Chaos and Order - A Multiverse Fanfic

"Is that a House-elf?" a high-pitched voice squeaked in front of them.

Darcie looked at her. The voice belonged to a girl of their age. She had flaming red hair and a freckled face.

Not to be impolite, Darcie nodded at her.

"Are you guys rich?" the girl asked again. "Does he like to be with you? Father says rich people treat house-elves like slaves. Are you a slave, house-elf?"

Color rose to Dobby's face, his large ears and nose becoming red.

Daphne's face became as cold as ice, and even Darcie frowned.

Then the shout came screeching through the air. "Ginny! What nonsense are you spouting now?"

A short, slightly plump witch came running towards the children with large strides.

"Dobby is not a slave, miss," the house-elf squeaked, looking very indignant. "Dobby is Miss Darcie's knight."

The older witch looked horrified.

She looked around and found the florist shooting daggers at the little girl with red hair and herself.

"Did you call him a slave, Ginny? You have done it now, you silly girl. Just wait… I am sorry. She is a very curious child, but is cursed with a bigmouth…"

Suddenly, the older witch paused, her gaze finally processing Darcie's face. "You are…"

Daphne cut in sharply. "Identities and status have nothing to do with this," she said calmly. "She should apologize to Dobby."

"Ah, yes!" the older witch absentmindedly mumbled, her eyes never leaving Darcie's face.

Pressed against her legs, Ginny had tears in her eyes.

She looked rather shaken by her mother's outrage, and somehow knew she had caused trouble. "I… am… sowwy," she choked out the words.

Daphne's eyes softened. The two girls shared a glance. The understanding between them was great enough for them to not talk about these subjects. They immediately realized that the red-haired girl didn't really mean it.

It was just they had faced similar situations before that made them raise their guard, causing the misunderstanding.

Darcie shook her head. "We are sorry, too," she said slowly. "It's clear she didn't mean any harm. Dobby is our friend. So…"

The older witch looked stunned as if she had never imagined she would hear such words from this girl.

Darcie took a cupcake from Dobby's hand and held her hand towards the sobbing girl.

Ginny eyed the cupcake and stopped crying. She looked up at her mother, who seemed to go through some great internal struggle.

The older witch closed her eyes and then let out a great sigh, a broad smile surfacing on her lips. "Take it."

Ginny took the cupcake and bit into it, her eyes gleaming like two red stars.

"Dobby makes the best cupcakes," Daphne commented, already forgetting the unpleasant incident.

"I am Darcie," Darcie said casually. "This is Daphne, and he's Dobby, the house-elf."

"You don't know who I am…" the older witch remarked.

And Darcie repeated Daphne's words. "Identities and status have nothing to do with this."

The short woman's eyes trembled.

"You aren't like…" she paused, the smile returning to her face. "I am Molly Weasley. And she's my daughter, Ginny."

Ginny ignored everything. The cupcake had vanished down into her little mouth half already.

"She reminds me of Astoria," Darcie said. Daphne inspected the little girl and almost smiled.

"Are you here for the Chess Tournament, Ms. Weasley?" Darcie asked.

"Yes," Molly answered, looking at the bookshop up the alley. "Ginny's brother, Ron, is participating. He is taking his test in the bookshop with Arthur."

"Daphne!" Suddenly, Astoria came running towards them, her black hair flailing wildly as she rushed through the crowd, elbowing many wizards.

"Astoria!" Daphne cried. "Where's mother? We told you not to leave her side."

Astoria ignored her older sister and snatched a cupcake out of Dobby's hands. Only then she eyed Ginny and Molly.

"I think it's best we should go now," Molly said, looking at the group. "Thank you for the cupcake. God! Where are Fred and George? Those two…"

Molly turned around, her hands gripping Ginny's wrist tightly.

However, the little girl didn't seem that she wanted to leave. Her eyes kept roaming around from the house-elf to Astoria, and then at the two girls.

The moment the older witch had introduced herself, Darcie had recalled the name Weasley. And with that, many other memories returned.

