December 2002

It was an honest offer of a child-free day. A chance to run errands and make a start on the Christmas shopping. A chance to do all the things she'd been putting off. Like visit her vault and remove some pieces. She'd had a buyer passed to her by her uncle, they wanted something out of the ordinary and Audrey thought she had just the thing tucked away.

All of it she could have done with Maggie of course, except the rollercoaster ride to her vault perhaps, but it was just so much more difficult. Her attention was always on her daughter and what she needed.

Which made it incredibly enticing, the thought of being herself for a day, so much so that she'd practically bitten her Mum's hand off when she made the offer.

When Fleur had called, Audrey had faltered, going so far as to ring her Mum to cancel. Explaining that Fleur, alone while Bill was on a work placement abroad, had asked to spend the day with her. Her Mum instead had offered to take on Fleur's two as well. Fleur had been torn, as eager as Audrey at the thought of a day of being herself and concerned that leaving three very small children with one woman was asking rather a lot, especially when the woman in question was unaware of the magical nature of her charges.

Lizzy had convinced her, however. Fleur had flooed to Audrey's before Lizzy had arrived and stepped out of the front door with Audrey, after Lizzy had assured her that everything was fine, and Audrey had her mobile phone should things get too much, with only the slightest misgivings.

They walked around the corner of the street, ostentatiously heading for the tube, but at a sheltered corner with no one around, Fleur grasped Audrey's arm and apparated them to around the corner of the Leaky Cauldron on the muggle side. Audrey took a few moments to recover from the mode of transport she rarely took with good reason. Her first steps were a bit wobbly, but her balance soon came back to her, and she shot Fleur a reassuring smile.

"The bank first," Audrey suggested tying her scarf tighter around her neck in reaction to the December weather. They walked arm in arm through the door of the bar and out to the Alley. They meandered up the cobbled streets discussing their latest news and who would be hosting who for Christmas. There was a general consensus that it would likely take an act of war to get Fred and George away from Maggie on Christmas Day and so they would probably be joining Audrey and Percy for Christmas dinner. Audrey's parents would be hosting their own dinner with her sister and would visit later in the day. Fleur and Bill would be hosting Fleur's parents and her sister. A brief visit to the Burrow would be made on Boxing Day, long enough for the grandparents to see their grandchildren but not long enough to join in any sort of meal. The visit would mainly be for Arthur's sake, who was stuck between disapproving of his wife's behaviour and being unable to alter it.

"We'll see him on Christmas Eve, he's going to come over and give Maggie her present," Audrey told Fleur.

They reached the bank and Audrey approached the counter. The goblin approved her key and waved her towards the doorway where the carts were. The journey made her nauseous, and she was glad she hadn't got Maggie with her as she stumbled slightly. Fleur caught her arm, giving her a concerned look which Audrey waved off.

The door opened under the goblin's hand and Audrey's key. The small magical globes of light that Percy provided her with to light the inside of her vault shone gently. Audrey made a quick circuit around them checking for fade, making a note of those Percy would need to come and refresh for her. Fleur walked forward into the vault curiously poking about amongst the pieces of furniture.

"What do you have these all for?" she asked.

"It's essentially overflow stock," Audrey answered. "The wizarding world has genuine antiques kept in a condition that is nearly impossible to find in the muggle world. I buy it in your world and sell it in mine. Even with the exchange rate being what it is the amount of money that can be made is astounding. I keep it here because flooding the market with it would drive the price down. Also, because my Uncle, who technically owns the business, doesn't know about magic."

"Aren't they full of enchantments?"

"Percy found me suppliers that strip out all the enchantments. Only the preservation charms remain. The cost of the item is dependent on how much effort it took, if the item had any hexes or curses applied. Even so, I haven't yet found anything that hasn't or won't turn a profit when sold."

Fleur looked interested. "How much does that usually cost?"

Audrey paused, looking over at her sister-in-law. "It depends I believe; the better services are more costly, but then the peace of mind is there. I don't want anyone hurt. The biggest risk is that I'm a muggle and not everyone will work with me, and some don't think the anti-muggle enchantments need removing. There's trust that needs to be built, and it's more difficult given that I'm not magical. I do alright here with the suppliers I have, so it's not something I've actively pursued."

