Author's Note:

After over a year, there is something new from me. I am terribly sorry for the long delay, it's been a crazy year. Got my master's degree, wrote quite a lot actually after that, but when getting unemplyoed after that, stumbled right into a depressive phase which is, among everything else, not great to revise chapters or write new ones. But yeah, with the prospect of Corona, applying for jobs is off anyway and I can spend some more time on proper writing for the time being. I hope I can put online some more chapers from this fanficition and the Walking Dead fanfiction in the next few weeks and I also hope that you enjoy this. Stay safe and take care!

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“Muuuuuuum, do I really need to wear this?”

“Come on sweetheart, it’s only every once in a while.”

“It’s at least four times a year!”

“There’s worse than that. Now hold still so I can…”

“Ouch!”

“I told you to hold still…”

Felicity tried to hold still and relax while looking into the mirror and watch her mother pluck out each hair on her head. At least that’s what it felt like to her when her mother tried to get Felicity’s hair in shape before adding a hairbow. That had been preceded by the fight over what Felicity was supposed to wear. Her mother had insisted on her wearing a frilly green dress with a red waistband that ended in a bow as well. Felicity had refused to put it on. However, as she was only eleven years old, her mother had won that fight, of course.

Felicity and her parents were having teatime with the rest of the family today. Sure, that did not happen too often really, usually for Christmas, Easter, and maybe one or two Sundays a year. However, Felicity was among the youngest members of the rather large family. Only Neville was younger than her and he was the only one around her age. But being only eight years old, it felt like he was decades younger to Felicity. So, all she could do at those family gatherings was to bear the chatter of adults and hope there was at least delicious tea and/or cake.

It didn’t make things easier that, technically, she wasn’t really related with them.

She felt a final pull at her hair. In the mirror, she saw her mother attach the red bow in her black hair.

“Done”, Felicity’s mother gave a relieved sigh.

Oh dear, Felicity thought and pulled a face. It was not like she hated dresses. She just didn’t fancy too frilly ones, especially when she was forced to wear them for a bunch of people who didn’t really accept her in the family.

Her mother patted her shoulders. “Now put on your ballerinas and get to the living room. We’re going to leave any minute.” With that, she left Felicity alone in her room.

Felicity liked her room. It wasn’t too large, but she felt like it was really her room, other than the outfit she had to wear. A small bed, a messy desk, and the cupboard with a mirror attached to it, offering enough space for her clothes. The bookshelf contained several, well, books. Felicity loved reading, even novels from muggle authors. She had to admit that when writing, some of them were actually able to plant some magic in the world – although they had some misconceptions when writing about magic. A poster of the Holyhead Harpies was draped on the wall next to her bed. The window offered a good view on the courtyard, which she preferred over a view on the street. That was all, but that was all she needed.

Felicity blew raspberries. She could just put on some sneakers or boots, but she knew that her mother would send her right back anyway. Maybe even use a binding spell to attach her ballerinas to her feet for several days. Nothing Felicity would enjoy. So, she stepped to her wardrobe and grabbed a pair of black ballerinas. At least they were rather plain, without any bows. She put them on and left her room, getting to the living room.

She got there quickly. After all, they were just living in a rather small apartment in Leeds, not in a big mansion. With her father being a muggle, who was working for an insurance company, the flat couldn’t look too magic in case he had colleagues or clients or friends over. Her mother had to be careful when performing magic to keep the flat clean or when cooking and had to make sure that no muggles witnessed it. To Felicity, it seemed like her mother had got quite the hang of that, at least she hadn’t noticed anything going wrong in that regard yet.

Her parents were already waiting for her in the living room in front of the fireplace. Both of them were also dressed for the occasion, her mother wearing a white dress that was decorated with flowers. Felicity wondered if she felt as bad and uncomfortable in it as she did in her outfit.

Her father was wearing a black suit. Felicity was tempted to roll her eyes. Her father’s suit looked just too plain, even to her. The wizards in the family would be wearing dress robes which looked a lot fancier. Then again, Felicity knew that her father was not ashamed of who he was and although she might never tell him, she was proud that he didn’t care about the glances he’d get from those fancy-dressed other men. And she knew that, although he wasn’t a man of many words, he really loved her. Like her mother did. It showed as they smiled at her entering the room. That was the most important thing to Felicity, after all.

