Who: Ally, her mother Denise, and Patrick
What: Talk of babies and weddings
When: Earlier today
Status: IDK. Possibility of tags?
Ally hated the first few months of pregnancy, right when you were first starting to show, because you never looked pregnant then, you just looked fat and pudgy. She poked stomach as she got ready to floo to her parents. She was trying to remember the last time that she was there, probably some time over the holidays. She really didn't visit as much as she probably should.
Ally never really had a problem with her parents, except for that short while where they were being ridiculous over her engagement to Sam, but that didn't last long and ended well. She never lacked anything she needed and generally got what she wanted, who wouldn't love parents like that. But every once and a while they went off and did something that made no sense what so ever. Like this whole thing with Giada's wedding. Hadn't they realized back when she married Sam that bloodlines didn't matter as much as they thought they did? Graeme was really sweet and treated Giada really well. Wasn't that what
really mattered? So that was today's mission, convince them that they should at least come to the wedding, that and tell her mother that she should be expecting two more grandchildren.
She wasn't nervious, in fact Ally found the prospect of telling her mother she was pregnant again slightly less nauseating than telling Sam. "Mother?" she called out brushing the soot off her robes. "Guess who's come to visit."
Denise Vance was all a twitter. Her Patrick was home! Not her husband, he was always home, but her
boy! It had been far too long since she'd seen his handsome face, and tonight he was coming over for dinner and he could tell her all about Italy and all the lovely ladies he'd met. Of
course she would be asking him about the women, he
was getting older, and the older a boy gets, the harder it is to snatch a lovely, lovely bride.
Sigh, at least
one of her children had provided her with a grandchild.
The thought made her jump, as Allison's voice called through the house. Oh! Motherly instinct! Denise hurried up from her seat in the library to greet her daughter, "Allison! Dear, how are you? Where is Roger? Where's my little boy, he must be six feet tall by now!"
Ally smiled and greeted her mother with a hug. "Doing well, mum. Roger, that boy just won't stop growing. I'll bring him over soon. He hasn't been spoiled nearly enough by his grandmother. And soon he'll have to share the attention." she hinted, her grin growing. She was going to share the good news first, before moving on to other things.
Ally waited for her hint to dawn on her mother. "I don't know how he'll feel about that but I'm sure that he will make an excellent big brother."
Denise's mouth grew wide, and she took her daughter by the shoulders, "Oh
Allison! I can't believe it! When did you find out? Do you know the sex?
Oh!" She threw her hands up, nearly praising the Lord that
one of her children knew how to please their mother. Honestly!
She smiled so brightly that her cheeks began to hurt, and she ushered Allison to a nearby couch, "Sit, sit, you must not stand for long---I do hope you plan on staying home this time! Samuel's working at a better job now, you shouldn't have to spend your time in a robe shop!"
Her hands folded upon her lap as she took a seat next to her a daughter. More grandchildren! "Well! What do you know?"
Ally let her mother drag over to the couch. "I found out about a month ago. I'm two months along." she said right before her mother went on about her working. She usually brought that up. "Oh I haven't even thought about that." she said with a slight frown. She definitely wouldn't get away with working as long as she did when she was pregnant with Roger. And twins were going to be such a handful. They would be going from one to three all at once and Ally hadn't even considered whether or not she would be able to work. She liked her job and really didn't want to give it up. She would have to talk with Sam about that when she got home. "I doubt they'll let me work far into my pregnancy anyways. I'll probably be on bed rest before its all said and done with. That generally happens when you're going to have twins."
She glanced over at her mother, she wasn't even sure it was possible to smile any more than she already was. Her mother made her feel so much more at ease about being pregnant again. Sure, Sam seemed happy about it when she told him, but she couldn't be sure he was
really happy and not just acting that way because she was already pregnant which was different than just discussing what if she were to get pregnant again. Which had to completely different reactions from him. "A boy and a girl. It's very exciting."
"Twins!" Denise nearly shrieked, her hands going up once again. Oh, she'd knocked over so many lamps with her wild gesticulations. Twins! Oh, she'd know that Samuel would be good for
something, and here it was!
Twins. Except Denise was quite sure that twins were determined by the
mother, but who was she to complain? Her daughter was having twins!
She put her hand to her forehead, completely overwhelmed by the news. Oh, she would have to owl all of her friends and family; Denise wondered briefly if Allison and Sam had scheduled an announcement to be made in the Prophet. "How incredibly lucky! I'm going to have so much fun shopping for a little girl though, you know. I simply can't follow all those sports that Samuel insists Roger be obsessed with!"
Densire let out a loud sigh; oh, she'd get to buy
pink again.
"I've given up trying to follow those sports ages ago. I barely get quidditch." Ally said with a laugh. She paused for a moment, thinking about what she was going to say next. She would have to do this carefully, she just put her mother in a fantastic mood and she didn't want to ruin it instantly. "It's going to be great having a little girl. And she'll have two brothers to scare off the boy who'll be chasing after her. Giada is beyond excited to have niece, along with another nephew. Although when I first told her, I'm pretty sure all she was really worried about is whether or not I'd fit in my bridesmaid dress." There, she brought it up. It wasn't that hard.
Ally's smile faltered as she went on, might as well get on with it. "Mum, Gia says that you said you weren't going to come to her wedding, is that true?" She didn't want to think that Giada was making that up, in fact Ally was almost positive that she wasn't at all, but it was so hard for her to believe that their mother just
wouldn't go to the wedding.
Denise bristled, sitting up straight; why was Allison even mentioning that horrid event?
"Of course I'm not going, how could I support such a waste?"
