Who: Moses Dodderidge and Miranda Dodderidge
What: Moses has some news!
Where: Leaky
When: Last night :]
Dinner, as usual, had been really nice. Despite all the things that were on Moses Dodderidge's mind, he always loved time spent with the family. They were all busy now with their own lives and dinners like that were an insurance for them to spend time together. Hopefully this wouldn't be the last one. And hopefully, the next time around it wouldn't be just his brothers and sister. He'd spent the past few weeks going to jewelers, looking at rings and jewelry and--it was only a matter of time before the Ministry started cracking down on purebloods as well as everyone else. He wanted to make sure that--that things were going to turn out right for him, and for Harmony. He'd pocketed the small
gold ring's box before leaving for the Leaky that evening and now that Maddox and Jamie had left for the night (probably had other things going on), he had a chance to talk to Miranda about his plan, see what she thought. She
was a girl, after all, and could tell him whether or not he was being ridiculous.
She had thought she'd feel insanely guilty for having a dinner with her brothers, not telling them that it would be the last time the four of them would be together for a while. She thought she'd feel guilty, but apparently she was a better actress than she had originally thought, because it had been---it had been so
nice. Even with Jamie's doubts earlier in the day, they still all managed to laugh and smile and joke and be dumb, without Miranda giving any sort of indication that she was---well. Going to really hurt them tomorrow.
Tonight she'd feel the guilty, but right now she was happy to do some final cleanings of the Leaky, knowing that Moses was going to be joining her soon. She'd taken all of this time to just appreciate all she had, and--and it made things easier, she believed.
"Getting rid of dustbunnies is so much easier with a wand," she said to her brother as he appeared, swishing away clumps of dust under a booth.
"It is, isn't it?" he said, a bit amused at her comment. He never really gave the magic thing a thought--at least, not unless he was around Harmony. Moses pulled out his wand and with a quick flick helped her finish up the rest of the booths. "Now I understand why mum never let us just use our wands to do chores when we were home," he said with a wink. They all learned the value of hard work growing up...which was probably a good thing.
He pulled a chair out and sat down, fully expecting his sister to follow suit. "So, dinner was nice tonight," he murmured, carefully inspecting the table he was sitting at. There were faint marks from the fights that they had when they were little--burn marks from spontaneous combustion (don't ask). This place was full of so many memories, it was hard to think that they were all slowly pulling away from it. "I have...a question for you," he said slowly, nudging another chair at the table out for her with his foot. "And...I don't know exactly how to word it."
Miranda jerked up quickly and banged her head on the table. He had to ask her a question? What, were all her brothers mind-readers now? Jamie had completely freaked her out with pulling out of his ass the idea that she was disappearing, but it made her rather paranoid---had they heard something from the Ministry? Had someone sent an owl? Were they planning a sneak attack to tie her up and lock her away in a closet so she could never go?
Rubbing her head, Miranda got out from under the booth and came over to Moses and dropped down into the chair. Well. Now or never, right?
"What's up?" she asked, wincing at the bump that was already growing.
He winced at the sound of her head colliding with the booth, but smoothed his face over as she came and sat down. "Okay, so. You know what's been going on with all these--rules and--" He stopped, deciding that that wouldn't be the right topic to start discussing at the moment. "Anyways. Everything that's been going on, it's got me thinking. And--" he was afraid to lose Harmony? Would that be right to say?
He let out a soft sigh before rummaging in his pocket and pulling out the small black box. "I don't know if it's rash or not, but I bought...I bought a ring," he murmured, almost afraid to make eye contact with his sister for fear of her response. He slid the box over to her so she could examine it. "Do you think it's too soon to ask her--or...or if she'll like it?"
She didn't hear Moses' question. Miranda elicited such a shriek that she was sure she'd woken every patron of the Leaky. She immediately grabbed for the box and snapped it open, "Oh. My.
God!"
With her free hand she smacked Moses' shoulder furiously in excitement, eyes not leaving the ring. OHHHHHHH she was going to have a sister-in-law! There was going to be a wedding to plan! She was going to---
---she was going to miss it all.
Miranda's free hand went from Moses' shoulder to covering her face as her eyes welled with tears, a natural reaction to such lovely news.
"If she
doesn't love it," Miranda choked out, "She--she is the dumbest woman on the
planet!"
Moses laughed happily as she swatted at him. "I'm glad that
you like it," he said slowly, "I just hope she has the same reaction." He hummed a bit to himself, not even sure what to say. Miranda hadn't told him this was the worst idea ever, she hadn't told him he was crazy. She was---excited about it. Maybe he'd misjudged how she would respond a bit. He pulled her into a side hug. "I'm glad you think this is a good idea," he said before reaching over to give her a noogie. "Now all I have to do is figure out when to ask her."
"You shouuuuullllld, ermmmm----" Miranda was taking long, drawn out breaths to stop her tears. This was happy! This was a happy thing. Be happy for Moses, she could definitely be happy for Moses. Putting the ring down, Miranda wiped away her loose tears and let out a definitive, no more crying breath.
"Can you take people down to the vaults?" she asked, an idea springing up rather quickly. "You could make it like a treasure hunt, tell Harmony that you--you just want her to see what you have to do, at work."
Miranda squeaked, "Ohmygosh that would be so cute!"
See! See,
happy. Moses deserved to have her happy for him. And she
was!
"Hmmm...that could work," he said happily, now thinking it over. It would be...cute. Or, at least. She would like it. And he could take her down to an empty vault, put the ring in there and then...ooh, would the Goblins be alright with this idea? He wasn't sure about
that, but maybe they could figure things out...he liked this idea.
"This is the reason I keep you around, D." This was going to work, this was--oh Merlin, he was crazy. But it had to be a good crazy, right? This was going to be good.
Miranda smiled and looked down at the table, at the ring again. Oh, boy. Her brother was setting off into a huge new adventure and--and you know what? So was she. She had to stop feeling guilty about it, if she wanted it to succeed, and Miranda really thought that---they'd be okay. They'd have to understand, because they were her brothers, and that's what family did. At least, they had to forgive her one day.
"Yeah, well--you did pick it out all by yourself," she said lightly, looking back up at Moses. Extra emotion would be suspicious, and maybe
that hurt the most because she couldn't tell her brother how much she loved him and loved being able to talk to him about everything. Moses was her
real best friend, when you look at every definition of the word.
"I should get to bed though," she said with a sigh, reaching over and--okay, she had to hug him. Miranda hugged her brother tightly around the neck and then patted his head few times, "Congrats!" before she headed off to her room.
This was it.
