Fire In The Kitchen
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| april fourteen |outfit | xxx | xxx | english| welsh |
1,518.200|location ferndale, wales. continued a day after this solo!
xxℬrookline Quinn screamed. She screamed for all that was worth. That traitor! He - what - why the hell would he do that??
That was the last thing she remembered before everything turned black as coal.
She shot up from her sleep, drenched with sweat, her heart beating wildly. She thought it would burst out of her chest. Breathing heavily, she laid her head back on her pillow, her mind whirling from the last moments of the dream.
Dread popped in her stomach, her fingers shivering. Nightmares were horrid. If it were real, she would have passed out from shock. Nightmares always felt so real, her witty brain making everything feel as though someone’s was watching her or her family members’ voices that always seemed startling bona fide.
Calm down, Brooke, calm down, Brookline reminded herself, it was just a dream.
It didn’t feel like a dream. It felt authentic.
All I could smell was smoke, she started in her mind, as he ran away.
The lad ran away without a single word, and my whole world cracked. Just like an earthquake. The door was wide open, and I tried to grab the door knob before I fell through the crack.
Red hot lava greeted me at the bottom, flames licking up my legs, and I gasped, trying to grip on to the ledge. My knuckles were turning white, and sweat slipped down my brow.
I saw the figure, and knew instantly who it was.
“Please! Help me!” I had cried. I cried again, and gasped as my fingers graveled for the edge, when parts of the floor broke loose.
The shape approached and stopped. My cries did nothing. He started up, and then bent down. I saw his face, and gaped. The figure grabbed my hands, as if he would pull me up, but he didn’t. He dropped me. Into the fire. Tears rolled down my cheeks.
I shrieked, and darkness washed into my vision.
Heart still racing, sobs escaped the Ravenclaw girl, and she knew who the figure was. She twisted around to face her pillow, and screamed right into it. Cursing all the while, and calling her father naughty names.
Yeah.. that’s right.. It's what you deserve. You left me! TWICE.
It only made tears roll down her face, faster. The voices started up again, in the butt crack of dawn.
Of course it did. Of course her father left. Of course she heard her siblings cry all night. Of course her mother was back in her room. Of course she wasn’t at Hogwarts. Of course her sister made her come for Easter holiday. Of course EVERYTHING just had to turn upside again when she was starting to get better! Of course she had to have this accursed NIGHTMARE!!
Too bad, so sad. You’re just gonna learn how to deal with it, the voices shot in her ears, all the voices combined to make one.
Brookline turned around in sitting position, yanking her covers aside, and sprung right out of bed. A toxic glare showed that she has had enough. She changed out of her night clothes, and changed for a white sweater and a pair of bleached light blue Jeans.
She stormed out of her room, twisting her tangled hair into a messy bun. She didn’t care, like most days. She stormed downstairs, and into the kitchen where she found Lizy, cooking porridge on the stove.
“Mornin’ Brookie,” The former Slytherin smiled cheerfully, as she glanced from the stove.
Brookline scoffed, jumping to sit on a stool. “How are you so cheerful?” She spat, her tongue venomous as a snake. “Dad just left us again. How are you so happy?” She looked at Lizy, her eyes narrowed.
Lizy’s expression immediately softened, and her green emerald eyes filled with tears. She set the wooden spoon down, and turned to the table. “Hey. Look, Brookline, I’m sorry. I never knew Chase would do that. I thought he would just give you a ride, and drop you off here.”
“Mhm. Like that would ever be right.” Brookline crossed her arms, her tone sarcastic. “Uh, yeah, no. He acted like he would be the Dad I’ve wanted but then of course! He leaves me again! Yeah, and you what else happens? The universe thinks it is okay to laugh at me!”
Dark blue eyes widened as her fingers did their little hand motions, and every part of Brookline’s being shook. Trembled. She shivered as if a sharp breeze of winter’s air blew in.
“Well, I don’t what would make you feel better, but, hey, would you stir the porridge for me? Make sure it’s not too hot.” Lizy smiled weakly as she handed the spoon over to the Ravenclaw. “I have to wake your siblings and your mother up from their slumber. Don’t burn it.”
