Second Christmas? ( Keela / Vincent ) 11

[Shava]

She nodded, smiling at is tone. When he put it like that, it did sound a little silly. “Actually, I was more wondering if there was anything I should be prepared for…” Her tone turned playful. “You know, trap doors, rotating book cases”, she shrugged, “that sort of thing.” She blushed, swatting at him, mostly because something similar had occurred to her. “I know you did, but I think the dungeons can wait”, she assured him. She shook her head ruefully, he had a point. “I was just…curious,” she insisted, “that’s all.” The only other older house she’d been in had been her great grandmother’s, and Vin’s beat that out by several centuries. It was a bit off-balancing actually, to think about how many lives had been lived out in these walls. It made her wonder what sort of legacy she was marrying into. Remembering that he and all of his siblings with Slytherins, she had some vague suspicions about what his family might have been like back in the dark ages, but she’d need access to records to know more.

Knowing from Vin’s description of his mother’s situation that she would be excited, she was still only somewhat prepared for what came next. Her first thought had been that his mum couldn’t do too much with Zahara in her arms. Then, as if reading her mind, Vin had taken his youngest sister from Lindsey. So much for that. Of all the things she might have expected, being picked up and spun around had not been on the list. She gave a startled laugh, once Lindsey sat her back on her feet. She found herself somewhat caught off guard, first by the sniffing and then by the subsequent grin. What did she mean good for…? And then it hit her, she must still smell like Vin from their earlier activities. She flushed dark red up to the roots of her hair, and made a semi-embarrassed noise, still smiling. “Err..” She shot her fiancé a look that begged him to come to her rescue.

Like a tornado, Lindsey suddenly changed course. Confused, Keela merely shot Vin a questioning look before following his mother. Momentarily awed by the room itself, it took a moment before the request registered. Looking like a student who’d been caught not paying attention, she blushed. “Thank you, its…I like it a lot.” Her comment to Vin, combined with his response, made her laugh. It reminded her oddly of being home with her family. She couldn’t resist shooting him a cheeky grin as well. The mention of the curse brought her up short, and she appeared to concentrate hard to dredge up the memory. “I…I don’t know much. We only talked about it once or twice back when we were first…getting to know each other.” The polite way of saying when she’d been running from her feelings for him for all she was worth. She didn’t think it smart to tell his mother that. Trying to be diplomatic, she searched for words. “Your father was…a bit…well to be honest he sounds evil.” She blushed, “and he put you under some sort of curse so you’d have to marry who he wanted, but Professor Silver helped you change it somehow.” She’d probably have to find something else to call him now. She shrugged, “I know Vin having kids is important because the line has to continue or something bad happens to you.” He really hadn’t told her much more than that, and she hadn’t pried.

[Shava]

Ah, now he knew what she was asking. "I've not run into anything like that, actually, though I've read about those elsewhere in the Library at school. I guess it would be bragging to say my ancestors were more clever then that, but really it's just because they had so much time I guess." Bragging, possibly, but more like the way they hid things here was very different. Then again, they had ghosts. "You've seen the rooms, Mova, but the house can do that with items, spaces inside rooms, things laid out on tables even. I only found the ring," he said touching it which was hardly necessary, "because I had read about it and went looking for it."

He had looked at the table several times before and it had never been there. "Except for inside my wardrobe, there is every chance in every single corner of every room to find a greek fire launcher, suits or armor, or a still magically boiling kettle of potion, all just shifted out of our perception by the house. Abraham I think used to be a spy or secret keeper in the past. I suspect if I told him to make something disappear not to be found for one hundred years, it wouldn't be possible to find it again. So no, no danger I'm sure not to anyone whose family especially, but it's a much trickier treasure hunt then the normal." As they stepped into his bedroom though he took care of the extra part holding up her hand with the ring on it and said "Abraham."

The ghost appeared, fading out of thin air as if standing there all that time. "Keela is both wearing my Silver family ring and her engagement ring. She will be my wife and we will eventually be living here. You will consider her family and my equal. Understood?" The ghost smiled and bowed, 'Of course, Master Vincent, congratulations Ms Summerby and welcome.' and after bowing to her as well, faded back out. "There. No more worries, right?" Hopefully it also said to her as much as the ring that he was quite serious about what he said, though he would speak to the ghost later about the areas he suspected might be nasty. "Handy having a pirate for a husband I would think..." he said with a grin.

