Hope you had a good Christmas! :D
Cassiopeia sipped her own tea, and then set the little cup down on its attendant saucer, smiling politely at the notion that the rustic décor might be considered ostentatious by some. It might, at that, she told herself. Professor Dumbledore's brother might be an altogether peculiar man. At his mention of adding a personal touch, she nodded genuine agreement. 'Yes, I've found that myself. There is something quite satisfying about being able to make all the decisions,' she told him.
His evasion of the matter of the house-elves didn't go unnoticed by her, but it was done skilfully enough that she found she didn't mind a bit. Cassiopeia had, she reasoned, done her proper duty by making the offer; it would have been neglectful to do otherwise. But if the Dumbledore family didn't keep elves back home, and Albus believed that he truly wasn't in need of any, she wouldn't press the issue.
'I do wonder how many magical plants there are to be found here,' she reflected. 'I cannot say that I care to get my own hands dirty-' she never had, even as a child, '-but if it would please you to have a garden, then of course you must!'
A moment's silence, her attention drawn to the leaping flames before her, and then her eyes lit up with the pleasure of the opportunity to discuss one of her most favoured topics – the work she had done on her travels. Not a single Galleon had exchanged hands, naturally, nothing so vulgar. Cassiopeia pursued her intellectual passions for the love of them, and so that she might do some good for the international magical community, and these facts meant that even her most traditionalist elder relatives could be pacified, convinced that it wasn't improper.
'Egypt was a delight,' she told him. 'I saw a little of southern Europe first, and then went so far as Tripolitania, and Egypt seemed the sensible next step. There are so very many sites of ancient magical power there, so much to rediscover, and it's important that we see to it all before the muggles trip up on all the inscribed curses and hurt themselves. I'm awfully interested in written magic, you know, in the interplay of object and symbol and the way they can last many thousands of years in a way a spoken spell, or a simple charm on an object cannot.'
Cassiopeia smiled again, her cheeks flushing a little. 'I'm sorry. I hope you don't find it a terribly dull topic of conversation.' She hoped very much that he didn't, but she'd been raised not to talk too much about herself, or in fact of anything other than superficial trivialities unless she was quite sure of her listener.