QLFC Season 11 Round 3
Beater 2 - Pixileanin
Task: Atar "God of Fire" [Persian] Write about someone providing some type of comfort
Prompts: (3) (trope) huddling for warmth (relationship type) best friends (character) Gabrielle Delacour
Rating: K+
Words: 1584
Warnings: anxiety
Title: Starry Starry Night
Summary: Gabrielle Delacour is losing her best friend!
Betas: Ivy Hill, Aya
"Gabrielle!"
The door slammed shut, cutting off whatever else Fleur was going to shout at her. Gabrielle flew down the steps to the grass and sank her toes into the earth. It was too cold for shoes, but too loud to go back and get them inside. And anyway, her sister didn't need her around anymore that evening. The dining room was dusted, the dishes were set, and the floors were swept. There was nothing else inside except harsh words from a sister who was leaving.
Two weeks. That's how long Gabrielle Delacour got to see her sister this time. It had been the longest time she'd seen her sister since Fleur had moved to London after Beauxbatons. Mam had told her to be happy for the time they had together, but eleven-year-old Gabrielle was losing her best friend. She couldn't find anything happy about that, not even to please her own mother.
She'd grown up telling everyone, "My sister goes to Beauxbatons, and every summer she comes home and we are best friends!"
Every week since she could remember, she'd get letters from her sister telling her little things like what the house-elves had served for dessert that Saturday. Big things like the secret to a failsafe Wingardium Leviosa. Fleur's first apparition. The first time she held a Pygmy Puff or touched a unicorn.
Likewise, Gabrielle shared her own firsts she penned on parchment and sent them away with an owl. The first time she recognized Taurus in the sky. The first time she saw a shooting star. The first time she stayed up all night to see the winter meteor showers that spread across the blackness like a curtain of light.
Except there was that one year when Fleur had forgotten to write, even if she said it was because she was so busy from exams. Later she'd explained that she'd had her first kiss, and first kisses made your brain turn to mush. After a month or two, her brain turned back to normal, and the letters started up again.
Even after Fleur had finished Beauxbatons, Gabrielle still got letters. Two years ago, she started receiving them from London with the foreign marks of England on the envelopes. But she didn't have summers anymore. Not when Fleur had a job at a bank. And then she didn't even have weekends, when 'things' in England became dangerous.
Fleur never said what kind of dangers were in England. She only said that Gabrielle could visit when things were safer. They weren't safer now, but the whole family was going in a few days to see Fleur get married.
Gabrielle didn't want to see Fleur belong to another family.
It took two Portkeys to travel from France to London. One to get them to the border of France, and the other to take them to the big city of London that bustled with magic and wizards and whispers of war. It always seemed like a bright, adventurous place, but now, it felt like danger.
Gabrielle shivered in the night breeze. Her silvery blonde hair blew into her face, and she pushed it aside as she started a small fire at the edge of the property. Sparks spit into the sky, and the flames were too hot and reached too high. It wasn't a proper fire, but Gabrielle wasn't in a proper mood.
That's one of the reasons she'd come out here, anyway. Her mood wasn't proper for the party starting inside. Her sister's friends had started to arrive just in time to say goodbye. The whole Delacour family was going to England tomorrow, so this wasn't the last time she would see her sister. Her sister could yell at her again tomorrow.
Gabrielle sniffed and wiped a tear away. At least when her sister yelled at her, she was here.
She gazed up into the sky full of stars. Their house was well away from the harsh Muggle street lights that seemed to drown out the darkness with their yellow glow. Gabrielle shivered in the cold and hunched as close to the fire as she dared. The cold made her miserable, but she was too stubborn to go back. She could hear her mam's voice telling her that she should not be way out here with no shoes or cloak. She should be inside, spending her last night with her sister.
They had their day. Sisters' day, Fleur had called it. They had done all kinds of sisterly things together: braiding each other's hair, baking small cakes, and dangling their feet into the stream. And when Gabrielle finally felt like she had gotten her sister back, they'd thrown this party for Fleur's friends to come and say goodbye.
The door slammed again, and a graceful form moved in the dark towards her. Gabrielle hunched inwards. She wasn't in the mood for more yelling.
Fleur came and sat down in the dirt beside her.
"You'll get your dress dirty," Gabrielle said to the fire.
Fleur smoothed out her dress over her knees and scooted close to her. "You've already gotten yours dirty, so it doesn't matter. I'm not going to ask you why you're all the way out here instead of in there where there's your favorite dessert. But you're out here, and you're angry with me."
Gabrielle pouted. "I thought you would come back to France."
"I did. I'm here now."
"But you're leaving again!" Tears welled up in Gabrielle's eyes.
"You're leaving, too," Fleur said sharply.
Gabrielle whipped her head towards her sister. "I'm going to London to see you married!"
"I meant after that. Beauxbatons next month."
"Oh." Gabrielle had forgotten about that. All the news of her sister making a permanent home in a different country had overshadowed Gabrielle's own life, which was about to change in a big way.
"What, did you think I was going to sit around at Mam's house for months waiting for you to come home at Christmas?"
Gabrielle hunched inwards even more, touching her forehead to her knees. "No, that would be silly."
"I promised I would write to you, even when you are off at school."
"I know."
"And you promised me you would write back, even when you are off at school. Don't think it's going to be that easy. You will be distracted by all the new things."
"Like you were?" Gabrielle shot back.
"I admit I forgot a few weeks." Fleur scooted closer to her, and Gabrielle felt her warmth. "We will always be sisters."
"I know."
"We are more than sisters, Gabrielle. We are best friends. That will never change."
Gabrielle was still mad, but she couldn't help but lean into her sister's side as the cold wind blew past them. Loud voices rose from the house, the voices of her sister's friends. All of them were they, they, they… none of it was her, her, her…
"But you won't be here," Gabrielle cried. "You'll be a whole country away, except this time, you're not coming back."
"I will come to visit, like I always had."
"But you're getting married!"
Fleur stayed quiet, which made Gabrielle's heart pound angrily inside her chest. See? It did change things. Fleur was going to have a new family in England. She was going to have her own children, Mam said, and Gabrielle would be… would be… she couldn't even think it. How quickly was Fleur going to forget about her old family… and her sister?
"Mam's married," Fleur said suddenly.
"That's a stupid thing to say," Gabrielle said. "Of course she's married."
"She's still our mam."
"That's not the same," Gabrielle huffed.
"When I get married, you will still be my sister. We will still do all the things we planned. You will still come to visit next summer when you're twelve, when I promised that you could stay with me in London and we can do all the cool London things together."
"But Bill will be there. You'll be living with him!"
"Gabrielle," Fleur said kindly, "Bill loves that you're coming to visit."
Gabrielle's gaze shifted abruptly from the fire and landed on her sister. Fleur was not the kind of person to tell people things just to make them feel better. "He does?"
"He told me he can't wait to show you all the wonderful sights in London next summer."
"He really said that?"
"Yes. He has a little sister, you know. He told me he's looking forward to having another one."
"He wants to be my brother?"
"Of course!" she said, and then added, "If you want a husband, though, you'll have to get your own when you get older."
Gabrielle ducked her head, and then they both giggled. The sounds from the house were quieter now. She could see movement through the curtains of the large windows overlooking the lake. "Don't you have to get back to your friends?"
"Why?" Fleur asked. "My best friend is right here."
Gabrielle leaned into her sister. "You're my best friend, too," she whispered. "Always and forever."
Her best friend hugged her. "I'm here," she said, and her fingers wrapped around her hands. Cold, cold hands. Warm, warm fire, crackling into the starry, starry night.
