7th, July 1998
On a darkened corner of the tiled hallways of the Ministry, the travelling group started to dissipate. Kate found herself stuck in place, watching the frantic coming and going of wizards and witches.
One of the first things Kingsley Shacklebolt did as a new minister of Magic was opening the doors of the ministry. A decision that was praised by some and feared by others, for it was done only weeks after the war ended.
Kate eyed the increased amount of aurors in every nook, instinctively looking for the easiest escaping route; there were nine aurors near the central fountain, two at every fireplace, one for each lift.
"Miss, please, move out of the way." An auror touched her elbow from behind and she flinched away, stepping out of his way.
She curled her fingers towards her inner wrist, checking her wand, and made her way towards one lift.
Squeezed between wizards, Kate appeared inside a telephone cabin in London. She instantly brought a hand to her forehead, shielding her eyes from the light.
Across the street, a man and a woman stared at the cabin. To muggles and untrained eyes they could appear as tourists, but Kate recognised the aurors in them.
Once outside, she walked towards the street corner and leaned on the building's stone. She let her thoughts wander to Charlie again, wondering why he hadn't accepted her offer. For months she had given him the space he sought, worrying about his silence regarding his brother. She could understand. Merlin, she could, why wouldn't he open up about it? Since when have they guarded their thoughts like that? You know since when, she thought to herself.
The glass of a showcase in front of her returned her reflection: her hair almost reached her waist now, it had long lost its curliness, leaving muted brown waves instead. She wore simple clothing that day, a loose white shirt tucked inside blue jeans and her old boots. She tapped one against the pavement, avoiding looking at her tired expression.
Not even five minutes passed when she saw a familiar figure strolling in her direction. Her grandfather, Bernard, was a round and short man, with red cheeks and smirking grey eyes. Kate smiled as he approached only carrying a small satchel and an umbrella on his back, anchored with a leather belt across his chest.
"A stór!" His smile grew, and he opened his arms as he walked. Kate pushed herself away from the wall and hopped towards him, accepting his embrace immediately.
She felt him tightening his grip and she let herself relax against him, the faint scent of his cologne washed away her preoccupations.
"Let me look at you." He took off his glasses, letting them hang from the chain around his neck, and inspected her face with a frown. "How have you been?"
Kate swallowed and forced a smile, placing her hands on his arms to reassure him.
"Better." She lied. "How are we going to Cobh?"
Bernard squinted almost imperceptibly and Kate knew he noticed the change of topic. He then scanned her belongings and then their surroundings, a light frown appeared again between his brows.
"Ah," he said with a lighter tone. "Follow me."
After preventing Bernard from carrying her luggage, Kate followed her grandfather toward a less than frequented alley. Once he had made sure no one was around, he extended his hand to her.
She stared at it for a second and sighed.
"Just one more time. Some portkeys have been cancelled."
Kate held his hand, resigned, and closed her eyes. For the second time that day, her stomach spiralled, and she disappeared through the void.
Clouded skies and a strong wind greeted them; Kate and Bernard apparated in front of a stone building, a big clock decorated its central tower and three heavy-looking doors stood before them.
Kate squinted and brought her hand to her throat, protecting herself from the wind as best as she could. She turned around and observed the river that split the city. There were several people crossing the bridges or just taking a walk near the water. No one seemed to have paid attention to them.
After one last glance at Cork behind her, she followed Bernard towards the wooden door in the middle.
He patted her hand, "We will have time to explore to your heart's content. But first…"
The gates opened to reveal a grandiose interior; tall columns separated ostentatious wooden desks, redirecting any visitor's gaze to the dome's glass ceiling. A seemingly innocent chandelier hovered above the space scattering rays of light around.
Upon close inspection, Kate noticed an erratic shift caused by the individual movements of the crystal beads. At the end of each ray of light, a letter, a document, or a folder floated to a certain direction to be delivered, and the light was scattered again.
Still walking, Kate heard her grandpa's voice a second too late and slammed her body against the front desk.
Bernard's roaring laugh echoed in her ears. She brought her hand to her forehead, massaging slightly and avoiding at all costs eye contact with the figure appearing behind the desk.
