Ginny's Death: The Initial Aftermath
Bill and Fleur are woken up late in the night by the sound of urgent knocking on their front door. The two rush downstairs to see what's going on, Fleur slightly behind Bill, both with their wands gripped in their hands. Once Bill recognizes the men from the Ministry he slips his wand into his sleeve, wearing only a nightgown Fleur keeps her's in her hand as she backs up to let the men in. Once the first man enters the door they can see James and Albus standing among the crowd of people. The last man to enter the house is holding the still crying Lily and Fleur takes the baby from his hands to try and calm her down. She disappears into the kitchen to focus on the noisy baby just as Bill is receiving the news about his sister.
"I'm sorry sir." Is the last thing Bill hears as he falls into the dining chair that he quickly pulls underneath him. Victorie and Dominique catch his attention a few moments later as they peak around the corner to see what's going on. Albus is now being held by one of the men as he drifts in and out of sleep and James in sitting curled up in the corner of the room. The entire house is unnaturally silent until Bill finally gets up and takes in his surroundings. "Girls, run upstairs and get the guest beds set up. Victorie, take James with you if you can." He adds just as the girls start to run upstairs. Victorie nods to her father and slips behind the Ministry men to offer James her hand. She leads him upstairs behind her younger sister. Bill picks up Albus just as Fleur reenters the world with a finally silent Lily in her arms.
"Bill?" She asks in a still thick french accent. "What is going on here? Why have they brought us Harry and Ginny's children?" Her eyes flicker back and forth between her husband and the Ministry men.
"Fleur dear, let's go upstairs and get these two settled." The Ministry men take their leave as Bill walks around the table to his wife. "Their mother's been murdered tonight." He whispers in Fleur's ear once he gets close enough to her, tears beginning to stream down his face.
Fleur startles at this news and starts speaking quickly in French causing Lily to wake up and start crying again. She diverts her attention back to calming the baby and the two slowly make their way up to the guest bedroom (Which I'm imagining on the top floor, sort of like an attic). Victorie and Dominique are quickly making the second guest bed, James already tucked into the first. Once she sees the door open Victorie opens the closet and starts pushing her old cradle into the middle of the room. Fleur takes her wand and moves it the rest of the way, magicking the dust off of it before she sets the little girl down and puts a bib into her mouth to keep her quiet. Bill sets Albus down into the second guest bed and Dominique sits next to the sleeping boy, softly brushing the hair out of his eyes when he starts to stir in his sleep as her father piles the blankets around his body to prevent him from falling. Her eyes look silently up at her father looking for answers.
"Dominique, would you like to sleep in here with your nephews tonight?" Bill asks in a whisper. The girl nods and curls up easily beside Albus. "Alright sweety, make sure that you don't wake them in the morning, alright? They're going to need as much rest as possible." The seven year old girl continues to nod her understanding as her parents leave the room, Victorie slipping behind them to her own room just a floor below her parents'.
"Bill," Fleur starts, asking "Are you alright?" in French as she places a hand on his shoulder.
Bill looks back at his wife and puts a hand on hers, "I will be." He struggles to offer her a smile but then starts to break down. Fleur guides him into their bedroom to avoid waking the kids up and Victorie listens through the walls to her father crying into her mother's arms.
After a couple of minutes pass Dominique slips into Victorie's room. Victorie sits up in her bed and Dominique sits next to her. "What do you think happened tonight?" Dominique whispers as her sister starts brushing her hands through her strawberry blond hair.
"Something bad." Victorie whispers back. "How's James doing? Is he still pretending to be asleep?"
Dominique nods sadly. "I'm going to see if he wants to join us in here." She says as she slips off the bed.
"Don't ask him questions about tonight Nikki." Victorie whispers after her younger sister before she slips out the door.
(Slight intermission: Sorry I don't really remember how Bill and Fleur's house is set up, and architecture is a weak point in all of my writings. The spare bedroom in this story I have being primarily empty with two twin beds on either side and a large storage closet, I sort of have it looking a bit like an attic but I think their house was really tall anyways so it should work. Now I've been looking at a couple of videos of fan casting for all the kids and I don't really imagine them the same way as the videos I've found: If J.K. Rowling has anything official on their actual appearances that I've missed someone please let me know! Victorie looks basically like the spitting image of her mother– blond, blue eyed and very French. Sharp, striking features and a model's body. She's a bit intoxicating to look at because of her Veela blood. Dominique, nicknamed Nikki by her sister, has really light strawberry blond hair that's naturally ridiculously wavy compared to Victorie's primarily straight hair, and striking brown eyes. She resembles her aunt Ginny a bit more than her own mother, but she still has that veela beauty going for her.)
Dominique returns to the room with James in front of her. She helps him onto the bed before sitting next to him. "How are you doing?" She asks quietly, holding his hand.
