Through the Looking Glass

Long grass stretched away beneath scattered, pink-flowered cacti, emerald-needled, sweet-scented pines rising over them toward a bright blue summer sky. A broad spread of white sand sloped down to the soft wash of the sparkling blue sea.

‘Katrina! Eleanor!’ Fleur stepped onto the white sand and pushed the brim of her white bonnet up with one finger, her charcoal grey dress fluttering in the wind. ‘Bring the hamper.’

‘Yes, maman!’ Two blonde girls in matching blue dresses scampered out clutching a large, wicker basket. 

They dropped it upon the sand, and clustered about the legs of Fleur’s dress, beaming up at her with bright smiles and green eyes. ‘Can we go in the sea, now?’

‘In your nice dresses?’ Fleur conjured a pair of deck chairs and a blue blanket. ‘Non.’

‘Maman!’ One of the girls stamped her foot in the sand, little white feathers bursting through her blonde hair.

‘Katrina.’ Fleur opened the hamper, pulling out a pair of small glasses and a bottle of limoncello. ‘If you want to go in the sea, what do you need?’

‘Swimming things?’ Eleanor stuck her lower lip out. ‘Can you change our clothes, maman? Pleeeeease?’

Fleur sighed and flicked her wand, turning blue dresses into blue swimming costumes. ‘Go on, then, girls. Be good and don’t go too far. Papa and I will be watching from here.’ She shook her head and stacked fruit tarts on little white plates, the sunlight flashing off the diamonds encircling her ring finger. ‘That’ll keep them out of our hair for a bit, mon Amour. We can celebrate our time together.’ Her smile twisted in his heart, sharp and sweet, stealing the breath from his lips. ‘This is the first place we visited.’

Harry stared into her bright blue eyes, then past her at the two little girls splashing in the waves. ‘But… we didn’t…’ He dragged his gaze away, down to the bare skin of his fingers, then up to the letters etched across the ornate bronze . ‘I show not your face but your heart’s desire…’

I don’t have a family like that. He stretched out, pressing his fingertips to the cold surface of the mirror. Not yet.

‘The only limit on magic is what you believe. You’ve seen wonders, Harry. Great and terrible things.’ Fleur reached out through the glass to slip her hand into his, drawing his fingers through the cold, gleaming silver into the bright sunshine. ‘Take a leap of faith, mon Amour.’ 

‘Will it come true?’ he whispered, staring through the mirror at the shining band of gold on his finger. Hope seized his heart. ‘Can it come true?’

‘We’ll all be together forever,’ she murmured, pressing a soft kiss to the ring on his hand. ‘Join us.’

The two blonde-haired green-eyed girls jumped and laughed in the white spray where the sand met the surf. Fleur gestured with her other hand toward the two sparkling glasses and the bottle of limoncello, offering him a gentle smile.

Harry stepped forward, cold glass sliding over his skin as his arm reached into warm sunshine. ‘Forever?’

Fleur’s lips curved up into a slim, ruby smirk and her grip tightened like a vice, pulling him into the mirror inch by inch. ‘Oh yes, mon Amour.’ The blue of her eyes brightened to shining silver; darkness danced there beside the desperate light of dying dreams. ‘Forever.’