keegan delaney has always been a part of george weasley's life. they were never close, though they both were always there for the important moments. it's only after hogwarts when keegan gets a job in a cafè right across from weasley's wizard wheezes...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
CHAPTER FIVE: AT HEART
■■ ■ ■ ■
VIVIAN DELANEY WORE HER heart on her sleeve. Bright-eyed, free spirited, ready to take on the world. No one had ever been able to match her intensity with their own, not even Keegan's father, a once beloved man who cut a twelve-year-old Keegan and her mother out of his life the moment the divorce was finalised. The last Keegan heard from him, he was engaged to a woman that he and Vivian had known in their Hogwarts days, the two already expecting a son together. At first, when the news got around to Keegan - from the Daily Prophet, no less - her first thought had been of her mother and how she would feel. The woman set to marry Ryan Crawford was one that Vivian had once seen as a friend. But rather than crying or screaming or wallowing in grief, Vivian had laughed in relief, almost like a heavy weight had been taken off her shoulders.
No one would ever tie down Vivian Delaney, she claimed. The only person she would ever need was Keegan.
That remained true even when she met Eleanor Easton, a random woman who had come into her flower shop one day and kept on coming back. Eleanor was the only person Keegan had ever met who shared her mother's fire. She had warmed up to the woman immediately, pleased to see a happy smile on Vivian's face again. Nevertheless, Vivian stood by the words she'd instilled into Keegan since she was a kid. Don't get her wrong, she grew to love Eleanor and Eleanor's daughter, Genevieve, with her whole damn heart, but the only person she would ever truly need, not want, in her life was Keegan. Keegan; her daughter by blood and by choice. If she didn't have her around, she wasn't sure what her life would look like.
Knowing this, believing in it with endless confidence, had kept Keegan grounded during the dark days. She would always have her mother and, to a degree, her step-family to love and support her through her ups and downs. Now, as she stood in the doorway of her apartment on an early Saturday morning, she supposes that is why she didn't take her mother's last letter to her seriously. Even before Keegan was born, she had played the role of mother hen to her older sister's son and daughter, not to mention her status as the mother of her friend group in school. Just thinking about it now, Keegan should have known that when Vivian promised to send Genevieve to check up on her, she would follow through with it. So long as she knew Keegan was safe.
"Why hello, sister," Genevieve smirked when Keegan opened up her front door, bleary eyed and not truly comprehending the sight of the twenty-one-year-old standing before her. "Nice place you've got here. Can I come in?"
She didn't wait for Keegan to respond as she stepped inside, grinning appreciatively at the cosy setting. It was just how Vivian and Eleanor had described it to her, right down to the freshly hung paintings on the walls, the sunflowers in a vase on the dining table. Everything was distinctly Keegan Delaney, and Genevieve wouldn't have it any other way. "Nice place, Keegs, it suits you."
