RP: Dinner in Exeter

[shh_cedric]

Date: January 6, 2005
Characters: Katie Bell, Cedric Diggory
Location: Exeter
Status: Private
Summary: Cedric owes Katie dinner, at least.
Completion: Complete

Comments

[shh_cedric]

"Don't worry about the error. It happens a lot, although here I usually have to specify 'Native American' because if I say 'Indian' everybody assumes I mean India. You making the opposite mistake was actually a bit unique." He toasted her with the refilled water glass.

"Anyway, the trip to Toronto" -- he made himself say the city rather than 'home' -- "went well enough. My mother actually thinks some of her destroyed paintings could be salvagable in part, although in others, the magic is just gone. She'll be coming here sometime in the spring to bring back what she can fix, and to take a look at the others. She's much more sensitive than I am to what canvases might still have magic in them.

"I also went down to the Smithsonian museums in Washington, DC because the ROMM -- the Royal Ontario Museum -- is being revamped and most wasn't open. I wanted to see how they handled their displays. So it was productive, in that respect.

"Otherwise, I mostly hung out with old friends and let our house-elf try to fatten me up." He patted his stomach. "Like I need anymore fattening. If I'd stayed there much longer, I'd need a bigger waist size in trousers.

"What about you? What did you do over the holidays?"

[shh_katie]

"What can I say, I enjoy being different," Katie replied wryly, raising her glass back in toast, although she didn't always enjoy it. And she was fairly sure the word for it was 'ridiculous' rather than 'unique'.

"Sounds like a productive trip," she commented, listening to his description. "It's a shame any of the paintings were destroyed, but at least not everything was lost. And Washington from Toronto, quite a trip just to see the museum, but I suppose that is your 'business' now."

She had to hide a smile as he mentioned his trousers. Although he was far from fat, it was obvious Cedric wasn't exactly in peak shape. But she supposed a full time job at the museum in Exeter, and a second one building his own in Stoatshead didn't leave time for much exercise.

"I just stayed in town," Katie replied. "Nothing exciting - although I did attend Christmas dinner at the Weasley's. That was....a bit of an experience."

[shh_cedric]

"Yeah, I reckon it is my business." He laughed a little at that. "Funny to think. Never expected to wind up a museum curator. Or whatever it is I am now. But ... I rather like it."

When she mentioned dinner at the Weasleys with hesitation, both his eyebrows went up. "Oh? What happened there? Did Percy show up?" Ron may have made peace with his brother, but Cedric wasn't sure if the rest of them had.

Before she could reply, the waitress had arrived, half startling Cedric. "Oh -- er, did you have a chance to look at the menu?" he asked Katie. To the waitress, he said, "I want the Lamb Tikka, please." Then back to Katie, "You can ask about the dishes if you're not sure what's in one."

[shh_katie]

Katie wasn't sure what was in many of them, as there was no description under the names of the dishes. But, she was willing to take a chance. And besides, if she didn't know what weird meat she was eating, she couldn't worry about it. She would ask after. "I'll have the Murug Tandoor," Katie smiled up at the watress, handing over her menu.

"No, Percy didn't come," Katie replied as the waitress left, taking their menus with her. "But the rest of the family was there." She was only peripherally aware of the situation with the uptight Weasley brother, and she had never pressed the issue with George. "As well as friends of the family and the like. My discomfort was more on a personal level." And that wasn't even counting Avery's presence.

She hesitated, not knowing a lot about Cedric's past relationships, but figured he had been in some relationship at some point in his life. Not many would be as inexperienced as she was. "It's just awkward, you know, meeting the family of someone you are seeing. I was nervous beyond belief when I met George's mom."

"But," Katie continued, leaning back in her chair, "I'm prone to overreact like that I suppose. I'm noticing that more now."

[shh_cedric]

"I'm not at all sure it's overreacting to be nervous," Cedric said, picking at the basket of nan the waitress had left. "Lord knows I've been." In his case, there had been a lot of undercurrents ranging from knowing a bit too much about Gwen's parents to ever be able to like them, to the whole 'white boy/red girl' dynamic. Even if he'd ben adopted by the Ojibway, that wasn't Gwen's band, and he was still lily-white. Not everybody in her family had been ready to accept him, not for a long time. And then he'd left her after all, just as some of them had expected him to do.

"In any case, yeah, I can imagine that meeting the whole Weasley clan -- at once -- wouldn't be an easy thing, especially if you have come from a small family. Molly's a dear, but a bit ... overwhelming?" He grinned. "Did it go all right, though? Otherwise, I mean? Meeting them and such?"

