Sympathy for the Devil (Dorcas)

Aurora was very much Rodolphus’ child as in she nearly always got her way, and as such she was unaccustomed to being told no or being ignored. Dorcas’ lack of verbal response to being instructed to tell her daddy whatever it was Aurora thought Dorcas should tell Rod was not the response the little girl had expected. She scowled, her lower lip becoming more pronounced as she pouted even further, turning back to look at her father. “It’s not fair! You get to play with her and I don’t! I want to play, daddy!” She began wiggling her little body, trying to release her father’s gentle grip on her.

Catching on, and barely hiding his annoyance with the situation, let alone dealing with it so early in the morning, Rodolphus set Aurora down. “You can’t fly in a dress, love. Put some trousers on and we’ll go play in the garden.” He turned to Dorcas who was still holding a bowl of mushy cereal milk. “I’ll have Ader make you a proper breakfast at your house,” he said to her, placing his hand on her back and trying to usher her out of his daughter’s bedroom.

“No!” Aurora ran the short distance from where she stood to where Rodolphus and Dorcas were heading to the door. Wrapping her tiny arms around the witch’s legs, she hugged the stranger she called her friend. “We’re playing quidditch. Don’t you want to play with me?”

Closing his eyes and inhaling deeply, Rodolphus attempted to suppress the annoyance he was feeling. Aurora was having a temper tantrum, something he didn’t typically have to deal with, and he was unaccustomed to not being able to just give her whatever it was she wanted in order to get her to quiet down. Normally it was simple; if Aurora wanted a thing, he’d buy it. If she wanted to go somewhere, he’d pay for the trip. Even with his parents still possessing the majority of the Lestrange fortune, Rodolphus had enough money that he could throw gold at any situation to ensure his daughter’s happiness, but this was a completely different situation.

The heat from Dorcas was undeniable, and it wasn’t the fun sort of heat that he’d felt last night (and early this morning). This was the angry heat, the sort that ended with no shagging for a week at least. This was not how he had anticipated spending the morning after his birthday. Aurora and Dorcas were never supposed to have met. They were different parts of his life and he had no plans to ever allow them to overlap. This morning was a full on nightmare and now Aurora was clinging to Dorcas’ legs like she was a sodding lifeboat on the Titanic.

“I could go for some quidditch.” Aurora’s face instantly lit up, a huge beaming smile showing off her teeth. “Yea!” she cheered, giving Dorcas’ legs a tight hug and pressing her face into the fabric of the pyjama trousers she was wearing.

“Dorcas, you don’t have to-”

Aurora lifted her face out of the burrow she had made in Dorcas’ trousers and scowled at her father.

“Trousers,” he said, sternly.

Aurora smiled and pulled herself away from Dorcas, skipping over toward her wardrobe. “Moooooopsyyyyyyy,” she called in a sing-song voice. The elf appeared almost instantly next to the child, averting her gaze from Rodolphus’ glare as he ushered Dorcas out of the room and shut the door.

“Perfect bloody morning,” he muttered to himself as he led Dorcas through the large mansion and out into the sprawling lawns behind the manor. “What the fuck were you thinking, Meadowes?” he said to Dorcas in an irritated tone, pulling the door to the garage open and revealing his assortment of toys. Magical motorbikes, flying carriages of various sizes and colors, and along the wall was a display of at least a dozen top of the line riding brooms. “She’s my daughter.” He pulled a broom off the wall and passed it to Dorcas, then reached for another one for himself. “She’s six. What the fuck am I supposed to tell her?”

The sound of Aurora shouting their names could be heard from the lawn outside. “Daddy! Dorfus! Come oooon!”

He was going to kill his parents. Not literally, of course, though it wasn’t something that was beyond his abilities, but they damn well knew better than to send Aurora home before the arranged time. Anyone could have been over, the least of which was Dorcas. What if Rodolphus had been entertaining Lord Voldemort again? Entertaining was a strong choice of words and not completely accurate, but any meeting with the Dark Lord meant some level of showmanship. The Dark Lord aside, it was the morning after his bloody birthday, they couldn’t give him a few more hours to nurse a hangover or just sleep in after a night of socializing?

Dorcas didn’t appear nearly as annoyed as he was, but it was all too clear that she was displeased with this morning as much as he was. She was easy to read, at least Rodolphus believed so. “You didn’t have to play along,” he retorted, not willing to take responsibility for the shitstorm they had found themselves in this morning. They were at an impasse, and it was best just to get through the rest of the morning as quickly as possible, shove Dorcas out the door unceremoniously, and avoid any further questions from Aurora until she inevitably forgot all about her new friend and life could return to normal.

Quidditch with a six year old was vastly different from the quidditch Rodolphus and Dorcas played for Slytherin House. For starters, Aurora’s quidditch set was not regulation. There was only one bludger which was made of foam and felt like you were being smacked with a soft pillow if it hit you. A plastic club, similar to a whiffle ball bat, was used to knock the bludgers one way or the other. The quaffle was made of a harder material but it was light and smaller than a traditional quaffle so that tiny hands could hold it easier while riding their toy brooms. The golden snitch was roughly the same in appearance as that of the Hogwarts School’s quidditch set, except it moved at a snail’s pace, never going higher than 60cm or flitting beyond the boundaries of the enchantment Rodolphus set up around the grass.

