“Are you finally going to tell me where you’re taking me?” Tigerlily asked for the tenth time in under an hour, eyeing her husband with a confused look as he pulled his coat on.
Em had kept their destination a secret, only mentioning to his wife that she needed to dress for the weather whenever she asked. He knew that if he even mentioned going to Hogwarts she would be vehemently opposed to the idea. It was better not to tell her and as the phrase went, ask for forgiveness, not permission.
“You’ll find out when we get there,” he stated as he handed her her own coat, double checking the time on his watch. The faint scar on his knuckles caught his attention for a brief moment, a daily reminder of punching Alistar Lockhart square in the face when he saw him at his parent’s. “Come on, we don’t want to be late,” he added as Tiger shrugged on her pale blue coat.
Without a word, Emmanuel pulled her securely against his chest and wrapped his arms around her, holding her closely as they apparated out of the room with a loud crack. The moment they regained their bearings, he felt Tiger’s hand squeeze his arm tightly.
“Emmanuel, what on earth are we doing here?” she asked as she looked up at the front gates of the castle that loomed before them. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was as impressive as it had been when he was eleven years old. Even now as an adult, he couldn’t help but stare at the massive building in awe.
“This is exactly why I didn’t tell you where we were going. You just have to trust me,” Em told her, taking his hand in hers, “It’s fine, I promise.”
Without a sound, the front gate swung open and let the pair in. Tigerlily had no idea why there were there but of course the staff were expecting them. It was the first official Quidditch game of the season and the grand opening of the new Quidditch pitch. A Quidditch pitch Emmanuel had funded immediately following the disastrous brunch with his mother. Aurora Welsh knew how to get under her son’s skin, but Emmanuel had learned plenty of tricks from her.
“In all fairness, I do have to warn you about something before we go in,” he admitted just as they crossed the gate. He hadn’t even noticed it close but there was absolutely no turning back now. “My mother is here but so is the rest of my family so I’m hoping that means she’ll behave. It’s the first Quidditch game of the season and they’re announcing the benefactor of the new pitch as well as the new name,” he told her as they continued to walk along the beaten path, stopping midstride to point towards the new enormous pitch on their left. “Welcome to the Scarmander-Welsh Quidditch Pitch,” he told her with a smile, knowing she would be ready to kill him had they not been in public.
“I’m sorry, welcome to the what?” Tiger asked, her face a mixture of confusion and a hint of anger.
Following the meeting with his mother and Alistair, Emmanuel liquidated his stock with the Nimbus Broom Racing Company and made a sizeable donation to Hogwarts in his wife’s name with the condition that they use the money to redo and rename the pitch, using whatever was left over to purchase all four teams new uniforms and brooms.
“I couldn’t sit around and do nothing, Tigerlily. If my name was going to be attached to some ridiculous donation, it wasn’t going to be to a bribe that got my wife fired. The kids love quidditch and the old pitch was as old as this castle, it was bound to need fixing sooner or later so why not by us?” he asked, looking back at her.
“She’s going to crucify me for this,” she stated solemnly, fidgeting with the sleeves of her coat. “This is exactly the kind of thing I didn’t want you to do. You know how she is and she’s going to take this as an attack.”
“She isn’t going to do anything to you. Sure, she’ll be mad for a while but as soon as she realizes how good this looks for her, she’ll drop it. I mean think about it, first the Welsh family remodels the Astronomy Tower and now this, it’s great publicity,” Emmanuel shrugged, taking her hand in his again. “Now come on, they’re waiting for us.
The pair walked the rest of the way to the Great Hall in silence with Em wondering if he made the right decision and Tigerlily worrying about how Aurora was going to retaliate. Hopefully he was right and Aurora would leave things be but she had a strange feeling that it wasn’t over yet.
