Ch 10 An Awkward Easter with Cassiopeia
Minor additions and corrections last chapter and this, although one of my beta readers did inspire the last section about James.
Rose sighed as she looked around the room. Grandmother Granger was sitting watching them, smiling. She was old; Muggles did not live as long as Magi, and although still a thin, spry lady she was getting old.
Rose loved playing with Minerva. Her mother Hermione had done her best, but Rose wanted to be more like her grandmothers, both of whom seemed to be much more patient with babies and young children.
Magi seemed to be marrying younger than Muggles, much younger. She was not ready to settle down, and she sure did not want to settle down with Percy, but many of the things she liked to do would make her an ideal wife and mother and hostess. It wasn't just that Cleo was playing with them, although it was hard to be with Cleo and not be aware that you were going to bear the next generation of Magi, and that doing so would be a good thing.
She had never even been to Malfoy Manor, and everyone said the tension and hate there was hard to live with, but Scorpius wanted her to redecorate the place, and why was she even thinking of stupid Scorpius and his even dumber girlfriend Cassie.
She was not thinking logically.
Ginny looked at those who were going to be meeting Scorpius, Cassiopeia and Cassie's mother. Her three oldest were there, James and Lily reluctantly, along with Mabel, their suspicious house elf (you didn't dare call her an Elf) who insisted on meeting anyone who was going to be in the Potter house, the house she was determined to protect and guard.
Frerin, the Elf guarding Albus, and Mitzi, the Elf that was her constant companion, were also there.
Scorpius came through the Floo first, followed by Cassie and her mother.
Her mother sniffed, and looked around. "We come in through the KITCHEN?" she scoffed.
"We do not use the formal fireplace in the drawing room very often," Ginny shrugged. "It is work getting it on the Floo network."
"Is that lamb?" Scorpius wondered.
Albus nodded. "We are holding a Seder meal, something somewhat like the Passover meal that Jesus ate at the Last Supper. That is what Holy Thursday is all about."
"Albus's family is religious," Cassie told her mother. Mrs. Starkey had a sour look, like she didn't approve, but did not say anything.
Ginny knew that the comment was only partly true, but she was not about to try to explain anything to this unpleasant witch.
"Where is my daughter staying, Mrs. Potter?" Mrs. Starkey barked.
"I will show you," Ginny replied, as the crowd trouped upstairs.
Ginny quickly climbed upstairs, holding on to railings. Despite her lack of balance and weight, she was in rather good shape, and quickly climbed through the main floor and the drawing room floor, not saying anything.
"Mum, dad, and my little sister Minerva sleep on this floor," Albus told Cassie as they climbed up another set of stairs.
"James and I have bedrooms on this floor. There is a bedroom for Teddy Lupin as well, but Scorpius stays with me when we are here," as they rushed up through still another floor.
Mrs. Starkey was huffing by this time, out of breath.
"This is the top floor of Magi," Ginny remarked. "This set of steps," pointing to a small circular staircase, "goes up to the Elf area.
"I have an office on this floor. Lily has her bedroom up here, and it shares a bathroom with this room."
Ginny opened a door to show a modest size bedroom. Ginny further explained, "We added this bedroom for a young student who needed a place to stay. She is now living with relatives, so it is free."
Mrs. Starkey's nose was up in the air, a dismissive look on her face and in her bearing. "Not much of a house for someone as rich as you are rumored to be. Rather plebian."
Ginny took out her mobile and adjusted her hearing aid. The ear was giving her balance problems again, and the hearing settings needed changing. Ginny put her mobile away, and responded, "This has been a very good house for us. We did a major remodeling job early in our marriage, but since then it has served us well."
"I guess when you are HANDICAPPED it is more comfortable living in a smaller house," Mrs. Starkey sneered.
Ginny was shocked at this remark. Yes, her balance was bad, and there were some issues with her hearing on the one side, but since becoming injured she had born four children, and had a very successful career as the Quidditch editor for The Daily Prophet. She had no problem running up and down the stairs, although she did need to be close to the railings in case her balance started to give her problems. She never considered herself handicapped, just someone who had to deal with a few issues. What was wrong with this lady?
"I will let you out at the KITCHEN Floo," Ginny snapped, wanting Cassie's mother out of her house as soon as possible. "You children can stay up here. James, Lily, you are free to do what you want until dinner."
Ginny walked down the stairs as fast as she could, Mitzi at her side. An out of breath Mrs. Starkey followed, and a suspicious looking Mable came last.
"Malfoy Manor," Mrs. Starkey said, stepping into the Floo. Ginny guessed that Mrs. Starkey was going to complain to the Malfoy family about the small plebian house of the Potters'.
Cleo and Rose were in the kitchen, along with Minerva, when Ginny came down stairs. Once Mrs. Starkey had gone, Ginny looked at the girls and shrieked, "HANDICAPPED! Handicapped! That …" you could see Ginny was trying to come up with a suitable vile word for the witch, without success. "She called me handicapped.
"A Plebian house?"
"It is more comfortable upper middle class than snotty rich," Rose reflected. "It is hardly what I would call plebian, though. That has, I believe, lower middle class implications.
"I wonder if she has any idea what a house in this section of London costs?"
Rose and Cleo looked at each other. It was not a good idea to get on the wrong side of Aunt Ginny, and Cassie's mother was way on the wrong side of her.
"We ought to redo the dining room, and get the room ready for tonight," Rose suggested. "I can take care of the table settings, but I need your help, Aunt Ginny, with the furniture and walls."