Staring at her from above, a silver-haired man with dark olive skin and black eyes waited as she composed herself. A perfectly trimmed eyebrow raised at the display, not without, Kate noticed, a hint of amusement in their expression.
"Not a word." She warned Bernard. He in return zipped his lips with his thumb and index finger, not bothering to hide his smirk. However, he touched her elbow with gentleness and placed a small pouch in her hand.
"Why don't you change these for muggle coin, hm? I'll find you when I'm finished."
When the transaction was done, Kate searched for a comfortable spot to wait for Bernard and decided on a bench against a wall where she had sight of the main door, her grandfather and most of the back doors leading to other chambers. When the space started to get crowded, she instinctively brought her finger to her inner wrist.
She observed Bernard handing an envelope to a young goblin before walking towards her.
"All done," he started with a smile and checked his pocket watch, "Now, to catch a train!"
"No more apparitions?"
"No more, A stór."
Kate managed to relax slightly, and with a smile of her own they marched towards a door in the back.
The gate opened, revealing a blueish veil. Bernard crossed first, and Kate followed with unwavering trust. They appeared on a covered train station and they made their way to buy their tickets.
"There is so much water on the route to Cobh that the line runs across not one but two causeways!" Bernard informed her with enthusiasm while waiting in line.
Kate smiled brightly, genuinely, at her grandfather and listened to his relaxing voice describe the sights they would see on the way.
Despite Bernard's energetic personality, she noticed the slight agitation of his breathing and the way he unhooked his umbrella to use it as a cane.
"First stop will be Little Island! And then Glounthaune, followed by Fota, which we will be going to visit in a few days. You liking all the plants and such, you must step on the gardens, yes. Then there's Carrigaloe and Rushbrook and finally Cobh. Half an hour!"
As she listened, she walked them to the closest bench. Bernard sat down with a content sigh.
"I'm very happy you came," Bernard said sincerely.
Kate sat down next to him and rested her head on his shoulder, feeling him pat her knee.
"And I'm very happy you invited me."
Kate looked out of the window, observing the green landscape pass at high speed alongside the river. At some point, yellow and green fences impeded the view and signalled the stop at Fota Wildlife Park. She turned to Bernard, who sat in front of her with a newspaper, with a smile of recognition. To her surprise, her grandfather was assessing her with worry.
"What?" she asked in a hushed voice. She knew what he was going to say, they couldn't ignore the hippogriff in the room any longer.
"I've noticed… That redhead of yours owes me an explanation, he does! Here I am, expecting to see him after all this time,"he continued with a light tone" and he decides that having a job is more important than a trip with his partner's grandfather?"
Kate avoided his gaze to watch the river again. However, a small, breathy laugh escaped her. She thanked him, in silence, for not asking and for at least trying to lighten her sour mood. He surely didn't deserve her melancholy. Making up her mind, she placed all her thoughts about Charlie on a small little box in her brain and looked at Bernard again.
"We are going to have fun, you and I."
The smile that bloomed on the elder's face remained there for the rest of the trip.
"That," Bernard announced, turning back towards a brick building after getting off the train, "is what remains of the original station."
"Now it's a heritage centre," Kate observed. Bernard's expression turned more sombre, and remained pensive, watching the building and the extension of the Port of Cobh while clutching his umbrella.
"Yes, they explain the history of the quayside, from which people emigrated or were forcibly transported to the colonies. Come with me, I found a lovely bed-and-breakfast to stay that I think you'll enjoy."
"I know very little of the time you left…" Kate tried. She reminded herself to be patient, to be careful around the stories about her grandparents' lives in Ireland. "or how."
To her surprise, Bernard took a solemn breath and smiled at her as they walked.
"It was 1945. And I do remember the exact date, oh yes. Muggles and wizards were at war, both with themselves and each other. It was known… that a Grindelwald's, you know the man, do you? That a Grindelwald's supporters group had settled in the area. One day I found my home painted with a message; 'blood traitors you are next'.
