Chapter 1: A Birth and Unusual Happenings
"Congratulations-it's a girl!"
Mary leaned forward tiredly, looking for her child. Her daughter. She smiled as the midwife handed the baby to Mary, nestling it in her arms. Even through the drugged up glow of childbirth, Mary felt a slight squeeze on her shoulder. She looked up at the round, rosy face of her husband, who was grinning from ear to ear.
"I'm a papa now, aren't I?" he asked squeezing Mary's shoulder again. Mary reached up and squeezed his hand.
"Yeah," she said, smiling. "Yeah, you are, Dudley."
Mary looked down at her daughter again and called her by name for the first time.
"Happy Birthday, Violet, my love."
Violet opened her eyes. Unlike most newborns, her eyes were not blue, but a bright emerald green that sparkled like dew on a leaf. They crinkled as she yawned and fell asleep in Mary's arms.
It was when Violet was eight months old that Mary first noticed what would eventually be called the strange happenings. It was the late morning and Mary, who already felt at the end of her tether, was washing dishes furiously. Violet was in her high chair, complaining wordlessly about the porridge that was in front of her. Mary heard the loud crash of a breaking bowl.
"Violet!" she moaned in frustration. She swiveled around, preparing herself for the site of a broken bowl and porridge all over the ground. But that wasn't what Mary saw. Yes, the porridge was everywhere, even streaked up the table leg, but the bowl was whole and unbroken on top the high chair. Even more than that, it was spotlessly clean. Violet giggled and clapped her hands at Mary's stunned expression.
How strange, thought Mary as she bustled her way to the cupboard to fetch a dustpan and mop.
That night, Mary relayed the event to her husband over dinner.
"It was just so odd," Mary explained, stabbing at her spinach. "I could have sworn I heard that bowl break."
"Maybe you just imagined it," her husband offered causally, reaching for his wine.
"That's what I thought too, at first." Mary ate another bite. "But how come the bowl was so clean? There's no way Violet could have emptied it so thoroughly onto the floor. It's like the bowl fell and broke and was then repaired again somehow. Like magic!"
She said this jokingly but a look of concern seemed to pass behind Dudley's eyes. He swallowed. "Indeed," he murmured and then began an anecdote about a hilariously ignorant customer at work.
That strange incident was almost forgotten, but another bizarre event happened at Violet's first birthday. A relative had bought her a mylar balloon and Violet was enamored with it. She kept pulling on it and hitting it until it came loose from it's knots and floated up to the ceiling, out of her reach. Violet began to cry, so Mary went to fetch a ladder. When she got back, Violet had the balloon back in her hand, laughing and giggling once again. Mary wandered through the party, trying to figure out who had fetched the balloon, but no one took credit.
After that, these events started happening more often. When Mary and Violet were in London for the day, Violet left her stuffed giraffe on the tube. After an hour of searching, Mary turned around to break Violet's heart but, but the giraffe was back in Violet's hands, safe and sound. Or when Violet had somehow gotten past the baby gate and began to topple down the stairs. Mary screamed and rushed forward in a panic to catch her little one only to find that Violet was back at the top of the stairs. Not only that, but she was behind the baby gate, which had somehow been re-latched.
Mary thought she might be going insane.
That is, until there was a knock at the door.
A/N: A short, introductory chapter. I really want to explore the complicated nature of parenting and how that matter can be complicated by having a child that's, well, different. In the next chapter, I plan to introduce two new characters (esoteric canon characters, to be exact—How I love obscurity! *smiles* Should I give a prize to whoever remembers/looks them up?) as well as some ideas for the post-war wizarding world. Until then, Thank You for reading! :)
P.S. Please review! I love feedback!
P.P.S Is anyone interested in beta-ing? I think I'm going to need some help proof reading and I'd love to have somebody to bounce ideas off of. It's hard to know if a situation feels natural, especially during conflict (which is coming up!) so having a person who can tell me "That's awkward!" would be lovely!
(Disclaimer: I don't have the figures on this, but between Warner Bros., J.K. Rowling, and Bloomsbury, I probably only own about 13.491% of this story)