Chapter 11: Landscape
Gin Boyd walked into The Leaky Cauldron without saying a word to anyone, ignored someone calling her name and sat at the bar. She'd spent the day at the gallery mostly arguing with Mary Caroline regarding Minnie's suggestion to hang some of their own works, had finally decided that besides Hugo everyone in the world could go to skip Go and then move directly to Hell, but mostly she was irritated at her mum. Once a double firewhiskey arrived she took a sip and finally felt the tension move out of her shoulders. She was even contemplating buying a pack of cigarettes when someone sat down on the stool next to her. It was not the day for anyone to try to engage in idle talk with her; she just wanted to be left alone. Without looking at the person next to her she told them, in an edged voice, "I already have a drink, I'm engaged, and I'd prefer to be left alone."
"What crawled up your arse?"
"Uncle George?" Gin looked over to see George Weasley holding a drink with a little umbrella. "Sorry, didn't realize it was you."
"Uncle George once removed. You know, officially going to be your uncle, then removed, but now reinstated. Bad day, I take it?"
"Ugh." Gin took a drink. "I swear Mum and Mary Caroline didn't hear a word I said all day. We've got the gallery opening in a week and somehow they both decided to change the gallery name. Without even asking me."
George let out a low whistle. "Cheeky. So what did they go with?"
"Grey Swan Gallery. I'd explain but it takes too long. It's personal."
"Grey Swan, eh?" George pursed his lips and nodded. "Not bad, bit artsy-fartsy, but then again, you know, art and all that. I would have gone with something different to draw the crowds. Something like 'Naked People Pictures.' Everybody loves those." He sipped on his drink from a straw. "You artistic types do pictures of naked people, right? Angelina and I went to France once on a business trip and stopped in some place called the Lurve. Lots of naked people in there."
"I think you mean The Louvre." Gin couldn't help but smile. "Dammit, George, I had a good mad going on and you've ruined it." She shook her head. "So what're you doing here at four in the afternoon?"
"Just finished a late lunch, got caught up in some new product development with Poesy and before I knew it lunch had just sailed on by. Have to eat, you know." After taking another drink George scratched the side of his head where his ear formerly resided. "I've been meaning to speak with you, actually. Business proposition."
"Me?" Gin felt confused; why would George have a business proposition for her? "Are you sure?"
"Oh, absolutely. You're the one to do it. I know you've painted most of the family, portraits and all that, but it's been a while. I think you painted me when you were in sixth year, and it looks smashing, but it doesn't have the proper…" He tapped his finger on his chin. "The right level of oomph for what I'm planning. I'd like a portrait of Fred an' me on the day we opened the shop. Picture's hanging in my office, of course, and you could borrow that. I'm thinking something big, grand, imposing. Lots of things moving about in the painting, like when you walk into the shop."
"It would have to be after the gallery opens, George. I don't have enough time to start now."
"Not a problem. Pop by my office when you're free and I'll give you some ideas. Well, now that that's all sorted, how's the flat hunting? Found someplace yet?" He seemed to have a twinkle in his eye when he looked at her. "Heard there's some rather nice places on the market, reasonable prices, too."
Gin felt her black mood again as if someone had thrown a blanket over her. "Horrible. Merlin, George, there's nothing that Hugo and I can agree on. We've looked at some perfectly good flats but he always finds something wrong with them. I think he would be happy if we just had a copy of Hermione and Ron's place plopped down out in the countryside somewhere. Besides that he's always going on about money; I have enough to make a nice down payment on these places but he keeps saying everything costs too much."
"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, then." George patted her on the back. "Sounds like his dad."
"Fucking hell." Gin rolled her eyes and took a drink.
"And…like I said, apple doesn't fall far from the tree. You sound like your dad now." George stood up and winked at her. "You two will figure it out."
Gin's mood didn't improve much when she returned to Forthingsgate. Hugo was out on one of his practical examinations, Mione was out at an away match and Scorpius was Merlin knows where for the Ministry. She was glad that Mary Caroline was out because she wasn't sure exactly what she'd say to her after the day they'd had. Instead of picking up takeaway, as she'd planned, George's request had made her forget so she ended up going down to the kitchen and eating leftovers. It was while sitting on a stool at the little island in the kitchen, that she took a look around and really noticed her surroundings.
