Who: Bart, Fiona & Hamish Roberts What: Examining Hamish's new boat that may or may not be sinking When: Monday 2 April 2000 Where: Aboard The Drifting Castle, St Katharine's Docks Warnings: Nah
Hamish was quite pleased with his purchase and no one was going to change that no matter how they reacted to the fact that he'd purposely bought a boat that was sinking. It had been perfect otherwise, and that minor little detail had saved him so much money.
Of course, his Da hadn't seen it that way, but Hamish was still eager to show it off to Bart. Once the boat was watertight it was gonna be perfect.
So he waited at the wheel, taking in the sights and sounds of his new home. It was so different from where he was living now, where the castle sat alone. Here there were other boats, and the city right there. London, even. This boat was definitely a solution to London otherwise being too expensive to live in.
He was smiling ear to ear when he spotted his Da and he pointed out the name where he'd painted it earlier. "It's a beauty, isn't it?" he asked.
Bart could see that the boat had decent lines but had suffered sadly from a lack of maintenance that Hamish couldn't have seen without more experience. Bart couldn't blame him for that; at Harmish's age, he wouldn't have known enough to recognise the problems that had led to the near-sinking Hamish had described.
"I don't know if I'd go that far," Bart said honestly, "but it's not as bad as I worried about. Your Mum got stuck in a meeting but she'll be with us when she can. Is Fiona joining us?" A beat later, he asked, "And did you buy the boat from a Muggle?"
"Yeah, Fi's on her way soon," Hamish replied. "She knows what to look for." He stepped back from the wheel and toward the entrance before adding, "Yeah. Muggle bloke named Jonathan. Why?"
He didn't wait for the answer though, stepping inside, eager to show off his new home.
Sadly, Fiona did know what she was looking for. Her brother’s increasing enthusiasm only seemed to increase her own pessimism. And Fiona always had a healthy dose of pessimism anyone to keep things real.
She’d come to the Dock right from work, and was looking for this not so aptly named Drifting Castle. Hamish was already gone on board but her Da was still waiting on the dock. “Well. It’s bigger than I thought,” she said looking at the boat from bow to stern. “It’s not going to sink while we’re on it, is it?”
"I don't think so," Bart said, and greeted Fiona with a hug. "And if it does, well, we all know how to swim at least.
“Hi Da,” Fiona hugged her Da back. While she was here to offer the criticism, Bart would at least offer constructive criticism for Hamish. “Is this mostly a muggle area? Can we even get away with magic here?”
"When we're inside, sure. Too many Muggles out here otherwise." He gestured to her to go on in to follow Hamish, and when they were inside, he added, "There's no magic on it than what you put on, then, Hamish, so we can do whatever we need to. To get a really good look we need to go under the water, but we can see a lot from inside. Show us where it was letting water on at some point, unless it's leaking so badly we can see it in here."
"I've kept an eye on it," Hamish said. "Can't tell from inside but then again, we're not trying to go anywhere either." He paused, wanting to show the place off properly before they talked about such insignificant details like whether or not the boat was actually sinking. "Look! I have my own living room. And kitchen!" It was the opposite side that had the issue, where his room would be. But they weren't there yet.
Fiona stepped on board first ahead of Bart before they went inside to look around. “So no charms on it besides what Hamish did. What was keeping it afloat before?” Fiona asked. Really, only her brother was buy a sinking boat to live in. “Yes, your living room and kitchen are nice, but not if you’re underwater or everything gets moldy,” Fiona pointed out.
"He said it didn't start sinking until they took it out," Bart reminded Fiona. "And it's a lot more space than you had in the Castle. More than you had to yourself, anyhow. Did you get any information on what the former owner thought about the leak? About repairs he'd done?"
Hamish shot his sister a look, but then nodded gratefully at his Da. "Right? A lot more space. And I can safely apparate in and out of here once it's charmed to hide the sound. No more walking home."
But then the look on his face gave away the fact that he clearly hadn't asked the previous owner anything about repairs or the leak. Rubbing at the back of his neck he said, "I mean, the price came down. A lot?"
“Yeah, enough space for a swimming pool,” Fiona said dryly. She wouldn’t lie, space was nice. Fiona was in a tiny flat right now, and was starting to consider getting a bigger place herself. But a house, not a boat. And nothing that would sink.
She looked at Bart when Hamish answered that the price came down a lot. “That means no,” as if Bart couldn’t guess that for himself.
"That means we're going to have to figure out where the leak is ourselves, as well as patching it," Bart clarified. Or rather putting it in terms of the work they were going to have to do, which was more important to him right now. "That's going to require a little more research, but I've got a few books on basic boat spellcraft that should help."
"Brilliant," Hamish grinned, and then turned his attention back to the tour. "So right, kitchen. And look! A guest room." As long as the guest wasn't at all claustrophobic that was. "A full bath. Tub and shower," he added, as if that was the best feature possible. "And my room. Which is the part that started going down, but! There's no signs of water damage, the floor's not soft anywhere…"
He had at least taken the time to check that. "It's a pretty nice boat as long as it doesn't sink," he concluded.
Fiona rolled her eyes as Hamish went on with the tour. As if the boat wasn’t sinking. As they went, Fiona was looking and lightly kicking at any of the wood that was close to the floor, just checking if any of it was soft like Hamish said.
“That guest room might as well be storage. More room on the couch in the living room,” Fiona said looking it over. “It also looks like a dragon gnawed on that desk,” she pointed out. Not that Hamish probably needed the desk.
The room wasn’t a bad size either. “So, not only do we have to worry about you sinking, we’ll have to worry about you drowning in your sleep.”
Bart's expression was dour. "You're definitely not keeping any of my research books in here until we've done the work. How did you forget to get the details of what was wrong with the boat from the seller? Would you let a friend buy a broom with an unknown defect without finding out what it was?"
"I'm not gonna sleep here til it's fixed," Hamish protested. Probably not, at least. He didn't really want to leave the boat, really. It was too new and too his. He ignored the rest of his sister's critique because what did it matter what the desk looked like? He was never going to touch it. And then his Da asked him if he'd let his friend buy a defective broom. Huh?
"No, Da, of course not. That would be bloody dumb, wouldn't it?" It took a moment before he made that connection. "This isn't the same?"
“No of course not. You don’t live on a broom,” Fiona said and the sarcastic tone was real.
"Exactly!" Hamish replied, ignoring every trace of that sarcasm. "And I can tell what's wrong with a broom. Since that's my job and all."
Bart sighed. "Not so much with boats, though. Now you have a potentially sinking boat and we're going to have to talk to the Ministry about how to get it officially repaired and moved, because Muggle Ministry rules will almost certainly have something to say about boats that end up in the bottom of the Thames."
"Or you just get a truck to haul it off somewhere we can fix it, like Jonathan suggested," Hamish replied. "Muggles handle this without magic all the time. There's a number on the fridge. He meant some boat repair place though. I'd rather do it myself."
"Obviously, because also it'll cost an arm and a leg that you don't have. But you will need to find out what the Muggle regulations are. Talk to the MLO and see what they have to say," Bart told Hamish. At least it was a houseboat and Hamish wouldn't have to go through international rules that way he and Kirsten had. "I think it's going to be a decent place to live when you're done with it. Getting to there from here is going to be the hard part."
“Not going to lie, it’s definitely got Hamish written all over it,” Fiona did add. “We just don’t want you to drown, that’s all. Or break the statute because of the way you use magic to fix it with muggles seeing.”
When both his Da and his sister relented that this would be a decent place to live, and that it fit him, Hamish grinned ear to ear. "Right? It's perfect. Or will be, soon enough."