She sounds like their mother, Brookline realized. She took a deep breath, and took the spoon from her sister. Hauling herself off the stool, she watched as Lizy walked to the landing.
Brookline shook her head slightly as she walked to the stove. She dipped the spoon inside the bowl of the pot, gave the knob a quick twist, and the burner increased. Twirling the spoon around the pot, she realized she hadn’t cooked like this before. Her mother or Lizy would always make her and her siblings’ food for her. She carelessly turned the heat up, thinking the more heat the better.
It started getting warm. Kinda like her dream. Brookline started, and backed up from the vessel.
“Is the heat from the burner?” She ducked, glancing at the flames sprouting from the warmer, underneath the pot. “Yeah. Yeah, it is. So what do I do now?”
She looked back into the pot, and noticed the growing blackish-brownish bits in the grits. “Eww! Eww! What the hell is that?” Brookline cried, and stuck her hands in the stewpot, trying to get the black stain-like bits out of the porridge. The pot stung her hands.
“Ouch!” Brookline would call as she quickly brought her fingers back, but as she did, her wrist would catch the rim of the stewpot, and the pot and its continents clattered to the floor. Tears stuck at her eyes, she shrieked as hot porridge flung onto her Jeans and arms. But she ignored the pain. She ignored the hot, angry blisters growing on her hands.
Brookline grabbed rags from all sorts of different places in the Quinn kitchen, and started to clean up the horrid, hot oatmeal.
Oh my Merlin, the one time Winmy and Coobey isn’t here! Oh, God, please! She thought, as she scrubbed the floor. Both house elfs were fast asleep, in their quarters, as it was their “day off”.
As she threw dirty rags behind her, Brookline didn’t realize she had thrown a old schmatte with clumps of porridge bits, right on the gas burner. She hadn’t turned it off, yet, and the whole rag went up in flames. She had heard the crackling sound, and gasped, her fingers trembling. Turning around, she saw the stove rise with fire.
“Fire!” Brookline screeched, her eyes dry from the heat. She coughed, her lungs bursting as smoke rose from the stove and took a path out the window. “Mum! Lizy! Guys? There’s a fire! Winmy!”
Sobs erupted from her as pain erupted from her. She looked at her red hands, mumbling, “This is the end. Isn’t it?”
As the fire grew and grew, Brookline backed up against the sink, her blue irises wide and scared. Soon she heard a voice.
“Stay right there, Brookline!” Her mother called, as she drew out her wand. Wimny and Coobey were with her too.
“Mum. She’s by the sink. You just can’t see her because of the smoke,” Lizy offered, her form behind Amy. “Go on the floor! Brookline, crawl on the floor. It’s the only way out.”
The young Quinn’s blue eyes sparked, because why didn’t she think of that? She coughed as she dropped to the floor, and crawled under the smoke. By the time, she reached Lizy, her mother had already extinguished the fire.
“Brookline! What were you thinking?” Amy sank to the ground, crushing her daughter with a huge bear hug, tears running down her gaunt cheeks. The mother had obviously had been crying before.
“I - I’m so so sorry, Mum! It’s all my f - fault.” Sobs interrupted Brookline, as she explained. “I - I. Lizy told me to stir, and I turned the burner too high, burning the porridge.... T - then spilled everything in the pot, and the pot itself, so I got something to clean it up with. And I threw the rag on the stove because I forgot to turn it... o - off - off..” Her tears only grew louder as she talked.
song is burning down by alex warren
▹ ▹ ❝Can't see the knife when you're too close, too close. I'd wipe the dirt off your name with the shirt off my back. Every chance to make amends instead you got drunk on bitterness... Used to tell me you'd pray for me. You were praying for my downfall. You were digging a grave for me. We were sharing the same four walls.❞ ◃ ◃
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Last edited by Brookline Quinn on 9 Sep 2025, 01:41, edited 1 time in total.
