FIVE ... GOLDEN GIRL?
♡
BRIAR WAKES UP with her inner eye screaming. She rubs her eyes, her brows furrowing. Fred's still fast asleep, she can hear and feel his breath, and his arm's still around her, like it had been when she fell asleep last night. Her inner eye is shrieking about what's about to happen, so she pushes his arm off of herself, shoving him as forcefully as possible to wake him up.
"Go away," he says, and he moves, burying his head in the pillow. Briar glares at the back of his head, climbing over him to get to the bedroom door. She accidentally (... accidentally) knees him in the back and he sits up, looking confused. Briar's first thought, despite her inner eye literally screaming blood murder, is, wow, he's cute when he's sleepy. "What are you—?"
"My grandpa is literally outside of the tent," says Briar, and that's enough for Fred to sit upright. "I'm going to go out there and talk to him. If you dare speak or make noise I will literally kill you."
Fred gives her a look, obviously still tired. "I keep you safe, and this is what I get," he says, and he puts a hand on his heart. Briar gives him a dirty look. "I get it, I get it, I was joking..."
"You better be," says Briar, narrowing her eyes. She slips out of her bedroom and into the main part of the tent. She can hear her grandpa talking to Bagman outside, and Winky begin to scramble back towards wherever she hid last night, but, before she can disappear, Barty walks into the tent.
"Winky," says her grandpa, and immediately Briar panics.
"You can't," says Briar. "I know she went against your orders but she was terrified and anyone would've run to safety if they were in that position—"
"She is not your friend," says Barty.
Briar watches him walk past her, and she frowns. "Are you?"
"I'm sorry?" says Barty, stopping in his tracks and turning around, looking at his granddaughter in surprise. "You... You're asking if I'm your friend?"
"Yeah," says Briar. "I am."
"You're my granddaughter," he says. "You are being ridiculous—"
"Winky has always been in my life, Grandpa," says Briar, her hands already shaking. "She knew my mum, too, and she always played with me, she always kept me company when I was little... I know you don't think she's important but I do. Please, Grandpa..."
"Not everyone will be in your life forever," says Barty.
And Briar loses it. She can feel anger rising inside of her, her blood boiling as she looks at her grandpa, at the cold, unbothered expression across his face. And, knowing exactly how he'll react, Briar opens her mouth and comes out with it.
"What, like Dad?"
Her grandpa goes completely still, and deadly silent. He looks at her as if steam is bursting out of his ears, like he wants to yell at her until her ears bleed. But she doesn't back down. She stands tall as she watches the expression across her grandpa's face, watching his skin go redder and redder...
"We do not talk about that man."
"Why, because he's a werewolf?" says Briar, narrowing her eyes at her grandpa. "Because he was so much better for my mum than you ever were? Because at least he was actually around, right, unlike you! Death Eaters were raiding the camp site last night, Grandpa, and you didn't even come back to make sure that I was safe! If it wasn't for Fred and George, who got their dad to make sure I was OK—"
"Stop that, now," her grandpa says.
"Why?" says Briar. "Do you even care that you never made sure that I was OK? Or—Or are you going to say something about them being blood traitors? Because—Because, considering you're the one who didn't check your granddaughter was safe when you knew Liv would be with Draco, so I'd be here alone — and you didn't even bother to make sure I was OK — and then, the fact that you fully turned your back on my mum the second she spoke out... Or, the fact that you let your own son go to Azkaban to save your own reputation — doesn't that make you the blood traitor?"
She's done it.
"I have worked my entire life to support you," says Barty, his voice rising. Briar doesn't think she's ever heard him shout... She doesn't like it. "You wouldn't have any of this if it wasn't for me. Yes, I disowned Barty but if I hadn't done, I would've been jobless. I have provided you everything you have wanted, and you are being a spoilt brat — your father can barely afford to look after himself, let alone you and Livius... If it was not for my hard work, you would be worse off than the Weasleys."
Briar thinks, Be careful, one's literally listening in.