When his mother changed plans without warning, Vincent shrugged when Keela shot him a look, not knowing what was coming. When his mother warned him, he knew she meant business and was not surprised when she brought up the curse. He had had a feeling she would want to tell just for the guarantee of children. "Close. Vin's a good boy," as sh glanced back catching Vincent (unseen) feeding Zahara on his knee, "but you gotta keep him in line." she said softer as she turned back with a satisfied smile. That last part was clearly just for Keela. "My father was an ass and a nasty bastard even for the Moons, damn him. He never set foot in here after he left and let his family die out."

Hatred was clear in her face even though she wasn't looking at Keela directly but staring down at the couch. "I had the headstone removed and bought the land beside him and then paid the cemetery to move their fence. I even pissed on him," she said rather proudly with a nod. She'd done worse then that but no point shocking the young thing right? "Planted briars on him and let it all grow wild." Vengeance, in her book, was clearly something to be continued past death and she had. "Only four people know the whole thing and now there will be five, but it can't be helped. Alice, Osiris, Myself, Vin, and now you. It's about as close to a family secret as there can be, but" she said meeting Keela's eyes directly her eyes intent and serious "it's going to remain a Moon family secret, you understand?"

There wasn't so much threat as promise in her eyes and it was intentional that Keela get that idea. She waited for confirmation of secrecy before she continued.

[Shava]

She listened, feeling relieved, both by the fact that she'd averted admitting she actually had been worried about gender limitations and the fact that she wouldn't misstep and find herself in some sort of magic proof panic room. The thought amused her. Did they actually make those? she wondered. "Its all right to brag sometimes", she assured him. "It is pretty cool, everything your family has done with this place." At least, it was so far as she'd seen. She smiled, "sounds like that would be handy for hiding Christmas presents from kids", she mentioned off-handedly. She, Cern, Luch, and Briana had each taken their respective turns turning the house upside down around the holidays, but there were so many places to hide things, and disillusionment charms made snooping difficult besides. "You...went looking for it?" She had assumed it was stashed away in a Gringotts safe or some family lock box somewhere. She glanced down at her left hand and smiled again. "That sounds...very much like something a pirate would do", she teased lightly, looking at him for all the world as though he'd hung the moon for a moment.

She considered that thoughtfully. "Now there's a scary thought", she admitted. She looked startled then, "wait, does that mean there could be...literally anything stashed, say, in our bedroom?" Once they decided on one of course. She assumed they'd probably sleep in the room he'd grown up in, and she was fine with that. It really was a beautiful space, even if it didn't suit him in the slightest. Maybe once they were married she could talk to his parents about redecorating it to suit them both. She thought about the contrast between his space and hers. In a moment of clarity she realized that the trick would be finding one style to suit the both of them. He held up her hand, and she glanced at him confused. Abraham's appearance startled her a bit, and she stepped back, wondering if she'd ever become accustomed to that. His equal...no doubt he'd added that part for her benefit. She smiled at him out of the corner of her eye. A bit surprised when Abraham addressed her, she smiled warmly at him. "Thank you Abraham", she hesitated. "Abraham, do you think you could just call me Keela?" Mrs. Silver-Moon was more of a mouthful than anyone had a right to expect, though it did thrill her to think about.

When Abraham had left, she nodded, laughing softly. "No more", she agreed. Oh, but she did love that grin. Stretching up to press her lips to the corner of his mouth, she met his eyes. "Handy having you for a husband, Caro Mio, only you."
He'd put her in a vaguely sentimental mood, it was only to be expected given the circumstances after all. She couldn't help feeling a bit shy a few minutes later. She'd heard so much about his mother that sitting face to face with her without the distraction offered by half a dozen children was a bit intimidating. Her comment about her son had Keela's eyes shifting to him reflexively. She loved watching him with Zahara, it got her thinking about what he'd be like with their kids one day. "He is", the words came out dreamier than she'd intended, and she blushed. She mentioned keeping him in line and Keela couldn't help it, she laughed. "Easier said than done", she confessed with a grin. Truthfully, everything about him appealed to her now, even the crazier parts. It was love, she supposed, that had finally blinded her to everything about him she'd once lost sleep worrying over.

