It calls me | Natalie & Harper

[Deleted]

Natalie walked into the Magical Menagerie to pick up an order of supplies that she had put in for work over a week ago. It wasn't a large order, just a few things that she was short on and wanted to pick up in the Alley. She also wanted to chat with the veterinarian there, it was a small magical world and most of the magical vets knew each other and liked to exchange tips and stories with other vets. Some of them had done various aspects of their training together and were bonded in various ways. Performing surgery together can do that. 

Natalie loved being inside of the shop. She loved being around animals. She had always wanted animals, but, now with her daughters health issues, pets weren't exactly an option. Which was a little sad at first, but Natalie never resented her daughter for it, of course not. it wasn't her fault. And, she still got to work with animals at work. Though, the years when she stayed home with the children were hard in that regard. Animals called to her. 

Natalie walked over to the counter and told the worker that she was picking up an order and would love to chat with the vet if they were free. the vet was busy, but the worker said the order was in the back and they could go pack it up for her. Natalie agreed to wait and decided to browse around the shop while she waited. 

@harper

[Deleted]

@natalie

Fall 2024

Ondina wasn’t taking her seriously. The threats about getting a pet or moving out could become reality with a snap of her finger and a flick of her wand if Harper wanted. Her material possessions consisted mostly of old records, stuffed animals, and her clothes anyways, and all of those could easily be dropped into an enlarged bag or suitcase. Other than that, her only stipulations for an apartment building was that they allowed pets and had a space for her to park her motorcycle. The listing websites she had been looking at were fairly extensive when it came to what they did and did not allow. She was hoping for a big dog, but almost anything would do. As long as it was friendly and kept Ondina out of her space.

The preliminary search had brought Harper to Magical Menagerie. She couldn’t recall if they had normal, non-magical animals or not, but it was worth looking anyways. Paying in galleons suited her better than having to get it converted into pounds for the muggle shelters. Walking into the store, Harper counted the loose coins in her pocket, trying to gauge how much she had on her in case she decided to bring a new friend home impulsively. From the edges on them, she could tell she had at least a galleon, and maybe half a dozen sickles. That wasn’t much but it was still easier than filling out excessive paperwork at an adoption shelter. Plus she could convince herself she was just looking when she didn’t have enough on her. It was an excellent way of keeping her spending in check.

Somewhat disappointed that she wouldn’t be bringing a furry friend home today but also relieved that a potential pet would survive longer outside of Ondina’s grasp, Harper headed straight for where the cats were lounging. They were making the most out of the sliver of sun that had found its way through the store windows, piled up next to each other in a pattern that looked like one long, living blanket. Only a few of the outliers took any notice of her, the rest clearly finding the warmth of the sun more enticing than her presence. Hopefully Ondina hadn’t cursed her to make animals hate her or something. That seemed like something her sister would do for her own enjoyment.

What Harper really wanted to see were the dogs, if there were any in the first place. It was hard to tell based on the layout of the store, so she walked down the closest pathway, peering down each aisle she passed while looking for an employee. Instead, she found her mum. “Hey. Not doing work stuff are you?” Harper called as she turned down the aisle, crossing her arms casually during her approach.

[Deleted]

It was very weird to Natalie that 2 of her 3 children had already graduated and she herself wasn’t yet 40. If you had asked her when she was young if she planned on getting married and having kids so soon, her answer would definitely had been no. She wanted to work after her training, instead, she found herself married and then pregnant as she finished her veterinary training and then she was out of the game until her youngest went off to Hogwarts.her husband, being as old as he was, was worried about not being young enough to enjoy his children and his grandchildren, and Natalie found herself drawn to domestic live as much as she was drawn to her dragons. Plus, her husband was as drawn to dragons as she was - it was a match made in heaven if there ever was one. She had only been back to work for the past 6 years but already she was moving up in her field.

Natalie snapped out of her thoughts and almost jumped a bit when she heard the voice of her oldest child call to her from down the aisle. It was still kind of weird to see her children out in the alley alone, a part of her still saw them as 15 years old and in need of supervision when they weren’t at school. But there was Harper, independent and successful. “Well hello there. I just popped in to pick up an order to take to the refuge tomorrow.” she smiled. She was done with work for the day besides. Natalie almost asked what Harper was doing in the pet shop, but she didn’t have to. She knew that her eldest wanted a dog. Truth be told, Natalie did too. “Come to browse, then?” she asked, a little more playfully.

