Ginny/Adrian, Lunch at Dungate House Who: Ginny Weasley, Adrian Pucey, Ellie Pucey, and Teddy Lupin What: Lunch and a discussion of Ted's education and Ellie's job prospects When: Saturday, 22 August, lunchtime Where: Dungate House Warnings: PG for language Status: Completed log
It was a mark of... something -- how appreciative she was to Adrian and Ellie for agreeing to this meeting, perhaps, or maybe just simple joy that her everyday life was returning to something like normal -- that Ginny went out of her way to look presentable for her lunch at Dungate House. Even Teddy remarked on it.
"You look pretty, Aunt Ginny," he said, matter-of-factly. "I'm glad your hair is back to its real colour again."
"Me, too," Ginny agreed with a grin. "One colour-changer in the family is quite enough." She smoothed her dress and pulled on a pair of shiny green heels.
Teddy came to stand behind her so he could check his own hair in the mirror charm she'd tossed up. "Do you think this colour is okay?" he asked, running his fingers through his spiky turquoise locks.
Ginny smiled. Out of respect to her host, she'd kept her own appearance reasonably neat and conservative -- by her standards, anyway -- but it secretly pleased her to think she'd be taking her punk-haired boy into stuffy old Dungate House. "You look great, Ted," she said, and she meant it. He looked sharp -- even the hair, which suited him.
At a few minutes before their scheduled luncheon, they appeared with a pop just outside the wards of Dungate. Ginny had been there a time or two for invitation-only events during her pro-Quidditch days, but that had been several years ago -- and she wasn't quite sure of the usual procedures when one wasn't being ushered from room to room surrounded by photographers. She escorted Teddy in through the front door and looked around for someone to direct her.
There was a welcome witch in the foyer to greet guests: a human, not a house-elf. On hearing her name, the welcome witch told Ginny and Teddy that they were expected and led them into the dining room, where Adrian and his sister were already seated at a table. Adrian came to his feet as Ginny approached, and a moment later, so did Ellie. "Hullo, Ginevra, Ted. Please, join us. I think we've all met at Gus's birthday soiree, isn't that correct?"
"Yes, at least briefly," Ginny agreed, and extended her hand to Adrian's sister. "Hullo again, Ellie, I'm glad we finally have an opportunity for a proper sit-down."
"Hullo, Eleanor," Teddy added, a bit shyly. "It's good to see you again."
Ellie took Ginny's hand and shook it. Her grasp was firm but not overly so, and accommodated the ring she was wearing as well as the one Ginny was not. "It's my pleasure to see both of you again," Ellie said formally. Her robes were tastefully done, nothing too severe and nothing too revealing, in a style that Ginny wasn't quite familiar with; probably she'd brought them back from France.
Adrian waited until the greetings were exchanged to move to assist Ginny with her chair, leaving Ted to do the honours for Ellie.
Teddy hesitated for just an instant and looked at Ginny, who nodded and tilted her head very slightly toward Ellie. He moved to her chair and tried to copy Adrian's movements, though he couldn't hope to match the older man's easy grace.
"Thank you, Adrian," Ginny said as she took her seat. "We don't usually go in for quite so much formality in my household -- which I'm sure doesn't surprise you -- but it does make a nice change now and again." The astute observer would notice that her comment was neatly timed to keep Teddy from feeling that everyone's attention was on him while he attempted something unfamiliar.
"A little formality never hurt anyone," Adrian opined. "If you're not stuffy on occasion, you'll forget how to appreciate it when things aren't stuffy." He resumed his own seat, studiously ignoring Ellie's adjustments to her own seat. "I recommend the lamb or the prime rib for hearty eaters. I prefer the sole, but I like to leave room for something sweet afterwards."
"Oooh, yes, I seem to recall last time I was here they served a fabulous fruit-and-custard tart. If that's on their regular menu I'll definitely want to save room for it." Ginny sounded quite enthusiastic about the prospect.
