She could honestly say that she had not been happier in her life. Today, it marked the official beginning to the rest of her days, and Graciela Pennifold was grateful for all that God had brought her. Edward was a literal dream come true, Zacharias was growing into such a smart, charismatic young man, and her friends and family loved their little family enough to venture out to her homeland of Portugal to celebrate their wedding.

Their wedding! It had been a long time coming, but they were here, she and Edward were now husband and wife. The Pennifolds! She would never get tired of it, never. As she fluttered happily between the tables of guests and managing to not trip on the skirt of her dress, Graciela's smile could not falter. Switching from English, to Portuguese, to even a little Spanish, Graciela's mind was a whirl of joy and excitement. There was dancing, twirling, laughing, and kisses on top of kisses.

Graciela had never been happier.

After a particularly big twirl out of her brother's arms, Graciela's trajectory sent her straight to Edward. Her husband. She laughed in excitement at the sight of him and of course greeted him with a kiss, which was accompanied by hoots and hollers and clinking champagne glasses.

"Casamento fica bem em você," she murmured, having been lost in her native tongue. She hung her arms lazily over his shoulders and Graciela scrunched her nose, "Marriage looks very good on you, meu amor.


ooc; tentative guest list!

WHO: Graciela Cervavntes and Edward Pennifold
WHAT: Anxieties lead to talks about the future aka CUTENESS
WHERE: Portugal!
WHEN: This past Sunday!

( But not too many; there would be just enough to be appropriately reminiscent of 18th century rural England, not a barnyard gone awry )

Glenda pressed her lips together to produce a small laugh, brushing the old wizard's shoulder in front of her in a warm manner as he laughed at his joke. It was a rather amusing story about a niffler and a mackled malaclaw, but the night was starting to wear her down. Any WWN party, whether it be under the façade of a birthday bash or not, was always apart of the public relations machine. Tonight was certainly no exception, though it did give her an excuse to wander (and drink) as much as she pleased. Under that pretense, she gave a quick pat to her new acquaintance and walked off before he had a chance to contest.

There was also this aging business that she couldn't help avoid either. Turning older when she already felt ancient was a strange feeling; it felt doubly so every time another announced her general youth. Twenty-three and already so popular! Twenty-three with such a name! Twenty-three, what a bright future laid ahead! They all conveniently forgot to realize that she was still twenty-two, and really nothing of their kind words made any sense to her, but what could she do if they wanted to tell her these things? It was good that she had perfect her smiling and nodding years ago.

This party wasn't all that bad, honestly. The WWN had actually invited some of her old friends, in addition to people she was sure she had never met in her life, but that didn't bother her. It was.... nice. And a bit frightening. Well, frightening for the prospect of one person, which Glenda still wasn't sure if she was actively or passively avoiding after all these months without knowledge of whether or not he was even here... it did not matter! She was an adult. They were adults, there was no reason why---

Merlin he was here. There he was! Was she losing feeling in her legs? Feeling very much caught, Glenda stood frozen, even unable to think of going about executing a quick get away. Maybe he wouldn't see her, or felt just as awful as she had been feeling and would continue to prolong their eventual remeeting! That was a pretty awful thing to say about your best friend, wasn't it?

Graciela let out a breath, stretching down to her toes underneath the blanket. She rolled from her side to her back and was surprised when her arm hit the mattress and not the body she'd fallen asleep beside. Graciela blinked a few times at the empty space that Edward had left, still waking up as she tried to figure out where he could be. The shower wasn't running, and he was not at his desk where she often found him at odd hours of the day or night when inspiration struck. With how the sunlight was streaming in, it was still fairly early, but Graciela did not often get to sleep in and was seriously considering turning over and going back to sleep. Zacharias was with his father, and Edward's flat was more than convenient for a weekend of birthday celebrations. Why rush the start of the day?

Though it seemed that Edward was already on his way. Graciela ran a hand over her face, wondering if it would be bad to fake still being asleep. But his bed was so comfy and warm, and the shirt she borrowed smelled like him and she could not often be this way. Just---relaxed without a care in the world or a mouth to feed. She could not even find it in herself to feel guilty about having Zacharias stay with Alex; it was a much needed holiday and escape into a life she'd never had and couldn't often visit.

