Nothing is mine.

Katie shows off her new spells (nothing could possibly go wrong here XD)

You Are Special

Fleur heaped spoonfuls of sugar into the swirling hot chocolate, breathing in the sweet rich scent. 'Do you want me to enchant yours, little chick?' She pulled her wand out and glanced over her shoulder at where Katie stared deep into the pages of Aimée and the Horrible Hag-Thief. 'Katrina…?'

Katie dragged her eyes away from her book, a small pout creeping across her lips. 'What, maman?'

'Do you want me to enchant your hot chocolate for you?' Fleur tapped her wand against the mug, sending yellow-and-pink-striped birds scattering across the china to perch in the handle.

'S'il te plait, maman.' Her eyes dropped back to her book.

'You have read that a hundred times,' Fleur murmured, scooping a huge spoonful of sugar out of the large jar and teasing her magic into it; little sugar fish sprang from the spoon and dived into the drink. 'Here you go, baby bird.' She took hers and her daughter's and sat down opposite her, sliding Katie's across the table.

'You said I can't read the next one because it has grown-up stuff in it!' Katie peered over the top of the pages into the mug. 'You made little fish like in the river by my tree!'

'They will melt soon, so you will not have to wait too long to drink it.' Fleur pointed a finger at the book. 'Do not get chocolate on that. And remember, you are not allowed to read the next one until you are sixteen.'

'But that's five years away, maman.' She scowled into her hot chocolate. 'It can't be that bad.'

'Is the next one Aimée and the Fairest Flower of the Court?'

Katie squirmed. 'Maybe.'

'Then no reading until I say it is okay. Even if you figure out how to get through my enchantment, little chick. Promise?'

She pouted. 'Je te les promets, maman.'

'Good girl. There is a lot of… kissing.'

'There's kissing in this one!' Katie's green eyes widened and she hid the book behind her back. 'Don't take it away, maman!'

Fleur laughed. 'The kissing in that one is not quite the same as the kissing in the next one, baby bird. And you are only ten.'

'Nearly eleven!'

'Well, when you are nearly sixteen, I will think about letting you read the next one.'

Her daughter wrinkled her nose. 'Why is the kissing worse? It's just kissing. And at the end of this one, she's just found out she's a half-veela princess and she's about to have her magical core unbound so all her real magic can come out! I want to see what happens...'

'You will see, the books are not going to disappear.' Fleur took a sip of her own hot chocolate. 'And I told you all about that sort of kissing not very long ago, but if you have forgotten, then I can tell you about it all again.'

Katie shook her head. 'No. No maman. Not the periods and sex talk again. I am too young—'

'Just a baby?'

Her daughter glowered at her over the top of her book with deep, pine-green irises.

A peal of laughter escaped Fleur. 'Okay, baby bird, no more sex talks, as long as you are very sure you understand it all. It is important to know; I am much too young for you to make me grandmere.'

'Mamaaan,' Katie whined. 'Stop.'

'Okay. Have you tidied your room since I told you all your things shouldn't be on the floor this morning?'

'Non.' Her daughter pouted. 'I will do it after I've watered my tree; I might read down there for a bit because it's sunny.'

'If you want. Just be careful near the river, it is too shallow to be dangerous, but it will be very cold and ruin your book if you fall in.'

'I'm not going to fall in, maman.'

Fleur took another sip of her hot chocolate. 'If you take the mug with you, make sure you bring it back. And tonight you need to wash your hair, baby bird. That braid has been in for weeks and it will smell soon.'

Katie clutched at her braid. 'But it's pretty!'

'I can rebraid it for you afterwards, little chick, do not fret.' She glanced at Harry's wand. 'Be careful if you try any magic with that down by the river. Very careful. I would much rather you did magic here with me, just in case.'

'It's okay, maman.' Katie dropped the book into her lap and picked up Harry's wand. 'I won't do any spells that are dangerous, just pretty ones.'

