Package for Miss Finnigan, c/o Charlotte and Seamus Finnigan

[subtle_simmer]

Date: Friday, 8 February
Time: Evening after classes
Location Finnigan's Pub
Characters Involved: Severus Snape, Charlotte Finnigan, Constance Finnigan, Seamus Finnigan if Fuji wants.
Rating: X - because Snape being remotely 'fluffy' is absolutely revolting.

Comments

[beautesolitaire]

The poor busboy. Robert was a good kid, but he was painfully useless at much more then bussing tables. The boy just looked at him for a long moment, just staring before it finally got through his head that he'd asked for Seamus' wife and was carrying some manner of fussy things, probably for Little 'Stan', as her father called her.

"I... I.. I... I... I'll go get her!" he stuttered out before running off, telling Seamus that he was going to go upstairs to tell Charlotte that she had a visitor.

Charlotte was humming softly as she walked baby Stan. She was a little fussy and tired. Mommy was trying to get her to settle down so she could enjoy the evening together. No one could say that Charlotte wasn't a good mother, she even soothed the frazzled young man that came upstairs to tell her that a nasty looking man was downstairs waiting for her. She assured him that it was fine before walking with Constance down the stairs. She was rather stunned to see Professor Snape standing there. Constance mewled her displeasure, but once she was down in the bar, she just got quiet. She liked the noise and ruckus of the bar. The child stared at Snape with a rather pertinent little nose right between her eyes.

The mother gave him a small smile though, "Monsieur Snape. Bonjour." she said, her hands resting one on the baby's back, the other cupping her bottom.

The baby was dressed in a green romper that would probably have spit up on it. With babies, there needed to be a never ending supply of rompers.

[subtle_simmer]

"Mrs Finnigan," Severus replied with a respectful nod.

"Might we converse for a few moments somewhere less . . .," he glanced around at the crowded, noisy bar with a grimace, "occupied?"

He didn't really want witnesses to the ritual of infant-gift-bestowing.

It was impossible to miss the child being so prominently carried, blinking with clear, bright eyes and looking almost too tiny to be allowed. How did they fit all the requisite internal workings inside such a wee frame? It was impossible not to be somewhat fascinated. From an entirely intellectual-curiosity standpoint, of course.

[beautesolitaire]

She glanced around the bar before she nodded, "Yes, we can go upstairs." she said with a small smile to him, moving to carry the baby back up the stairs, letting him follow at his own pace. She didn't know Snape from a hole in the ground really, other then that he was a patron. Constance started to fuss once the downstairs door was closed with it's sound-proofing spell.

The baby liked all the noise and lights and all the things and people to look at. Constance motioned for him to sit down on the couch, "I'll get some tea if you would like." she offered.

Constance was shifted slightly against her mother's shoulder, yet she still stared at the new person. She was tiny, but she was chubby for coming out of her petite mommy. At a little more then a month, she wasn't lacking in the grocery department. The baby liked people. It was obvious that she was aware of her place in the world. Even if she was chubby, she was the Finnigans' whole world.

[safinnigan]

Seamus returned to the bar from the kitchen and immediately noticed the atmosphere was slightly charged. He placed the tray of clean glasses on the bar and systematically put each size away with its fellows as he called out to the busboy, Robert, to find out what he’d missed in the brief time he’d spent in the kitchen capitulating to Cook about the dinner menu.

“Rob, lad, why the long face then mate? You look right flummoxed now, boyo!” He laughed at the red-faced young man. Robert was more than adequate as a bus boy, but ‘twas a sure thing that barman was not his true calling. Fortunately the lad was a smart one, just in need of a job here in Diagon Alley.

“Mrs. Finnigan…she just took him off upstairs…” Robert was sputtering. To say he wasn’t good with people was like saying a Banshee wasn’t good at whispering.

“Who, Rob mate? Caleb? From the bookstore then was he?” Seamus finished up storing the glassware and gave over his full attention to Robert. It might take some close questioning to drag it out of him.

“No, not Caleb….S-s-s-snape, it was. Asked for your Mrs. The man’s a fright, Seamus. Don’t know why she took him upstairs, what with the new baby and all…And he was carrying...” Robert was clearly not about to resolve his Snape-phobia any time soon. Seamus knew that Char had met the Professor, but he didn’t want to test his happy homelife by leaving her alone to deal with the man.

“Thanks, Rob mate,” he said, signaling one of the barmaids to take over the bar whilst he went upstairs to check on Char and the baby greet his guest.

He took the steps at least two at a time in his haste to make sure Char and his babe weren’t left to Snape’s scrutiny for too long on their own. If nothing else, his own glaring ineptitudes could be the focus of Snape’s criticism instead of his hormonal wife and his new mewling babe. Of course if Char’s motherly instincts should come to the fore during this unexpected visit, his money was on Char, not the crusty Professor.

