RP: Meet the Parent

[shh_katie]

Date: July 7, 2005
Characters: Katie Bell, Lucretia Diggory (Cedric Diggory)
Location: Stoatshead Hill Quidditch Pitch
Status: Private - though they are in public
Summary: Despite Cedric's wishes to the contrary, Lucy seeks out Katie on her own at Quidditch Day
Completion: Complete

Comments

[shh_katie]

"Lucy," she tested out the name, still awkward on her tongue, but figured it was the easiest form of address on the other woman's invitation. Giving a wry smile, she continued, "I do know of your birth family - perhaps a little more than I would care to, if you'll pardon me saying do. Diggory is the much better choice."

Her eyes went slightly wide at Lucy's explanation of why she hardly preferred the longer form of her name - considering her own reasoning was 'it sounds too formal'. "My parents thought so when they named me," she said with a smile, "but I find the shortened form suits me best."

"And, I'm of course available to speak with you," Katie continued, less surprised than she would have assumed at the other woman's suggestion she wanted to talk to her, "if you'd like, right now. Did you want to stay here, or go some place a little more private? My official responsibilities are done for the day, so I'm free." She coughed uncomfortably at the other woman's mention of 'asp in the sand'.

She hadn't realized Cedric had been keeping them apart intentionally out of concern for her. It had always been her assumption this last week it was mostly due to his mood, and having no desire to yet have to go through that meeting when things were still a bit...unsettled with him - but at the same time he had been well aware Katie was nervous about meeting his mum. It wasn't her fault Lucy sounded in description rather intimidating - and even if she hadn't been, the fact she was the mum was reason enough for hesitancy at least.

[shh_cedric]

"Now suits me very well," Lucy said, hooking her arm through Katie's as if they were girlfriends at school. "Come. Sometimes a crowd is, in fact, the surest privacy one can seek."

"So, tell me about yourself. Cedric has, of course, but I prefer to hear your own version. What are your dreams and aspirations. And although I gather it doesn't matter to you, you do realize my son is not a pureblood? Your father might harbor some objections."

[shh_katie]

Katie forced herself to relax when Lucy threaded her arm through hers - a surreal experience if there ever was one. She answered the easiest question first as they walked through the crowd. It would have been easy to take offense at the question, but she chose not too, since she at least seemed to accept Katie wasn't a snob about that.

"I don't care if your son is a squib," she told Lucy frankly, adding with a smile, "though magic on both our parts makes life a lot easier. My father's....even if...it won't matter to him in the end. You obviously have met him, and I won't deny he would prefer a pureblood in the family, but he's not that intolerant over things like that. Times have forced change - and probably the fact Cedric runs a museum would mean more to him than his bloody purity, or lack thereof."

Shrugging lightly, she added, "Dreams and aspirations are a complicated question. And could take up an entire afternoon talking about. My life has done a complete turnaround since the end of the war - and in terms of specifics, I can't answer that question for you. But my short term aspiration is to get the World Cup team up and running, simplistic though it is. To me it's not just about Quidditch, I wouldn't be doing this if it was. But I can assure you I have plans for my life - more than just a cinema, though I love running it as well."

Wanting to divert the talk from her then, since she didn't think she had the right answers, and she wasn't going to talk about the dreams that were started to include Cedric, she hastily tried to turn it back around to Lucy. "Cedric's told me about you, but perhaps I shall follow your lead and point out your version is probably different. The facts and someone else's viewpoint are hardly the same anyway."

[shh_cedric]

Lucy couldn't keep a small smile off her face at Katie's reply regarding Cedric's blood purity. She'd assumed as much, but it was good to hear. She listened through the rest of what the girl said, making observations to herself. After Katie had run out of words, she said:

"I hope that, at some point, you have the chance to meet Cedric's father. He can explain why -- from a genealogical point of view -- pureblood status is problematic. I'm pleased that your father might not care so much; Cedric is healthier for not being one. The fact he's the only child I was able to bear -- out of four pregnancies -- speaks to the issues of pureblood weakness. I sincerely hope you don't face the same, when you feel ready and inclined to become a mother." She didn't say a mother with whom as she supposed Katie and Cedric rather far from that stage, however much she knew her son loved children.

"The World Cup, eh?" Lucy lifted an eyebrow. Cedric had mentioned that. "Do you really think England has any chance? And that is a real -- if blunt -- question, not an intimation.

"As for what Cedric has said ... " she smiled faintly. "No doubt he's painted me as quite the Medea ... powerful, clever and terrible. What do you want to know about me, Katie?"