"But you could buy more?"

"Well, furniture seems to be pretty steady, so maybe a little but not much. Curiosities and ornamental pieces there might be a market for, I'd have to brush up on my knowledge as I don't know enough to truly launch into that area with confidence. Then there's the jewellery market, which I haven't really touched because according to Percy the hexes, jinxes, and curses tend to be that much nastier thus driving up the price of having them removed. I have some bits, though. That's what I'm here for today actually." Audrey beckoned Fleur over to the chest she was stood by. "We've a customer who is getting married in the new year and wants a tiara to be her statement piece." Audrey selected three velvet boxes, opening them and turning them to face Fleur. "Nothing as lovely as the necklace and earrings you leant me, but I think any of these would do the job."

"Yes," Fleur agreed gently removing the tiaras and handling them carefully. I wore Bill's Great Aunt's tiara, it was beautiful." Placing the tiaras back in their boxes, she withdrew her wand, casting a spell over each item.

"Fleur?" Audrey asked.

"I wished to check the work," Fleur replied with a shrug. "If you are going to sell these,"

"I do have the paperwork if you want to look it over." Audrey offered.

"Call it professional curiosity. These are clear of anything other than the preservation charms."

"Did you do a lot of curse breaking on jewellery?" Audrey asked, closing the jewellery boxes up and placing them into her bag.

"Some, mostly in training. As you say, it can be tricky due to the wealth of things you run across but rewarding too."

Audrey nodded, indicating that she was finished, and they could leave.

Fleur followed casting a considering glance back over her shoulder at Audrey's vault.

Once back on the surface, Audrey hooked her arm through Fleur's. "Come on, where are we going next?"

"I would like to replace some of Bill's things, he is hard on his tools. Also, Bill has asked me to post some things off to Charlie for him and I will need to buy his Christmas present so it can be sent at the same time."

"Right let's do that. I'm going to get the twins and Percy presents from the muggle side. What would your girls like? Dolls? Clothes?" Audrey looked conspiringly over at Fleur. "If you swear to keep it a secret, I can show you Ginny's secret weapon against the twins."

Fleur gave her an amused glance. "Isn't that supposed to be a heavily guarded secret? I've heard Fred and George try and get the information out of her."

"To be honest, it's not, at least not in the muggle world and if they thought about it for even a minute, they could probably have worked it out. I think they just like the fact that she's made an effort to get one over on them to try too hard."

"Are you ready for them at Christmas? I cannot say that I am not almost a little jealous on behalf of Victoire and Dominique that Maggie has their devotion."

"I think that might be more the Percy effect than any effort on Maggie's behalf to be charming. They're brothers, Percy is a little stiff, and the twins are a little reckless, they balance each other out. They accept the help he is offering, and he accepts that they demonstrate their love by being playful. Honestly, I've just sort of accepted that they will always be there in some form. They've all but imprinted on Maggie, and as long as everything stays the right side of playful, I'm not going to complain. I did consider putting a limit on Christmas presents considering what they did at the hospital. But I doubt they'd listen, or they'd find a way to get around it."

"I did say almost," Fleur pointed out wryly. "I do not think I could handle such exuberance all the time."

As they completed their shopping, magical and mundane and started to debate lunch, Audrey felt her stomach roll. Stopping, so she could concentrate on breathing through the sudden nausea, she hoped she wasn't coming down with some sort of winter virus. She leant on the wall trying to be casual about the sudden weakness.

"Audrey?" Fleur asked quietly.

"Sorry," Audrey said wanly. My stomach is all over the place. I'm probably just hungry."

Fleur cocked her head. "I do not think you are."

Audrey lifted her head to look at her sister-in-law. "Oh?"

Fleur held out her hand. "Let's find somewhere more private."

Audrey took the hand and let Fleur lead her down a quiet side street. Glancing all around her Fleur withdrew her wand and held it down by her side. "Take off your ring," she instructed. Audrey complied tucking it securely in her jeans pocket. Fleur lifted her wand and in a careful motion, cast a spell. The spell surrounded Audrey and glowed yellow.