"The Elves," Cleo looked at the two house elves, who were glaring at her, "I mean house elves, have cooking the Seder meal well in hand. I am just fascinated by all the traditional foods that are used, and the different ways different families and cultures prepare them."
Mable and Winky looked at Cleo and muttered something to each other in Elfish. Miss Cleopatra was having a hard time understanding that they were honest house elves, not Elves.
Ginny stomped upstairs, obviously still furious, Rose following.
Cassie put her suitcase in the modest bedroom, and looked around.
"The loo and the rest of the bathroom is through there," Lily pointed out, frowning. Lily walked out into the hallway and into her room, slamming the door.
"I will see you for dinner," James muttered as he went to the stairs.
"Where do you stay when you are here, Scorpius," Cassie sweetly wondered.
"With Albus," Scorpius replied. "We can go to his room, and I will show you."
The three Magi went downstairs.
After showing Cassie the room, the three students went out onto the little balcony that overlooked the garden areas. "How much of this do your parents own?" Cassie wondered.
"It is a rather complex question," Albus replied. "It keeps changing. The houses and flats at that end of the block, starting with one Grimmauld Place and One NewBright Street, are owned by a Granger family. They are not related to Aunt Hermione, at least not that we can find out. Most of the houses on NewBright Street, that the Granger family doesn't own, which are most of them, are being purchased by Magi, or owned by them.
"I think Potter family money build the flats over the garages at the other end of the street, plus the flats across the alley. Uncle Bill manages all that, and he has a property manager working for him. I know it took about twenty years to buy up all of the houses on this block and resell them to Magi."
"Delores Hanley says she lives on this block," Cassie remembered. "Do you know where?"
"Mum knows," Albus answered. "There is a charitable foundation that owns some of the houses on Grimmauld Place, and women and children fleeing abusive situations stay there. There is a house for men and older boys as well, although there are not near as many of them."
"Who owns the garden areas?" Cassie wondered, looking at the modest sized green space between the homes.
"The gardens are the same area as the homes in front of them, and are all privately owned," Albus explained. "There is a homeowner's association, I understand, that maintains the space, and with the agreement of the owners much of the space is common space. Between our house and the Shook house right across is some children's play equipment. I understand that it was more or less a joint purchase by the two families, but any child from the block can use them."
Eventually all the children received a Patronus from Hermione telling them to change for dinner.
Rose looked at the assembled crowd. All the men, her father, Uncle Harry, Hugo, James, Albus and Scorpius, were dressed in conservative, dark colored suits and ties. Scorpius was as tall as her father, although thinner, and why was she thinking how good looking he was?
Her mother, Aunt Ginny, Lily and she were all in modest dark colored floor length dresses. Even Cleo wore a floor length dress, although her dress was in an Easter Pastel pallet, with three-quarter sleeves. Nothing subtle looked right on Cleo, and even if it was acceptable, Cleo didn't like it. Cleo's hair was festooned with colorful ribbons in a multitude of small plaits, looking very … very . . . Very Cleo, she sighed.
Cassie wore what Rose would consider a cocktail dress, three quarters long, sleeveless, with the thinnest of spaghetti straps. Cassie was not ugly; she was actually a pretty girl. She just didn't have to show it off at this meal! Rose was very glad she was not sharing HER room with Cassie, even though she had no problem sharing her room with Cleo.
Friday morning Scorpius found Rose when Cassie was not around.
"Spending all this time with Cassie was NOT my idea!" Scorpius insisted. "It is painful. The more time I spend with her the less time I want to spend with her."
"Why did you agree, then?" Rose scoffed, crossing her arms.
"They wore me down," Scorpius admitted with a defeated sigh.
Rose did not know if she should be mad at Scorpius or sorry for him. She guessed she felt some of both.
She was glad when they went back to Malfoy Manor after Easter, although she missed Scorpius.
The Tuesday after Easter Hudson Harrison, the person from Firebolt Broom Company who had worked with Ginny, Albus and James on their brooms, contacted Ginny and asked to see her. Ginny met with Hudson in her office.
"James and I have been working on broom spells," Hudson informed Ginny. "He has a real talent for it. The next two years Professor Ollivander is going to be encouraging students to develop their own spells, in areas that interest them. She is as different a teacher as she could be from Urban Umbridge, who wants to just teach spells in the text books, and wants them done exactly like the text book says."
"Is he being safe?" Ginny wondered.
"That is actually one of the things we are working on," Hudson indicated. "James wants to push the ability of his broom and flying as much as he can, but he also knows that if he gets hurt it will get him in trouble. He is very aware that Mr. Lionheart is slipping, and he doesn't want to risk a head injury.
"I just have to tell James too often that we need to not be flying quite as close to the edge. We have made advances with the Spitfire spells, but I have to keep reminding James that we need to make spells that all the good flyers can use, not ones quite so hard to fly. James flies a little too close to the edge at times for me."
Ginny put on a very fierce and determined face. "You keep reminding James that no Quidditch win is worth becoming injured. I am too aware that I flew when I should not have flown, and am living with the scars because of it."
Hudson nodded in agreement. "I do my best to emphasize safety, but I felt it would help keep James safe if I had the agreement of a very determined mother."
"James is flying right now, I think," Ginny noted. "I will tell James that we talked, and that his permission to work with you is totally dependent on him staying safe."
"Thank you! I am heading over to the New Burrow and Potter's New Burrow property to work with James and his friends right now," Hudson told Ginny. "I work mostly with professional players, but James is better than most of the professional players already, and the Quidditch group he has gathered around him is extraordinary."
2021