He burst in the doorway, slightly out of breath and more than slightly worried about the reason for this unexpected arrival. Was it business or social? And if it was business, why did he ask for Char? And how could it be social? This was Snape!

“Professor Snape, sir! ‘Tis a rare pleasure to see you, sir.” He smiled in welcome, but his eyes quickly took in the most unexpected scene of Char holding his babe with Snape at her side. And Snape appeared to be holding a package wrapped in soft pastel coloured baby blankets with a bunny! Seamus wished mightily that he had Colin’s camera.

[subtle_simmer]

Severus followed her up the stairs, amused at how the babe, cradled against her mother's shoulder, would insist on peering at him the entire time. With the bright-blue irises that would not achieve their true colour for several months yet, the gaze ought to have seemed unfocused. He'd always understood infants to be virtually blind, like all newborn animals, but that surmise appeared to be incorrect.

Once inside the Finnigans' living area, he felt intensely uncomfortable. He'd only thought to find a small conference room or somewhere slightly less visible to the main bar. This was a courtesy he did not know quite how to accept. The offer of tea utterly appalled him. Clearly, he had committed some sort of enormous faux-pas! Weren't new mothers supposed to be the ones attended to and waited upon, not the other way around?

"No," he said, so suddenly as to sound almost rude. He moderated his tone and tried to get his visit over with as quickly as possible. "Please, do not trouble yourself on my account. I would not have disturbed you, but I realised I have been remiss in acknowledging your . . . event."

He couldn't help staring at the creature. Bright eyes, tiny nose, ears no bigger than his thumb, round, cherry-red mouth, wee hands clenched in fists smaller than a Snitch, wriggling through the air with seeming randomness. She made strange sounds, like kittens mewling.

Coming to himself again, he blinked and raised the blanket-wrapped bundle.

"I merely wished to bring something for the child," he said, still utterly in the dark as to the little being's name.

"Surely you should not be exerting yourself. There are directions clearly written on the labels for the potions," he said, indicating the package again, as he began to seek his escape. "If you have questions, you may contact me."

The infant made gurgling sounds that might have been a cross between a sound of complaint or a sound of amusement. Tiny lips seemed to think about curling into a wee smile, but didn't quite get there.

This time his thoughts were interrupted by the entrance of Mr Finnigan. Horrifyingly, he felt heat rush to his face, as though he'd been caught in a compromising situation.

In a way, he had!

"My apologies," he said to Finnigan with a stiff bow of his head. "I ought not to have neglected this for so long. It was not my intent to disturb your family or trouble your wife. I merely wished to bring something for the infant."

He placed the bundle on a convenient end-table and reached into his robes for the champagne bottle with a green ribbon around its neck and a note that said only, 'To Mr and Mrs Finnigan, Congratulations on your new arrival.'

Appallingly, the ears of the stuffed rabbit were poking out of the incompletely tied blankets. How the mighty have fallen, indeed. He quickly tucked the thing back within the ribbon and started back-pedaling toward the door.

His eyes darted wildly from the door to Finnigan to Mrs Finnigan to the baby and back again as though they where the ones with the history of terrifying personality and formidable, questionable past.

"I will just let myself out," he said, taking yet another step of hasty retreat toward the door, which, unfortunately, Finnigan was effectively blocking.

[beautesolitaire]

That little bow of a mouth opened with a yawn before she settled there, just staring at him. She stared at everyone with an unnerving pertinence when she was awake. It was like she could read your mind or something. Charlotte was rather surprised that he would bring a gift for the baby, considering how he had returned her simple gifts the year before, but he was Seamus' business partner now, so she supposed that that changed matters some.

"'er name is Constance, Monsieur Snape. Would you like to 'old 'er?" he asked, knowing that look, Caleb had worn that look. That look that said, how in the world could something be so tiny and not break into a million little pieces. "If you are going to give 'er a present, you at least get to 'old 'er for a bit and get to know 'er."

She had stood up when Snape stood up, glancing over her shoulder as her husband came busting in as if he was saving her from certain doom. It really was rather amusing. She gave him a small smile.

"Mon amour, Monsieur Snape was bringing somet'ing for Constance. To welcome 'er into ze world." she said, motioning to the pale green basket that would match much of what the baby already had. The nursury at the flat was done up in a Velveeteen rabbit sort of coloring with lots of pale yellows and greens and oranges. Constance was not a baby who looked good in pink.

"Come, sit with us. 'e does not 'ave to leave so soon, do you, Monsieur Snape?" she asked, looking at him with big expectant blue eyes. The baby just stared at him with those big green eyes, she was well over a month now and her eyes had settled into that kerry green.