He's staring down at the ground in front of him, when Dominique leans over to look into his eyes she ponders over how dead they appear to be.
"It's okay James, we're going to be here for you." Victorie adjusts her position and hugs the boy tightly, wrapping an arm around her sister as well to provide more support. The three stay like this well into the night, James desperately holding onto Victorie's arms and starting to silently cry in her embrace.
Meanwhile, Percy is working another late night in the Ministry in an effort to redeem his reputation. Rumors have been going around that the Minister for Magic is getting ready to retire in a few years and the ambitious boy still hasn't given up hope that he might some day rise all the way to the top. Of course, the chances of this actually happening, after having sided with the late Cornelius Fudge against the late Dumbledore and Harry Potter over the rise of Voldemort, were slim at best. Nonetheless, he grumbles to himself about all the distractions his secretary had caused him tonight when the fearful boy pokes his head into the office to deliver a letter. "Well, put it down now won't you. I can't open it while it's shaking in your hand now can I?" He snaps at the boy's timid nature, completely forgetting that he was once in the boy's same shoes. "Tch, such an irritating lad isn't he?" He grumbles after the door to his office is pulled shut and starts unfolding the piece of parchment. "Oh," He stares in shock at the news the letter offers him, his voice has lost all pompous airs and instead betrays a slight vulnerability within him. "Oh, oh no." He fights to keep his calm, his breath quickening with every passing moment. Getting up out of his seat he reaches for his quill when his hand collides with the bottle of ink. Before he can finish reading the letter it's soaked through from the black liquid. "Oh, damn it all!" He exclaims angrily. "Gildarts, Gildarts get in here!" He calls out his door and the twenty something year old secretary shakily reenters the room.
"Ye, Yes sir?"
"Send for my wife, tell her to come to my office immediately." Percy doesn't wait for the boy to finish stuttering his question before he starts speaking, pointing to his empty fireplace to suggest his wife come by floo powder.
"Right away sir." The boy rushes back out and nearly falls over his desk while scribbling out the note. Percy had ink stains covering his perfectly pressed suit which told the boy that something was terribly wrong for him to be ignoring his attire. Despite the ill-treatment he suddenly found himself worrying over his boss's well being and had the letter sent before a minute had passed.
Percy looks around his office in disgust over the state of things. Here his wife was on her way and the place was an absolute mess to his picky eyes. He pulled out his wand and whisked the ink back into the bottle, not noticing the spots disappear from his own suit, and started to pick up the letter to finish reading while he waited for his wife. Just as he made to sit down, however, Audrey appeared in his fireplace looking exceptionally poised despite her rush to get there.
"Audrey, dear." Percy lets the letter fall back down onto the desk as he stands up to greet her.
"Percy, what's wrong?" She's caught a little off-guard when he suddenly embraces her. Their act of perfect sophistication being dropped, she wraps her arms around him in return.
"It's, it's Harry and Ginny, they've, they've just been attacked." Percy starts mumbling as he struggles to regain his calm. "They, they've been attacked and Ginny, she's, she's..." Falling into the chair on the other side of his desk Percy puts a hand over his face to prevent his wife from seeing the tears that starts to well up in his eyes.
Audrey moves around him to pick up the dropped letter and folds it closed once she's done reading it. After a few moments pass, as she regains her own calmness, she puts a hand on his shoulder. "Dear, it said that your parents were taken to St. Mungo's for hysteria. I think you should go to them."
"Yes but, the girls, Lucy?" Percy looks up at her, suddenly thinking about all of his responsibilities as a father in an effort to divert his his mind from the tragic reality.
"Are with the sitter. I'll go back now to make sure everything is okay and we'll meet you at St. Mungo's." Seeing Percy nod his agreement she turns around to walk into the fireplace again when his hand is suddenly around her wrist, pulling her back.
She spins back around and looks at him in confusion when he speaks. "Audrey, I, I didn't cause this, right? I mean, nobody can let me forget the mistakes I made, siding with Fudge, and when the Lestrange's escaped from Azkaban we were so focused on pinning it on Sirius Black that, you don't think." He finally looks up to meet his wife's eyes. "You don't think that we could've caught them do you? If we had seen what was really going on back then?"
Taking a moment to connect the dots she gives him a small smile and squeezes his hand. "No dear, you couldn't have saved her." And turns around again to leave.
(Again I can't apologize enough for how bad I am probably getting these characters! But I'm starting to get excited about the next generation that's being developed. Anyways, Percy and Audrey's relationship is going to be a strange one: They're both going to be caught up in social appearances and propriety that it might appear at times that they don't actually care for each other, or at least that's how I'm going to try it make it seem like. In reality though they're really the perfect match for each other, and relating them a bit to the Malfoy family, when it comes down to it they'll truly do anything for one another.)