Lucky Charm Pancakes (Eden/Curse)

[Eden Fletcher]

Chuddly Cannons zoomed across the ceiling, as Eden opened her eyes. She was in Max's room at Godrick's hallow. It was the year of Qudditch. Max had recently got into it and Eden had helped him decorate his room. He'd gone along with qudditch because she had suggested it. The posters hadn't been up for long. They would have been destroyed when Morsel had destroyed the original house. This was the house Eden had fallen in love with. She had started to belong to a family in this version of the house. Eden grinned when a loud shriek pierced the silence. Every smoke detector in the house called out in protest as a sickly sweet smoke tinged the air. Pancakes. With lucky charms.

Eden rushed out of the room, the worn floor cool to the touch. She ran down the stairs like she had as a child, skipping the last step in favor of launching herself around the corner. She skidded to a stop as she entered the kitchen. The kitchen was a disaster. There was pancake batter everywhere. Cereal splattered across the floor. A tabby cat was sipping at spilled milk. Happiness rose in Eden and she giggled like she did when she had been eleven and seen such a scene for the first time. She hadn't laughed like that in years. She should have been afraid. She should have been angry but she wasn't. she was dead and she was home. Finally home.

"Hello Dad,"

[Max Kameren]

“You know something funny about the Spirit World?” With a loud clatter two pale hands dropped a plate stacked high with pancakes on the kitchen counter. “It’s nigh-impossible to ruin a breakfast.”

Above the perfect golden-brown stack of pancakes speckled with rainbow marshmallows, Curse Kameren leaned against the table and grinned at the blonde woman in the doorway. The man standing in the kitchen was not the frail Curse Kameren Eden had last seen; he was instead the Curse of her childhood, youthful and strong with the salt-and-pepper dark hair he had before the poison overcame him.

“Hello, Dad.”

A wry, crooked smile stretched across his face. “Hey, Eden.” Curse sank into a chair at the table and kicked out the one across form him, beckoning Eden to sit. “I assume you understand where you are? You’ve rolled the dice many times in the last 30 years, I knew you’d wind up here across form me sooner or later.”

[Eden Fletcher]

“You know something funny about the Spirit World?” With a loud clatter two pale hands dropped a plate stacked high with pancakes on the kitchen counter. “It’s nigh-impossible to ruin a breakfast.”

Eden just stood there in the doorway stairing at Curse. He looked just like he had the first time he had made her pancakes. Except for the fact that these pancakes were beautiful.

“Hello, Dad.” It had felt right to call him that in this place. She didn't think she had ever actually said those words, in life, directly to Curse. Not out loud anyways.

A wry, crooked smile stretched across his face. “Hey, Eden.” Curse sank into a chair at the table and kicked out the one across form him, beckoning Eden to sit. “I assume you understand where you are? You’ve rolled the dice many times in the last 30 years, I knew you’d wind up here across form me sooner or later.” [/b]

Eden slid into the offered chair. "Beyond the vale, the spirit world, heaven," Eden said with a shrug as she loaded her pancakes with syurp. "You have to admit, 30 years was a pretty good run for me. And I didn't get seriously scarred. I haven't lost a limb or anything. Max's lost a few fingers. He's got way more scars and he's a blood healer." Eden said in between bites.

"So what's it like here in Heaven. Or is this limbo?" Eden asked looking around. Were they in her Heaven or his? Would they share Heaven? Eden hated being alone. She liked company. She could rarely sleep without somebody with her in the next room.

[Max Kameren]

“I assume you understand where you are? You’ve rolled the dice many times in the last 30 years, I knew you’d wind up here across form me sooner or later.” Of his children Eden had always been the standout for risky behavior, he had known even in life that his adopted daughter would follow him sooner than the others. She had that spark that made an auror; a curiosity and search for justice that too often outweighed the need to survive.

Eden slid into the offered chair. "Beyond the vale, the spirit world, heaven," Curse rasped a laugh at the suggestion that this was heaven. His sharp green eyes glanced around the old house, dingy with smoke from the stove. "You have to admit, 30 years was a pretty good run for me. And I didn't get seriously scarred. I haven't lost a limb or anything. Max's lost a few fingers. He's got way more scars and he's a blood healer." Eden said in between bites.

Curse shrugged in amused acknowledgement; Eden and Max had found ways to compete over everything. Naturally, somehow they find a way to compete with death and mutilation. Still, he frowned slightly at the unwelcome idea of his son following in his footsteps. They only led to an early grave. “I must admit, I was surprised to come face-to-face with him again before you. Always seemed so dead-set on a peaceful path. You, on the other hand?” Curse watched as Eden finished off the too-sweet marshmallow pancakes and smiled. “Hellraiser.”