Teddy asked, earnestly, "Do you know where the meat comes from?"
"Yes. The market." Adrian's unrepentant grin wavered only slightly at what must have been Ellie kicking his ankle under the table. "But I have to admit I don't know who their supplier is."
"Well, that's better than the answer I would have given," Ginny said, "which is that the lamb comes from lamb and the prime rib comes, obviously, from primes. Which I suppose means, if I remember my arithmancy, that it can't be divided into smaller pieces. So best avoid that one, I think."
Teddy gave his auntie a long-suffering look tinged with amusement.
"And let me guess, I should check the bottom of my shoe for my own dinner." Eccentric host was a role that Adrian was well-suited for, and he was clearly enjoying it. The fact that they were in the middle of the dining room of the Literary Society, ruining his name with good purists everywhere by dining with Lucius Malfoy's grand-nephew, was the icing on the cake.
"The duck is also very good," Ellie added seriously, trying to get them all back on track. "It's not locally supplied, but we can ask."
"Thank you," Teddy said to Ellie. "I don't mean to be a bother, but it's just that...." He paused, carefully considering his phrasing. "I'm used to knowing that the meat I eat comes from animals who were well cared-for -- and I know that not everyone who... who raises meat... is as careful about it as we are."
Ginny, meanwhile, leaned toward Adrian with her eyes twinkling madly and said under her breath, "...I suppose the bottom of your shoe is cleaner and tenderer than your Slytherin soul?"
"Clearly we should have had lunch on Sunday after my soul has been freshly reconciled. It would be much more tasty than it is today," Adrian replied, equally sotto voce. He turned his attention to the younger portion of the conversation. "Are you concerned about the health implications of Muggle farming practices?"
"I don't want to support the mistreatment of animals, if I can help it," Teddy replied gravely. "After all, some of my best friends are animals. And...." He leaned in and lowered his voice so that it wouldn't carry beyond their table. "My father was part-wolf."
"I see," Adrian said gravely. He'd lived through the war and was vaguely familiar with Teddy's family background; Teddy and Ellie were, after all, distantly related. He let that comment slide for all that he was well aware that Teddy was completely wrong by any rational understanding of lycanthropy.
Ellie chose that moment to step in. "I'm sure if you ask, they can tell you where the meat is supplied from. And if the meat isn't to your specifications, perhaps they can make you up something without it."
"Thank you, Ellie," said Ginny with a grateful smile.
"Yes, thank you," Teddy echoed. Perhaps feeling he'd caused enough trouble, he sat back and folded his hands in his lap; he almost seemed to get a little smaller.
At that moment, a little grey owl soared lopsidedly into the dining-room, pursued by a harried-looking Dungate House staff member trying desperately to shoo the bird toward the incoming-post room.
The owl was having none of it, though: with a couple of tired flaps, it landed ungracefully on the table in front of Ginny, stuck out its message-leg toward her, and promptly fell over on its side, exhausted.
"Oh, poor thing!" exclaimed Teddy, and jumped up to see to the little bird while Ginny retrieved the message from its leg.
Adrian, as the presiding member at the table, rose to deal with the staff. He took the waiter aside and they spoke in low voices for a few moments while Ginny had time to read the message. Returning to the table, Adrian said to Teddy, "Why don't you let the staff see to the owl, so it can rest and recover in the quiet. Maybe you can take it home with you after you've eaten."
From the looks of the other guests, Adrian suspected it would be a long time until some of them forgot this Saturday lunch at OWLS.
Teddy, who had the owl cradled in the crook of his arm and had been talking to it soothingly, nodded gravely at Adrian's suggestion. He excused himself from the table to speak earnestly with the appropriate staff member about getting the bird properly settled during their lunch.
As soon as Teddy left the table, Ginny pressed the backs of her fingers to her mouth; her eyes sparkled with mirth at the absurdity of it all. As soon as she was sure she could speak without bursting into delighted laughter, she said, "I hope you'll forgive us, Eleanor. I really hadn't intended lunch to be quite this... eventful."
