RP: Designing Man

[shh_orla]

Date: September 23, 2005
Characters: Orla and Dean
Location: Orla's house
Status: Private
Summary: Orla and Dean meet to discuss potential changes in her home and practice..
Completion: Complete

Orla had done some cleaning to make sure her place was in its best light. Dean would likely need to get a sense of the space before he did the mural. She hoped

Comments

[shh_dean]

Dean's brow creased as he thought about the desk before he said, "I'll design it, maybe something modular with movable cabinets and charmed so it can be hidden if you don't want the desk to be visible all the time." Smiling, he replied. "Outside access is a brilliant idea. You should be doing my job."

"Don't know about it now but those you couldn't tell those two apart at all. I mean you know, we were all boys in the same dorm and..." He blushed. It was just one of those things where you shared an area for five years. Grinning, he shook his head. "Damn dorm room antics and communal loos."

"We can paint it from the boat with the lantern lights, the only thing you can see across the fog shrouded lake until you looked up and saw the castle. That would make a beautiful scene." Dean smiled wistfully and nodded while squeezing her hand again. "It was something for a little Muggle boy who'd never seen anything magical." Shaking his head emphatically, he replied. "It's your home and it means something to you." Looking over at Orla, he added. "I think it'll mean alot to other people too."

[shh_orla]

"That sounds lovely!" She smiled up at him. "Be careful, you might have bitten off more than you can chew. I'd keep you running ragged with designs."

She shook her head. "I'm just telling you what I'd like. I don't know if it would be doable. That's what I need you for."

Orla was a bit bemused when Dean got flustered talking about the twins. Shaking her head, she replied, "Must be a boy thing. I couldn't so much as tell you my dorm mate's bra size."

"And for this Muggle girl too." She turned and gave Dean a quick hug. "Thank you. Getting even a piece of that place back will mean a lot to me." It had been 6 years since Hogwarts was destroyed, and she tried not to dwell on it, but she missed the drafty old castle.

"Well, before I continue down this maudlin trail, why don't I show you the upstairs?" She led him up the stairs, which faced the bathroom door. To the left of the bathroom was a bedroom, and the front of the house was another, larger bedroom. Too big for Orla, really, and she wanted another room, or at least a space for her to set up her tv and DVDs. They were still packed, as she couldn't bring herself to take that part of her muggle heritage into her wizarding life. It was time she got past that.

[shh_dean]

"You're allowed to run me into the dirt." Dean winked at Orla. "Or maybe not, Parvati might get a little pissed if I'm dragging too much." His eyes widened as he thought some more. "Although she'd probably agree to letting me be your man servant for the foreseeable future." Grinning, Dean quipped. "That's what I went to school all those years for."

"It's not that I saw everything but you know, upper torsos and so forth." He blurted out and then fidgeted. "I didn't go around looking for blokes and all. They found me!" He grew quiet before he grinned sheepishly. "Maybe I should shut it now."

"It's reassuring to know you're a Muggleborn too." Dean answered. "I don't know why but it feels good." He smiled when she hugged him. "Thanks for letting me give it a try. I can't wait and I have so many ideas in my head. I need to scrounge up some pictures and then you and I can sit down and you can tell me what you remember while I rough it out."

He felt oddly drawn to the idea of painting the castle and more so, he wanted to do this for Orla to show his appreciation for what she'd done for he and Parvati and this would be a good start for a debt he'd never be able to repay.

When he saw the upstairs, he thought to himself that this was an older home and the use of space was much different then, the preference being straight walls and boxlike rooms. He frowned as he concentrated on the area and then said, "I think we need to open this space up, knock through a few walls and create a open sitting area up here somehow, really make this airy and livable."

[shh_orla]

Laughing, she said, "Parvati would hex me sideways if I abused you. Don't worry, I only need a manservant for manly things, like carpentry, and maybe moving furniture." She shook her head. "I'm sure you've more talent in your little finger than I do in my whole hand."

She couldn't hold back her giggles at this point. "Really, Dean, its ok. I believe you. Besides." She gestured around the room. "You're in my place of business. Discretion at your service." She essayed a little bow.

"Means you're not alone. Though I envy you being able to finish, or at least stay in the wizarding world more than I could." She felt an odd kinship, like that of an older sibling. It was comforting, because she instinctively knew he would look out for her.

She nodded at his observation. "It definitely needs something. I'd like to keep two bedrooms, for overnight guests, but mine doesn't need to be large." She looked around. "Maybe take the master bedroom and change it up into a sitting area and a smaller bedroom, and I can move in back."

[shh_dean]

"I can do all those things, so I'm a highly qualified manservant. I also make a mean pot of coffee now if that helps me get the job." Dean grinned and then puffed out his chest. "Nah, I may be talented at a few things but I couldn't do your job. I design loos. You save lives." He mimicked weighing two items in his hands. "See what I mean?"

"So I can tell you that I think I've been head over heels for Parvati since I was twelve?" Dean grinned after watching Orla bow. "And that I used to pretend to study and draw her for hours on end?"

He felt closer to Orla and he found that he didn't think of her as a therapist but rather a friend and someone he could trust. He drew in his mind what Orla was suggesting and when she was done, he looked at her and held out his hands before he asked, "How about we open the wall there in the master bedroom and make it lead into the hallway? That way you can have a much more airy space."

[shh_orla]

"Eh, coffee I can do for myself. But if you can make a decent dessert dish, you have the job." She grinned.

"I can't lay claim to saving lives. I just help other people to save themselves."

"Really?" Her eyes softened. "Thats so romantic, Dean. Really. Parvati is a lucky woman."

