Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, only the Archard family and other OCs belong to me. The French words/phrases will be italicized, as well as the spells. Please review!
Chapter 2: Archards vs Weasleys
Esme POV
Weeks passed and it was now mid-July. While I kept my word and no longer teased Blaire about her (confirmed) mutual crush on George Weasley, I hadn't heard anything about if she decided to do something about it or not. Blaire had gone over to the Weasley's home to visit the twins. I knew she had enjoyed herself because she couldn't keep the smile off her face when she got back to Heaven's Garden. Though the smile was not the only thing Blaire returned with.
Over dinner, Blaire brought up that Madame Weasley wanted to meet the rest of 'Blaire's siblings' and invited us over to visit. Papa had been uneasy about the offer, and I was sure he would say no, when Blaire spoke up. She explained Madame Weasley only desired for us to meet and play with her own children in a game of Quidditch. Whatever further hesitation Papa had was silenced when Maman interjected, saying it was a wonderful idea.
Knowing the youngest Weasley was a year older than Fain and Gérard, Isabelle and Henrik didn't want to go. Janette had no choice in the matter as she was on bedrest with another cold. This left the rest of us to be corralled into agreeing to go. I wasn't particularly thrilled about going myself, but Blaire said they would probably need five players for the match, and since Fain and Gérard weren't allowed to fly just yet, I had to.
So there we were, being dropped off at the end of the dirt path to the Weasley's property (Papa refused to go any further, most likely to avoid interacting with the Weasleys). He simply reminded us to be back at the manor before dinner before he vanished with a soft pop, leaving us standing beside a lopsided sign stuck into the ground which read, The Burrow.
Blaire took charge and stalked forward with purpose, Alaric following behind her carrying his broom in one hand and one of the Quidditch ball trunk handles. Dustin held the other while also carrying the two Beater bats by their leather wrist straps, while Carlisle followed closely holding both his and Dustin's brooms in his arms. Fain and Gérard skipped ahead to catch up with Blaire, likely excited to meet the Weasley twins for the first time.
Clutching Carlisle's old Turbo XXX in my hands, I followed after my siblings onto the dirt path. I felt a ripple of magic slide over my skin. A slight distortion in the air revealed the feeling to be a ward surrounding the property. There was no telling how many wards the Weasley's had or what kind, but since I hadn't seen a single ward stone there couldn't be that many.
As we made our way up the dirt path, I saw to the right was a large cornfield, and from the quacking noise knew there had to be a pond or something located somewhere in it. To the left was an open field and hills, and in the distance I saw another building standing alone in the open field - most likely another Magical residence based on the odd shape.
Finally, the long path ended as we reached the Weasley's home. While Heaven's Garden appeared solidly built with the subtle elegance often found with manors, The Burrow appeared to once been a large stone pigpen with added rooms which appeared added at random, leaving the structure to appear almost unstable; the several upper stories seemed crooked. The entire thing only existed and remained standing because magic had to be holding it in place. The house had five chimneys, which was odd for such a small structure to have so many fireplaces. Heaven's Garden had multiple fireplaces, but it was at least four times as big as this place.
The small yard in front of the misshapen home was littered with several fat brown chickens pecking their way around, as well as a wooden pig pen filled with a number of squealing fat pigs. Off to the side of the house was a rickety looking barn and a chicken coop, where stood the lone rooster flapping its wings as if it was trying to look intimidating.
Blaire knocked on the rough wood door, the noise sounding even louder amongst the quiet of the homestead. Soon I heard the thudding sound of running feet. The door was quickly yanked open by one of the Weasley twins.
"Blaire! You made it!" he exclaimed. His focus on Blaire led me to believe this to be George Weasley.
Fred then poked his head out from behind his twin. "And your siblings too! Mum's making Percy play too, so it'll be five on five."
"That's perfect actually," replied Blaire. "Mother doesn't want Fain and Gérard attempting to fly just yet."