"So what's it like here in Heaven. Or is this limbo?" Eden asked looking around

“On the nose. Limbo.” Now they were down to business. Curse leaned forward on his elbows, meeting Eden’s eyes. Behind him the door to back patio opened and a golden glow lit the room. “Here’s where you make your choice: Go back to stay with the living as a ghost, or move on.”

It was a binary choice that would determine her experience forever. Curse had no advice; the decision was too personal to for any words of wisdom to be useful. The choice was hers, and hers alone.

[Eden Fletcher]

If Eden was honest with herself, she didn't think she would have even made it to 30. Her brother hadn't. Her birth parents hadn't either. Fletchers lived hard and died early. It seemed Eden was followingin their footsteps. A part of her was actually angry that she was here. Which actually surprised Eden. She knew her lifestyle was reckless. She thought she had come to terms with death. She had seen so much of it that she had thought she was prepared.

“I must admit, I was surprised to come face-to-face with him again before you. Always seemed so dead-set on a peaceful path. You, on the other hand?” Curse watched as Eden finished off the too-sweet marshmallow pancakes and smiled. “Hellraiser.”

Eden grinned, pleased at the compliment. She liked that word. Hellraiser. Maybe someone on earth would put it on her tombstone. Maybe Max would. Fear whipped away Eden's smile. Curse had seen Max? Was Max dead? Or did Curse mean the time when shadowloved had tortured Max in the elevator? He'd nearly died then. If Max was dead who would look after Arianna and the girls? Alex couldn't do it alone. he shouldn't have too. He already had so much on his shoulders.

"So what's it like here in Heaven. Or is this limbo?" Eden asked looking around

“On the nose. Limbo.” Now they were down to business. Curse leaned forward on his elbows, meeting Eden’s eyes. Behind him the door to back patio opened and a golden glow lit the room. “Here’s where you make your choice: Go back to stay with the living as a ghost, or move on.”


"How Long ago did you see Max?" Eden asked, her voice a little high with anxiety. Eden prayed that Max had been able to cross back. That he hadn't moved forward, that he wasn't dead yet. It wasn't fair. He had tried so hard to walk the peaceful path, he hadn't sought out danger but fate, the fickle bitch, had other plans.

Eden stared at the patio door, as the soft glow. it looked so peaceful. So inviting. So bloody boring. And how did she know what was on the otherside? Maybe it was nothing but light and she would just be floating there at peace. But would it really be peace if Max wasn't safe? Warghallow could still be alive. He might have survived the blast. And going would mean she wouldn't be here with Curse. He was likely bloody waiting for them all to come through here, or at least Ari. As Eden pondered the glowing door, she felt a sting on her neck. She rubbed at it absently, frowning as her fingers touched a sticky substance. Eden looked at her fingers to see scarlet blood. It looked out of place in limbo. Eden looked up at Curse as pain narrowed her vision. She tried to focus on his face but she was distracted by a humming and someone talking to her. Urging her to go back, to just breath.

Her throat burned and she was afraid to breath. Afraid of the pain if she did so. but breath meant life. She had her chance to g back if she was brave enough to take a breath. She didn't have to be a ghost. Which was good because honestly it would suck haunting St. Mungos. And Eden had something to do before she went to Heaven. So Eden took a breath. Then two. With each breath, the hallow disappeared. Eden blinked trying to bring it back into focus but it didn't work. When she opened her eyes wide she was staring at pale green walls. And there was a stranger smiling.

"Welcome back Auror Fletcher. Don't talk just yet. Your vocal cords were cut. They've been heled but still fragile,"

[Max Kameren]

“Here’s where you make your choice: Go back to stay with the living as a ghost, or move on.” It was a binary choice that would determine her experience forever. Curse had no advice; the decision was too personal to for any words of wisdom to be useful. The choice was hers, and hers alone.

"How Long ago did you see Max?" Eden asked, her voice a little high with anxiety.

“There is no time, here.” Curse could see the deliberation play out across his adopted daughter’s face, but he had no details to give her. He had been in purgatory for years and for minutes, he existed in his own purgatory in the home his built with Arianna and in Eden’s vision of their first home. There was a lot unknown even to him about what lay beyond, but it was plain to him existence would be quite different past the golden threshold at his back. The choice had more to do with faith than logic.

Eden reached to her neck and fingers came back bloody. Her incredulity was contrasted with recognition in Curse’s narrowing eyes. Curse reached across the table and laid his hands on her shoulders, taking one last look at her beautiful face. “They’re taking you back. Let them.” His fingers tightened in a comforting goodbye as his face and the home around them began to fade. “Try to find peace in life, Eden. You deserve it, too.”

Cure’s grip loosened as their connection blurred, and the chaos of St. Mungo’s Hospital came back into focus. "Welcome back Auror Fletcher…”