"So you moved me and Liv to Beauxbatons, to stop us from meeting our dad, because he's poor?" says Briar, raising her eyebrows. Her grandpa looks furious, because she knows he had other motives, and he knows she's aware. "Because I think what you actually wanted was for us to never meet him, so we'd never find out that you just wanted another batch of kids, because you ruined the first ones, didn't you? Two were Death Eaters and the other ran off with a werewolf. But you saw your chance to snatch two new kids, to start again, and the second there was a chance they'd meet their dad and find out the truth, you made them leave the country..."
"You spoilt, hysterical—"
"Don't you think she's got a right to be upset?" says Fred. Briar freezes. She can see the colour leaving her grandpa's face as Fred appears, moving to stand in front of Briar. She feels mortified. "Briar never met her dad — obviously she's going to be upset when she finds out that they could've met, and she was moved away so they couldn't—"
"What are you doing with my granddaughter?" says Barty, looking as if he wants to kill Fred. He doesn't look at Briar. "If you dare touch my—"
"Um?" says Briar.
"What are you going to do about it?" says Fred, standing in Briar to the point that she can't even see her grandfather. She doesn't know if she's calming down, or if her anger is turning into sheer panic because what the fuck is Fred saying this, why is he getting involved? "You're barely around anyway—"
"Get out," her grandpa says.
Fred doesn't move, so Briar grabs his arm, using all of her strength to pull him away from her grandpa, and towards the tent's entrance. He stops resisting fairly quickly, and he lowers his voice, asking her, "You want to piss off your grandpa?"
"Absolutely," says Briar.
Fred stops as they reach the tent's entrance. His hand holds onto the back of Briar's head, his fingers tangling between blonde curls. And then, just as she realises what he's doing and her heart begins to race, he smiles softly at her, and pushes her closer to him, her hands pressing again his chest. He presses his lips against hers, awkward at first, but her fingers grab onto his t-shirt's fabric and his mouth parts open. She can feel his breath in her mouth, his teeth against her tongue, and then—
"Briar Saoirse Crouch!"
Briar and Fred pull apart. She gives him a small smirk as he leaves the tent without another word. She can feel her cheeks burning up and a small smile stays on her face as her grandpa gives her a nasty look.
"You are not to see that boy again," he tells her, and Briar ignores him mostly, because she's been sneaking behind his back to see her dad all summer, she can do the same with Fred and George. And, besides, she doesn't think she'd be able to argue anyway. She feels as if her brain's stopped working because of what happened with Fred... The second she's out of her grandpa's sight she stops and she touches her lips with her fingers, her small smile turning into a schoolgirl grin. She can't believe it...
... Especially since she's a werewolf. Already she feels sick with herself. She can imagine the shock and the disgust on his face if he found out the truth, and has realised that he had kissed something like her. Briar sits on her bed, burying her head in her hands. Why did she have to have this fucking curse?
When she leaves with her grandpa, they walk in silence. Briar has a lot less spring in her step than she originally did, after that kiss with Fred. They wait to the side of the queue of wizards on the outskirts of the camping grounds, waiting to get their names signed off. Briar watches as her grandpa walks towards the Ministry official sorting out people leaving, able to skip to the queue from his own ranking.
Briar leans against a tree trunk, putting her hands in the pockets of her denim jacket. She's wearing her sunglasses, mostly so that people can't see her staring, but then, she hears a familiar voice.
"Well, fancy seeing you again," says Fred. Briar rolls her eyes, and she takes off her sunglasses to look him in the eyes, the red-rimmed glasses resting on the top of her head.
"We never speak of what happened," says Briar, giving him a dark look. It's somewhere between a scowl and a glare. It's the same sort of look Fleur gives quite a lot.
"Oh, that you slept together?" says George, grinning mischievously.
Fred begins, "Uh—"
"We spooned, that was it," says Briar, a little too dismissively, and she turns to Fred. "Right, Fred?" Her using his proper name, not Freddie, is enough for him to catch onto the seriousness of the situation (from her perspective, at least.) He nods along.
"Well that's boring," says George, with a frown.
"Tough shit, Weasley," says Briar, putting her sunglasses back on. She glances over at her grandpa, who's talking to Bagman, and she sighs in relief. She has a couple of minutes left with the twins before he notices who she's talking to... She thinks back to that kiss, and she feels the side of Fred's arm brush against her jacket, and she moves an inch to the side. He wouldn't do that if he knew...
"So when are we going to see you again?" says Fred, and Briar snorts.
