This one-shot was written for Round 8 (The Korean Wave) of the 2018 Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Season 6. I'm writing as a Chaser (3rd Position) for the Wimbourne Wasps.
Position Prompt: K-pop song - Dinosaur by AKMU. Theme - believing in the unbelievable even when nobody else does.
Optional Chaser Prompt #1: (colour) Aquamarine
Optional Chaser Prompt #2: (object) Kaleidoscope
Optional Chaser Prompt #3: (character) Louis Weasley
I'm also a Slytherin at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments). This was written for Assignment #3, Gardening: Flower Meanings, Task #5, Daisy - Write a fic featuring a child under 11 years old.
Additional prompts listed in the end notes.
invisible wonder (in this grey world)
"Cliff or forest?"
Louis Weasley lolled his head to the side to look at his cousin, who had rolled from her stomach onto her back at some point in the past few minutes. There were little indentations from where her cheek had squished into the grass, and a few twigs were tangled up in her bright red hair. It looked a bit funny, but that was pretty normal for Lucy. She never cared about how she looked.
Again, Louis turned his attention to the quivering leaves above them. The breeze was brackish, sharp, and fresh, but even with the sun hovering at the line of the Shell Cottage cliffs, it was not enough to combat summer's heat. Her question was a good one, and for a moment, Louis considered the shadowy trees and the roar of the coastal cliffs. Both options sounded interesting—and much more so with a companion—but he could already see Lucy propping up her chin with her hand, waiting for his decision.
"Cliff," he responded after another beat, and to the cliff, they were soon scampering.
When they reached the edge, Louis was still brushing twigs out of his own hair—a gentle, strawberry blonde colour, though it had started to fade to a lighter blonde around his ninth birthday, the year before. Hair like his would have been abnormal for a Weasley, in the past. His father, his aunts, his uncles, his grandparents, and those who came before them all seemed to have the same red hair that his sister Dominique had, along with Lucy, Rose, and Lily, too. His other cousins all had shades of brown and black, but his eldest sister Victoire had beat him to the punch with her pale blonde curtain of hair. She sometimes got sticks in hers too, but she was better at cleaning up before their mum could see.
"Can you see the path?" Lucy called over to where Louis was already hopping down into a wide-mouthed crevice, which opened to a path leading down the cliff.
"I'm on it," he called back. Pebbles were grinding under his shoes as he regained his balance, checking for stability. Not slick, today.
The path wound off to the left, jutting into the cliff at one point, then colliding with a far patch of the coast. Lucy had started toeing at the sand, looking for shells to take home, while Louis was peering into an opening at the base of the cliff. Dark and musty, it didn't look particularly special as far as tiny caverns went, yet curiosity prickled on the pads of his fingertips. Shifting for leverage, he pulled at the stones until they loosened, yelping as a few of the larger ones tumbled free a little more suddenly than he was anticipating.
Immediately, Lucy ran over. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Found a cavern," Louis said, stepping away from the stone that had missed his foot by a hair.
"Neat." Curiously, she peered around him.
Inside, there was nothing more than a bunch of rocks, but as they were about to leave, Louis noticed one was splotched with some luminous, electric blue substance. He couldn't tell what it was, but it was pretty—and when his fingers closed around it, the stunned awe set in.
"Lucy, do you see that?" his voice was mystified as he watched the inside of the cave walls light up, shimmering with a pale, aquamarine glow that didn't fit the dusty surroundings at all.
"See what?" Lucy asked in a puzzled tone, but on the ground, he saw what looked like a kaleidoscope that definitely had not been there before. There were quite a few things that hadn't been there before, actually, including a blanket and an empty, rusted biscuit tin that looked out of place with all that fantastical glowing.
He picked up the kaleidoscope, then held it to his eye and twisted the end. An explosion of luminous jewels turned in on themselves with a complexity that made him wonder if it might be magical, too.
"Lou, why are you holding that stick to your eye? You're going to poke it," Lucy said, and when he glanced over, he saw her eyebrow was arched.