[shh_katie]

"Something beyond the incestual nature of intermarrying?" Katie remarked dryly. "If purebloods only married purebloods we'd all be related eventually. As it is, it's a rather....familial crowd at times. I can assure you that when," she forced herself to way 'when' and not 'if', "I have children, blood won't be an issue, halfblood or pure for that matter. But as clinical as it sounds, there are advantages to branching outside of the, uh, normal crowd."

She was surprised at Lucy's question, not having really expected to talk about the World Cup itself, but she nodded, "I do, I wouldn't have pushed to get us entered otherwise. A team for the sake of a team will bring the community together in preparation, but a disastrous flop is not to our best advantage after putting all the effort - and time and money - into it. I won't admit it will be easy, but I know we're not going to be some afterthought who loses out in the first round."

"And that's not just me putting forth bravado to promote the team," she shot Lucy a smile, "I honestly believe we can do it. And I think it's more than worth it. You may not love Quidditch, but you can see how it will be beneficial for Britain, can't you?"

Katie's cheeks coloured in embarrassment at her statement, "Well, I don't know if the word terrible has crossed his lips....but no, Lucy, Cedric loves you and has painted you in the best light. Any way that was taken and misconstrued was by me. I've been nervous about meeting you irregardless. But I suppose, I don't know where to start. Tell me about your career - Cedric's sung your praises, and makes it sound like you love it immensely."

[shh_cedric]

"There is a reason for the incest taboo beyond, well, Victorian attitudes. But I'm pleased to hear it's not an issue. I didn't really think so, but sometimes things are best put out on the table.

Lucy listened to Katie talk about the World Cup. "If you don't mind my pressing the point," she said, "why do you think it won't be a disastrous flop? I do, in fact, understand the value in having a team compete. It makes a great deal of sense. And I understand your enthusiasm. Cedric has spoken a great deal of it. But I must press you. In the wake of a war, do you really think Britain is ready? And be specific. I believe YOU think so, but why? Conviction isn't enough, Katie."

Her eyebrow went up at Katie's nerves. "I think it's normal, to be nervous of meeting parents. As for my career ... yes, it's what I've always wanted, and what I've most invested myself in. Painting is who I am, Katie."

[shh_katie]

Specifics were harder, though she'd had to deal with them when meeting with the IAQ. "Is Britain itself ready?" Katie asked, "Yes. This isn't the month following the war. People have settled, and need something to rally around. We're not all scrambling in the wake of the conflict. Stoatshead Hill is the best example - we're a functional society now, not just a rag tag group of individuals."

"Even if there is a slight hesitation on my part about that," she continued, "it's balanced out by the fact that if we don't jump into this now, it won't occur again for four years. And, as a minor point, England will have lost it's exemption."

"The team itself will be ready. It may be lip service, but the war hasn't changed the fact we have quality Quidditch players in Britain. A little rusty perhaps, but practise and training will solve that problem. I can't prove that until we play - but I believe it based on the, at least theoretical, evidence that we can win."

She envied Lucy's certainty over her career - though she'd had it once upon a time herself. But at the same time, Cedric's assertion Sunday that his mother's painting came first in her life - it might be irrational, but she could see the foundation for it.

But putting that aside, she let her lips curl up. "Is it too soon to ask about all those embarassing details of his life Cedric glosses over? Though that hardly allows us to get to know one another, ourselves, does it - if you tell me about him. Was it hard for you then, splitting off from your family? While it seems like a natural choice to a hardly objective outsider, it's different when you're living it I'm sure." And the nature of her marrying Amos couldn't be quite the same way Cedric had made it sound.

[shh_cedric]

Lucy listened and didn't interrupt, although she suspected that Katie might find it all rather harder than she might think. That remained to be seen, however.

The girl's question about Cedric and embarrassing details made her smile. "That might depend on the embarrassing detail. Some are for Cedric to tell, or not. Was there something in particular that he glossed over?

"As for leaving my family -- it was and it wasn't." She didn't look at Katie as they walked. "I knew both your parents, if not well, and from what Cedric has told me of you, I rather doubt you share many of their opinions. My mother was a mouse, frankly, and died when I was at Hogwarts. My father and I were both close and constantly at war. Too much alike and not enough. I scandalized him and made him proud. Amos offered me an escape and stability."

Her eyes slid sideways to Katie. "No doubt you have questions about the marriage, and the divorce. Cedric feels blind-sided, although perhaps less so now. He's still angry with me -- with us." She shrugged. "He's no long a child; he has to realize that his parents are human beings."

She looked back across the field milling with people, brooms, banners. "My one regret with my family is that I never had a chance to reconcile with my father before his murder. We were moving in that direction, and I was planning to bring Cedric -- then an infant -- to his house, although Amos wasn't yet welcome there. He was killed first."

[shh_katie]

"It was more a blanket question than something I think I should know," Katie admitted with an embarassed laugh, "trying to ferret out embarassing stories of Cedric's past. He's been open on the details that matter."