"Great joke, Fred," says George, looking confused.
"My grandpa doesn't want me to see you anymore," says Briar.
Both Fred and George look at her in shock. She glances at her grandpa to check he's still deep in conversation, even though her inner eye knows he'll be distracted for a couple more minutes, and she turns to the twins, taking off her sunglasses and gesturing with them in one hand.
"He won't say it, especially now, since Percy's his assistant, but he thinks your family—"
"Is what, blood traitors?" says George.
"Not exactly?" says Briar, pulling a face. "He thinks you're of a different... class, I suppose..."
"Because we're poor?" says Fred.
"Sort-of," says Briar, wincing. "Which isn't a bad thing, it's just that he thinks it is. And he thinks you two are bad influences..." Both of them look offended. George puts a hand on his heart, whilst Fred looks over Briar's shoulder, a nasty look directed towards her grandpa. She frowns. "And, um, he's convinced I'm going to turn out like Mum because—" She looks at Fred, then George, and sighs. "OK, so, my grandpa found out Fred slept in my bed so he was... presuming things, and then, um — Fred and I kissed..."
George's eyes widen. "What the fuck?"
"Yeah, so, my grandpa now thinks I'm going to get killed at like nineteen or some shit because Mum died young and she was married to a werewolf — which is apparently on the same level of bad influence as you two—"
"You kissed my brother," says George. "Have you seen his ugly face?"
"We have the same face!" says Fred.
And Briar, without thinking, rolls her eyes and says, "No, you don't."
"Yeah, we do?" says Fred.
George gives Briar a knowing look, which she ignores.
"There's a reason I can tell you apart, dumbass... I'm the one that has to see both of your faces all hours of the day, you only see each other," says Briar, shaking her head. She realises what she's said, on a daily basis, and she grimaces. "Well, I used to see you all the time..."
She sees her grandfather look over, and give her a nasty look. She lets out a sigh, turning back to the twins with a forced smile across her face. "I'll see you sometime," she tells them.
Both of them say downtrodden versions of, "Yeah, guess so..."
She walks away from them, preparing herself for her grandfather's comments. He's always disliked them, ever since Briar introduced him to them at the end of their first year, Briar pulling the twins towards her grandpa and saying, "Grandpa, look! These are my best friends!" And her grandpa not even bothering to act interested. He's always thought bad about them. Just like her dad.
Everyone that doesn't fit his mould doesn't fit into his life, full stop. Her dad, her grandpa's son-in-law, is so fucking smart... but he's a werewolf, so her grandpa isn't interested. And the twins — it takes some talent, thinking of pranks like they do, but because of their financial situation, because the two don't care that much about school, because they get into trouble... her grandpa doesn't care. Her closest friends mean nothing to him. But he likes Draco, he likes Fleur — because in his eyes, they fit into the sort of friends he wants his children to have.
And Briar's saying children, not grandchildren, because look — Briar and Livvy are her grandpa's second chance. Both him and her grandmother fucked up with their own children, so they pried their grandchildren out of their son-in-law's hands, days after the death of his wife, their daughter, because their main concern was, look, that werewolf can't raise those children, but we can start over...!
It's sick.
"Briar," says her grandfather as she walks up to him. He holds onto her by the wrist, to get her attention, and without a thought she snatches her hand away from him. "What did I say?"
"Same as what you said about my dad," says Briar, giving him a dark look. An angry look washes over her grandpa's face, and it's as if the word werewolf glazes over his eyes, at just the mention of her dad. Briar wants to laugh, it's horrendous. It's her grandpa's hatred that did this to her.
They sign off of the list, and Briar looks over at the twins one final time, already beginning to miss them. And then she turns back to her grandpa, annoyance growing inside of her. She's always stopped herself from thinking that about him. I was cursed because of Grandpa. She's always felt bad for thinking it. But now? Who even fucking cares? He doesn't care about her friends, and if he does, it's because he thinks they're the right sort of people for his children, that they're the golden girls and boys of their families, just like she's the golden girl of theirs.
Golden girl.
In his fucking dreams, more like.