"Because grandma was a muggle?" Kate gasped.
"Among other things."
Bernard fell silent for a moment, contemplating the sea at their left.
"I panicked. I grabbed your gran and left in a rush. Heading to America."
Kate's brows jumped to her hairline, but remained quiet.
"We ended up in Milford Haven. Wales!" he chuckled at Kate's wide-open eyes. "A misunderstanding that probably saved our lives."
He looked at her over his glasses, wearing the smirk of a storyteller. He raised a finger,
"On that boat, Julie told me she was with child. Your mam. We went to Cardiff, Merlin knows how, gaining some sickles selling potions on the road, if, and only if we happened to encounter another wizard."
"You can tell?"
"Oh, yes." He smirked.
"And then?" Fully invested in the story, Kate struggled to look ahead, wanting to keep her attention on Bernard.
"We settled there until Julie had the babe. Not long after, I heard someone say at the wizarding neighbourhood that a potioneer in Bristol was looking for an assistant. So I sailed again! All by myself, and managed to convince the poor fellow to hire me. I found a place to stay, the best I could afford that wasn't filled with doxys and Merlin knows what, and sent a letter to your gran. Let me tell you something, muggle post service is embarrassingly slow compared to owls."
"So she travelled alone with Mama there?"
"She did so, she did."
"And how did you end up in Stanton then? Where you live now."
"We stayed in Bristol for a year or so because your gran, as brilliant as she was having a little, how would you say? A little twitching on her fingers, as a manner of speaking, because she wanted to study! We moved to Oxford, then, for her to train. She had a bit of practice with voluntary work at Cobh, so she had all that figured out in a blink."
They moved to the stone wall to their left, silently letting a cyclist pass them, and resumed their stroll a few minutes more.
"And then your aunt arrived. With two babes and our salaries, part in muggle coin and part in galleons, we couldn't really afford to live in Oxford. So while Julie finished her training, I travelled around a bit with your mam and auntie and found Stanton! It was small, quiet, and they needed someone with medical experience in town."
Kate laughed at this, she knew that story. Her grandma was a nurse, but Stanton had no hospital and less than a hundred people living there, so she had been, for a while, 'The Doc'.
"Here we are."
Bernard pointed at a white hanging sign in the shape of a house that said, in blue letters,
The Secret Garden Inn
B&B
Bernard opened a small wooden gate for her and walked after her through the gravel path. A three-storey house revealed itself as they advanced, hidden among the trees and abundant vegetation. The garden was well kept, full of blooming flowers whose scent reached Kate's nose.
The building was bigger than Kate expected for a Bed and breakfast; it was white, with plenty of windows in every corner, a sun-room on one side, and part of the second floor had a wide terrace.
"But grandpa! This is a mansion!"
They shared a chuckle, and after a knock on the door, they entered the building.
The interior was an elegant mix of antique furniture and modern brightness, it was clear that it had been remodelled.
The first thing they encountered was a desk facing them, an older woman, around Bernard's age, talked in hushed voices on the phone while staring at a computer screen.
She had her hair short, elegantly dyed to a dark brown; her skin had a pale rosy tone, with wrinkles adorning her mouth and jaw and a slightly hooked nosed held a pair of black glasses.
"Ah, but don't be talking to me like that, lad. Just tell me how to change the colour of the… cells… yes, that." The woman took a glance at a thick book on her right before typing on the keyboard, the phone trapped between her ear and shoulder. "Eric, phone me in the afternoon, will you? Yes. Yes, bye bye. Bye bye, dear."
"Good day!" Bernard announced after she hung up.
"Oh, but please be welcome. How can I assist you?"
"We had two rooms reserved under the name of Bernard. That would be me."
Both Kate and the woman chuckled at the clarification
"I figured as much! That's no face for a Bernard," he said, pointing at Kate and standing up. "Perhaps an Arthur or a Phineas suit you better. Come with me, I'll show you around."
The woman, named Áine, showed them to their modest rooms on the second floor. Bernard had insisted on her having the room with the double bed, and Kate had only accepted because her grandfather would then have the ocean view.