His own eyebrow lifted to mirror hers, then he looked at the stone, now curled up in his fingers. Curious. Most likely, it was a charmed stone, and Louis thought it was a wonderful charm, indeed.
Seeing the stone, Lucy stared at it in wonder. "Wow! It's beautiful!"
When Louis looked down at his hand, the stick was very disappointing, compared to the kaleidoscope he'd been looking at a moment before, but trying to be a good and friendly cousin, he held out the stick for her to look. She really did look quite silly with it up to her eye like that.
After a few more minutes of trading the stone back and forth, they scampered back up the rocky path towards the cottage above. Along the path, he had taken the stone out of his pocket to look out at the ocean, and immediately the grey mist was cast in that same sheen of aquamarine. Flickers of blue light occasionally flashed like tiny bursts of lightning, flecking the world with the same electric blue colour that coloured the stone itself. Lucy had to tug him along, scolding him that it was probably a bad idea to play with the stone when they were walking along the cliff pathway, but they didn't even make it halfway home before she was begging to use it to look out at the water, too.
When they reached the cottage, their mothers were inside, chatting on the sofa. Immediately Louis pulled the stone out of his pocket and thrust it to show them. The world lit up blue around him, though he didn't see any secret items in the living room.
"Look at this!" he urged them, but when his mum took the stone, her puzzled expression did not change, even when he gave her a few seconds to process it.
"Eet's a... vairy pretty rock?" she offered, peering closer, and when his Aunt Audrey held out a hand to examine it, she gave the same non-reaction.
"It makes the world blue," Louis tried to explain.
"And glittery," Lucy added.
"It turned a stick into a kaleidoscope, a stone palette into a blanket, and a rock into a biscuit tin!" Louis continued, but his mum and aunt just exchanged a look. Louis could feel himself start to deflate, confusion prickling at the back of his mind as he took the stone back from his aunt.
"You're both making that face you make when you don't believe us at all," Lucy huffed.
"Eet eez not zat we don't believe you." Louis's mum tugged him onto the sofa next to her and started to smooth his hair, fingers combing the wispy, strawberry blond locks back into place. "Eet eez zat we know you both 'ave beautiful imaginations."
"Which means you don't believe us," came Lucy's grumble. ("Lucy!" her mum scolded with a sharp look.) "Couldn't it be some kind of magic?"
"It could be," his Aunt Audrey said, but she was still using that placating tone that made Louis think she still believed it was just a painted rock. "Your dad will be here soon for supper. You can show him, if you want to."
If he were to guess, Louis thought Uncle Percy would be even less likely to believe them than their mothers were, if the rock really wasn't working for the grown ups. Lucy's brown eyes were still fired up, and Louis reckoned it was better not to push the point further. She wasn't great at watching her mouth, and if she got in trouble, the evening would get very boring very quickly.
"Let's go see what else we can find," Louis said quickly, hooking their elbows. "We'll be back for supper."
"Stay out of ze dirt," his mother said fondly, but also seriously. He would put forth that the dirt liked him better than he liked the dirt, with how it always seemed to find him, but instead he nodded with a smile and promptly dragged Lucy out of the room.
When the cottage door was shut securely behind them, Lucy crossed her arms. "For two witches, they are are acting like they've never heard of magic before."
"Maybe that's not normally how it works," Louis supplied with a shrug. "I guess they could be thinking about that time when we and James said that the creek by the clearing was the fountain of youth, and we were actually ancient witches and wizards of old, so we shouldn't be bothered with cleaning our rooms."
"Not the point! The stone is the point," Lucy said, flicking a red lock behind her shoulder again. "Your dad would probably believe us. He sees a lot of weird stuff as a cursebreaker, right?"
"He won't be back for another week," Louis said with a drag to his voice, struck with a pang in his chest.
"Do you think we'll have time to explore some more before supper?" Lucy asked, perhaps sensing the dimming mood.
The honest answer was that Louis thought they probably wouldn't, but curiosity was mounting. Exploring made him feel a little better, even if it was nothing as major as what his dad was doing in Egypt. "A quick visit, to see if there are any other spots in the area."
