rolling over the rails [arawn]

november 2001

It had been almost a month since Arawn had moved in and they had yet to put any furniture in their shared space. Of course, there were more pillows and blankets now and there had been a fort (or multiple forts) built in the living room so it wasn’t the most uncomfortable place, but even Edith Holthouse knew that civilized people ought to have a sofa. But after living with Arawn, the former Gryffindor found it more and more difficult to put the full responsibility of purchasing everything on him. That meant cheaper furniture, though, as most of Edith’s money went straight to alcohol (not that she was complaining).

And like every frugal consumer not too concerned with quality or longevity, Edith had the perfect store in mind: IKEA. She didn’t really know how to explain it to Arawn, that it was less of a furniture store and more of a furniture experience. She could only explain it by showing it to him. They couldn’t very well apparate there, though, and if they found furniture, they would need an inconspicuous way to get things home.

So Edith had woken early and apparated to Lunt, fully aware that her parents were on the Continent for the weekend, and driven back to London with their well-worn but well-loved VW Bus, sunshine yellow. It had been a while since she had driven, but it only took her a few miles to fully remember everything and by the time she hit London traffic, she was in a groove. She stopped short of having to parallel park on their little street, instead choosing to roll down the window and yell in the direction of their flat until Arawn got the hint.

She tried to explain things about the vehicle as she drove them to the store, figuring that it would probably just be easier to let him drive and figure it out for himself. But first, furniture. She found an empty spot on the top level of the car park, mercifully parking straight in the spot on the first go, reassuring Arawn with every step they took towards the large and overwhelmingly blue and yellow entrance.

That distinct IKEA smell hit her as they stepped inside, the sickly sweet smell of the cinnamon buns mingling with the smell of the Swedish meatballs with just a hint of lingonberries and furniture polish. Edith grinned as she undid her scarf and shrugged off her jacket, nudging Arawn’s arm with her elbow. “We start upstairs and can see everything there.” She didn’t want to overwhelm him just yet with the many, many, many more items they would see downstairs, nor the warehouse area where they actually had to pick up any furniture.

She thought the fact that they would have to build things themselves would be a nice surprise and something they could thankfully do with magic, so she didn’t want to spoil that just yet either. Edith nodded reassuringly, pointing towards the escalator heading up as people passed them on either side as they stood still in the entrance. “Ready?”

@Arawn Davies

When Edith had suggested that they get some furniture for their flat (for it was theirs now, he was slowly accepting he wasn’t just a guest) Arawn had anticipated a visit to Diagon Alley, or perhaps Hogsmeade. He had not been ready for the revelation that Edith was going to take him to a muggle furniture store – let alone drive her there in a muggle vehicle. He was practically fizzing with excitement on the morning of the ‘trip’. He’d gotten up not long after he heard Edith milling about, got showered and dressed, and sat on the amassed pillows that were the remains of the most recent pillow fort. And he waited. And waited.

Turned out, muggle transportation was a lot less speedy than the Wizarding kind.

After about four hours, in which he’d made himself some breakfast, eaten it, and read that morning’s Prophet cover-to-cover, he finally heard Edith shouting at him through the window.

His light eyes had popped at the sight of the minibus. As he had clambered in, he’d beamed at Edith, dutifully fastened his seatbelt, and then proceeded to ask a million and one questions on their journey, restraining himself (with great difficulty) from touching any of the buttons or the sticks in the middle.

As they pulled up towards the ‘IKEA’, Arawn’s mouth dropped open slightly. It was gigantic. Just a huge blue building – bigger than any shop he’d ever seen. He supposed that there were a lot more muggles than wizards, and so logic demanded that they would need more furniture. Furthermore, they didn’t have magic so they couldn’t manipulate space to make a smaller building bigger on the inside.

They got out of the car and the Welshman followed behind his flatmate, blue eyes darting around constantly to take in every little detail. He’d gotten more used to being amongst muggles since moving to London, but it had only been a month – and there was only so much you could desensitise yourself to in such a short time. “Okay,” he replied, still gazing around. “Yeah, I’m ready,” he smiled, heading towards the escalator before hesitating at the last moment. With great concentration he stepped onto the moving staircase, grabbing frantically at the railing, “Amazing.” He commented quietly, looking around them as the escalator carried them up to the top floor. As they moved upwards, his eyes widened in awe. There was just... so much to look at. He tripped off the escalator at the top, recovering quickly and turning to Edith. “Where do we start?” He asked brightly, visibly much more excited than any of the other men in their vicinity.