My second entry for the Forgotten Family Ties Competition! It's Roxanne and Fleur finally finding some common ground!
My prompt was hands, so I used it!
Disclaimer: As you guessed, I don't own Harry Potter!
Fleur smiled as her nieces and nephews poured into the house, yelling and laughing as they greeted her own kids and ran across towards to beach.
Her and Bill had agreed to look after them all today and give their parents a bit of a break. She began to scoop up their things, all left by the floo grate, and turned to carry them outside, when the fire blazed green again.
Roxanne stepped out.
"Hey Aunty Fleur, sorry I'm late," She said, looking more then a little disgruntled.
"Bonjour. What eez wrong Roxanne?" She asked, taking Roxanne's bag and adding it to her pile.
"I broke some bones in my hand this morning, and now I have to wait an hour before I can do anything with it." She made a face "You know, 'just in case'... even though Mum's healed it already!"
Fleur stopped herself from chuckling and motioned for Roxanne to follow her. Nothing would annoy her niece more then being out of action, even if it was only for a little while. And especially since the rest of her cousins were getting ready to start a game of Quidditch.
Fleur began to lay all the stuff on the beach, so that when the kids came out of the water they'd all have towels.
But they weren't going swimming yet. They were gathered on the beach, being put into teams for Quidditch.
"Freeeed!" yelled Roxanne from beside her, glare fixed on her brother. "That's my broom! I saved up for that for months doing stupid stuff for dad in the shop!"
"Yeah, well it's not like you can use it now!" Fred yelled back, the usual devious grin on his face.
"Roxanne, leave eet for now." Fleur put a hand on her shoulder. "I am theenking you weell want to wait until he 'as caused a leetle damage, and then make 'im pay for it."
Fleur winked and Roxanne grinned.
"Sure, shouldn't take him too long! Bet he'll scratch it soon enough!" Everyone knew that Fred always managed to cause scratches and bent twigs in any broom. His own was in a terrible state. It still ran perfectly, but it looked awful.
Roxanne followed Fleur back inside.
She sat by the window and watched the game longingly while Fleur bustled around the kitchen.
Fleur considered her niece for a while. She and Roxanne really didn't have much in common. It was rare for them to ever get a moment alone. Yet despite that, she loved her niece to bits. And she wanted to get that longing look off her face and make her smile again.
"Roxanne?" She said, and her niece turned to face her.
"Do you want to do sometheeng else unteel your 'and gets better?"
Roxanne grimaced and flexed her fingers "Yeah, I suppose."
So Fleur turned, hair swinging, and led Roxanne into the garden.
"We were theeking of making a surprise for Molly and Arthur. Eet ees their anniversary soon, and we wanted to make them something." Roxanne perked up a little at her words.
"What kind of thing?" She asked, coming to join Fleur and she ducked into the tiny shed in the corner of the quiet garden.
"Well, I thought we would make them a 'uge-" She paused as she tried to think of the word "Mural or painting, for their garden. Sometheeng meaningful for them!"
"They'd love that," Roxanne agreed.
Fleur beamed at her, and pulled out a huge wooden board, that she must have been keeping for this very thing. Roxanne helped her lay it down in the garden and then they gathered paints together.
Soon Roxanne was stretched on the ground beside her as the covered the surface with pale blue paint.
They chatted happily as Roxanne moved on to adding the fluffy white cloud shapes. Fleur couldn't help grinning, she was learning a lot about her niece that she'd never known before.
She'd known Roxanne was competitive, but she'd never seen this quiet determination as Roxanne tried to perfect her Grandparents' gift with one hand.
"There, all done!" Roxanne finally straightened up to see her Auntie's proud stare.
"What?" She blushed slightly.
"You're a great kid Roxanne, you know zat?"
"Thanks," She grinned, looking more like her father then ever when she did. "And I think it's time to call those crazy cousins of mine back here! They could add their handprints across the picture, it'd look really cool! Maybe in the tree braches, like leaves. Then we could all put our names beside each handprint."
Fleur grinned at the creativity Roxanne poured fourth, it would look great.
"You know, maybe it's a good thing I broke my hand, that's what gave me the idea." Roxanne twiddled her fingers "Hands!"
Fleur laughed as Roxanne danced off to get her cousins. She began to open up all the different colours of paint.
Roxanne came in with a tail of noisy kids, and she was laughing just as loud as them. Quickly they fell on the gift and began to choose colours and place their handprints.
Fleur found Roxanne in the mess.
"Merci, Roxanne. You 'ave been such a big 'elp." Roxanne grinned back.
"I reckon I'm ready to paly Quidditch now."
"I won't stop you!"
And as Roxanne went back to play with her cousins Fleur couldn't help but marvel over what she'd learnt about her niece.
And how much they really has in common.
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