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A Night at the Rosier’s

This little drabble is dedicated to my very dear friend, who asked for an "emotional support/comic relief social buffer" for Christmas. Sorry this came so late, but I'm immensely proud of you. Also, to the mod of @ask-chester-davies, who said something nice about my other story. Here is some additional Felster content for your fandom.

Also important to note: if you’ve read anything else by me, you’ll recognise Juniper Windsong (my MC) but this story doesn’t exist in the same universe as my other Felix x Juniper fics. Apologies for the confusion!

Summary: Every time another oily old wizard sidles over to offer him congratulations on such a fine catch, Felix finds himself more irritated. He has made a fine catch, he thinks, and it isn't the Hogwarts curse-breaker. And for the first time, it bothers Felix that he can't show off the person he truly wants to.

Juniper Windsong stares glumly down at her red satin stiletto heels, then out across the cruelly cobbled path to the Rosier's manor house. It's unnecessarily long and winding, the stones fitted together in an uneven pattern and jutting out irregularly. She groans and takes a cautious step forward, instantly stumbling. "So, tell me why I'm here again?"

Juniper poses the question to the comfortably oxford-clad young man walking a pace ahead of her and oblivious to her struggle.

"I did explain that in the letter." Felix replies, his tone and pace brisk with buzzing nerves.

"Yeah, but explain it again because it was weird."

Felix sighs. "You are pretending to be my fiancée so my parents will relax about the whole "marriage thing" for a bit and I can continue seeing Chester without their knowledge."

"Uh huh..." Juniper mumbles, her eyes on her feet, working hard to avoid the cracks between the stones. "Okay, you have to slow down. I'm not good at this!"

Felix rolls his eyes and extends an arm for her to use as balance. Together, they tackle the cobbled walk at a more stately pace.

Finally able to focus on something other than her shoes, Juniper says, "Follow up question."

Felix closes his eyes, praying for patience.

"Why didn't you just bring Chester?"

Felix stops and stares at the girl next to him.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes?" she responds tentatively.

"Did you not hear the part where I'm seeing Chester without telling them? It might be a bit hard to keep it secret after I bring him as my date to their Christmas party."

Felix begins to walk again, his steps slightly faster and Juniper has to cling to his arm to keep from stumbling.

"Yes, but why is it a secret?"

"That sort of thing isn't permitted."

"Really?" Juniper asks incredulously. "Blimey, your parents are old fashioned."

Felix runs his free hand through his hair in frustration. "It isn't about the fashion. My parents are well aware of my preferences. Unfortunately, preferences are the privilege of the lower classes. Pure bloods have an imperative to procreate."

Juniper makes a noise somewhere between a snort and a retch, and her heels catch in the stones beneath her. Felix has to drag her up again as she tries hard to stifle her giggles.

"Who talks like that?"

Felix shrugs the shoulder not supporting her weight, "It's how it was explained to me."

They graduate from the winding walk-way through the grounds into the smoothly paved front drive approaching the manor itself. Juniper's steps become more confident as her heels click on the even concrete.

"Is it a preference, though?"

Felix furrows his brow, not that she can see in the twilight. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, do you prefer blokes but you could go either way if you met a nice girl?"

Glad for the cover of darkness that hides his flush, Felix replies tersely, "That's rather personal."

Juniper snorts and he can sense more than see her exaggerated eye roll. "Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot I'm only your pretend fiancee. I suppose I have to wait 'till after our pretend wedding to ask you personal questions."

Felix sighs. He is asking rather a lot of her this evening and Juniper did agree with equanimity, as she always does. He considers briefly before answering.

"I don't know. I think I just prefer Chester."

Juniper nods. "Fair enough."

She's quiet for a few seconds, then begins again. "So..."

Felix groans out loud. Juniper ignores him. "How long are you planning on keeping this up?"

"What do you mean?" he asks in a tone of weary resignation.

"Well, today I'm your fiancée, but what happens a year from now when we're not married and there's no wedding plans?"

Felix smirks just a little. "Well, one can't plan a pure blood wedding in so short a time. We have at least two years."

"Merlin's pants! Two years? To plan one party?" Juniper exclaims, and Felix can't help but laugh. "Okay then. Two years. What happens in two years?"

"You call it off." explains Felix promptly. "And the whole thing being rather hard on me, there's no way I will even be able to think about marriage again for some time."

"Wow, I really don't come out of this looking good, do I?" Juniper says shaking her head.

They reach the flight of stairs leading up to the grand entrance, and Felix waits while Juniper takes each step carefully.

"Or..." ventures Felix cautiously.

Juniper cocks her head at him as she climbs. "Or?"

"I suppose... if you're willing we could always go through with it."

"Through with what?" asks Juniper, nonplussed.

"The marriage."

Juniper stops at the top of the stairs, removing her arm from Felix's to face him fully, her expression unreadable.

"It would merely be for show." he assures her in a soothing tone. She continues to say nothing.

"And it has some benefits..." he insists.

Juniper finally breaks her silence. "For whom?"