Her mother looked at the clock on the wall.

“We better hurry, we’re a bit late.”

With that, she stepped to the fireplace and picked up a pot. Felicity sighed. Portkeys were too complicated to register at the ministry and apparition with three people was too much for her mother (aside from the fact that her father always threw up after apparating). Broomsticks were no option too with her father being a muggle. So, floo powder was the only reasonable way of transportation to Tibberton near Gloucester, where the family gatherings used to take place. That was where her grand-aunt Augusta lived with Neville, and they were the ones with the most space for those meetings. They were living in a rather large mansion.

Basically, Felicity didn’t fancy either of those ways of transportation. All of them were rather messy and each of them had its disadvantages. Riding on broomsticks took its time and, depending on the weather, could get quite cold eventually. The biggest issue of apparition was that splinching could occur if something went wrong, meaning that the person apparating left behind body parts. Felicity’s mother, who worked in the Ministry of Magic, in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, had witnessed several of those incidents. Her job was to alter the memories of muggles who had seen what had happened. She didn’t want anyone from her family to suffer from splintering. In combination with her being cautious when performing magic, that resulted in them avoiding apparition. Aside from that, Felicity hadn’t learned to control magic yet and was years away from figuring out how to apparate on her own. If it wasn’t for that danger, just appearing in one place seemed pretty cool for Felicity, but she hadn’t experienced apparating at all yet.

Felicity’s father was the first one to grab a handful of floo powder from the pot. He was the only non-magic person, and it was easier to fix anything that might go wrong with him going first. He stepped to the fireplace and tossed the floo powder into the flames which immediately turned green. He stepped into the fire which did no harm to him.

“Longbottom House, Tibberton”, he spoke very clearly, and then vanished.

“I think that went well”, Felicity’s mother said while looking into the flames which had turned red and orange again. Felicity didn’t know if she was talking to her or to herself. Her mother then turned to her.

“Well, your turn, honey pie”, she said and offered her the pot with the floo powder. Felicity grabbed a handful of the glittering powder.

“Remember, pronounce it carefully and be also careful with your elbows…”, her mother started the usual lecture about floo powder. But Felicity interrupted her.

“I know, mum, it’s not the first time I’m using floo powder.”

“Well, maybe, but that doesn’t mean that nothing could go wrong this time.”

Felicity rolled her eyes but didn’t respond. Instead, she stepped to the fireplace and tossed the floo powder into the flames. She stepped into the fire. She could feel a bit of warmth, but it was a rather pleasant temperature. Felicity had locked her jaws, knowing that getting ash in her mouth might cause problems.

“Longbottom House, Tibberton”, she said, and she was torn into the chimney. At least that was what it felt like. She spit out the ash she had got in her mouth while saying those three words. She was revolving around herself through the floo network. She pressed her arms against her body to keep them from being hurt. A roaring noise engulfed her, just like the green flames. In between, she could catch a glimpse of the other fireplaces connected to the network and the rooms beyond, for a part of a second each.

She felt a tingling in her stomach, and, knowing what it indicated, stretched out her arms a bit to make a more elegant arrival than just being spat out by the Longbottoms’ fireplace. She made a little somersault and immediately stood up and looked around. That was the Longbottoms’ house indeed. Her father had also arrived already and had made place for her. He grabbed her by the shoulders and quickly got her out of the way to make place for her mother too.

“I can move on my own, you know?”, she asked him.

“I know, honey”, her father replied absent-mindedly.

In that moment, the flames in the fireplace roared and turned green before spitting out Felicity’s mother, who landed there elegantly. She looked around quickly and got to Felicity and her father, who were standing at the wall.

“Did all go well?”, she asked and, before any of them could reply, took out her wand. “Here, you’re covered in ash”, she said and with that she moved the wand all over Felicity and her father to remove the ash off them before cleaning up herself.

