SPOILER!!: Quotes and Stuff
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Grangerfn1 
Ern. Seriously. You're beyond incredible. I just want to hug you. Everything is so well-written, intriguing, and Rae and Lainey together just warm my heart. <3
Not entirely sure why, but I love this. It was cute and sad in its own way. 
Rae and Lainey together warm MY heart. I'm glad you're enjoying this, and I hope you enjoy this next update. FOR YOOOOOOOOOOU.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Biochemkris Aw! That was a really cute post. I prefer longer updates, but if shorter updates are what it takes to bring in more readers then this was perfect.
You'll take what you get and LIKE IT, KRIS. And there's no Doyle or Sophia in this one, so I can't screw them up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Droo Hmmm Cassandra's mom... *eyes her*
Love the update Ern. Thanks for sharing this story with us.
You are welcome.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
emilyblack So, I've finally caught up
*New reader alert* I LOVE it! I've said it before and I'll say it again... You're brilliant
PLEASE PAMS!
Thanks, lovely! And you're going to be very happy, 'cause I'm updating. Yay!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
D.A Forever How could you disappoint?
Impossible, Miss Ern.
I'd LOVEE to make a request but.. I dunno who/how they'd fit/ehrm?
Lovelovelove the updates, Miss Ernnn!
Well. I can fit just about anyone in, so keep thinking on it. I would love to do cameos. And I'm glad you're enjoying this, and I hope you enjoy this update.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mad Eye Touz Lulllz. Harry Potter DID get a cupboard. That got a giggle. Lainey's real thoughts on Lucille stretch far beyond "HMM." but I think that is SO accurate. haha. Man. Ern. GOOD stuff. o__o
Alec gets to sleep on the couch for baby-trading. Honestly. We're TRADING HIM.
Except not. Man. ERN. ERNNNN. This one KILLS me in that GOOD way. It's good. IS BRENNY PENNY making another stop in? Omgosh. Ern. Alec is as cute CJ, I'm sure. HOW IS HE SO GOOD?
So yeah. Guh. ERn.
When you say I get Lainey right, it makes me SO HAPPY. She's harder to figure out then my own characters, I think. I'm really hoping to get Brenny around again, but he's so STUBBORN about it. He refused to come to the birthday party and EVERYTHING. UGH. Jerk face.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Obi-Wan K'Lari GASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSP. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if you published a book without me knowing. You're just so good! I read the fic in one sitting =D
That first paragraph is
worthy.
And I really love the childhood memories posts! They're so cute
Ahhh! Post more soon
Aw, you are SO sweet. Thank you
. The childhood memories are fun, the present stuff is fun... and it's nice to switch it up so I don't get bored. I'm glad you're enjoying this. Welcome to the fic!
Welcome back, and sorry for the delay. As always... I take on too much and make you wait. So sorry. Remember to poke me for a cameo and we'll try to figure it out. 
Chapter 7: There is Pansies, That’s for Thoughts
“And, in conclusion, we want to thank everyone for coming,” Sophia stood on her padded seat, clutching a bottle of butterbeer in both hands. Behind her, Doyle lurked, prepared to catch the little girl should she suddenly launch herself during the course of her speech.
Were there other eleven-year-olds in the world who gave
speeches at their own birthday parties? Cassandra was absolutely certain her daughters were unique in that respect, among others.
“In conclusion, part two,” Genevieve tried to climb onto the chair with her sister and scowled at her father when he rebuffed her. “If you plan on doing any spoiling, you ought to do it now. We’re not going to be around much longer. Hogwarts should be shaking in its big stony boots.” She shook in demonstration, and Sophia fell on top of her. Their round of giggles distracted the twins from the shared looks of dismay passed around the table by the adult attendees.
“Finally, presents! What the hell kind of birthday is this when you have to wait so long on the cake? Can we get to the presents already?” Lainey finally piped up. She gave Alec a sharp look, and he immediately added, “Yes, cake.”
“You are
very helpful,” the dark-haired witch hissed at her husband as the group of aunts and uncles and grandparents shifted to the living room for the opening of gifts.
“I don’t think well on my feet,” Alec protested, slipping an arm around to rest his hand on her opposite hip.
Lainey rolled her eyes, but she was smiling at him. “You’re a cursebreaker, idiot.”
Cassandra meandered after the small group, laughing quietly as she herded the stray little boys in the right direction. Lainey and Alec bantered so lightly, and occasionally with great wit. Doyle never argued, not really, and Cassandra tried to imagine what it must be like to marry someone as volatile as her brother or best friend.
