Chapter 10
- Location
- uk
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Chapter 10
Harry snaps out of his thoughts when the dress maker touches his arm, "Hello, do you like the dress?"
"Um, don't worry, it was nothing."
The woman holds his arm before he can go away, "Stay, you look like you're from the muggle world?"
Harry nods helplessly, "Er, yes?"
"Rosie sent her kid to school out there, as her family are one of the non-magical ones that live here. Anyway, Sam came home in tears because a teacher told her off for dressing like a boy. It's not like you can tell at that age anyway. Anyway, that's a long way of saying that you can wear what you want here. Outside of a few events, and where there's a defined uniform. Also, a muggle born like yourself, you're probably going to Hogwarts. They make you wear those silly robes. Most sensible witches and wizards only wear robes like that when they're working, to save their clothes. Or when they're going somewhere special, and they've had them made special like. Even the crusties do that, though if you hang around Diagon for long enough, you'll see the likes of Malfoy strutting around in robes that are barely a nod to the name. Next time you're there, if you see an old woman with a stuffed vulture on her head, that's Madam Longbottom. She's as traditional as they come, and she wears a dress. Then you've got some of the wizard folk who are too shy to wear a dress. Yet they'll strut around in just a robe, happy as you please. So, if you want to wear a dress, try it and see."
"Um, if you're sure."
"Start with the dress you were looking at, and get changed in the fitting room. Call out when you're dressed and I'll come in and pin it into shape."
As Harry heads into the fitting room, Morgana walks over to the dressmaker, "Thank you, I remember he wanted to be a Disney Princess when he was 4 after I took him to see a Cinderella rerun at the cinema. After an… incident… when he was 5 he stopped looking at that stuff."
The dressmaker shakes her head, "I used to have a stall in Diagon Alley, I gave it up because I earn more here while working less. But that's by the by, you'd occasionally see a crustie telling their child that they must be a perfect boy, girl, gentleman, lady. Especially some of the traditional ones like Longbottom or Weasley. The Weasleys get my goat, as they like to say they're poor, but they still shop at Diagon. Last time she talked at me while trying to get a bargain on a dress for Ginerva she was saying that her twins would be going to Hogwarts like their three older brothers. You won't find anyone round here that went there, not since they stopped the Scholarships in the 70's. Oh and going back a bit, Little Ginerva just wanted to go and play with her brothers, not look at girls dresses. But it ain't proper for a girl to play with boys, so she had to be with her mum looking at dresses while the brothers were looking in Gamble and Japes."
Behind the curtain Harry holds his breath as he listens into the conversation. Honestly, he doesn't remember wanting to be a Disney princess, but he's never known his mum to outright lie. Realising that they've stopped talking for a moment, he hurries out of his clothes and then pauses to work out how to put this dress on.
Outside Morgana stops to think about what she's learnt today, "Would you mind if I asked you something that might be rude?"
The dressmaker laughs, "No, go ahead."
"How comes you and Dottie know so much about the…"
"Aristocracy? There ain't much else to do for entertainment, what with magic bollocksing up TV's and the like. Oh, don't look at me like that, it's not spell casting that's the problem it's being inside the wards. So we can either live inside the wards without muggle advances, or live outside with little to no magic. All in all, there's probably only 80 or so families at the top, about double that if you include voters."
"Wait, what do you mean voters?"
"Ah, you need to be a landowner to vote. Not just that, but the land has to have been in your family for 200 years. If you listen to old Seamus at the pub, it used to be 3 generations but too many of the wrong sort were getting the vote so they increased it. Honestly, I don't remember the last time someone became a voter, and I've been dressmaking since the 50's."
Morgana looks at her appraisingly, "You look good for your age."
"Eh, I'm a strong witch, and I keep in shape. Makes it easier for my magic to keep me young. Apparently the head of the education department is nearly 200 and examined Dumbledore when he took his OWL's. Anyway, so entertainment, we have the wireless, dances, pubs, and gossip. Sometimes those things will be mixed in with games or housework like knitting or patching. As the newspaper is, how did Rosie put it? Little more than a gossip rag, we all tend to either spend time at the Leaky drinking crap beer and watching for the crusties, or we gossip about what other people saw. You son has been in there a while, do you want to see if he's got stuck on how the dress goes together?"
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It's mid-afternoon by the time Harry and Morgana get home after buying the dress, having lunch, and finally getting into the book store. Harry refuses to get the robes fitted today, as it will probably mean standing on another fitting stool for a couple of hours. As they enter the living room from the courtyard, Marianne jumps up from a chair.
"There you are, I was hoping that you could hang out…" She trails off as she takes in Harry's attire, "Um, that's quite the wardrobe change. It looks good on you. Oh. Sorry Mrs Danann, I hope you don't mind that I let myself in."
Morgana smiles as Harry's face goes back to being bright red and the smile, that had started to dip when Marianne stopped speaking, returns in full force, "It's quite all right, what was it this time?"
"Dad's being an arse, started talking about how it's not right for girls to use swords again. I'm just glad mum's a pushover, even though I wish she'd stand up to dad sometimes."
"You're always welcome in my house, it's why I gave you a key after all. And remember to call me Morgana or Auntie, you're one of the few friends Harry has kept."
"No I'm not, what about all the kids we go bowling with?"
"Mari, how many of those does he meet outside bowling?"
"Erm, there's Grant, Peter, Sue… that's not a lot is it."
"And none of them have a key to the house. Why don't you help Harry unpack his books."
Successfully diverted, Marianne grabs Harry's hand and leads him out of the room, "You have to tell me where you got that dress."
"When I've unpacked I'll show you, but it's a secret, like that stone is a secret."
