Chéri || Fred Weasley

lxxx

"Madeleine!" Olivia shouted as her fist pounded the door of Maddie's room.

"What?" she groaned after being startled awake.

"It smells horrible in here!" her roommate came inside

"Well, last night I got drunk on cheap wine and smoked a whole pack by myself while I cried my eyes out Olivia," Maddie rolled her eyes. "How did you expect for my room to smell? Like rainbows and daisies?"

"I honestly don't want to know, mail's here by the way," Olivia huffed, holding a white envelope in her hand. "Who's Philippe?"

"What did you just say?" Maddie choked on air.

"Who's Philippe?" Olivia repeated.

"Give me that and stop being nosy with my mail!" the blonde snapped the letter out of her roommate's hand before kicking her out.

Madeleine sat back on her bed, with the envelope in front of her as if touching it would burn her skin instantly. She stared at the neat handwriting and memories began running through her head, completely uninvited. "The fucking bastard put a fucking trace on me," she said outloud to herself and after much thinking, she plucked the courage to open the letter. With shaky hands, she opened the envelope and tossed it aside before her eyes settled in the letter's contents.

March 15th, 1994
Ma petite étoile,
Madeleine, if you are receiving this letter then it means that five years have passed since I died. I do not know what the future has offered you but I know one thing for certain. That you are a bright star in a world full of darkness. I would like to think that by now, you have finally pursued your dreams. Perhaps, found a special someone to share them with, but I also know you very well. I know that just like your mother, if you don't run when things get difficult, you shut everyone else out. I do hope that after my passing, you did not run away nor shut people out but like I said, I know you too well. In the case that you did run off when things got hard, I advice you to go back because I know there are way too many people who love you and are worried about you. Follow you dreams, open that café that you have always dreamed of. I didn't leave fifty thousand more galleons in your vault for nothing. What is stopping you? You deserve to be happy mon étoile. I can assure you that I will be welcoming you with open arms once your time is right. For now, this is another goodbye. I hope that my words of wisdom have lighted up your path. Though don't tell your mother I considered myself wise, from the two of us she was always the smartest.
Je t'aime avec tout ma vie,
Dad.

Madeleine reread the letter over and over again, letting her dad's words pierce through her soul repeatedly. Wondering to herself, how the fuck did he even know she in fact would run away. She hated when she was wrong and was called out for it and she knew that that, was the purpose of her dad's letter. He was right and she hated it. Indeed, there were people who loved her and were worried about her. And maybe, she didn't have to go through everything alone because she did want to share her dreams with the special someone she loved with all of her heart. This was it. The bloody letter was an epiphany and one needn't to be a genius to know it.

*****

That breezy February morning, while Madeleine was being consumed by her thoughts after reading her dad's letter, a woman with golden hair and a one year old baby with turquoise hair came inside Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. It was early in the morning so there were no customers around as a smiling redhead made his way towards them.

"Hey mate!" Fred grinned and picked Teddy in his arms. "You're getting so big!"

"Thank you for taking him in Fred, it really means a lot," Cressida smiled tiredly. "Andromeda and I definitely forgot how much energy is required to take care of a toddler."