"Oh there you are, dears!" suddenly exclaimed a female voice from behind George. He moved aside and who could only be Madame Weasley bustled through the doorway and promptly hugged Blaire close. Pulling away, she quickly moved aside and gestured for us to enter the cottage. "Come in, come in! Let me get a look at all of you."
We all carefully squeezed ourselves and brooms through the slim doorway, but even once I was inside, I kept the broom clutched close in fear of bumping something. While the interior felt clean, it was clearly lived in, with a jumbled and cluttered array of furniture and trappings. It was cute in a homey sort of way. It had a cozy atmosphere with its earth-tone colours, though I preferred the comforting elegance and tidiness of Heaven's Garden.
"Oh~ it's a pleasure you meet you dears, I'm Mrs. Weasley. Now, who's who?"
Since Blaire had already been introduced to Madame Weasley, it was her job to introduce the rest of us. She of course started with her twin. "This is Alaric, my fraternal twin." She gestured to the youngest of us (who hadn't stopped staring at Fred and George). "Then here are our youngest twin boys, Fain and Gérard, and beside them is Carlisle, and then Dustin." She then placed a hand on my shoulder. "Finally, my sister Esme."
"Wonderful to meet you all at last," Madame Weasley practically beamed and appeared to be holding herself back from giving each of us the same warm greeting she gave Blaire. Her demeanor was just as energetic and warm as Maman's, though with small differences. If I were to say one major contrast, besides their physical appearance, was that Maman constantly held herself with grace and poise, while Madame Weasley radiated a soft glow, reminding me of coals in a fire during winter.
Madame Weasley suddenly turned her head towards the small winder staircase in the center of the room. "Ginny! Percy! Ron! Get down here, the Archards are here!" I flinched at her raised voice.
"Coming, Mum!" was shouted back by several voices, before the sound of pattering steps grew.
First to appear was the Gryffindor prefect, Percy Weasley, who looked less than enthused. After a pointed look from his mother a polite smile was on his face as he hovered near where Blaire stood next George and Fred.
Following shortly behind him was a girl around Fain and Gérard's age, with flaming red hair and shy but bright smile on her face. She could only be the youngest Weasley and only girl I heard about from both Blaire and Weasley.
"Ginny, these are the Archards, Fain and Gerald here are about your age, just a bit younger," Madame Weasley said as she gestured to the twins.
"Pardonnez-moi, Madame, but it's pronounced 'Gér-ard' not 'Ger-ald'." I gently corrected her.
"Oh my, I'm sorry, dear. Jared, then." I wanted to correct her again, but Blaire caught my eye and shook her head minutely at me, so I stayed silent. It was closer at least, though still not quite right, and Gérard didn't appear to mind anyways. "You've already met Blaire. And these are her other brothers, Alaric, Carlisle, and Dustin, and then her younger sister Esme. She's in Slytherin."
Ginny waved at each of us in turn, and I made sure to smile back. So far she was making a better impression than Weasley did the first time I met him on the train, as her smile to me hadn't changed when Madame Weasley mentioned I was in Slytherin - for whatever reason she felt she had to say it in the first place.
"Speaking of Ron, what is taking your brother so long?"
Both Ginny and Percy shrugged their shoulders, though they had different expressions. Percy appeared completely uninterested, while Ginny appeared slightly sheepish, yet had a small smirk on her face.
"Oh~, I wondered what happened?" questioned Fred, a knowing smirk on his face.
Madame Weasley put her hands on her hips and focused a stern glare on her twin boys. "What did you two do to your brother this time?" she demanded, her tone expressing a sort of angry exasperation that seemed like it was probably familiar to the boys.
"Honestly Mum, we didn't do nothing," George quickly replied.
"Yeah," said Fred. "We'd never delay Quidditch for a prank."
Suddenly there was a loud crash from upstairs, causing us all to jump and look up in worry. Quickly followed by a varying degree of thudding, a body slid into view as they fell down the stairs. Scrambling to his feet with a pained groan, Weasley staggered over to the rest of us.
