Little Memories

Charlotte leaned over a bubbling cauldron, glancing between a book she had just beside it and the shredded boomslang skin she was required to put it. Draco and Gregory were standing on the outskirts of the kitchen, where she was working on the floor, but she didn’t acknowledge their presence. They could tell from the focused, intense expression on her face that she was sucked into her work and wouldn’t resurface from it until whatever she was brewing up would be done.

“She’s not 17 yet,” Gregory murmured before he took a sip of his freshly-brewed tea and crossed his arms over his chest as she watched his sister. Draco frowned slightly with thought as he watched Charlotte before turning to Gregory.

“I don’t think this technically counts against her,” he replied in a the same quiet voice. “She’s not casting spells, so it doesn’t leave much of a trace for the Ministry, which is now being controlled by the Dark Lord, to detect. If she wanted to use spells now, I’m sure she wouldn’t be punished for it.” Gregory glanced over to Draco and shrugged a bit.

“Whatever,” he said indifferently, “I’m not drinking whatever it is she’s concocting. It looks thoroughly repulsive.” Draco, despite the fact that he felt the potion had to deal with Charlotte wanting to prevent his nightmares and let him rest, couldn’t disagree with him there. She had just crushed a bit of the green-brown boomslang skin into the cauldron and it had turned an earthy shade of purple. It wasn’t a color that should naturally occur in anything that should be ingested.

Tucking a curl behind her ear and looking over her book, Charlotte slowly reached out, without looking, and grabbed a vial of doxy eggs. Taking in a deep breath, she turned the vial over slightly and tapped the side of it with her index finger, dropping a few of the small cobalt blue eggs into the mixture without looking. The cauldron hissed and bubbled and Charlotte immediately placed the book to the side and began to quickly stir the contents. That action calmed the potion down as it turned to a deep red color. It still didn’t look appetizing.

“We’ll have to let it cool for a bit before you drink it,” Charlotte said softly as she spooned the majority of the potion into a vial, since it filled it to the brim with a little left over in the cauldron. Draco hesitantly stepped forward as Gregory shot him a worried look. She held out the vial to him and Draco took it, looking over it curiously before looking to Charlotte, who was staring up at him with a slight smile.

“Do I have to drink it all at one time?” He asked, trying to keep the grimace of his face, but failing a bit. Charlotte let out a laugh or two and shook her head.

“No, you’ve only got to drink a teaspoon full at least once a week,” she said with a smile. “That batch should last you for some time, but if you’re running out let me know. It’s not that hard of a potion to brew.” Draco merely grinned and looked down at the vial, feeling a bit better knowing he didn’t have to down the unnatural looking liquid all in one go. Charlotte watched him for a moment more before standing and pulling up the cauldron. She placed it in the sink and began to wash it out.

“So…” Gregory started, placing his teacup beside the sink as if hinting to Charlotte he wanted her to wash it for him. Charlotte sent him a look and let out a heavy sigh as she placed the cauldron aside to dry, grabbing the teacup and saucer and washing them as well. “What is there to do around here, Charlie?”

The blonde girl let out a scoff and shook her head as she finished washing Gregory’s dirtied dishes.

“It’s not my job to entertain you, Gregory,” she said as she turned the tap off. She spun around and rested her back against the counter. Charlotte stared at Gregory for a while before a wily grin curled her lips. “Now…entertaining Draco,” her twinkling, light blue eyes darted to the blonde boy in question, “that’s a different story.” Draco smirked a bit back to Charlotte, managing to keep his laughter under control.

Gregory let out a strangled groan and clamped his hands over his ears, screwing up his face and shaking his head. Both Charlotte and Draco laughed heartily as Gregory shook his head and left the kitchen through the French doors, going out into the garden. When the door snapped shut, their laughter died off slowly.

“You know, once he finds a girlfriend, he’s going to be the same way with you for revenge,” Draco said as he walked over to Charlotte, leaning against the counter just beside her.

“Then I’ll act like it doesn’t bother me,” she said with a shrug, as she looked over at Draco with a slight smirk. “Which it really won’t…he needs a girl in his life so he’ll stop pestering me.” Draco could tell from the look that came to her eyes that despite her thinking Gregory “pestered” her, she wouldn’t change it for the world. They remained silent for a few moments and they could hear Gregory mulling around in the garden just outside the kitchen window.

“So…I’m bored,” Draco drawled as he glanced over to Charlotte from the corner of his eyes, “entertain me.” Charlotte looked up at him for a moment with a mischievous glimmer in her eye and a grin. She let out a sigh and ran her fingertips down the line of buttons keeping Draco’s shirt snugly shut, keeping her eyes on his.