Keela's eyes widened. "He left?" Like her grandfather had done to her father and her aunts, the sympathy came, swift and natural as breathing. "Why?" Maybe it wasn't her place to ask, but she'd asked the same thing of her grandmother as a young girl and had recieved no answer. She wasn't sure she'd ever even mentioned it to Vin. It wasn't something that came up often. It just was, like the changing of the seasons or the setting of the seasons. "My grandfather left too", she confessed softly. "I never knew why, after a while I just...stopped asking. You know?" It didn't compare to Lindsey's problems, but Keela wanted her to know that she understood that part at the very least, knew what it was like to feel abandoned for no good reason. She didn't know if he was alive or dead, had never known, and it still hurt if she dwelt too heavily on it. Keela laughed incredulously in spite of herself. "You-- really?" Keela was looking at Lindsey as though she was some sort of new and exotic creature never seen before.

The seriousness of what his mum was telling her was not lost on Keela. Four people in the world knew what she was about to be told. Well, she'd wanted acceptance, at least now she knew she had it. Expression serious, she nodded. "You have my word, mum, I won't tell anyone. I promise." It was the first time she'd said the word, and it still had the feel of something foreign, but she wanted Lindsey to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that she understood the importance of family, and that she now considered Vin's her own.

[Shava]

As she spoke about hiding things he felt rather proud actually of what they had accomplished as a family; they might have been pirates, but they certainly knew how to do things right! "I guess they were really clever pirates then, but I suspect anything looks clever after you have a few hundred years to plan and plot out stuff." He hadn't expected her reaction to the fact he had to find the ring, not seeing it as that impressive himself. "It was written up in an old letter and I wondered what had happened to it." he shrugged, but noticed the look she gave him and felt himself feel even better about his choice for her.

And then she grasped the idea. "Well it would only age if it wasn't magically protected so there are probably a variety of items like dead plants around too, but yes everything. Which is why I mentioned the wardrobe as the only clear place. For all I know there may even be a few old canon tucked around in the nursery." He smiled amused at the thought. "Until I turned sixteen I could not access those things either. I guess in older days they must have set that as the age of trustworthiness." A bit later when he spoke to Abraham she had a request as well and he hid a smile as the older ghost said "Certainly, Miss Keela" before he faded out.

"I'm not sure he can be entirely informal, our Abraham, he is stuck in a much earlier century after all." Amused, he approached the kitchen with a lighter heart, especially after the kiss. Zahara, with her lively eyes, was certainly the most entertaining of the kids Vin had helped with. Ash had been the naughtiest by far, but she had also only wanted to be held by mom for so long or him, confusing the red hair probably as safe. Darius was the only quiet one they had had so far that he knew of. Char and he had been too close together to be anything but twins in their own minds. Lindsey threw up her hands. "Who knows? Who cares? Far as I am concerned it's best everyone forget him except for a name on the line. Merlin knows I've tried to eliminate everything I could about him."

Giving her new daughter in law a wicked grin she winked. "Damn straight I did, right on his face I hope." At Keela's promise, as well as the word 'Mum' she put a hand on her leg and patted her as if a particularly smart pet. "Good girl. All right then, here's what you need to know then." She grimaced, hating having to tell it again, but knowing it was the best chance of assuring grand-kids fast. "The old bastard didn't like having girls, probably thought we would be trouble." She grinned only slightly, the truth behind her eyes plain enough. "So when I turned four he tricked me into taking a unbreakable oath to always serve my legal male master. Which in that case was him." Her gaze went off beyond Keela then and you could tell she was seeing other days. "I warned Alice, she refused to do it, I was a year and a half older than her, but we already took care of each other."

