QLFC - Round 4 - New Covens

Chaser 1

Appleby Arrows

Round 4, Season 9

Prompts: Chaser 1: Coven

[creature] Cat

[character] Fleur Delacour

[colour] Pink

Word Count: 2832

Hi, this is my fic for round 4 of the QLFC - I hope you enjoy and I'd love to hear your thoughts :) Thank you so much to my Captain and fellow teammates of the Appleby Arrows for Beta-ing and being awesome.

The door swung open to reveal a frazzled-looking Victoire Weasley, her usually smooth silvery tresses shoved up haphazardly in a bun and her coat so hastily pulled on one side of her collar was tucked in.

"Oh, Scorpius, you are a lifesaver," she exclaimed as she invited him into the narrow hallway. "I think I nearly had a nervous breakdown when Rose said she had a work emergency. I've rearranged this meeting once already! I couldn't miss it, but it was too short notice for anyone else."

"It's not a problem, Vic, honestly," smiled Scorpius, holding out an arm to help steady her as she was pulling on her shoes. "It's my day off. I had zero plans, so I'm happy to help."

"You are my hero, don't sell yourself short," grinned Victoire, grabbing her bag from the bottom of the stairs. "Come on, she's in the playroom."

He followed Victoire along the hallway to the back of the house, stepped in after her, and then his eyes widened at the sight before him.

Pink.

Everything was pink.

Pink painted walls. Pink balloons. Pink carpet. A sofa against one wall covered in pink cushions. And in the middle of the room, a small pink plastic table and chairs, with a pink plastic tea set on top. Occupying one of the chairs tightly squished against the table was a large, ginger cat, his front paws resting on the table and a resigned look on his squished face. On the other chair was a little girl with bubble-gum pink curly hair tied up in two bunches. She was pouring an imaginary cup of tea for the cat.

"Your eyes will adjust in a moment, I promise," muttered Victoire, apologetically. "She's going through a bit of a phase at the moment."

"A very intense phase," replied Scorpius lightly, his eyes still blinking.

"Dora, Sweetheart, this is Scorpius," announced Victoire, and the little girl looked up and smiled at him. "He's going to play with you until Grandmere arrives, okay? You need to behave for him and be a good little girl, okay?"

"Yes, Mama," chirped Dora. "Is Scorpius having a tea?"

"Of course, Dora, I'll just have a word with him first," said Victoire, swooping down to kiss her little girl on the head. "I love you, bye, Sweetheart."

"Right," said Victoire. "Grandmere is my mother, Fleur, her grandmother. She'll be coming in a few hours to relieve you. Dora's just had lunch so she shouldn't get hungry but if she needs more juice or a snack, then the kitchen is the first door on the left, and the bathroom is upstairs last door on the right. Honestly, it'll be a few hours of playing, that's all, but for a childless person, it can be intense, so good luck! Oh, and the cat is called Frank."

With an honestly less than reassuring double thumbs-up, she left, leaving Scorpius alone with the child- and cat- in the pinkest room he'd ever been in.

"You have to sit at the table if you're having a tea, you know," said Dora, with one little pink eyebrow raised. "We're not allowed to have tea unless we're sat down."

"That's a very sensible rule," acknowledged Scorpius politely. He eyed up the small plastic chair to the left of Dora, unsure whether he would fit on it, and convinced it would not take his weight. Aware that both Dora and Frank were looking up at him expectantly he hurriedly pulled out the chair and decided to sit astride it, kneeling on the floor so the chair wasn't taking his weight. He smiled awkwardly, silently wondering how long he would have to stay in this position.

"Tea?"

"Yes, please, Dora," Scorpius accepted. He watched as she very carefully lifted the teapot and poured imaginary tea into the shockingly pink plastic cup that sat on top of an equally pink saucer.

"Milk and sugar?"

"No, thank you," replied Scorpius. He lifted it to his lips and pretended to take a sip. "Mmm, lovely."

"That must have been very hot, you didn't blow on it," said Dora solemnly, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Oh, yes, ouch!" exclaimed Scorpius, feigning pain. He grinned and blew exaggeratedly on the cup and took another sip. "Yes, that was much better."

Dora seemed quite satisfied now that he had done it properly. "Can you blow on Frank's and give it to him, please? He can't hold the cup in his paw."

Scorpius nodded, and blew once more on an empty plastic cup and this time lifted it to the mouth of the very docile ginger cat. Dora beamed when Frank released a low purr.

"He likes his tea," explained Dora. "We have tea most days but it's nice to have different guests. Who are you?"

"I'm Scorpius, I'm with Rose," answered Scorpius. He had never been interrogated by a four-year-old before, he wasn't sure if other little girls were as serious and composed as Dora was as. He had never really been around children much. "I'm here to look after you whilst your mummy and daddy are busy."

