Hey, everyone! Here is a random bit of fluff for you all to enjoy. This story was written for the following items on the following forums:
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry:
Floristry with Professor Bex: Task 5. Black - Write a rare pair (less than 500 fics on ffn)
Party Crashers: Themes Surprise Party - Write about a surprise.
Gaming Grove: Witch (plot point) fancy dress.
Honeydukes: Sugar Quills (emotion) curious
Flicking Through the Channels: Young Sheldon (genre) family
Gather Your Party: Druid Dreams (drink) tea
Scamander's Case: Male (genre) slice of life
Camping Trip: Step 1 Finding somewhere to camp (word) party
Color Theory: Turning Red Meilin (relationship type) mother/daughter
The Room of Requirement: (emotion) curious
Monthly Challenges For All:
Link Maker: Same fandom, 944 words
Trope Bingo: 2A (Mama Bear), 944 words
AU Bingo: 2A (Turned Left Instead), 944 words
Scavenger Hunt: Spring Consumables Cookie/Biscuit, 944 words
Fall Bingo: 3E (hot beverage), 944 words
Soup Kitchen: T (drink) tea, 944 words
Prompt Harvest: Items/Consumables tea 944 words
Hangman: Phrase 1, no restriction, guessing letter O, 944 words
I hope you all enjoy UnBirthday Tea Party.
Bellatrix knew that something strange was happening in her house the minute she walked through the door. She could hear the tinkling laughter of her and Edgar's young daughter Ruby as she walked down the hallway leading to Ruby's playroom. She certainly wasn't prepared for what she found inside the room.
Sitting at Ruby's pink and white play dining table was Edgar. But not just any Edgar. No. He was dressed to the nines in one of the lacey maternity gowns that she'd inherited from her mother. One of the ones she refused to wear because it was so old-fashioned it should be illegal. The purple lace is nearly torn because of the bigger bulk being squeezed into it. Because even at her biggest during pregnancy Bellatrix was slighter than Edgar. A purple sun hat sat perched jauntily upon Edgar's head. A shawl of the same purple lace finished off the ensemble. A tiny pink teacup was perched precariously in his fingertips.
Bellatrix struggled to stifle a laugh as she caught the moment on her phone. But Ruby was more observant than her father got up and raced over to Bellatrix.
"Mama!" she exclaimed, hugging Bellatrix's legs in the way that all three-year-old girls do with their parents. "Mama, come join our tea party!"
"A tea party?" Bellatrix exclaimed, looking surprised as though she hadn't noticed what was going on upon entering the room. "What happens to be the occasion?"
"It's my unBirthday!" the tiny girl exclaimed, jumping up and down. "It's Daddy's unBirthday too!"
"Isn't that a coincidence?" she asked, looking thoughtful as she put her purse down on a nearby table. "I do believe it is my unBirthday as well."
"Hazzah for unBirthdays!" exclaimed the child happily leading her mother over to the table which was laden with all kinds of goodies.
"Hazzah! Hazzah!" Edgar exclaimed, raising the tiny teacup carefully into the air and then downing its contents.
The scent of a floral note reached Bellatrix's nose and she knew that they were having Rosewater tea. She had told Ruby it had been her favorite teatime drink as a child and it would seem that her daughter was quite fond of it too.
She sat across from Edgar and turned to Ruby who was between them. "May I please have a cup of tea?" she asked, using the manner her mother had required of her as a child. "And perhaps one of those lovely jam biscuits too?"
"Of course you may, Mama," Ruby said, gently picking up her teapot and pouring some into one of the tiny cups. She carefully handed the cup to her mama and then presented the plate of biscuits from which Bellatrix took a delish-looking blueberry jam biscuit.
Bellatrix sipped her tea like her mother had taught her. She could feel Ruby's eyes on her as she did so.
"Is that how Grandma Black taught you and my aunties how to drink tea?" she asked, awed by the intricate way her mother was handling the teacup and her biscuit.
Bellatrix felt a tinge of sadness go through her. At one point the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black had been the closest in history. And not just in an incestuous way. The whole family had once been friendly with each other. Then Andromeda had gone off and married Ted Tonks and gotten herself disowned. But around the time that Bellatrix was expecting Ruby Edgar had talked Bellatrix into seeing her sister Andromeda one more time. Saying it would be nice for Ruby to be able to know her full family. Which she had to agree was true. Little did she know it would lead to her getting disowned as well and Ruby not getting to know her Grandmother.
"It is the way that Grandmother Black showed your aunts Andromeda, Narcissa, and I to drink our tea," she said, wiping a tear from her eyes.
"Why doesn't she like us, Mama?" her little girl asked, blue eyes turning pleading towards Bellatrix's own grey ones.
"She's too set in her ways to understand us," Bellatrix explained, taking a ginger bite out of the biscuit she'd chosen. "This is extremely delicious, Ruby. Did you make them yourself?"
"Papa helped!" Ruby smiled at the praise. Bellatrix could tell her daughter's mind was still on her grandmother but the compliment had stalled the line of questioning for now. Knowing her daughter it would come up again though.
"Did he now?" Bellatrix asked, raising an eyebrow at Edgar who blushed under the brim of his purple hat.
"Yes," Edgar said, feigning hurt. "I have numerous talents that I've never told you about yet, my dear."
"Then why have you never baked for me before now?"
Edgar's face turned an embarrassed red that clashed horribly with his purple clothes. "I never actually thought of it before," he admitted in a low voice.
"Perhaps you could bake us a lovely pie for dessert tonight?" Bellatrix suggested, taking a sip of her tea.
"Perhaps I can," Edgar replied, following suit.
"Pie for dessert?" Ruby cried, jumping up and down and causing her curly black hair to bounce around her shoulders. She was looking more and more like her mother every day. "Can we have cousin Tonks and Teddy over for dinner too? And Auntie Andy and Uncle Ted and cousin Remus too?"
"Only if we hurry up and finish our tea party and they say yes too, of course," Bellatrix answered.
And as they continued their tea party they planned their meal for that night. Bellatrix smiled at the fun her family was having and vowed that this wouldn't be the last time. Not ever.
I hope you all enjoyed UnBirthday Tea Party as much as I enjoyed writing it.