Disclaimer: Do you seriously think I'd be on Pottermore and Fanfiction if I owned Harry Potter?
Upon hearing the roar of the floo signaling my return, Annette came running.
Swamping me in a tight hug, she managed to say, "Oh, Rit, where have you been! I've been worried sick and your father is inconsolable with rage. What were you thinking?"
Wriggling out of her iron-like grip, I gestured to the pile of school equipment by the fireplace. "I went shopping. You and Father were too immersed in your arguing to notice me leave, so I thought I may as well go. I met Draco and his family too, by the way, and I've been asked over to their house."
Shrieking her delight, she caught me in her bear hug once again. "I'll floo them at once, shall I? Oh, Minister Shacklebolt will be so pleased!"
"Not if I have anything to say about it, they won't."
Father had stormed in, taken one look at the pile of shopping that I had managed to acquire, and glared fiercely at me. "And what, Rita Bellatrix Lestrange, do you think you were doing, going shopping alone and associating with my disgrace of a nephew."
I winced at the use of my middle name; I hated it when he used it. I hated the fact that he and Bellatrix had been such avid Death Eaters, so faithful to Voldemort, and that that lunatic of a man was still my father. His beliefs may have had to be silenced with time, but, sadly, they were still alive and well. Difference was that having to bottle them up all the time made it worse when he could have a muggle-hating outburst.
"You may not go to your muggle-loving cousin's manor and that is final." He was seething with rage and his hand was going to his wand. I sighed, this really wasn't my day. Reaching for my own wand, I got myself ready to duel, all the while scaring the living daylights out of Annette, who was so pale that she rivaled a sheet. When she remembered that she was a witch and a Ministry employee, she reached for her own wand and confiscated Father's wand.
"I think you'll find that the Ministry has the final say in the matter, Rodolphus. Rit will be going to the Malfoy Manor before she starts school, and that is final."
Glaring at me and then at Annette, he hissed at her, "Geh und sterben, schmutzig Schlammblut," then huffed and stormed to his room like a peeved child. I sighed again. Now that Father was angry enough to start on the German, he was far more furious than I had first thought.
Annette looked at me in confusion. "What did your father say?"
"Run along and die, filthy Mudblood. Don't be too offended, just ignore him and floo the Malfoys."
Looking very much offended, Annette went off to either floo the Malfoys or to go home, I wasn't quite sure which. I'd hoped for the former, as the latter would mean two things. One, that she had let Father win, and two, I would be left alone to deal with Father in his rage. Sighing once more, I went to the kitchen to bake some cupcakes and get the ice cream that I missed out on. Thank Merlin for takeout.
Fortunately for me, she had done the former and had indeed flooed the Malfoys, and had organised for me to go to the Malfoy Manor in a few days time.
Once those few days were up, Annette was helping me in the kitchen charming a few batches of 'thank you' cupcakes when a couple of Aurors walked in. Knowing they were most likely after my father, I didn't even turn around when I asked, "What did he do this time?"
The first Auror spoke up. "We're here investigating a tip from your father about your use of underage magic. What do you have to say for yourself, Miss Lestrange?"
To say Annette was furious was an understatement of enormous proportions.
"I am the Ministry assigned official to this child," she fumed, "and I know for a fact that she has only been using this magic for charming cupcakes." She glared at the two Aurors, almost daring them to say something against her. Unsurprisingly, they did.
Looking uncomfortable, the second Auror spoke up. "Miss, we got the tip off of her own father, and we–"
"You trust the word of a former Death Eater over the one of a Ministry employees? I'll have you know–"
"Miss, we just need to check out her wand for a couple of minutes–"
"There is nothing wrong with this child, daughter of a Death Eater or not! There is no need for–"
"Is this a bad time to pick Rit up?"
Everyone looked towards the source of the voice. It was Draco Malfoy, who was here to pick me up to go and visit his manor and children. In the shouting match that had ensued, no one noticed either the pop of his Apparation or the roar of the floo as he arrived. Yes, lovely time to prove that his cousin isn't completely crazy, isn't it? Just a couple of Aurors, nothing to see here...
Sighing for what seemed like the millionth time that week, I gathered up the cupcakes and walked over to my blonde cousin. Looking over my shoulder, I said warily to Annette, "Tell Father I'll be gone, and not to expect me for dinner, could you please?"
