Nothing is mine.

Katie reads a book and drinks some hot chocolate...

The Monster at the End of this Book

A soft, sweet scent filled the château, suffusing the air where the cherry boughs arched and curved along the walls of the hall.

Fleur drifted up the stairs, a small stack of Katie's socks and pants floating after her. 'Mon poussin?' She tapped on her daughter's bedroom door. 'Why do I have all your underwear and socks, but none of your dresses in the wash?'

'Er… I didn't wear any?'

Nice try, sneaky little chick.

'So I did not see you wearing your pale blue dress, your dark green dress, your violet dress and your dark blue dress?' Fleur asked.

'Mamaaan,' Katie whined.

'Open the door, Katrina.'

A quiet huff came from her daughter's room and the door creaked open.

Katie pouted up at her from past the edge of the door, untangling the shoulder of her azure dress from the handle. 'Maman, what do you want?'

'Your dresses—' Fleur cast a pointed look over the top of her daughter's head at the heap of dresses beneath Henri the Raven in the corner '—but I will take anything else that also should have been washed and somehow did not make it into the nice basket I enchanted for you, Katie.'

'But I want to wear them again!'

'When they're clean, baby bird.' She flicked her wand, sending the small stack of bright striped socks and fruit-decorated pants floating across onto Katie's bed. 'Put the dresses in the basket, Katrina. It is the only thing you have to do. Then put those clean things away.'

Her daughter puffed her cheeks out and trudged across, scooping up her heap of dirty dresses and plodding over to drop them into the small white cloth basket in the corner. 'Done, maman.'

'Good girl.' Fleur glanced at the scatter of drawing books, pencils and the stack of Aimée novels sprawled near the window. 'Make sure all those go back in the right spot when you are finished, little chick.'

'I'm not finished.' Katie turned her nose up.

'You are using all those things at the same time right now?'

Her daughter squirmed, but nodded. 'Yes.'

'If you say so.' Fleur laughed. 'Are you hungry? Thirsty?' She reached out and tucked Katie's slim braid back over her ear. 'Are you feeling okay?'

'I'm okay, maman.' Katie shuffled her feet.

'Katie…' Fleur reached out and cupped her cheek, lifting her face to meet her eyes. 'If there is something you want to say, just say it. But nicely, remember.'

'I want to go—'

'To Beauxbatons.' She sighed. 'Je sais, mon petit ange. Je sais, je te le promets, mais…'

'But what?' Katie's lower lip crept out. 'I know the other girls might get upset and be mean to me, but I want to go anyway. And if they're mean, I'll still have my maman like I would if I stayed here, and—' a cheeky grin flashed across her face '—I'll have Henri the Raven too.'

'You and your raven.' Fleur pushed the door open; a small fond smile flitting over her face as her daughter snapped her hand to her side to cover the slim bump of Harry's wand. 'You have carried that toy around since you could crawl. Except when you got cross a few times, then poor Henri got banished across the room, or would disappear and reappear in the corner while you screamed your head off until you got what you wanted.'

'Mamaaaan,' Katie grumbled.

Fleur crouched down and swept her daughter into a hug. 'Je t'aime, mon poussin.' The stubborn gleam in Katie's green eyes tugged at Fleur's heart. 'If you really want to go and learn magic there without stealing your papa's wand—' Katie froze '—then you can go.'

'Merci,' her daughter chirped, beaming and bouncing on her feet. 'Merci. Merci. Merci.'

'But…'

Katie wrinkled her nose. 'But?'

'You have to promise me four things, Katrina,' Fleur said. 'First. Be careful. Take your necklace. Do not forget the words that will bring you right back here. I do not care if the school gets upset, you use it whenever you feel you should. Second, don't talk to any snakes where anyone can see you, you might find that you're able to understand them, but nobody can know you're able to. Third, try and remember the other girls are just young; when they are mean, they do not really understand what they are doing, and when they are older, they will get better.' She brushed Katie's hair back off her face. 'You will be better than them at a lot of things, but do not be cruel to them when they upset you. Promets-moi?'

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

'And lastly—' Fleur stood up '—you have to write to me every weekend, even if it is just a short letter to let me know you are safe and have not destroyed the entire school.' Her heart trembled. 'If you are off learning exciting things and making lots of friends, your poor maman will be left with nobody to tidy up after every day.'

Katie smiled, tears gleaming in her eyes, and buried her face in Fleur's stomach. 'Je te les promets maman. I will write. And you can sneak in and come visit me, like you said you used to do with Auntie Gabby.'

Fleur laughed. 'I will come and take you away whenever you want, so long as it is not to escape anything important.' She reached out and poked the bump on Katie's side. 'Take your papa's wand out from under there, silly little chick.'

She wiggled her arm down the front of her azure dress and pulled out the long slim piece of ebony. 'Pardon, maman,' Katie whispered. 'I—'

'You are not in trouble, little chick.' Fleur tapped the end of Harry's wand with her fingertip. 'Will you give it a wave? Let's see if any magic happens. If this wand is a good fit for you, I might have an idea for when you get your own soon.'

Katie's eyes widened and she raised the wand, pointing it at the stack of socks. 'Wingardium leviosa.'

The bed lurched four feet into the air.

'Oops,' her daughter squeaked.

It crashed back down, spilling the socks to the floor.

'Be gentle, Katrina,' Fleur chided.

Where did you learn that, baby bird? Have you been reading my old school books?