♡
BRIAR WAITS, ANTICIPATING the absolute worse as she sits upstairs in her bedroom. She's left the letter that Madame Maxime sent her, the one that should've been for her grandparents, downstairs in the kitchen. As soon as Briar and her grandpa got home, he left again, quickly dismissing Winky before Briar and Livvy could find a way to stop him. But, it's fine, because Briar's spoken to the twins, telling them what's going on, hoping they can get their mum or dad or someone to speak to Dumbledore about taking Winky in.
Like, Winky wouldn't... cope at Beauxbatons. All of the house-elves speak French, she'd be so lonely, she had told Fred.
He had replied, I'm on it, yeah?
You're an angel, she replied, with five hearts drawn into the parchment.
And now, Briar's just waiting on her grandpa to return home, to see the letter from Madame Maxime, and to fully lose it because surprise, surprise, Briar isn't perfect, and she's got the detention slips and werewolf bite to prove it. She can't wait to see his face, bright red, steam practically bursting out his ears.
But, knowing Briar's luck, her grandpa doesn't return home. He sends a letter and it arrives on the kitchen table, telling Briar and Livvy that he'll be back very late, because he's got to sort out the aftermath of the World Cup. Livvy stops reading it, a little pissed off he couldn't spend another day at Malfoy Manor, whereas Briar spots the very last thing he wrote.
Make sure you stay away from mine and your grandmother's room, and the spare room next to it.
Why does he feel the need to emphasise that? Briar hasn't even thought about what he said about those rooms, not since he first said to stay away. Briar never goes to that side of the house anyway, same with Livvy, so why does he feel the need to point out that they can't go anywhere near there?
"Don't you think it's weird?" says Briar to Livvy as they sit at the kitchen table, having broken their grandpa's rule of staying away from the muggles and ordering themselves pizza.
Sometimes, the only way to deal with the world is stuffed crusts and garlic and herb dip, you know? And, let's remember that they've always relied on Winky to make dinner, and Briar and Livvy's joint culinary skills are limited to spaghetti. Not even with pasta sauce. They make it too runny and one time they tried heating up one that's already made, just sitting in a little pot, needing to be put on the stove for a couple minutes, and they fucking burnt it. And they put the heat on too high, so it splattered everywhere, and they burnt themselves from the boiling hot tomato pasta sauce, so they've got to rely on takeaways for the rest of the summer... And then hope that their husbands can cook...
"All summer, he's been telling us, don't go into that room," Briar continues, her brows furrowed as she looks across at her brother. "Why?"
"I think that's just the last of the Gryffindor in you, thinking that," says Livvy, shoving potato wedges into his mouth. Briar frowns. "Well, it is, isn't it? He's telling you not to do something, and you're first thought is, well, fuck you, now I want to do it... It's like telling you to not press the red button." Briar gives her little brother a dirty look, mostly because she knows he's right and she doesn't like it. "Merlin, Briar, you see the Weasleys for a day and you turn back into a Gryffindor."
"That's not a bad thing," says Briar.
"It's a bit counterproductive," says Livvy.
"Counterproductive to what?" says Briar. Livvy rolls his eyes, and Briar knows it's because he prefers Beauxbatons, hands-down, to Hogwarts, and he's made that known... Like, for Livvy, the only thing Beauxbatons is missing is a shithead with blonde hair. But anyway. "You're missing the point! Don't you think that it's weird, that our grandmother, the woman that raised us—"
"I think Winky raised us more than Grandma ever did," says Livvy, raising his eyebrows at Briar. "Like... Let's be real, here."
"Well, I know, but listen to my point," says Briar, giving her brother another look. "Isn't it weird? Our grandmother is bedridden, in this house, and we can't even see her? The woman that didn't really but sort of did raise us is sick beyond compare and we can't even see her? Like, Liv, when Grandpa said it, he suggested it as if she was so poorly that she might... pass soon... But we still can't even say goodbye to her? Like, we'll have spent this entire summer mere metres from her, when she's been so sick, but we're not allowed to see her? Isn't that weird to you?"
Livvy looks at Briar for a moment, lost in thought.
"OK, it's weird," says Livvy. "But you know what? You've already pissed off Grandpa today, and you're going to send him on the warpath when he reads that letter. How about you don't do the thing he doesn't want us doing?" Briar frowns at Livvy again. "Well, you have, haven't you? You had a go at him in front of all those officials last night, you've made him think you're shagging Fred Weasley — which is fucking disgusting and I hope to Malecrit that you only said that to annoy him — so, breaking into that spare room would be the final nail on the coffin, wouldn't it?"