The kitchen remained almost the same way she remembered it from when Forthingsgate was her Grandmum Lane's house, but Mione had made a few changes, most noticeably the color of the walls. Instead of the pale yellow she remembered from childhood the walls were now robin's egg blue, and while it did work it just sort of felt wrong to her. She knew that it was just the difference between her memories and Mione's reality, but it wouldn't have been her first choice for color. Just didn't feel comfortable. A few bites later she had her 'a-ha' moment and realized she'd been going about the flat hunt all wrong. She'd been dragging Hugo to places where she felt comfortable, contemporary flats with all the mod cons, including Muggle ones, but that wasn't how Hugo had grown up. He'd grown up in sleepy, magical Satterbourne.
She sat the Chinese takeaway carton on the island and stuck her chopsticks into it without really looking, missing with one of them, but she ignored it. Did it really matter to live in London? They could get to anywhere they really needed to go via Floo. Hadn't Arthur Weasley proven that you could work at the Ministry but not live in London? She could always get to the gallery via Floo. And then there was the question of where she'd stay when she had to go to Richmond; sure, her father's home state had some decent sized magical communities, including some out towards the country, but she couldn't just live in the hotel or at the shop.
That's when it hit her. She had a solution, or possible solutions, but she'd need help to pull everything off. Ignoring her takeaway she left the kitchen, went into the library and pulled out a sheet of parchment from Mione's writing desk.
Hugo still wasn't back when she woke up the next morning, but one return letter waited for her when she woke up. Apparently one of Mione's house elves had brought the letter to her very early, because when she looked at her watch she realized that even though it was Saturday the time was only half eight. She read through the missive quickly, happy to see agreement on her plan, and then set about getting ready for her day. Instead of her usual boots or heels she picked out some very sensible flats, put on a pair of old jeans and one of her father's old button-down collar shirts she'd nicked ages ago. After minimal makeup and her bangles she grabbed her military jacket off of the back of a chair, wrapped a scarf around her neck and left Forthingsgate. Once she'd made it outside of the anti-Apparition zone that Scorpius had constructed to keep Mione's more unruly fans at bay she did a quick turn and was gone.
Luckily when Gin arrived the sun was shining, as she really didn't want to go through with her search in the rain. After knocking on the front door she stood there with a bit of excitement, her to tapping to a song that had kept playing in her head all morning.
"Virginia, come on in. Tea?" Hermione Weasley smiled at her.
After walking into the house Gin started looking around very intently, trying to take in everything, using her artist's eye to try and remember. She followed Hermione to the little sitting area and after the two witches sat down Hermione waved over the tea tray. They busied themselves with their tea preparation, and after taking a few sips and determining that everyone was healthy and doing well Hermione sat down her teacup.
"You have no idea how surprised I was to receive your letter, Virginia. You and Hugo..."
"He doesn't know. Just my idea."
"Oh." Hermione picked up a small pile of parchment. "Are you sure about this, Virginia?"
"I'm not making any final decisions without him, I know that much. But it can't hurt to look, can it?" Gin took a sip of tea. "Is Ron sleeping?"
"No, he's out in the field. That's something you'll have to get used to, along with all of the worry. Even though I know he can take care of himself, I still…well, enough about that. There are some lovely little places here in Satterbourne. Which one do you want to look at first?"
There were a total of five houses and two flats in Hermione's stack of listings. The first house they looked at was nice, but it was altogether too small; when she'd mentioned that to Hermione she noticed her future mum-in-law had to hide her happiness. She wanted to tell Hermione that she shouldn't expect a grandchild right away but thought better of it. Best to let that part take its own course. One flat was promising, the other was hopeless and the second house would have cost a million Galleons to make into a livable domicile. Hermione made a note on the listing for the agent to supply a picture from the last decade instead of the one that must have been taken years ago on the advert. The next house, though…that one made Gin smile as she walked through the house. A very nice kitchen, obviously laid out by someone who knew how to cook, a little library, one bedroom downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs. The garden held multiple flower beds, overgrown since the house became empty, but Gin could see their potential.
After wandering back into the house Gin was standing in the little sitting room, looking at the well-worn wooden floors when Hermione entered the room, shuffling the parchment.
"We have two more to look at, the next one is…" She stopped and looked at Gin. "It is a rather nice house, isn't it?"
Gin nodded. "Yeah. Whoever built this house was a craftsman. The attention to detail, even in the floor…" She looked up at Hermione. "Do we have to go to the other two?"
At breakfast the next morning with Mione, who had returned rather late from her trip, Gin shook her head at her little sister. "Oatmeal again? You eat the same bloody thing every morning."