Annette, too, sighed and nodded her head. "Go off and have fun, I'll deal with them."
Walking to the fireplace, I remembered something else. "Annette! Can you feed Anastasia, please? Her food's in the cupboard, just give it to her when you're done…"
After seeing the confirming nod from Annette, I followed my cousin once again to the fireplace.
As we were about to floo to the Malfoy Manor, he couldn't help but whisper in my ear, "And I'm supposed to believe you're not crazy, how?"
He earned a nice, hard kick in the shins for that one.
Stepping out of the fireplace at Malfoy Manor was like stepping into a whole other world. The Malfoy Manor was far nicer than the Lestrange Manor, but then again, the Malfoys always had more money and far more influence than the Lestranges ever did. High, white arched ceilings and white marble floors, with regal archways and intimidating wooden doors separating rooms, with priceless artifacts and family portraits everywhere. It may as well have been Buckingham Palace for all majesty of the place.
The only thing that spoiled the grandeur of the manor was the string of profanities that my cousin was uttering, clutching his shin and swearing like a sailor.
Smirking to myself for a job well done, I set off to find the kitchen in the labyrinth, hoping to find someone to help me on my way. Crashing into something definitely human, I looked up to see who it was. Fortunately, I found someone. Unfortunately, it was Ronald Weasley.
Looking between my pained cousin and I, he asked, "Ferret, who is this, and why did she crash into me?"
Still muttering things best not repeated under his breath about the pain in his shin and the stupidity of weasels, he managed to reply, "That's my little cousin Rit Lestrange, Weasel. Where's the rest of the pack?"
The remaining members of both the Weasley and Potter families had gathered behind the Weasel. Lovely, running into war heroes in the house of reformed Death Eaters. Sighing once again, I thought to myself, 'This is so not my day.' Looking up at the others in the room, I intoned, "My name is Rita Lestrange, please call me Rit. Would you like a cupcake?"
Sighing, Draco dragged the lot of us back down the wing from which the families had emerged. Once we arrived to a sitting room of sorts, he went out of the room, muttering about crazy family and that we could make our own introductions and such.
After putting the cupcake platters down on the coffee table, I looked between the adults. Weasel looked somewhere between incredibly peeved at my presence and infatuated with the idea of sugary cupcakes, Mrs Weasley was trying to look pleased to see me but was clearly thinking about Father's wife and what she did, the Boy-Who-Lived looked confused, but his wife looked ecstatic, for some bizarre reason. Seeing no reason to sit down, I picked up the platter and walked around with it. The children seemed happy enough to take them, but Mr Weasley seemed to have other ideas.
Glaring at me slightly, he asked, "Are these poisoned?"
Mrs Weasley slapped his arm. "Ronald, be polite."
I glared in response to the Weasel's comment. "My cupcakes are many things, sir, but poisoned is not one of them. Why would I want to poison my cousin and his family?"
Standing down, he snatched a cupcake, took a tentative nibble, then practically smashed it into his face and grabbed another. Looking amused at her husband's behaviour, Mrs Weasley also took a cupcake. Following in her wake, Mr and Mrs Potter took one each. Now everyone had sat down and was happily eating, I placed the platter back onto the glass-topped table and sat on the floor, enjoying the semi-comfortable silence. Mrs Potter was the first to finish her cupcake, and was consequently the one to break the silence.
"Rit, these are very good. Did you bake them yourself?" At my confirming nod, she started on a new series of questions. "Did you bake them the muggle way?" A shake. "So you use underage magic?" Nod. "Don't you get into trouble?"
"Not unless trouble is leaving the Ministry official in charge of me with two Aurors this morning, not at all."
Looking somewhat disturbed at the revelation, the barrage of questions stopped. Thankfully, my blonde-haired cousin chose that moment to walk in with his family.
"Rit, I know you met them last week in Diagon Alley, but this is my wife Astoria, my son Scorpius, my daughter Jade, and this is my other son Colton, who was sick last week." Greeting the rest of the family again, I got up and got the platter, ready to offer it to the hosts. Draco, Astoria, Colton and Jade all took one, but Scorpius just glared at me, clearly still a bit sore about the shoelace incident in Diagon Alley. A glare from his mother saw him grab a cupcake and sit down on one of the couches with Rose, still glaring at me slightly as he bit into the food. Smirking in satisfaction, I put the platter back on the table and sat down once more.