"Ron, what took you so long? You've kept our guests waiting."
"It wasn't my fault!" whined Weasley. "My door was jammed with something and I couldn't get it open!"
Madame Weasley's eyes swung towards the twins, both who immediately put their hands up in defense. She took a deep breath, but the bristles were taken off her broom when Ginny interrupted. "It was me, Mummy. I stuck a piece of wood under the door."
Instantly, the ire in Madame Weasley's eyes vanished. "Ginny dear, you shouldn't prank your brother." And just like that, the incident was shoved aside as she faced us all once again. "Now then dears, go have fun, though no roughhousing. I don't want to have to deal with any injuries."
"We'll do our best, Mum," called out the twins as they headed for another door leading out of the house.
Nodding in acknowledgement, Blaire quickly followed, with the rest of us shuffling after them. The door took us to what I guess was supposed to be the back garden. While large, it was a complete mess. Right outside the door there were several piles of rubber boots and a very rusted cauldron. The so-called garden itself wasn't much better.
There was an abundance of weeds, tall grass, and gnarled trees, with several plants I recognized from Maman's own garden. I saw flitterbloom bushes, black pearl pepper, tormentil, and dittany, all surrounding a decently sized pond. Except for the garden plants, the entire garden was poorly attended to and desperately in need of care. The pond was a green color and filled with frogs if the croaking was anything to go by; it had the appearance of a small swamp rather than a garden pond.
Nestled in the back corner of the garden was a small stone shed, which the Weasleys all headed straight towards. The redheaded twins quickly opened the latch, revealing that this was where they stored their brooms. I noticed as they tugged their brooms free, these brooms were clearly well-used judging by the worn looking wood and ill-maintained bristles.
The brooms that Weasley, Percy, and Ginny all grabbed looked exactly like the ones we used to learn to fly at Hogwarts, the Shooting Star broomsticks. Weasley and Percy attempted to smooth out the unruly bristles on their brooms, but it had little effect. Weasley was completely avoiding eye-contact with everyone and was turning red all the way to his ears.
At first I thought he was still embarrassed about his less-than-graceful entrance, but then I saw where he kept looking and realized he was glaring at our brooms. I realized he may be self-conscious about the stark difference between the sleek and polished brooms my brothers had. Even their old brooms that Blaire and I were using appeared new when compared with the brooms the Weasleys used.
Once they were all sorted, the Weasley twins continued to lead the way. Walking through the back garden, we had to be careful where we stepped as there were a shocking number of gnome holes scattered throughout the garden. The tall grass and weeds probably hid even more of them. It was strange to see so many gnomes living so close to a Magical family. Normally they were chased off or worse, though perhaps since this garden clearly wasn't used that much, Madame Weasley and Monsieur Weasley probably didn't mind the pests all that much.
This was proven false when I heard the twins muttering about how they just de-gnomed this morning, but already many of the gnome holes were occupied again, going by the bulbous heads peeking out from the dirt holes. Clearly whatever they were doing was not enough, and the fact this appeared to be a daily chore seemed pointless to me.
Reaching the edge of the overgrown garden, we went through a small wooden gate in the decaying fence. While I had been expecting a field or meadow like the many we saw dotting the landscape, I was surprised to find we had entered an orchard shielded by several high and thick trees. They appeared to act as a wall with how the thick leaves and trunks provided privacy from prying eyes; it reminded me of the hedge walls I saw at Malfoy Manor during the Winter Ball.
Alaric and Dustin set down the trunk, with Dustin also taking the Beater bat straps off his wrist and laying them out on the grass.
"So with only five players, I think we should go without Bludgers and Beaters," suggested Alaric. "That way there will be less chance of injury."
"That sounds acceptable," replied Percy, though he appeared greatly relieved. Most likely happy to avoid having to deal with Bludgers, though I fully agreed with that. While Carlisle and Dustin had helped me become a better flyer, I didn't have the confidence to dodge Bludgers and still play whatever position I was assigned.