It was probably… exhausting from time to time. Being married to someone who was always reasonable meant she had permission not to be. Unfortunately, it also meant that in her most irrational moments, she felt as if she were butting her head against an implacable brick wall. He never moved, and she eventually gave way to it, no matter the force of her will.
“Mum, look!” Cassandra stepped into the room to examine what appeared to be a box of rocks from Uncle Alec and resolved to leave pensive moments to her writing time.
Memories of cake and gifts were long gone a few weeks later when Sophia received her Hogwarts letter… and Genevieve did not. After the first signs that a tantrum was eminent, Doyle volunteered to take Sophia and Marcus Orion out for ice cream to celebrate, leaving Cassandra to square off against the tearful, indignant Genevieve.
“I’m a witch too,” Genevieve was a little ball of blankets and child on her bed, her muffled voice emerging from a tunnel of covers. Even in her grief, she chose self-comfort over the arms of her mother. “I’m going to Hogwarts too.”
It was no use to explain to Genevieve that you simply could not attend Hogwarts without a letter. Those words would be considered a challenge. Cassandra would face the issue directly. Gently.
“Of course you’re a witch, Vivi,” Cassandra perched on the edge of the bed and gently touched the ball in the middle of the bed. Genevieve scooted away from her mother. “You’re going to get a letter in a few weeks.”
The blankets flipped back, revealing a sweaty 11-year-old with a suspicious expression. Obviously something in her mother’s tone had triggered an internal alarm. There was adult shenanigans going on around here, and she could
tell.
"How do you know?"
Cassandra pushed sticky blond strands of hair from her daughter's forehead. "Because Beauxbatons always sends their letter in the middle of the month, while Hogwarts sends theirs at the beginning."
Genevieve batted at her mother's hand, neatly scooting from the bed and tucking into a roll on the floor. If the child wasn't a witch, she certainly would have made a very impressive circus performer. Her somersaults were precise in the way that most of her actions were not, and Cassandra was sure that she'd witnessed her daughter practicing a fall down the stairs on more than one occasion. If she refused to go to Hogwarts, there was probably a career for her in Muggle movie stunts or something of that ilk.
"I don't
want to go to Beauxba-anything! I want to go to Hogwarts. I want to be with FEE!" Her voice increased in pitch until she was shouting at her mother. "I am staying with FEE."
The mother in her broke a little bit at the furious expression on Genevieve's face, especially because behind the glare, she could see the wibble of her chin and the tears building in her eyes. For all her immense anger, Genevieve already knew she'd lost. Her heart was breaking over it.
"Darling..." Cassandra reached for her daughter, even knowing that Genevieve wouldn't let herself be comforted. The twins were wholly reliant on each other, a side effect from their kidnapping over 10 years before. Something had fallen apart during that year when the girls were kept from their mother, and for all that she loved them and wanted desperately to be a part of their highs and lows, Cassandra knew that the Branxton twins were a small world unto themselves. It was one of the reasons she was so absolutely certain that they needed to be separated for school.
"No!" Genevieve jerked away from her mother, turning her back and facing the broad windows that overlooked the gardens in the back of the house. This messy little room was supposed to be her sanctuary, but Cassandra knew she spent many nights curled up beside her sister in Sophia's room. They had to share that room, not because it was any bigger than this one, but because Genevieve slept with toys and pillows and her favorite clothing piled in mounds on the bed and floor. Her room was just as scattered as she was, while Sophia's was immaculate.
"Vivi, let me..." Again, Cassandra reached futilely for her daughter, but Genevieve just stomped her feet before flinging herself down on the bed amidst her stuffed animals.
"I HATE you," Genevieve screeched, and she was crying in earnest now. Cassandra's hands dropped to her side, and she watched her daughter sob into her bed covers. "You don't love me. If you loved me, you'd let me have Fee. You don't love me."
Cassandra swallowed hard, willing herself to be strong in the face of her daughter's tears. "No, my darling. I love you. Daddy and I are doing this for you and Fee both... you need a chance to make friends and learn how to be your own person, and you can't do that if you're both in the same place."
There was no response except a renewal of tears. In defeat, Cassandra resigned herself to being the bad guy. Doyle had escaped with Sophia for the time being, and they were having a lovely time over ice cream, leaving Cassandra to pick up the pieces with the distraught and emotional child. It really didn't seem fair at the moment.
She turned for the door, resolving to let Genevieve cry for a bit. They could try to talk about it later, she supposed. Her hand was on the knob when she heard the little hiccuping gasps coming from right behind her.
