A Muggle for a Match
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| xxx | The week before Lottie left for her third year at Hogwarts, Louis came home. It had been a brief, unceremonious homecoming. The Winfield parents had wordlessly returned from their various trips, and a day later Louis had appeared at their front door with a small suitcase of clothes and a stack of probably-important books. Their mother had embraced him firmly and doted him for spending so much time away from his family. Their father had given him a solid pat on the shoulder and mumbled, “At least one of you is doing something.” Lottie had watched these exchanges from the bottom of the staircase, fingers curled around the banister and eyes roaming cautiously over the mismatched collection of white and brown hair. From behind her, Ethel’s scattered footsteps stomped down the stairs and led her right to Louis, who wrapped his arms around her with something akin to relief. Francis came shortly after, his footsteps much softer and more hesitant. Lottie had jumped in surprise when the smaller boy appeared next to her, seemingly just as withdrawn from the strange meeting. Lottie opened her mouth to say something to him, then shut it just as quickly. Something vile swelled in her gut. Louis, who had been wrapped up in a one-sided ramble with Ethel, finally took notice of the two lonesome figures tucked away from the group. He gently and methodically brought Ethel to silence and made his way over, attempting a soft smile. Lottie’s frown only deepened. Francis blinked owlishly. “No hug?” Louis asked, an attempt at lightening the strange tension between the three. Lottie furrowed her brows. A question was beginning to form in her head. She thought of what her sister had said earlier in the year, when she had snuck away to live with her for a few weeks. “Engaged?” All the sound in the room was suddenly sucked out. Louis tensed where he stood, his eyes immediately flying over to their parents, who were both quickly growing expressions of hostile puzzlement. In one quick motion, Louis grabbed Lottie by the arm and hauled her off to the dining room, shutting the door behind him. Hand still curled around her arm, he demanded, “Who told you?” Two options became immediately apparent to Lottie. Clearly, Louis had only told Anadil about this newly formed engagement, but revealing that Anadil had told Lottie would also reveal that Lottie hadn’t cut contact with their estranged sister. But then, Lottie supposed Louis hadn’t either. The second option was to feign ignorance. She couldn’t place blame on her parents, as it seemed they hadn’t known about the engagement, but she could deflect. Redirect the blame. Accuse him of keeping secrets. Lottie wasn’t much accustomed to blackmail, but she could also see the walls of her carefully constructed palace of lies slowly beginning to crumble. In the end, all she could think to say was, “Why didn’t you tell me?” Me. Not mother, not father, but Lottie. She had never been much close to Louis, at least not as much as Ethel or Anadil, but she had thought that all those years of late evenings flying brooms in the fields behind their house and even later nights turning to mornings as Lottie and Louis listened to Quidditch matches on the family radio had created some sort of bond between them. At least, a bond greater than these petty secrets. Louis was quiet for a moment, some of the gusto leaving him. He exhaled slowly, rubbing his temples and stepping back. He flopped onto the nearest chair and covered his hand with his face. Lottie continued to stand before him, unwavering. “Because, Lottie…” Louis fought for the words, a stream of helpless noise drawing from his throat. He gave another long sigh and stuffed his face lower into his palms. “Because she’s a muggle.” Lottie… hadn’t expected that. She blinked, trying to make sense of his words. A few more things became apparent to her. A few more windows opened. She pulled out the chair across from him and slowly lowered herself into it, her eyes never leaving his pathetic, defeated frame. “You’re kidding.” Lottie couldn’t believe it. All this time spent hiding her fascination with muggle culture, and Louis had been snogging some muggle broad while working for the ministry. “How did-” “If you don’t ask questions, I won’t ask how you know,” Louis cut in, eyes lifting to Lottie’s with meaning, “Even though there’s only one way.” Lottie studied him for a moment. For years, she had always considered Louis a chip off the old block, harboring the same disdain for muggles that her parents had tried their very best to nail into each of their children. Unsuccessfully, of course. Anadil had run away to join the muggles, Lottie had dedicated hours to studying them, Ethel had her little street gang of muggle kids, and Louis had a ring on his finger likely made by muggles and devoted to a muggle. Francis was the last of the pure Winfield children. Supposedly. They sat in silence for a while, the weight of their shared secrets suddenly meeting keeping them glued to their seats. Louis stared down at his hands as though his words were sand, and he had just watched them slip through the cracks and spill out everywhere. Both feared that if they opened their mouths, everything would flood out. So they sat in their silence, fiddling their thumbs and trying to erase the last half-hour from their minds. Eventually, a knock came at the door. The two of them froze, eyes shooting towards the large closed door as though it would suddenly blast open. When another knock never came, Lottie hesitantly stood and walked towards the door, her fingers curling tentatively around the knob. When she pushed it open, she was surprised to find Francis standing outside, little Eugene clutching onto his pinky and leaning against him for support. A great puff of white hair curled around his head, nearly covering his eyes. Lottie almost immediately swept him into her arms, then peered curiously at Francis. “Eugene,” Francis looked into the little boy’s eyes, something light and youthful dancing in his irises. “What sound does a cow make?” Eugene immediately responded with a long, quiet “moooo”, to which Louis responded with a surprised laugh. It occurred suddenly to Lottie that the older boy had yet to meet this new, grown version of Eugene. Hesitantly, she turned back to him, still holding on tight to Eugene. The two met eyes cautiously, a formerly unfound warmth filling the air between them. Louis nodded, subtly, barely a twitch. Lottie carefully placed Eugene on the floor, and watched as he slowly stumbled his way over towards his older brother. Louis swept him into his arms, and suddenly everything was okay. It seemed that, though Anadil was miles and miles away, she was still and probably would forever be the glue keeping this family together. | xxx |
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A Muggle for a Match |  |
| ✦"You better start walking. Love takes miles."✦ STA 8 │ EVA 8 │ STR 6 │ WIS 6 │ ARC 6 │ ACC 7 |