[MCG] a new day has begun [louise]

It was late on the Saturday morning at the Magical Cowal Games and the festival was still relatively quiet. No doubt a lot of people had been enjoying themselves at the various whiskey-themed stalls and parties last night and were feeling less than happy in the cold light of day. Although he had never been one for drinking to excess, a couple of years ago Sam would no doubt have spent the evening in one of the quieter bars chatting with friends, or perhaps embarrassing himself at the Highland dance classes. Instead he had found himself applauding from the sidelines while the daughter he hadn't known existed a year earlier had attempted to partake of every single age-appropriate activity (and had even talked Sam into allowing her to taste whisky-flavoured ice-cream).

He was glad that his father had decided to take a stall here and had brought a good proportion of the stock from Dickinson's Antiques to sell, so the whole family was here. It meant that he didn't need to watch Enitan every second of the day, so he and Louise would be able to spend some time alone. This morning, the little girl had decided she wanted to join a hike into the nearly mountain and had enlisted his sister Cassandra's children, only a little older than herself, on her mission. Thus Sam's mother had accompanied the children as they had departed half an hour earlier, and Sam had excused himself to meet Louise.

It was a bright, sunny morning with just enough clouds in the sky so it wouldn't be too hot later. Sam had dressed casually in a loose-fitting cream shirt and jeans, both of which were surprisingly devoid of paint stains as he headed towards the artists' display section of the Games where he and Louise had agreed to meet. It had been several days since they'd last seen each other, though getting together privately these days was a little trickier, given that he now shared a house with his eleven year old daughter who seemed able to survive on half an hour's sleep whenever she sensed that Sam and Louise were trying to get a little alone-time. The fact that Enitan had independently decided to join a half-day hike had come at the perfect time, particular given that they would soon be back at Hogwarts and his only chance to see Louise would be on the rare occasions when he was able to slip away from school for a few hours.

It wasn't an ideal situation, and that worried him. More importantly, he was worried how Louise felt about the situation, because she could hardly complain that the reason they hadn't seen each other so much lately was because he was taking care of his child. He wanted to ask her about it...and he wanted to ask her something else as well, and he had no idea what her reply would be. As he reached the artists' area he actually felt a little nervous, almost as if he was on a first date rather than meeting his girlfriend of several years. He spotted Louise almost immediately. She was talking with someone about a photography display so he walked up until he was just a short distance away and pretended to examine a nearby sculpture, waiting until she'd finished her conversation.

@Louise Ellington

Louise was glad that it was summer now as that meant that Sam wasn't stuck at Hogwarts for most of the time. However, ever since her friend had found out that he had a daughter things had overall changed. When, in the past, they had spent a lot of time together, especially when Sam had quit teaching for a while, Louise now had to share him with his daughter. Naturally she could understand that this was how it ought to be, but she missed the times when they had hung out together with no obligations aside from their respective jobs. It was an entirely different situation now. It felt like they had moved from being young and free adults to responsible adults. Louise neither could nor wanted to let Sam choose between Enitan and her but sometimes it felt like there was hardly enough time in Sam's life for both of them.

When Sam had suggested meeting at the Highland Games in Dunoon, Louise had been delighted, especially as they were to meet alone again. While she liked Sam's little girl, spending time together was entirely different with her around. They couldn't talk freely, couldn't get intimate. It simply wasn't the same and Louise missed the intimacy of their meetings before Sam had known about Enitan. Sam had got his old job back a few months ago too so he wasn't living in London anymore. Soon the new term would start again and their different lives would let them drift apart even more. There were moments when Louise wondered if they weren't better off if they officially separated and didn't claim to be a couple. Meeting up so sporadically would maybe feel better then. Usually though the rare moments they had together made all these dark thoughts drift away like the wind blew a cloud away.

Not being from Scotland herself, Louise had decided against tartan clothes even though she quite liked the look. However, it felt inappropriate to wear something like that for the occasion. Instead the English witch had chosen a blue-grey dress that showed a little but not too much cleavage and reached down to her knees. It was a flowy dress, the skirt of which gently moved when she walked. Her auburn hair was hanging loosely over her shoulders, framing her face that way. Knowing that they'd be on their feet most of the time, the woman had chosen comfortable espadrilles - against better judgement, really. Her experience with Scottish weather was that whenever she opted for a summer outfit because the weather looked nice one moment, she'd get soaked because of an unexpected downpour just a little while later.

