A/N: I AM SO SORRY EVERYONE!
I was super optimistic about being able to get up at 5:00 am, work an 8 hour day, do a few hours of homework at night, and then have the creative energy to write some chapters after that. Turns out that I didn't and I really overestimated my own abilities. Weekends have also been really busy, because I feel obliged to do more family things with the nice weather we've been having.
So, I hope that you enjoy this long-awaited chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Re-Cap: It's been forever since we did this, so I'll try to remind you of the important points for this new chapter. Victoire and Ally found a weird increase in prescriptions for ministry subsidized wolfsbain. In the last story Benjamin broke up with his fiancee and told Eliza that he wanted to make things work between them.
Potions and Pillow Fights
Saturday, April 20th 2024
12:26 PM
Victoire was shovelling a spinach salad into her mouth as fast as she could without choking as she kept her eye on the clock on the far wall of St. Mungo's cafeteria.
"Are you even chewing your food?" Healer Spencer Green asked his blonde colleague as he ate his own spinach salad more circumspectly and with a trace of actual table manners that Victoire seemed to lack.
"A wiffle," Victoire said as she continued to heap the iron rich produce into her mouth.
Spencer, who Victoire had been friends with since healing school, knew Victoire well enough to understand that she was trying to say the words 'a little'.
"Can you even taste it?" Spencer asked her with his American accent that had softened after several years of living and working in England.
Victoire took a moment to swallow the rather large mouthful of green vegetables she had and then replied, "Not really. Which is for the best considering that it's filled with hidden cucumbers. Who puts cucumbers in a spinach salad?"
"Normal people," Her friend replied with an eye roll, "Well normal people who don't have a weird fear of them."
"I'm not afraid of them! They just taste awful," Victoire retorted with a face as she pushed the dark green leaves of the spinach around her bowl to try to uncover the hidden pieces of light green vegetable that she had been trying to avoid eating.
Spencer smirked, "So are you one of those people who gives the serves as restaurants complicated orders so that they don't have to eat anything that's touched a food you don't like?"
"No," Victoire replied as she stabbed a few pieces of spinach –minus any concealed cucumber slices, "Teddy just usually eats all my cucumber slices for me."
He snickered, "Of course Prince Charming does that for you."
Victoire pouted after she finished chewing her last bite, "And he's at home enjoying some well-deserved rest while I'm stuck here doing a Saturday shift."
"And enjoying my wonderful company," Spencer added with a charming grin that lit up his handsome face.
She sighed and shovelled a few more bites of salad into her mouth, "Not that I don't love you more than life itself Spence, but I'd rather be spending my fiancé's twenty-sixth birthday with him instead of at work."
"You get to spend the rest of your night doing whatever you want to your fiancé because you're done at four today, whereas I'm stuck here until six tomorrow morning," Spencer reminded her as he stabbed a few pieces of cucumber that were in his own spinach salad.
Victoire inclined her head to him as if he had a point, "Yes . . . but I don't actually get to do whatever I want to him for the rest of the night because we have to attend a birthday party for Teddy at Ally and Xavier's at seven tonight."
"Why's his party at Beckham and Posh's house?" Spencer asked as he called Xavier and Ally two of his many nicknames for the pair. Spencer had a fervent love for christening people with ever-changing theme-related bizarre nicknames.
"It was going to be at Malcolm's place but since–" Victoire stopped herself before she accidently spilled the beans about Nadia's pregnancy and then had to come up with a little white lie, "Since Nadia caught the flu a few days ago. Malcolm's been taking care of her at his place and he said that everything's contaminated now, so Ally and Xavier offered their house up instead."
Obviously Nadia didn't actually have the flu, but Malcolm's house was in a bit of a tumult since he and Nadia were trying to figure out how they were going to tackle being parents, so Xavier and Ally offered to host Teddy's birthday party at their home to take a bit of the pressure off of the new soon-to-be parents.
Spencer took a sip of coffee from his refillable stainless-steel coffee mug, "Planning large events would be a lot easier with a house of your own, wouldn't it?"
"Don't get me started," Victoire said with a sigh as she started physically picking cucumber slices out of her salad, "Hopefully we'll get that crossed off our to-do list tomorrow."
The healer from the Magical Bugs and Illness ward snorted in amusement into his coffee mug, "You really think that you and Teddy will settle on a house the first time you go out house hunting?"
"I decided on a wedding dress the first time I went shopping for one," Victoire replied with a shrug of her shoulders.
"House hunting is a little bit more complicated than wedding dress shopping," Spencer told her with a raised eyebrow.
Victoire smirked, "Dom would probably faint if she heard you say that."
"You and I both know that your sister has bizarre priorities sometimes."
The last four forkfuls of spinach salad were shoved into Victoire's mouth at a rapid pace, and she began to chew swiftly and a little loudly until it was reduced to a sticky mush in her mouth that she was able to swallow without feeling like it was obstructing her airway.
"Why're you in such a rush?" Spencer asked her with a raised eyebrow as Victoire started to stand up from her chair. Her mouth was only half cleared of her meal.
Victoire swallowed the rest of her lunch with a loud 'gulp', "Not all of us actually have a whole lunch hour to waste away. Some of us have work to do in our wards."
"I just diagnosed an entire family of eight with dragonpox," Spencer countered.
Victoire smirked, "The medieval kind?"
He shook his head at her but he had a hard time keeping a straight face at one of their inside jokes, "No, it was not medieval, just the regular kind. What have you done this morning?"
"I diagnosed a few people in the emergency medical ward with non-dark-magic related illnesses, so that was good for them," Victoire said with a nod.
Spencer rolled his eyes, picked a cucumber out of what was left of his salad, and tossed it at her, "Just get back to your super important ward already before Fabius can complain that you're not pulling your weight."