Fire In The Kitchen
☪︎
| april fourteen |outfit | xxx | xxx | english| welsh |
1,497.200|location ferndale, wales. continued a day after this solo!
xxℬrookline sobbed, as she remembered the pungent smell, the smoldering fire, the black porridge. She was at the dining room table, head in her arms, as she waited for her mother to brew that potion. Wasn’t it called Burn Healing Paste, or something like that? Whatever. She had more important things on her mind.
One: SHE ALMOST MADE THE WHOLE HOUSE CATCH ON FIRE.
Two: SHE ALMOST ENDANGERED HER SIBLINGS.
Three: WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED IF THEY WERE MUGGLES??
Four: SHE WON’T EVER COOK AGAIN.
Five: WHAT WAS THE HELL WAS SHE THINKING?
Okay, okay. Deep breath. She needed to stop screaming at herself internally so she could calm down.
“Brookline. Winnie would like to talk with you. Would you be okay with that?” Amy glanced over at her daughter’s shivering form. After she had listened to Brookline’s sob story, she told Lizy to go and fetch the siblings and send then over to the Jamesons. Brookline looked up to her mother at the stove, and instead saw flames. She stumbled back from the table, her chair falling to the side, and she remembered the smoke, the heat by her eyes, the flames eating at the stove. It was all so vivid.
Tears ran down her gaunt cheeks as the figure of her mother approached her. “Brooke? Brooke!” Amy’s eyes were wide as fear, as she tried to shake Brookline awake. “There’s no more fire. It’s all right. Everything is.”
Everything is not. Everything was starting to get better and then he had to leave again!
Brookline stood up, her eyes heavily guarded. “Sure. I’ll pop over there once my burns heal.”
“When you do, do you mind bringing the kids back with you?”
“I don’t mind.”
Amy gave her daughter a weak, watery smile, tears in her own eyes. “Okay. Hope you feel better. Oh! Speaking of which, let me finish that paste.”
Minutes later, Brookline found herself with thick, gross, orange paste splattered all over her burns. It smelt odd, but it was effective. She took a trip upstairs to look at old photos, of her, Winnie and Peter. Very few were moving, while the rest were unfortunately but perfectly still. She preferred the moving ones. There was one which was her favorite. Winnie had her eyes shut in laughter, Peter was winking and laughing at a joke Brookline had told.Reducio
Shaking her head, Brookline made her way to her friend’s house and knocked on the door. The door immediately opened, and it was unsurprising, Winnie.
Once caught sight of Brookline’s dark eyes and the paste on her hands, Winnie tackled Brookline and gave her a huge hug. “Oh my stars. You’re here! Please don’t leave me, Rookie. That would be the worst thing. And it’s okay, your father was a bastard, but he shouldn’t have left you. You’re so much more than simply amazing, if he couldn’t see it, then he isn’t worthy for you. Honestly I rather prefer him as a human being that hasn’t seen light, yet. Or perhaps as a teenager, when he let your mother into his heart. It might have that something sqaushed all the love and light in his life. Oh, look at me, now. Rambling on! Come, come inside, we will talk in the sitting room. Shall I fetch your siblings and have Lizy bring them home?”
Brookline numbly nodded as she thought, Why did you bring that up? She took a step inside the house, when Winnie barrowed up the steps, her Mary Janes pleasantly tapping every step. The Ravenclaw starting hearing shrieks and hollars. Chase and Cash. The screaming duo. She rolled her eyes, and sat on the first step, as she waited for Winnie.
She suddenly squeezed her eyes shut, and Brookline found herself in a tranquil, and quiet location. She couldn’t see color, but she didn't hear anything. It was quite peaceful if she was being honest. And then came the elephants down the stairs. Eyes popping back open, she twisted around, and Cash was first, about to trip on the third step.
“Oh careful, Cash! Careful!” Brookline called, her blue irises widened in fear as Cash just nearly eluded a face-first fall on the stairs.
“Brookie! Brooke!” Cash practically pounced into his sister’s arms, with Chase right behind in his heels.
“Line! Are you okay? How are your burns?” Chase Junior glanced at Brookline’s arm, and the curious boy started to mess with the thick paste.
“Hi guys. And, Chase, I’m fine.” How was she supposed to tell her siblings that they could have died today if their mother hadn’t gotten to the kitchen in time?
