Flora. {Credence Barebone}

Chapter Five.

"I'm not going Elsie."

Flora sat on the single bed in her bedroom, twirling a single wilting azalea between her perfectly manicured nails.

"Oh come on, Flora," Elsie stood across from her and pleaded for the third time. "Look your flower is dying. Come and Walter will buy you some new ones."

"I don't want Walter to buy me flowers." Flora hugged the silk nightgown which adorned her delicate frame, and pulled the flower closer to her face. "I want to buy my own flowers."

"Flora," Elsie sighed, letting her crossed arms fall to her side. "That's just silly, why would you want to buy them yourself when Walter can buy them for you? Come on, it makes him happy to buy them for you."

"And what about what makes me happy Elsie? Just go, and tell the boys I feel ill. I do."

"Flora, you and I both know that's not true. But, whatever, if you don't want to come, don't. Just don't blame me if Walter comes up here looking for you himself."

Elsie turned and stalked out of the room, her short brown curls bouncing atop her head, her shoes making clicking sounds every time they clapped the floor. Flora knew she didn't have to worry about Walter coming to look for her; he wouldn't dare come up to her room when she hadn't invited him, especially with her father not home.

After he had destroyed all of her precious things yesterday evening, Flora's father had roared at her mercilessly until the darkness of night fell. He had used his powerful voice to let her know that he would not allow her to lower herself to the level of working witches like the Goldsteins across the street, or even No-Majs. And when she had calmly returned his bellows with a question on what was so goddamn awful about No-Majs, well, no amount of powder or rouge could cover the dark purple bruise his quick hand had left upon her left cheek.

He sent her to her room not long after, surprising Flora by not taking her wand. His laughs as she exited his study rang through however, as he said: "How about you heal yourself, Healer Flora." But Flora didn't heal herself. Flora left the tender bruise resting on her cheekbone to heal all on its own. It was the reminder she needed to force herself to do what she needed to do, what she was going to do right now.

Upon hearing the doors of the brownstone shut below, Flora leaped off of her bed and ran to the window. She watched as Elsie, Ernest and Walter passed underneath, smiling and laughing. None of them looked like they missed her that much anyways. She watched until they disappeared around the far corner, in the direction of the Wizard Market. Flora cursed her three companions as she realised she would not be able to get a flower this morning, and sighed in sadness upon realising that meant that she would have no flower to give the Salemer boy. But Flora didn't have time to think about him and flowers right now. She had to hurry. Her father had left earlier that morning for some sort of meeting at the Magical Congress, and Flora wasn't going to be there when he returned.

Flora pulled her leather suitcase out from under her bed and flung it open. She began to hurry around her room, using her wand to pick up random pieces of clothing and place them neatly into her case. If it wasn't for her wand, they would be strewn across the floor and her bed.

She was a Pukwudgie through and through, and thought with her heart above anything else. At the present moment, her heart told her she had to leave. She was going to prove her father wrong, going to prove to him that there was nothing wrong with a witch working, and especially that there was nothing terrible about No-Majs. And maybe a part of her wanted to show to the Salamer boy that there wasn't anything terrible about wizards either.

Eventually her case was full of her clothes and other miscellaneous items. Her jewellery was the last to go in, and she packed it mainly so that if worst came to worst she could use it to have some sort of money. In the end Flora had to use an Extension Charm on her case, which took quite some time as it had been a long while since had used such advanced magic. Living in a house where everything is being handed to you already definitely reduces the amount of magic required.

Due to the time spent on the Extension Charm, Flora began to rush even more as she was terrified that her father would return and she would miss her chance. She lugged the case across her bedroom floor, making a lot of noise, and before she reached the door it was already being opened by one of her father's maids. The young girl's eyes widened considerably upon seeing Flora all in a fluster dragging a case across the floor.

Flora was no Seer, but she had a feeling she was going to be in a lot of trouble.

"Miss Cuthbert!" She shrieked. "What in the name of Lady Libert-"

"Petrificus Totalus!"

She was definitely going to be in trouble.

It took some time for Flora to manoeuvre her extremely heavy case around the frozen maid on the floor of her bedroom, and she cursed herself for not knowing a lightening charm. It took her even longer to get down the stairs, and she only had time to stop and grab her coat before she had to head out the large doors of the house and into the cold. The force which was needed to pull the case through the double doors of the house followed through and Flora found herself immediately stumbling down the stone steps which led up to the door.

At the end of it all, Flora landed in a heap on the pavement, her dress pooled out around her feet, and her case lay on its side in front of her.

"Jeez Miss Cuthbert," she heard a female voice say. "Where are you off to?"

Flora looked up to see Queenie Goldstein standing in front of her, her gloved hands gripped on the handle on her small handbag. Flora couldn't help but envy the lightness of her little bag. Shaking her head to put her short blonde hair back in place, Flora attempted to stand up quickly; she really needed to be on her way. However, she became dizzy from trying to stand up too fast and immediately fell back to the ground.

Queenie's eyes crinkled in amusement as she looked down upon the younger girl on the ground. She knew Flora from Ilvermorny, but the girl had been considerably younger, and still was. Queenie also knew that Flora's father didn't hold much respect for her and her sister, yet Flora herself had always been pleasant enough. More than once Queenie or Tina had returned to their home with a flower in hand after meeting Flora on the street.

"I'm not going anywhere," Flora attempted to rectify herself, finally making it up off the ground. "Why would you thin-"

"Flora," Queenie giggled. "I can read your mind. Besides, you have a case which is so heavy you fell down those steps. So, I don't really need to be able to hear your thoughts to be able to tell you're going somewhere." 

Flora huffed in frustration; she really should have thought this all through. Living across the street from a Legilimens wasn't always the best thing in the world.

"But why are you running away? .... Oh."

Flora sighed knowing that Queenie had just heard her thoughts about her father.

"I'm not running," Flora stated. "Im leaving. Now I'm sorry Queenie, but I kind of need to get going." As Flora bent to pick up her case, she turned to her right, leaving her left cheek and the dark bruise upon it exposed to Queenie's soft eyes. She gasped, making Flora look up.

"F-Flora!" She squeaked. Her eyes widened in horror as Flora reached to touch the bruise with her own fingers softly, and Queenie realised through Flora's thoughts what had happened and who had hurt her.

"Stop!" She ordered Flora who had went back to attempting to move the case which had seemed to have gotten even heavier. "Flora, come with me."

Flora sighed again, not really having time for the witch's shenanigans.

"Queenie, what do you want?"

But Queenie didn't answer Flora's question. Instead she grabbed the younger blonde's elbow and the two of them disappeared from the street with a loud crack.