"Bloody Fabius," Victoire muttered with an eye roll before she blew a kiss to Spencer and turned to leave the hospital's canteen.
Fabius wasn't actually in the Dark Arts Reversal ward that Saturday, which only just made the Saturday shift Victoire was working bearable. Instead the quiet ward was being oversee by Victoire and Wesley Hall, and since Victoire was the full-time healer out of the pair of them she was technically in charge of Wesley, the wards' medi-witches and wizards, and assistants until the end of her shift at four o'clock. That was the main reason why Victoire had wanted to eat lunch as quickly as possible and get back to her ward; she was technically in charge and she didn't want to leave Wesley alone in case an emergency occurred while she was picking evil slices of cucumber out of her salad. She would have preferred not to waste time eating in the canteen in the first place, but Ally had already berated her earlier in the week for not taking enough time to eat during work hours, so she had followed her cousin's demands and took a fifteen minute lunch break.
She spent some time checking in with everyone on the ward when she got back to see if there was anything they needed from her or if something had developed while she was gone. Wesley ended up rolling his eyes at her and telling her that she wasn't gone long enough for an emergency to develop and that she needed to chill out and take the time to eat more balanced meals in the future. Victoire waited until the medi-witches and wizards had gone back to their duties before she stuck her tongue out at Wesley. He just smirked at her, grabbed a clipboard, and walked into a patient room.
Once Victoire had given into her obsessive compulsive tendencies to micromanage everything going on in the ward (the medi-witches and wizards and healing assistants were well familiar with her work ethic by that point so they didn't take her interference too personally), she sat down behind the desk in her office and started to look through some paperwork she had piled up on its left side.
A half hour of drudging paperwork later and there was a knock on her door. The sound ended up being a precursor to one of the healing assistants sticking their head into her office and enquiring if she had the time for a walk-in healing consultation.
Victoire replied to the familiar healing assistant in the affirmative, and she tidied up the files on her desk just before a man and a woman were ushered into her office. The woman seemed to be in her early-to-mid thirties, while the man looked to be in his late thirties or even his early forties since his hair was streaked liberally with grey and his face lined with faint wrinkles. The pair were holding hands which made it immediately apparent to Victoire that they were a couple.
"Good afternoon, I'm Healer Victoire Weasley," Victoire introduced herself to the pair as she stood up from behind her desk and reached towards them to shake their hands.
The couple took turns shaking her hand and introduced them themselves as Mr. and Mrs. Norton. Victoire asked the pair to sit down and she then eyed the door to make sure that the healing assistant had closed it firmly after escorting the couple in.
"What can I do for you?" She asked the couple in her polite and professional healing tone of voice. Her blue eyes had already slyly inspected the pair as they shook her hand and sat down in the chairs across from her desk, but she hadn't spotted any outward signs of illness or injury in either of them.
"Well," Mrs. Norton began after sharing a look with her husband, "We're here because we're trying to get pregnant."
Victoire gave the couple a bit of a flabbergasted look but did her best to speak to them politely and non-condescendingly, "That's admirable . . . unfortunately my specialty isn't fertility or obstetrics. I can however give you the names of several excellent obstetric and gynecological healers who practice here at St. Mungo's."
The sheer amount of pregnancy detecting spells she'd cast and pregnancy advice she'd doled out in the past week notwithstanding, her specialty was so far from obstetrics that she wasn't sure how the couple could have made such a mistake.
"Oh no! We're aware that that's not your specific field of healing," Mrs. Norton said quickly, her eyes going wide, "We visited a medi-witch at the walk-in healing clinic close to our home this morning and when we discussed our medical histories and our intention to get pregnant the medi-witch recommended that we come here."
A pair of blonde eyebrows narrowed over Victoire's eyes in curiosity, "Why did she recommend you come to St. Mungo's Dark Arts Reversal ward?"
"I'm rather certain that it's because I'm a werewolf," Mr. Norton confessed as he looked down at the arm of his chair where his wife was clutching his hand tightly.
Wheels began turning in Victoire's mind upon hearing this admission. Their presence in her office was beginning to make more sense, "How long have you been suffering from lycanthropy Mr. Norton?"
"It's been eight years," Mr. Norton explained as he slowly raised his gaze to meet Victoire's.
Victoire nodded her head and looked between the couple, "Do you have any other children together?"
They shook their heads.
"Do either of you have children with a different partner?"
They shook their heads again.
"Do you have any reason to believe that you have any fertility-based issues that might inhibit your ability to conceive a child?"
"Henry and I have both taken fertility tests in the past, according to those results we should have no problems conceiving," Mrs. Norton explained.
Victoire nodded her head once more and began writing some notes down on a scrap piece of parchment paper, "Well if you have no reason to think that you will have trouble conceiving a child I am still a little unsure as to why the medi-witch from your walk-in clinic sent you here."
"We've been discussing between the two of us whether we should have children for several years now. We–we just decided to go through with it, but when we mentioned this and our . . . concerns and apprehensions to the medi-witch we saw today she suggested that we come here and see you Healer Weasley," Mrs. Norton explained.
Victoire pursed her lips and started tapping her quill on the piece of parchment paper in front of her, "The medi-witch recommended you come see me specifically?"
"Yes."
"What was this medi-witch's name?"
Mrs. Norton glanced at her husband and they whispered to each other for a second before Mrs. Norton faced Victoire and said confidently, "Her name was Shelley Alexander."
That was the missing piece of the puzzle she needed to make the situation in front of her make sense. Shelley Alexander went to Hogwarts with Victoire, and they had been in the same year although Shelley had been sorted into Hufflepuff. Victoire knew Shelley Alexander moderately well as the young woman had been the sweet happy type who could make friends with just about anyone (although Colton had tried his best during his years at school to ignore the Hufflepuff's friendly nature), and when Victoire was Head Girl for Gryffindor in her last year at Hogwarts Shelley was Head Girl of Hufflepuff. Their positions meant that the two spent a good amount of time working together along with the other student heads of house to work on their many and varied duties as head students. Victoire had heard a while ago that Shelley had become a qualified medi-witch, and once Shelley found out that Mr. Norton had lycanthropy and that the couple were hesitant to have children, she must have thought that recommending they see Victoire would be helpful to them in more ways than one.