"He gave me other orders of course, mad I had warned her so he took it out on me. Can't kill myself, will never cry out, I would let him practice any spell or potion on me he wanted to, I'd be his slave, yada yada whatever-the-f*ck..." Her face grew sterner as the talk went on, anger clearly not died even forty plus years later. She shrugged, frustrated. "He'd drag me along any trip he went on, he was a bounty hunter for magical folks. Make me guard those he captured while he slept, beat me when he wanted, Hex me when he wanted. Until the Ministry required me to go to school, I saw the inside of a lot of hotel rooms, Alice was the one who kept me sane, she was free." She swallowed and past her you could see Vincent was still feeding Zahara, but his face was tense; you could tell he was listening even though he knew the story.

"Couldn't tell anyone without word getting out and then what good would it do? Any adult male would have taken advantage of it and he threatened me with that as well, using stories about the loathsome ugly-ass bastards with money who would pay for a slave for their beds. Their own personal toy. Osiris was the first I told after my father was dead from some magic infection in Brazil. Last command he had for me is I would carry on the family name. Osiris saved me, loved me, and that's why you can never tell a soul this story. Until I die I am still under that vow and can not save myself. Vincent is the only one of my children to know because he is at heart a Moon, even if his last name is different. I don't know that a "Silver-Moon" is acceptable to the vow, can't know. Can't risk it. He told you about the names for kids right?" From across the room came very softly and respectfully "Yes, yes I told her. I just didn't explain because that's yours to tell."

She smiled fondly at him, clearly attached to her eldest boy, her hope.

"My pirate boy! Such a cutie, especially when he was young. Don't talk to Osiris about the name thing. He has a hang up on last names, family thing. That's my responsibility. When the time comes, we'll still call him a Silver-Moon, but Vin thinks registering the oldest boy legally as a Moon and then getting a fake birth certificate to bring home will be good enough." She was, after all at heart, a woman who had been through something truly horrible which was potentially still waiting; she had her own fears and this was hedging her bet. The vow had been held off because of her idea, the plan she had for getting by, what would work, and the fact she kept having children every few years.

[Shava]

She smiled playfully. "I imagine you'd have to be clever as a pirate period, all that plundering and such." It was stereotypical of her, but she found herself unable to resist making such a comment. "Does it ever feel weird living where so many others have lived?" she asked him after a moment. She knew that being in her great grandmother's house had always made her wonder what it might have been like to live there during generations past when the house had been home to some of the most prominent socialites the pureblood uppercrust had to offer. Her Gran had mellowed out considerably by the time Keela had come along, softened by age and the reconciliation with Keela's grandum. He didn't seem to understand her tone, and she laughed softly to herself. "Letters? Could I maybe read them?" It intrigued her to think of the story of the woman who had owned the ring she now wore. If it was written somewhere, Keela wanted to see it.

She glanced around the room, seeing it with new eyes. I a tone that was only half-joking, she announced. "Maybe I'll sleep in the wardrobe tonight." It unnerved her somewhat to think of things being near which she couldn't see, something to get used to, she supposed. His next statement surprised her even more. "C-canons...in the...really?" She made a note of that, they really would need to go treasure hunting before...she smiled wistfully...before they started a family. She felt imusement at the irony of his next statement. Sixteen was normally the age when children began to spread their wings and explore, and so were prone to making mistakes. Bolstered by her partial victory with Abraham, she turned to Vin and shrugged. "Its a start." Thinking about the time he must have come from, she wondered how he felt about how much things had changed over the centuries. "Do you know anything about him? Like, have you ever really talked to him?" Maybe it would seem odd to him, her taking an interest, but she couldn't fathom what it must have been like to watch over a house for centuries, watching those who came and went. She found herself thinking it must have been terribly sad.

As they reentred the kitchen, Keela felt the mood shift. She felt far more at ease when it was just the two of them, cannons and such excluded of course. The conversation with his mother left Keela in awe. She nodded, whatever else Lindsey had done to the man, he was unfortunately still her father, and one couldn't change their lineage. Becoming accustomed to the way Lindsey spoke, she still scrunched up her face in a disgusted expression when the older woman spoke next. "Four?" Keela had been trying to listen impassively. At that piece of information, she failed miserably. Unbreakable vows were heavy stuff in the most serious of circumstances. She thanked whomever might have been listening for her parents, who despite their traditional ways had always loved Keela far too much to want less than the best for her. She ocassionally took that for granted these days, but not at that moment. While glad that Vin's aunt had escaped the same fate, she was no less sorry for his mother, whose manner now made wonderful, terrible sense. If she had lived under the thumb of an abusive psychopath for most of her young life, she'd probably spend the rest of it doing whatever she wanted.