"I guess," says Briar.
"So, you won't?" says Livvy.
Briar looks at her brother. "I won't," she tells him, and he looks pleased with himself. She continues eating the pizza, chewing slowly as she becomes lost in thought. Livvy goes to his room after a while, and Briar sits there, poking a pizza crust into the dip as she frowns at nothing. It still confuses her. None of this makes any sense. It's maddening. Briar is expected to live metres away from her dying grandmother and she can't even speak to her, hug her one last time?
It's nearing nine o'clock when she gets up from the kitchen table, planning to eat the last of the pizza for her breakfast tomorrow. Lunch, depending on when she wakes up. She passes the corridor that leads to the spare room, and Briar almost moves her feet to walk towards it, but her inner eye stops it. She feels a specific sort of dread, the type she felt in the minutes leading up to the attack last summer, so she moves, and walks upstairs, to her bedroom in the attic.
Briar lies on her bed, trying to forget about the fear she felt, just at the possibilities of walking down that hallway. Instead, her mind goes back to the same thing it has been doing, ever since she got back from the World Cup: Fred. Part of her wonders how this has happened, how they haven't seen each other for a year and suddenly Briar thinks he's attractive. She thinks back to the morning, when she woke up and he was, like, holding her. She misses it... She misses him hugging her...
She looks across at her bedside table, where she's left the birthday present he got her. Briar opens it, and takes the quill attached, writing, You're probably busy but I'm bored so... hi.
She lies back on her bed, frowning. She thinks back to this morning, as if her brain can't fully comprehend how she kissed Fred. She doesn't know what to do with herself. Because OK, she can admit that she wouldn't be thinking about that kiss in this sort of way, or about how he hugs her, or about how they spooned last night, if she didn't feel something for him. But here's the thing: she can't admit that. It's wrong of her to lead him on like that. She's a monster, she's disgusting. They kissed once, and that's it. It shouldn't have happened then, but Briar doesn't want to think like that, because if she focuses on the past, she can't focus on the future. And by that, Briar means, I will not let this crush become something. Fleur will know, and that's it.
It upsets her, though. If she didn't have this fucking curse, she would've written to George sometime today, asking him to mention it to Fred, and to tell her what he said. She would've tried her fucking hardest to see if it could go anywhere — and if could've done? Briar would've been over the moon. She'd be so annoying if she was his girlfriend. Like, she feels as if she'd be the sort of girlfriend that's affectionate, like, she'd always been holding his hand, or hugging him, or kissing his cheek... Ugh. Briar feels like shit. She wants to kiss him again. Only this time, it would mean something...
She stands up to cross her room, to get her Walkman, cleverly hidden in a drawer where her grandpa can't spot them and realise she's got a muggle thing. Maybe if she listens to Nirvana for long enough, she'll forget about this. Maybe, if she listens to David Bowie, she'll start to think about kissing him instead... Briar fancies David Bowie so much, it's unreal... Anyway...
She realises she left her Walkman downstairs, when she was using it earlier, so she makes her descent to the ground floor. Her feet hit the carpet of the first floor, the one with her grandparents' room on, and she looks down the corridor, at the door of the spare room she isn't allowed in.
Her brows furrow. Why shouldn't she be allowed in there, really?
Briar stands there, wanting to step forwards but also feeling hesitant. She thinks of her little brother telling her that it's a stupid idea, she thinks of the bad feeling in her stomach, but then, she thinks of her grandpa, the prick that won't let her see the twins, who ripped her away from her own father, and she thinks, fuck it.
With a determined expression on her face, she makes her way down the hallway, to the room.
Immediately she gets a bad feeling, but what's the worst that'll happen? Her grandpa will tell her off. Big deal. She spent almost every lunchtime getting told off by Madame Maxime, she can handle another hour of You need to stop misbehaving, Briar, blah blah blah. She knows that Livvy will call her an idiot, but what's new? That's how their friendship works. Briar fucks up and Livvy calls her a dumbass. He's used to her now, especially after an entire year of walking into breakfast or lunch or dinner and finding out that, yes, his sister did in fact turn an entire floor into a swamp, or lava, or a lake frozen over, or into a strange dimension with no gravity (Madame Maxime was impressed with that one.) He's used it, she's used to it. And, besides, it's going to eat away Briar until she does it, so why not? What does she have to lose, really? The worst has happened to her. Everything's up from here.