"I went to Hogwarts with Ms. Alexander, she's a brilliant witch," Victoire said calmly, "You said that you told her that you were hesitant about having children?"
Mr. and Mrs. Norton squeezed their clasped hands tighter and Mrs. Norton replied, "We're aware that not many people with lycanthropy choose to have biological children, and we had many of the same concerns about having children as I'm sure that all of those people did."
"You're worried about how Mr. Norton's lycanthropy might affect your child?" Victoire questioned them in a gentle and understanding tone.
Mr. Norton nodded, "Yes, we've discussed and worried over just about every possible outcome . . . and then we worried some more about whether or not we were being selfish by wanting a child of our own blood, whether we have a right to impose our potential health problems and genetics on an innocent life."
"It's human nature for many to feel a longing for biological children of their own; that doesn't make you selfish," Victoire replied sympathetically.
Mrs. Norton swallowed thickly and scowled at a thought that drifted through her mind, "Unfortunately not many people believe that. Many people still think that Henry's condition makes him less than human."
"You're correct Mrs. Norton, there are still many people out there who share that outdated and inhumane type of thought. Luckily for you however, I am not one of those people; and that is why Ms. Alexander recommended that you come see me," Victoire told the couple.
Mr. Norton's eyes started to fill with a guarded type of hope, "Do you have much experience with couples who have children while one of the biological parents has lycanthropy?"
"I do not have much medical history with children of lycanthropes since you are correct in your previous statement that many people with lycanthropy choose not to have biological children. I do however have personal experience with children of lycanthropes," She explained as she went back to tapping the end of her quill against her parchment.
Mr. and Mrs. Norton frowned at her in confusion. Victoire elaborated, "My fiancé's father had lycanthropy. I've known my fiancé since we were children and I am very familiar with his medical history. My own father was attacked by a man with lycanthropy before I was born. It did not occur during a full moon, but aspects of the disease did spread to my father's system. After my father recovered he married my mother and they went on to have three children."
"Your–your fiancé does he–does he have-" Mr. Norton couldn't finish his question.
It was obvious that the pair had never met or spoken to the child of someone with lycanthropy before.
"He's perfectly healthy. I wouldn't call him normal, but that has much more to do with genes he inherited from his mother, not his father. He does get a little tetchy on nights where there are full moons, but that along with some body soreness, headaches, and nausea are the worst of the symptoms," Victoire candidly described, "Myself and my siblings also get some nausea and headaches during full moons, but we're always better by the next morning."
Mr. Norton swallowed thickly and the circumspect hope in his eyes grew, "There are no lasting . . . issues?"
"Nothing a little wolfsbain one night a month won't fix," Victoire said with a nod and a casual shrug, "Obviously I can't assure you that any child of yours will react the same way to the effects of a full moon, but there is no evidence yet that suggests that the child of a lycanthrope will have more adverse reactions to a full moon than what I've described to you."
"So–so our baby would be fine?" Mrs. Norton asked in a quiet voice. It sounded like she didn't have the strength to speak any louder. I was as if saying the words in a volume above a whisper would stop them from coming true.
"Statistically speaking yes," Victoire told them.
Mr. and Mrs. Norton turned their heads to gaze into each other's eyes as they allowed the renewed hope they felt to spill out onto their expressions. Mr. Norton kissed the back of his wife's hand and then he glanced at Victoire, "Is there anything we should be doing or Cathy should be taking to ensure that the baby will be . . . normal?"
"A healer–a certified obstetric healer or medi-witch will suggest you take pre-natal vitamins and folic acid to ensure the baby's growth and development in utero," She explained with a slight smile and a smidgeon of a teasing tone.
Mr. Norton nodded his head and pursed his lips, "What about wolfsbain potion? Should Cathy take that each month when she is pregnant?"
"Neither my fiancé's mother nor my own mother drank wolfsbain while they were pregnant, but of the little research I have read about children from biological parents with lycanthropy it seems that several mothers in the study chose to drink wolfsbain while they were pregnant and that the potion did not seem to create any adverse reactions in either the children or the mother," Victoire recited from memory, "However, there is not enough evidence to claim that the wolfsbain potion helped the child's development or 'normalness' to a degree of statistical significance in these cases either."
Mrs. Norton shared another look with her husband, "What would you recommend Healer Weasley?"
"I would need to run a small trial to see how Mrs. Norton responds to taking the wolfsbain potion while she is not pregnant to make sure that the trend of no ill-effects includes her as well. But after that I don't think I would have any medical reason to suggest either taking or not taking the potion. It would all depend on what you both would like and feel comfortable with. Wolfsbain is a potion that is notoriously acrid and distasteful to drink, and mixing that with a woman who may be suffering from typical nausea and morning sickness that comes with common pregnancy might not be the best idea. However, on the other hand if a pregnant woman feels herself suffering from more headaches or joint soreness around the time of the full moon, a wolfsbain potion with its ability to remove those lycanthropy related symptoms might be attractive and effective."
Victoire took a breath at the end of her long explanation and then eyed the couple inquisitively, "Either way I would be working in tight conjunction throughout Mrs. Norton's future pregnancy with whatever obstetric healer or medi-witch or wizard you choose to go with in case symptoms change and medications like wolfsbain need to be adjusted. So is using wolfsbain something you'd be interested in doing?"
"Is there an obstetric healer here who would feel comfortable taking Cathy on as a patient? We know that healers are not allowed to outwardly refuse anyone treatment, but we don't exactly want to receive care from someone who may be prejudiced against us," Mr. Norton said with a frown.
