A/N: A little Lessons cookie for you! I have a tendency to write short little drabbles that pop into my head, but I have nowhere to place them, so I've created this as a dumping ground. They won't be in any particular order, so you may see Harry and Hermione at the beginning of their relationship in one chapter, the kids grown up in another, and then the kids much younger in the next. So try not to be frustrated, they're meant to stand alone within "Growth Spurts."
Oh and the djinni mentioned is from Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy which I highly recommend if you haven't read it.
He was five and she was three when he made his first attempt. He took her hand and led her into the fireplace, giving her her stuffed puffskein so she'd be quiet and sit still then he dragged a chair over to the mantle. He crawled up on the chair and reached as high as he could until he found the porcelain vase that held the floo powder. After a quick check to make sure that all was quiet, he hopped off the chair and tossed the powder on top of her shouting, "Anywhere but here!"
Twenty minutes later his dad received an urgent floo call from the proprietor of Borgin & Burkes that his daughter somehow ended up in his store and gotten ahold of a jar containing a particularly nasty and sarcastic djinni named Bartimaeus. The two of them were now effectively destroying his shop playing "Smash the Monkey," the monkey being him and would they be so kind as to pick up their wayward daughter? No, no, there would be no need for recompense for the damaged merchandise or injuries, just please, take their daughter home and if they wanted the djinni, they could have him too.
He looked over at his mum who fixed him with a steely eyed look of death and he knew that he was in deep doo doo. "Oh bollocks," he muttered which earned him a gasp and a wide eyed look of death which was much worse than the usual look of death.
"Alaric Malfoy!" his mum hissed. "Watch your language! Where did you hear that word?!"
He sullenly looked over at the spot where his dad had just occupied before coming up with an idea that would save his and his father's hides. "Uncle Ron!"
His mum pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes in the narrow eyed look of death which often was much much worse than the wide eyed look of death and he knew Uncle Ron was definitely in for it. He ducked his head to hide his smirk.
"Don't think you've gotten out of your punishment for what you did to your sister!" Ginny said sharply, snapping him out of his fleeting joy.
He crossed his arms and pouted.
The second time he tried, he was seven and she had just turned six. She still looked up to him adoringly as only little sisters could to big brothers. That adoration made this attempt a bit harder, but he needed to do it. Their little brother was only a year old, still a bit young to get rid of yet, but by the time he was old enough to chuck, he'd be at Hogwarts, so that only left Cissy.
He wrapped her up in brown paper and twine while she giggled at the new game. "Where'm I going?" she asked as he tied the last knot.
"Dunno. North Pole maybe."
"Yay! Do they have tigers on the North Pole?"
"Dunno. I don't think so."
Cissy pouted. "But they might have penguins," Alaric offered so she wouldn't start bawling and attract the attention of their parents upstairs.
"Penguins are cute," Cissy replied albeit a bit reluctantly. "Are you sure about this?"
"One hundred per cent." He whistled softly for three owls. "I want you to take her to the North Pole."
The owls looked at the heavy, squirming package warily, but took it by the twine and flew awkwardly and heavily out the kitchen window. "Alaric, I have to pee," Cissy said on her way out the window.
"It's like this far," he held up his index finger and thumb about four inches apart, "to North Pole on the map, so you should be there in no time. Can you hold it?"
"Yeah," she called down from the second story.
There was a shriek upstairs and the rushing of many feet down the stairs and across the room to the window just above the kitchen window. Alaric scampered to the door and watched Uncle Harry, his dad, and Uncle Charlie bound down the stairs and bolt to the back doors.
"But I wanna go to the North Pole!" he could hear her sobbing moments later. "I wanna pet the penguins!"
"Alaric?"
He froze at the hard and cold voice behind him. "Yes mum?"
"Turn around."
He did as he was told, albeit very reluctantly, his head hung in shame.
"Did you wrap Cissy up like a parcel and try to ship her to the North Pole?"
"No mum."
"So this isn't your handwriting?"
He lifted his head just enough to look at his scribble on the brown paper. "Er -"
"I'm giving you a chance to tell the truth and perhaps come away with a less harsh punishment than if you were to open your mouth and lie to me again. So I'm going to ask you once more: did you wrap Cissy up and try to ship her to the North Pole?"
