"You're sure zat zis isn't a bother? You can take care of 'er for zee day?" Fleur asked before beginning to sneeze. She used the front porch railing to support herself.
Dominique was only steps away from her mother, looking at everything while standing on her tiptoes. Dominique's thin strawberry blonde hair was pulled back into two uneven pigtails. It was clear the 4 year old had done her hair herself.
"Of course, I can Fleur. Don't be silly. Molly and Dominique get along wonderfully. And," Audrey approached Dominique, "I get to spend time with my favorite niece." She began to tickle the small girl.
Dominique burst into giggles. "Stop it! Stop it! Aunty Audwy," she whined.
"Alright then." Audrey stopped tickling the girl. "Molly's in the garden."
Dominique skipped around the side of the house.
"It is not too much trouble?" Fleur asked one last time.
Audrey was a rather sensible person. Audrey would have invited Dominique over a long time ago if she had known she was still cooped up in Shell Cottage. But Audrey was not exactly at the center of Weasley dynamics. It seemed that everyone else had known the family long before they became apart of it. Only a chance encounter had led her to become Mrs. Percy Weasley.
Percy had spent all night preparing for a meeting with the Minister of Saudi Arabia. As the Head of the International Cooperation, Percy was in charge of remapping the areas where magic carpet usage was allowed. The meeting had ended poorly. The Minister had been adamant about using carpets in lieu of international portkey regulations and apparition checkpoints. Afterwards, Percy stumbled into the Muggle café. Audrey worked as a waitress there. It was one of many jobs she used to pay all her tuition at the University.
Audrey had met all sorts of odd people there. It seemed a prime meeting place for witches and wizards. Most had discovered the small shop during the Second Wizarding War. She thought he was just another one of those mysterious strangers. They disappeared whenever she tried to get a closer look at them or asked too many questions.
"Honestly Fleur I know what I'm getting into. Just go home and rest. Get rid of that cold. It can't be healthy for the baby. I can take Victoire too, if necessary."
"Zat's very sweet of you. Harry was taking Teddy and Victoire to zee Movie Theater. Dominique can never sit still long enough for those."
Audrey understood that well enough. She was a primary school teacher, or at least a primary school substitute teacher since Molly and Lucy were born.
Fleur disapparated. Audrey went back into the house to try to cook lunch and watch the girls in the yard at the same time. As she boiled the water for the pasta, Audrey flipped threw channels on the wizarding wireless Ron had gotten them for Percy and Audrey's fifth wedding anniversary. It took a fair amount of time to find anything but Celestina Warbeck and the Weird Sisters. Both groups were getting along in age and definitely not at their peak. Percy had commented more than once "It was a miracle the hag (Celestina) could have gotten any worse." Apparently, Mrs. Weasley had played those earsplitting ballads around the house when he was little.
A loud crash brought Audrey's eyes to the window. She couldn't see either of the girls. She turned off the stove before racing outside to investigate.
Molly and Dominique lay in a heap next to the rosebushes while Lucy clapped her hands together. "Again! Again!" Lucy shouted using one of the only words she knew.
The first thing Audrey looked them over for were any broken bones. Any extreme damage and she would have to fire call Percy. Molly looked as if she was about to start wailing.
"You're okay, Molly-olly. Mum's right here. Can you tell me where it hurts?"
Molly made an indistinct gesture to her entire body. Audrey pulled Molly into a hug. "Well that's an awful lot of area to check. Let's go inside. I made your favorite, macaroni and cheese. I think that'll cheer you up. "
Molly perked up. Her scrapped knees and elbows were forgotten. Audrey glanced at Dominique. The young girl was trying to hide the practice Quidditch brooms behind her back. The brooms were taller than she was and yet Dominique attempted to whistle innocently. A strange spitting type noise was happening instead. Dominique's face was curled up with complete concentration.
"Here," Audrey knelt down to be eye to eye with her niece. "You have to curl your tongue slightly and put it next to your teeth. See," Audrey demonstrated.
Dominique nodded. "Like this?"
"Yep, just like that."
Dominique tried again. A very quiet whistle type sound came from her mouth. "Did I just do that?"
"Yeah. Why don't you try it again?"
Dominique repeated her actions with a bit more confidence this time. A shriller sound emitted from the girl's actions.