Honestly, Giada had caught the eye of
many more than acceptable suitors, she would have created so many connections for their family that they would never have to worry about arranged marriages again! Well, well they would have to be
suitable marriages, but with the relations Giada could have made...she had been dating Caradoc
Dearborn for so long, and though the boy had ended up with an ill fated demise, at least she would have been able to carry on his name with their heirs!
It was so devastating, how Giada could just walk away from her duties and treat her families feelings with such little respect. Patrick was the heir, and
he was doing his rightful duty and keeping the family name respectable (unlike their cousin, Emmeline, who was an absolute mess; her mother had always been a nut---). Allison needn't not worry about marriage arrangements, that was why Giada had been
born (or at least, the mistake had been explained that way).
She sighed, then clapped her hands, "Do you have any cravings? I can ask the house-elf to brew you up anything you want!"
Ally just stared at her mother. Had she really just said that it was a
waste? "A waste? They love each other, how is that a waste? No, mother, I'm not hungry right now. Mum won't you reconsider? Giada is completely devastated that you and dad won't be there and I'm sure once you meet Graeme you'll see how perfect they are for each other." Ally never did well when it came to standing up to her parents, she always felt like she was being ungrateful or something for yelling at them. But she wasn't yelling she was just trying to
understand. None of this made any sense.
Ally just couldn't admit to herself that this was all because Graeme was a muggleborn. Sam was a muggleborn and they came to her wedding. Dad had walked her down the aisle. What made Giada so different?
"What's there to reconsider!" Denise let out, not pleased that she had to discuss this again. It had been annoying enough to deal with Giada about it, but now Allison was questioning her? Hadn't she done
one thing right while raising her children? "She knew her place in the family and completely disregarded her duties! She has absolutely no respect for your father or myself, I don't believe for a second that she actually cares about us."
Denise frowned deeply, nodding in a final statement kind of way. It was true, and Giada had lost her place in the family because of it. Pureblooded girls did exactly what their parents wanted them to, and those who didn't? They deserved what they got. Her anger on the issue was strong, but it only lasted a second as the front door opened and she heard the sound of her son. She rushed to her feet and hurried to the door, "Patrick! Patrick, how are you my dear!"
Ally couldn't believe what she was hearing. How could her mother talk about Giada like that. Like her only purpose was to make the family look good or something. Merlin, that is
exactly what her mother thought. How did she miss it all this time? Was that the real reason she was allowed to marry Sam? Because they had Giada to marry off to some pureblood to keep up appearances?
"Is that-- is that why you changed your mind about Sam? Because Giada was around to uphold these so called family duties?" There were tears forming in her eyes and the hurt was clear in her voice. Their opinion of Sam never changed, they just realized it didn't matter because they had a 'back-up'. "Giada is as much your daughter as I am, and she deservse the same treatment you give me! This double standard you have---" Ally was cut short as she watched her mother rush off to the door and heard her greet Patrick as if nothing of consequence was going on. Had she always been this way?
She made her way out to the foyer, arms folded accross her chest and a scowl set on her face as she watched her mother dote on Patrick. Her gaze fell on him, and just how much did he know about this? Probably everything. Patrick always seemed to know what was going on. And just because he was here did not mean that this conversation was over.
Patrick had seen Ally over his mother's shoulders as she grabbed him for a hug. Uh oh. Now, he knew that his mother would be elated that she was pregnant, because the only problem she found with
him was that he hadn't beared her any grandchildren yet, so there had to be a bigger reason for the frown. He had rarely, if
ever had seen Ally mad at his mother, so...
Right. The wedding was tomorrow. He
had caught something along the lines of a double standard.
"Sunburn on the shoulders!" he let out, his usual excuse to get out of one of his mother's vice like hugs.
"How many times have I told you to take your potion before you go out into the sun?" his mother scolded, and Patrick sighed. He walked over to Ally to greet her as well, but their hug was barely over before their mother began again, "Patrick! Tell your sister that she has no reason to criticize me for my lack of interest in the other one's so-called marriage!"
Great timing, Patrick!
He turned around, glad for his sunglasses because his eyes were wide with uncertainty. Now...it was easy to just talk and please his mother when they were alone, because Patrick went out and did his own thing and she was none the wiser. But now she was actually asking him to voice his opinion, in front of Ally, who already knew that he supported Giada and her decisions. He had to piss someone off right now, and he wasn't sure which one he'd rather deal with.
Brilliant.
"Well---" He shrugged, wincing under the glare he saw forming on his mother's face, "Giada's happy, you know? Why can't we be happy for her?" See, that answer was simple enough, wasn't it---
His mother let out a loud, frustrated sound and stormed away, her voice echoing through the halls in a very angry tone. Patrick's mouth dropped open and he looked toward his little sister. "Er." He definitely wasn't getting dinner tonight.
The other one?! Did her mother seriously refer to Giada as
the other one? Ally pursed her lips because she was not going to go after her mother and yell at her more, because if that were to happen Ally was pretty sure she was going to straight out tell her mother that she was disowning
them and that she could just forget about seeing Roger or her future grandchildren ever again. It was very very tempting. So instead she turned to her brother, who definitely didn't deserve her taking her anger out on him, but he was standing right there.
"That's it? 'Why can't we be happy for her?' That's the best you could come up with? Come on, Patrick, I know you see how absurd all this is. She practially said... she said..." Her mother had said so many hurtful things, which one in particular was she trying to share? "None of this makes any sense! Apparently the only reason I got to marry Sam was because Giada was around. How awful is that? I got to be happy because mum and dad thought they had Giada to marry off. And now, and now" Ally felt like she couldn't breathe. Everything she thought she knew seemed to be falling apart. She couldn't even finish her thought because she had started crying so hard. Damn hormones weren't helping at all.
"I th-think I need to go. This isn't helping at all." She finally stuttered out between sobs, pushing past her brother.