"All of our healers here are very professional . . . but I can give you the information of an obstetric healer whom I can assure will treat the both of you with the upmost respect and give you excellent treatment," Victoire said as she dug through one of her desk drawers and found a business card with the name Healer Donald Jarvis, printed on it.
She took her quill and signed her signature in a blank area near the back corner so that Donnie would know that she recommended Mr. and Mrs. Norton as patients, while a sarcastic voice in her head suggested that Donnie should probably start giving her a finder's fee from all of the patients she'd sent to him lately.
"We're not sure if I should take the wolfsbain potion," Mrs. Norton said as she and her husband shared a defeated look, "It's–it's difficult enough to afford the potion for Henry once a month. We wouldn't be able to afford two potions a month-"
Victoire started nodding at their words and plastered a sympathetic expression on her face, "That's a completely valid worry. Wolfsbain is an expensive potion. The ministry does have a wolfsbain subsidizing program though, that makes the potion affordable for people who might not have as much income as others-"
Mr. Norton stopped her there, "We're aware of the ministry's subsidizing program . . . unfortunately I was kicked out of the program two months ago. They said that their criteria for the program had changed and that according to those changes our income is now too high for us to be considered for the program."
"May I ask what your income is?" Victoire questioned the pair professionally.
Mrs. Norton looked down at her hands and softly told her a number. Victoire frowned when she heard it. With that number it would be very difficult to afford one dose of wolfsbain potion per month let alone two. Which is why the ministry's subsidization program was created in the first place. Victoire's Aunt Hermione had been the one to spearhead the program's inception almost two decades ago, but as time went on Hermione drifted away from working within the ministry to do more work outside of it and her hold on many of the programs she helped create changed hands.
"Did the person you spoke to from the ministry explain what the new income minimum is for the subsidization program?" Victoire enquired with a bit of a frown.
Mr. Norton spat out another number and Victoire's frown deepened.
The number he gave was a gross discrepancy from what the income threshold use to be and should be. She knew that many socialized ministry programs changed their criteria when they had to cut back on costs or had funding losses, but the amount that the ministry's wolfsbain subsidizing program had apparently changed in the span of just two months was absolutely ridiculous. Those changes would make it difficult for many lower income people to afford wolfsbain, and many of the people who would no longer meet the income threshold for the subsidizing program would also be unable to afford a dose of wolfsbain each month out of their own pocket. The changes would also mean that Mr. Norton wouldn't be the only person kicked out of the subsidization program; many people would be cut with the new income threshold. With more people being cut from the program the amount of potions St. Mungo's potions' lab should be brewing should be decreasing, not increasing at the rate that Ally had pointed out earlier in the week.
Victoire opened another one of her desk drawers and pulled out her prescription pad. Even though Mr. Norton's income was now too large to qualify for the ministry's subsidizing program, his income did meet the threshold to get an emergency prescription from St. Mungo's paid for.
"I can get you a prescription for wolfsbain for this month," Victoire said as she switched gears a little from their plans to get pregnant, towards Mr. Norton's lycanthropy.
"But the full moon's on Wednesday. Isn't it too late to get the prescription filled here?" Mr. Norton asked as Victoire handed him the prescription that was written in her signature chicken scratch.
St. Mungo's potion's lab didn't exactly operate like normal apothecaries. Since the potion's lab was in charge of brewing potions for the hospital and emergency prescriptions to go home with the patients, they didn't create extra potions that weren't ordered by the hospital's administration or individual healers. As the wolfsbain potion was difficult to create and took so long to brew, it was impossible to add another dose to the brewing list and have it ready in five days.
"Don't worry Mr. Norton, I'll work it out with the potioneers in the brewing lab. You should be able to pick up this month's dose on Monday," Victoire told him.
Mr. Norton smiled at her and thanked her profusely, but Victoire was only half listening to him as her mind had conjured up an image of Ally rolling her eyes exasperatedly at Victoire once the healer had the opportunity to tell her cousin that she might end up being one wolfsbain potion short.
Victoire asked the couple if they had any more questions about their plans to get pregnant, and when they finished she wished them a good afternoon and escorted them out of her office. With Mr. and Mrs. Norton gone, Victoire went back to her desk and started writing down some notes from their conversation, as well as a series of questions she had running through her head that she'd need to ask of some people from the Ministry and the Auror Department.
When she was finished, she went back into her desk for a third time and pulled out her muggle mobile phone. She pressed dial once she had found the name of the person she wanted to talk to.
Teddy answered his own mobile phone after two rings, "Hello Love."
"Hey," Victoire said into the phone, a smile slipping onto her face just hearing his voice, "I have a few minutes free and I thought I'd give you a call so that I could officially wish you a Happy Birthday."
"Didn't you already do that this morning before you left for your shift?"
Victoire blushed as she remembered the hasty but thoroughly enjoyable good morning/Happy Birthday/ goodbye she gave her fiancé before leaving for the hospital that morning, "Well I didn't exactly say it in so many words."
"It's alright, I got the gist of it when you were breathlessly moaning my name," The voice on the other end said in a tone that was both seductive and teasing at the same time.
The rest of her body was starting to feel hot as her blush spread from her cheeks downwards, so Victoire quickly changed the subject, "So what have you been up to so far today?"
"Grandmum invited me over for lunch, and then she conned me into helping her turnover and prepare her backyard garden for planting in a few weeks," Teddy explained with an audible smile in his voice.
"Are you still at Andromeda's?"
"Yeah."
Victoire felt her face go white, "And you just said everything you did with her there?"
There was a chuckle from the other end of the line, "Calm down Vic I'm not daft. I'm still in the garden and Grandmum's in the kitchen making tea. She can't hear me right now."