After the cleaning was finished, they had a quick look around. It was a nice room. Not too large, but two armchairs were draped around next to each other in front of the fireplace. Only a small table was standing between them. Felicity knew that her grand aunt used this room for the most part as an arrival room for guests using floo powder. That way, people could get cleaned up in private and not interrupt a party, which would take place on the upper floors. Still, if you had a fireplace, it would be a waste to not have chairs in front of it.

“Well, up and at them”, Felicity’s mother suggested and walked across the room toward the only door. Felicity and her father followed her to the corridor which led them to the stair and also the exit door. Felicity’s mother walked upstairs, with Felicity following her and her father at the rear. The wooden staircase groaned with every step they took, but the groaning soon got drowned out by the chatter from upstairs that grew louder with each step.

As they reached the first upper floor, they went left, leaving the staircase and entered through a massive wooden door, decorated with carvings showing the ancient scene of wizards and witches defending a castle against trolls. As was usual for magic pictures, the carved figures were moving and gave a quite realistic impression on how that battle was going, with the wizards and witches being smart enough to finally defeat the trolls.

Felicity didn’t have a lot of time to admire the woodcarvings though. Her mother waved her wand and the door opened easily like it was the easiest thing in the world. Felicity couldn’t wait to go to Hogwarts and learn that kind of magic for herself.

The door gave way to a large hall, almost as large as the flat of Felicity’s family. A massive table was set in the middle of it, with around twenty wizards and witches – predominantly elderly ones – sitting around it. They were – as expected – dressed in overly fancy and partially frilly robes and dresses. The table was overloaded with tons of cakes and cookies and old-fashioned teapots and cups.

On their arrival, a tall, elderly woman noticed them and stood up to welcome them. “Lisa! Vincent!”, she exclaimed and approached them. She was wearing a long, green dress and a hat with a stuffed vulture on it. She was also carrying a bright red handbag. It was a warm day in May, so she wasn’t wearing the scarf made of fox fur which she used to wear in winter. She gave both of Felicity’s parents a firm handshake.

“Hello Augusta”, they said.

“And that must be Felicity”, she added when facing toward her and held out her hand. Felicity timidly offered her hand only to find it squeezed in a firm handshake as well. She wasn’t sure if she heard her hand crack but was glad once it was released anyway. Her grand aunt did this to everyone, but Felicity actually liked her for not treating her any different than other people, unless other family members.

“My, my, haven’t you grown into a young lady”, Felicity’s grand aunt added, looking at Felicity’s dress. Felicity tended to disagree. For her, her outfit clearly was still rather childish than lady-like, but instead of verbalizing her objection, she just smiled and nodded.

“Happy birthday, Augusta”, Felicity’s mother said and offered Augusta a small package. Felicity knew it contained another hat for her grand aunt.

“Oh, thank you, Lisa, that is kind of you.” Augusta took the package but didn’t want to open it, apparently. “Neville, Neville, where are you?”, she said instead and looked around for a moment. “Oh, there you are.”

A young boy approached them. He had a round face and blonde hair, having a bit of resemblance with Felicity’s mother. In fact, he resembled her more than Felicity did.

“Oh, hello Neville”, Felicity’s mother said.

Neville seemed a bit shocked for a moment, looked at Augusta, and then at the knees of Felicity’s mother. “Hello, Aunt Lisa”, he mumbled timidly.

“Take this and put it to the other presents, will you?”, Augusta said to him and gave him the package. He took it and carried it through the room to a pile of packages. He put it there clumsily – only to have one or two other packages fall to the floor.

“Oh Neville”, Augusta sighed and went to the pile to fix it, leaving Felicity’s family on their own. Felicity just noticed that her grand aunt went for a rant at Neville and felt sorry for him. Age difference or not, Felicity had a hunch that the reason for Neville’s clumsiness and his timidity was a lack of self-confidence. But being treated the way he was, not only by his grandmother but especially from the rest of his family, wouldn’t help him gain any confidence. It also didn’t help that he hadn’t shown any sign of magic so far. Most of the family feared that he was a squib, born into a family of wizards and witches, but not being able to perform magic himself. Not like his family hadn’t tried to make Neville perform magic. Felicity had overheard her parents once talking how his grand uncle Algie had shoved him into the sea in Blackpool, almost causing him to drown. She had a feeling that Neville’s potential magic was more important to family members like Algie than the actual person Neville.