"I'll get a lantern."
'Quick' was a high bar, considering how long the path down was, but they moved as quickly as they could, Louis keeping the stone safely in his pocket while Lucy held an unlit lantern in preparation for their return trip.
When they reached the beach, the sun was grazing the horizon, making the water glitter like gold. Louis had liked the stone's light blue glitter even better, so he stuck his hand in his pocket again, admiring the switch.
From the direction of the cliff, there was a sound of shifting—or maybe it was grinding—rocks.
"You heard that, right?" he asked Lucy, who nodded, and she was already turned toward the cliff face.
Standing in the cosy nook of a cave was a girl, probably not much older than them, but most noticeable were the scarring gashes on her face and bare arms. If his father didn't have scars a lot like them, Louis knew he probably would have winced at the sight. He wondered if that was why she was looking at them so intently. She probably got a lot of stares.
"You found it," she said, her voice a little raw. She might have been crying, or maybe her voice was just scratchy.
Louis wanted to pretend like he had no idea what she was talking about, but he immediately felt guilty for even thinking it. If this stone was hers, they had technically just stolen it from her, and she didn't really look like she had much to her name, with the tattered clothes and all.
"Sorry," Louis mumbled, exchanging a look with Lucy and trying not to look extremely disappointed as he handed over the stone, watching the world go grey again.
For a moment, she looked at the stone in her hand with a pinched expression, swiping a bit of matted hair from her face. Louis wondered then if she might be one of the feral werewolves that still roamed the UK. From what it sounded like, things used to be really bad for werewolves, unable to get jobs or live like people, but the adults made it sound like things were better now. Maybe she had been hurt by one, like his dad, but didn't transform. He itched to know but bit his tongue, knowing it would be incredibly off-putting to ask something like that.
Strangely, the longer Louis watched her, the more apparent it was that she wasn't looking around; wasn't taking in the flashes of blue lights; wasn't even smiling. She just rubbed her thumb on the blue part.
"Does it not change for you?" he dared to ask.
"It used to," the girl answered miserably. "It hasn't for a long time."
"When did it stop?" Louis asked curiously, though he knew he was dancing into 'nosiness' territory.
"On the day I needed it the most." Her face drew tighter, and Louis clamped his jaw to stop himself from asking for details, because her face looked like she really didn't want to talk about it.
"Did something happen?" Lucy asked, and when Louis glanced over, she pressed her lips together, then looked over at the girl again. The girl was still just staring at the stone. "Do you age out of it? Our mums couldn't see anything, either."
"I wasn't supposed to," the girl said with a frown. "My dad didn't mention it."
"Are you alone?" Louis glanced up at where the moon had started to creep into the sky. A thin crescent, smiling down on them with its crooked smile. "We'll be having supper soon. Maybe you can come eat with us."
She shook her head frantically, a sudden panic in her eyes as she clutched the stone tightly in her fingers. "I don't think that's a good idea. I'm okay."
Louis wanted to say she didn't really look okay, but—
"You don't really look okay," Lucy said skeptically, and Louis bumped her shoulder.
"I don't want to," she said, eyes flicking up to the crescent moon, then back down to Louis.
"Did I hurt your feelings?" Louis asked with a frown. "When I looked at the moon? I don't have a problem with werewolves—or people who might have gotten hurt by them, either. My dad got scratched during the war. And we have a family friend whose dad was a werewolf. Everyone says he was really, really nice."
"What makes you think I'm a werewolf?" she snapped defensively, retreating a few steps back, but her eyes weren't as sharp as the tone.
"Sorry. I guess you might not be." Louis felt like he was fumbling, not really sure of the best way to salvage the moment. "It's just… if you are, it's okay."
"People aren't just 'okay' with werewolves," the girl said with a choked tone, "which you would know if you had actually been around one instead of just hearing fairytales about dead people."
"Hey!" Lucy puffed up, but Louis hooked their elbows again and decided to talk over her.
"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it," he said, "but if you decide you want some supper, I live up at the cottage on the cliff."