"What's that?" Audrey asked.

"It's a pregnancy test," Fleur said simply.

"What?" Audrey asked. "Why would you…?"

"A hunch," Fleur replied. "Your balance has been off all day, and you've been suffering bouts of sudden nausea. Victoire was like that for me."

"So, it was positive?"

"Yes," Fleur said with a growing smile. "You're pregnant."

Audrey slumped against the wall again, her own smile matching Fleur's. "I'm pregnant? My cycle has been a bit all over the place, I can't say that I've really kept track. Does your spell know how far along I am?"

"No, it's a household charm, for that you would need to see a mediwitch."

"I'll make an appointment with the doctor. So, I'm pregnant."

"Yes. But you should also eat. Will you tell Percy tonight?"

"I want to pick up a test on the way home. Not that I don't trust your magic," Audrey said reassuringly. "But it's the muggle in me I suppose," she laughed. "Unless I pee on a stick, I won't believe it."

Fleur shook her head. "We can get one of these tests easily?"

"Yes, any chemist we pass will have them. Come on, you're right, I need to eat."

They sat at a table in the restaurant, having sent the waitress off with their orders. Fleur gazed out of the window, her expression telling Audrey her thoughts were a million miles away. Audrey didn't mind, her own thoughts were a little distracted. She was pregnant. She ran the calculation, even if she was only a couple of months along the gap between Maggie and this child would be roughly a year and a half. That was close to what separated her and Rachel, and they had a good relationship growing up. Similar in age that they were friends as well as sisters. It meant that her plans for going back to work might have to be looked at again. She'd been hoping that now Maggie was a bit older she'd be able to take her to sales. That might not be possible if she was pregnant again. The idea of being as tired as she had been at points in her last pregnancy and dealing with a fractious Maggie didn't appeal.

"What will you do?" Fleur asked, bringing Audrey back to the present.

"About?"

Fleur twirled the stem of the wine glass on the table between her fingers pensively. "Things are different for you, yes? Muggles don't homeschool their children, you expect to return to work."

"Err, well, yes. Lots of families have two working parents. Once Maggie is three, she'll be able to go to nursery. I've been talking to Helen and John Granger a lot. They've been through this before and to be honest, as stupid as it sounds, I had it in my head that Maggie would go to nursery, get upset like kids will do and have the entire nursery floating on the ceiling. I know it sounds daft, but I've heard the stories about the brothers and Ginny growing up from Arthur, and from Percy and the twins and it didn't seem that much of a stretch to be honest. Helen and John have had a bit of a job talking me down from a ledge. Percy has his own concerns because he doesn't have any experience of the muggle school system, but I do think it will be best for Maggie."

"Then you'll return to work, once she is at school during the day?"

"That was my intention, well until about twenty minutes ago," Audrey smiled. "What's this about Fleur?"

Fleur sighed, leaning back in her chair. "I love my job. I left France, learnt English, yes, to pursue Bill, but also to become a curse breaker. I love my children. The expectation is that until they go to Hogwarts, I will be at home with them. Eleven years. I do not think I want that."

"What has Bill said?"

Fleur waved a hand in negation. "His mother raised them. She stayed at home. That is what Bill knows."

"It's not really the same, is it?" Audrey asked, breaking off as the waitress laid their plates in front of them. Once she'd gone, Audrey picked up her knife and fork and continued. "Molly, for all her faults, had seven children practically one after the other. Bill was born three years after she left school, that's what? Essentially twenty years with children underfoot. Being a mother was her career. If you want to work, is there something stopping you other than the expectation that you won't?"

Fleur poked at her food. "Curse breaking requires you to go to the location. You can be away for an indeterminate length of time. The dangers aren't to be underestimated either. Even a role within a team based in the country is hardly safe. Bill's accident was at his desk."

Audrey ate some of her food, hoping her stomach wouldn't get upset. Cautiously she suggested. "Have you considered muggle schooling? Just until their letters come. That would let you do something."

