The Boat Of Dreams

[Flora Mulciber]

Set on the 13th of July, 1885

Flora had discovered a small boat for dolls among her toys the other day. A boat that she’d possessed for a long time, but had completely forgotten about. But now that she’d rediscovered it, she wanted to take her dolls for a boat ride. Felicity, because she liked the outdoors, Ming, because she was Chinese and thus, impressive and Clelia, because she was Flora’s favourite doll.

She and her governess had found a spot near the pond and now Flora was sitting next to the water, on a blanket so she wouldn’t get her skirts dirty. The toy boat was floating in the water, anchored so it wouldn’t go away and Felicity and Ming were already sat inside. Now it was turn for Clelia to get on board. Flora carefully put her doll in the boat, but clearly not carefully enough because it fell in the pond, splashing water on her skirt.

@Genevieve Yaxley

  

[Genevieve Yaxley]

Genevieve just loved going to the park, even if she was never aloud to bring her toys in case of ruining them or losing them. The problem was her Nanny just never wanted to take her, she would whine, cry and even scream and yet she would not be taken, until finally she'd gone to extreme measures such as banging her little fists against the floor whilst still screaming as loud as possible as her grandmother came running down the stairs ordering for her to be taken out to stop all the noise.

Which was the reason the little blonde girl was now skipping along happily to the park, a pleased smile on her face, whilst her Nanny hurried along besides her. Upon reaching the park she spotted a girl, who was aloud to bring her dolls and upon seeing this site, the girl loading her dolls up onto a boat, little Genevieve didn't wait to see if her Nanny was following and ran off in the direction of the girl, stopping besides her and letting out a yelp when she too got splashed by the falling doll.

"You know, you really shouldn't drop your dolls in the lake, it's bad for them. She might drown," The girl then stated matter of factly as she took a seat besides Flora. "You should probably get your governess to rescue her, or rescue her yourself. I'll help."

  

[Flora Mulciber]

Flora was distressed enough over Clelia’s new doll dress getting wet to not need this blonde girl telling her about the dangers of drowning. Normally, Flora was happy to meet new people, especially girls her age, but now she was kind of frustrated and it was only her good breeding that kept her from glaring. Both Mama and her governess told her that glaring was rude and bad.

“Clelia won’t drown, she can swim,” Flora said, also matter-of-factly. She’d never actually thrown Clelia in water to know if she could swim, but Clelia was a very expensive doll so she ought to know how to swim. Besides, she was floating in the water, she hadn’t sunk! Still, she wasn’t swimming towards the boat herself -- because she was a doll and all -- so Flora pulled her sleeves up a bit and reached out to take her out. “And I rescued her myself, thank you!”

  

[Genevieve Yaxley]

Genevieve had never dropped her doll in a lake before and so didn't understand quite how distressing it really was, all her dolls were safely tucked away at home away from the dangers of the outside, no matter how much she wanted them to go on adventures. Although when the other girl told her that her doll could swim she just nodded in response, she didn't know the other girls doll and couldn't question whether she could swim or not and it did look like a very pretty doll, pretty dolls could usually swim.

Then as the doll was rescued Genevieve decided that the other girl might be angry with her, as she had told her that her doll would drown. And although she really shouldn't care about the other girl being angry with her, she did as she wanted someone to play with and so she decided to make it better by adding. "I think your doll is very pretty,"

  

[Flora Mulciber]

Flora smiled a bit at the girl’s words about Clelia. She was still a bit irked about the drowning business, but Clelia hadn’t drowned and she wasn’t about to shoo a new friend away! At least she’d been concerned about Clelia’s well being, instead of make fun of her being in the water. Other little girls would do the latter and those were the sort of girls to be angry at.

“Thank you,” Flora said. She then noticed that the blonde didn’t have any dolls herself. “And where are your dolls?”

  

[Genevieve Yaxley]

As the other girl smilied Genevieve smiled back, pleased that complimenting the doll had worked and that she'd hopefully get a new playmate soon. But the moment Flora asked about her dolls the smile fell from her face and she let out an annoyed little sigh. "I'm not aloud to bring my dolls to the park, in case I ruin them. And I always try to bring them secretly but I always get caught," Her nanny was very good at spotting the missing dolls and she'd yet to manage to steal one.

After a couple of seconds of quiet the blonde girl then asked "Can I please play with your dolls with you?" It wouldn't be a fun as playing with her own favourite dolls but it'd be better then nothing. Maybe Flora could come to her house to play with dolls at some time as well because then they'd both have their dolls to play with.

  

[Flora Mulciber]

She wasn’t allowed to bring her dolls along? That was horrible! What use were her dolls if she couldn’t bring them along to places? Dolls couldn’t stay indoors all the time, they’d get terribly lonely. And that came from Flora, who didn’t really mind spending time indoors. But she could also invite her friends at home and walk and talk, whereas dolls couldn’t do that.

Her next question perplexed Flora a bit. She didn’t really like sharing her things. Lola was the only person who could touch her dolls without her permission. Flora couldn’t trust others to not mistreat her dolls. And this girl wasn’t allowe to bring hers along, so maybe it was because of the way she was treating them?