"They're not called mummy and daddy, they're called mamma and papa," corrected Dora. "I like Rose. Roses can be pink, you know, but she's an orange rose."

Scorpius laughed thinking of his girlfriend's vivid, Weasley orange tresses. "Yes, she is an orange rose."

"You'd be a white rose," stated Dora, pointed at his silver-blonde hair. "Like my mamma. My papa is like me, he can be whatever colour rose he wants to be."

"You're both very special," smiled Scorpius.

"Are you magic, like my family?" asked Dora nervously.

"Yes," replied Scorpius. "I went to Hogwarts like your mamma and papa."

"We can play Coven!" exclaimed Dora, clapping her hands excitedly. She quickly jumped off her chair and ran towards the toy trunk in the corner of the room. She came back holding a bundle of pink fabric in her hands. She jammed something on Frank's head, which Scorpius saw to be a pink witch's hat, put one on her head, and gave one to Scorpius. He tried to put it on his head. It was comedically small.

"Don't worry, I can fix it," said Scorpius, noticing Dora's frown. He pulled his wand out of his pocket and tapped the hat. "Engorgio." He pulled the now size appropriate hat on his head to the child's delight. "What do we do now?"

"Well, we can still drink tea but now we're witches," said Dora. "Mamma only lets me play Coven with family or other people that are magic. I used to play with some children on the street, but then my hair changed colour, and Mamma said we're not allowed to show magic to other people if they're Muggles. Mamma said they were only pretending to be witches with me but I'm a real witch. It was an accident, but Mamma and Pappa say that I must be careful until I control my magic more. Frank doesn't mind though; I'm allowed to play Coven with Frank."

Scorpius looked in front of him at Frank who still sat patiently on the chair, nonplussed about the witch's hat on his head tipped at a jaunty angle, one ginger ear stuck free from it. "You can play Coven with me anytime you want, Dora."

Scorpius sat up abruptly at the sound of knocking from the front door. He had been sitting on the floor leaning against the sofa before he'd dozed off.

Children were exhausting. After having numerous cups of pretend tea, Dora had wanted to play a Muggle game she had learnt, Hide and Seek. This involved him closing his eyes as he counted, whilst she and Frank hid, and he had to traipse around the house looking for them. Dora was usually given away by her giggles, so Frank had been named champion. Scorpius was convinced that the cat was only so good at it as it was his only period of rest.

Scorpius glanced over his shoulder and checked that Dora was still asleep, snuggled under a blanket on the couch, with Frank curled up and snoozing at her side. He heaved himself off the floor and went to answer the door, not wanting the knocks to wake either of his charges.

"Oh, Mrs Weasley," greeted Scorpius, after he'd opened the door. Mrs Fleur Weasley was nearly identical to Victoire, the only difference being that she was middle-aged. "Of course, Victoire told me you'd be taking over."

Scorpius stepped aside to let her in the house. "Dora and Frank are both asleep in the playroom. I wasn't sure if she should nap. I don't want to mess up her bedtime, but she was wiped out."

"The benefit of looking after a child who is not your own, is that you don't need to be concerned about their bedtime as their parents will be back to deal with that," smiled Mrs Weasley, with a twinkle in her eye. The other difference between Mrs Weasley and her daughter was that despite the many years in this country, she did still possess a faint French accent. "Will you come through and stay for a tea or coffee with me?"

"Only if it's real this time," grinned Scorpius in reply. "I'm very full of make-belief tea at the moment."

Mrs Weasley laughed. "That tea set is her favourite thing. I'm more of a coffee person myself but I'll partake in pretend tea for my granddaughter."

He had followed her into the kitchen and his legs sighed in relief to be able to stretch out on a normal-sized chair as he sat down at the end of the dining table.

"Tea or coffee?"

"Coffee please, Mrs Weasley."

"Please call me Fleur, Scorpius. There's too many Mrs Weasley's floating about – I never know people are referring to me."

"Of course, Fleur," said Scorpius. They remained in silence until Fleur returned to the table with a tray of their drinks and a small milk jug and sugar pot. They helped themselves and Scorpius remembered to blow on it before taking his first sip. "Thank you."

"How did you find babysitting?"

"Exhausting, nerve-wracking, fun," answered Scorpius honestly. "Distracting. It was a more enjoyable afternoon than what I'd have been doing otherwise."

"Is everything okay, Scorpius?" asked Fleur, concerned.

Scorpius paused. "It's nothing, just family stuff."

Fleur patted him on his hand gently. "Family stuff is never nothing."

"That is true," smiled Scorpius. He imagined that Rose would undoubtedly tell members of her family his situation at some point, which means it would be common knowledge by all the Weasley's moments after. "Now that the end of my Healer training is in sight Rose and I have been making plans to get our own home. My family doesn't consider it good news."