"Meaning, we can get three Chasers on each team," said one of the Weasley twins.
"Which would make things more fun," continued the other.
"Fain and Gérard will keep score," stated Blaire.
Ginny then stepped towards the boys in question and held out a chalkboard and a decently sized piece of yellow chalk. "I grabbed this before we left, you both can use it to keep track if you'd like."
Fain took the board from her with a bright smile, while Gérard spoke. "T-thank you."
"Now how do we decide who plays what?" asked Carlisle.
"Simple," replied one of the Weasley twins.
The other twin continued. "Team captains will decide-"
"-who plays what-"
"-and then we play."
"How about we do family huddles and figure things out amongst ourselves," suggested Alaric.
"Sounds good, mate," chorused the Weasley twins.
Thus, my siblings and I moved away from the Weasleys as they huddled together. Alaric took the lead. "Alright, I say the twins and I are the Chasers, Blaire you'll be the Keeper, and Esme you can be the Seeker."
"Maybe I should be Keeper," argued Dustin. "We'll need a strong defender against whoever the Weasleys have as Chasers."
Blaire quietly interjected. "Actually, Alaric has the right idea. Percy honestly hates flying and finds Quidditch frivolous, he's said as much to me before. Therefore, he'll be their Keeper because either Ron or Ginny will be the Seeker, leaving the twins as the main concerns as the Chasers. I can handle being Keeper, but we'll need all three of you boys as Chasers to work against their natural teamwork."
"Alright fine," agreed Dustin.
"Are you okay with being the Seeker, Esme?" asked Alaric.
"Oui, I'll do my best," I promised, with as confident a smile as I could manage despite the nerves rolling around in my stomach.
"You'll do fine," encouraged Carlisle. "Just remember what Dustin and I taught: grip with your legs and your left hand when reaching out your right hand to catch the Snitch. If it does dodge you, it'll go down before it goes up more often than not."
I nodded my head, though I was still worried about the game. I didn't want to be the reason we lost. I knew my brothers wouldn't mind losing, but I also wanted to win.
"Alright, do your best and have fun," cheered Alaric, before we split up and headed back to the Weasleys. They also split from their huddle and appeared just as excited to get started.
"So quick run down," explained one of the Weasley twins. "You score ten points when you throw the Quaffle between those two trees."
"No broom or body slamming, ramming, or bumping," Alaric added.
"Right, and the game is over when one of the Seekers catches the Snitch," finished the other Weasley twin.
"Don't fly above those far trees over there," ordered Percy as he pointed to the tall trees around the orchard, "or else you'll risk being spotted by a Muggle."
We all agreed to those rules before mounting our broomsticks. I kicked off the ground, and carefully flew up above where, as Blaire predicted, my brothers were getting set up across from the Weasley twins and Weasley as the Chasers. Percy flew to the far pair of trees, while Blaire went to the others; thus leaving Ginny and I to hover across from each other, above our brothers on the respective sides.
I glanced down and saw Fain and Gérard skip to the center of the field, with Fain holding the Snitch's golden wings fluttering in his hands, while Gérard cradled the Quaffle in his arms.
"Ready," shouted Fain, as he released the Snitch. It instantly zipped away, going so fast my eyes lost sight of it.
"Set," called out Gérard as he bent down.
"Go!" they shouted together as Gérard launched the Quaffle as high as he could into the air.
The boys all dove and swarmed around each other as they fought over the Quaffle. I wobbled slightly when Ginny suddenly shot past me. I carefully turned, shocked and worried that she had already spotted the Snitch. I sighed in relief when I realized she was still looking for it, as she slowed down to zig-zag across the orchard, her head snapping back and forth as she searched.
Ginny clearly had flown before and to my eyes appeared to be quite good at it. She never wobbled or dipped, remaining straight, though she did seem to struggle to maintain a consistent speed as she jerked forward and back whenever she sped up or slowed down suddenly.