"Mmm, I can't quite picture it. Can you sketch it out for me?" She furrowed her brow in thought.

[shh_dean]

"I'm pants at baking, cooking for that matter unless you like pasta thingies or fabulous quiches." Looking at Orla, he frowned. "Don't ask." Smiling, he winked. "But have you ever had a pot of pressed coffee? It's a whole new world there. The flavors are so robust."

"You do more than help. See, you changed my life too." Dean confessed. "I thought I'd be alone forever after my mum died last year. I think I might have wanted to be alone deep inside." He kicked the floor softly before he looked at her and smiled. "But by you helping Parvati, you helped her to see beyond her darkness." He didn't know what else to call it without getting too detailed. "Then we found each other and she let me in because of you." Nodding, he said emphatically. "You don't realize the good you do when you help that one person. You end up making so many other's lives better."

"But you can't tell anyone." He chuckled. "Since we're in your office. I don't know what it is about her but even when I saw others, she was always there."

"Ah." Dean walked over and gazed at the structure of the wall before he looked into the bedroom, then the one adjacent to it. When he looked out the window in her bedroom, he noticed the roofline extended beyond the living area and he had an idea. He took out a pencil and a shrunken drawing pad before taking out his wand and bringing the pad to full size. He placed the pad on the rail of the stairs before he rough sketched the upstairs, his pencil skittering on the paper. Soon, he had placed the walls and doors to the rooms adjacent to the hallway. Then he drew the wall that led to the bedroom she wanted to turn into a sitting room. "See, we can put an arch into the front wall and then that'll give you the living area you wanted and open this space." He then divided the space with a wall that separated her bedroom from the new sitting area. "This way, you can have your bedroom and if you wanted, we could extend your living area over the roofline, add in more bedroom space or a large master bath with a garden tub to soak in when the day gets too long."

[shh_orla]

She shook her head. "I'm afraid I like coffee more for its caffeinated qualities that for its taste. Otherwise I'm more a tea person."

She was truly touched by what Dean said. Blinking back moisture in her eyes, she said softly, "Thank you, Dean. That really means a lot." She smiled, then looked away, not wanting to be caught blinking back tears.

She put her right hand over her heart. "On my honor as a Ravenclaw. Your secrets safe with me."

She looked at what he was sketching. 'I see what you mean. Makes it more of a room at the landing than a hallway." She nodded. "I'm ok with the bathroom for now. It's pretty modern, and I don't need a lot in the way of frivolities there. I just would like to have a living room up here, if that makes sense, since it is an office downstairs."

[shh_dean]

"Understood. I was the same way until Fleur bird moved into Hammerside." Dean moaned and then scratched his head. "Now, I'm an addict. I can't go a morning without a couple of cups."

He'd made her uncomfortable with what he said and he mentally kicked himself in the arse for it. He always seemed to open his mouth to blurt out some thing that would just make someone pull away from him. Smiling wanly, he said, "I'm sorry, Orla. I didn't mean to upset you."

"Doesn't work for us Gryffindors." Dean grinned. "There's only one way we can seal our deal." He held out his hand. "The all-powerful pinky swear." Holding out his pinky, he waited.

"Right. Still a separate room but the archway would be big enough to give it the feel of one room." Dean chuckled and said, "I'd still think about extending the space over the roofline. It's not a huge cost and more room is always at a premium."

[shh_orla]

Orla chuckled. "Well, try denying me my tea in the morning after my coffee and I get a bit cranky, so I can understand addiction well enough."

She shook her head, smiling at him. "No! Dean, I'm not upset. I'm touched. I don't often feel that way about what I do, even if its why I do what I do. Really, thank you."

She bit her lip to keep from giggling like a first year, and semi-solemnly offered her pinky out to the ceremony.

She nodded. "I suppose. The roof could probably stand to be worked over. Roger's crew fixed it in April, I think, but it likely could use some relplacement parts elsewhere."

She led him back downstairs, into her office area. "So, we're talking a wall to break this in half, more or less, and a doorway into and out of the new room, as well as an outside access. Mural in the dining room, totally restructuring the upstairs, and raising the roof, in a manner of speaking." Ticking the points off, she asked, "Did I miss anything?"

[shh_dean]

Dean smiled his relief and replied. "See, I couldn't do your job." He shook his head. "I'm pants at reading people and useless at communicating obviously, given I wanted you to pinch me the first time we met."

"This is strong mojo here, mon." Dean said seriously although he was affecting his best Jamaican accent which really wasn't very good. Finally, he broke down, laughing when their pinkies touched. "My grandmum used to tell us our pinky would fall off if we broke our promise, so I'm pretty good about following through."

"Would probably be a simple reinforcement of the roof and then we can build the addition." Dean mused and then followed her downstairs. When they were back in her office, she went over the changes they'd spoken about in the design before he added. "Archways on the kitchen access and the dining room one too along with some type of opening between the dining room and the new living room" He thought for a moment before he smiled. "I think that's about it."

[shh_orla]

"Hey, you figured out what I was thinking before it was too late, so give yourself a little credit." Orla gave him a light pinch at that.

When Dean used his bad accent, Orla snorted loudly, clapping her free hand over her mouth, but when he busted out, she laughed along with him. "Really? We always were threatened with eyes on the back of mum's head, that she'd see and know when we were doing something naughty."

"Great!" She now had a game plan. "Would you mind sending me a copy of your notes and drawings, so I can comission Roger with the start of a concrete schematic? I'd like to get started right away." She bounced a little, so great was her excitement.