She had not come particularly early but still in time to get a chance to talk to a Scottish photographer who was exhibiting photos from last year's Highland Games and whom she knew rather well. It was nice to catch up and take a look at the photos, some of which Louise genuinely liked and praised accordingly.

Out of the corner of her eyes she spotted Sam as soon as he came into view and she hadn't even been looking for him, being so caught up in a conversation about photography. While she quite enjoyed the discussion, she still felt that she needed to end it as soon as possible as this conversation now cost her time that was better spent with Sam. She excused herself, promising to send an owl sometime soon to arrange a date to continue their discussion and turned around to face Sam.

"Sam!" she said brightly, a smile spreading across her face even though she had been a little discontent with the situation they were currently in. However, seeing him made her discard all these negative thoughts at once. "Found something nice for your Hogwarts office?" she asked teasingly with a glance at the sculpture he was examining.

Sam did a good job pretending the examine the sculpture. The photographer Louise was talking with likely wouldn't have even realised he was waiting for her. They evidently already knew each other though and as Sam was close enough to hear the conversation he felt a twinge of anxiety in the pit of his stomach as she agreed they would meet up again. It wasn't because she was going to meet someone else. It didn't matter to him whether the photographer was man, woman or goblin - it was the ease with which the arrangement was made that worried him. Sam used to be able to make plans easily, know that he would either be working or free on a particular day or evening, but now he knew that he was unlikely to be available, that he would need to make plans days or weeks in advance. He didn't regret Enitan coing into his life for a moment, but he knew the effect it had had on his relationship with Louise, and that worried him.

She didn't deserve to always have to come second best. Many times over the past ten months Sam had been afraid they were going to separate, and sometimes - usually late at night when he'd had to let her down because his daughter hadn't wanted to spend the evening with her grandparents or was having flashbacks to the time she'd spent living on the run during the war - he honestly wondered if he was being unfair, if Louise wouldn't be happier if he let her find someone with fewer responsibilities. Someone she could build a family with...and here he felt even worse because it wasn't something they'd ever discussed. A year ago it seemed as if they'd had all the time in the world and now so much had changed, and Sam wondered if he should have said something earlier. But would it have been easier to discover he had a daughter if they'd already been married or living together? He doubted it.

None of this showed on his face when she greeted him. The smile he offered was genuine. "You look beautiful" he said, hands lightly resting on her shoulders as he bent to kiss her cheek. He'd have liked to do more (a lot more) but they were in a public place and...well, there was always the chance that students were going to pop up at the least welcome moments, and the thought of hearing "Hello Professor!" bellowed across the games grounds was enough to restrain him for the moment. He glanced once again at the sculpture.

"Actually I rather like it, but I've already got a great many things to decorate my office. Enitan made it her mission for the last few months to make at least one new decoration a week. The hanging things practically block out the light, but I didn't have the heart to tell her I didn't need any more in the window" he said with a smile, and them immediately the guilt returned. Less than a minute, and he was talking about her already, reminding Louise of how much their relationship had changed...

"When did you arrive?" he asked, quickly changing the subject. They had precious little time together anyway these days and he wanted to make the most of it. "We've been here since about three hours before the general public...Dad had a good day yesterday, a couple of Norwegian historians turned up and he sold three rare pieces to them, as well as spending a good hour talking about arithmancy..." Sam chuckled at the memory. His father had been so engrossed in his sales that he'd refused to leave the stall in order to eat, and they'd brought food to him instead. "but I guess that's one thing we really don't want to talk about...did you want to look at the rest of the art displays, or just walk around? Or we could visit one of the pop-up cafes...there's apparently one that incorporates single malt whisky into every item on the menu..."

“Why thank you,” Louise said, smiling. “You don't look bad yourself.” She liked how his hands felt soft, strong and warm on her shoulders as he leaned in to kiss her cheek. She would have loved to pull him into a hug now and greet him with a proper kiss but she was used to him not liking to do that in public. There could always be a student somewhere and while Louise didn't see why students weren't allowed to know that their professors had private lives themselves, she had given up on questioning this a long time ago.

Enitan. Of course. He had not spoken more than two sentences before getting onto the topic of his daughter. Louise felt how her smile faded and tried to renew it but the genuine smile was not quite there anyway.