I quickly shook my head and gripped onto my broom handle as I refocused on searching for a flash of gold anywhere. I wasn't able to fly as fast as Ginny appeared to, but I was at least comfortable at moderate speeds - any faster and I started to wobble too much and feared I would fall.
As the game went on, I found it was hard at times to remain focused on finding the Snitch and not get distracted by watching the others flying quickly across the orchard. The boys were quite vocal, either communicating passes and such or taunting the other team's members. Dustin and who I believed was Fred did most of the taunting. Fain and Gérard helped fill the occasional silence by cheering as loudly as they could - though amusingly, they unabashedly switched who they were cheering for, sometimes they cheered for our brothers and sister, but more often than not they cheered for the Weasley twins.
Based on how often Fain and Gérard shouted "Archard score!", we were in the lead. Percy may have said he hated flying to Blaire, but he clearly wasn't good at it either. He was a terrible Keeper, so Alaric, Carlisle, and Dustin easily scored when they got possession of the Quaffle.
Fred and George were working hard themselves, with Weasley doing his best to keep up. However, from what I saw, he often dropped or lost the Quaffle when he had it, so his brothers seemed to do their best to avoid passing it to him and focused on each other. Meanwhile my brothers' past of playing on the same team showed itself with how seamlessly they worked together.
I honestly didn't know exactly how long we'd been playing so far, but it had to be a while as the sun was starting to dip down towards the horizon. The good news was that it shined more light into the orchard, so I started noticing flashes of gold where the Snitch was fluttering about. The bad news was, I wasn't nearly fast enough to catch up to it or get to wherever it paused to hover about. Ginny seemed to have the opposite problem. She never seemed to spot the Snitch on her own as she always reacted after I started moving, but easily overtook me, though would then lose sight of it and so would turn back to watching where I was looking or flying.
I finally spotted the Snitch hovering not too far up above me and thought perhaps I could get to it before Ginny realized what I was doing. However, it wasn't meant to be as Ginny suddenly appeared out of nowhere and was reaching out for it. She clearly saw it, so I admittedly gave up trying and resigned that I lost to her, though the final winner would be dependent on the final score.
Suddenly, Ginny screamed as she overreached and fell off her broom. My heart jumped into my throat as I saw her hurtling down near me. I quickly reached out and managed to grab hold of her, but I joined Ginny in screaming when I was yanked off my own broom. We clutched onto each other as the ground got closer and closer. I shut my eyes tight and braced for the inevitable painful landing.
"ARRESTO MOMENTUM!"
Ginny and I suddenly slowed down and were cushioned just above the ground. I opened my eyes only to grunt as we were abruptly dropped the last several inches. I laid there, completely frozen as I did my best to catch my breath, though all I could hear were my ragged breaths and my heartbeat racing in my ears, the back of Ginny's shirt still held tightly in my hand.
Suddenly there were hands on me and as I carefully lifted and was soon crushed into Blaire's arms. I blinked and realized she was speaking to me.
"-Si Alaric n'avait pas jeté ce sort, alors…je ne sais pas quoi…S'il vous plaît dites-moi que vous allez bien, petite papillon. Est-ce que quelque chose fait mal? Dites quelque chose, petite soeur!"
"Bee, you're talking too fast," interjected Alaric, kneeling next to us. "Take a breath, I got her." Alaric took me from Blaire and cradled me in his arms. "Now, are you two alright?"
"I'm fine. I'm s-so sorry, this is all my fault!" sobbed Ginny from where she was being held up by Fred and George. "I just wanted to win so bad…and then I made Esme fall with me! I-I-"
"It's okay, I'm fine too," I interrupted, thankful that my voice sounded more grounded than I felt. "Whoever cast that spell saved us from any injury."
"That would be me, petite papillon," replied Alaric. "I'm just glad you're both alright."