"Thank Merlin," She muttered into the receiving end of her phone.
"Not that Grandmum's daft either, I think by this point she's well aware that her twenty-six-year-old grandson is sexually active with his fiancée."
Victoire smirked into her phone screen, "Yeah, it's just your side-birds that you need to keep a secret from her."
"Like I'd have enough time for a side-bird," Teddy retorted sarcastically, "I have a hard enough time keeping up with you some nights as it is."
She did her best to hide a chuckle, and replied in a deadpan tone, "Because that's the only thing keeping you back from getting a side-bird: your lack of free-time."
"Well what else would it be?" He countered, she could hear the insufferable smirk in his voice, "It can't be the fact that I'm madly in love with you and that I don't find other any other women even the slightest bit attractive anymore."
"No, that'd just be crazy," Victoire agreed with a laugh, "Although it's nice to know that I've ruined other women for you."
Teddy's voice joined her in her laughter, "You also scare away the majority of women who try to attract me anyway. Well all women except for your sister that is."
"And now that we've hit the portion of our conversation where I'm starting to develop irrationally annoyed and even jealous feelings for my younger sister, I think it's time for me to get back to work. Paperwork won't fill-out itself after all."
"Okay, I'll see you in a few hours then. Love you."
"Love you too."
6:25 PM
Cecilia buckled the gold buckle on the black shoe she wore on her left foot, and then adjusted the straps of the silver shoe she wore on her right foot. She walked along the carpet in a small circle as she tested each shoe, and then she pursed her lips and glanced to the dark haired girl who was sitting on the foot of the large bed, "What do you think Rowboat? Which shoe do you like better?"
The twenty-month old smiled enchantingly and clapped her hands together in delight as she looked at the pretty shoes on Cecilia's feet, "Shiny!"
Cecilia looked down at her feet and then back up at the little face of Rowan Parker-Dickinson, "Which one do you consider to be shiny? Is it the black or the silver?" The twenty-year-old woman patiently pointed to each shoe as she carefully enunciated the name of each colour.
"Back!"
Cecilia nodded appreciatively and then glanced back at her feet to consider the shoes, "Black it is Ro. Thanks for the good advice."
A snort of amusement came from the open doorway of the bedroom and Cecilia slowly turned –being careful of the uneven high-heeled shoes she was still wearing– to find her close friend Eliza Parker leaning casually against the doorframe in a red-and-white-checked apron.
"Taking fashion advice from my toddler are you now Cecilia?" Eliza asked as she moved away from the doorframe and walked further into her bedroom.
Cecilia smirked, "Well you were busy in the kitchen with dinner, and to be honest Rowan's got a better sense of style than you do."
Eliza rolled her green eyes and sat down on her bedspread next to her toddler. Rowan scrambled up and onto her mother's lap the minute Eliza's weight touched the mattress.
"I buy all of Rowan's clothes. How can she have a better sense of style than me?" Eliza quipped.
Cecilia sat down on the very edge of the bed and started to remove the silver shoe from her right foot, "You buy most of Rowan's clothes, but she does get clothing as gifts from me and Victoire all the time."
"That only adds up to like a tenth of her closet," Eliza argued with her closest female friend as Cecilia pulled the silver shoe off and set it on the bedspread.
"Which still makes her style a tenth better than yours," Cecilia maintained with a wide smirk as she slipped the black shoe's twin onto her right foot and stood back up to move in front of the mirror that was across from Eliza's bed.
Eliza rolled her eyes again, picked up the abandoned silver shoe, and lightly tossed said shoe at the shorter woman. Cecilia dodged it –she didn't play quidditch professionally like her parents and older brother but she did have some athletic skill left over from her days of playing quidditch for Gryffindor's house team– and she picked up a dress she had tried on fifteen minutes ago but had decided against in favour of the skirt and shirt combination she was presently wearing. She balled up the fabric of the dress and then threw it in Eliza's direction. The other woman tried to dodge it but she didn't have reflexes hones by quidditch like Cecilia and the fabric hit Eliza right in the face where Cecilia had aimed with the purposeful intention of it missing Rowan.
Eliza made a scoffing sound when Cecilia's dress hit her forehead with a soft impact, and she reached blindly for a decorative throw pillow to heave in Cecilia's direction. The pillow projectile missed her friend's form and landed softly on the floor next to a smile pile of clothing that Cecilia had also tried on and rejected over the past half hour.
Cecilia laughed at Eliza's poor aim and after a few seconds Eliza joined her with her own carefree laughter. The pair of grown women stopped chuckling when a childish, high-pitched giggle joined them, and Cecilia and Eliza both twisted to face the little girl and told the toddler in unison, and almost as an afterthought, that "it's not nice to throw things".
Rowan frowned but then ended up shrugging her tiny shoulders at the pair since she was use to her Mummy and her Auntie Cee-Cee acting weird around her and trying to firmly-but-fairly discipline her every so often.
"So what do you think about the whole outfit Ro? How do I look?" Cecilia asked the toddler as she sat down on bed next to the little one and Eliza.
Rowan giggled again and smiled at her godmother, "Pretty!"
Cecilia smiled sweetly back at the toddler and reached forward to tickle the girl's tummy, "Back at ya gorgeous! Who needs men in their lives when you can get this kind of support from other women, huh?"
"You say that as if you don't know that you could wear a nun's habit and still have Louis find you attractive," Eliza replied with a roll of her eyes as she shifted the laughing and squirming toddler off of her lap and onto an empty area of the bed so that Cecilia could tickle her more easily.
Cecilia looked at Eliza while her hands were busy tickling Rowan, "That's only because Louis has a good imagination."
Eliza snickered and picked another pillow up off the bed to hit Cecilia with. Cecilia gasped in faux shock at the unprompted attack and then reached for two more pillows of her own. She gave the smaller one to Rowan and the pair of them teamed-up against Eliza as they started thumping her with their soft bludgeoning apparatuses.
