RP: It’s Possible I’m Completely Barmy

[shh_greg]

Date: 28 June 2005
Character(s): Greg Goyle, Anyone
Location: The river near the Shelter
Status: Public
Summary: After his conversation with Mandy, Greg checks out the state of the river.
Completion: InComplete

Comments

[shh_ginny]

Crossing the bridge on her way to the shelter, Ginny was reading and dictating notes to the quill and parchment hovering beside her. It was a brilliant loaner from Healer Asklepion who'd complained about the legibility of her handwriting, chiding her when she explained her habit of reading, writing and walking. Her voice trailed off when she heard voices as she came around the bend, "... the use of dragon's blood precludes..."

Seeing a very wet, nearly naked Greg and Romilda holding out a towel to hi, she blushed lightly. "Err, sorry. I was just, umm, heading to the shelter. Is everything alright?"

[shh_ginny]

"Merlin, you are a serious one. I was joking, Greg. I do that rather a lot. We Weasley's like to have fun, you know." Ginny smirked, then sobered. "If you use the pond for the shelter, maybe the Ministry could give you a hand putting up the wards and maybe some little signs." She gestured toward the ground. "That way people wouldn't think some nutter just warded off the pond, you know

[shh_greg]

Greg chuckled. "Yeah, I know. How are the twins anyway?" he said dryly then he shrugged. "Well, it has been public land and people are used to walking along there. But yeah, I'll speak to someone from the Ministry though it'l probably be pretty obvious why they're warded off. We're planning on using the pond and maybe the river for enclosures for kelpies and hippocampus." He paused for a moment then ran a hand through his hair. "Actually I must get up to Loch Ness at some point and see if Nessie's still around. I'm sure she is... she's lasted through a lot worse than this latest war

[shh_ginny]

"The twins are fine. They own an apothecary in town, in fact." Ginny answered evenly. She liked the tall, ex-Slytherin well enough and found him easy to talk to but nobody took the mickey out of her brothers except her. "Loch Ness? I was up to Loch Coruisk not too long ago, class work when I was studying at the Academy... the Dusseldorf Academy, that is

[shh_greg]

"Really?" Greg said with surprise then he continued hurriedly. "Not that I don't think they'd be more than capable but they were so good at the joke stuff. Huh, you know... I think I'll actually miss all that. They were really good at it." He laughed. "Even if I did tend to fall for the Canary Creams a bit too much. I've got a bit of a sweet tooth and I didn't always look too carefully before grabbing when I was a kid."

He gave her a curious look as she spoke about people putting on a show. It sounded like there might be a story there but he wasn't going to push. If she wanted to tell, she would. If she didn't, well, that was fine too.

He couldn't help but feel a bit envious as she spoke about her parents. He wasn't sure his parents had even liked each other, let alone loved; they certainly hadn't liked being in the same room with each other. Not that he was overly surprised. His mother had been a funny, vivacious, intelligent woman and his father had been a stupid, violent thug with delusions of grandeur. Not exactly a match made

[shh_ginny]

"Oh, I've coughed up my fair share of yellow feathers." Ginny smirked wryly. "There was never a dull moment at the Burrow. Heck, I thought Hogwarts was creepy because it could get so quiet." She gave him a long look when he said she had been lucky but said nothing more about it.

"Or being on call for 48 hours and trying to deliver a baby whilst being chastised for not being married and having children of my own by a witch screaming this information out on the top of her lungs every single bloody contraction. Or the bloke who thinks I'm a mediwitch because 'I'm too cute to be a Healer' and uses the opportunity when I'm bent over their broken leg to pinch me arse!" Ginny laughed, feeling an odd sense of exhilaration at having someone actually understandThey were approaching a building now and Ginny thought she heard barking but Greg made her laugh and she rolled her eyes. "The last bloke I dated, one of your buddies, in fact, used to hate that I came home late and thought it was a game that I needed to study. He thought it was amusing

[shh_greg]

Greg snorted with amusement. "At least you've got half a chance of being thanked. The last time I helped a cow having trouble calving, she kicked me in the thigh for my troubles. I got a nice hoof-shaped bruise out of it." He stopped and gave Ginny a wicked grin. "Mind you, it was a very cold day and my hands were freezing and... well, I'm sure you know where I had to stick one of them to help with calving. Maybe she was making a protest about that

[shh_ginny]

Ginny gave him a look of horror when she made the connection between his cold hands and where they were, glancing down at his hands and noticing then how big they were as well. "I bloody hell would! Poor cow

[shh_greg]

Greg laughed then he raised an eyebrow. "Actually I always thought that any girl who knew how to cope with six older brothers would be more than a match for me. I'm an only child after all."

