Card Castles [Guin]

[Taylor Kinsley]

Taylor did not like being at the Ministry later than six in the evening. Not only was it because he liked to be home as soon as possible with Guin, but because other people had left, and being alone on this floor was the creepiest thing he could think of. Not that everyone went home at such an earlier hour, but it just so happened it was eleven at night, and he'd been stuck here with a stack of papers waiting to be signed. He really needed to get that stamp Zane had suggested.

It would go something like this: Taylor would sign a few papers, his hand would cramp up, he'd stop and fiddle with something else. When he remembered the papers, he'd go back, get bored, and fiddle with something else. The only thing he'd forgotten to do was let his wife know he was staying late.

At this moment, the stack of papers had been moved to a different table and Taylor was sitting in front of his desk with a large castle built out of cards. The different angles of the roofing was nearly impossible for simple card stacking. He was using his wand to place the cards so he wouldn't have to move. He was rather comfortable. His feet were propped up on the table and he'd draped his fur jacket (that he'd come across earlier that week) over his lap.

So he sat there, whistling, and stacking his castle higher and making it more elaborate as he went - it seemed he wasn't going to run out of cards.

[Guinivere Kinsley]

”And don’t burn it!”

The Auror squeaked out a meek ”Yes, Ma’am,” as he stirred the pot of stew. Surely all those years ago, when he was a student at Hogwarts dreaming of one day becoming an Auror, this was not exactly what he’d had in mind. Sure, he had probably pictured himself on a similar detail, protecting the Minister of Magic’s family; however, it was quite certain that he had never thought that he would be standing in their kitchen, wearing an apron, rubber gloves and a hairnet, while preparing a meal for the Minister’s children.

It wasn’t a usual job for an Auror but it had been his own fault, really. The Minister’s wife rather preferred that the Aurors didn’t speak to her when they were on duty at the Kinsley mansion. But this particular fellow, in an attempt to smarm up to the woman, had blathered on about what a good cook his mother had been and how she’d wisely taught him to cook as well, knowing that he could know all the spells in the world and it still wouldn’t be as useful as being able to feed himself.

Guin had found the man’s comparison of her to his own mother to be utterly distasteful, as she was certain that she birthed far more attractive offspring than the man before her. Thus, his plan to get on her good side had only backfired on him, as she’d taken his story as him volunteering to cook. She never did so herself, after all, and really couldn’t tell you the difference between a frying pan and a serving spoon. Moreover, she was always very wary of eating anything that the wretched house-elves had prepared anyway and so as long as he could maintain the proper level of cleanliness that she expected, she found him to be a suitable enough replacement.

Though, later on when the meal was served to them, all the Kinsley children did was complain as they ate it that it was too soggy or mushy or that it was a displeasing temperature. The stew wasn’t bad, actually, and they all ate every bit that had been served to them (an uncommon event for the Kinsley children,) but complaints had to be made, lest the Auror actually be encouraged into thinking that he was doing a good job.

Hours later, after Guin had successfully put all of the children to bed, she was curled up in front of the fireplace, reading a book that she held propped up on her pregnant belly. She sighed deeply as she glanced at the clock for the twentieth time in the past ten minutes; it was getting rather late – far later than it should have been without Taylor having arrived home.

”I’m sure he’s just in some important meeting that he hasn’t been able to pull himself away from. If anything had happened, after all, I most certainly would have been informed of it.” The Auror said softly from where he stood by the doorway, as Guin most certainly wouldn’t allow the Aurors to sit on her furniture or lean up against her walls.

”Are we going to braid each other’s hair next and gossip about who we suspect is dating whom?” she hissed back with a rather disgusted look on her face, though she didn’t bother to look back at the man. It would obviously take a bit more time to break this one of his obnoxious and incessant need to speak, as if anyone would possibly have any interest in anything he could possibly have to say.

She stood up suddenly and walked past him to the entrance hall of the mansion where she removed her travelling cloak and a fresh pair of gloves from a large, immaculately organized closet by the front door. The Auror followed behind her.

”Shall I rouse the children, then?”

”No, you most certainly will not.” Guin hissed at the man and continued preparing herself to leave.

