A Kind of Magic

Forty-Nine

The way her mother and Annwyn had divided the small rooms made perfect sense to Fiona; she couldn't blame Peregrine's sister and her elf for wanting to share a room like newlyweds. She smiled, lost in thought, as she climbed the gloomy wooden staircase leading to the bedrooms after dinner; the two were so enamoured with each other.

On reaching the last step, she turned around and looked longingly back at the room downstairs, at the front door of the inn through which Peregrine had walked out moments ago. He wasn't like Leodhais, who had already vanished along with Annwyn, discarding all thoughts but those concerning her. There was something on Peregrine's mind; she had noticed a shadow of a worry clouding his eyes...

"Mum, Mum, may I sleep in Gilderoy's room?" Freddie scattered her thoughts as he ran out of the bedroom assigned to him and his mother and grandmother. 

Fiona frowned at him. "No. Where will Peregrine sleep if you take his bed?"

"But I heard him telling Annwyn that he will spend most of the night outside, like a real bodyguard. She took another room just for him should he change his mind later, so he won't wake anyone up, she told me!"

"He's right," Annwyn's voice disturbed them as she walked by on her way towards the only bathroom situated at the end of the torch-lit corridor. 

"And that's why there's a free bed in my room. Freddie can have it," Gilderoy said, appearing in the doorway behind Fiona's back, making her jump. "Please?" the amiable man added, and Fiona found herself unable to refuse. 

"As long as you are all happy," she muttered, kissing Freddie on the forehead and pulling him in a quick embrace. It was a shame, really, but he had become too old to want to share a bedroom with his mother, even if only occasionally. She had to be strong and let him go...

"I'll leave Gollum with you and Grandma if you want. He's already sleeping," Freddie said consolingly, kissing her on her cheek before he dashed into Gilderoy's room as if he was afraid that she might change her mind if he lingered.

Fiona nodded, smiling at his retreating back. The poor dog, unused as he was to so much exercise, was, for once, more exhausted than her. Just like her mother, she realised, entering their candle-lit room, which felt gloomy after the corridor flooded with the light of several torches and finding the older woman and the dog both asleep.

It seemed that she would have to make the trip to the river that, according to the landlady, was the only alternative of washing they had to the basin and the ewer, she mused, looking at the small vanity table set under the only shuttered window of the chamber, feeling like a clean freak when everyone else just seemed to make do with the options they found within reach, without having to walk out into the cool night.

But Fiona always did what she considered was the right thing for her, and she wasn't going to change now. Silently, she took her glasses off and undressed, sighing at the thought that she would have to reuse the same outfit at least one more time not to run out of clean clothes before reaching her father's place. She wrapped the black cloak again over her underwear, and grabbed a towel and piece of soap she had asked the landlady for, not wanting to pollute the local environment by using her modern shampoo and shower gel, using those here just felt wrong, for some reason.

Listening to her mother's relaxed, regular breathing underlined by Gollum's soft snores, Fiona pushed her feet into her trainers and tiptoed out of the silent room. 

Gently, not wanting to wake them up should they both be already asleep, she knocked on Gilderoy's door. She just had to make sure that Freddie was alright. 

"He's asleep." Gilderoy told her in a somewhat fatherly tone the moment he came to the door, opening it wide for her to see her sleeping son, unsurprised by seeing her on the threshold, her loose hair looking like flames in the moving light of the torches.