Then again, it was not really her family. They were here because Felicity’s aunt Alice, the sister of her mother, was married to Frank Longbottom. They were Neville’s parents, but they were in a hospital, as far as Felicity knew. She didn’t know why they were there, nor had she ever met them at all because her mother would go visit them on her own, leaving Felicity at home with her father. She knew that her mother was a Prewett by birth, but that family had branched out a lot. A family gathering from that side might require the Great Hall of Hogwarts.

She didn’t know a lot of people of her father’s side of the family either. She knew they were muggles and that they mustn’t find out that the magic world existed, so they weren’t really invited to their place. Felicity herself was deemed a risk there, being at such a young age and not being able to control her magic yet. That was also why she was barely ever allowed to invite friends to her place. In each case, they were invited to the Longbottom family meetings, and they usually accepted in order to get that extended-family-sense and to keep in touch with the magic community aside from Felicity’s mother’s work in the Ministry.

Felicity and her family moved around the table looking for some vacant seats, smiling and greeting the people already sitting around with nods. Eventually, they found a few seats next to each other where they took place, Felicity in between of her parents. The two of them got pulled into conversations right away. The person sitting opposite of Felicity, a woman in her middle ages, didn’t take much notice of her, so she shrugged and took some of the cake and tea.

The afternoon went rather easy for a while. Felicity just overheard bits and pieces of the conservations around her. There were rumours that Millicent Bagnold, the Minister for Magic, would resign soon, being tired of the games for power in the Ministry. Felicity didn’t care a lot about that, though. Why would she care about politics?

The news that Britain had been chosen to hold the Quidditch World Cup in six years was old news, but Felicity eagerly listened to the talks about that, nonetheless. In six years, she would be 17 years old and right before her final year at Hogwarts. That might be THE opportunity to visit an event like that and she could barely wait for it.

Then of course there were talks about Harry Potter, the boy who defeated You-Know-Who. Felicity hadn’t learned a lot about that yet. That boy was about Neville’s age, as far as she knew, and almost three years younger than she was. It was hard to imagine for her that he was already so famous and had been since being an infant. But it also hit her that she’d be at Hogwarts with him for some years. Not like she had received her letter of acceptance yet, but still…

So far, Felicity had attended a school for muggles. It wouldn’t help her an awful lot, but her father had insisted she’d get some “solid school education” – for whatever that meant. He said that it’d be good for her to learn some general world knowledge and to not stay at home all day. She did like subjects like Arts and English, but in each Maths lesson she felt like her father wanted to torture her with forcing her to visit a regular school. Also, Sciences was really ridiculous to her, given how many “scientific rules” could just be mocked by any witch or wizard. Felicity would be happy to not have to deal with those subjects anymore once she was at Hogwarts.

This summer, she expected to get accepted for Hogwarts, Britain’s only school for young wizards and witches. There she’d learn to control her magic and to avoid incidents like the ones she had already caused, making her mother clean up the messes that had been created. Of course, those incidents included Felicity being very upset or in danger. Once at Hogwarts, she’d learn how to use her magic in reasonable ways and on her command.

At the gathering, Felicity stayed quiet for the most time, only talking when addressed by her parents. She had learnt that most adults didn’t like being interrupted by children. Although she didn’t consider herself a child anymore – after all, she was already eleven years old – she knew that adults had weird ideas on when someone was a child and when one was an adult. Felicity considered herself a good learner and didn’t want to cause any trouble, so she remained quiet. However, she did notice the cold looks shot in her direction every now and then…

“Mum, where is Neville?”, she asked her mother eventually. She had not seen him since their arrival and was getting a bit worried, knowing what it felt like to be treated like the family’s black sheep.

“Oh, I haven’t seen him in a while”, her mother replied. “He must be upstairs, getting a bit of a break from all these many people.” She was right, there were around 30 people in the room by now and it felt overcrowded for Felicity as well. “Why don’t you go and check in on him? I’m sure he likes that better than any old people doing so.”

Felicity smiled and nodded. She got off her chair and noticed that she felt a bit wobbly after having potentially one or two pieces of cake too many. She felt more stable after a few steps though, and so she crossed the room, exited through the door that lead to the staircase and went upstairs. On her own, she was small and light enough to not make the stairs groan.