Hesitating to interrupt, but wanting to offer something. She shot a quick meaningful look at Vin before tuning her eyes back to his mother. "I-I'm glad you found a way out." She offered sincerely. If she hadn't, Vin might never have been born and that meant that he and Keela would never have...It didn't even bear thinking about. Strange how quickly someone could work their way into the center of your heart and life. The idea of living without him was...abhorrant. Lindsey's question about names caught her attention. "Yes, we've talked about it." She had been aware it was important then, but understanding the full consequence was daunting. "I just assumed it was because he was the last of the Moons." Now she knew better, and though she was still nervous about starting a family young, she was begining to think it might be worth it if it offered he and his mum some peace of mind.

She also understood Osiris' feelings. Men, especially pureblood men were very keen on the importance of passing on their heritage. She'd heard the joke about 'an heir and a spare' from a young age, and while her family wasn't exactly hung up on pureblood propriety or ideals, the notion still held true. She wasn't sure how she felt about having to lie to his father, but she nodded. If it mattered that much that the name be kept secret, she'd go with the flow. Let Vin worry about handling his father, if worse came to worse she could just keep out of it. "I understand" she said after several, thoughtful moments. And, she did, at least, much better than she had before. "I told Vin it might be good to go for two of each, two Silvers, two Moons, and two Silver-Moons, just so we covered all the bases." With a sly glance in Vin's direction, she smirked. "I'll bet he was, are there pictures somewhere I could see?"

[Shava]

He gave it thought for a moment, then shook his head no. "Not really. I mean, they were all family. They were kids, they played in the halls, they ate food, they lived lives. Now it's me. IN four hundred more years it will be others. The house has it's own...well, spirit in the fact it feels alive like a mother hen protecting it's brood. How can it feel weird to be safe and protected, you know?" When she latched onto the story of the letters he smiled and slipped his hand in hers. "I'll find them for you. Sometimes they get so wordy though it's hard to read."

Shrugging he chuckled at her eyes. "It was a joke, Mova, I have no idea what all is here, but it would make sense a good chunk of the early stuff is from pirate treasure and ships." His face turned thoughtful and he watched her a moment before he answered. "Abraham plays things close to his chest. I think he's seen more secrets in his time then there are seconds in a day. He's become as much the house as anything he was in real life. It's hard to get him to talk much, but he hears everything here I bet."

Spending much of her time watching Keela's reaction from direct view to side glances, Lindsey liked what she saw, though the girl had an air of innocence waiting to be taught. A glance over at her tiger baby (MERLIN she LOVED that hair!) and she saw her oldest boy had her both well entertained and was getting food in her pretty good. They were going to make some good kids and she was willing to bet some awesome moons, and not the full ones the boys had flashed a passing boat of tourists with last summer. "You were supposed to. And trust me when I say I'd rather most people continued to think that if I get to see their faces! Right now we're pretty stable. Well," as a pair of ghosts running fox-hounds ran through the far end of the house after some unseeable target, "for us at least."

When she spoke about kids, Lindsey stood and shook her head. "Moons and Silver-Moons, the Silvers are already going to be a big enough mess. I have to show you the basic family line, it's a huge family already!" Going to Vincent she knelt and wiped her little face and said "Come here, Keela, hold her a moment for me? Vin, get up." Transferring the baby into Keela's arms, she walked to the far corner of the room and pointed to the wall showing him something Keela could not see. Vincent gave his mother a look and said something back, but it was not a concerned sound, but a wondering one. Then she gave him a noogie which he scrambled out of laughing and then a hug which he didn't resist at all, holding her carefully.

Then Lindsey left the room and Vin came walking back to Keepa, a box in his hands with a bow.