[shh_katie]

"Despite the ulcer I'm sure I developed," Katie replied with a smile, sipping at he water, "meeting them went fine. It's not as if anyone seemed to be looking at me with suspicion, thinking I wasn't good enough, or at least subtley threatened me in terms of hurting him, which I had actually been expecting. Says something about how paranoid I am, doesn't it? Quite the opposite in fact, even if it was....overwhelming as you say."

Mrs.Weasley had made her a Christmas stocking for Merlin's sake - Katie was still rather disconcerted over that. "I wasn't meeting everyone for the first time of course, so that helped."

Katie set her glass down, grabbing a piece of the bread from the basket. She broke of a piece, popping it in her mouth as she contemplated. The Weasley's, despite the mutual blood heritage, were a far cry from her own family. She had expected that though, and their easy affection for one of their own had been what had intimidated her from the outset as well. She didn't think they would be the type to hide behind aloofness and, well, passive agressiveness, if they were upset.

That, she was used to.

"The things we put ourselves through for other people," Katie continued wryly. Not that that was akin to something life-altering, but it had felt like it. "But enough about my self-induced stress," she added, embarassed to have talked about it so much. She sounded like a bit of a wimp.

She was going to blather on excitedly about the movie theater she had been to the other day, but Cedric was so familiar with muggle culture she didn't doubt he would think her enthusiasm crazy. "You must be excited about coming home to a fully functional building for your museum," Katie settled on a topic he could ramble about if he wanted.

[shh_cedric]

"I'm glad it went well. And I doubt you'd get threatened, unless you count having your wedding planned before the year is out." He laughed. "I suspect their mum wants to marry them off."

She seemed to want to change the subject, so he let her.

"I was thrilled to find the musuem done, actually. My next step at this point is, I think, going to the Ministry to let them know exactly what's up. I didn't do that until I had something a bit further along. They've got enough to be going on with, but I want to start making knowledge of the museum more public, and I don't want whoever's left at the Ministry finding out about it that way. That wouldn't be politic.

"After that, I plan to organize a 'public painting.' It won't, mind, be all the painting, so if you're still on for that, I'll still need your help. But I thought it might be ... a way to create some public enthusiasm, and maybe get a few donations, to open the museum to let anybody who wants paint a bit of the wall. I'll have to plan it carefully to avoid it turning into a complete mess, but I like the idea.

"My mother, of course, thinks I've lost my mind, but she's a bit ... controlling." He laughed. That was the understatement of the evening.

[shh_katie]

"Merlin, with the way things are I don't even know what sort of regulations are in place for starting up business - and well, museums - and the like." Katie frowned a slightly. Everything in that regards had been very well defined in the past. Although the museum was a bit of a different story, she had to wonder if starting up or taking over a business here was like the process of getting a flat - just laying claim - or something more official.

"The community painting sounds like a fun idea," she added, "but almost like more work for you. Depending on how things go, you're going to have spend time fixing things afterwards if you want it to look good. But yeah, if you need a hand beyond what you get done that way, me and my wand and brush are willing."

"Your mother thinks you've lost your mind?" Katie repeated curiously. "Would that be your grandiose idea for the museum, or your community painting plans? Or," she added with a bit of a grin, "something else all together?"

[shh_cedric]

"Well, I'm not sure how official anything is anymore. I went into the Ministry earlier in the autumn to see if I needed a building permit to start rebuilding my house and Percy Weasley just laughed at me." His eyebrows hopped; that still stung. "But the poor bloke was completely covered up with parchment, so I suppose I can see why. Still, I could just imagine getting started only to have somebody descend on me telling me I needed this or that form. You know how the old Ministry was.

"A public painting will be more work, I'm sure of it, but important. And yes, that's what my mother thinks I'm barmy about. She said the same thing you did -- I'll just have to redo much of it, or all of it, to make it look decent. But I know that going in, and it's not really the point. I just want to get people in the door to see the place, and let them paint a little so that later, they'll feel more as if it's theirs.

"Mum ... she'd usually prefer to avoid rubbing elbows too much with the hoi polloi." He grinned. "She's a bit of a princess sometimes, although it's less about birth for her than ... intelligence? She doesn't have a great deal of confidence people's common sense, I suppose." It was one of his mother's more Slytherin-ish qualities that he disliked. "But I'm glad you're still set to help with the actual painting."