She assumed that Neville was in his room on the second upper floor. Upon reaching it, she was about to approach the door, which was plainer than the one on the first floor. However, before she could open it, she heard voices from above.

“… I just couldn’t bear living in a house with that girl, leave alone raise her.”

“Yeah, me too, I just can’t understand them…”

Felicity hesitated. She was no fan of eavesdropping, but it seemed like those people really wanted to avoid being heard. And in her 11-year-long experience, it was worth eavesdropping on people who really didn’t want to be eavesdropped on.

She stepped away from the door and carefully took the first four steps on the stairs leading to the next floor to hear those people a bit better.
“They should have put her in an orphanage right away.”

“Yeah, I mean adopting a child is one thing. There were plenty of children up for adoption back then, but out of all those, they had to pick… HER?!”

“Who knows what her parents did to other families? Who knows if they had anything to do with what happened to Frank and Alice?”

“And then she has the guts to show up here…”

“I can’t even look her in the eyes.”

“I can’t understand why Augusta still invites them over.”

“She of all people should understand.”

“And why is Vincent even here?”

“Well, he’s not too bad a guy…”

“But he doesn’t belong to us!”

“You’re right there…”

“What is this family coming to?”

Felicity had heard enough. Forcing her emotions inside, she carefully went back to the second floor, opened the door leading to the living area there and closed it just as carefully, giving her best not to make a single sound. Once the door was closed, she leaned against it and took some deep breaths, tears running down her cheeks. From what it sounded like, it had been at least three people up there, but she was not able to tell who they were. It only was fair to assume that grand aunt Augusta was not among them, though.

She knew that she had been adopted. However, that had been so long ago, it was only natural to her to call her parents “mum” and “dad” and to just refer to them as her parents. After all, she barely remembered her biological parents. Her mother only had told her that they had been bad people and that they had been killed. Felicity could not even recall their faces. The only things she had inherited from them were her plush cat, which she was still keeping, hoping that it might help her memorize things from when she had been a little girl, and her surname – Campbell.

In any case, she had no idea what her parents and their actions had to do with her. Her parents had been her parents, but she was Felicity. She was a person on her own and had had nothing to do with whatever they had done. She had only been four, after all, when she had been adopted. Everything inside her screamed how unfair it was of those people to talk about her like that, like she was a criminal that deserved to be shunned. And even worse, they wanted to exclude her father from the family as well. What had they said? “He doesn’t belong to us”? Were they really going to exclude him just because he was no wizard? It was getting all too clear to her that she herself didn’t want to regard people like those, who just talked behind other people’s backs like that, as part of her family.

A sobbing noise from one of the rooms around her tore her out of her dark thoughts. She remembered why she had come up here in the first place.

Neville.

She wiped the tears off her face, took another deep breath and walked along the corridor. All doors were closed, and she could not recall which room was Neville’s. She held her ears against the doors to maybe make out anything that could give Neville away. And at the third door she investigated, she made out the sobbing she had heard earlier. She already had her hand on the handle but thought better and softly knocked the door. She waited for five seconds but didn’t get any response.

“Neville?”, she asked quietly, leaning closer to the door and listening closely.

After waiting another few seconds, she heard a sniff. “C-come in”, Neville’s voice said finally. Felicity pushed down the handle and opened the door.

Neville’s room was a bit larger than hers. What was most striking about it, however, was the amount of plants that Neville had put all around. Felicity knew that Neville had a thing for plants and loved caring for them.

Neville sat on the floor in front of a dragon tree. Felicity sat down next to him and looked at him out of the corner of her eye. She saw that his eyes were blood-shot and assumed that he had been crying until seconds before. He avoided looking at her, however. Felicity realized how similar she actually was to him. They were both outsiders in this family, and it wasn’t just for their age. But she didn’t think it’d be a good moment to talk to him about that. After all, he was only eight years old, and a boy at that. He needed some other kind of tending, she felt.
“Those plants of yours look really good”, she said.

Neville looked at her quickly. She thought he had the slightest hint of a smile on his face.

“Thanks, I take care of all of them”, he replied.