Briar looks through the keyhole, but weirdly enough, the room seems to be empty. She tries the door, and it's unlocked? She finds that weird. She would've thought that the room would've been locked. Her grandpa would do that, she knows it. He always locks his office, so surely, he'd do the same with the room that he's banned everyone from going into?
Her stomach fills with dread as she steps into the room. She can hear her inner eye warning her, telling her be careful, but she tries to ignore it, thinking, the worst has already happened. She begins to look around, and the room's a mess. It smells like something's rotting in here, and sure enough, the couple of plates on the dresser have food rotting on them. She looks around at everything else, and she thinks, there is no way in hell that Grandma would live in this pigsty.
And then, she spots the clothes.
In the corner, there's a pile of dirty clothes, and instantly Briar thinks they look like prison uniform. The black and white stripes, the same ones as all of the pictures of Azkaban. A newspaper clipping is sitting on the bedside table, as if someone wanted to preserve it. Briar looks at it, and it's the article about her uncle Barty, how he died before the summer. She glances back at the outfit that must be a prison uniform, and then back at the newspaper clipping, placed as if someone's proud, as if someone wants to show it off...
As if her uncle escaped, and he's ecstatic about it.
Briar feels the whole world stop, her heart beating faster. Her uncle has been in this house, all this time. Barty Crouch Jr. is alive. Barty Crouch Jr. — the man that tortured and killed so many people in the name of Voldemort — escaped from Azkaban. And Briar, for the past month, has been under the same roof as him.
She feels her senses rushing back to her, and she moves to get out of the room, to get out of this house, but she sees a piece of parchment, sitting on top of the duvet.
Father,
I suppose your Imperius Curse stopped working, didn't it? And you cannot even stop me, because you cannot tell the Ministry that I am out of Azkaban, because you'll incriminate yourself. You deserve it. I hope your two new children realise the truth about you before it's too late.
Your youngest
And then she sees the sentence at the bottom.
Briar and Livvy, if you see this, get out of this house as quickly as you can. Merlin only knows what that man would do to you.
— Your Uncle Barty
She doesn't know how to react. The world skids to a halt; Briar stares at her uncle's warning in shock. This monster of a man is warning them? This man, who has tortured and killed people, sees his father, Briar and Livvy's grandpa, as something to warn them about. Briar's panic and fear turns its head on her grandpa, because this makes no sense. Her grandpa used an Unforgiveable Curse, trapping his youngest son in this room. She feels as if everything she thought about her grandpa is wrong. Like, sure, for months now she's known he hasn't been truthful — what with how he covered up the situation with her father — but this is a whole new level. Her grandfather broke Uncle Barty out of Azkaban, and then trapped him again, when he thought he'd be free?
Briar comes to her senses, as she hears her inner eye start to count down. She grabs the letter, her hands shaking, and she bolts out of the room. She doesn't close the door like she left it, she just runs. She runs to Livvy's room, bursting in and pushing the parchment into his face. Her heart's beating, and she's in a wild panic, her inner eye counting down the seconds until their grandfather returns.
"We need to get out," says Briar.
"What?" says Livvy.
"He broke out Uncle Barty, he used an Unforgiveable Curse to trap him here — what if he does that to us?" says Briar. "We can't stay here, Livvy, we're in danger—" Briar suddenly has an image of her grandfather finding out what she is, and her heart stops in fright. What would he do if he found that out, considering the way he hates her dad because he's that, too? It would be humiliation for him, if anyone found out that Barty Crouch, the man that put most of the werewolf laws in place, has one for a granddaughter. She looks up at her little brother, tears gathering in her eyes at the thought of what their grandfather would do to her, if he knew the truth. "I don't think we're safe, Liv — look what Uncle Barty says! He knows what Grandpa's like, he's warning us! If—If it's not safe for him, it's not safe for us, either."
Briar thinks, it's not safe for someone like me.
Her brother goes quiet for a moment.