She'd just decided to let herself slip back into sleep when the door opened, and Graciela remained in her splayed position on the bed as Edward entered. She smiled and covered her face with her hand before beckoning him to come back to bed.

Running her fingers through the folds of her dress, Glenda let no pleat or invisible lint go unattended to as she sat. Her dress was far too beautiful for those kinds of blemishes, and the task had proven to be a manageable distraction that was getting her through the rest of the night until it was professionally and socially acceptable to leave.

Oh, that sounded horrible. She really shouldn't be so unwilling to attend her own party. The WWN had really outdone itself, inviting practically the whole of the Wizarding World to help 'welcome her back' to Britain's airwaves. The network had been more than happy to accept her back when she (Sturgis) had contacted them, but had made no mention of something like this until last week after everything had been finalized. All she had asked for was her job back, but apparently her celebrity status had grown substantially with her absence and things like this had become necessary.

She had spent the first good part of the party clutching tightly onto Sturgis' arm, feeling not only uneasy but lost as witch after wizard continued to appear in front of her, asking questions, telling jokes and attempting to have ernest conversations with the woman of the hour. It felt strange having so many familiar faces and names rushed back upon her, and many times already she had wished she was her formal self. If this had been three years ago, Glenda knew she would have chatted up the entire room already instead of giving half-empty smiles, dutiful nods and soft answers.

Now, though, Sturgis had long ago left her side. A tactic she knew no doubt had been purposefully planned down to the minute. It had generated the same feeling within Glenda when he had shown up an hour early before this whole thing started, asking if she minded escorting him, and then offering to drop Tristan off at her Aunt and Uncle's to ensure that she would have enough time to get ready because she hadn't even gotten dressed yet. She knew he was only trying to help with her readjustment process, which made her love, and hate, him more because of it.

Letting out a quiet sigh, Glenda looked up to catch glimpses of the party from outside. Her aimless wandering had lead her to party's outside grounds, a rather nice garden area with sparkling lights and nearby fountain. A few people were nearby, but she didn't mind much. The atmosphere reminded her of Italy.


OOC: soo it's safe to assume Gleny basically knows everyone, WWN would've made sure all friends were here LOL and if she didn't, all famous people were invited anyway so YAY

Mentally sighing, Edward put the manuscript he had been reading down on the table in front of him. He suddenly found himself too distracted to fully envelope the novel's subliminal messages of the heteronormative state of society through the depiction of traveling hippogriffs. Graciela sat close next to him, writing neatly in one of her many, many notebooks. This was how they spent most of their nights. With words, on Graciela's couch in the living room. Usually this wouldn't bother Edward, he enjoyed words, and was happy that it was something he and his girlfriend could share but---

Zacharias' lack of presence was noticeable, but not deafening. What Edward noticed more was their lack of, well, utilizing upon Graciela's son's absence. Edward, of course, had no children in his life except his three year old niece but those visits were planned in advance. So it left things very... open to opportunity for them, if he would say so. But so far it had been almost a week, and nothing. Nothing!

Was there something wrong? Edward hadn't dared bring up this issue up with Derek. He knew how his friend would respond, and just thinking about it made him deeply bothered. He could picture it now: Edward desperately trying to create a black hole to jump into as Derek rolled across the floor in laughter before giving an incredibly uncomfortable speech. It was just something Edward simply could not bear. But he didn't want to say anything to Graciela either, because how incredibly forthcoming and pressuring would that be?

He pulled his lips together, torn between wanting to snap Graciela out of her writing and keeping quiet. He knew how important a writer's creative flow was, but this urge was starting to affect him! It was not good for business. But bringing--- it up was unthinkable, something Edward could never do because she would have to initiate first, by far! Realizing this, he unceremoniously picked his manuscript back up to attempt to continue.

It was very hard to keep a smile on her face when only a week ago two of her best friends had been murdered, one was arrested for being a killer and death eater, and a fourth was blown to pieces. Alice had spent the last seven days in a giant haze, and she herself wasn't exactly sure how she'd even gotten herself dressed for this Ministry celebration.