“Well,” she breathed and Draco leaned forward to kiss her, but she turned her cheek to him. His lips fell against her rosy cheek and she let out a small laugh. “As tempting as entertaining you might be…I’ve got another potion to brew,” she explained once she saw Draco’s playfully sour expression. Draco merely frowned dramatically, causing Charlotte to laugh again.

“But Charlie,” he said, though it sounded more like a whine, “we’ve got time now…” She gave him an unenthused look, though a smile threatened to curl the corner of her lips as she stared at him.

“It won’t take me all day, Draco,” she said, shaking her head a bit as she stepped away from him and grabbed the cauldron from the sink. “And I never said I wanted to entertain you right now,” Charlotte added with a grin as she placed the empty cauldron over a small Bunsen burner sort of item she had on the kitchen floor. She sat in front of it, crisscrossing her legs under her, and watched Draco for a moment longer before she looked back down at the book beside her. He watched as she flipped through the pages before sitting down on the opposite side of the cauldron. Charlotte looked up at him through her eyelashes without moving her head, a curious expression playing on her features.

“Well…I’ll just have to wait here until you decide you want to entertain me,” he said stubbornly, causing Charlotte to give a short laugh and shake her head. She didn’t say another word as she found exactly what she was looking for in the book and pulled the bag she kept all of her ingredients in, which vaguely looked like a old doctor’s bag, closer to her. Charlotte began to pull everything she needed from the bag and Draco leaned over the cauldron. He only caught a glimpse of the bolded title on the top of page before Charlotte pushed his shoulder gently so that he sat flat on his bottom again.

“What do you need a hair rejuvenating potion for?” He asked with a frown. Charlotte looked over at him for a moment and let out a sigh. “You’ve got hair already.” It was Charlotte’s turn to frown.

“I miss my long hair and this just doesn’t work for balding men,” she said simply with a small shrug. “I hope you didn’t like my hair this way because I honestly can’t stand it.” Draco glanced over her, his bottom lip shoved between his teeth.

“I’m sure I’ll like any hairstyle on you,” he said softly, causing a small smile to curl Charlotte’s lips as she lifted the last ingredient she needed from her bag and looked over at Draco. She blinked a few times before drawing in a deep breath of air.

“You’re supposed to say that,” she said with the smallest raise of an eyebrow before she began to get to work on her potion. Draco watched her in silence as she toiled over the cauldron for around forty minutes, meticulously stirring and adding the needed ingredients. At one point, she plucked a hair from her head and placed it in with everything else.

“How long is this going to make your hair?” He asked as she ladled her mixture, which was a yellow-white color that matched Charlotte’s hair color exactly, into a glass. It was smooth, almost the consistency of well scrambled eggs, and had a thin slice of white foam resting at the top. Both Charlotte and Draco took notice of Gregory reentering the kitchen and walking to the living room. Gregory, however, hadn’t looked at either of them. Perhaps it was from fear of catching them “entertaining” themselves, which both Charlotte and Draco knew would never happen in the kitchen…at least not with Gregory around.

“We’ll just have to see,” Charlotte said with a smile before she tilted the glass and downed the copious amount of potion in one gulp. She winced as she swallowed before placing the glass to the side and extinguishing the fire under the now empty cauldron. Draco, and now Gregory, were watching her with bated breath, waiting to see just what happened or ready to spring into action if Charlotte had made the potion wrong. The latter seemed quite unlikely, but there was always a possibility. She smacked her lips against the strong taste of the potion, which was a mixture of licorice and orange marmalade, and glanced between her brother and Draco. A cool, tingling sensation spread across her scalp and suddenly it felt like a million tiny strings were being pulled outward from her skin. She could feel her hair growing longer, sliding against her ears and the back of her neck.

The boy’s watched as tumbling blonde curls grew from her scalp until it stopped. Her hair was as long as it once had been, ending just below her shoulder blades. Tentatively, Charlotte lifted her hand and pushed a few of the curls behind her ear, glancing nervously between Draco and Gregory. She cleared her throat, which burned slightly from how hot the mixture had been, and licked her lips.

“How does it look?” She asked softly, genuine worry in her eyes. She hoped her hair wasn’t a vibrant green or that it had gone all frizzy and hadn’t grown an inch.

“Just like it used to,” Gregory said with a reassuring smile. Draco glanced over his shoulder at the eldest Goyle before turning back to Charlotte, who was watching him expectantly.

“It looks wonderful…prettier--if that were even possible,” he said softly, causing a small blush to dance across the tops of Charlotte’s cheeks.

“Good,” she said, running a hand over her newly lengthened hair. A sigh escaped her as she glanced between the two of them before her eyes rested on Gregory. “You know…now that I think about it, I think there still may be a few broomsticks left hidden somewhere around here,” she said, cutting her eyes at him with a smirk. Both Draco and Gregory’s expressions brightened.