"Mummy," Genevieve allowed herself to be folded into an embrace this time, in shock that her mother was actually leaving before the tantrum was over. "Fee is the only person who has ever ever liked me," her lashes glittered with tears, and Cassandra wiped wet trails from the child's cheeks. "Don't make her go away from me."
"How about..." In spite of the fact that this moment was completely and entirely about Vivi and what she needed, Cassandra couldn't help but enjoy having her daughter gathered against her. It happened so seldom. "How about we try it for one year, and if you still feel sad about it, we'll try something different? And we can go get ice cream to celebrate
your letter today, even though it hasn't come yet."
Recognizing defeat, at least for the moment, Genevieve wiped her face on her mother's sleeve and gave a quick little nod. "I want Aunt Anj to take me."
*** I often wonder what my life would be like without the specific people who have marked it. For a few steps, or for the length of the journey, people have walked beside me, changing my journey for better or worse. In some ways, it's easy to imagine what life would be like if I'd never met Alexander Rae. I could subtract the grief and self-doubt that plagued me for years after his death. But at the same time, I cannot deny that without his influence, I would be less than I am now. Without his love, without his strength. And without his loss, I would never have ended up at Hogwarts the second time.
It is less easy to separate my path in the points where it intertwined with other people. From my earliest memories, my brothers were there, shaping how I saw the world and how I reached out and touched it. I've tried not to speak too much on my brother Brennan, but my early years were shadowed by being Brennan Cooper's younger sister.
And then there was Alec. Best friends until I left for Hogwarts, he and I were a source of comfort to each other when life got difficult, a source of entertainment when the Cooper world closed in around Brennan and forgot that there were three children rather than one. To be fair, I do not want to leave the impression that a brother three years younger than me never annoyed me in those typical younger brother ways. He was particularly skilled at breaking my toys or smudging the dresses my mother wanted kept immaculate. In spite of those things, though, I know that my childhood would have been pale without him, and I still regret having left him alone when I had to go off to school. ***
Alec was a shadow. He wasn't quiet, he wasn't stealthy, but wherever Cassie and Anj went, he appeared soon after. The Cooper home was large enough that everyone could successfully find their own space without intruding on the peace of anyone else, even when Brennan was visiting. And yet... Alec hung around in the corners and doorways of every room Cassie and Anj visited.
"Do you suppose...?" Cassie began to suggest, but she bit off her words before the question fully escaped. No one wanted an annoying little brother around, even if it sort of made her hurt in her stomach and her chest when she saw the eager way Alec watched them play.
"What?" Anj swung around from the tree she was climbing and gave Cassie that piercing look that meant 'say what you mean or shut it.' Or that was how Cassie interpreted it, at least, although it was more likely to mean something like 'spit it out already.'
Cassie didn't speak, opting instead to hitch her skirts way up her legs in a last ditch effort to throw herself up against the tree. Climbing trees, apparently, was not in her skill set. She lunged at the bottom branch again, hanging there a moment before dropping to the ground.
Sigh.
Fine. "Do you suppose Alec could spend time with us? Just sometimes, you know? Because there's no one else here and he's lonely, and usually he plays with me and..." Cassie examined her hands and knees. Was that sap or blood? Was she bleeding? Lots of questions.
"Whatever," Anj peered down at Cassie from several branches up. They seemed narrow and impossibly frail to be holding a person's entire weight, and yet Anj sat up there without concern. She gnawed at her lip momentarily before deciding that Cassie was never going to make it up the tree. She dropped to the ground gracefully.
"Really?" Cassie rubbed her hands against her dress, leaving sticky streaks that were a suspicious rusty shade. She was definitely bleeding.
Anj grabbed at Cassie's hands before she managed to maul her dress any further. "Stop that. Your mother is going to have some sort of aneurysm." She examined Cassie's hands for a moment with studied indifference. "I never had a brother. I have nothing against them in general."
She turned, waving Cassie's hand in hers at a tree on the edge of the orchard. "Hey. Hey, kid! Come play with us."
From the upper branches, Alec appeared, sliding swiftly down the length of the tree and landing hard on the ground. In moments, he was at their side, grinning widely.
"Hi! What are we playing? What are we doing next? Can you show me any magic? 'Cause I bet you learned all sorts at Hogwarts," he bounced eagerly.
"What about that spell where they turn little kids into frogs? What about that one?"
Alec turned big gray eyes on Anjelica, not put off at all at the idea of magic being used on him. "I've never been a frog before."