Hallowe'en at The Bower

[teaandsympathy]

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.

Comments

[deluminate]

When his Mum and Charlie had decided to have a proper feast on Halloween, Ron realized that he didn't have many people who he felt he could invite. In Darrow, he only really knew Muggles, with only a couple of exceptions, and most of them were the ones mental enough to think they were from Darrow.

It wasn't that he didn't think the people he worked with were alright, he just didn't think they were all there, so far as knowing what was going on in Darrow was concerned.

Luke, though, he was alright. He'd helped Ron the day before his wedding, and seemed okay in general, really, so he'd been near the top of the list as far as people to ask along was.

"Luke, glad you could make it, mate," Ron greeted, as soon as he saw the other man.

[notaretriever]

"Hi," Luke says, smiling at Ron, telling himself to resist the urge to shove his free hand in his pocket as he hefts the wrapped book. "I brought a housewarming gift for your mum. I'm not actually very good at housewarming gifts, I've discovered."

Which he hopes isn't enough of a reason to kick him out. There are plenty of kind people in Darrow, but Luke doesn't know if he would call many of them besides Ron a friend. He's never been very good at making friends, though, has never really had a reason to trust people after so many of his former friends turned their backs on him.

[deluminate]

"She's not gonna mind either way, we're just glad you could make it," Ron replied, though he knew that now his Mum was going be annoyed that he hadn't bought her and Charlie a housewarming present. But he and Hermione'd helped out as much as either of them could anyway, so he was sure that had to count for something.

"She'll probably like you more than she likes me, now."

[notaretriever]

"I find that hard to believe," Luke says with a dry laugh, though the comment puts him a little more at ease and he smooths his hands down the front of his shirt before pushing his hands into his pockets. "I met Hermione the other day, I don't know if she told you."

He'd been a little surprised by just how easy it had been to talk to her. Not that he had expected anything else, but explaining the runes and Shadowhunters and what he used to be hasn't exactly come easy for him in this city.

[deluminate]

"You'd be surprised. I reckon that'll put me in fourth if you include Hermione and my brother Charlie," Ron said, and there was a time when he might've been serious about that sort of statement, but these days, he knew that wasn't the truth. Even if he did suspect his Mum liked Ginny over all of them, just for being a girl.

At Luke's comment about Hermione, though, Ron looked surprised.

"Brilliant. No, I hadn't heard," he said. Though, there was a chance she'd mentioned it and he'd been knackered from work that night, "Did you go by the Lamplight, then?"

[notaretriever]

"I stopped by, yes," Luke says, nodding. "The shop is incredible and Hermione is very sweet." The openness of the store itself and Hermione's willingness to discuss magic had been something of a surprise to him, but he appreciates it now. There aren't many people in the city who understand even a part of what life had been like for him. Being a werewolf is one thing, having other wolves around is something he's grown used to over the years, but magic is something else entirely.

There's no one else in the city who's both a wolf and has a past like Luke does.

"She had a lot to tell me about magic in your world," he says. "It was very interesting."

[deluminate]

"Bloody hell, she didn't give you a lecture on all of it, did she?" Ron asked, though there was fondness in his tone. He could only imagine how excited Hermione had gotten about explaining magic to someone who didn't know anything about it. Considering she'd been hoping to open a school in Darrow, she probably already had diagrams drawn up for the occasion. She'd probably started in on wandlore as well.

[notaretriever]

"No, it was interesting," Luke says with a smile. "It's very different than the magic in my world, but there are a lot of similarities, too. She told me about the war and it... well, it sounds very much like something someone in my world tried to do once. Wipe out all Downworlders. Purge the world of our tainted blood."

He doesn't mention that the man responsible for that had been his best friend, his brother in arms, the one person in the world Luke had held most dear. And he doesn't mention that he'd once stood by Valentine's side, certain his criticisms of the Clave had held value.

Luke had been very wrong and he had paid for his ignorance.