OWL: Fleur to Gabrielle

[shh_fleur]

Petite Soeur,

I know you had a wish not to be seeing me again, but it is Christmas, Gabrielle. Things are not the same, but we shouldn’t let those who did those things to you win by separating you from everything you once enjoyed.

Molly has invited Bill and I to Christmas dinner with the other Weasleys and she said I am more than welcome

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[shh_gabrielle]

Gabrielle had been sleeping soundly in a corner of the flat she still hadn't furnished, and jumped abruptly to her feet, wand in hand, at the tap of an owl at her window. She had reflexively cast a Shield spell at the sound of a disturbance, but dropped it upon seeing the owl.

She opened the window, letting the owl in and shutting the window quickly out of paranoia. Looking outside suspiciously, she let the owl perch on her arm (it was friendly for an owl that had just met her for the first time, perhaps it could smell that she was related to Fleur?) and read the letter, resisting the urge to crumple it in her hand.

Though Gabrielle wasn't as adverse to seeing Fleur as she had been before they had been reunited at Theodore's house, there was still bitterness and shame when she thought of her older sister, and though being with people instead of the walls of her flat was something she very much wanted... Fleur? And the Weasleys?

Shaking her head, Gabrielle fished the Knut out of her pocket, transfigured it into a quill, and tapped the parchment with her wand, blanking it. She began to write, frowning and nuzzling the owl absently. She'd long ago learned to use her hands equally in just about everything- except writing. Real paper and parchment, far superior to the Transfigured versions, were nonexistant on the streets at the best of times, but during the War even wealthy wizards had had trouble getting them, and Gabrielle hadn't seen the real thing in years.

In a hand that started out hesitant and eventually graduated to barely competent, Gabrielle scribed:

Ma soeur,

My wish is the same, ma soeur, I wish to be elsewhere for le Noel. I am sure you and Bill and the other Weasleys will be fine without me, as you have said, there are many brothers and sister of Bill. There will be enough people to keep your attention without me as well, I am sure.

It is not good for me to be where there are many people, ma soeur, Aurors are always looking for Le Fantome.

Gabrielle chewed her lip at the last paragraph, feeling the urge to strike it out. If it were intercepted, it would be a substantial lead for any Auror, and while Gabrielle did not think Fleur would tolerate having an unreliable owl, there was always the chance of the letter being taken from it. Or so she chose to believe, instead of that she was making petty excuses against going to a 'family' dinner.

Signing the parchment, Gabrielle, against her better judgement, gave the owl a piece of last night's dinner and sent it off with the owl, curling back up in her corner without much hope of sleeping.

[shh_fleur]

The response was not unexpected, but it still felt like a knife twisting in Fleur's gut as she read the shaky, unpractised scrawl of Gabrielle's letter. It was obvious that the younger witch had little to no practise with writing and it was so different to the elegant script of Fleur's writing that it just made it all the more obvious that their lives were now utterly different.

The mention of Le Fantome took Fleur by surprise. She didn't think Gabrielle would want to risk that information falling into the wrong hands and it must have meant something that she wrote it in the letter. It was not something she wished the girl to regret, and so with a wave of her wand, that sentence was erased.

Parchment was scarce, but Fleur could not bring herself to wipe the letter and use the paper again. She tucked it away safely in a desk drawer, and pulled out a fresh sheet.

Petite soeur,

Even with all the people I care for in the room, it will still feel empty to me if you are not there. I will welcome you on that day or any other if you so choose to come to visit.

~Fleur