The pillows flew and laughter and giggles echoed around the room as the three women took turns bashing each other with the pillows.
"I've heard about these all-female pillow fights, but I will admit that this isn't quite what I had in mind," A distinctly male voice mused from the bedroom's open doorway.
The girls dropped their pillows and Rowan instantly scrambled off of the bed and threw herself towards the newcomer, "Daddy!"
A smile of pure joy flashed across Benjamin Dickinson's face as he knelt down in time to catch his daughter in a tight hug, "Hello gorgeous!"
He kissed the top of her head and then stood up with the toddler still in his arms. He crossed the short distance between the doorway and the bed and bent a little so that he could press a quick kiss to Eliza's lips, "And hello Beautiful."
Eliza's cheeks reddened slightly and her eyes sparkled as she gazed up at Benjamin, "Hello to you too."
Beside Eliza on the bed, Cecilia pursed her lips and made an obnoxious kissing noise. It effectively ruined whatever mood Benjamin's arrival had created, "Don't I get one too?"
"And have you compare my kissing abilities to your part-veela boyfriend? No thanks," Benjamin told her in his aristocratic accent and with a roll of his eyes.
Eliza snorted a laugh and placed her hand on Benjamin's cheek, "Dinner should be ready in a few minutes."
Benjamin smiled, pressed another kiss to Eliza's lips, and then straightened up and rubbed his hand across Rowan's back, "We'll go get cleaned up and into a highchair with a bib then."
"You in a bib and a highchair Benjy? Is Eliza finally forcing you to eat dinner in a way that matches your maturity level?" Cecilia mocked Benjamin.
He just rolled his eyes at her snipe, "So Cecil are you joining us for dinner tonight or are you late for your evening shift in the red light district?" His hand that wasn't holding Rowan swept away from his body and gestured to the very short denim skirt, high heels, and sort of see-through lace top she was wearing.
Cecilia's mouth popped open in shock and she glared at her old schoolmate, "Excuse me-"
Before Cecilia could saying anything further, or start throwing out Gaelic swear words, a light metallic ringing noise started emitting from the direction of the flat's kitchen.
"That's the dinner timer," Eliza told Benjamin before giving him an intense and specific look.
He grasped the meaning of her look quickly and walked towards the door with Rowan in his arms, "I'll go deal with it."
When they were gone Eliza rounded on Cecilia and gave her a chastising look that she hadn't had to use since she was Head Girl for Ravenclaw during her last year at Hogwarts.
"Don't give me that look! He just inferred that I'm dressed like a prostitute," Cecilia pouted.
Eliza sighed heavily, "You did kind of start it."
Cecilia muttered something angrily and in Gaelic under her breath and she pushed up off the bed and started collecting her clothing that was scattered around Eliza's bedroom.
"And can I ask you why you're still giving him a hard time?" Eliza asked her friend as she also slowly moved off the bed and collected Cecilia's rejected silver shoes to hand over to her.
"The answer to that is easy," Cecilia announced airily. She began shoving her extra clothing and shoes into a small bag that definitely had a hidden extension charm or two on it, "Is he still splitting his time between playing happy families here with you and then living in his parents' house with his inheritance and pretending that you don't exist?"
Eliza frowned down at her hands and petulantly replied, "He doesn't pretend that Rowan and I don't exist-"
"You're right about that at least. Benjamin doesn't pretend like Rowan doesn't exist, he just pretends that you and that your relationship together doesn't exist," Cecilia countered after she ensured that she had packed away everything she brought with her –besides the clothes she was still wearing.
The mattress's bedsprings let out a bit of a creak as Eliza heavily sat back down on her bed, "It's not that he's pretending that our relationship doesn't exist . . . it's that his parents just prefer not to hear about it. They know that we're together and that he-"
"That he loves you?" Cecilia finished for her as she sat down next to her friend on the bedspread, "Yeah that's why they keep trying to set him up with each and every rich pureblooded society cow they can find."
Benjamin Dickinson came from a wealthy pureblooded family that had a long history in the wizarding world. His parents disliked Eliza for many, many reasons. The least important reason was that she was a middleclass muggleborn, and the most important was the fact that she had accidentally gotten pregnant with Benjamin's baby halfway through their last year at Hogwarts which had thrown a wrench in their plans to marry Benjamin off to a vapid woman from another rich pureblooded family that was within their same social circle.
"They've never approved of Benjamin and me, you know that. It doesn't surprise me that they're still trying to turn his head and marry him off to someone they consider more appropriate for him," Eliza reminded Cecilia even though saying the words made her heart start to ache.
Cecilia sighed. As much as she liked giving Benjamin a hard time for his past transgressions –she one-hundred percent believed that he deserved it even if he had been a relatively perfect boyfriend to Eliza for the past year– she was still a loyal friend to Eliza and she didn't want to say anything that would make the hurt she was feeling even worse.
"He's not going to take their bait. He's already broken off one engagement for you and Rowan," Cecilia reminded her softly.
Eliza let out a long sigh of her own and began to twist a lock of her long dark hair around her finger, "I know, it's just . . . as much as I hate to admit it, you were right. It is like he has two lives. He plays happy families with us half the week, and the other half he spends pretending like he's his parents' perfect heir who does everything they tell him to . . . or almost everything."
"You said that's what you wanted sixteen months ago. You wanted to re-start things with Benjamin slow and you wanted to stay under his family's radar so that they could work on their relationship with Rowan, their granddaughter," Cecilia said, repeating words her friend had told her almost a year and a half ago.