After a few minutes of relatively silent eating (because Mr Weasley was making excessive amounts of noise as he ate), my lovely cousin decided to shoo the children out of the room, including attempting to literally shove me out of the room. Abruptly turning around, I kicked him in the shin again. He started howling, clutching his shin and hopping around, swearing like a sailor. That earned me the approval from the adults sitting on the couch. Mr Weasley was roaring with laughter, Mrs Weasley, Mr Potter and Mrs Weasley chuckled and Astoria looked amused. Glowering at me, Draco said, "You have one hell of a kick, kid. Hey Granger, it might just rival the slap you gave me in third year."
Still chuckling, she replied, "It's Weasley, Malfoy, and you deserved that slap." Calming herself down, she looked towards me and said, "Rit, sweetie, why don't you go and get to know our children. I'm sure that Lily and Hugo in particular will love your company."
Smirking to my idiotic cousin and myself, I nodded and left the room in search of the Potter-Weasley clan and the younger Malfoys.
Later finding everyone in what appeared to be the kitchens, I walked in and began charming some more cupcakes. Knowing full well the hostile looks I was receiving, I continued to charm the cupcakes. That is, I would have kept charming them, had James not poked me to try and break my concentration. Jumping slightly, I accidentally stopped the spell I was in the middle of, resulting in a small bowl of flour covering Hugo. Shrieking as it got into his eyes, he stumbled and hit a wooden spoon, which flew through the air and hit Scorpius, who had taken to flirting with Rose by the kitchen cupboard. Glowering at everyone in the room in a startling resemblance to his father, he picked the spoon up and threw it at me, causing me to throw the bowl of half-finished batter I was holding, spilling some onto both Albus and Lily. Jade and Colton looked at each other with malicious glee before turning to face me and screaming, "FOOD FIGHT!"
With that, all hell broke loose. Ammunition was being taken from the cupboards at alarming rates and being strewn all over the room. We had quickly split into two teams; Rose, James, Lily, Hugo and Colton on one side, Scorpius, Albus, Jade and I on the other. Rose's team was based mostly on the side with the cupboards and fridges, for easy access to more ammunition. My team was positioned on the other side of the kitchen island, with a ready supply of ammo able to be produced by magic.
The war lasted for a good half hour, with everything from peas to mashed potato to ice cream and candy floss being thrown, including some spaghetti bolognaise and rhubarb custard, Merlin knows where they came from. Grabbing something off the counter, Scorpius came back behind the bench and whispered, "Make something good of these, will ya?" Smirking as my response, I cast a quick spell to make the little zucchini muffins into little zucchini bombs, before handing them round to Jade, Scorpius and Albus. Giving a unanimous, very Slytherinesque smirk, the three threw the bombs towards the other side of the kitchen, which exploded satisfactorily all over the other team. Moments later, we saw the white napkin of defeat from the other side, signaling our success. The four of us began cheering, Jade and I hugging and Scorpius and Albus high fiving each other. We were all very pleased with ourselves. That is, we were, until we heard the distressed shriek of Astoria.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY KITCHEN?"
We all froze and turned to look at our former battlefield. The previously spotless white kitchen was covered in food. There was meat sauce dripping down the front door of the oven, a few blobs of mash that had stuck to the ceiling, and the zucchini bombs had detonated in the right position to get both the prime angle for maximum coverage of our targets and maximum coverage of the rest of the kitchen. Turning around to the adjacent living area, I winced as I noticed red stains on the pristine cream carpet. In a bizarre role reversal, my easily angered cousin was trying to calm down his normally collected wife, whom looked fit to burst. Whatever he had whispered into her ear worked, as she eased a little. She glared frostily at her own children.
"You three are cleaning up this mess. Now. No magic." Grumbling their complaints, the three food covered Malfoys set to work. The other parents having arrived in the room were livid at their children, forcing them too to help clean the kitchen without magic. Draco glanced over at me, and grinned what could only be described as an evil grin.
"If you don't help clean this up, Rit, I'll tell Annette and your father. The Aurors too, if you spite me again."
Glaring furiously at my idiot of a cousin, I joined in with the cleaning effort. The adults left the room, satisfied that we were getting our punishment. Grinning victoriously, once I was certain they were gone, I held up my wand for everyone to see. They all stopped cleaning immediately, sharing in my glee. Quickly casting a cleaning spell on the kitchen and on us, we retreated to the comfort of the couches to get acquainted in ways food fights couldn't.