“Yes, I understand. I probably couldn't tell her either.” From what she knew about the girl she had gone through a lot over the past years and Louise was sensible and sensitive enough to take that into consideration whenever she got a little upset by the way how the focus always shifted onto the child. Maybe things would get more normal once Enitan was at school and had her own circle of friends. Maybe that would leave Sam with more time to lead his own life, then again, this was his life now.

“About an hour ago,” Louise replied to his question. “I've basically wanted to see Arthur before we meet because he owled me that he has his photographs exhibited here.” She did not even consider that Sam might feel awkward at the mention of another man because, frankly, Arthur was just a talented guy who had exhibited some of his work at her gallery in the past. He was fun to talk to but she did not like him more than simply on a professional level.

“I'm glad you've been having a good time so far. Or was it just your father who had a good time?” Louise joked. “How is he doing anyway? Has he got used to the fact that you're back teaching?” She more relaxed now that their conversation was going on for a bit longer and had shifted away from Enitan for a little while at least. It was really not that she disliked the girl but her existence in Sam's life had clearly changed and complicated everything.

“I've looked around for a bit while Arthur was busy,” Louise admitted. “I wouldn't mind to check out the place that incorporates single malt whisky everywhere. Sounds like a good place to start actually. Besides I didn't have breakfast this morning so I'm getting a little hungry.”

He saw her smile fade and felt his own mirroring the response. That had happened a lot, and Sam didn't know how to prevent it. He didn't want to change anything that happened in his life, not really, he just wished that...things were less complicated. Sometimes he wished Louise would scream and yell and accuse him of ignoring her. Merlin knew, he felt like he deserved it most of the time and told himself as much several times a week.

But they skirted around the issue as usual, talking about things which were easier and falling into a more comfortable cameraderie. "Ah, so you're on owling terms?" he asked, grinning and clearing teasing, because actually he recognised the man's name. Sam went to all of Louise's exhibitions, offering his opinion on the various artworks simply because he enjoyed her work, and he recalled an exhibition a year or a little more earlier. He sounded more sensible when he asked "'Winter Mountains'? Wasn't that what his last collection was called?" The title hadn't been inspiring but the selection of landscapes interspersed with extreme close-ups certainly had been.

"It's good to see him happy. I took Mum and...well, we all went for dinner last night and left him talking, and he barely even noticed we'd been gone." Sam grinned and shook his head fondly "he's fine with it. I'm no salesman, he just let me mind the shop to give me something to do, I think. I know he claimed he wanted to retire, but Mum said he was going crazy at home after a couple of weeks, and she was going crazy trying to keep him entertained! So he's perfectly happy to be back doing what he loves...I imagine he'll still be pottering around with his antiques in another twenty years".

He reached for Louise's hand "Alright, it's down this way...I think. We walked past it a couple of times yesterday...okay, I'm not convinced those are entirely tasteful..." Lowering his voice, Sam had nodded towards a display of half a dozen lifesized model sheep, each sporting real wool dyed a different colour - bright pink, neon yellow, lime green and so on "although I admit I might feel differently after a breakfast of malt whisky. I wonder if they offer it poured over cornflakes..." me mused, trying to look thoughtful and serious though his words were anything but.

Louise smiled at Sam's teasing comment about being on owling terms with Arthur. "Well, yes," she said, elbowing him to the side. "He's quite nice and actually has time to owl and meet up." She said this in a teasing tone herself but she knew that Sam knew that while it wasn't meant to be an actual complaint there was some truth to it anyway. "Yeah, it was," Louise nodded as Sam mentioned the exhibition from a while ago. "He's a talented photographer. Has quite a good eye for the perfect detail." She did not feel like adding that Arthur was in fact gay and thus not a threat for Sam and she figured she didn't need to anyway.

"I'm glad he's happy." Louise said. She liked Sam's dad, often wished that hers had been a little more than him. She admired the enthusiasm of the older Dickinson. "I can see why retirement isn't right for a person like him. He should certainly go for as long as it pleases him." She offered a genuine smile again now. "I guess it's even better for your mother as well," she added after a brief pause. "I guess that him getting bored at home is no fun for her either."

She gently squeezed his hand as he took it and led the way to find the place with the malt whisky dishes. "You walked past it a couple of times but did not try anything yet?" she asked. "Remember, I've had a dish somewhere with whisky sauce a while ago and that was actually really tasteful. You said so as well."