Adrian was looking past them and an expression not unlike a thundercloud was settling over his face. "Ellie, why don't you go help young Ted get the owl properly settled with the staff, please?" It was phrased as a request, but the tone made it an order. Ellie looked over from where her gaze had been following Teddy to see what Adrian was looking at, and she said, "Yes, Adrian," and pushed her chair away from the table. Her movements could not quite be characterised as a hasty retreat, but it was clear she was glad to miss what was about to happen next.
The young man who was arriving at their table was a bit older than Ellie and had reddish hair that could have made him a Weasley if it had been a few shades brighter. The thin lines of his face and light-coloured eyes marked him as a pureblood and a likely relation to the Prewetts at some remove. "Hello, Adrian," Charles Pucey said, having made his way across the dining room. "I didn't expect to see you here."
The smile on Adrian's face could best be described as razor thin. "Hullo, Charles. Ginevra, have you met Ellie's brother Charles?"
Ginny's eyes narrowed in concentration as she tried to recall where she knew the young man from. "Games and Sport, yeah? Our paths did cross a time or two, back when there was still regular Quidditch." She extended her hand to him. "Ginny Weasley -- Harpies Chaser," she said by way of introduction or reminder, though given her record and her popularity as a player, it was unlikely anyone who'd followed the sport would need to be told who she was.
Seeing the look on Adrian's face, Ginny left off the friendly inquiries she might otherwise have made about the young man's pursuits since the fall of the Ministry.
"Ms Weasley," Charles said pleasantly. "Of course, quite a fan, quite a fan. Good to see you. I hope everything is going well these days."
"Things are looking up, I'd say," Ginny replied with a brilliant smile; she left it to Charles to decide whether she meant because of recent happenings in the British Wizarding government and community, because she was having lunch with his brother, or something else entirely. She turned her smile to Adrian, letting him grab the conversational quaffle if he wanted it.
Adrian took it. "I'd love to have you join us, Charles, but I'm afraid this is a business lunch and I wouldn't want to bore you with that kind of talk."
"Actually, I thought I saw Ellie when I came in," Charles replied. He cast another glance around the dining room, as if he could divine their sister's whereabouts through the walls, since she was clearly no longer present. "If it's a business lunch, surely you can spare her?"
"I'm afraid the business is hers," Adrian said sweetly. "I'm just here to keep company. Perhaps another time."
Charles' eyebrows rose slightly. "Then I'm sure she and I will have a great deal to catch up on later. Ms Weasley, Adrian." He bowed slightly to both of them.
Ginny inclined her head slightly in farewell, her expression blandly pleasant. She waited 'til he'd retreated out of earshot before observing in a low voice, "Well played, Adrian. I'm afraid if I'd kept on, I would've given him all sorts of amusingly wrong ideas."
"Oh, why not?" Adrian's expression had relaxed a little but his pleasant smile still hadn't made it all the way to his eyes. "I am a bachelor, not quite old enough to be considered confirmed, and you're a widow past her year of mourning. I suppose there's something to be said for society returning to a state where its biggest preoccupation is who's getting married instead of who's gone missing. And under the circumstances, Charles must speculate. If I manage to find a bride and sire a son or two, he'll never inherit the house. So let him think I'm courting a lady of quality who shares my interests and whose politics are even more disagreeable than mine."
Though a shadow seemed to cross her face at the mention of her widowhood, Ginny couldn't help but flash a grin at that last. "Flatterer," she said, and reached over to touch his hand mock-coquettishly. More seriously, she added, "I am sorry if our... ah, let's call it our irrepressible natures... are going to cause you unwanted trouble with your family. Or anyone here you'd rather didn't roll their eyes at the mention of your name, or mine. On the other hand, if it would be of use to you to let others believe we'll be announcing our engagement any day now, I'd be happy to put on a good charade. I do rather enjoy behaving outrageously for a good cause."
