Who: Ford Williams & Andrea Ronghi (random NPC) What: Finding somewhere new Where: Stapleford Abbotts When: November of 1999 Rating: G Status: Complete; Drabble
"This is a bit large for a bachelor, isn't it?" The estate agent, Mrs. Ronghi, pushed her glasses up her nose. She'd stared at his left hand time and again even after she'd asked if he had a wife he was moving into the place with if he took it. He didn't look old enough to be married and he'd assured the agency it wouldn't be a group of young blokes starting up a party house either.
"I've a family," Ford told her as he wandered through the rooms. He knew Fred would want the one with the window seat that faced west. She liked lying in the sun when it set. Trent would want the bedroom that faced east because alarms only woke him long enough for him to shut them off but the sun kept him up.
Her brow furrowed and once again her eyes fixated on his hand and its absence of a wedding ring. "I thought you said you were unmarried."
"I'm not." He didn't feel like explaining, not really. Family went beyond blood, he'd learnt that went his own parents had left him in a country he didn't know. Fred and Trent probably hadn't thought about what they'd do once they were done with Hogwarts yet. They weren't really the foresight kind of cats. They were the sort of cats who'd use up all their nine lives before they'd even realised.
Nate and Suzanne were older but in his mind it was really just him, Trent and Fred. It always had been. That meant he had to look after the three of them. They couldn't stay with Julian and Maryanne forever and who else would he ever be able to live with? People didn't take well to a person turning into a large, wild feline five days of the month. Especially not if you weren't a wizard like Trent and Fred.
The cottage was small, but he liked it. It had three bedrooms which was more for their stuff than for them Ford knew. Sleeping had always taken place in one bed, whomsoever's they'd collapsed in really. Maybe he just wasn't willing to let go of having that all the time. It got so quiet when they were at Hogwarts. It got lonely. Sure, Nate and Suzanne were about but it wasn't the same. Lindsay had shown up but she was so young. He wanted his family back.