"Where can we go?" he says.
Without thinking, Briar goes, "Dad."
"What?"
"Look, get everything you need, and I'll tell you when we get there," says Briar. Her inner eye is counting down to when their grandpa returns. "We've got thirty minutes to get out of here. If it's not safe for Uncle Barty, it's not safe for us. We need to leave."
Livvy looks up at his big sister, at the panicked look on her face, and he glances back at the letter, before nodding. The same fear seems to be settling in as he gets to his feet, most of his stuff for school still in his trunk. Briar leaves him as he's shoving the contents of his wardrobe into his trunk, and she tells him to lock the door and she'll get him. He says over his shoulder that he will.
The next few minutes hurl past: one second, Briar's throwing everything back into her trunk, thankful that her trunk's been enchanted to be bigger on the inside, allowing her to throw clothes in, still attached to the hanger. And the next, she's getting her brother downstairs, into the living room, thinking, I can't let him live here, we don't know what Grandpa's actually like, we've never known, we've never known... He took us from Dad because he fucked up his own children, he wanted a successful lineage... He made us terrified of werewolves... He forced us to move schools, to leave the country, when there was a chance of us meeting Dad and us finding out the truth... And then... And then all this time, he's been housing a Death Eater in this house... He's been using an Unforgiveable Curse on a Death Eater...
She breathes a sigh of relief as Livvy disappears through the Floo Network, most of her worry leaving with him. He's safe, he's fine. She knows she's scared, because of what's going to happen if her grandpa learns of her secret, but also, she knows she can handle it. She can put up a fight. When the going gets tough, you get tougher — and the worst has already happened to her, she can keep on fighting if she fucking has to. But Livvy? She isn't letting her baby brother stay here, not if there's been their uncle trapped here — not if their uncle, a Death Eater, was in such terrible conditions that he warned them. She isn't letting her baby brother stay here. She's looking after him until the end.
She steps into the fireplace, about to grab the Floo powder...
But then she hears a familiar crack.
Briar freezes. But her grandpa is already standing there, in the hallway, and the door to the living room is wide open. He looks at Briar, his brows furrowing.
"What are you doing?" he asks.
And here, Briar feels the world slow down again, but in a completely different way: this time, Briar sees the possibilities of the next few minutes, what could happen depending on what she says. If she says, Oh, I'm going to Fleur's, and leaves without a word, her grandpa will become angry, verging on furious, when he finds out the truth. He'll tell the Ministry his grandchildren have been taken by their father, an awful werewolf that he saved them from years ago. If she says, I'm not living here, I'm leaving, the same will happen, only, she can see the use of Imperius...
But, the other option is this: I know the truth, and if you bring me or Livvy back here, or if you ever speak to us again, I'll tell the Ministry what you have done. And the result of it is this: her grandpa acts like he doesn't know what she means, and she shows him the letter, and she repeats, I will tell the Ministry if you ever speak to us again. And he looks shocked, but Briar doesn't care.
"If you leave, you'll be ruining your life," says Barty.
Briar thinks back to last summer, to how proud he sounded when he talked about his conversation with Greyback. How her grandfather bragged about all of the nasty things he said to Greyback... How that very night, Briar was attacked because of it.
"You've already done that," she says, and with that, she drops the Floo powder at her feet, squeezing her eyes shut, seeing the insides, the guts, of her family home for the last time...
Well, it isn't her family home, is it? Her family home is a pretty cottage in the country, right on the outskirts of a village. Apparently her Grandad Lyall enchanted the flowers outside so that they'd never wilt... Her family home isn't a cold house with bedrooms locked because the first batch of Crouch kids are dead. Her family home isn't the Crouch house, and it's never going to be, not anymore.
As Briar appears at her new home, she has a thought.
I think a name change is in order...?
is briar lupin BACK? read more to find out!
lol yeah so..... i basically wimped out of a lot of ideas for this chapter because i didn't know if that was the direction i wanted this to take but..... this opens new ideas and makes things more interesting also there's a whole fucking story about friar kissing so obviously it isn't going to ruin "the build up" because (a) it's already happened and (b) it'll be different when it's the first proper proper kiss sooooo yeah k cool
i hope you enjoyed, and let me know what you thought!! :-)