The game went quick enough, with Rodolphus playing against the witches – Aurora had insisted Dorcas be on her team. “We’re Slyberin, daddy. And you can be the Waps.” The Whimbourne Wasps were Rodolphus’ favorite professional team, and he had already taken Aurora to a few of their matches, sitting in a private box so that she could play when she tired of attending to the game, but also just so Rodolphus could flaunt his wealth and not have to sit among the poor. Aurora liked to play as team Slytherin, wearing her father’s first set of quidditch robes – tailored to fit her properly, of course.

Aurora hovered barely above the ground, urging her broom to move forward by wiggling her body and pumping her legs as if she were on a swing. Rodolphus gently knocked the foam bludger in her general direction, making sure it wouldn’t actually hit his daughter. A few times he sent the soft ball flying at Dorcas with a stronger swing of his plastic bat, but the impact wouldn’t have hurt at all. He simply smirked at her and waggled his thick brow in her direction before Aurora cried out “daddy look!” for the hundredth time. When the game ended (Slytherin having caught the snitch and been the only team to score any points with the quaffle), Rodolphus began to pack up but Aurora cried for another game and much to Rodolphus’ chagrin, Dorcas agreed. He scowled and sent the foam bludger straight for her tits. The second game ended just as the first had and Aurora took no notice that her father was purposely throwing the game so that she would win. She had never noticed on any of their games before and was always beyond pleased to show off her brilliant quidditch skills.

“Alright, love. That’s enough for today. How about you run inside and have Mopsy clean you up.” Rodolphus began packing the balls away in their carrying case but Aurora had other plans.

“I want to swim!”

“Alright, princess. Tell Mopsy and she'll take you to the pool.” Rodolphus would let her do just about anything to distract her from wanting to continue this awkward playdate.

“Do you have a swimming costume?” Aurora looked curiously at Dorcas. “Daddy can buy you one if you’re too poor. Daddy has loads of money.”

Still shirtless and wearing his pyjama trousers, Rodolphus used his wand to banish the toy quidditch balls to their trunk, the latches snapping into place on their own. His thoughts were everywhere as he attempted to usher his daughter inside under the care of her house elf and get his mistress out of his home quickly. If Aurora wanted to swim, she could do so. Hades, if she wanted to go to Peru Rodolphus would let her if it meant this sodding morning could be put to rest. Aurora’s plastic pink riding broom tucked under his arm, and his own professional quality broom in hand, Rodolphus gave his wand a swish and levitated the trunk, preparing to head inside.

He chuckled under his breath as he heard Aurora mention Dorcas being poor, and Dorcas confirming as much. His little princess had not yet perfected the art of tact. She said exactly what was on her mind at any given time. She was just like her father at that age, not bothering to care what might offend and being too self-assured to understand how one had to craft a persona to present to the world. She would get there in time, just as Rodolphus had, though without Bellatrix around to model how a proper witch should portray herself, he was somewhat worried that Aurora would develop the vital social skill much more slowly than her peers.

Aurora pouted overtly as Dorcas claimed she had boring adult things to do and had to go home. “Do you want to go swimming tomorrow, then?” she asked, a hopeful look in her eyes, though her plump lips were still forming a spoiled pout. 

“Dorcas is busy tomorrow, princess.” Rodolphus needed to shut this nonsense down and quickly. “And she needs to be getting to work. Say goodbye.”

“What’s your work?” she asked, ignoring her father altogether and carrying on with her conversation. “Can I come? I get to play boss at daddy’s work and everyone has to do what I say.” The pout had vanished, replaced by a look eerily reminiscent of Rodolphus' when ordering waitstaff around in the nude.

Aurora’s eyes widened as Dorcas explained that she was an Auror, except that wasn’t exactly what the little girl had heard. “You’re a Aurora? Daddy! Dorfus is a Aurora like me!” Brunette curls bounced up and down as the little girl became excited by the idea of catching baddies and making them behave. She tugged fiercely on her father’s trousers in excitement, bouncing on the balls of her feet and demanding her father acknowledge this amazing turn of events. As Aurora was preoccupied with her father, Dorcas headed off towards the garage with the broomstick she’d been using. The tiny brunette turned to ask her more about being an ‘Aurora’ but Dorcas was already a good distance away. “I’m a Aurora!” she called, beginning to chase after the older witch. “I want catch arseholes, too!”

Before she could get too far, Rodolphus scooped up his daughter in his arms, having dropped the equipment they’d been playing with earlier and leaving it on the lush grass. “You don’t want to work as an Auror, love. You’re too pretty to work,” he told her, repeating a phrase she had heard many times before. Her job, when she grew older, was to marry a wizard from a noble line and bear him the sons Rodolphus had yet to be given. She would have no need of a real occupation, unless she fancied a hobby.

“But Dorfus gets to work and Dorfus is pretty.” Wiggling in her father’s arms, she tried to free herself in order to continue her chase of the witch who was getting smaller and smaller in the distance. “Don’t you think Dorfus is pretty, daddy? I want to be pretty like Dorfus.” Aurora was unsuccessful as Rodolphus turned and headed for an entrance into the mansion in the opposite direction.

“You are gorgeous, my little love.” The brunette witch smiled and squeezed her father’s neck in a tight hug, nearly choking him. “Now, let’s you go play in your room while daddy takes a shower, then we’ll go pester Uncle Rabby for a bit.” And drink. It was still fairly early in the day, not yet time for lunch even, but Rodolphus was in need of a stiff drink and his brother was good company for that. Perhaps they’d encourage Rabastan’s fiancée to spend a bit of time with Aurora. It would be mutually beneficial as Aurora would do well to be around a respectable witch after this rubbish fire of a morning, and Lilith would need to prepare herself for her own children which would be expected to be announced not long after the wedding which was only a few months away.