... GOLDEN GIRL?

♡

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...