Fleur laughed sourly. "Would you be surprised if I said yes?"

"Maybe a bit," Audrey replied, not liking Fleur's tone. "I take it, Bill wasn't keen."

Fleur took an angry bite of her lunch, chewing it with as much emotion. "No, he was not. I am their mother. As if that is all I am."

"Well, in fairness to Bill," Audrey began cautiously feeling as if she was navigating a field scattered with land mines. "If you hadn't met me, would you have considered anything else than staying home and homeschooling?"

"No, but I think I might have found myself unsatisfied. It's just now I can see an alternative, I want an alternative. I do not want to just be a mother and yet I feel as if I am betraying my children saying they aren't enough."

"Ha! That I do have the answer for. It's in one of my parenting books. Basically, you're allowed to feel like that. It's perfectly normal, and you aren't allowed to beat yourself up about it. You were a person before your children, and you are still a person with them, it's just, you know, people see the kids first."

"Percy will let you work with no expectation you should stay home. He will let his children go to muggle schools."

Audrey winced. "I'm not going to compare the two. But you forget that I'm not magical. I have my own expectations of marriage and children. We are constantly compromising because we are trying to blend two worlds which are very different. For all intents and purposes, you and Bill are operating within the same expectations."

"My expectations have changed!" Fleur declared, stabbing viciously at her food. "He flooed last night, the dig has been extended. He doesn't know when he will be home. This is not a problem because I am home. Home to look after his house, to be a mother to his children, while he enjoys himself, grubbing around in a tomb doing work he loves with no expectation of giving it up."

Audrey took a long sip of her drink wishing she'd ordered wine. This was fast turning into a wine and ice cream conversation. The waitress approached the table to inquire if everything was alright with their meals and it was on the tip of her tongue to ask for a bottle, but Fleur answered with the expected pleasantries, and she left before Audrey could form up the words.

"Sorry, this is not—." Fleur apologised.

It's alright," Audrey interrupted. "Honestly it is. I'm still in contact with my antenatal group, we get together once a month when we can. Once we've finished bragging about who's grown the most it basically turns into conversations like this."

Fleur smiled wistfully and said nothing else. They finished their meals and declined pudding in favour of coffee.

Fleur turned her cup in its saucer her face once again thoughtful. "You said that you needed trust to buy pieces to sell."

"Yes," Audrey said warily.

Fleur nodded slightly. "And that you sometimes had difficulty because you aren't a witch."

"Yes," Audrey agreed.

"Then," Fleur paused, catching Audrey's eyes. "You could trust me? If you give me some pieces, I could remove the enchantments. You could have the pieces checked to be sure my work was good. Then, I could, I mean, perhaps if you needed, with a seller because you aren't a witch, do this for you?"

Audrey propped her elbow on the table, resting her chin in her hand, scrutinising her companion. "You're suggesting what? We set up a business together. I find the pieces I can sell; you help me where the seller will only deal with a magical person then clean them up, and we each take a cut of the profits?"

"That, that is more than I was thinking," Fleur confessed. "I thought perhaps I could charge you for my services. Small pieces I could work on at home. It's not about the money, especially. I want to do something. To use my skills, to still have something for myself besides my children. But a business? I, I don't know how to do that."

Audrey smiled at Fleur. "You're right, we can start small. A few pieces of interesting jewellery or ornaments to start. I'll speak to my Uncle, see what he thinks, and I'll let you know. I was supposed to go on the trip to France in April, I suppose that might change depending on how far along I am, but, well, do you want to come with me? Maggie is staying with Percy. If Bill can't have Victoire and Dominque, could your parents? What are the limits on apparition? Could you make the trip each day from them to wherever I will be? Or perhaps find a local floo?"

Fleur looked at Audrey with a radiant smile. "You'd let me do this? To come with you on your trip. To help you?"

Audrey laughed. "I'm not letting you do anything. I'm accepting your idea, I'm willing to give it a try at the very least, of course I am. But yes, I am inviting you on the trip, that is if I do go, and if I do, I'll probably need your help since I'll be the size of a house."