"My policy on these things is 'don't ask, don't tell'. The old biddies are going to think what they will, especially if you keep fondling my hand like that." But Adrian was grinning. "I have a reputation for eccentricity that I'm not inclined to discourage, so be outrageous as the mood strikes you. This lot could use some shaking up anyway." He looked up to see what he thought was Ellie nonchalantly looking around the room from the edge of the doorway and gave her a slight nod of encouragement.
"I shall contemplate what I might get away with, then -- without embarrassing the boy overmuch if I can help it." She withdrew her hand from Adrian's and folded her hands primly in front of her, though her eyes twinkled with mirth and mischief. Seeing Adrian nod, she followed his gaze in time to see Teddy trailing Ellie back into the dining room. He seemed to be following her lead the way he normally followed Ginny's.
"Or my poor sister," Adrian said in a low voice, which he raised to normal volume. "Ah, Ellie, Ted, you've seen to the owl? Good. Ellie, Charles dropped by and I'm sure he'd love to speak with you later. Now, where were we? Ted, did you a straight answer about the meat supplier?"
Teddy nodded. "The fish sounds like it will be my best choice," he replied. He was about to return to his seat when he remembered he was probably supposed to be helping Ellie with hers, and moved to do so. He muttered a quiet but heartfelt thank-you to her as she took her seat.
"And I suppose that's not just because you'd like dessert, hmmm?" Ginny teased. From the look he gave her in reply, that probably had been one of his considerations.
"The fish is excellent here, so I'm sure you'll enjoy it." Adrian had, at one point in his own life, been eleven and at the mercy of adults, so he found it easy to treat Ted as an adult from pity, if nothing else. "If everyone else is ready, I'll call the server over and order. Ted, do you have wine with your meals?"
Teddy managed to catch himself before he made a full-out reflexive nasty-face, though his nostrils did flare. "I haven't really developed a taste for it," he managed to say. "Nor beer either, which is about the only thing Aunt Ginny makes that I don't really like." He thought a moment and asked, hopefully, "Is there lemonade?"
Adrian traded amused looks with Ginny and with Ellie, who was doing a better job of masking her amusement than Adrian. "I'm sure we can find something you'll like." He gestured for the server and let the others choose their dinners before ordering the sole and selecting an appropriate wine for the table, plus a glass of lemonade for Teddy.
Once the server departed, Ginny felt it was time to get down to the business that was the reason for this little get-together. "Ellie, I suppose Adrian has mentioned to you that I'm looking for a tutor for Ted. Someone, in particular, who might fill in some of the subjects he's not already getting from me."
Ellie nodded. "He did. I don't know what subjects you're familiar with, though, other than flying, of course." She flashed a slightly nervous grin at Ginny; clearly she had been something of a fan in the days when there was still Quidditch.
Ginny's return smile was kind; she inclined her head a bit, acknowledging the point. "Our day-to-day life focuses on the more practical magics -- or the ones I consider practical, anyway. Potions, certainly, and herbology; care of creatures both magical and un-; defence, which we've been focusing on recently. My charms work is not bad, although to the extent there's a basis in theory, I'm not especially good at explaining it." She leaned forward a little. "What I'd really like is someone who is good with the theory, and with explaining some of the more esoteric subjects -- things like arithmancy, and ancient runes, that I rather suspect Ted will enjoy more than I did, and should therefore have a chance to explore properly."
"I'm certainly able to tutor at a basic level in those subjects," Ellie said, "and my subject interests have run toward the esoteric. Our father reported some interesting work to the Committee on Experimental Charms, so we have an extensive library at Pucey House--" she turned to Adrian "--unless you've had it moved to the townhouse now, Adrian?"
Adrian shook his head. "Just the tomes relevant to my own work." He tapped his temple with his index finger. "That's all esoteric enough that I think young Ted here won't be ready for it for a while." He left unspoken that to his mind, Ellie wasn't either.