Laughing softly as Sam drew her attention to the sheep, Louise nodded. "Well, they are flashy for sure. If the intention was to draw attention to them then that's working at least. You don't have to make anything pretty to make people look, after all." Making a grimace at Sam's mention of cornflakes with whisky poured over them, Louise laughed. "Ugh... please not! That sounds disgusting. Maybe we should wait until we can have an early lunch, after all. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm struggling to imagine any kind of breakfast with malt whisky added to it that could be tasty."

It wasn't meant as a jibe, Sam knew that, and yet he knew that there was truth in her words. He didn't have time to meet up these days, and he hated that, almost as much as the fact there was almost nothing he could do about it. "I know..." he said quietly, leaning to kiss the side of her head, through her hair, as they walked. He wanted to say more, but Louise understood. Besides, what could he say? Better to follow the change of subject a little.

"I nearly bought one of his pictures actually" Sam admitted. "The one with the out-of-focus mountain framed through the leaf skeleton? I really liked it but...I didn't think I could justify spending money on myself just a few weeks before Christmas, and I could hardly tell my mother I was buying her something I liked for myself..."
He smiled, thinking of his family anew. It had been a good weekend so far for everyone, he thought. Looking back, it was crazy to imagine Basil Dickinson retiring and in fact the family attending this festival had been his idea in the first place. "Yeah, she's happy when he's happy...though I don't know that having the kids dragging her up a mountain today was something she had planned!"

Sam interlaced his fingers with her own and smiled ruefully. "Well...I don't think I said I hadn't tried anything..." he confessed "I was, um, talked into buying a malt whisky ice cream yesterday. Enitan wanted to know what whisky tasted like and there was no way I was going to let her actually try alcohol. I bought her a regular chocolate ice cream and got a whisky one for myself so she could taste it...." he glanced at Louise, gauging her reaction before he added "she claimed she loved it, but her screwed-up face said differently, thank goodness!" He felt bad, as he always did, when he mentioned his daughter, but this felt like a reasonable conversation rather than talking about why they weren't able to meet up.

"Yeah, I remember that. I didn't look to see exactly what they had on the menu but I don't think it included alcoholic breakfast cereals...we could always get a coffee and some cake for now if you prefer, and then take a walk around the stalls and arena?" he glanced at her with a grin and added "Unless you want to admire the dayglo sheep for a bit longer, of course..."

A hint of a smile spread across Louise's face as Sam made his affectionate gesture. She knew that him not having time for her wasn't a conscious decision against her. It was still upsetting though. Things had become complicated so suddenly and it was hard getting used to the changed circumstances.

"Oh yes, I remember you liked that photo," Louise nodded. "I wasn't aware though that you liked it that much. I'd have talked to Arthur, he'd have made a good price and I could have given it to you for Christmas." She sounded a little disappointed now to have missed the opportunity for a good gift for Sam. She remembered that they had stood in front of the picture together and admired it but she had discarded his praise as something one said even without wanting to have that particular piece of art for themselves.

"I'm sure she'll be fine," Louise said, laughing. "She'll move at her own speed and the kids will accept that for sure." The Dickinsons were a lovely family and although Enitan had come into the picture unexpectedly and definitely was a bit difficult, Louise felt that they all stuck together nicely. Maybe she was even a little bit envious that they had made their visit to the Highland Games a family thing. Louise herself saw her mother maybe two times a month and her brother occasionally wrote her a brief note. She felt quite certain had she suggested to come here together none of them would have come.

"Oh that's fine," Louise said, laughing a little. "Don't you feel awkward about having been to the place already!" It did feel strange to know that, of course, he had been here already with his daughter but she knew that it was silly to hold that against him. It was not like she had known about the place before and as long as that didn't mean that they couldn't have lunch there later, she knew she really shouldn't care.

"You know what - I can wait until later. I mean, I am a bit hungry but it's not like I'm starving. Maybe we can get a cappuccino to go and walk around for a while until it's lunch time," she suggested. Truth be told it did not matter what they did as long as they had some time together and without Enitan. "I've seen enough of these sheep by the way," she added, dragging him along gently. "How's the preparation for the new term coming along?" she asked and didn't know why she did so. It was just another topic to spoil the mood. The distance between them was basically the same during the school year but they'd have even less chances to see each other.