”But Ma’am, I’m assigned to watch over both you and your children. I can’t do my duty if you’re in two separate places.”

”First off, I don’t see how that could possibly be my problem. Second, you’re not coming with me; you’ll be staying here to care for the children should they happen to wake up, while I go to the Ministry to see what’s keeping my husband.” She pointedly snapped her gloves into place as she spoke.

”But Ma’am, if something were to happen to you…”

”I’m apparating straight to the Ministry. What exactly do you suppose is going to happen to me there?” She shook her head, disappointed in how desperate the Ministry must be for Aurors that they apparently had stopped doing any sort of intelligence test when allowing them in. And with that, before he could protest any further, Guin apparated to the Ministry.

Once she’d regained her bearings, as she didn’t apparate all that often, she stepped inside of the red telephone box, careful not to allow her stomach to touch the sides and pulled out two silk handkerchiefs, one to use to hold the phone receiver a few inches away from her head and the other to dial the number.

”The Ministry building’s closed for the evening. Can I help you with something?” A voice said politely.

”I’m here to see my husband.”

”Do you have an appointment?”

”I don’t need an appointment.”

”I’m afraid you do. Who’s your husband?”

Guin very nearly growled at that moment and she couldn’t possibly sound more annoyed. ”The Minister.”

”In what department?”

”The Minister of Magic” Ok, it actually was possible for her to sound more annoyed.

A moment of silence went by and then, suddenly, the telephone box lowered into the ground and Guin found herself in the Atrium. She rolled her eyes at the hideous fountain as she made her way over to the lifts.

”Mrs. Kinsley, I need you to check your wand wi…”

Guin quickly shook her head at the man at the front desk, as she most certainly would not be checking her wand, thank you very much, and stepped into the lift and continued on her way to see Taylor.

When she swung the door to his office open, she was fully prepared to shoo away whatever idiot was in there with him, preventing him from coming home to her. Instead, she saw the love of her life alone with his feet propped up, stacking playing cards. She might have been angry at such a thing, however, it was Taylor and even if she tried, she couldn’t get mad at him. Instead, she made her way over to him, sat down on his lap and nuzzled against his neck.

”You should fire everyone. I’ve never had an evening more full of incompetence,” she said softly, adding ”I missed you,” as she gently sighed and slipped her gloved fingers between his to hold his hand, then brought both of their hands over to her pregnant belly, where the baby’s constant kicks could be felt.

”Almost time to come out… you know, we should probably be thinking of names…” she rested her head against Taylor’s chest, totally content to just stay there the rest of the evening.

Most wives might have taken the opportunity to demand to know what had kept their husband so late, or chastised him for not being home on time. However, for Guin, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she was there with him at that moment so instead of getting upset over nothing or starting an argument, she just nuzzled her face back into his neck and whispered, ”your cards are crooked.”

[Taylor Kinsley]

When the door burst open, Taylor nearly fell back in his chair. He caught himself and leaned forward so he could balance with his feet on the floor. Fortunately, the person who entered was not just anyone, as this scene didn't not look particularly minister-like. Instead it was Guin, who, before Taylor could even get up to greet her, fell in his lap.

The first words out of her mouth were unexpected, but he hadn't really been expecting anything specific. He really didn't know how she would respond to him not doing anything in his office. Right now was when he realized he should probably let her know he would be staying late.

"I should've checked in," he said, staring down at her stomach - the kicking never failed to amuse him. "Instead of firing them, I could demote them to signing all this nonsense for me. Look 'em in a room and give them a stamp with my signature." Right! That's what he was going to ask Dolores about before she left. Now he'd have to hope he remembered tomorrow.

"There aren't so many good names left," he said, staring at her stomach thoughtfully. "We may have gone and used 'em all. Oh! I know! We could just let it get old enough to talk and have it name itself." Taylor smiled, not really seeing a flaw in his plan. He had suggested this when he had no ideas for Melisande, as well. Guin ended up figuring that one out, like she had most of the children's names.

Taylor's free hand moved into Guin's hair, deciding he really didn't want to leave now. There were whiny little children at home - before, he'd wanted out to see Guin. Here she was. Why leave? He planned to keep that up, too, just distracting himself with her hair and the kicking.