"Leave it." Mione gave her a scowl and returned to her oatmeal.
"What happen, you guys lose?"
Mione let her spoon drop into the oatmeal. "Yes, we lost. It was a friendly with Bulgaria and we lost. Happy?" She picked up her spoon again and gave her sister a dirty look. "When are you and Hugo moving out?"
"Well, this is a nice breakfast." Gin took a drink of coffee. "Having us here is cramping your style because this house is so small, right? Just so you know I looked at places yesterday with Hermione. I'm waiting for Hugo to come back and then I'm taking him to see the one I like. Happy?"
"About bloody time." Mione pushed her oatmeal around the bowl for a bit and snapped her head up quickly. "You didn't say anything to Minnie, did you? Or Mum?"
"Anything about what?"
"You know. What you said in the portkey terminal."
The light came on for Gin, as she knew exactly what her sister meant. "No. So are you?"
"Maybe. Not sure."
Gin tapped her finger on the side of her coffee cup. Mione's irritable mood made total sense. "So you're acting like someone just turned you into a newt because you might be pregnant, and if you are the last match you played in was a loss to Bulgaria. Right?"
Mione took her spoon and flicked a large quantity of oatmeal at Gin, hitting her directly in the chest.
"Oh that's nice, way to go. You'll be a cracking mum." Gin reached up to wipe off the oatmeal from her chest and heard footsteps, and with her hands still on her chest Hugo walked into the kitchen and sat down.
He looked horrible. Gin knew how he was when he hadn't had his usual amount of sleep, and it was much worse than that. His Auror robes were filthy, he hadn't shaved and if she was honest he smelled horrible. She didn't care.
"Morning." Hugo sat down next to Gin and pulled her coffee cup over, and even though it was still very warm he drank all of it in several large sips before giving it back to her. "Sorry."
"Are you ok? You look knackered." Gin moved his hair away from his eyes. "When was the last time you slept?"
"Friday, I think. Surveillance. What a waste." He picked up the bacon off of Gin's plate and began eating it. "Bloke never showed up, all for some…" He looked over to Mione and shook his head. "Sorry, can't say anything. Forgot."
Gin put her hand on his arm. "Why don't you get some sleep? They aren't making you do anything else today, are they?"
He shook his head. "No, off until Tuesday, then it's the last exam."
"I've got something planned for us, but it can wait until this afternoon. Is that ok?"
Hugo nodded. "Sure, Polly, just let me get a little sleep." Without saying anything else he got up, gave Gin a kiss on the top of her head and walked out of the kitchen.
"Polly?" Mione started laughing. "He calls you Polly?"
"Yes, he does, Mummy Malfoy." Gin waved over the carafe of coffee and poured herself another cup. "I can't wait until you get huge."
After Apparating Gin stood holding Hugo's hand in one of the main Satterbourne streets. The shops were moderately busy, people going about their way, but Gin knew that if she was going to keep Hugo upright they'd need more coffee. She led him to a little shop, ordered him the biggest double-chocolate triple espresso latte possible and a regular coffee for herself. As they sat down Hugo was suspicious.
"Ok, Polly, you've been weird ever since I woke up. I could've used a few more hours, but whatever. And now we're here, drinking coffee of all things…"
"It's not like what I usually drink. Take a sip."
Hugo sighed and reluctantly took a drink; his eyebrow arched and he looked over at Gin in surprise. "It's much better than what you drink."
"See, love, you have to trust me sometimes." She panicked for a moment as she realized exactly what she'd said.
Hugo rubbed the stubble on his cheek with the last three fingers of his hand. "I think you should know by now, after everything that's happened, that I do."
"That's not what I meant, it's…oh shit. This is not going how I planned."
"A Slytherin with a plan. My Gryffindor senses are tingling." He took another drink of coffee. "Have to remember this drink next time I'm on a late-night job. I can feel it working already. So, Polly, what are we doing in Satterbourne? Are we meeting my parents or something?"
Gin shook her head. "No, I have something to show you. Feel up for a little walk?"
She ignored all of his questions as they walked, eventually pinching him to keep him quiet. Hand in hand they made their way through different areas, even passing the back side of his parents' property, and finally stopped at the destination. Hugo gave her an odd look, but Gin just smiled at him. As they walked up onto the little porch Gin let go of his hand, went to a small blue box that hung on the outside of the house next to the front door and said her name in a very clearly enunciated manner. The lid of the box swung open, revealing a rather old-fashioned key. Gin took the key, opened the door and looked back to Hugo.