She remembered. Of course she did. Sam felt guilty yet again, like late in the evening when he was alone and knew that he didn't deserve her, didn't deserve anyone when he had virtually nothing to offer and... No. He wasn't going to do this now. She was here, they were here, and he was going to make the most of every minute they had together. "Okay, I'm giving you a list this year" he joked "One that definitely doesn't have lifesized neon sheep on it..."

Louise was right, of course. While hill climbing wasn't really his mother's thing, she was by no means the oldest person who had joined the hike and besides, she had her wand with her. Sam knew that if it got tiring she would simply cast a charm to make the walking easier. He imagined her at the back of the group, claiming she was there to make sure there were no stragglers but in reality levitating herself along just a couple of inches above the ground. He'd have to ask her later if that had actually happened.

"Ah. You're imagining that I was allowed to sit down, I suppose?" he said with a grin " No, what actually happened was that I purchased the ice-cream while Enitan bounced up and down insisting that I hurry up, before we had to run to watch a team of golden eagles and their handler perform a flying display. It was actually very good, though I might have enjoyed it even more without the ensuing indigestion..." Sam had always thought that teaching was tiring enough, but had reckoned without watching over a child every minute of the day. If his daughter had suddenly started sleepwalking over the weekend he would no longer have been surprised but instead just figured out yet another way to keep her safe. He was more grateful than he could express to his family for welcoming the little girl and making her feel as if she'd always belonged with them. "So no, I won't feel awkward at all. I would love to sit down with you and eat lunch. And I'm paying" he added in an undertone.

He relaxed then. It felt like they were just having a normal conversation, as if it hadn't been nearly three weeks since they'd last seen each other alone for more than a couple of minutes. Even talking about going back to Hogwarts felt comfortable.

"Actually, I'm a bit worried about the new term" Sam confessed "I seem to be far too organised, I'm afraid I've overlooked something vital but I can't figure out what it is!" he followed as Louise led them down between two rows of art displays, paying these far less attention now that they were together. "It looks like there's going to be some staff changes too - I don't even know who the new professors are yet, so that'll be interesting. Oh, and I've asked Minerva if she can arrange the staff schedule so I always have the same evening off each week..." he trailed off slightly. It hadn't been a normal request, but Sam wanted to be able to say 'I'm free next thursday' and know that he was unlikely to have to change his plans. It wasn't much, but it was the best he'd been able to figure out so far. "Oh, there's a coffee booth, shall we get something?"

"Well, I sure hope so. It's for your own good. You know, otherwise  I might come up with an adult toy as a gift for you... there's always the risk," she had been joking, of course. She liked to come up with personal gift ideas, things that showed that she had really given the matter some thought. Then again she wondered if, given the circumstances, Sam might not actually like a toy to find some relaxation in the rare moments that he'd have some time to himself.

Louise shrugged, she hadn't really given it any thought whether Sam had been allowed to sit down or not but, of course, she was still underestimating the extent to which Enitan kept him busy. It felt odd that this was such a big part of his life now and that she was mostly left out of it. Not for the first time, Louise wondered how she'd be with a kid. Would she handle it well? She figured that as a woman she could hardly be surprised by a ten year old child like Sam had been himself. She sometimes wondered if he was upset having missed so much of Enitan's childhood and if he had ever had a vision of the child before he had known her. It was nothing to discuss here though, this was more for a quiet conversation which they unfortunately seemed to never have these days.

"If you insist," Louise said. She didn't really like it when someone else paid for her but she figured that she shouldn't object as it seemed like he wanted to do that. "I guess you haven't sat anywhere for a longer time in a while," she teased, clearly Enitan's energy meant that Sam hardly had time to sit down and chill.

"Why's that?" Louise asked but realised she didn't have to because Sam would probably have explained anyway. "Staff changes? Did anyone quit that I know?" Louise knew some staff members from her own time at school and others from what Sam had told her. She was always interested in hearing what was going on at Hogwarts even if she was out of school for ages already and had no child of her own that would attend the school.

When Sam mentioned that he had asked to always have the same evening off during the week, the witch smiled at him. "Sounds good. Do you think it was a feasible request? Will you find out before the term starts?" It didn't really matter when he'd hear back but Louise felt that it was a sensible question anyway.

"Yes, please," Louise said. "If you pay for the lunch, I'll pay for the coffee. Don't even try to object. So what do you want? Some spiced latte, a cappuccino or do you need a double espresso to stay awake?" She couldn't hide her grin as she spoke.