Dustin clapped Alaric on the back, and I realized that everyone else was crowded around us. "You saved them both! And all with a wandless spell!"
"That was bloody brilliant!" cheered one of the Weasley twins.
"Thank you, for saving our sister," Percy said earnestly. "Honestly, I think this was more than enough excitement and reckless actions for one day. The game is over and we best clean up to return to our respective homes."
"Aw~ come one Percy, we can still keep going," complained one of the Weasley twins.
"Actually," Ginny interrupted, a sheepish smile on her splotchy face. She then lifted up her hand and revealed the Snitch clutched between her fingers.
Carlisle chuckled. "Well, that would be game over. Alright, petits frères, who won?"
Fain and Gérard huddled over the chalkboard and did their math. They then handed it over to Blaire and she double-checked it for them without a word. She raised an eyebrow before revealing the board. "Final score, Weasleys two hundred fifty, Archards two hundred sixty."
"Bloody hell, we just need two more bloody goals!" loudly complained Weasley, while the twins groaned in dismay and Ginny almost looked guilty.
Carlisle and Dustin meanwhile were high-fiving each other and slapping Alaric on the back, who had a large smile on his face. He gently helped me to my feet, wordlessly signalling the others to do the same. I myself laughed alongside Blaire at the turn of events. It went to show that Quidditch victories weren't just decided by who caught the Snitch.
Blaire ushered the boys to stop celebrating and sent them to help gather up the Quaffle and everyone's wayward broomsticks, leaving Ginny and I standing on the sidelines by ourselves since Fain and Gérard went with the Weasley twins to help.
"Thank you, really, for trying to save me. It was really brave of you. Sorry I just dragged you down with me."
I felt my cheeks warm in embarrassment. Clearing my throat, I tossed my tangled hair over my shoulder, glancing away from Ginny. "Honestly, I was the one who grabbed onto you, so that was hardly your fault." I turned my head back to her. "Just don't be so reckless next time. Like your brother said, it's just a game, no use hurting yourself over it."
Suddenly, she hugged me and after a second, I hugged her back. Finally, she pulled back and I softened at the bright smile on her red face. "Still…good job on catching the Snitch. It certainly didn't make it easy for us."
"Yeah," she agreed, before glancing over to where my brothers were walking back over with brooms slung over their shoulders. "Your brother is so amazing for what he did." I was amused when I saw the red start to creep all the way up to her ears. Internally I snickered - perhaps Alaric had a little fan now.
Once everyone was back, Ginny remembered to hand over the Snitch to Alaric - completely avoiding eye contact with him. Going by badly hidden snickers from Fred and George, I wasn't the only one who thought Alaric gained a fan today.
We quickly packed everything up and made our way back to The Burrow. Honestly Percy was right, that was more than enough excitement for one day, and I was very ready to go to bed tonight.
Madame Weasley was waiting for us inside. After Fred and George dramatically retold her what happened, she started fretting over Ginny while at the same time profusely thanking Alaric for saving her youngest. Alaric channelled all his lessons and was the perfect charming and humble gentleman in return - he even made Madame Weasley blush alongside her daughter.
Blaire then interjected herself with a suggestion that took me by complete surprise. "If you'd like to thank my brother, perhaps you and your family could join ours for dinner in the near future? I know our mother would be happy to host as she's been wanting to reconnect with those she once knew."
"Oh my, well certainly, dear. We'd love to!"
She definitely did look enthusiastic, if a bit nervous about the idea. I did wonder what Blaire was aiming at - Maman may be open to this idea, but Papa…definitely not.
"Mother will send an owl with the details promptly so Mister Weasley can attend despite his no doubt busy work schedule," said Blaire. "I know the Ministry certainly keeps Father busy."
"Yes, of course, dear. See you all soon!" Madame Weasley cheerfully waved at us as we made our retreat, with her children also waving us out after a sharp look from their mother. Even Weasley waved us off, though he pointedly avoided looking me in the eye. It suited me just fine, I'd rather he avoided me than glare at me like he usually did when we were at Hogwarts - it made me avoiding him easier.