As they walked inside Hugo began looking around, but Gin could feel that something wasn't right. He didn't seem pleased, he seemed amused. She stood next to him and put an arm around his waist. "I didn't want to do anything official until I showed it to you. I wrote your mum the other day and we went looking for places. I know you've been unhappy with the places in London, and it made me think about things, mostly how the places we saw were my kind of places, not yours. I haven't signed any papers, put down any Galleons, anything. I just wanted to show it to you. There is a problem, though, because your mum said the agent already has a tentative offer on the place, so if we decide to do anything we'll have to do some negotiating."
Hugo left her, walked over to the kitchen and sat his coffee down on the counter. "Wish you would have told me about this earlier, Polly. One of the reasons I stayed up was that I was trying to get back to see Uncle George."
"Go on." Gin stood with her back against the doorframe. Something was up with Hugo, as he reminded her of when he'd proposed, the way he was nervous, seemed to rush to get his words out, the smirking evasiveness.
"You know how I'm not making much right now as an Auror. That'll change when I get sorted soon, but the places we looked at were all too expensive. London, you know, that place just eats Galleons. Before I came back to Forthingsgate I stopped by Uncle George's place and…well, he's giving us a loan. I found a little place in, get this, Richmond. You know, the English one, not the one in Virginia. It's a Muggle house, and I wanted you to see it."
Gin covered her face with her hand, causing her bangles to jingle much louder as the sound echoed through the empty kitchen. "Let me get this straight. You were willing to live in Muggle London and borrow Galleons from your uncle, and I found a house in Satterbourne with your mum. It's the freaking Gift of the Magi."
Hugo nodded. "Yeah, Mum likes that story. She read it to Dad before Christmas one year and he sold off some Cannons stuff to buy her a ring. Mum said she should have read it to him years before."
"Do you want to live like a Muggle?" Gin walked over to him and put her arms around his waist. She looked up at him. "No Floo, no…"
"Your mum and dad have a Floo at Colony House."
"Yeah, but they're out in the country, sort of. What about this house?"
"I never thought you'd want to live in Satterbourne, Polly. You really like this place?"
She led him on a tour through the house, showing him all the amenities, the artistic touches, the quality of the craftsmanship. Eventually they stood in the garden and Hugo eyed the shed with a calculating glance.
"I'll have to work on the roof. See there? Sagging in the middle. Shouldn't take too long."
A little over an hour later the two of them walked out of the estate agent's office, shocked looks on their faces. Gin looked over to Hugo and shook her head. "We just bought a house."
"In Satterbourne." Hugo took a deep breath. "Bloody hell."
"Can't believe the other people dropped their offer." A thought came to her suddenly and Gin stopped walking, leaving Hugo go on for a few steps before he turned around.
"What's wrong?"
"Let's pop in and see your parents. I have an idea." Gin's strides were purposeful as she took Hugo's hand and started off in the direction of her future in-laws' house.
Ron answered the door looking much like Hugo had; unshaven, tired and generally just out of it. Instead of his Cannons shirt he was wearing a Wimbourne Wasps shirt. "Oh, this is a surprise. Come on in."
"Who is it Ronald? Oh, hello…" Hermione had walked into the room with her hair piled onto the top of her head and wearing a pair of reading glasses. She sat some official looking folder down on the table and joined her husband. "Were we supposed to meet you? I don't have anything on my schedule."
"No, Mum." Hugo shook his head. "Um, we've got an announcement."
Ron let out an exasperated sigh. "Oh, Hugo, I told you to wait…"
"Not that, Dad. We bought a house."
"That's wonderful." Hermione looked over to Gin. "So where will you…"
"The Satterbourne house. You know the one." Gin smiled at Hermione. She wanted to say something else but Hugo and Ron began talking about the house, specifically the shed roof, and about all the things that would need to be changed up before the couple moved in.
Gin made her way over to Hermione. "It was really interesting. Apparently between the time that we looked at the house and when I took Hugo over there someone had put in an offer. When we went to the estate agent's office and told him we wanted to make an offer, suddenly the other people had decided not to try and buy the place. Very fortuitous timing, don't you think?"
Hermione raised her eyebrow and gave her future daughter-in-law a sly smile. "Behave, Virginia."
Gin leaned over, and in a very quiet voice said "You could have been in Slytherin."