weasley is our queen

“hmm,” aurelia let go of the girl’s hand, “i wonder if we could accio it, it’s got to be around here somewhere,” there was a moment of silence as she pondered the idea before shaking her head, “i wish i could help more but apparently i’m just not very good at finding books.”

“we could try, but we always run the risk of whacking someone in the head with a book. actually, this shop might have a rule against it. a lot of them do.” she said, looking around for any sort of posted sign that might indicate yes or no. “I’m not either, obviously, or I wouldn’t need your help to begin with.”

Fleur couldn’t tell that Dominique felt uncomfortable. This was just another mother-daughter conversation, just another opportunity for the two of them to connect and talk about something important. She was blind to the fact that Dominique might not want such attention; surely she wouldn’t mind, if it was coming from her mother. “Things are…” Fleur paused, trying to think of the right words. “Everything is changing – and making sure that you are your best is my biggest priority now just as much as ever. You are an adult now, and I know I cannot check in on you like I used to, but… I want to. I need to.”

dominique nodded. she supposed that she could understand her mother’s concern. “dad has sent me approximately a hundred letters already.” she chuckled. he’d always been a bit of a hovering presence. “I’ll be sure to check in with you so that you don’t have to worry. okay?”

Dominique’s hesitance said more than her words ever could. “You cannot only worry about everyone else. Everyone needs to worry about themselves just as much as they worry about everyone else. But if you do not care for yourself first, how will you make sure that you are getting everything that you need?”

“I am fine, mama, I swear.” she said, feeling a bit uncomfortable having so much focus on her. everyone had always looked at fleur and victoire with absolute admiration- recognition of their beauty. the both stood out, but dominique happily blended. she was used to being unnoticed. “what’s brought all of this concern on?”

“no worries, i’m sure we’ll find it somewhere! come on!” aurelia grabbed the girl’s hand, weaving her way through the shop, looking for the book. the book she picked up was a scamander, but it was a bright yellow cover and looked about ten years old with dust on the cover, “this isn’t it, i presume? what’s the title again?” 

dominique kept reading titles as she was more or less dragged through the shelves. her eyes looked over the book by newt scamander. “no that’s not it.” she laughed. “it’s called the mystical menagerie, I believe.”

She hoped that she didn’t have to lay everything out there for Dominique. The girl was bright – surely she would be able to understand what her mother was saying without having to go into too much detail. But unfortunately for Fleur, that was hardly the case. “Things have been difficult enough for you, no? You need to make a point to be kind to yourself. Especially now.”

“I-” dominique hesitated. she didn’t know what to say. she had always been a bit of a lonely child, but it was never something that she complained about- not aloud. “I- I’m fine.” she stammer out not meeting her mother’s eyes. “I am much more worried about everyone else. you, papa, auntie ‘mione, uncle ron, uncle harry, aunt ginny- everyone that went through this before. it’s only right to not focus on myself.”

Lately, Fleur had felt more and more reflective. Whatever had sparked it had been unrelenting, not letting the thoughts stop until she let them out, especially when speaking with her children. “Well, you have suffered enough, and warred with yourself. It’s time that you won,” she pushed Dominique, hoping she’d understand. 

@doreminique​ (lyric from falling slowly by  Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová)

dominique hated how much tension had been in the air lately. it lead her to spending more and more time with her family when she could. admittedly, she spent the majority of her time away from work with her family anyway. “hm?” she turned her eyes to her mother. the woman had always been too beautiful for words. even after a lifetime, it could surprise you. “what do you mean mama?”

—- “No it’s not foolish,” Henriette simply replied. They both grew up during a time where the only dark mark they had seen was in the history books, it wasn’t too outlandish to think that this could just be a big hoax– someone’s twisted humor– and honestly, Henriette hoped that it was. She hoped that it would all be cleaned up and put away before things got too out of hand. “We will see what happens.”

naive, then. it wouldn’t be the first time that dominique had been called that. the war, the dark mark, everything that happened was more than just written history to her family. they’d been in the midst of it all, entrenched in every action of it. her father lost a brother. hell, her uncle had become the stuff of legend. she knew that it hadn’t effected the rest of the world the same way. there would certainly be those capable of mocking it like some distant atrocity, but- would they be bold enough to do it so publicly? would they really not come forward after all this? if they still thought it was funny, then maybe the world did have something to worry about. it seemed that couldn’t really be the case and yet, dominique wanted it to be with every fiber of her being, because the alternative was so much worse. “what do you think happened?”

aurelia popped her head up, looking around the store. she admittedly did not read the scamander books, the subjects weren’t nearly fascinating enough for her, but to each their own, “i’m afraid that this is the first time i’ve been in here for about three weeks, have you looked up front or in the back? i’m sure we’ll find it. do you know what it looks like? the cover?” 

“uh.” it dawned on her that perhaps she should have been a little more prepared before coming into the shop. “no, no, and no....” dominique looked down nervously at her hands. “I was looking just based alphabetically so I started at that shelf over there.” she pointed to the far left of the room. “I think the book might be blue, but I don’t really remember what it looks like.”

   “He probably did. You know how he likes to spend time in the forest.” He admitted and pushed his papers away from himself. He didn’t blame Bill for being cautious. Teddy had been extra cautious himself, doing extra rounds at night before he went home. He sometimes decided to stay the night in case anything happened. “I think it’s enough grading for the night. You need a little help looking for Hagrid? We can walk and talk if you’d like.” 

