(no subject)
In the end, Millicent went home alone. Whether to irritate her parents, to spare Klaus for a few more weeks, or for some other reason, she didn't examine her motives too closely. The walk to Hogsmeade was too long and too short and before she knew it, she'd apparated to the gate outside her house. Two storeys, set back from the road, Millicent's mother had inherited it just before Millicent was born. The house spoke of money her family didn't have. Millicent's mother refused to work, her father was a middle-level bureaucrat--she took a long, deep breath and pushed through the gate.
She found her parents taking tea in the back garden. Unlike the perfectly manicured front, this had gone wild. Overgrown hedges crowded the gazebo and ivy crawled up its sides.
"So. Where's your mystery man?" Millicent's mother, Elisabeth, spoke first.
There was another chair at the table, but Millicent deliberately sat on the steps. "He's busy."
"Oh? Too busy to pay his respects to your family? But then I suppose you cannot ask much in the way of civility from muggles." She sipped her tea. "They're all really rather vulgar. I had higher hopes for you."
"Right." Millicent fought the urge to laugh. Higher hopes, indeed. "One did not tell him one was coming."
"Why not, Millicent?" Her father this time. "Why deny us the chance to meet him? Surely you're not ashamed."
"Of course she is, dear. Seven years at the best school in Britain and the best she's found is an old muggle. We would have done well, Stuart, to educate her at home. The discipline would have been beneficial, and at the very least she would have learned proper wizarding propriety."
Millicent snorted. "Because Victoria dating a mudblood is any better? Please."
"You will not speak in such a tone to your mother, young lady." Her father's voice was stern. "Apologise. Now."
"Fine. I'm sorry, Mama, for speaking out of turn and for being too smart for my own good. I humbly beg your forgiveness." It came out fluidly, practised.
"Your apology is accepted, Millicent. And as for Victoria, Aloysius is at least a wizard. From what I hear, his father is very high in the muggle government. It could prove to be very useful. What connexions does your muggle have? None, I imagine." Elisabeth paused. "If, of course, he even actually exists."
Millicent just stared at her mother. "Charming."
Stuart cleared his throat, fixed a cold eye on his daughter.
"Forgive me." She took a deep breath and continued. "But Klaus does exist. He's a wonderful man, muggle or not. We get along and he treats me very well." Millicent choked down the rest of the sentence--better than you ever did.
"Of course he does. Now get up off those stairs. You'll ruin your robes. Not that there's anything unusual in that."
Millicent sighed and stood up, instead leaning against the hand rail.
"Posture, Millicent. I know you believe you've already caught yourself a man, even if he is a muggle, but..." Elisabeth's eyes widened a fraction. "You haven't gone and got yourself in a delicate condition, have you? That must be it. You're pregnant."
"Elisabeth, dear, she wouldn't be as stupid as--"
She turned, eyes blazing, on her husband. "As what? As we were? Go ahead and say it, Stuart, you won't be happy until you do. I know you've resented me for years--running about with that harridan Magda Jones, calling her your secretary. Please! Do you really think I'm that dumb?"
"Right, because you really need bocce ball lessons four hours a day, five days a week! You don't even know what bocce ball is! But once the twins were off to school, you were just so bored. No mention of taking a job, trying to help out with the bills and the debts--No! I felt I had no choice but to--"
"And there it is. It's always about money with you, isn't it? You had such good prospects at the Ministry, but then you had to go and--"
"It's always about money with me? With me?? I don't know how you can sit there and--"
Millicent rolled her eyes. She'd heard the arguments before. No pattern in what would set them off, but they always happened when the twins were gone. Nobody seemed to mind her being around, though.
"I'm leaving now." They didn't stop shouting, didn't even turn in her direction. Millicent left them waving fingers in each others' faces, tea forgotten.
She grabbed the last few things from her mostly bare room and stuffed them in a bag. With a loud crack! Millicent apparated back to Hogsmeade and went straight for the Hogshead.