Snakes and Ladders (Fem!HPxLM) (DISCONTINUED)

Caelitis

One thousand three hundred ninety miles away in Romania, Charlie Weasley stared at his copy of the family tree with all sorts of varying emotions running through him. The most notable feeling was confusion. What in Merlin's name had happened to the twins? Surly they couldn't have died? No, he would have had a letter by now if they had. So what had taken them off the family tree?

For a brief moment, he considered writing to his parents, but he didn't want to put his owl through that, and it would take a while to get a response knowing his mother, so instead, he pulled himself out of his chair and began to get dressed. He had to see someone about an international portkey.

Back in Britain, the family of now five sat around a table at a high-end restaurant in muggle London, the twins pouring over a shared menu while Hyacinth merrily swung her legs slightly under the table, only narrowly missing kicking her mother's legs. At Severus' shocked expression at the near miss, she stopped and shifted in her seat.

"Have you chosen what you want, little flower?" Tom asked, taking a sip from his glass of water. Severus had taken his glamour off in the alleyway where the apparation point had been, so her father looked like himself again. She found herself not able to answer his question and realised she hadn't actually looked at the menu. She shook her head and took the offered menu from her father.

Looking at the options listed, Hyacinth felt her stomach twist uncomfortably at the thought of eating. She wasn't completely blind to her reality. She knew fine well that her time spent with the Dursley's had caused her to develop an eating disorder, and the way Molly had basically force-fed her to the point of bursting had not been any help at all and had complicated her relationship with food even more.

The twins noticed her discomfort; a part of the sibling bond caused them all to be able to pick up on strong emotions from the others. Fred scooched his chair closer to her's, throwing an arm around her shoulder.

"I'm not all that hungry, sis. Do you wanna share with me?" he asked, and Hyacinth smiled at him gratefully but shook her head no nonetheless.

"Actually, Fred, I think I'll have some porridge with some fruit. But thank you anyway," She said, and Fred smiled down at her, a smile full of pride. He ruffled her hair and moved his chair back to its original spot next to George, who was now trying to fold his napkin into an origami crane.

They chatted quietly while they waited for their food to arrive and throughout their meal. Hyacinth was shocked to discover she had managed to eat over half of her porridge and fruit and classed it as an achievement in her books.

Severus was also pleasantly surprised to see her close to empty bowl but told himself he would still find a healer to aid her in her journey with food.

After their meal, the family of five walked around Muggle London and did a bit of shopping. Hyacinth had been surprised to learn that Narcissa had brought a lot of muggle-branded clothes and had expressed interest in buying some muggle clothes herself.

Tom had insisted on buying all of her clothes, stating he had a lot of birthdays and Christmas to make up for and wouldn't take no for an answer because, quote, "If I can't spoil my daughter, who can I spoil?"

The twins had jokingly piped up with "us" in unison, and Tom had rolled his eyes. He still brought the twins a lot of clothes, too, but nowhere near as much as Hyacinth.

They shopped in high-end fashion stores, of course. Places like Louis Vuitton, Dior, Prada, Chanel and Christian Louboutin, where Hyacinth fell in love with the classic red-bottomed heels. However, she had balked at the price and put them back, not wanting anyone to spend that much money on her, even if that someone was her father.

Tom secretly brought them for her anyway. Needless to say that Hyacinth was over the moon with them but still lectured her father about the price anyway. She stopped when she started to sound like Hermione, even to herself.

They arrived back at the manor at four pm, bags shrunken and in pockets. Hyacinth took her bags from her parents, kissed them both on the cheek and, with the twins' help, went to put her stuff away and get ready for dinner.

-----

A/N

Just wanna touch on the fact that the Christian Louboutin heels I looked at for reference cost £595 (around $720-ish) and they weren't even the most expensive pair. I nearly passed out