Meet the parents

[charliesdragons]

Date: Dec. 21, 2001
Time: Early evening
Location: The flat in Romania
Characters Involved: Charlie and Katie Weasley, Mr. and Mrs. Bell
Rating: PG

Comments

[charliesdragons]

"Yes, Sir." he said with a nod, then looked at Katie. "We were married by a minister, properly, Sir. A friend of mine in Romania is one, and he married us. He raised an eyebrow to Katie as she put her foot down about the wedding. He knew they hadn't discussed it too much, but he wasn't sure she should be so snippy with her Da... but who was he to argue, being the new addition to the family and all?

"We'd be happy to be here for at least part of Christmas, but my Mum would never forgive us if we didn't show up for a bit of Christmas. My siblings aren't exactly behaving themselves. Of the seven, I've been the only one home regularly. It's driving my Mum 'round the twist a bit, so I have to make sure I'm there for her." he sighed. "But I'm sure we can find a way to split time between the two families. I'm honoured to be invited." he said with a smile.

"Oh, don't appologize for their manners, please. Have you ever heard of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes?" he said with a laugh. "Those are my twin brothers Fred and George. Trust me, their manners are nothing compaired to those two hellions."

[lioninthegarden]

Lora just beamed at him, "Delightful scamps. I've had to confiscate several of those extendable ears from Thomas. Little spy that he is, keeps trying to find out what he's getting for Christmas."

Lora liked him already. He made Katie happy and that was enough to make her mother happy. Plus Katie had promised that they would do a big ceremony later and she was sticking to those guns. She had raised Katie to be self-sufficient. She wanted Katie to be happy with a man, but at the same time, she expected her daughter to be strong.

[charliesdragons]

Charlie laughed. "Delightful scamps? Oh, Merlin, I think they gave my poor Dad every grey hair on his head. Mum too. But they're good, I have to admit. One of my jobs recently has been curse breaking with my older brother Bill, and I swear half of the work we do is undoing their handywork. Suppose we feel like it's balance. But the one I really feel sorry for is poor Minerva McGonagall. No matter how much she tries to keep their items out of Hogwarts, they always seem to creep back in." he laughed. "But if Thomas really loves their stuff, I'm sure we can arrange for a personal shoppe tour or something. Fred and George would eat that up!"

He was still nervous, but he tried his best to be calm. Things seemed to be going much better than they had with his parents, thankfully.

[lioninthegarden]

"Oh I am sure that Thomas would have kittens if he could meet them. He's just as much of a scamp as they are, they're his idols." Lora said with a chuckle, well that would be feeding the fire, but of well, it would make her son happy.

Katie just smirked, "Yes, well when he up and quits school like the twins, you'll know who to blame, right mama?" she asked with a chuckle, "Or gets more detention then he already gets."

Katie leaned over and snuck a kiss onto her husband's cheek when her father wasn't looking. "Love you." she whispered in his ear. "But yes, mama, we'll come for Christmas. Probably Christmas morning though."

Katie had plans to spend their first Christmas Eve together at home. Afterall they might not get many alone if they had children.

[charliesdragons]

Charlie laughed. He still couldn't get used to the idea that his little brothers were people someone might have "kittens" to meet! They were just Fred and George, trouble makers of the family. "Well, I'm sure I could arrange something. They owe me after all their work I've been undoing." he chuckled.

He leaned into the kiss and smiled broadly. "Love you too." he whispered. This was going far better than he'd expected. He then nodded. "Christmas morning should be fine, I think. Mum usually expects us for dinner, so I think we can promise the morning without a problem." he nodded to Katie, squeezing her hand. "And maybe you can meet my parents soon too. I'm sure Mum would love to meet you both, and I know Dad would. He's fascinated with anything having to do with muggles." he chuckled, shaking his head.

[lioninthegarden]

Simon looked mildly amused when he said that his father was fascinated by muggles. It always made him feel like a lab specimen. But he had learned to be fascinated by his wife as well. With the magic that she could do. Of course it would be recipricol. "So, Charlie, what is it exactly that you do for a living?" he asked finally, watching the man.

Katie shot him another look that said quit it with the questions, but her father didn't back down this time. He wanted to know what would support her daughter when she was done with her sports pipe dream. Perhaps he was old fashioned, but he didn't believe that Katie could make a life off a sport, even if she had talent. Sports were not easy for women to succeed at, but he was proud of what she had done.

[charliesdragons]

"Well, Sir, right now I have two jobs. I recently started a curse breaking business with my brother Bill here in England. He's one of the best curse breakers to ever work for Gringot's Bank, and so we've begun quite a business doing that. But my other job is studying dragons in Romania. I've been doing that for a little more than ten years now. I tried to leave a few months ago when I was injured, but I suppose dragons are in my blood. I ended up taking Katie to see them a bit ago and was offered a promotion just so I'd come back." he chuckled. "So, I spend half time in Romania, and half time in England. Mostly now that I've had the promotion, I spend time in my flat in Sibiu going through my coleagues' research, organizing it, reviewing it and sending in the better parts but I also do a bit of study myself. I have one dragon in particular that I raised from an egg. I'm still keeping an eye on him."

He stopped talking, flushing as he realized that he'd gone on and on about dragons, just as his father always did about muggle items. He looked over at Katie with a slightly sheepish look.

[lioninthegarden]

Katie just smiled at him and squeezed his hand, "And I have my two jobs, between the team and the school, we're managing." she said, leveling a look at her daddy that said, 'I can take care of myself, thanks much'. She didn't cut Charlie off, she liked seeing him lightly up when he talked about dragons.

