A Sunday Visit

[Georg Striebel]

April 12, 1885, around 2:15 pm

Still dressed in his church clothes and coming down from an endless sermon by Father Eldridge and an equally endless monologue by Frau Müller about her son's promotion to manager at some textile factory in wales, Gogo tried to balance a tray of speckkuchen and a bottle of apple wine in one hand while tossing a handful of floo powder into the fireplace with his other. He called out Fiona's address and grabbed the tray with his other hand as well as he stepped into the suddenly green-tinted fire.

A blur of fireplaces zipped past him in the dark until, finally, he stumbled out into an unfamiliar parlor which must have been Doctor Little's. "Hello!" He announced to the room. "Sorry I'm late. Like I said in my letter, Frau Müller talks forever. We practically had to push her out the door." He glanced down briefly at the speckkuchen and the apple wine to make sure that they were undamaged by the rough journey, which they were, and took a few steps away from the Little's fire which had returned to it's regular state.

@ Fiona Little
@Henry Berkwood

  

[Fiona Little]

It had been the week from hell. Fiona couldn't remember a time when things had just been so... difficult. She was glad that she had something to do with her time, or she might have gone mad. Things were mad enough as it was at the hospital, but it was the sort of madness that was distracting. Fi could deal with other people's problems far better than she could deal with her own. That had always been true, though she wasn't sure quite how to feel about that. Oh well, it was handy.

What wasn't quite so easy, though, was being at home. At home, her father's absence was impossible to ignore. Fi thought her mother was doing quite well, all things considered. Or at least she didn't make a fuss when Fiona was at home, which wasn't really the same thing at all, but she could pretend that it was to alleviate her own misplaced guilt.

Having company, though, Fi thought would be good for both of them. It wasn't that they didn't have friends, of course, but they were still more alone than they were with other people, which wasn't a good thing at a time like this. Being with family would have been best, but the majority of Fiona's extended family lived scattered around Britain, and about half of them were muggles, and therefore couldn't visit Hogsmeade. Which was to say, they were desperate for distracting company, and Fiona thought that there were few things more distracting than children.

Fiona rose from her position on the sofa as the boy arrived in the fireplace, crossing the room to relieve him of the tray he was carrying. "That's all right, we're pleased you could come." She did the necessary introductions to her mother, who had been sitting beside her, before setting the tray down. "I hope it was at least a pleasant visit."

  

[Georg Striebel]

Gogo was quite relieved to have the tray removed from its rather precarious place in his arms. Speckkuchen an apple wine were nice to eat together, but they were really terribly difficult to carry together. Doctor little introduced him to her mum and he reciprocated with a cheerful greeting of "Hello, Doctor Little's mum. Pleased to meet you." and offered his hand for her to shake. It may have been a condolence visit, but that didn't mean that he had to act sad and just make them even sadder. He would do his best to keep the conversation no less upbeat than they wanted it to be. That was what Mutti said he ought to do.

That said, he couldn't be all that upbeat when the topic of conversation was Frau Müller. It was all that he could do not to roll his eyes at the mention of her visit. "Not really." he shrugged, making a bit of a face "She's an awful bore. All she talks about is her son and his job making sure that other people make sure that other people make textiles properly. Well, that and her cats. But Mutti likes having her around and she did help make the speckkuchen. Mutti thought she should send some fresh food for the visit in case you're still too sad to cook." His eyes focused on Doctor Little's mum as he said that since, according to the letters that had passed between them in the past couple of days, it was she had been more upset about the death stuck at home without doctoring to distract her. Besides, she was probably the one who usually did the cooking seeing ad she was the mum. 

He didn't dwell on the topic of cooking or not cooking for long, though as it was rather counterproductive for the purpose of cheering up under these circumstances. Instead, he held the bottle of wine, which was still clutched in his hand, out  in the space between the two women and offered "The wine is from Hessen, in Germany. That's where we used to live and my aunts and uncles and cousins brought loads of it when they came to visit last month. I'm not even sure how they fit Anything else into their luggage." He headed over to the table and set the bottle down next to Doctor Little making sure to add "I'm allowed to have some too" the fact that he was meant to stop at no more than half a glass was less noteworthy as information went.

@ Fiona Little
@ Henry Berkwood

  

[Fiona Little]

Fiona coughed over what might have been a laugh. She didn't know Frau Müller, obviously, to judge, but there was always something about when people were especially... forthright that amused the witch. Though it usually involved things that she would never say in the same situation, even if she thought it. "Well," Fi said, "we're certainly grateful for the food in any case. Aren't we, Mother?" Mrs. Little was nodding and taking the bottle from the boy. Fiona thought it might be a bit early for wine, but a little never hurt, and it seemed silly to serve tea when their guest had just come having it.

"How long ago did you live in Germany?" Mrs. Little asked while Fiona conjured appropriate glassware.