"Louis!" Lucy hissed. "Don't tell angry people where you live!"
He didn't think she looked angry. Louis thought she looked more scared. Both were probably a little bit dangerous, but he didn't think she was all that dangerous… at least not in her current state.
"I'm sorry we took your stone," he apologised again, this time more sincerely. "It was breathtaking. It makes the world feel bigger and more wonderful…" Shaking his head, he reminded himself that she probably didn't want to hear about what she couldn't see anymore. When he looked at her eyes, though, she looked more sad than bitter. "I guess we'll leave you alone now. Sorry for intruding on your…" He hesitated. "Your place. I liked your kaleidoscope."
Her chin quivered, and she nodded.
Louis and Lucy returned to the cottage, then; the sun was dipping below the water by the time they were nearing the bend that would lead them to the top, but the yellow light of the lamp just felt even more depressing in comparison to the blue flickers dotting their earlier journey.
Uncle Percy was there by the time they arrived, and Louis's mum wiped a smudge from his face before they sat down for dinner. When their parents asked about the stone, Louis and Lucy seemed to independently come to the same conclusion that it was too depressing to go into it now, waving it off by claiming they lost it on the coast. The adults seemed to accept it, but Louis kept thinking of the girl, and how sad she had looked, thumbing the blue marking.
All through dinner, he shot glances to the door, but she never knocked. It was only when their parents had cleaned up and moved to the other room that he bolted to the window, looking out at the line of trees. For a quiet moment, he searched… and then saw the shadow of what might be a person, hunched at the base of one of the trees.
A smile split his face. "Let's get her some food," he said, going to get leftovers.
"She isn't a stray dog," Lucy said, but a hesitant smile was flickering on her face. "Hopefully she isn't just stalking your house, either."
"Give her a break," he said, folding up one of the leftover meat pies in a cloth.
"I don't have a problem with her. I'm just worried about you," she clarified. "Telling strangers where you live."
"Come on," he said, tugging her out with him, and when they reached the shadow, it was, in fact, the girl.
"I just like the view," she said when Louis set down the makeshift pouch of food.
"You can feed it to some of the animals," Louis responded. "It's a nice view. A lot of people close their minds and forget to look at things like that, but I like them… Anyway, have a good night!"
She was watching him with a look that seemed to want to say something, but instead she nodded.
At the door of the cottage, Louis looked back. The girl hadn't opened the pouch yet, but she was holding what looked like a stick up to her eye, looking at the slanted smile of the crescent moon.
additional author's notes
Hogwarts Prompts:
Assignment #3, Gardening: Flower Meanings, Task #5, Daisy - Write a fic featuring a child under 11 years old.
Insane House Challenge: 593. (creature) Werewolf
365 Day Challenge: 85. (creature) Werewolf
Writing Club, Disney Challenge, That's what Friends are For - 4. Write a friendship story.
Writing Club, Dark Lady's Diabolical Lair - 7. Shimmering
Writing Club, Book Club, Angela - (relationship) Best friend, (word) Normal, (trait) Protective
Writing Club, Showtime, Phantom of the Opera, All I Ask of You - 7. (season) Summer
Writing Club, Count Your Buttons - O5. (object) Biscuit tin, (dialogue), D1. "You heard that, right?"
Writing Club, Lyric Alley, "First" - 17. Turn it around, get a rewrite
Writing Club, Ami's Audio Admirations, The No-Sleep Podcast, The Boiler Room - 4. (setting) Summer holiday
Writing Club, Angel's Arcade, Sonic the Hedgehog - 1. (action) Running, (color) Electric blue, (season) Summer
Writing Club, Lo's Lowdown, ATLA - CB1. (word) Balance
Summer Seasonal Challenges, Cousin's Day - Write about cousins
Summer Seasonal Challenges, Summer Prompts - (word) Ocean
Summer Seasonal Challenges, Fire Prompts - (word) Luminous
Summer Seasonal Challenges, Gryffindor Themed Prompts - (trait) Impulsive, (colour) Gold
Word Count: 2,985