Lora smiled at him, "I've never seen a dragon. I have heard that they are utterly magnificent. Wouldn't you like to see a dragon, Simon?"

Simon just arched a brow at his wife, "A giant, fire breathing dinosaur. I don't think so. I like the living and breathing I do."

[charliesdragons]

"Well, I'd say we're doing more than managing, Love." he said with a raised eyebrow. "Just on what I make and the fact that I own my flat in Romania, we're in remarkably good shape." he said, trying to smooth her ruffled feathers, but let her Father know that he was very serious about being able to support her once she decided to leave her careers. After all, he was an old fashioned man as well, and completely respected her Da for making sure that he was in a position to be able to support her in the way he'd expect. "Besides, Katie, you're not going to want to work forever, right? Once we decide it's time to have children, I thought you'd want to stay home with them." he said with a raised eyebrow. "Of course your Da would worry about my ability to make sure you can." he said as if it were the most natural thing in the world. He didn't mean to correct Katie in front of her family, but he wanted to make sure that her Da knew that he wasn't a wimp, that he could step up and "manage" Katie just as well as she could "manage" him!

Charlie laughed at Simon's reaction. "Well, Mrs. Bell, I'd love to take you up to see the dragons sometime if you'd like. I work with some fiesty ones, but there's also some remarkably tame ones as well." he smiled. "In fact, Katie got to pet Reggie. He's like a big dog, really."

[lioninthegarden]

Katie looked slightly offended when he inferred that she would quit both of her jobs to stay home and raise babies. "I'll still coach, even if I don't play pro anymore." she said, scowling slightly at her husband, "I can balance it all."

Yeah well that was going to be a bone of contention. She was not a little wife to stay at home with babies and the kitchen. She was not ever going to see herself like that. Even her mother wasn't completely like that. It was a little odd that he thought she'd be happy doing that.

"That would be lovely!" Lora said with a smile, "And you must call me Melora, or Lora, if you prefer. Mrs. Bell is Simon's mother."

[charliesdragons]

"Oh... I suppose we hadn't discussed that." he said with a raised eyebrow. "I guess I just thought that you'd stay home with the children, but I suppose if that's not what you want, we'll figure things out." he said, his tone just a bit disappointed. Not that he was ever upset that Katie was as independent as she was, but he never thought less of his Mum for staying home... in fact, he thought she was a bit of a hero for raising 7 children while his Dad worked.

"I'm sorry, I guess I assumed." he said, biting his lip. "But we have all the time in the world to discuss this, don't we?" he asked with a shrug.

He turned back to Katie's Mum. "Alright...Lora." he smiled. "Thank you. Anytime you'd like, I'll take you up to Romania and introduce you to Reggie." he chuckled.

[lioninthegarden]

"You won't let some dragon, eat my wife, will you boy?" Simon asked with the arch of a brow, same as his daughter, it was a low, unpleasent sound that was entirely defensive of his wife. Simon was protective of his petite wife, perhaps a little overbearingly so.

Lora swatted at her husband's arm and sighed, "Don't you listen to him. I can handle a little bitty dragon."

Katie just didn't reply, perhaps this just wasn't the best place to comment about it. She just let it go for now. They'd discuss it soon. She wasn't going to expect him to support their entire family. That was so stupid. She had to contribute. Sure she had a very good savings and it wasn't going anywhere, in fact, it was quite sizeable because she didn't have much in the way of bills.

[charliesdragons]

"Oh, no Sir. I'd never let anything happen to her!" he said quickly. "We generally don't let anyone who doesn't work in the camps regularly past a certain point on the mountain. Close enough to see, but far enough away for safety." he unconsciously rubbed the scars on his lower arms, thinking about the camps.

He looked over at his wife... he knew he screwed up, but really, he could always plead ignorance. He hadn't thought she'd want to work after they had babies, and that was his fault for assuming. He knew they'd have a good bit of talking to do, but when her parents were talking to each other for a moment, he leaned over and whispered "I'm sorry" in her ear. Best to get the ball rolling early.

[lioninthegarden]

Katie didn't reply to his sorry, she just let her parents monopolize the conversation with the who, what, where, when, and why questions that they had. Why did he study dragons, what were his goals in life, when did he want children? Katie finally got up, excusing herself to go to the loo.

Lora watched her daughter for a long moment, "You ought to know, Charlie, Katie would never stay home and have babies. Have babies yes, stay home and raise them, no. She is far too independant to let you be the sole bread winner."

[charliesdragons]

Charlie happily answered all their questions... things with them, at least, were going better than he'd expected. Things with his wife however were a little icy. He watched her stand and go to the loo.

When Lora spoke, he sighed. "I figured that out. I adore how independent she is, I suppose I didn't think of it as loosing independence. My Mum is the most firey, independent woman I know and no one that I know of has ever thought any less of her for staying home with us. In fact, I sort of think my Mum is a hero for being at home with us, especially with the twins and the things they pulled... and Ron, I won't even go into the things he and Harry did!" he chuckled. "But I suppose maybe we just have different points of view on this. Really, I just want her to be happy." he said, biting his lip. "If she wants to continue to work once we have children, then it's up to her. I'd even make sure I could work from home on certain days so that she could work if that's what made her happy." he shrugged. Really, all her wanted was for her to be content in life and to never regret the choices the made together.

[lioninthegarden]

"She's just pouting. I think she assumed that you wouldn't think less of her for wanting to work and have kids. It is not easy and who knows, maybe when she does have a baby, she'll settle in and stay home, but she'll have to make that choice herself." she said with a small smile to him.

"Our girl doesn't know what she wants until she wants it. So don't you worry about her. You let her stew in it a little while and she'll apologize for pouting."