"Nice job!" Dominique's face lit up at the small praise but then Audrey continued, "But what were the two of you doing with those brooms?"
"Flying," Dominique shrugged. She made it sound like it wasn't that big of a deal and it probably wasn't, not at Shell Cottage. But there weren't any fully trained wizards here.
"Do you know how dangerous that is?" Audrey asked exasperatedly.
Dominique's face clouded with both confusion and guilt. "Daddy takes me flying all the time."
"Your Daddy is a very good flier. He's there to help you if something happens. I can't fly at all."
Dominique made a face. It was too much for her to imagine someone not being able to fly. "Why?"
"Can I let you in on a little secret?"
Dominique nodded vigorously and leaned in closer. "I'm afraid of heights," Audrey paused before continuing with the rest of the truth. She wasn't sure how much Dominique knew about Muggles or even about her 'Aunt Audwy.' With so many people at family gatherings, there was little to no individual time with all the aunts and uncles. "I'm a little different. I don't have any magic."
"Really? But how do you do anything?"
"Same way you do. I'll show you more after you eat your lunch."
Dominique dropped the brooms and started to run toward the kitchen. Audrey suddenly felt like a terrible aunt for ignoring Dominique's scrapes and bruises. She scooped up Lucy before going inside to find the potion Percy set aside for minor injuries.
Dominique ate her lunch as fast as she could. She wanted to learn everything. Audrey laid down Lucy for her nap. Molly followed her cousin outside until she realized what they were all going to be doing. Molly quickly turned around and went back inside to practice her reading. Molly was very persistent and wouldn't give up now that Percy and Audrey had showed her that all the letters made words and the words made stories.
Audrey had always taken pride in her little garden. Any wizard could have done all the weeding and watering with a wave of a wand, but the hard work always seemed to pay off. It made the garden feel more like hers, a special place that no matter how much the world around her had changed, there would always be a place unaffected by magic.
Audrey carefully showed Dominique what the weeds looked like and how to pull them out.
"Why do we do that?" Dominique asked, her eyes wide with curiosity.
"Well, the weeds take food, water and sunlight from the flowers. The flowers need all of that to grow big and strong." Audrey said as she tugged on a particularly pesky weed.
"Oh." Dominique returned to work. After a good hour of working, (Which surprised Audrey. Molly didn't have the patience for flowers.) Dominique began to ask a lot of questions. Some Audrey could answer:
"Why are all the flowers different colors?"
"The flowers don't want to all be the same. Each flower is unique but they all come from a certain family or group. This one comes from the Amaryllidaceous family." Audrey said pointing at a bright yellow daffodil. "But if you really want to get scientific about it. Each flower chooses to reflect a certain light. Light comes in all the different colors. We only see the color that reflects off it."
Some she couldn't:
"Where are all the libilats?"
"I'm sorry the what?"
"The Libilats, Aunty Luna talks about them a lot. They fly and cause mischief."
"Well, I'll have to ask your Aunt Luna about that, though I think they might not come here because they don't like the flowers in the garden. Butterflies are attracted to certain flowers. They have favorite foods like how Molly likes macaroni and cheese and you like corned beef sandwiches. I think we might have some left in the refrigerator. Maybe if you work just a little longer we can have some sandwiches and lemonade."
"That sounds nice," Dominique said, looking at the garden again with renewed vigor.
"Is that a weed?" Dominique asked pointing at a small white bud.
"That's a baby flower."
"So it's like the baby in Mummy's tummy."
Audrey couldn't help smiling at that terminology. "Yeah it is. We're trying to get the other flowers ready for it by clearing room. Then we'll protect it as it turns into a beautiful flower."
"I can help, right?" Dominique asked.
"You can help all the time if you want to. You can always come over when your Mum is busy, especially with the new baby."
"Yeah and babies are too loud."
Audrey led Dominique into the house, smiling all the way. Dominique continued to buzz on about the new baby. Audrey knew that she'd always protect her three little buds, her babies, Molly, sweet and unsure, trying to learn how to read already, Lucy, her little angel, small yet able to light up the room already and Dominique, who just had to be her favorite niece.
This was written for Morning Lilies' Forgotten Family Ties Competition. It's my second entry. The prompt was Bud.