Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ When the Spirit Breaks, When Does the Body Follow? ❯ Intrigue: Drabbles IV-VI ( Chapter 1 )

Drabble IV: Stout and Gossip

In an act of defiance, Eileen left Hogwarts after passing her OWLs and decided to live with the Muggles. It was exotic to depend solely on her wits and rudimentary “technology.” What a gas!

All right, so she would occasionally use spells to coif her hair or ensure she stayed bone-dry in a rainstorm, but for most part she lived savagely, as her parents put it. One evening after work (she was a phone operator), Eileen and her girlfriends went to a pub for stout and gossip.

It was there she met her first husband, a devil in bespoke clothes.

Drabble V: Her Undoing

Eileen—who went by Virginia at this point in her life—was swept off her feet by her new beau. He complimented her outfits, praised her independent nature, sang duets with her. She liked his dark hair and grey eyes, his belly-rumbling laughter, his protectiveness.

She should have been studying his hands. Those large hands, with thick fingers and scarred knuckles. Years later, she decided that lack of observation was her undoing. Instead, she giggled when those hands twirled her in a dance, sighed when they stroked her cheeks, moaned as they cradled her body to his.

More fool, she.

Drabble VI: Magic Dissolved

Eileen showed him magic three months into their courtship.

She’d been nervous about demonstrating her talents—there were wild rumors amongst wizards that Muggles sometimes died from the shock—so she waited until he was lying against her, sleepy and pliant.

Humming softly, she flicked her wrist and summoned a soft swirl of pastel lights that bathed them in serene colors. Instead of awe, his body went rock-stiff.

“You’re doing that stuff?” he barked.

The magic dissolved under the heat of his anger. “I-I—” she stuttered, feeling cowed.

He slapped her hand, hard. “Don’t do it again,” he warned.