Sam both stopped walking and didn't stop at the same time, or perhaps it was the rest of the universe that missed a step. Either way, he seemed to stumble mentally as his head turned to stare at Louise, his eyes widening. He tried to prevent the grin - well, smirk would be a better description - that was slowly spreading across his face, together with his cheeks that seemed to be colouring, but to no avail. "That sounds... interesting..." he managed, glancing briefly around to make sure nobody was listening to their conversation "very interesting, in fact...I may have to add that to my list..." Actually he felt a little uncomfortable talking about such things, particularly in a public place that wasn't Louise's shop, but there was no denying that he enjoyed the conversation at the same time.

He didn't feel so much like walking now, but as they were still surrounded by people thre wasn't much of an alternative for the moment. "I got to sit down last night...at bedtime" he admitted. More accurately, Sam had sat down in one of the armchairs inside the tent the family was sharing, drunk half a cup of tea and then almost fallen asleep within minutes. At least he'd slept well, despite the bagpipe-playing that had gone on in the arena until...well, he had no idea. It could have continued half the night for all he knew!

"The astronomy position is open, and history of magic...I can't remember which others" he admitted, a little shamefaced. There was a time when he would have known everything that went on at Hogwarts, but now... He'd made the right choice to return, he knew, even if it did mean that life was even more complicated. "Yes, I think so. It's not unusual for a professor who has children or a family to ask for a regular evening off so they can spend time together. I remember someone asked me the same question when I was deputy headmaster, and we managed it then" he thought for a moment and added "Theoretically I would still be able to live in Hogsmeade if I wanted to, but with...well, it'll be more convenient for me to be at the school now." He would still have the house in Hogsmeade though, and it would be perfectly private if Louise were to apparate there to visit.

"Oh - I didn't ask. There's a lot happening in these last couple of weeks - but usually the professors' schedules are sent out a few days before school begins, so I should know then, I guess" he said.

The mention of coffee - and the smell of it - was more welcome that he could have imagined. Breakfast seemed a terribly long time ago now. "Double? Hmm, you don't think they offer a triple?" he asked, looking serious for a moment before breaking into a grin "Actually a cappucino would be great. The place where we had breakfast did amazing bacon and eggs, but their coffee tasted like it had been made with tap water..."
 

Louise laughed out loud. It was so good to spend time together again and tease each other like that. “Well, interesting is not what I'm going for with these items but… I guess you wouldn't know. Maybe I should really introduce you to some of the things.” She grinned now and squeezed his hand gently.

“If you add it to your list I'll see that I can make a special edition just for you,” she teased. “You know I can go pretty creative with these things.”

She nodded when Sam mentioned when he had last got to sit down. It wasn't far in the say yet so it did not sound too dramatic. However, she hoped he wouldn't be too tired to enjoy the rare moments they got to spend together.

“That sounds interesting. Do you know if suitable candidates have been interviewed yet?” Louise sometime forgot that Sam wasn't as involved with the school's planning as he had once been. Besides she had to remind herself over and over again that his priorities had changed anyway. Enitan was, understandably, his first priority now. She briefly wondered what came second and felt that it might be the rest of his family or Hogwarts, thinking that she was maybe in fourth place.

“Of course,” she nodded. It was more convenient for him to be at school rather than live in Hogsmeade even that meant that he was kind of out of reach for her.

“Who knows, maybe they even do a quadruple,” Louise said, smiling and shaking her head. “Cappuccino is always a good choice and by the scent of it I think they have good coffee here. Wait a minute and I'll get us our cappuccinos. Don't fall asleep in the meantime!”

"It's not? Surely you'd rather your creations were considered interesting than something to make people fall asleep..?" he asked pretending to sound innocent but feeling anything but. It was strange that he had always known about that side of Louise's business but never actually asked about it in the sense of, well, experimenting with any of her inventions. Or maybe not so strange...when they'd first begun dating he had felt awkward about asking and the longer they had been together, it had somehow become more difficult to mention rather than easier. Sam had no idea why Louise had chosen to mention it now, but teasing and pretending to joke felt like a much more comfortable way to discuss things.

"Perhaps I will. Though I shall probably need to write it in a different language in case anyone else reads it" he said, face flushing slightly again. For once he wasn't thinking of his daughter reading it (he was sure that she wouldn't understand even if it was written in English) but anyone who happened to visit his house or Louise's shop...though surely she wouldn't leave it lying around there anyway "should I make any special requests or...wait to be surprised?" He glanced around again quickly before lowering his voice and practically whispering this in her ear.