“Hey!” Marie dragged Chase away from Brookline’s arms. “I’m quite sure that Brooke would not like that.” Brookline gave a weak smile to Marie, and gave her silent hug, Cash still squeezing her middle. The little boy released his grip, and Brookline set him down, receiving a sweet grin from her baby brother that almost made her cry.
Minnie literally bear-hugged her sister, her voice soft as she stated, “I’m so glad that we’re pure-bloods and that Mum’s a witch.”
Last was Lizy, followed by Winnie, and Lynn, her older sister. Once Lizy caught sight of Brookline, a little pep in her step was realized, and before the Ravenclaw knew it, the ex-Slytherin had her arms wrapped Brookline. She could hear her older sister’s quiet sobs, and her white sweatshirt was slightly wet. She started crying a bit too, and it took a little while for Lizy to stop crying.
Once all the goodbyes were said, Brookline’s siblings were back with her mother, and she was up in Winnie’s room.
“So.... besides this morning, how have you been? And remember, you can tell ne absolutely anything. I’m your best friend, and I just won’t walk away. I will probably hug you or cry with you, or try to offer you some piece of advise. And don’t try to lie about your feelings. I always know when you lie. It’s always obvious.” Winnie squeezed Brookline’s hand, as they laid down comfortably on her best friend’s four poster bed. Brookline winced a little bit, as her hands would be a little sore, the burns were taking a while to heal. Winnie instantly let go of her friend’s hand. “Sorry... Is that okay?” She held the Welsh girl’s hand, in both of her hands, just didn’t squeeze it. Brookline nodded, her tongue a bit tied up.
“Okay... I’m probably going to start crying.”
“Of course that’s okay! Today is a time to vent and cry at the same time. No-one is going to judge you, no-one should anyway. You are amazing and if anyone would ever judge you, they would have to get through me first.”
“W - when he left, everything just broke.” Brookline hadn’t wanted to use her father’s name. “School and everything became more than a simple weight on my shoulders. I found myself crying a lot more than usual, and there were these voices telling me all about my weaknesses and everything. It was horrible, and it felt like the universe kept laughing at me, and I felt like a prisoner. Sometimes it felt like he was laughing at me. I was starting to get better, because there were my friends, who kept helping me and the books immersed myself into. Made me forgot, sometimes, what had happened to me.
“Then, uh, yesterday. He told me he loved me, and that it was his fault that he left and then basically he just left me. He simply left me. It was because of cowardice, I think. I think he didn't wanna mess up again, and didn’t want me to feel pain any longer, but that hurt more than it did last time. Then, today! All I was trying to do was stir that porridge and make it right. I ended up almost blowing the damn house up.
“I had a horrible dream, last night, about him. He ran away, and then the kitchen floor cracked open. I grabbed the door handle, and tried to hold on. There was lava and fire at the bottom, and he came back. I thought he would help me and pull me up... But he didn’t... Instead he threw me in! Winnie, he threw me it! My own father!” By then, Brookline was crying. Sobbing, even, as the nightmare kept playing in her mind. over and over, and over and over again.
“Shhhh, Rook, everything is okay. It was just a dream. Just a dream. Now, please, try to go to sleep. It’ll help you best. Oh, and, also, thank you for telling me. I’m really glad you told me that. But if anything’s gonna help you now, it’s sleep.” Winnie brought the duvet over her friend, and left her alone after she saw Brookline’s strained nod.
Brookline closed her eyes, and she felt content, cared for. This was the first time she felt this feeling on a long time.
▹ ▹ ❝Can't see the knife when you're too close, too close. I'd wipe the dirt off your name with the shirt off my back. Every chance to make amends instead you got drunk on bitterness... Used to tell me you'd pray for me. You were praying for my downfall. You were digging a grave for me. We were sharing the same four walls.❞ ◃ ◃
song is burning down by alex warrenocc note: Winnie’s sister’s name may have been mentioned in an early thread in first year (most likely have because I remember it), but I have been looking for a while and cannot find it, so I will just use the name, Lynn.
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