“that forest has somehow accepted hagrid as one of it’s own. I can’t imagine anyone else knows it as well as he does.” dominique remarked with a small shake of her head. the forbidden forest could be quite scary. there were dark corners of it that felt as though they were never warm, and you couldn’t tell whose eyes were on you. yet, she still felt more comfortable in the forest than she did in most social situations. “oh? oh yeah. I’d appreciate that. it can take a while to find him though- fair warning. I wouldn’t blame you if you had something better to do.”

James wasn’t a reader. It wasn’t was though he didn’t LIKE books, he just didn’t have the concentration levels to focus on one for more than five minutes so he wasn’t really sure why he was here, trying to find one about Quidditch. As he heard a voice, he turned around and grinned at his cousin. “Trust me, I don’t know where anything is. Bet Aunt Hermione has it somewhere if you can’t find it here. More importantly, I know where the Newtie the cat is. She’s on my bed, probably.”

dominique was rather surprised to hear her cousin james’s voice in the bookstore. while it wasn’t a shock to run into someone from her family while out and about (there were an army of them), james had never been the sort to particularly haunt the shelves of flourish and blotts. “aunt ‘mione already has it? where does she find the time to read this much?” she asked, constantly in awe of her aunt. “although, I may settle for seeing the cat.” she laughed.

it never took a lot to convince jax to tag along with someone to a bookstore, so she was more than thrilled when her cousin asked. “what’s wrong?” jax blurted out from a few shelves over, concern etching over her features as she glanced over from the book she’d pulled off the shelf. tucking the book under her arm, she hustled over to their cousin, only to break into a smile as they heard the question. “oh, i should’ve guessed, but no, unfortunately. they sometimes keep the new releases they don’t think will do great towards the back, if you want to have a look? or we can ask?” jax hated asking strangers for help, but she’d do it for dominique without question. 

dominique eyes trailed to the back of the store. her brows furrowed in confusion. “why would they keep them in the back? why would they think that it wouldn’t do well?” honestly, who wouldn’t want to read a book about magical creatures? dominique would never understand. she could spend hours sitting outside reading about any sort of creature. she had a fondness for unicorns and thestrals, but would certainly settle for anything. “I guess we should go look ourselves before we bother anyway else, right?”

    Scorpius knew he needed to clear his mind. There were whispers in the ministry and he knew now more than ever that people were eyeing him after the events that had occurred after the Quidditch game. He was looking for a new book to read when a voice called out to him. He turned to look at her, she looked familiar to him but he couldn’t quite put a name to the face. “Um, no. Sorry. It may be in the new release section. Most of the books here aren’t very new.” 

“d’you know where the new release section is?” she asked, peering at the various shelves. this wasn’t the store that she usually came to, but she was hoping they’d have a copy of the book in sooner than her usual bookshop. she glanced over to the man that responded to her question and hesitated a second. “not to be rude, but are you alright?”

aurelia was on break, well, she might as well as have been done at work for the day, seeing as she had just gotten her lunch break an hour before the shop closed. she was browsing the bookstore, her pockets full from today’s tips, and she wanted to buy something new, the titles on her bookshelf at home had gotten so…old. 

head down, browsing the clearance section of the shelves, she heard the girl before she saw her, “the new scamander book? i didn’t even know there was a new book.” 

dominique supposed that she shouldn’t have expected many people outside of the field to be paying attention for a new scamander volume, but it was a little disappointing to remember that not everyone cared as much as her. “it was published last week, I think. I just haven’t had a chance to get into the store.”

With her soon-to-be book tucked beneath her arm, Mary was preparing to head to check out when she was spoken to. “I’m so sorry, I don’t.” She gave herself another moment to think, before adding, “oh! Have you tried the new releases table? That always gets picked over and disorganized so you might have to dig a little.”

dominique turned in the direction that the woman had indicated, but every table looked the same to her. books littered in every direction, and she had no way of telling which were the new and which were the old. “sorry, I really don’t mean to bother you, but would you mind telling me which is the new releases table? they all look the same to me.”

—- Henriette chuckled and tapped the tip of her own nose with the tip of her finger. She couldn’t help but to agree with the other girl. The Prophet always seemed to find the worst news to report each day and if one only listened to it, they would think things were going to come to an end. Though, Hen didn’t think the dark mark was a good sign. “Were you there,” she asked curiously as she gestured to the headline she was reading.

dominique shook her head. “no. not directly, nor at the time. I went to the quidditch match because one of my cousins insisted I go, but I was actually in a shop when it happened. I didn’t see anything.” though it felt like she’d been standing right there by how much she’d heard about it. “maybe it’s foolish, but I’ve been hoping that it is a prank made in very, very poor taste.”

—- Rose had considered staying at Hogwarts for a teaching position when she was trying to decide on the career path she was going to take. She quickly realized though, she didn’t have the patience to handle students. Dominique certainly was better at that than her. “I always did like his class,” Rose said with a nod. She did miss seeing Hagrid every day. “It’s kicking my arse,” she chuckled and looked over at her cousin. “I come home all the time needing an ice bath.”

hagrid was practically family. the old giant had a special place in his heart for every weasley and potter that made their way through the grounds of hogwarts, and honestly, they all loved him in return. it was hard not too. “he’s an excellent professor, but he is a bit unorganized.” she laughed. dominique couldn’t imagine being an auror or even training to be one. her marks in defense against the dark arts were abysmal, but it wasn’t hard to imagine rose being superb at it all. she’d always been far more fearless. “really? what sort of things to they have you doing?”