A/N: Written for the QLFC Round 12 - Out Of The Ordinary. Team: Montrose Magpies.

CAPTAIN. Prompt chosen: Write a FLUFFY SLICE OF LIFE story about THE GAUNT FAMILY

Thanks to Liza and FF for beta work and helping me make it a bit fluffy, remaining errors are my own.

A/N 2: Alternate (non-fluffy) ending in the copy in my 'More Ramblings' collection.

Merope Dreams

Merope Gaunt hummed as she washed the dishes. They weren't a rich family but still they always got by. Marvolo, her father, had a small garden out back. It used to belong to his wife (Merope's mother) until she died. Merope really missed her mother and was happy Father had kept a picture. Sometimes Merope took it out and stared at it, telling her mother what had happened during the day.
Her mother hadn't been a beauty with a receded chin, an upper palate that didn't fully close, and eyes that just would never focus. The defects were not really a surprise given that she and Father had been siblings, like their parents before them. And Merope knew she looked a lot like her parents, being no beauty herself.
"It isss the family tradissshion," Father had told her once when Merope questioned why he had married his own sister. "We are dessscended from the great Sssalazar Ssslytherin himssself, we have to keep the Blood pure."
Pure blood. Sometimes Merope wondered if it all was worth it. Sure, they were the Purest family in Britain, even others recognised that. But there hadn't been a Gaunt in Hogwarts in forever. Merope was little more than a Squib, hardly able to cast a successful Lumos, and her brother Morfin was little better. He even refused to speak English most of the time, preferring the High Speech (as her father called Parseltongue).
The last plate washed and dried, Merope put it back in the cupboard and dried her hands before hanging up the towel.
"I did the dishes, may I go out now, Father?"
"Out? Why out? What'sss wrong with inssside?" Her father's voice came from further into the shack.
"No reason, Father. I just want to catch some fresh air. Maybe pick some flowers for the table."
"Bah. Be off, girl, but be back before it turnssss dark. If I have to sssend Morfin after you, you got a beating coming."
"I won't be," Merope said quickly. Marvolo scoffed and picked up his newspaper again, ignoring her.

Taking her embroidery box with her, Merope couldn't get away from the shack fast enough. As usual, the grounds were infested with snakes of all kinds. Probably summoned by her brother. Morfin tended to speak to them and give them orders, and while Merope could speak Parseltongue, they were usually unfriendly to her as if they could sense her fear. A fear that was well grounded because Morfin often sent his snakes after her whenever he felt slighted by something she did.
Passing through the natural gate formed by the old tree trunks, Merope finally encountered daylight as she walked onto the unpaved road that led past it. She knew a nice flower field a little way off where she could pick some flowers or work on her clothes a little.
When she was six, her mother had taught her all the little secret stitches and other tricks to make individual pieces of cloth into a nice shawl, a vest, or even a dress. And when her mother had gone ill and was taken away to St. Mungo's, never to return home, Merope inherited her embroidery box and all the little pieces of cloth she had kept. Merope didn't have a wand and had never been taught to cast spells so normally it would be a problem to work outside of her home, but the box was spelled to make everything put in it tiny and nearly weightless. Therefore she could work on her skills whenever and whereever she had some free time, like now.
Her current project was a dress, a proper one, like she had seen the girls in the village wear. Maybe if she was a good girl until the spring festival, her Father would allow her to go and dance with the others. And maybe, just maybe, she could catch the eye of that handsome dark haired boy she sometimes saw ride past her home.

For a while Merope worked on her dress, occasionally picking a flower when she wanted to take a break. The shack would look a little nicer with them, after all. Not that they'd last long in the dark, but every little bit helped.
Finally her patience was rewarded as she heard a horse come up the path. Quickly, she put away her embroidery, brushed down her beaten dress, and tried to force her hair into place a little, then sat down on a rock and started to make a daisy chain with some of the flowers she picked.
She looked up just as the horse came close, seeing her secret crush.
"H—Hi, Tom," she said in a soft voice.
The rider passed by her, making no sign of having heard her.
"Tom! Hello," Merope called.
The horse stopped and Tom—Thomas Riddle, heir to the Riddle estate—looked over his shoulder at her. Merope winced a little at the look he gave her, acutely aware of the difference in class between them.
"Did you say something, girl?"
"Mer—Merope."
"Mer what now?"
"I—I'm Merope. Hi," she said, flushing.
"How unfortunate for you," she overheard Tom murmuring.
"Thomas Riddle. Well, Merope, I am rather busy now. Did you need something?"
"I just, wanted, to say, erm, hi?"
"Well, you did. Good day to you, miss," Tom said, turning around and riding on.

Merope's heart was pounding in her chest with such intensity she almost felt as if it would jump out. 'He looked at me, he called me by my name! Oh, Mother, if only you could see me now… this is the best day of my life!'
Slipping down the rock a little, Merope rested in the field, looking up at the sky. How could such a perfect day possibly end? She looked at the sun and smiled; she had a while yet before she had to go home. All the time to take a nap and dream of her beautiful Tom.

A singing bird woke her from her nap, and Merope started to walk back home, smiling all the way. Heavy snores told her Father was also taking a nap, so she worked in silence as she decorated the family table with a small bouquet of wildflowers, using a mug as a vase.
Morfin was still out, doing Merlin knows what, but that meant she had all the time she needed to relax a little. She put her embroidery box back near her bed and then silently began to cut vegetables for dinner.

Morfin showed up when she was nearly finished, carrying two hares over his shoulder. The slam of the door woke their father.
"Good hunt, the sssnakes caught them easssily for usss," Morfin informed them.
"Looksss like meat isss on the menu," Marvolo said, happy.
Merope beamed at her brother. For all the trouble he sometimes caused for her, at times like this, she truly loved her family.

The hares skinned, cooked, and served, Merope sat down at the table at last. Her brother and father were already waiting for the food.
"What'sss that?" Morfin asked, reaching for the vase.
"Leave it. It looksss good," Father stopped him. "Thank you for the meat, ssson, and thank you for the dinner and flowersss, daughter. It'sss good to be together like thisss."
'A compliment by Father as well as actually talking to Tom? If I were to die today, I'd die happy,' Merope thought, smiling all the way through dinner.