Disclaimer: I do not own rights to Harry Potter. All characters and related material belong to J.K. Rowling. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money is being made.
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Tea and Biscuits
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spectrosilver
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We drank tea and ate biscuits in the parlor in the afternoon. It was so cold in that house, sometimes we shivered. But we told ourselves we weren't cold, and that made up for it.
I didn't care for the kind of tea they served very much. So my cup would sit on the table. I would eat the biscuits and poke at the tea. Sometimes I pretended the tea tasted like licorice and peppermint. And then I could drink it. Because his mother would surely be mad if I left my tea.
We would throw our cups at the house elves some days, and laugh when the cup smashed and they quivered and cried. It was humorous. Really, really funny. I had to stop, though. Mother told me it was unladylike, and threatened to stop letting me visit. He never got into any trouble. In fact, I think his father was pleased at the activity.
Sometimes we would look at books that sat around on the shelves and tables. I don't think he liked those times much. Our parents were just in the next room talking, and sometimes he would take me to listen to them. But I really, really liked to look at those books. He had so many nice books.
We would walk to the orchard sometimes, after we finished our tea. We would run and chase each other all around. It was hard to catch him, with my ringlets trailing behind. But I always did. I always caught him. He would stuff flowers into my pockets. He never forgot the pansies. There were so many pretty flowers in the orchard, but he told me the pansies were his favorite. I would laugh and laugh and he would smirk and chuckle. And the flowers smelled so lovely.
The house wasn't very well-lit, and we would explore it while our parents talked. He showed me the secret places, the dark places. I held the flowers in my pocket. And we would get into all sorts of trouble, breaking things, going places we weren't allowed. But we always returned to sipping our tea and eating our biscuits before the afternoon was through.
We would nod and say goodbye when the day was done. I visited often enough, and I knew the Manor would some day be mine. I thought it would be so grand, living there by ourselves. But I was wrong. Very, very wrong. It's so much colder now, and the house elves aren't there anymore, they've gone "on strike." There're no flowers in the orchard anymore, everything has died. Even the pansies. And the secret passages have lost their charm, with the Death Eaters that now inhabit them.
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