She squeezed past Katie and scooped up the fallen socks, setting them back on the bed, and bent down, sliding the painting out from underneath. Beneath the old willow tree, forever lit by warm beams of summer sun, Harry held her close and kissed her.

A raw pang tore through Fleur. Tu me manques, mon amour. She lifted the painting. Perhaps I should put this up on the wall here for you, little chick. It is safer up there.

Katie shuffled her feet by the door. 'Maman, I—'

'Stole it from under my bed, because you are a sneaky little chick just like your maman and your Auntie Gabby,' Fleur murmured. 'Je sais. If I was cross about you having it, I would have told you off and taken it back when you found it, baby bird.'

'Oh,' her daughter whispered. 'I thought you'd be angry because it's—' her green eyes flicked to the picture and her papa '—it has my papa in it.'

'It does.' Fleur drew her wand and stuck the painting to the wall with a swift charm. 'There. Be careful with it, mon petit ange. It is very precious.'

Katie nodded. 'I won't let it get hurt, maman.'

'Do not move it onto the other walls,' Fleur said. 'If it is in the sun too much, the colours may fade.' She stepped back to admire the painting, a fistful of sharp cold thorns clenching tight in her stomach. 'Do you like it, little chick?'

Katie stared up at it with a little glimmer of yearning in her green eyes.

Je suis désolée, mon poussin. Fleur's heart quivered, caught in a thicket of bitter guilty barbs. All this time wishing for your papa and you will never know him because your maman failed.

'Maman,' Katie whispered, reaching out with one hand.

'Sneaky little chick,' Fleur murmured. 'Come on. I am going to take you somewhere special, for being a very good grown up girl and so good at magic.'

'Where?' Her daughter clutched her papa's wand to her chest. 'Beauxbatons?'

'Not yet.' Fleur offered her a small warm smile. 'And we cannot go and get you a wand yet either, there are a few things I will have to do first. We are going to a small café in Paris.'

'In Paris?' Katie's green eyes widened. 'We're leaving home?'

'You wanted to see places, non?'

She nodded her head so fast her nose blurred.

'Put some socks on then. And your shoes.' Fleur tucked her wand back through the ribbon at her waist. 'But leave your papa's wand here.'

Katie glanced around and placed the wand beside Henri the Raven, snatching up a pair of socks from the bed and scampering out; her footsteps thudded away down the stairs.

'Gently!' Fleur called after her. 'Less stomping, s'il te plaît.'

I will still keep her safe, mon amour. She touched her thumb to the rose and amber earring. But I think maybe now our little veela hatchling is old enough to leave the nest a little bit.

'Maman!' Katie yelled. 'I'm ready!'

She apparated down, slipping her feet into the low pair of blue heels. 'Hold on tight to my arm, little chick. Very tight. This is a lot further than I have apparated you before and I do not want to lose you.'

Her daughter grabbed her arm with both hands.

Fleur stepped through onto the cobbles of Paris; her silver hair whipped across her face on a strong gust of wind. She lifted her hands, but Katie clung to her arm.

'What is wrong, baby bird?'

Katie's grip tightened as she stared around at the witches and wizards walking back and forth along the street. Paris's tall houses towered over them, casting them in faint shade.

'Tout ira bien,' Fleur murmured, tossing her hair back over her shoulder with her free hand. 'The café is this way.'

She strolled down the street as Katie clutched her arm, staring around with nervous green eyes, and into Madam Antoinette's at the scatter of tables and the long, low counter. 'This is where I used to come with your Auntie Gabby and your papa.'

Her daughter perked up. 'My papa came here?'

'We used to come here a lot,' Fleur murmured. 'I have many happy memories with your papa and Auntie Gabby here.' She sat Katie down in the corner booth and slipped in beside her. 'This was our old table, too.'

Katie gazed around, drinking in the small wooden tables, the towering stack of cakes in the window and the rows of bottles behind the counter. 'Can we get cake, maman?'

'That is why we came.' Fleur smiled. 'You have not had clafoutis before, but I think you will like it.'

'What is it?' Katie set out a fork and a spoon in front of Fleur. 'Is it chocolate or fruit?'

'It has cherries in it.'

Her daughter arranged her own cutlery. 'Cherries are the best. And banana.'

'Your Auntie Gabby would agree.' Fleur pulled her wand out and tapped the menu twice. 'I will get it with you. We always used to get it together.'

Katie picked up a third spoon and fork and set them out opposite Fleur; that faint gleam of yearning shone in her green eyes as she straightened them out opposite Fleur's pair.

A tight little knot snapped taut in Fleur's stomach, trembling above a pit of bitter bubbling guilt. 'For Auntie Gabby?'

Her daughter shook her head, staring at the table.

'For your papa, then.' Fleur mustered a soft laugh through the ache. 'Well, we never let him have any cake; he did not appreciate it as much as we did.'

Katie buried her face in the crook of Fleur's elbow with a disconsolate little noise.

'There is no keeping secrets from you, is there, little chick?' Fleur sighed and cupped the back of her daughter's head with her hand. 'It is slightly sad to be back here with you, but not your papa, but I have you—' she kissed her daughter on the top of her head '—and you are the most important thing.'

AN: No drama this chapter. Not yet... Might be some at the end of this Linktree, though. Although, to be fair, there's an awful lot of stuff at the end of this linktree.

linktr . ee / mjbradley