"Well, myself obviously but for you as well."

"Name one." she challenges, folding her arms across her chest.

"Money?" Felix offers.

"Got it."

"Power? My family is very well connected."

"I'm alright in that department as well."

"Well then, a rather more respectable family name?" Felix suggests but he winces as he watches her eyes narrow at him.

"You really want to go down that road?"

From anyone else Felix would consider it an insult but, he supposes, he did draw first blood. And anyway, she's hardly wrong.

He sighs. "I suppose it would benefit me rather more than you."

Juniper crosses the short distance left to the door and pulls the bell before turning back to face Felix again, her eyes taking on that open and earnest quality that both unnerves him and is the reason they've been friends so long.

"Felix, do you know how much time and energy you would have to invest in a show like that to make it work? It's not just dragging someone else along to a party twice yearly, it's half your life! If you can think seriously about marrying another person, even just for show, then maybe you don't love Chester as much as you think you do."

Felix bristles. He opens his mouth to issue an angry retort, but before he can respond the door behind Juniper opens and the outline of a house-elf beckons them into the light and noise.

For all her excessive questions and blunt honesty, Felix appreciates Juniper's ability to play nice with his admittedly high brow family. She smiles politely, deflects impertinent questions about her cursed vault history with practiced ease, and does an excellent job of keeping the attention of his parents and their society friends on herself allowing Felix space to breathe. It's the reason he's been bringing her to these events since he graduated school. Juniper makes an excellent shield against the people he has no interest in talking to and the questions he doesn't want to answer.

But Felix continues to be rankled by her earlier pronouncement the entire evening. Every time another oily old wizard sidles over to offer him congratulations on such a fine catch, Felix finds himself more irritated. He has made a fine catch, he thinks, and it isn't the Hogwarts curse-breaker. And for the first time, it bothers Felix that he can't show off the person he truly wants to.

Felix continues to brood through dinner and into drinks afterward. A crafty conversational device by Juniper encourages the party to forgo the separation of men and women into their traditional different salons, in favor of hearing her recount the tale of the cursed vault hidden in a portrait she defeated in her fifth year. Felix knows she's done this on purpose, to spare him the time alone with his father and his father's friends that he so dreads. And while he's grateful, another part of him is irritated. Not with her, but with himself. He wants to work at the Romanian Reserve, Felix thinks furiously, how can he expect to handle dragons if he can't even defend himself against his own parents?

He feels a champagne glass being pressed into his hands. Felix looks up and realizes Juniper has finished her story, and his father is standing near the fireplace clearing his throat.

"I would like to propose a toast." his father addresses the room at large. "To my son, who has finally managed to do something right, and his exceptional fiancee, Juniper Windsong." He lifts his glass smugly toward Felix and Juniper. Juniper lifts hers in response, nodding slightly in polite acknowledgement. As she brings the glass to her lips, she catches Felix's eye out of the corner of hers and gives a little wink. And Felix feels some strange indignant energy take over.

"She's not my fiancee." he announces, setting his glass down firmly on the table beside him.

There's several poorly suppressed gasps from around the room, and a choking cough from the girl beside him.

"She's not?" his mother asks from her place on the sofa.

"She's not?" Juniper repeats, through her coughing fit.

"No." Felix confirms. "Juniper is just a friend. I'm currently..." he pauses, trying to find an appropriate word. "...with someone else." he finishes vaguely.

His father's eyes narrow dangerously. "And may I ask who?"

Felix can feel his heart racing in his chest, and he has to work hard to keep his voice steady as he replies. "His name is Chester Davies."

The room is deathly silent. Even Juniper appears to be holding her breath.

His father's voice is now barely above a whisper.

"Excuse me." It isn't a question.

"Chester Davies." Felix repeats carefully. "He was in my year at school, only in Ravenclaw. He works at the ministry now." And he can't keep the pride he feels from leaking out around his words.

There's the rustling sounds of small, nervous movements from the people in the room, fidgeting with clothes and glasses awkwardly. Next to him, he notices Juniper tilt her glass back and down her entire drink in one long gulp.

"I would like a word with my son." Felix's father says evenly, eyes fixed on his son. "In private."

Everyone in the room moves quickly to the door, desperate to escape the uncomfortable scene. Juniper glances at Felix, her eyes posing a question. His response is a deep breath and a very small smile to say he's as ready as he'll ever be. She returns his smile, her eyes twinkling, and reaches between them to squeeze his hand in solidarity; a gesture his father does not miss.

"That means you as well, Miss Windsong." he says pointedly.

"I would like Juniper to stay." Felix isn't sure where this courage to contradict his father has suddenly come from.

His father looks Juniper up and down disdainfully. "What exactly are you doing here in the first place?"

Juniper meets the older man's eyes, her voice as pleasant as if she were still making polite conversation about the weather.

"Oh, I'm just here as a social buffer."

His father says nothing, but his eyes twitch very slightly.

"And emotional support, I suppose?"

The silence stretches on.