"I see," frowned Fleur. "I'm sorry they feel that way."

"My parents have always been supportive of my relationship with Rose," explained Scorpius. "They've met before, they like her. However, we've kept it a secret from my grandparents because there's no way they would accept it. When I told them that I would be moving out soon and living with a girlfriend they roared in disbelief. It's not the Malfoy way! The Malfoy way is to marry and then live at the family home, as my parents did. My dad has righted a lot of wrongs over the years but he still can't stand up to his father, he does what he can to support and love me, but he toes the line when his parents are present. It, of course, led to them finding out who I'm with and they've effectively disowned me. They kicked me out of the Manor. I stayed at the Potter's last night with Al."

"That's awful," said Fleur softly.

"I've wanted to leave anyway. I've always wanted to leave," admitted Scorpius. "But on my own terms. Preferably with my family's blessing, not just tearful promises that they'll talk to my grandparents and that they'll visit me as soon as they can. I need to sort my life out quicker now. I feel rushed. Displaced."

"Do you think your parents will be able to get through to your grandparents?"

Scorpius shook his head. "To be honest, it doesn't matter, I won't ever be going back to live there. It would be nice to know I can visit my parents when I want to see them. As horrible as it sounds I don't think it will change until my grandparents die, or at the very least, my grandfather. I feel as though I don't belong to a family anymore."

"Or a coven?" said Fleur knowingly.

Scorpius laughed. "Exactly."

"Many years ago when I was around your age, I felt the same," admitted Fleur, before hastily adding. "But for different reasons."

"What had happened?" asked Scorpius, relieved to be no longer discussing his own family.

"I moved to a different country, this country, straight after school," explained Fleur. "It was when You-Know-Who —Voldemort, sorry — was on the rise again, and I was quickly swept up in the fight against him. I became a member of the Order. My parents and sister came for my wedding but that was the night the Ministry fell. After that, it was no longer safe for them to be in England. Why put themselves at risk when they could go home to France? I suppose I could have gone with them, either by myself or persuaded Bill to join me, but I couldn't do that."

"That must have been difficult, I never realised. I'm sorry."

"I know people know the facts of the war but not necessarily the stories," said Fleur. "It's difficult to truly explain what life was like. I couldn't even send them letters with any particular detail. We were concerned our post was being watched. It was hard, but instead of dwelling on it, I busied myself with making a new coven."

"The Weasleys?" guessed Scorpius, with a smile.

Fleur smiled back and nodded. "As covens go, they're one of the largest and kindest you'll meet. I won't lie and say you'll be welcomed with open arms, because I had to prove my love to Bill. But once they know that you love their family as much as they do, that's it, you're one of them."

"I know Rose is my future, I want a family of my own, and I want it with her," said Scorpius, feeling his cheeks glow.

"Embrace her and her family, and you'll be embraced back," advised Fleur. "Those times you're feeling down, or afraid, or insecure, or alone, they will be there for you. It's a different family, but it will still be your family. You may not have been born into it, but you'll belong."

"Thank you, Fleur," said Scorpius. "You've really helped me to put it into perspective and see the larger picture. I know my parents love me, I know Rose loves me, and I know that with her comes a whole barrage of family whether I want it or not! I don't know how I could possibly feel alone again."

"And if you do feel like that, you're always welcome here in your coven with Dora and Frank," smiled Fleur.

A couple of weeks later, Scorpius found himself living out of boxes, because he and Rose had found a place to call their own. It was a small one-storey cottage on Hogsmeade's outskirts that had a large garden full of wildflowers. It wasn't much— both early on in their respective careers they didn't have high salaries— but it was all theirs. It was home.

"Rose, do you know which box the kettle is in? It's not in the one with the mugs."

"Are you sure?" shouted Rose, from the bedroom. "Wait, do we own a kettle?"

"I didn't."

"Nope, we don't own one then, add it to the list."

Scorpius grabbed the long scroll of parchment they had been adding to all morning and added the item to the bottom of the list. It turned out making a home involved owning lots of different things they hadn't thought of.

Rose walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around her waist, nuzzling her head into his back. "It already feels like home."

Scorpius glanced around the living room. The second-hand navy sofa which had been donated by one of Rose's many cousins and the coffee table they had found at a muggle flea market was covered in many cardboard boxes. "With you, it does."

"An owl!" exclaimed Rose, releasing him and turning towards the window to release the letter from a tawny owl he didn't recognise. "It might be another card. Here, it's addressed to you."

Scorpius unscrolled the parchment and grinned. It was a picture drawn in crayon of himself, Dora and Frank with their pink witch's hats sitting at a table drinking tea. Scrawled underneath in a child's messy handwriting was simply written 'Our coven'.