“Wow, that’s really amazing, Neville.” She meant it: she couldn’t take proper care of plants if her life depended on it.

His smile widened a bit. Felicity felt like she should stay on that track.

“You know…”, she started.

In that second, the door burst open. Grand uncle Algie stood there. He was a huge man, about 6-foot-tall and of stocky build.

“Neville, come on, you won’t get your magic started by sitting around those plants”, his voice roared. He stormed through the room, approaching them. Intimidated by his stature, Felicity fell back from him. Algie ignored her, though. He grabbed Neville, who seemed to be in shock himself, and dragged him out of the room.

Felicity fought off the state of shock, managed to stand up and hurried after them. She followed the open doors and ended up in the living room. Algie was about to open the large window, holding Neville tightly, making sure he couldn’t escape. It took Felicity a moment to figure out what was about to happen.

“STOP IT!”, she shouted.

Algie had already managed to open the window. Felicity charged at him and tried to release Neville from his grip. “LEAVE HIM ALONE!”, she screamed.

Algie didn’t seem to care too much, though. He shoved her away. She stumbled and fell to the floor.

“Don’t worry, I’m not doing anything to Neville. Nothing that could harm a wizard, that is.”

And with that, he put Neville on the windowsill, grabbed him by his ankles and then, before Felicity could do anything, Algie was holding Neville out of the window, only his feet in his hands.

Felicity couldn’t believe what was happening. She had heard what Neville had to go through, but she had never seen it for herself.

“STOP IT! LEAVE HIM BE!”, she shouted at Algie. She didn’t dare charge at him again, however. What if that made Algie lose his grip and dropped Neville? All she could do was to make him see common sense.

“Did you do that to your children too?”, she inquired.

“Didn’t have to”, he responded. “I never had to worry about having put a squib into the world.”

“So, you don’t care about Neville but only about his magic?”

Algie didn’t respond this time, but Felicity took his silence for a ‘yes’.

“That is so stupid!”, she said.

“What is going on here?”

Some family members had made their way upstairs. Felicity could make out her mother, but also grand aunt Augusta and some others.

“Grand uncle Algie is trying to kill Neville”, Felicity exclaimed.

“Don’t be ridiculous”, Algie replied from the window. “I’m just helping his magic a bit.”

With that, he shook Neville by his ankles.

“Don’t you see how messed up this is?”, Felicity demanded of the others.

“Come on, Algie”, her mother tried. “This is going too far.”

Algie ignored her, however.

“Algie, stop it”, one of the grand aunts said. Felicity believed her name was Enid, Algie’s wife. She had even brought a plate with a piece of cake with her. She held it out to him. “Have some lemon meringue, isn’t that your favourite cake?”

“You’re right, it is”, Algie replied.

And then it happened.

He turned around to accept the piece of cake that Enid was offering to him. When doing so, he let go of Neville’s ankles. Accidentally or on purpose, Felicity couldn’t tell. She screamed and rushed to the window, shoving an absent-minded Algie out of her way. She looked out of the window, hoping there was any way she could save Neville. She forgot for a moment that even if there was a way to help him, she probably couldn’t do it.

What she saw, however, was a massive surprise. Neville was bouncing from the front garden onto the street, just like a bouncy toy ball. He seemed to be perfectly fine. It seemed like he had just performed magic.

That reminded Felicity of the story her parents had told her about when she had performed magic for the first time. She had been only five years old and had been crossing the street to pet a cat that was sitting on the other side. Felicity had not been minding the traffic, though. She had been about to be hit by a car but just appeared on the other side of the street, being perfectly safe and unharmed. Apparently, that was something that magic would do, save their lives.

A sigh of resignation next to her grabbed Felicity’s attention. She turned her head and saw that her mother and grand aunt Augusta were also looking out of the window. Augusta had tears in her eyes and looked overwhelmingly happy, glad that Neville had shown that he has magic inside of him. Felicity’s mother, however, looked less happy.

“That is going to be so much work for our department”, she groaned. Felicity followed her eyes and saw that many muggles had gathered on the street and in their front gardens. Apparently, all of them had just watched what had happened to Neville. Her mother would have a long day altering all their memories.