She was staring quite hard at the blown up poster of the Potters from their wedding day. The walls were adorned with pictures of James, Lily, and Harry, along with other pictures of the men and women who have given their lives for the war effort. Alice wasn't sure whether this was something she was touched or disgusted by. She loved seeing the smiling faces of her friends and the others---some were co-workers, people she'd had lunch in the ministry cafeteria with, but...the Ministry hadn't done much outside of the auror squad to stop the war, and it was really some freak accident by Harry Potter that had ended it...so to see how the wizarding community was so undoubtedly behind their ministry and the the minister right now was a bit disturbing...

Alice let out a breath and looked for her husband. It had taken much effort to get Frank out here (that part, she did remember quite clearly), and she did understand his sentiments. Not showing up, however, would create even more stress. The Longbottoms were quite publicly good friends of the Potters, and the ministry had wasted no time in making that connection. Alice was finding quotes in the Prophet that she'd supposedly said about Lily and their school days which weren't true at all (even if they were nothing but glowing reviews). Maybe she and Frank could leave now that they've made an appearance, and Alice headed toward the buffet table; it was her first guest as to where to find her husband.

It was very overwhelming to have so many people interested in her book. In her. Graciela had been more than surprised when Calliope suggested they do a tour of this large a scale, thinking that there was no way she had this many readers (even though the numbers...), pero. It seemed that she did. It was very, very overwhelming to see the lines head out of the bookstores and into the streets, and then there were interviews to be taken for local papers and---deus, she had just wanted to write a story. It was nice, of course, it was very nice to hear her readers' reactions personally, and to see how her stories had affected so many, but to be the reason behind the excitement in the room was---overwhelming.

She was a writer, you would think she could find another word.

The interviews and the events became too overwhelming when she was asked about her family, a theme that was very strong in her books. Graciela could not help but flounder and mutter her way through the questions regarding Alex as she was very sure only her direct family members knew about the divorce. They had managed to go through things so quickly because they had been so amicable about everything, because---they were still friends, they---

When she escaped to the green room after one disastrous wireless interview in Israel (her poor translator!), she nearly collapsed on the couch with relief. Graciela did not like lying, but there were only so many ways you could turn a question around and not really answer it at all. It was exhausting, and she winced when Edward entered the room, knowing how terrible the interview must have sounded like.

"Now you see---I work better with the quill," she joked weakly.

WHO: Graciela and Alex Smith (NPC)
WHAT: :( Sad times, revelations, decisions
WHERE: Their bedroom
WHEN: Tonight

( Instead I'm just an adulterous bastard. )

It was an all too familiar feeling, this dark depression of hopelessness. Graciela wished she could say that she had never felt anything like this, but that would be a lie. When Alex disappeared in Portugal over two years ago, when the aurors changed their mission to search and recovery, Graciela had felt like she was going to die. Being completely helpless to find Alex, and now being of no use to find her son, she did not know if she could make it past another day. Today, today was supposed to be a beautiful day, marking a beautiful event in her and Alex's life, but all their second anniversary managed to remind her of was that she had not held her son in over a week.

A week, a week. Zacharias and the other children had been missing for over a week, and there were still no clues, not one shred of evidence to help their return. Graciela prayed for what felt like a decade but even she, as devout that she was, knew that her small mutterings could only do so much. The silence of their lives made each day pass slower, and slower, and she almost wished she and Alex could find some angry words to shout at each other, just to fill in the void. But she could not muster up any emotion. Every day that passed sucked away any semblance of an emotion, and by now all Graciela could do was sit on the window seat and stare out into the backyard. Nothing needed tending to, anymore, not while her baby was not with her.

She stretched out a foot and accidentally knocked over the soft-cover copy of her latest book. Graciela's eyes drifted toward the book, and she looked away at the sound of a door opening. Her meeting with Calliope Publishing had been perfect, but that had been before the children were taken. Her new book was about a world where the dark wizards win, how could think to publish something like that, when her family was already being attacked? She couldn't, there was no way.

Her head dropped to her shoulder as she spotted her husband, and Graciela couldn't fake a smile at Alex. "I can make dinner," she said, but hoped that he would decline.