As we made our way back to Heaven's Garden, Dustin broke the silence. "Are you sure a dinner party is a good idea? It's one thing for us to play Quidditch with the Weasleys, it's another to have them over when Father has made it clear he doesn't want just anyone entering the grounds."
"Mother made the suggestion to me, and she wouldn't suggest it if Father wasn't already on board, so this will happen."
Dustin coughed into his sleeve, clearly not in agreement with Blaire. I thought she made a valid point, Maman wouldn't do something Papa was against…at least, I didn't think so. Either way it looked like I would have to deal with seeing Weasley again before we went back to Hogwarts. I sighed to myself in exasperation. I'd rather wish it wasn't so, but at least I could get to know Ginny a bit more.
A large smirk overtook my face as I realized something else - I would get to see Blaire and George interact better than I did today. I may have promised not to tease Blaire anymore, but our brothers didn't, so all I had to do was sit back and enjoy the show. Oh~, now I was looking forward to whenever this dinner party would take place!
Soon we made it back to Heaven's Garden, but I was confused when I saw Papa standing on the steps of the mansion, a thunderous expression on his face. He stood as still as stone with his arms crossed. As we approached the steps, he tossed a piece of parchment into the air without a word. It hovered for a second before it unfolded into the appearance of a face. A woman's voice read out:
Dear Lord Archard,
We have received intelligence that the Slowing Charm was used by a member of your household, one Heir Alaric Archard, at twenty-two minutes past four this evening in a non-magical protected area. Since this was the first offense committed, Heir Alaric Archard will be left with a simple warning.
As you know, underage witches and wizards are not permitted to perform spells outside of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and further spellwork by Heir Alaric Archard may lead to expulsion from said school (Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underaged Sorcery, 1875, Paragraph C).
We would also humbly ask you to remind all members of your household that any magical activity which risks notice by members of the non-magical community (Muggles) is a serious offense, under Section 13 of the International Statute of Magical Secrecy.
Thank you for your time,
Yours sincerely,
Mafalda Hopkirk
Improper Use of Magic Office
Ministry of Magic
I had honestly forgotten we weren't allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts, and grew worried for Alaric. While the Ministry would let him off with just a warning, Papa did not look so forgiving.
"Father it was extenuating circumstances, an emergency. I had to use magic and I don't regret the fact that I did."
"Explain, now," commanded Papa.
"Ginerva fell off her broom. Esme tried to grab her, but she fell too. I used the Slowing Charm to save them from hitting the ground."
"He did it wandless too," added Carlisle.
The sharp look fell from Papa's face. "Were either of the girls hurt?"
"No," replied Blaire. "They're both fine. Right, Esme?"
"Oui, I'm fine, Papa."
"Then well done, Alaric. Now go clean yourselves up, dinner will be served within the hour."
We all acknowledged his words and quickly followed him inside, making our way up to our respective rooms. I was really glad that Papa didn't punish Alaric for using magic. Honestly if we were in France, it wouldn't have been an issue to begin with. England really had some outdated rules in my opinion. Still, Alaric saved us, and quite impressively at that. It was just another instance of him being there for me; I could always trust him to look out for me, no matter our Hogwarts Houses, no matter anything, because as Archards - We Stand Strong.
Madame = Mrs.
Pardonnez-moi = pardon me
Oui = yes
Si Alaric n'avait pas jeté ce sort, alors…je ne sais pas quoi… = If Alaric hadn't cast that spell, then…I don't know what…
S'il vous plaît dites-moi que vous allez bien, petite papillon. = Please tell me you're fine, little butterfly.
Est-ce que quelque chose fait mal? = Does something hurt?
Dites quelque chose, petite soeur! = Say something, little sister!
Petite papillon = little butterfly
Petits frères = little brothers
Special thanks to my Beta-Readers: Anonymous and TheSparkler!