@harper

[Deleted]

@natalie

Fall 2024

Despite her mum saying that she was there to pick something up for work, it didn’t really sound like she minded that Harper was about to distract her from it. Was this what it was like to be high up in the ranks of your field? The master metal charmers at work mostly laid about, testing new spells on muggle objects to see if they could get them to work. There were barely ever any real breakthroughs. Their distractions meant that the grunt work was left to the peons. Her. Harper liked charming utensils and various silverware pieces at first, teaching them how to act and function on their own to assist their owners however they could. Placing a spell of almost autonomy on a metal object was terrifyingly awesome in her opinion, but also boring as hell once she had performed the same spell every day for the last six months. Was the demand really as high as the stock they were producing? It seemed impractical unless they were cheaply charmed, and Harper did not skimp out on her spellcasting in the slightest.

“Is that just a day trip or…?” she left the question open, unsure of what her mum’s plans were going to be. If it was going to be another couple of days gone, being stuck with Ondina during that was going to be awesome. Harper disliked thinking negatively, especially about her siblings, but Ondina had pushed it too far. Gone were the days of tattling to their parents too (though her sister wasn’t one to so readily abandon that course of action if necessary) about what the other did. If Ondina really wanted to win, all Harper had to do was make it easier for her and move out completely. Problem solved. She almost felt like wiping her hands clean of it and making the decision then and there in the pet store. “Yeah. Something like that.” She couldn’t hide the frown on her face because this was more than just another browse. Harper was serious about the pet thing for once, and the subsequent move she was going to be forced to make. “There aren’t dogs here, are there? I don’t recall ever seeing any, so I wasn’t sure.”

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Natalie felt the longing in Harpers words when she asked if Natalie would be gone for the day. Her daughter left the sentence hanging and Natalie was fairly sure that she knew the reason why. She knew that not all of her children got along, and not all liked to be alone with the others. She couldn’t say she exactly blamed them. While she loved and adored all of her children equally and went to every effort to understand them and to help ease the tension between them all, she knew that it was still there. “I should be back by the evening. I don’t plan on working many overnight shifts anymore. That’s why we hire the young vets.” she said with a smirk. It was nice being an older member of the staff, even though she wasn’t very old herself. She had the time and experience to work her way up and now had the luxury of being able to determine her own work schedule. While she went in on most days, she was easily able to apparate back and forth now, so it wasn’t much of a strain on her time.

Harper vaguely confirmed that she had come to browse and her mother’s suspicion was affirmed when she asked if there were dogs here. “I think I’ve seen some before, though I doubt they’ll have a large selection. Maybe along the back? Though… if you really want to look. A muggle humane society might be a better bet.” she explained. She herself had only been to one once, and she hadn’t walked out with an animal, but she really wanted to. She had been young then and in the very early days of her relationship with her now husband.

@harper

[Deleted]

@natalie

Fall 2024

A wave of relief passed over Harper when her mum said she would be back by the end of the day. At least she had the leg up with that knowledge and could stay away from the house long enough to allow Ondina to get all of her inner dragons out. The resemblance was uncanny at times, and the whip of red hair and burning words could be mistaken for fire, her pointy, plastic fingernails as claws, and her asthmatic cough as a thunderous roar. Yeah, if she could avoid that she would. Nobody deserved to be Ondina’s prey, especially when she was in a mood. “Cool…” Harper finally responded, before thinking it over a little more, “And dad won’t be back for a few more days, right?” Harper was covering her bases, knowing that if she timed her parents being home, she would be free of Ondina’s venomous words for a brief amount of time. It would ultimately build up throughout that and come raining down once it could, but she was fine with that. A few days of peace were worth the rage and fury at the end.

She wrinkled her nose when her mum said that they didn’t typically have dogs at the shop, instead saying that a muggle place would be a better place to look. That made sense to her. “Yeah they’ll probably have ones that actually need homes too,” Harper reasoned, though somewhat defeated that the place probably wouldn’t have any dogs to look at. All she wanted to do was pet one, because Merlin knew that was impossible when her sister was around. “I uhh…I’m thinking of moving out next year,” she said abruptly, not missing a beat from her last sentence. She assumed that would make sense, since she was looking for a pet, but thought it would be necessary to add anyway. “With Xavier graduating, I figured it would be easier if all three of us weren’t at the house at the same time, y’know?”