'Which ones have you tried?' Fleur asked.

Her daughter beamed. 'I can do this—' she waved her wand and turned the entire table bright emerald green '—oops. Finite incantatem.'

The green vanished.

'Colour-changing charms.' Fleur smiled. 'I learnt those quickly as well. They are not permanent, though, so I moved onto enchanting. Well done, little chick. Are there any others you've tried?'

'I can do this, too.' Katie furrowed her brow. 'Orchideous.'

A huge white daisy sprouted from the tip of the ebony wand and flopped over her hot chocolate.

Our little chick is already conjuring flowers, mon Amour. A little pang of loss cut through her, but she mustered her pride into a soft smile. You would be very pleased, non?

'And this.' She gripped the wand tight and gave it a huge swish. 'Papilionis.'

A bright silver butterfly burst from the tip of the wand, corkscrewing around in a circle on lopsided wings, and fluttering down onto the table.

Butterflies. Fleur reached out and poked it with her wand; a tight tangle of thorns knotted in her stomach as it burst into a wisp of silver mist. Just like your papa. Using his wand. And his spell.

'Katrina, pass me your papa's wand, s'il te plait.'

Katie squirmed. 'Are you going to give it back?'

'I just want to check if it is safe,' Fleur murmured. 'Why did you learn those two spells? You have all my old school books to find spells in, so why those two?'

Her daughter clutched the wand to her chest with both hands. 'They're pretty. You have your special flowers and I wanted my own. And you always turn our letters into pretty butterflies.'

'Wand, Katrina.'

Katie scowled, but surrendered it.

Fleur turned it over in her fingers, but no hint of magic stirred in the smooth dark wood. 'It does not ever feel strange to you? It does not feel cold? Or… whisper?'

Her daughter shook her head. 'No, maman. What's wrong?'

'You promise me, Katrina? It is very important.'

'Je te le promets, maman. Why's it important?'

'Because your papa once cheated death by anchoring his soul to this wand,' Fleur murmured. 'If it remained enchanted with that magic and enough time passed, it might grow very dangerous, even to you.'

But I checked. I checked a hundred times. His wand is not a horcrux. It has not been since La Victoire Finale.

'Maman?' Katie held her hand out, a glimmer of yearning in her green eyes as she stared at Harry's wand.

'Here you go, baby bird.' Fleur handed it back. 'But if it ever feels strange to you, you bring it straight to me. And do not try any more new spells from my old books without someone who knows what they are doing there to help. Most of them are harmless and I have enchanted every inch of the chateau to resist even your best attempts to make a mess of it, but it is still better for you to be safe, s'il te plait. Your maman does not want anything bad to happen to you.'

'I won't try anything without someone there to help, maman,' her daughter replied. 'Don't worry.'

'Good girl,' she murmured. 'Try not to make your maman worry about you too often, little chick. And do not set fire to that willow tree, it is more important than you can imagine.'

'It's my tree!' Katie chirped. 'As old as me!'

'It is a year younger than you, baby bird.' Fleur sipped her hot chocolate and wrinkled her nose, pushing a little magic into her palms until they shivered with heat haze; soft steam rose from the mug. 'That is better.'

Her daughter scrunched her face up and clapped her hands around her own mug.

'Not yet, little chick.' Fleur laughed. 'But soon. Would you like to learn how to feel enchantments? If you want to make pretty things like your maman, that is the first step.'

Katie nodded, wobbling her mug and spilling warm chocolate over the sides onto the table. 'Oops!' She snatched Harry's wand and her book out of the way. 'They're okay, maman.'

Fleur drew her wand and vanished the mess. 'You will be very good at this. You have been reaching out and feeling magic all around you since you were a very tiny veela hatchling crawling around looking for exciting things to stick in your mouth.'

And for your papa. Some of her cheer dwindled, that soft sore little ache settling back inside her heart. She still misses you, mon Amour. I will have to tell her something soon, before she goes to Beauxbatons, at least.