"Ah," he said in understanding. "Well, that probably describes a lot of Slytherins. A lot come from wealthy pureblood families and 'work' isn't something they're expected to do. I guess I could have ended up like that under different circumstances." He shrugged. "But I like working. Then again, I also have a job I love so that helps."

He actually had no idea what his legal standing was regarding the family house and money and he hadn't decided whether he really wanted to know; it was all tainted by his father in his eyes. But then again... he could use the money for the clinic.

Greg smiled a little uncertainly. Did that mean she wouldn't object if he asked her out? He pushed that thought aside to think about later as they walked into the shelter and were assailed by the noise

[shh_ginny]

Ginny chuckled. "You don't... You don't understand. I work with Incurables all day, day in and day out. Some days the only sound is me talking to myself. Merlin! And here I thought the Five Alarm was noisy."

They passed the kittens and Ginny couldn't help but look them over serendipitously as several were playing together and even she had to admit they were sinfully adorable. Through the mental fog of 'ahhh, how cute' sliced the artfully placed words of 'shredded' and 'kitten glee', sobering Ginny up in a heartbeat. She didn't have a stitch of new furniture but she had a pair of boots she was very fond of and stacks of research books - most of which were borrowed and she couldn't afford to replace them

[shh_greg]

Greg watched with a small smile on face as Ginny walked into the enclosure. He nodded encouragingly to her when she looked back at him then had to stifle a laugh when the black cat reached out and patted her on the shoulder.

His smile grew as he watched her pet and talk to the cat. He did laugh when the cat jumped onto her shoulder then smiled broadly when she turned to him.

"I say that I think you've been chosen," he said as he walked over.

He held a hand out to the cat, scratching it behind the ears when it accepted his touch then gently picking it up off Ginny's shoulder. It gave him a jaundiced look but submitted to his attentions as he checked the cat over briefly.

"This young man is nice and healthy," he said, placing the cat back on its chosen perch. "He's already been desexed so you don't need to worry about that. He's had all of his immunisations and from the look on his face right now, I definitely think you now belong to him."

[shh_ginny]

Ginny blushed lightly as Greg walked over, conscious of his height and the warmth in his voice as she waited for him to pronounce judgement on the feline who seemed a little disgruntled that her shoulders weren't wider.

"Is he... a familiar, do you think? Seems a bit bright, if not a little pushy." The cat settled back onto her shoulders and Ginny glanced up at Greg as the feline rubbed its head against her ear, making her laugh. "Are there any papers I need to fill out before I get back to work? Is there a fee or something?" She walked out of the enclosure and waited for him to follow.

[shh_greg]

"He could be," Greg said, following Ginny out of the enclosure, making a deft movement with one foot to stop one of their serial escape artists from getting out. "But it's often hard to tell with cats. They can be pushy by nature, especially when they decided that you're their human

[shh_ginny]

Ginny noted his deft movement despite his size and caught herself looking just a little too long, smiling innocently up at him as he turned back to her. "It'll take a little getting used to, the whole being owned thing."

"A fee is fine, Greg. I get paid enough not to worry about the cost of a cat or I'd not have thought of getting one. No sense in that, is there?" She dug into the back pocket of her jeans and pulled out a handful of coins, flipping them over to check the currency before setting down five galleons. "I'll stop by Familiar Ground after work to pick up the 'cat essentials'. The witch who works there joins me for tea at lunch sometimes… Domi… Dominique! That's it."

Sitting on the corner of the desk, Ginny chuckled when the cat planted both paws on her head and looked over to what Greg was doing. "Call him? Why, I hadn't thought of that. I guess 'Cat' is pretty mundane, yeah. Let's see… a name… a name… Hmm, I'll have to think about that."

[shh_greg]

"Thank you," Greg said, taking the money and putting it in the lockbox in the bottom drawer. "A lot of people work on barter these days so we work it both ways."

He chuckled. "It can take some time to get the personality of your cat. Though I did have a friend in Finland who named her new cat inadvertently. He was getting up to mischief and she just turned and yelled 'Stop it, Cedric!' at him. And so he was named." He grinned. "She always blamed me for his name. I'd been telling her about the Triwizard Tournament so I guess he could just as easily have been named Harry or Viktor all things considered."

He filled out the forms with the needed details then signed them himself to confirm that the cat had been desexed, immunised and was in good health. He then turned the papers around and offered the quill to Ginny. "Just sign here and here and you have a new cat," he said, pointing to the appropriate places. "Do you want a carrier to take him home or is he happy enough where he is?"

[shh_ginny]

"Yeah, we get a lot of barters at the hospital. I expect that'll change if the goblins ever get something set up again but I've gotten used to it, although, I do still see some odd ones when I wander down to reception." She smirked. "Cedric? That must be one lucky cat. All things considered, it's a good name