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The jobs that she and her husband had chosen weren’t ideal for raising a family, Natalie knew. She only worked in Wales, which was at least on the same little island as Britain, but Charlie worked wherever he was called. Wherever he was needed. That made it hard to keep a family together, but they did what they needed to do, even if it meant Natalie was mostly home with the kids and Charlie was off working. At least now it was more balanced and the kids were able to be on their own, even if they wouldn’t be on their own, together. “Yeah, a few more days, unfortunately.” she always loved when she had her husband home. She knew that the kids missed him when he was gone, but she was sure that she missed him more. And at least this year he’d be home for Christmas.

Natalie nodded when her daughter suggested that the dogs at the shelters would need homes more than the ones here would. But then she felt a little pang of pain in her heart when Harper told her that she was thinking of moving out. She had known that this was coming. She knew that her kids had a hard time being around one another she wasn’t sure that she saw Odina moving out any time soon. “Okay. If that’s something you want to do, you’re father and I will help you however you need.” Natalie said, choking down the fear that came with her first child moving out and instead was excited and proud of her daughter for making this big decision.

@harper

[Deleted]

@natalie

Fall 2024

Harper was positive that moving out would be fine with her parents. Out of her siblings, she was easily the most responsible. Owning and maintain her own vehicle, hopping right into a decent career without messing around at the Ministry, and even not having to rely on either parent when it came to anything. Ondina was the weird exception, because she sort of needed someone else nearby with her condition, but she also lacked the independence that Harper had found. And Xavier was…well she wasn’t sure what he was yet. Hiding away in his room was equal to him not being there, in a way.

“It is,” she said. There was a wave of relief that accompanied the statement, because it finally meant she was ready to go. The real motivator should have been Ondina smashing her laptop on the kitchen floor a week earlier, but that had been added to her sister’s list of petty actions instead of the one labeled ‘reasons to move out’. It was stupid, and Harper knew that. She sort of hoped one day her sister would grow up, but each year that ticked by was one lost to her shitty attitude and immaturity.

“The only thing I’m worried about right now is going to apartment viewings,” Harper explained. “I don’t really know what to look for, or what is a good deal.” She had talked to some of her friends that had been in their own places since graduation, but it was difficult to gauge what constituted as a good apartment and what was simply a nice one in an okay area of London. Obviously her top priority was to find a place that was pet friendly, which based on her research so far, wouldn’t be all that difficult. Most allowed cats and small dogs, so wiggling a medium to large one into the negotiations didn’t sound like a tough feat to pull off. Plus there was always magic to hide its presence.

[Deleted]

Natalie trusted Harper, admittingly, more than the other two of her children. Not only because she was the oldest, but she was undoubtedly the most mature and the most responsible of the others. Natalie echoed her daughters hope that one day her middle child, Ondina would be ready to move out and try to be a little more independent too, but, Natalie never wanted to push that on her, she never wanted to push it on any of her children. She’d have been happy if they all wanted to stay living at home forever, even if they got married someday, their spouses were welcome too. The more the merrier. Oh gosh, she really did turn into a Weasley, didn’t she?

Harper went on, saying that she was worried about going to viewings since she didn’t really know what to look for, Natalie nodded, she had never really had to deal with that since she went from living with her parents to living with her husband, who was already established in his own house by the time they met. “Well if you want, I can always come along and help. If nothing else, I can suggest how we can...upgrade the place.” magic surely had its perks, especially if she chose to live in a muggle building. The flat could be an absolute dumb, but with magic, it could be made suitable.

@harper

[Deleted]

@natalie

Fall 2024

Harper’s eyes lit up as her mum offered to tag along for the viewings. She had been secretly hoping that would happen (getting her dad would have been nigh impossible with the amount of work he normally had), and may have worded her last few sentences in a way that would have invited the offer. Still, that was going to make the process that much easier. Harper didn’t like thinking that someone would try to take advantage of her when it came to signing documents for an apartment, but she watched muggle television and browsed the internet enough to see all sorts of horrifying things. That and she wanted to be able to have an impressive enough place that would make Ondina uncomfortable. Their last encounter, with the smashed laptop, had her sister criticizing some of the apartments she had bookmarked to go back to. Admittedly so, they weren’t the best ones she had seen available, and there was no telling how unflattering the photographs could make the places actually look.