  

[Georg Striebel]

Glancing over at the newly conjured glasses with a grin, Gogo offered a ready reply "A long time ago. I was only four when I left. My Vati wanted us to go because he thinks the Kaiser is a buffoon and we were better off before the unification." Despite all the years gone by since they had actually lived in Germany, rants about the Kaiser were still common enough in the Striebel household that Gogo was able to recite this with just as cheerful a smile on his face as ever. He'd never felt any particular loyalty to the German government anyhow. He knew that he was German but he felt more British than anything. He couldn't remember ever living anywhere else, really, and he probably wouldn't feel comfortable going back to live there like Sophia Luise did even if he did know the language. "Personally, I couldn't say if I agree or not." He clarified, hoping that this topic cheered Mrs. and Doctor Little as much as it always did his father. "I don't actually know that much about him aside from what Vati says about him and he disapproves of a lot of people: the Kaiser, people who collect taxes, people who take the census, the French, men who wear bright colors, men who keep songbirds as pets, pensioners, bohemians, anyone who drinks Kölsch, that's because he did part of his photography training in Düsseldorf, and especially doctors, no offense Doctor Little."He figured the last one was reciprocal considering the sort of looks that the doctors and nurses used to give Vati once they found out that what had happened to Gogo was because of him.

@ Fiona Little
@Henry Berkwood

  

[Fiona Little]

Fiona blinked. Well, that had certainly been more answer than they'd been expecting. Her mother made a noise like clearing her throat. Fiona interjected, "Well, in any case it's good to have you all here now."

Pouring the wine into the glasses, Fi handed one to Mr. Striebel and one to her mother before taking her own. "You must be starting Hogwarts soon," she said. "Are you looking forward to it?"

  

[Georg Striebel]

"Thank you!" Gogo piped back politely at Doctor Little as she handed him a glass of the apple wine. A mischievous smile on his face which clearly hinted that he'd just gotten away with something he really oughtn't do, he wasted no time in gulping down a rather large portion of the wine all at once just in case they caught on an took it away from him. Not being used to so much of it at one time, he winced at the sheer strength of it, but he still managed to nod his head in acknowledgement that he was indeed starting Hogwarts soon.

"Yes, I'm looking forward to it." he croaked, then cleared his throat before continuing in a much clearer voice. "I haven't met anyone who'll be in my year yet, though."

  

[Fiona Little]

Fiona raised her eyebrows but didn't say anything. One glass would hardly hurt the boy. And she'd hardly given him as much as she'd given herself or her mother.

"Well," she said, "I'm sure you will soon enough. I'm sure I met most people when I arrived." Then again, she'd also been so painfully shy it was a wonder she met anyone even then.

  

[Georg Striebel]

Gogo shrugged and took another sip from his glass, which was almost empty by now. It wasn't so bad, really, when he drank it slowly, but he had no idea how cousin Alfons could chug a whole bottle at once. As for meeting future yearmates soon, he supposed she was right. Even if he didn't meet a single one until sorting, that was only a few months off, and between now and then he still had wand shopping, robe shopping and book shopping to do. He could always meet some of them there.

"What houses were you both in? he asked as a matter of conversation. He was really more interested in which hose Doctor Little was in, but he didn't want her mother to feel left out.

  

[Fiona Little]

"Hufflepuff," Fiona answered for both of them. She'd always thought it was rather nice to have family members who shared the same house affiliation, even if it wasn't strictly necessary to anything. "Though the Sorting Hat did think to put me in Ravenclaw, I think." Fi was grateful it hadn't--it seemed like far too much pressure for her liking.

  

[Georg Striebel]

"My brother was too!" Gogo exclaimed, beaming until he realized that probably wasn't quite the thing to do on a consolation visit. Eve if he was trying to cheer them up, he didn't want to make them think that he didn't care about their father and husband having died. "He says I'll probably be a Gryffindor, though since I like to explore so much." he explained, dialing back the enthusiasm a bit, but not so much that he seemed against the idea of being a Gryffindor. Really, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff both sounded good. So did Ravenclaw and sort of Slytherin, though Poldi said that some of the people there didn't like muggleborns, so he wasn't really sure that one would be for him. H ethought he would be okay regardless, though. He never had trouble making friends anywhere. If he was placed in Slytherin, it might just take him a little more time.

  

[Fiona Little]

"Gryffindor's a fine house," Fiona said, diplomatically. She'd been quite happy to not find herself there, but that was mostly just her temperament. She was fairly sure she wouldn't have been able to handle anything besides Hufflepuff. Everything else seemed like it came with some sort of added pressure, most of which she'd imagined. "Though I'm sure you'll do fine wherever you end up. The thing that really matters is your school work, anyway." By this point, Fi had mostly finished her wine, so she set it aside.