Eliza pulled harder on the hair she had wrapped around her finger, "I did . . . but that was a year and a half ago. And don't get me wrong I love where Benjamin and I are in our relationship right now, and our relationship with our daughter, but everything's . . . stagnant. Relationships are meant to change and evolve and to grow with the people in them. Ours isn't growing. It hasn't been growing for a while, and while everything is nice in this bubble we've created in my flat . . . it's not fair that this is my whole life and only really part of his."
Cecilia wrapped her arms around Eliza's shoulder and gave her a comforting squeeze, "I'm sorry, I didn't intend for my quarrel with Benjamin to turn into an existential crisis."
"It's fine," Eliza told Cecilia with a bit of a forced laugh, "I'm grateful that you always have my back."
Eliza hugged Cecilia back and the pair spent a few minutes collecting themselves before getting up from the bed and exiting Eliza's bedroom. They walked down the hallway towards the open concept living room and kitchen, and both women smiled softly when they saw Benjamin sitting in front of Rowan's highchair and talking to her as she somewhat clumsily shoved bits of her dinner into her mouth.
"She was getting cranky because she was hungry so I started to feed her . . ." Benjamin announced over his shoulder as his back was to the pair, he turned slightly in his seat as he said it and his happy expression dropped a little when he spotted Cecilia, "We do have room for one more if you'd like to stay Cecilia, although it looks like you already have plans for this evening with Louis."
Cecilia bit her lip to avoid letting out a smile. Benjamin's overly formal polite words were obviously his attempt to apologize to her for his previous comment, without him actually having to say the words 'I'm sorry'.
"Rowan helped me pick out my outfit," Cecilia explained with a small laugh, "I brought a couple other choices with me but she liked this combo the most. Louis, Baxter, James, and I are being dragged to some new muggle/wizard mix club by Freddie later tonight. We're going to stop by Teddy's birthday party for an hour or two first and then we're going to this club."
Eliza smiled and gave Cecilia a goodbye hug, "Well have fun tonight! Oh, and give this to Ted." She waved her hand and wandlessly summoned an envelope to her. Eliza handed it to Cecilia and explained that Rowan had made a card for Teddy's birthday.
"I'll make sure he gets it," Cecilia said with a nod. She took a few steps towards Rowan and pressed a kiss to the top of the toddler's dark hair, "Goodnight Rowboat."
She straightened up and sent Benjamin a half-hearted wave, "Have a good evening."
Benjamin waved back and then within a few moments Cecilia had left the flat and closed the door tightly behind her.
Eliza settled down at the table with one plate of food for her and one for Benjamin, and he shifted his chair slightly so that he was partially facing both of his favourite girls.
"How was your day?" Benjamin asked Eliza cheerily, his attitude almost doing a full one-eighty now that the three of them were the only ones in the flat and Cecilia was gone, "Get a lot of work done?"
After Rowan turned a year old Eliza decided that she needed to get a job to help intellectually stimulate herself and to stop her from going stir crazy in her flat all day with just Rowan for company. It didn't take her long after she started looking to find a job doing free-lance ancient rune translation. She came to enjoy the work and she was happily able to complete it from home and in-between the more important aspects of Rowan's daily schedule.
"Yes, Cecilia was only here for about forty-five minutes so I got a lot of work done before that," Eliza explained in-between bites of food.
Benjamin took a sip of water, "I take it that she invited you along on their outing tonight?"
"She did."
"And you told her no?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Eliza raised an eyebrow at him and scoffed, "Because I spent all day working and taking care of my toddler and I would like to spend what little free-time I have this evening relaxing."
"I can get behind that," Benjamin said with a mischievous smirk as he reached for her leg and squeezed her fabric-covered upper thigh.
She rolled her eyes at him and removed his hand from her body, "Not that kind of relaxing. Actual relaxing."
"Alright," Benjamin said with a defeated sigh as he pulled his hand away and started eating again.
"So what are your plans for tonight?"
Benjamin eyed her weirdly, "Well they're the same as yours, obviously. Although don't be surprise if I do try to convince you to try out a couple different types of relaxation."
"And if I say no are you just going to leave and go back home?" Eliza asked with a bit of venom.
He blinked in confusion at the sudden hostility in her voice, "I honestly don't know why you're suddenly angry."
"What do you consider to be 'home' Benjamin?" She questioned as she picked up her fork and stabbed a piece of food on her plate.
"You and Rowan are home," He replied quickly and easily.
Eliza breathed out her nose, "But where do you consider home to be? Here or with your parents?"
"Well you and Rowan are here, so here," Benjamin responded in a tone that said that he still wasn't sure why she was asking such a peculiar question, "Why? Do you want me to spend less time here or something?"
"The exact opposite actually," Eliza said with a frown as she listlessly moved some food around her plate with her fork, "Why are you still putting on a show for your parents? They know that you're here on the nights that you don't come home from the office, and by now they have to have accepted the fact that we're together and that them trying to set you up with a new woman each week isn't going to work."
Benjamin scowled down at his half empty plate and set down his fork. He avoided eye-contact with Eliza and turned to look at Rowan who was just finishing off the last of her food. He pulled out his wand, conjured up a wet washcloth, and started wiping the remnants of Rowan's dinner off of her face.
While his eyes were still intently inspecting his daughter's face for stray food stains, he slowly replied to Eliza's last accusation, "My parents know how I feel about you and Rowan-"
"Then why are you still pretending to be their perfect heir who does everything they ask you to do!"
His eyes sparked with anger and he dropped the washcloth onto the table beside his plate, "Has it occurred to you that I'm trying to stay on their good side because of Rowan? For you and Rowan!"
"Because they're so kind and dotting to us," Eliza replied with heavy sarcasm.
Benjamin sighed heavily and began unstrapping Rowan from her highchair, "They're still in charge of my inheritance Eliza. If I burn my bridges with them they will take my inheritance away and-"
"I don't care about your inheritance!" Eliza yelled at him as her emotions started to boil over.
