teaandsympathy | Hallowe'en at The Bower

Molly and Charlie had been busy. The cottage had been what Muggles call a fixer-upper to begin with, and it had taken time, work, and more than a little magic to turn it into a place that not only suited them, but felt like home. It was the sort of project that could have - and likely would, if Molly guessed right - continue for months and months. But it was often easier to work with a particular deadline in mind, and a Hallowe'en feast had seemed a good one to work toward.

They'd let everyone they knew know there would be a housewarming on Hallowe'en - some in person, others by the telephone Molly still wasn't all that comfortable using - and that the more, the merrier. Even Draco had been invited, although Molly doubted he would come.

When the holiday arrived, The Bower was ready for their guests. A fire crackled in the fireplace, and Molly had put Charlie in charged of decorations while she bustled about the kitchen where a half dozen things were going on at once: pumpkin stew being ladled into a giant pumpkin, carrot cake in the oven baking, dishes were washing themselves as quickly as Molly used them, and she was busy chopping vegetables to roast.

Various snacks were already set out on one end of the farmhouse table, and there was a bowl of candy by the door, although with the Muggle-repelling charms, they didn't expect trick-or-treaters who wouldn't be coming anyway.

Still, a bit of candy never hurt, did it?

~*~*~

Charlie, with a touch of whimsy, charmed several, small, floating pumpkins to hang about, guiding guests through the living room and into the kitchen. Each pumpkin bears a charming grin and a glimmering candle within; he's also cast a charm so that their home smells like the woods surrounding them, with a pinch of cinnamon and caramel apples tossed in for good measure. He's purchased some Muggle decorations of cut-out cats, skeletons, and, yes, witches, to place upon the walls, charming them to blink and smile as each guest passes through the house. Not an over abundance, but enough to emphasize the cozy nature of the place.

Of course, he jokingly brought up a chair into the air, as a reminder to the duel he'd had with Bill back at the Burrow, but one look from Molly was enough for him to cease those antics with a sheepish grin, even as he eyed the Muggle candy by the door with a look of distaste. What he wouldn't give for Honeydukes to magically appear one day.

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"If only I could do I to some proper brooms, right?" Agatha teases. Maybe someday she'll figure it out, or get to watch.

"What did she make?"

"Well, if you want, if one of the brooms from my world shows up, you can help me poke it?" Charlie offers. She's a powerful witch in her own right and she's one of Charlie's good friends; they'd have fun together, besides.

"I think the better question is what didn't she make?" He chuckles as he leads Aggie to the kitchen, gesturing to the various plates spread out on the counters.

Aggie brightens, nodding. For a minute, she's distracted from the conversation by the array of food. It smells wonderful and looks good, but beyond that there's just a feeling of...warmth to all of it. It makes her wonder of Molly's charmed the steam coming off the food itself.

"It's like magic," she says. "I mean, its own kind of magic."

"I think so," Charlie agrees, letting the warmth and the smells of the food wash over him. His mum possesses such a command of cooking in her own right; he can really only think of it as its own kind of magic. "Mum's got many skills, but her cooking is definitely the most magical of them all."

"One of my teachers when I first got here," Aggie says, thinking of Tara a little sadly. "She talked about being a kitchen witch, using herbs and things to cast spells to protect a home. They used to think similar things in Blithe Hollow, that some flowers drove bad spirits away. But that's very different from all this."

"Really? That sounds like what we call Herbology in our world," Charlie muses. "The study and use of plants for magic. It was one of my favorite classes because I got to spend so much time outdoors." He smiles. "But I'm much better with animals then plants."

"Like the dragons you love so much?" Aggie fills in for him. She can't imagine ever seeing something so magnificent in real life, much less making it a profession.

"Yes," Charlie admits with a grin, eyes sparkling. "Just call me the crazy dragon wizard." He at least has his new pet with him, to ease the pain of being separated from his dragons. "Speaking of, have you met my bearded dragon yet? I ought to introduce you."

What Aggie imagines is far from Charlie's pet. Indeed, she pictures a dragon as big as a house with a false Santa Claus beard hung over its face. The picture is so absurd that she knows it can't be right.

"No! Could I see?"

"Absolutely," Charlie promises, his grin widening as he takes out his wand. "Accio, Smaug!" In a whiz of a moment, his bearded dragon comes flying down the stairs and into his outstretched palms. He immediately takes the creature over to Aggie. "Say hello to my newest friend," he says with obvious pride in his voice. "I reckon he doesn't appreciate traveling like that, but I'm rather inclined to laziness the later it gets in the evening."

"Did you just..." Aggie's not sure if she should laugh or not at the poor creature's plight, though he mostly looks annoyed. Or maybe that's just the sort of face lizards make.

"You've found a dragon fo your home!"

"Yeah," he says with a sheepish grin. "I sort of forgot he's not a magical creature. I won't do that to the poor bugger again." He turns to offer Smaug an apologetic pat, and he swears the lizard turns up his nose at him.

"But he does add his own charm to this place, does he not?" He grins at Aggie.

Aggie nodded, reaching out to run two fingers over Smaug's dry, scaly head. "He looks very dignified," she agreed.

And more than a little indignant.

"Yeah, he does, doesn't he?" Charlie grins at his pet with obvious pride. "Though he's definitely annoyed, too. He's got that look in his eyes. I'm sure I'll get a bite for it, later. I promise I won't do it again, little guy," he tells his bearded dragon.

Aggie laughs and nods, looking a little sympathetic. "How do you take care of him? What does he do? Or eat?"

"Well, he eats crickets, mostly. Live ones. Though, he also eats a sort of paste as well. He's the most...relaxed, I guess, is the word to use, dragon I've ever known," Charlie laughs with a shake of his head. "Mostly, he just climbs on his branch or hangs out with me on my shoulder when I'm reading. He's very good company."

"Live ones?" Aggie wrinkles her nose, looking at Smaug. "Do you have to capture them?" It's not the idea that Smaug eats them that frightens her; it's the idea of having to acquire live ones and keep them somewhere.

"Unfortunately, yes. But such is the way of the world, sometimes," Charlie says. "Besides, I've had to feed worse to bigger dragons. They're quite fond of chickens and brandy. Not a fun combination, let me tell you."

"I can buy them at one of the local pet shops," Charlie answers. "Or I can catch them from outside, if I'm feeling particularly lazy and not wanting to go into town."

"Yes, I can see it's a bit relative, isn't it?" Aggie says. If the dragons are as big as he says, she can barely fathom the sheer quantity of chickens needed to keep one dragon fed daily, much less more than one.

"After that, crickets must seem like nothing."

"Yeah, they're a bit jumpy, but otherwise, they give me no trouble," he nods. "And what about you? Do you have any pets?"

"Mmmhm. A cat, named Goblin," Aggie says, grinning as she holds her hands far apart to indicate how massive her cat is. "He's twenty-five pounds of muscle and then fluffy on top of that."

"Goblin," Charlie repeats, thinking then of the goblins his brother works with. He grins as she widens her hands to the size of her pet. "Sounds like an impressive cat."

Aggie laughs, nodding when she sees the change in his expression. "His face is a bit...funny. Kind of flat, you know? I take him out on a leash sometimes."

Hallowe'en at The Bower

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