"My parents changed - at least to an extent," she told Lucy then, frankly, "most of it was me. They did it for me. I just...well, want to point that out. They were never open minded, but they became tolerant enough for my sake. When I fought for the Order, they stood by me rather than side with the rest of the family. I'm not going to pretend they were completely different from what it sounded like they were at Hogwarts - but I..they weren't so rigid. I never needed that escape, even if some of my childhood and relationship with them weren't ideal."

She was well aware she was talking about them both in the past tense, though it was more a slip of the tongue rather than anything else.

"The questions about the divorce and marriage - they're none of my business," Katie said quietly, "curiousity is natural, as everything I know is filtered through Cedric and his emotions, but it's none of my business. I'm not going to pry into that."

She almost let out a snort at Lucy's comment - though it was full of sad shock more than anything. Appropriate maybe, that she should be hearing it, but she wasn't the one who had pulled away in the relationship with her father. And she wasn't the one who was averse to reconciliation. Unlike Lucy, she thought there were some things you just couldn't force. And some things she didn't want to. Cedric's grandfather was more inclined to change and forgiveness than her own father - though the precipitating circumstances were much different.

"It's hard to regret what might have been," she told the other woman, "my own mother's murder was hard on so many levels," that she wasn't exploring, "but at least there is nothing like that to haunt me. I wish I had told her I loved her one last time, who doesn't though I suppose, but we were on good terms."

[shh_cedric]

Lucy listened as Katie spoke about her parents and their choices. "I think there was more range of opinion than is sometimes recognized. Not all who were sympathetic to Voldemort's views necessarily preferred him as an alternative. Some saw him for what he was -- powermad and deranged. Others saw in him an opportunity, not realizing how vicious he could be, or that he did not tolerate equals. My father was the former, and died for it. Not all who did join him did so because they wished to. Some where blackmailed. Some believed they could somehow mitigate his evil.

"In any case, I am glad that yours stood by you. My quarrels with my father had more to do with my career choices and less to do with the Dark Lord, at least. I am very sorry about your mother, Katie."

She glanced at the younger woman. "As for the marriage and divorce, actually, as you are seeing my son and he is trying to deal with it, it is your business, at least to some degree. If you have questions later -- or now -- ask. I will tell you if I think it too private. But I am not generally one to hide much -- I haven't had a great deal of chance to."

[shh_katie]

So far, this was hardly the woman whom she'd pictured when Cedric described his mother, and the impressions it sounded like other's had. "My extended family was the same way," Katie explained, "seeing him as an opportunity. The things he disliked, the things he appeared to...well, stand for, even if that sounds too political for what his agenda actually was, pushed the right buttons with them."

She felt what was her business was what Cedric chose to share - since these were things he should be discussing with his mother, not her. At least especially not like this, on first meeting.

"I'm willing to make my life open to you, at least to some degree. After all I am seeing your son, and I effect him," Katie turned her words back towards the other woman. She had been expecting an interrogation that had never come, and besides, she did have no objections to Cedric's mum knowing her beyond the basic details. In fact she wanted it. She wanted to be in Cedric's life for the longer term, and his mum was a large part of that, even if he had doubted it.

"As for what Cedric's dealing with, I'm glad you were here to talk to him about it," Katie told her, "rather than doing it by owl, even if it would have been easier. It hit him surprisingly hard, and it would have been even worse if he'd not had you actually here I think."

[shh_cedric]

Lucy nodded. "His father and I have known this was coming for some months, perhaps some years, really. But although Cedric thinks he might have liked more of a warning, we didn't tell him by owl for exactly that reason."

She considered, but then continued. If Katie hadn't learned this by now, she was less clever than Cedric had made her sound. "One would think that, by twenty-seven, he would be more resilient, but Cedric's armor is a bit ... thin, in places.

"So, tell what you did with the Order. And after this World Cup is over -- then what?"

[shh_katie]

"Everyone has their weaknesses, those things that hit them harder," Katie responded. It was almost defensive, but this was Cedric's mum, and she didn't need to be defending Cedric to her really.

Their feet were falling in even rhythm as they walked, "I fought," she replied simply, "and I cast curses I never thought would leave my wand in a life time, I did whatever was asked of me - big and small, and I changed irrevocably. It would have been easier to be on the sidelines, but I didn't, more the fool me. Vague perhaps, but I hardly think you need or want more details.

"As for what comes after the World Cup - I don't know entirely," Katie's answer was honest, "there is the cinema to expand and grow as I'm putting it off for this. But I'm not going to pretend that is enough, yet I don't know what comes next."

"What comes next for you?" She asked the older woman, "If you're not going back home - well, to Canada. I think Cedric mentioned Italy?"