As she listens to them talking as they leave, Morgana smiles at the fact that Harry has never needed to learn to be sneaky around her. Maybe it's time to pay a visit to Manannán mac Lir and ask for an apple. Nodding to herself, she resolves to leave when Harry does.
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Up in Harry's room, Marianne looks amazed at the bag Harry's using as he pulls book after book after book out of it and starts to place them on his bookshelves.
"Harry, where did you get that bag?"
"There's a large magical community here, and I got an invitation to learn Roman magic at one of their schools. They sold these bags in their up market shopping area in London."
"What do you mean?"
"You know, like Edinburgh when we go there. They have some amazing stuff, but everything's more expensive than it is here."
"Oh wow, I'd love to see it."
"If you ask Mum, I'm sure she'd let you come one morning, I'm teaching one of them our hiding skill for a few weeks. Anyway, we've also ordered a Trunk, it's a special trunk as it will have a library, meditation room, and a practice room in it…"
As Marianne listens to Harry, tears start to fall down her cheeks at the joy in his voice. When Harry notices he stops, "Marianne, are you ok?"
She sniffs, "I'm alright, but you're going away aren't you."
Harry takes her hand, "Hey, it might be a boarding school, but I'll still try and visit as often as I can. It's not like I need trains is it."
Marianne laughs sadly, "True, true."
"Hey, why don't I show you where I got the dress from. Maybe we can even get you one too."
Marianne smiles and holds out her hand, "I think I'd like that."
When Harry takes her hand and pulls her up from the bed, the room swiftly disappears into mist. This is one of the things she hates about Celtic magical travel, the isolation as she walks through the impenetrable mist following the grip on her hand. Fortunately it doesn't last long before the mist gives way to Harry's place, where she found the stone hanging around her neck, the leather thong going through the natural hole.
"Are you ok?"
Marianne nods, "Yeah, it's still scary not having any control."
Harry pulls her into a friendly hug, "I know, but I'm not good enough to just make a gate like Mum can. I also don't think you'd want to watch me starting at the standing gate in the courtyard for the next hour while I make a gate to where we're going."
Marianne punches Harry playfully in the shoulder, "Of course not silly, sides I like coming here. It's your own secret garden."
Harry looks around wistfully, "I brought mum here yesterday, she says it's a domain and it belonged to her sister."
"Oh, what happened to her?"
"It was Brigid, mum says she gave up her domain to save her people from the Christians."
Marianne pulls Harry into a hug, "Oh Yvor, it doesn't matter, it's still a lovely place and it's yours."
Harry smiles at the use of his real name, "In more ways than one, I'm not supposed to give away anything that doesn't grow back until I've learnt to separate myself from it."
Marianne looks sad, and she pulls out the rounded stone, "I suppose you'll want this back then."
Harry shakes his head, "No, keep it. I was happy for you to have it when you found it, and I still want you to have it." Gently he takes it from her hand and puts it back under her t-shirt.
"Thanks Harry. I think I'm ready to go again."
"If you're sure?" Harry holds out his hand, and Marianne takes it.
Together they step out into the mist and walk for far longer this time, as if the location they're heading for is a long way away. Eventually they step out into the old stable that houses the public floo. As they do, Marianne shivers and refuses to let go of Harry's hand for a few minutes. After that, the two children start to explore the village as they shout and squeal while they tag each other, much the amusement of the adults around them.
When they make it to the old church, Marianne gravitates to the dresses and looks at them longingly. When the dressmaker sees Harry standing off to one side she chuckles and walks over to the girl.
"Like what you see?"
Marianne nods, "I do, I've seen dresses like this at re-enactment fairs, but never so nicely made before."
"I'm not sure what one of those is, but I made each and every one of these. Though I got someone else to do the embroidery."
"That's amazing, I always wanted to try one. But getting out of armour is a pain, and I didn't want to get them dirty either."
"Well, why don't you call your boyfriend over, and we can find one that you love."
"Harry, come over and help me choose a dress with the lady."
"Call me Tina dear, everyone else does. That goes for you too young man."
Marianne nods, "Then call me Mari, it's only fair."
In the search for the perfect dress, Tina surreptitiously start to teach Harry about matching colours and styles to a persons skin tone, eyes, hair colour, and build. A few times she nods approvingly at the way he's enraptured with the information.
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The Mórrígan steps out of the mist onto a small rocky island in the middle of a sea. There she stands, leaning on her spear, for an hour before a tiny dot appears on the horizon. It's another hour before the dot resolves itself into a boat with a man standing in it. Shortly after that, the boat pulls up beside the island.
"Morrígu."
"Manandán."
There's a long pause while the two of them to start the conversation, during this time Morgana seems to be content to just lean on her spear. Finally Manandán speaks.
"I doubt you came here to exchange names. Tell me, are you finally ready to join the courts?"
Morgana shakes her head, "Nay, I'll not cast of my duty or domain that easily. I am here to request an apple."
"Why are you asking for an apple?"
"My son is going to school soon, and I fear that without one he will lose his first friend."
"I was not aware that you'd forgiven Dagda."
"I have not, he is my son by blood."
"I see. I will grant your request if you grant mine."
"Speak, and if it is favourable I will agree."
"When the first flowers bloom next year you will bring your son and his intended to see me."
"Intended?"
"I don't think that you of all people would ask for an apple for anyone less. None the less, I'll amend my request. You will bring your son and the recipient of the apple to me when the first flowers bloom next year."
"I agree as long as it's not an apple from that tree. I would give her a chance, not force her into the courts. Especially as it's not a given that my son will choose to remain a child of Danu."
"I see, then step into my boat and you may pick one apple from my island."