Alaric knew when he was defeated and tried to at least save his skin. "Yes mum. But she really wanted to go, it was -"
"STOP!" Satisfied that he wasn't going to make another peep, his mum sighed. "Go to your room, your punishment will be given to you momentarily."
He winced knowing that a punishment talked about and agreed upon by both his parents was far worse than an on the spot punishment given by just one of his parents. "Yes mum."
His punishment, which would make him shudder for years to come, put him off from trying to get rid of Cissy for a while. His third and final attempt had been when he was thirteen, she was eleven and he'd become a bit sneakier about it. Well perhaps not sneakier, but certainly more clever. Somewhere in the back of his mind he'd grudgingly realized he did like his sister for all her goody goody Gryffindor shoes and he did sorta love her a little, but he had to give it one last go. He had to give it one last try.
"ALARIC DRACO MALFOY!"
Everyone in the Great Hall stopped eating and fell silent, turning to look at the second year and his Howler.
"IF I EVER SEE YOU'VE PUT AN ADVERT IN THE DAILY PROPHET PUTTING YOUR SISTER UP FOR SALE EVER AGAIN, YOUR PUNISHMENT WILL MAKE THE ONE SIX YEARS AGO LOOK LIKE A WALK IN THE PARK! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED."
The last growled, nay snarled, part had Alaric looking as though death had warmed over. He swayed on the bench not even noticing the Howler destructing before him. Ok, maybe he'd gone a little overboard.
It was dusk at the Burrow and Alaric took advantage of the fragrant balmy summer air to step away from the festivities in the garden and inside the house to grab some peace and quiet. He couldn't even remember what they were celebrating, but it didn't really matter. He'd come for Nan's cooking and maybe to see his cousins.
He had to leave soon anyway. He had a pile of reports on his desk leaving him to marvel at his father and how he managed it all on a day to day basis even with help. Alaric wasn't intimidated though. He'd been groomed since he was little to take over the Malfoy family holdings and at nineteen, he was anxious and primed to step into his apprenticeship.
"Merlin, I love my family, but sometimes it feels good to get away from them and breathe," Cissy sighed dropping next to him on the log he was sitting on at the edge of the forest that bordered the Burrow.
Alaric merely nodded and grinned slightly, his fingers absently picking at the dry and dead bark on the log. "Let me guess. Cat and Sirius at it again?"
Cissy sighed and nodded. "I love them as if they were my own siblings, but Merlin are they exhausting. The thing is they love it! You can see the grins on their faces and the little touches and ugh! They just need to snog and get it over with. And if I hear that stupid cat and dog joke again, I will hex you. It wasn't funny when we were five and it's less funny now."
A grin quirked at Alaric's lips. "The chase is half the fun," he replied sagely instead.
His sister shuddered and made a face. "I did not need that mental image, thank you."
A few moments passed in cricket filled silence, the laughter and talking coming from the Burrow muffled by humidity and distance. "Why are you really out here?" Alaric asked softly.
"I miss you," Cissy replied softly, her face turned toward the garden.
Ah Gryffindor forthrightness. How he missed that at times. "But I'm sitting right here."
She gave him a sideways look. "Don't be an arse; you know exactly what I'm talking about." She sighed and looked away again. "You moved out and even though I'll be moving out soon too . . . it's quiet with just Aries in the house. Besides, he's still too young to do anything with anyway."
"All I ever strived to do was get you out of the house. You're telling me you miss that?" he asked with amused disbelief.
"Why did you always attempt to get rid of me?"
"It was a manifestation of a few phases in my childhood," he replied with a shrug.
"Flooing me to Borgin and Burkes?"
"Undecided phase."
"The trip to the North Pole."
"Adventurous phase and envy phase all rolled up. After all, you were the one going and I was the one stuck here," he added to her disbelieving look.
"The advert in the Daily Prophet?"
"Capitalist phase. Which I'm still going through, I've just moved onto bigger and better paying ventures."
"Ah, I'm glad to know that our little brother is safe then and that I shan't be used as a guinea pig any longer as an outlet for these `phases,'" she couldn't help grin, nudging his arm with her shoulder.
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and she rested her head against his. "Gryffindork."
"Slythergit."
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