"How come you guys were avoiding me so much when you saw me?"
Looking guiltily between each other, the three clans spoke up.
"Mum and Dad weren't keen on us getting to know more children of Death Eaters than we had to," said James, looking awkwardly between his siblings and the floor.
Colton looked at me when he stated listlessly, "Father refused to have contact with the, and I quote, 'crazy spawn of the worst aunt and uncle in living memory'".
"Dad just has issues towards anyone Slytherin…" was Rose's offer, looking pointedly at Scorpius, who rolled his eyes in retaliation.
A little put out, I sank into the couch. On the upside, none of them were direct objections to me. On the other hand, they more or less had all judged my on the basis of who my father was and is and what his wife was like. Crossing my arms and sweeping everyone in the room with eyes of ice, I dared to ask, "Well, now that you know me through me, do I exceed your expectations of a crazed Death Eater child?"
Vigorous nods came from all round. Sniffing a little in the attempt to be falsely snobby, I continued the inquisition.
"So then, what do you think of me, Potters, Weasleys and Malfoys?" Receiving a combination of grins and smirks from the room, Scorpius spoke up.
"Anyone who can cook cupcakes like that and start a full scale food war? I think we can live with someone like that." Letting my façade drop, I smirked.
"Well then, am I to be introduced? You may be famous, but how am I supposed to know you lot properly?" Eyes were rolled and groans emitted, but I eventually got through whom everyone was and what they liked to be called, all the basics of getting to know people.
Starting with the Potters, Lily started the meet and greet.
"I'm Lily, and I'm starting Hogwarts this year. I want to be in Gryffindor and I love Quidditch."
"Albus, call me Al. I'm a third year Slytherin and I play a mean game of Wizard's chess."
"I'm James, the best of the Potter children." There were snorts from round the room that begged to differ. Glaring at everyone, he continued. "I'm a fourth year Gryffindor and I'm one of the Chasers for the Gryffindor team."
Rolling my eyes at what was quite obviously the idiot Potter, I gestured for Rose to continue with the introductions.
"I'm Rose, third year Ravenclaw. Call me Rosie and you'll be sent on a trip to the hospital wing."
"I'm Hugo and I'm also going into Hogwarts this year. I'm hoping for Gryffindor too, and I want to be the greatest Beater the world has ever seen!"
Chuckling at his enthusiasm, I waved a hand at Scorpius, signaling him to start his part.
"I'm the Almighty Scorpius, though you can call me Scorp. I'm a third year Slytherin and the amazing boyfriend to our dear Rosie." Rose rolled her eyes and slapped his arm, causing Scorpius to yelp and rub the offended limb.
Muttering under his breath at his brother's theatrics, Colton spoke up.
"I'm Colton, but I'm more commonly known as Colt. I'm a second year Slytherin and don't be afraid to hit brother dearest over here if he gets unbearable."
Chuckling once more, I let Jade do the final introduction.
"I'm Jade, and I'm starting Hogwarts this year. I'm hoping to get into Slytherin, like my brothers… but Rit, now that we've had to introduce ourselves, don't you think that you should too?"
Shrugging, I went on with what I signed up for. "I'm Rita Lestrange, though if you call me Rita I will be forced to hex you. I'm expected to get into Slytherin and I already know how to do all the spells and charms needed from first through seventh year."
Gaping at me, James made a comment of, "Could you teach us?"
Rolling my eyes yet again, I droned, "O Almighty Potter, I said I knew how to do the spells, I never said that I could actually do them."
Grumbling while everybody laughed at him, I heard footsteps coming from down the hallway. Panicking slightly, I summoned some towels and chucked them at the inhabitants of the room, hissing, "Look like you've been cleaning, they're coming!"
Scrambling back to the kitchen, we all started pretending to polish and wipe ourselves off, throwing in a few complaints in an attempt to make it more authentic. When Draco and company returned, they appeared to be satisfied that we had served our punishment. After returning the towels to Astoria, the others returned to their respective parents. Hugging Lily, Rose and Jade, I bid farewell to everyone and proceeded to return to the fireplace to go back to the Lestrange Manor.
I grimaced as I left the room, preparing for the journey back home. Magic or no, there was nothing that could save that poor carpet from the all-powerful wrath of beetroot.
Review please! All ideas and criticism welcome.
Luna