Having had her question answered, Ellie continued, "And I've studied arithmancy and ancient runes both at Hogwarts and Beauxbatons. History of Magic I have to the OWL level." She paused to think of what other subjects she might be asked to teach, and her expression tightened a little. "Would you be looking for me to teach Divination?"
Ginny couldn't quite suppress a smirk. "I'm afraid I lost what little respect I had for the subject the day we got to palm-reading, and my instructor took one look at my hand and burst into overdramatic sobs. I only managed to pull an 'A' on my OWL because I successfully predicted everything in my paper that would get marked off. Easy, since I knew precisely which parts I'd pulled out of my a--- er, out of thin air." She grinned.
"That's just as well, because I'm not sure I could teach Divination to an appropriate standard," Ellie confessed.
Adrian was unsuccessfully hiding a smirk of his own.
Teddy, who'd been listening in rapt attention, couldn't quite contain his curiosity. "What's so funny? I'd think being able to know the future would be dead useful."
"Yeah, it would be if it worked. Unfortunately, our professor at Hogwarts, at least the one I had, was so full of it that it had turned her eyes brown," Adrian explained.
Confused, Teddy opened his mouth to ask another question, but then he got the joke. "...Ah. So, maybe not so much fun to study, then."
"If you'd like to know what it's like, I can start staring into your teacup after breakfast each morning and telling you a terrible accident will befall you before lunch," Ginny offered sweetly.
Teddy blinked. "I think I'd rather you fed me beer."
Ginny nodded sagely. "Yes, Divinations is definitely worse than beer," she agreed with a grin, then turned back to Ellie. "So, you certainly seem qualified from a subject-interest standpoint. What about schedule? About how many hours per week would you be looking to work, and do you have any other regular commitments you'd need to schedule around?"
"I don't have any scheduled commitments right now, although I do have some, ah, family commitments," Ellie said. She and Adrian traded glances.
Adrian's tone was authoritative. "Nothing we can't work around."
Ellie relaxed slightly. "For arithmancy and ancient runes and history, I would think two afternoons a week to start, assuming--" and Ellie looked at Teddy "--adequate reading assignments between classes. Where would you want to hold the tutoring sessions?"
"Would you be able to come to us? That might be best." As she spoke, Ginny withdrew a bit of parchment that had been well-secured in her pocket, added a temporary charm so only she, Ellie, and Adrian could read it, tapped it with the end of her wand, and passed it across the table to Ellie, who could see the spidery lines of writing beginning to spread over it.
Adrian's eyebrows went up slightly. This was a great deal of trust to place in him and Ellie, or perhaps he didn't entirely understand the purpose of putting the place where she was staying under the Fidelius. Something about it was wrong, and he couldn't ascertain quite what. But when Ellie looked to him for guidance, he nodded, and she read the parchment.
"That would be for the best," Ellie agreed, and moved to pass the parchment back to Ginny.
Ginny gestured for Adrian to take a look at the parchment if he hadn't been able to make out the writing while Ellie was holding it.
Teddy, who could hardly contain his excitement at the mention of reading assignments, asked Ellie, "What books were you thinking of using?"
While Adrian was examining the parchment, Ellie was considering her options for texts. "Do you read French?" she asked Teddy.
"Not very well," Teddy confessed, faintly abashed. "But I could learn. I can speak a little bit I've picked up from my cousins, but it's mostly only useful if we're pretending to be kittens."
"Then we should stay with the standard English texts to start," Ellie said. "I can supplement from the French as needed. Have you started the first-year texts from Hogwarts yet?"
Adrian passed the parchment back to Ginny. His expression could best be described as satisfied.
Ginny gave Adrian a little smile as she took the parchment and re-secured it in her pocket, but there was a touch of melancholy in the expression. He'd end up pulled into this whole mess before it was all over, she knew. She could feel it in her gut. She made a mental note to offer to buy him a drink sometime, before the shit hit the fan. And several afterward.
She turned her attention back to Teddy and Ellie, and their pleasingly earnest discussion of schoolbooks.