'Here.' Fleur slipped her wedding ring off her finger and placed it on the table. 'Be very very careful with that, Katrina, but touch your papa's wand to it and tell me what you feel.'

Katie gave it a tentative poke and squeezed her eyes shut; a little gasp slipped from her lips. 'It has a heartbeat!'

Fleur smiled. 'Your papa's. He made this for me.'

Her daughter scooped it off the table and cupped it in her hands, a fierce glimmer of yearning in her green eyes. 'It's so warm,' she whispered. 'Like the summer sun on my face.'

A cruel sun. Fleur's heart trembled. All the light and life, but no kindness.

Katie squirmed. 'Maman?'

'Tout ira bien, mon poussin.' Fleur reached out and lifted the ring from her daughter's palm, slipping it back onto her finger. 'How are you getting on with the allure? The better you are with that before you go to school, the happier you will be there.'

'I'm fine.'

She leant back and sipped her hot chocolate, letting its warmth soak through her and the sweet, rich flavour wash across her tongue.

'Mamaaaan,' Katie pleaded.

'Tell me then, little chick.'

Her daughter turned her nose up and folded her arms.

Oh mon amour, she is so much like me sometimes, non? A soft warm smile curved the corner of her mouth as she brushed her fingers against the rose in its amber prison. I wonder what little bits of you she would have learnt if you had been here with us?

Katie mumbled something under her breath.

'A little louder, baby bird.'

'I'm not a baby,' she grumbled. 'I'm nearly eleven.'

'Well?'

'It's hard, maman.' Katie's lower lip crept out into a small, delicate pout. 'I can pour magic into it, but I can't pull it back in.'

'It is very hard to pull it back in and restrain it,' Fleur murmured. 'Keep trying, little chick. Most veela cannot pull it back in at all, though most veela are not so strong with it that it makes such a big difference as it did to your Auntie Gabby and your maman.'

'I'll do it!'

'I am sure you will.' She took a small drink of hot chocolate. 'But that reminds me, I must fireproof all of your things, and especially your clothes and school uniform. In the next couple of years you will start to feel the change when you get cross—'

Katie's green eyes widened and poked at her chin with her small forefinger. 'The beak?'

'Yes, baby bird—' Fleur smiled '—but first you will get some uncomfortable, itchy, prickly, adult feathers coming through and then you will start to feel the heat in your bones.'

'What does it feel like, maman? Does it… does it hurt?'

She shook her head. 'It is like all your bones are full of hot water and shifting around. It is a bit strange at first, but it is natural; there is nothing to be worried about. I will fireproof all your clothes so you do not accidentally burn them all off if you get angry in class.'

Katie flushed bright pink. 'Maman! That doesn't happen!'

'It happened to your grandmere once. She made sure it did not happen to your maman or your Auntie Gabby, and I will make sure it cannot happen to you.'

'What if I set someone else on fire by mistake?' her daughter whispered. 'They could get hurt.'

'Be careful when you get cross, little chick,' Fleur murmured. 'Try not to let your temper get the best of you; if you are anything like your maman, and you are, you will get very cross sometimes, but hopefully you will be better about it than I used to be.'

A lot better, non, mon amour? She set her hot chocolate down with a soft sigh; a sharp pang slicing through her heart. I wish I could have a little time with you again now; I would be a far kinder sun to you, or at least able to say sorry for all that time twisting the knife.

'You were more cross?' Katie's green eyes widened. 'Really?'

Fleur laughed. 'When you were small, I had to learn very fast not to get cross with you for being a silly little chick all the time.' She reached across the table and cupped her daughter's cheek. 'It was not hard; I love you very very much, and I made a promise to your papa that I would keep you safe and make sure you were happy.'

AN: You know this bit, the linkree takes you to all the many other things I write! (and the rest of this story, too)

linktr . ee / mjbradley