LUCKY FLOWER||FRED WEASLEY {REWRITING/MOVED}

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

"Blondie, do you have an owl?"

Rapunzel looked up at Fred, blinking in confusion at the seemingly random question. "No? Just Pascal." She gently scratched the chin of the creature in question before squinting suspiciously at Fred from where she sat on the couch of the Gryffindor common room. "Why?"

"Well," Fred took a bite out of the pumpkin pastry he had stolen from the kitchen before nodding his head at something behind her. "That owl is flying straight towards you."

Rapunzel turned just in time for the owl to land on the windowsill, something clenched in its beak. She stood up and opened the window, letting the owl perch on the armrest of the couch.

"Magpie?" Rapunzel chuckled in surprise, stroking the owl's feathers as she took the small box from its beak. "Haven't seen you in a while."

"I thought you said you didn't have an owl."

"I don't. Magpie is dad's owl, he uses her to send mail to me." Rapubzel fiddled with the box. It was relatively unremarkable, although a nice light pink in colour, with a purple bow.

"Looks like a gift. Weird, it's not my birthday yet." Rapunzel muttered, carefully untying the bow and setting it aside before opening the box. A small piece of paper was folded up on top of gift tissue paper.

"Was going through some of my belongings when I found this, figured it should fit you now. I wanted to wait until your birthday, but it might've not come on time. Happy early birthday, princess." Rapunzel read aloud, smiling wistfully. She missed her dad every day when she was at Hogwarts.

Fred peered curiously into the box as Rapunzel removed some of the paper, and his curiosity turned to concern as her hands became unsteady. He looked over her hand to see a bracelet in the box.

"Blondie? You alright?" Fred asked uneasily, all too aware of Rapunzel's sudden shift in mood.

"It's my mothers bracelet," Rapunzel's voice was almost a whisper, breathy and disbelieving. "He...he gave me mum's bracelet."

"Why does that bother you?"

"It doesn't," Rapunzel shook her head with a watery smile. "He gave me something of my mum's to hold on to, a part of her. He once said that her plan was to give it to me when I was big enough."

"Was?"

"She never got the chance, and I never got to meet her." Rapunzel frowned, putting on the bracelet. Bittersweet. A reminder, a way to connect with the mother she never got to have a relationship with, but a painful reminder that she would never have one.

"Oh," Fred whispered as the realization hit him. "She..."

"It's okay," Rapunzel assured him, admiring the bracelet fastened on her wrist. "It's good, it's a good thing."

Fred wordlessly wrapped an arm around Rapunzel's shoulders, pulling her into his side as she sniffled, tears slowly streaming down her cheeks before she wiped them away.

"It's pretty," Fred nodded his head towards the bracelet, taking note of the golden sun charm in the centre, fastened onto pink and purple woven cords.

"You're right. It is pretty."

~*~

"Gather round! Gather 'round. Can everybody see me?"

The congregation of students grew quieter as Lockhart's voice echoed throughout the Great Hall, the man in question walking as if he were on a runway down the one table pushed to the centre of the room; a long cloth with images of the lunar cycle laying over it.