Molly Weasley had won against her internal struggles after recognizing Darcie as the rumored child and Malfoy's daughter.

Darcie was going through the same, but her victory was already fated.

"Ms. Molly!" she cried, making the older witch pause. "Results of the knockout round will be announced an hour later. If you don't mind, Ginny can play with us till then. We have Dobby with us to look after us."

Dobby regained his spirits instantly at the mention of his name, his chest swelling in pride and admiration.

"Mum, please!" Ginny begged, snatching her hand out of her mother.

Molly shot a perplexed look at the group of Darcie, Daphne, Dobby, and wild Astoria. And then let go of the little girl.

"I want you all to be in the bookshop by 12, you hear me?" she instructed all, like a mother. "Don't go too far."

Ginny approached them with small steps, and Dobby gave her another cupcake.

"Dobby made enough for everyone," he squeaked.

"Come," Darcie said, turning around.

"Where's she going?" Ginny asked Daphne, and then pointed at Darcie. "Is she a princess? Are you two sisters?"

Daphne patted Ginny's head. "We are going to look at the Invisibility Cloak."

Ginny's eyes widened, her lips making an o shape.

Darcie looked over her shoulder at the little girl.

"Ginny, you were right about one thing," she said, almost smiling. "We are rich."

*

*

The Invisibility Cloak turned out to be a counterfeit.

All it could do was to make someone invisible for a few hours before losing its effect, and that too was detectable by the simplest of charms.

However, this had failed to lower the air of great enthusiasm on the children's faces.

The group of Darcie, Daphne, Dobby, Astoria, and Ginny seemed like a flock of tiny birds fluttering here and there, chirping all over the alley.

Sometimes they could be seen in Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.

Sometimes they were fluttering in Eeylops Owl Emporium and in the playground between Ollivander's shop and the Owl Post Office.

By the time the hour of results arrived, Astoria was carrying several chocolate frogs, holding them tight against her chest.

Ginny was playing with a Remembrall; a small, clear orb, about the size of a large marble, containing smoke that turned red when it detected that the person holding it had forgotten something.

Now, it was almost bleeding with the reddest smoke. However, she couldn't remember what she had forgotten.

Daphne was eying a Sneakoscope in her palm; a miniature glass spinning-top that emitted shrill noises in the presence of deception, for instance, when an untrustworthy person was near or when a deceitful event took place nearby.

The blue-eyed girl kept looking around her, trying to make a sense of the object in her hand, for the magical object was screeching at the highest pitch now.

As the number of participants in the knockout round was too great, the results were going to be announced to each player individually via the slips handed over to them after their test.

They were halfway to the Flourish and Blotts when Darcie felt a disturbance in the surrounding Magic.

She wasn't alone, though. Pretty much anyone who had the slip of the Chess Tournament had sensed it right now.

Darcie showed no nervousness. She calmly took the slip out of her purse and unfolded it.

All previous lettering had disappeared and a new sentence had appeared.

Pass - Please report to the Head of the Chess Tournament at Flourish and Blotts by no later than 12:30 in the afternoon.

Darcie casually folded the slip back and threw it inside her purse.

"No!" Astoria shrieked as a few chocolate frogs hopped out of her grip and got squashed under the crowd's feet.

One croaked and landed on Ginny's face, and then she shrieked as well.

"Behave!" Daphne said, not unkindly.

It had no effect.

"Let's go," Darcie gestured. "Mrs. Weasley must be waiting for us."

Ginny's face lost color and the red color of the Remembrall in her hand vanished.

As they hurried, weaving a trail in the alley, a voice attracted Darcie's attention. Not only she but Daphne and Ginny had also stopped, for they too had recognized the voices.

And soon, even the faces behind the voices revealed themselves.

6 boys, three on each side, were bickering by the Daily Prophet's entrance.

On one side was a redhead little boy, backed by two taller redheads, who looked exactly alike.

Opposite them, with two fat boys backing him up, was a boy with white-blond hair, his chin towering high towards the sky in feigned arrogance.

In the cold, the temperature was high between Draco and Weasleys!

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