"That door is off limits, since it leads to the private part of the house." Áine informed them when they reached the ground floor again. She pointed behind the stairs."Next to it, the kitchen, also off limits."
Bernard nodded, and with his hands clasped behind him, made his way towards the spacious living room. The fireplace was the focus of attention, plenty of photographs and trinkets adorned the mantel and ceiling-high bookshelves guarded each side.
"Feel free to come here as you please to read or play. There are cards and chess, and you can ask for a cup o' tea at any time if…," she looked around, "well, she is not here at the moment…"
Kate wandered towards the back of the room; to her left she could glimpse a dining room but what caught her attention was the sight through a window.
"Ah!" Áine announced, "and this way is the reason behind the name of the inn."
The three of them crossed the door that lead to an enclosed garden. The bushes and flowers blocked the view of the street, giving the space privacy and some sense of isolation. A big tree stood proudly right in the middle, giving shade to the centre part of the grass. Some string lights could be seen hanging from the branches, and Kate couldn't wait to see it at night.
"Here are your keys, Bernard and…"
"Kate."
"Kate, then. Feel free to come and go as you wish, at a reasonable volume. We close the front door at nine, here's the key. Just in case you find yourselves discovering Cobh at night. Breakfast is served in the dining room from seven to nine. And with that," she smiled and clasped her hands, "I hope you have a lovely stay."
After settling in their rooms and accepting the tea Áine had offered, they spent most of the day strolling along the shore, admiring the colourful houses and the different street nooks that looked like they had come out of a storybook. At some point, Kate's stomach protested, and they made a strategic stop to replenish strength.
"Cobh is probably best known for being the 'last port of call' to the ill-fated RMS Titanic who on 11 April 1912, berthed at Queenstown, before she set out across the Atlantic on the last leg of her maiden voyage.[1]," Kate read as they ate on a small tourist book Áine had gifted her. "Do you remember that?" she asked with a teasing smirk.
"For Merlin's sake, lass, how old do you think I am?"
After Bernard had declared he didn't have the energy to climb the steep roads to the cathedral and the centre part of the town, they resumed their peaceful walk on the coastline.
"Come here, a stór. See." With a shaky finger, he pointed at an orange building, right between a bar and a gift shop. It read: P. Donegan and Co. Solicitors.
"Who are they?"
"No clue. That… that was your gran's house."
Kate let out a breath. She tried to imagine how it would have looked like before or how she would have looked like as a child. She knew her great grandfather was a fisherman, a sailor, and her great grandmother sold the fish in the market. Or at least they were until the incident.
"It was right over there," Bernard pointed at the port, "the market. Where that parking is now." He sighed, lost in thought, and before Kate could reach out to grab his hand, Bernard composed himself. "Ice cream?"
Kate nodded, still trying to wrap her mind around the idea that her granny had a life there, on the stones she was stepping on, one that her grandfather was doing his best to show her. After a while, they sat on a bench looking at the sea in comfortable silence, only surrounded by the sound of people, birds, boats and a distant guitar of a street performer.
A dumb idea occurred to her when she saw a tissue on the asphalt about to fall over to the water.
Wingardium Leviosa
She repeated it over and over, focusing on the vision of the tissue flying above the ground. She kept staring at it, brows furrowing and lips pursing.
Wingardium Leviosa, Wingardium Leviosa, Wingardium Leviosa!
"Kate."
She turned to Bernard for a second, startled, and then to the place the tissue was being stepped on by some tourists. Kate sighed.
Bernard touched two fingers to her arm gently. "Since when?"
"Since we left Hogwarts' ruins." Her lips trembled, and he hummed.
"Can you do magic with a wand?"
"No. Nothing you are about to ask me I can do."
Bernard nodded as he patted her knee with reassurance, but said nothing else. Kate grazed her eye with a knuckle, not wanting to have a meltdown right in front of him and ruining the lovely day they were having. She pushed her attempt at magic to the side and focused on the repetitive task two men were performing as they moved wooden crates out of a boat until the sun started to set.
[1] Text extracted from Cobh and Harbour Chamber website.