When she pointed out the crookedness of his cards, Taylor stared at it, looking for what exactly was crooked. Of course, as seconds went by, he still found nothing and it was starting to bother him. He moved his hands and straightened up the best he could with her there. Nope, he still didn't see it - but Guin always had better eyes than he did. She noticed the dirt and things he wouldn't even be looking for. If it weren't for that, he'd probably have a bunch of sick children. Kind of like he had an apparently crooked castle of cards.

"Which part?" He tilted his head, trying to see it from a different angle.

[Guinivere Kinsley]

Guin shook her head slightly in response to Taylor expressing that he should have notified her that he would be at the Ministry so late. ”It doesn’t matter,” and really, it didn’t. The moment she had seen him it had felt as though all was right with the world again, which mattered far more to her than him being home in time for a dinner that she hadn’t even cooked.

”I knew when you first started campaigning for this that we’d have to see far less of each other,” she said with just a hint of sadness to her voice. She didn’t want to make him feel bad as she truly wanted him to do anything that made him happy, even if that meant that they couldn’t spend every waking moment together as she would have much preferred.

”I just simply couldn’t sit at home any longer with that bumbling excuse for an Auror. You know he insists on talking to me? I thought we’d made it suitably clear that they were only to speak to me in life or death situations but he starts up the moment he walks in the door all asking me how I am and then standing there staring at me as if I’m going to ask the same of him. You know, the new one with the brown hair and, ugh, that face.”

She looked slightly disgusted as she thought of the man’s disheveled appearance, as if he was some disgusting homeless person only with a wand. With all that abhorrent talk of how wonderful his mother was for teaching him a great many things, Guin had meant to point out that she had apparently forgotten to teach him anything about personal grooming; however, she’d become far too nauseated with all of his obnoxious talking to actually tell him so.

”Taylor,” she frowned a bit more, ”why is it that demoting them means giving them your job? You shouldn’t be bogged down with such appallingly menial tasks in the first place.” Apparently she would have to have another chat with Dolores Umbridge, though the thought of being further subjected to the horrendous woman did not sit well with her at all.

Fortunately, Taylor’s mention of the baby knocked the vision of the toad-like woman right out of her mind. She smirked and shook her head slightly. ”You know we’ve already had this discussion and we are still not going to have a child named ‘Horsie Book Kinsley’ just because we couldn’t think of anything else to call it,” she said as she squeezed his hand affectionately. She wanted to mention that, perhaps, since they were met with so very much difficulty when it came to coming up with names that it just might have been time to stop having children. It seemed to be a bit of a touchy subject, however, and certainly a discussion to be had at another time.

She set her thoughts aside and sighed happily as he played with her hair. ”We don’t have to go home anytime soon. That Auror’s there and he shouldn’t have too much trouble with the children even if they should happen to wake up since Ichabod and Esmarelda aren’t there to wreak havoc.”

The Kinsley children, though there were so many of them, were actually quite well behaved. They had to be, really, as they had a mother that, though she loved them rather fiercely and would do anything to protect them, had absolutely no moral qualms whatsoever about using silencing charms and the like on them when they irritated her. Therefore, they all learned at a very young age what sort of behaviour was expected of them, whether they were at home or in public. The eldest twins, however, were a different story altogether. Even their younger siblings had breathed a sigh of relief when they’d been taken off to the Hogwarts Express.

”Do you think they’re alright? I try not to, but I worry about them, especially Ichabod. But more than that… do you think we did okay raising them? I worry that we should have done things differently to better prepare them. I feel like we’ve been far too lenient with them…” It was doubtful that the twins would have turned out any different than they did, as they simply were what they were. However, it couldn’t have helped that they were spoiled from the day they were born and were rarely socialized with children their own age or anyone at all that wasn’t related to them in some way.

”You don’t see them?” She asked, referring to the crooked cards. It was quite obvious to her which ones were crooked and it always both amazed and amused her that Taylor so often overlooked such things. ”Well starting from the top…. Actually, it’d be easier to tell you which ones aren’t crooked. So, Ace of Spades, Three of Spades, King of Clubs, Seven of Clubs, and…” She tilted her head to the side, as well, studying each of the cards carefully. ”Queen of Hearts. The rest of them are crooked.”