Belladonna Le Faye

Summer Changes

The weeks passed peacefully for them. Aaron told Jessie that he didn't think it was fair to her to watch Jack for days on end without knowing when he would be coming home and had decided to get a nanny for him instead. This was also so she could focus on her own career.

At first, she was quite upset until he said they would see about making it a regular thing for Jack to visit her at least once a month, so she could regale him with stories of his mom from when they were children. Besides if she manages to become a teacher, she could teach him next year, possibly, or at least work at the school he would be attending.

That satisfied her and they agreed that every second Saturday, Jack would go and do something with his aunt.

Aaron, Wil, and JJ soon discovered having the same nanny for both boys was a little difficult, since they lived in two different neighborhoods. Sure, apparating and flooes were good options but some of the neighbors might get suspicious and they didn't always have time before leaving to drive from one house to the other, either. During the summer, Bella could “walk” with Jack to the other house, but it was also way on the other side of town. 

So, it was decided that one of them or both of them would see about getting a house or houses close to the other. For weeks, Aaron, JJ, and Wil spent all of their free time looking up houses. And they were still coming up with nothing, with the closest option being one and a half hours walk from each other.

“You do realize that the magical population also has some property that they sell only to each other, right?” Bella says one day sitting in the living room with the three adults while Henry naps and Jack is out with his aunt. “In fact, I own a few here in the US. I could have the Goblins send me a list of my properties and of anything for sale as well. I’ll even ask them to limit it to places near or in Quantico.”

Wil slaps his forehead. “I am such an idiot. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Because you were going along with the other two adults in this room.” Bella says, pulling out paper and pen, and writing a polite note to the goblins. She then heads up to her room and sets it in a bank deposit box and closes it. A few moments later it dings and two different paper sit in the box. She takes them both downstairs. She hands the list of properties for sale to Wil who holds it so his wife can look at it too. 

Belladonna looks over her properties. “I have one a couple dozen miles outside of Quantico that might work.” Bella says reading the history of the property. “Apparently, one of ancestors divided it between his two children and they each had a house built, then one of them died with no descendants to leave the property to so it was given to the other sibling.” She pulls out her wand as she lays the paper on the coffee table and taps the property with her wand. A sparkling, 3D image of the property appears. It shows the two houses along with sprawling gardens, a hedge  maze, another smaller building in the middle of the maze and a wall around the property. “It hasn’t been used by anyone in a couple hundred years, but I’m sure the goblins and Dobby can take care of it quite nicely for us.”

“It looks perfect,” JJ says, leaning over to get a better look. “But can we get a better idea of the layout of the two houses.”

“Sure,” Bella says, tapping her wand on one of the two houses. It zooms in on the house, she taps it again and they have the magical version of the blue prints. The house has six bedrooms and four bathrooms, a library and two offices, a kitchen and dining room, and a ballroom and two parlors. “Now the other one,” Bella says after a few minutes. She switches to the other house. This one has five bedrooms, four and a half bath, a library, two studies, a nicely sized kitchen, a formal dining room, an informal dining room, a ballroom, and three different parlors.

“I think this will work perfectly for us.” JJ says, before remembering the smaller building. “But what was that smaller building?”

“According to what I read, that was a playhouse for the children of the second sibling, the one that got the entire property.” Bella says, changing the image so they can see it’s layout. It has a loft area, and a small bathroom with just a shower no tub. There is a small kitchen with an island to eat at, and a wide open space. A fireplace stands on the wall opposite of where a set of french doors stands, between the kitchen and the wide open space.

“We could leave that alone for now,” Wil says. “But this seems to be our best option.

“I wonder what state the furniture is in?” Bella says, looking at the entire property again. “Mhm, I’ll just have Dobby and the goblins determine if we need to take furniture or not. I’m going to head to Gringotts to discuss this with them.” She gets up and goes upstairs to get her things before telling all the adults bye and giving Henry a hug. She heads out the house and down the street to an extremely wooded area and apparating away.