He gritted his teeth and pulled Rowan out of her chair. She blinked sleepily at him and he took a deep, calming breath as he stared at her chubby face. He turned towards Eliza and gently handed Rowan out to her.
Eliza eyed her daughter warily for a minute, she didn't want to hold Rowan when she was still feeling so much anger towards Benjamin, but when Rowan reached her little arms out for her mother Eliza's heart cracked a little and she hastily scooped her daughter up and held her tight to her chest. She pressed her face to the top of Rowan's head and took a deep breath, breathing in the smell of the toddler's baby shampoo as she did. The familiar scent had its expected soothing effect on Eliza's emotions, and when she looked back at Benjamin she repeated her words in a much calmer tone.
"I don't care about your inheritance."
Benjamin shifted forward and ran his hand through the thick scruff of dark hair on the top of Rowan's head, "I know, but we have a child to take care of and you shouldn't have to take care of her all on your own or pay for everything."
"I have a job," Eliza reminded him.
"But kids are expensive," Benjamin pointed out needlessly.
She rolled her eyes at him, "And you have a job"
Benjamin had graduated from his wizarding law course the past fall and he had been an officially certified lawyer for the past seven months. He was given a job right after graduating from his law course with a large wizarding law firm that was owned and run by a friend of his father's.
"A job that is dependent on my father's goodwill since he has my boss in his pocket," He emphasized as he ran a hand aggressively through his own hair.
Eliza settled Rowan on one hip –the little girl hand her head resting on Eliza's shoulder as her eyes were getting heavy– and she placed her other hand on her left hip. She gave Benjamin a derisive look.
He let go of his hair with a tired sigh and he shifted his position so that he could wrap his arm around the side of Eliza's waist that didn't have a toddler attached to it, and he pulled her and Rowan into his chest, "You know that the long term plan is for me to put some time in at Barton & Barton and get some experience so that I can eventually get a job at a different law firm that my father doesn't have his hand in."
"I know," She sighed wearily into his chest, feeling as though that had at least had that part of their discussion several times before, "It's just . . ."
"I know," He repeated as he pressed a kiss to Eliza's hair, "But until I get a new job I need to stay on my parents' good side so that I can afford to give you and Rowan the life you deserve."
Eliza glanced up at him so that they were making eye-contact, "And telling them that they need to stop trying to set you up with other women because you're desperately in love with the mother of your child and you're never going to leave her wouldn't keep you on their good side?"
"I doubt it," Benjamin said with an exhausted sigh, "I am though."
She narrowed her gaze at him, "You are what?"
He titled his face down and captured Eliza's lips in a sweet, passionate kiss that sucked the air out of her lungs. When he released her lips he stared at her deep green eyes that were suddenly heavy-lidded and hypnotizing.
"Desperately in love with you."
The words escaped his mouth in an exhaled pant of air that tickled Eliza's skin. She licked her lips and pushed up onto her tiptoes just slightly so that she could press her lips against Benjamin's. She sucked his bottom lip into her mouth and his hand tightened on her hip. Their lips slowly parted and Benjamin's gaze drifted to the still form of Rowan, who was lightly dozing on Eliza's right shoulder. He pressed his face into the toddler's hair.
"I love her too, desperately."
Eliza moved her free hand to rest on Benjamin's chest, her palm resting right over his heart, "I know."
A/N: I hope everyone liked this chapter, we finally got to see some Eliza, Rowan, and Benjamin, and Victoire also discovered a new little mystery to potentially obsess over. That'll be fun.
Next Update: I will update once I finish it, but as you can see with my past update, I don't want to make you a specific promise that I can't keep.
Next Chapter: We will see a bit of Teddy's birthday party, as well as the younger kids hitting up the club.
Thank you to everyone who has stayed with me throughout this story, and who has followed, favourited, read, and especially reviewed!
BIG thank yous as always to:
Break This Spell626, ntlpurpolia, carbo21, loverloverlover, NicoleTheSmith, no cure for crazy, Guest (1), lovelyjello, bookstar97, Izzy, audrey3horses, Guest (2), Lenny, Guest (3), and Marapotterhead.
Break This Spell626: An imploded office would be super funny.
ntlpurpolia: Teddy and Jilly teaching first years aurors will definitely be shown. I thought titling the story 'All the babies' would be a little too on the nose, and then the first few pregnancy announcements wouldn't be as much of a surprise.
loverloverlover: I hope there was enough Eliza/Benjamin here to fill you.
NicoleTheSmith: I think it would be lots of fun if they all had children going to Hogwarts at the same time *nudge**nudge**wink**wink*
lovelyjello: Those are a lot of questions, I will do my best to answer the ones that I can. More Cecilia and Louis will be sprinkled throughout the story, so don't worry. We'll hear more about James's break up with Mel in future chapters, so their story will be explained eventually. We will see the kids still at Hogwarts (Rose, Al, Hugo, and Lily) in a little while too, so don't worry. We saw Eliza and Rowan in this chapter :) Nadia will have to announced her pregnancy sooner rather than later since it's standard practice for female quidditch plays to stop playing when they're pregnant, it will make her pregnancy pretty obvious to the media. That's about all I can answer for now!
Dawn: Hello, I see you've caught up with this story. I completely understand that just because someone doesn't want to get married just because they're pregnant doesn't mean that they still won't get married because they actually love their partner. However my intention was to shown that relationships can be complicated and that people's feelings and insecurities can be complicated. In the end its up to each person in the relationship to come to an agreement on what they want for their relationship. There are also a lot of people out there who have children and are in long-term relationships and never get married at all. Relationships, families, and family units come in all shapes and sizes and turn out they way they are for all different reasons. PPS, if Selene's in this story she'll eventually pop up with all of the others.
I hope everyone enjoyed this long-awaited chapter,
Please leave me any questions or comments you have in a review or a PM,
Until next time, DFTBA!