"Comic relief?" Juniper tries to jest, her lips quirking very slightly. Felix chokes on a laugh and turns it into a quick cough. This seems to break the spell holding his father's tongue hostage.

"If you are not my son's fiancée, then you have no business in my house. I bid you good evening."

"She's my friend." Felix says loudly, and his father turns on him in an instant, his voice rising.

"Then the answer is clear! Marry her, fulfill your family responsibilities and do whatever you like on the side as long as your friend-" He jerks his chin toward Juniper, "approves."

Next to him, Juniper folds her arms across her chest. "Blimey, that's twice this evening I've been proposed to, and it's even more romantic the second time."

Both Felix and his father ignore her, too busy staring daggers at each other.

"No." says Felix firmly. "I can't."

"Why. Not." His father enunciates each word through gritted teeth.

"Because..." Felix hesitates for just a split second before plunging on, "I love Chester too much. The idea of spending any time and energy pretending not to, it's anathema to me. I'm all his. I don't want even part of me to belong to anyone else."

Beside him, Juniper covers her mouth with both hands in an attempt to hide her giddy smile and quiet little squeal of delight. Felix finds her display of enthusiasm encouraging. His father does not. He steps forward slowly, hand drifting to his pocket for his wand and Felix stiffens, trying to hold on to his newfound courage.

"Your selfishness knows no bounds." He murmurs venomously, lifting his wand. Felix cannot help flinching, but stands his ground steeling himself for whatever hex his father will throw.

Juniper steps between them.

"That's quite enough." And there's no humour in her voice now. Juniper faces Felix's father steadily. She holds her own wand almost lazily at her side, but Felix is all too familiar with how quickly she can change her stance. "This isn't a school yard and we're none of us children, so you can drop your posturing because no one's impressed. Whatever old fashioned sort of notions you insist on clinging to, you at least have to act like a civilised wizard."

Felix watches with a small degree of satisfaction as his father's eyes widen. He can't remember the last time anyone told off his father. It's possible it's never happened, at least in front of him.

"I will not be corrected by some minor half-blood celebrity in my own home." His father's voice hits that dangerous note that Felix recognizes as the sign that he's about to lose control. He grips Juniper's arm to pull her back, but her feet are planted firmly as if her five inch heels have stuck into the stone floor.

"Then I suggest you correct yourself. Unless you'd like to duel, of course." She challenges, raising her wand. "Although, I imagine, whoever wins or loses, that'll make for a far more interesting story in the gossip column than whoever your son is dating."

She's hit upon his father's only weakness, bad publicity, and Felix waits with bated breath to see how he'll react. He's never seen his father so pale and furious. He takes a violent breath in through his nose and lowers his wand reluctantly.

"Dueling a guest in my own home is beneath me. Particularly, a little girl." He pronounces the words with a sneer. "And you," he flicks his eyes above Juniper's head to his son briefly, as if loathe to look at him any longer than absolutely necessary. "You are welcome back in this house when you are willing to fulfill your obligations to your family."

With the final word securely on his side, Felix's father turns on his heel and marches with dignity from the room.

"Well, that's that then."

For once, it's Felix who breaks the silence as he and Juniper step slowly down the paved drive to the cobbled stone walkway again, Felix lighting the way with his wand while Juniper clings to his arm for dear life.

"Yes, I suppose so." she agrees with a breathless grin. "And I must say, the sitting room while everyone was trapped together? Truly the perfect time."

Felix flushes slightly. "I did it, though." he insists, quietly.

Juniper's smile fades a little and she looks up from her feet to Felix's face, his blush illuminated to a rosy glow by the light in his wand.

"Yeah, you did. And I can't imagine how hard it was."

"It wasn't that hard, actually." Felix replies in a would-be casual voice, flicking back a piece of hair from his forehead.

"Okay," Juniper laughs. "Then I can't imagine why you didn't do it earlier and save me all the million questions from your mother about our wedding." She gives a dramatic shudder, and Felix smirks.

"I needed a laugh."

"You need your head examined."

He chuckles lightly as they tread carefully across the uneven stones. Approaching the wrought-iron gate that marks the apparition point for the Rosier property, Felix turns to face the girl next to him, her heels making it easier than usual to meet her eyes.

"Juniper," he starts, then looks away before finishing, "Thank you."

Juniper cocks her head to the side. "Why? I didn't do anything."

"You... made me brave." says Felix quietly, still looking down. He can hear the smile in her voice as she replies.

"No, I didn't. I just made you mad." She gives his hand a slight squeeze. "Chester made you brave."

She's right. That, and the realization that this dreadful evening is over, and he's only moments away from seeing the man he loves causes warmth to spread through Felix, and he smiles.

"Happy Christmas, Juniper. I owe you."

Juniper shakes her head. "Friends don't owe friends." she argues. "I'm happy to help anytime. But, I'm afraid my days as your escort might be at an end, at least for any social events that involve your family. You'll have to find yourself another companion." She says with a wink, and steps through the gate.

Felix's smile widens. "Don't worry. I have the perfect person in mind."

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