as for the tattoo, that is a very embarrassing story which is better left to a time when I am far less sober than I currently am." She explained, referring to the tattoo of a willow tree dipping and swaying in the wind that graced the base of her spine, exposed now as her bustier rose up out of her tailored pants and the pants in question dipped low against her back.

"Nonsense dear. You're a guest. I'll get it." And with that, Molly began to bustle about the kitchen, preparing Willow's food. Willow sighed, feeling safe for the first time in a long time. She reached back and removed the chopsticks from the tight bun her hair was in on top of her head, letting the loose waves fall onto her shoulders.

Willow looked over at Lucy's cousins. "Hi. I'm Lucy Emerson, your cousin from America," she frowned and looked at the person on her right. "And you must be either Bill or Charlie."

The man smiled and stuck out a hand. "Bill. Charlie's working in Romania with a new batch of dragons right now. I'm on vacation from the bank. Pleased to meet you. And these," he gestured with his hand to the twins at the end of the table who still looked like a bludger had hit them. "Are my twin brothers Fred and George."

"Nice to meet you." She smiled widely and gratefully accepted the plate of sandwiches and the mug of tea being put in front of her by Molly. "Thanks Aunt Molly."

"You're welcome dear." Molly replied, sitting down at the head of the table to the left of her niece with a cup of tea of her own.

Suddenly, Willow heard a commotion coming from the living room and looked questioningly at her aunt justjust shook her head.

"Ron, Ginny, Hermione, Harry and Draco back from patrol. They're aurors at the Ministry."

Willow simply nodded her head and went back to her meal. It would have seemed odd to everyone but Molly that she didn't know the names of her own cousins so she had studied her new family in detail, but she had no idea who the latter three names that Molly had mentioned were. Her thoughts were broken though by the quintets entrance to the kitchen.