But it’d be boring to play if only one of them had dolls, she supposed. “You can take Felicity?” Flora tentatively offered, deciding that the strawberry blonde doll was the one she wouldn’t mind sparing as much. “But be very careful with her.”

  

[Genevieve Yaxley]

With a nod Genevieve carefully took Felicity from the other girl, making sure to remain cautious with the doll as she didn't want to lose her new friend by breaking her doll. Then holding the doll up with both hands placed firmly under the arms she viewed the doll, a smile on her face as she stated "I love her hair so much, I wish I had hair like this,"

Then resting Felicity down on her lap she glanced back over at Flora, excitement clearly hoeing in her eyes as she wondered what the dolls were going to do next. "Are they still going on a boat trip, even though Clelia fell in?" She didn't see why the dolls wouldn't, Clelia had been able to swim to safety and it was such a nice day for a boat trip, as well as the fact Felicity clearly wanted to go, as did the rest of the dolls.

  

[Flora Mulciber]

“I suppose they can sit on the shore instead,” Flora said with a nod. At that she picked up Ming and placed her in a seating position on the ground next to her. She then put Clelia in her lap, where she belonged, because she was the prettiest and superior doll.

“And your hair is very pretty,” Flora said in regards to her previous comment. Felicity’s hair was very impressive, but it was also a unique hair colour and Flora didn’t think it smart to get sad over unique things. “It’s like the colour of gold. Mine is just brown.” Not that she didn’t like her hair colour. It was the same as her Mama’s hair colour and her Mama was the prettiest woman in the world. But people did always say ‘Just Brown’ when it came to her hair colour.

  

[Genevieve Yaxley]

Seeing as Felicity was already in her lap the girl just gave a nod to her friend and stoked the dolls hair. In her opinion Felicity was the prettiest and superior doll, as she wanted to best doll even if it wasn't her own and Felicity had such lovely hair, prettier than any of the other dolls.

"Thank you," the little blonde replied, she did love her hair but she also loved Felicity's as well, although maybe if it really came down to it she wouldn't change it, because her hair was very pretty after all. Turning to look back at her friend, she gave Flora another smile as she replied "Your hair is very pretty as well Flora, it's a much prettier brown than lots of people's,"

  

[Flora Mulciber]

Flora smiled brightly at the girl’s compliment. She was used to receiving such comments, about how lovely she was, how much she resembled her mother (who was very beautiful) and such. So not getting nice words was not something she was used to. The same probably applied for her new friend as well.

“Thank you,” she told the other girl. “I think it’s because it’s dark chocolate brown. Like the one at Honeyduke’s! Chocolate is my favourite thing there, and yours?” The only chocolates that she wasn’t allowed to eat were the ones that had something called ‘rum’ in them.

  

[Genevieve Yaxley]

"Yes, yes, yes, chocolate is the best isn't it!" the girl exclaimed with a couple of fast nods as though to prove her point, she just loved chocolate more than anything. "I especially love the chocolate frogs, don't you?" Chocolate frogs were just the greatest, they were like a game and chocolate combined, you had to make sure you didn't lose your frog and then eat it as fast as possible, it was all so much fun.

But as well as chocolate she also loved, "Sherbet lemons are nice as well though, when you get to the middle and they tingle on your tongue," Sweets was just the most fun topic to discuss in her opinion and she was sure that her friend felt the same, maybe the could visit Honeyduke's sometime together and buy lots of chocolate, some for their dolls as well.

  

[Flora Mulciber]

Flora didn’t like sherbet lemon as much as chocolate, but that was because it tasted very sourly to the brunette. She didn’t really enjoy citrus fruit in general. Oranges were sort of nice, if they were the sweeter sort, but she still didn’t like eating them as much as strawberries and red apples.

“I love chocolate frog cards,” Flora confirmed. “I have over fifty chocolate frog cards!” Many of them being repeated cards, mind. She had up to six or seven of some wizards’ cards. “I found a Rowena Ravenclaw card the other day. For the first time. She smiled at me. It was very brief but she did.”

  

[Genevieve Yaxley]

"Really? I want Rowena Ravenclaw!" Genevieve exclaimed as she glanced over at her friend in amazement, Rowena was quite a rare card that she had yet to collect and yet Flora had her? Flora was just so lucky and she was a little bit jealous. She was going to have to persuade her grandmother to buy her lots of chocolate frogs so she could get her as well.

"I only have over forty chocolate frogs cards, but I'm going to ask my grandmother to take me to Honeyduke's tomorrow so I can get some more," The little blonde stated, having chocolate frog cards was a bit of a competition and she couldn't be beaten at it, even if Flora was her new friend.

  

[Flora Mulciber]

Flora felt very smug to have Rowena Ravenclaw when Genevieve didn’t. And many of her other friends as well! Rowena was the first founder that Flora had found so far. The friend of hers had once found Godric Gryffindor but her cat managed to find it and lose it. Her friend was inconsolable.

“I have about fifty,” Flora replied but she couldn’t really know for sure. She was only now beginning to learn arithmetics. “Which cards do you have the most repeats of? It’s Burdock Muldoon for me. He’s soooo boring.” He was only a chief of the Wizarding Council, which was no fun at all! Flora preferred the witches and the inventors.