Thankfully the people who had got up early enough to enjoy the stalls were too interested in their own conversations to pay attention to anyone else. "I actually don't...I know we had a couple of people who were being considered at the beginning of the summer holidays, but I don't know of they were offered teaching posts..." Sam felt uncomfortable admitting this. Most people advanced in their careers, not took a backwards progression like he had. Yet another reason for Louise to be disappointed in him.

He mentioned none of this. Sam had had years to hide his fears, starting right about the time when the war had begun in earnest and he realised that he couldn't protect everyone. Outwardly he was still smiling. "Hmm, I think I'll manage to stay awake for the next couple of minutes. I can just admire the view" he commented eyes drifting down the curves of Louise's dress and back again to meet her eyes. As she went to buy the coffees Sam noticed something flying overhead and naturally looked upwards. It seemed the golden eagles and their trainer were performing again this morning.

Louise shook her head, smiling. "You know exactly what I meant," she said, thinking just like Sam that it was a little strange that they had never openly discussed the items or brought them into their bedroom. She didn't mind discussing them, even in public but with Sam it was odd. She didn't want to put him under pressure or make him feel that she expected him to enjoy her creations. She knew that not everybody took pleasure from using them although she wished it was different.

"Why?" Louise asked. Well, she knew why but it still felt silly to encrypt that because it was nothing forbidden and according to Louise it was not embarrassing either. "Oh, if you have any ideas I'd be more than happy to try and use them," Louise responded to his question, smirking and wondering if he actually had any ideas, any fantasies that she did not know about. She did not bother to whisper. Firstly she doubted that anyone was interested in eavesdropping on their conversation anyway and secondly it was nothing to be ashamed of.

"Has it ever happened that no suitable candidate was available and a class just didn't take place?" Louise asked, wondering if that was a possibility at all or if the school somehow got all positions covered in the end. She had never really thought about this before but somehow the thought occurred to her now and she really wondered what would happen in such a case. She did not, as Sam might have feared, think that he had made a step backwards given that he wasn't deputy headmaster any longer.

"You admire the view?" she asked a challenging smile spreading across her face. "Well, enjoy then," she said, turning around to get them their cappuccinos. As she waited for the hot beverages, she watched the golden eagles fly above them.

A little later she went the few steps back to Sam, holding the two paper cups. "Here you are." she handed him the cup. "So, what now? Do you want to go and see the golden eagles or shall we see if we get to watch some caber tossing?"

"Because there are some things I don't wish my mother to have to think about!" he said, and thought it wasn't exactly the full response, it was close enough to the truth that it both answered the question and would make Louise smile. As for whether he had any ideas...his mind decided to be completely blank on the subject at that moment, which was probably just as well considering they were somewhere that Sam didn't really consider appropriate for such a conversation. He smiled, though "I'll tell you later...if you like."

Really, it was probably less acceptable to be talking about professor positions in public, but as Louise said, it was doubtful whether anyone else was paying them any attention. "It happened a couple of times" he said "You heard that the Dark Arts job was apparently cursed? Once or twice Dumbledore went and visited former professors or people who had suitable qualifications and asked them to take the position for a year" yet again he glanced around before adding "everyone who worked there at the time is very careful not to say anything, but I'm convinced that's the only reason Gilderoy Lockhart ever got a teaching post. Minerva once told me he was the second worst teacher she'd ever encountered - and that included my predecessors!" Sam felt no discomfort in saying this. It had been common knowledge that the headmistress had considered divination to be the one subject she would happily scratch from the school curriculum. Right up until the time Sam had accidentally had a proveable vision in front of her, after which she'd mellowed somewhat...

"Indeed...take all the time you need" he said, matching her earlier smirk with one of his own. He didn't really mean it though - every minute they weren't together today was a minute wasted. The aroma of the hot coffee drifted through the air and Sam was glad that the queue was a short one. He took the cup gratefully when she returned, though didn't make the mistake of trying to drink the contents right away. Most stalls used a charm to keep the drinks piping hot until they were taken away in case several were ordered at once, and he didn't want to burn his tongue. "Thanks. You know, I don't really mind what we do, as long as I get to spend some time with you" he said "though the eagle display is pretty impressive. If we walk down to the arena we'll probably be able to see two or three displays at once if you like?"