Only Brews (Narcissa / Frank)
@mrsnarcissa-malfoy
Narcissa was a pretty decent potioneer. To be honest, pretty decent was a bit of an understatement. She was good at what she did. And because of that, she could be fairly exclusive, and picky with who she brewed potions for. Her reputation kind of preceded her though, and so someone had owled her about brewing some potions. She wasn’t fully sure if she was going to do it yet, but she figured she was going to have some fun with this. It wasn’t as if they actually needed the money. The Malfoys were very well of after all. Most of the brewing Narcissa did was because she genuinely enjoyed potion making.
And, so sat opposite her potential client, the blonde raised an eyebrow, her trademark Black smirk on her face. “And just why am I the only one that can brew this for you?”
To be an Auror, you had to be somewhat competent of a potioneer. Frank worked hard in school, worked hard after he *finished* school, but potions had never been his strong suit. He was better at wand work—Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts made him useful for field work, and while Potions had a few charms he needed to cast, there was still the finesse that he could never get quite right. But he knew Potions were important in case they had injuries that needed healing, missions that needed a certain poison, or an investigation that needed tools that wandwork couldn’t manage on its own.
His knowledge of how to make them was basic; if anything he just used dittany to heal over any cuts he had, and that didn’t require that much actual work. Living in the cottage by the shore made it difficult to get ingredients without having to go into town, and even then Frank didn’t trust himself to make it for her. He remembered that the house he had grown up in—the one that his mother still lived in as lady of the house, the one that she had hoped that he’d move back into to take his place as the patriarch.
He hoped, as he ran his errands, that Alice would let herself rest. Work could wait for the next day, work could stay in the office, but unfortunately that didn’t stop either of them from… bringing home their documents and poring over them at the dinner table. But for now, Frank saw the one person he needed to see—and he paused to wonder if this was a good idea.
Alice didn’t have the best relationship with her family. He didn’t grow up with anyone except his mother, so he didn’t understand what it was like to have siblings or cousins or how to navigate that. His wife had decided that she wasn’t going to play along with the Rosier family values, long before they had gotten married. At this point, Frank wasn’t sure how long it had been since she had talked to anyone in her family since—but to Frank, those family bonds were important. They had to be, right?
What happens after the war when one side wins?
Here, Frank would try. He considered himself a neutral party, someone who could mediate. Someone who could be in the middle, someone who could see both sides, but that wasn’t what he was here for.
“I need a potion for Alice,” Frank started. “She hasn’t been feeling well, but that’s not… that’s not a surprise.”
It was hard not to reveal what’s going on, because how else was he supposed to get the potion that he needed that would help her? Alice had always been strong, and she could power through this, but all Frank wanted was to give her something that would help, something that would make it easier. After all, his only priority now was making sure that she was safe. That their child was safe. And it starts with this.
“She’s pregnant.”