“I’ve never thought about, you know, doing anything to it like that. Aside from the usual safety charms,” Harper admitted. Could they legally expand a muggle apartment? There had to be a Ministry department in place just for something like that. It seemed like it was plausible enough to warrant it. “But really, thanks mum. I’ve been antagonizing over this for the last few months. It’s not that I don’t like living at home, but I need to get out.” To escape Ondina and Xavier so she could do her own thing, whatever that was. Boxing up her few belongings out of her bedroom and strapping them onto the back of her motorcycle before riding off into the sunset seemed like a likely outcome too, one that would make her sister furious and have her coughing at the same time.

[Deleted]

Natalie couldn’t help the teeny smile that crawled onto her lips when she say the look on her daughters face. The last thing that Natalie or Charlie tried to do was interject themselves into their children’s lives. They wanted them to be independent individuals and for the most part, they felt like they had succeeded. So, while Natalie wanted to be needed by the humans whom she had birthed, she wanted them to be able to do things on their own and she didn’t want to force herself and her help upon them. That being said, it was wonderful to see that she and her help were still wanted and not burdensome or annoying to her child.

“Yeah I mean you don’t want to ruin the integrity of the house, and don’t want to do anything you can’t undo, but you can always… fix bad water pressure, or put up a silencing charm on thin walls.” She shrugged. She knew that there were people who added rooms and changed the placement of walls and beams in their muggle apartments, but, Natalie always liked to play things safe when it came to the secrecy statues. She didn’t want a muggle to catch on at her own fault, and she certainly didn’t want to encourage her daughter to get in trouble. “And of course change the paint and floor to whatever you want, anything easily reversible.” she used to change the color of her walls at her home with her parents every week or two as a child. She did so ever now and then at their home now, too, but, things like that meant a lot less to her now.

@harper

[Deleted]

@natalie

Fall 2024

There were instances where Harper felt like an adult and other times where she knew she was still a child. Internal reflection on that fact alone probably meant she was more mature than the credit she actually gave herself. In the last year and a half she had succeeded in getting her own job, obtained a muggle motorcycle license, and generally took care of her own necessities (outside of having dinner with whatever parent happened to be home at the time). Taking that next step was absolutely terrifying, like walking across a tightrope with her eyes closed. Figuring out how to live on her lonesome was just as scary as the first time she stepped onto the Hogwarts Express. And just like when she was eleven years old, having her parents to guide her up until that point was something she still desperately needed. There was less hand holding now than there was then, of course, but she still needed them to point her in the right direction. Hopefully then she would be completely independent and able to walk on as a real adult, whatever that meant.

Her mum explained the sorts of little things that could be modified and fixed with magic, making Harper feel slightly stupid that she hadn’t thought of the obvious. If she ended up in an apartment building, silencing charms would be a must, and having the power to fix and redo the entire place to suit her needs was a plus. She stayed quiet for a few seconds, mulling everything over in her head, visualizing the number of things she could do to make an apartment truly hers. The first step was having no Ondina, and the rest was easy. “It’s sort of scary thinking about it,” she said, breaking her silence. “But I think I’m ready.” Rationalizing it would be easy, since technically she lived away from home whilst at Hogwarts. This was just different, and without roommates or homework to worry about. And maybe a dog or two.

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Harper admitted after a second that it was scary to think about. Natalie nodded, feeling that comment in the pit of her stomach. Honestly, her daughter wanting to move away from home was completely heartbreaking and she was sure that when she was at home alone she’d shed a few tears about it. She had always known that they would all move out eventually. She wanted them to grow and mature and be independent on their own. She had raised them all, or, tried to raise them all, in Ondina’s case, to be able to take care of themselves and not to rely on their parents for every need they had. But knowing that harper would be okay didn’t make it any easier to think of her babies as no longer needing her. “I’m sure it is. I’ve never lived on my own, you know.” she admitted. She had gone from living with her parents during her school and training years, to moving in with Charlie right away when they got married after a rather short dating period. “However, I know you’ll be fine. You’re certainly the most independent of your siblings.” Natalie said, knowing that Harper probably felt the same way. Natalie’s youngest was fairly independent too, however, he was still in school, so there was only so independent he could be.

The vet at the shop came around the corner and handed Natalie the package that she had come in here to get for her refuge. She took the package and thanked the vet for their help. She’d take it back with her when she traveled to work tomorrow.

@harper