The plan had been simple. Genny’s parents were out, something which her brother Rafael had made sure of for her. She was to collect her things while only Rafael was there and leave before they returned. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, the plan had derailed and Miguel and Rosa García both returned home while Gen was packing up her stuff. As expected, an enormous row had once more broken out between the Garcías, and Gen had left with only half of what she’d gone for. Her parents, angry for her adamant refusal for return to Hogwarts for her final year, decided to keep her belongings and their love as hostage until she chose to ‘make the right decision’.

With a large trunk floating behind her, Genny ascended the tight staircase several floors. The building was drab and dark with creaking floorboards and an overwhelming smell of mildew. A couple of shifty looking wizards had watched her far too eagerly as she entered the building. Perhaps it was her short skirt and boots that had drawn their attention in an alley full of traditional wixes in their robes and hats and dark evilness. Genny was a pretty girl, and she knew it. Her dark curly hair had been left loose to hang over her shoulders in a well-ordered mess and her clothing certainly didn’t cover up her assets. Gen, however, wore no makeup; it wasn’t necessary.

Having never been to this flat, it was quite the surprise entering the building. Today was the day Leo had moved them into it, having been kicked out of the last one for lack of money. She already knew how dire it would be. Nevertheless, Gen was happy to be here. Leo was here, and they would be together forever.

Finally, on the fourth floor, Gen stopped and her trunk dropped to the floor behind her with a heavy thunk as the spell stopped. She gave the door a brief knock and waited.

It wasn’t a long wait, and when the door opened to reveal her much taller and very handsome boyfriend, Genny grinned brightly. She wasted no time in pouncing, jumping up to wrap her legs around his waist and arms around  his neck and planting an urgent kiss against his lips.

The door opened, and in burst a whirlwind of legs and arms and kisses, which wasted no time in throwing itself at him and wrapping him up in a maelstrom of eager emotion.  Leo laughed as he stumbled backwards, trying to catch Gen and their balance all at once as his mouth found hers.  For an instant, off-balance and tangled up in each other, it was as if there could be no other care in the world, aside from the constant worry of her hair getting in the way of their kisses.  They were together, and somehow they'd make all the rest of it work.

Finally, survival dictated that they had to surface for air.  Leo grinned, resting his forehead against Genny's own.  "I see you found the place all right?" he asked as he took a few steps back, carrying her across the threshold inside their new home.  "Your castle awaits, milady."

The new flat was likely far from the castle of Genny's imagination -- or rather, too close to a castle of reality, with two dingy, poorly-lit rooms, something brown-colored growing on the ceiling of the bathroom, and a strange odor that would have been equally at home in an old sewer.  It was a far cry from the spacious apartment that they had spent most of their magical summer in, after school had let out and he'd entered Auror training.  But Leo's parents had been firm:  if he refused to back down from his plan to let his Hogwarts sweetheart come to live with him, then the allowance that they'd been giving him to supplement his meager trainee salary would end.

That was the price that he had paid for Genny.  But whenever he was wrapped up in her like this, all of it -- the taxingly tightened budget, the shouting matches with his father, the stress and arguing over what she would do if she didn't finish out her last year at Hogwarts -- it all seemed worth it. 

He flashed her a winning smile, setting her down in the entryway of their new home.  That morning, he'd moved all of their furniture in to the cramped, dark space.  They were greeted by the graceful green loveseat with heart-shaped pillows that Genny had fallen in love with and insisted on buying at the start of summer.  Too close nearby, he'd placed the elegant-looking oak table with matching chairs that his parents had bought him as a housewarming gift, and the carved coffee table that he'd scavenged off the street.  It had been next to impossible trying to get all of their belongings to fit, like putting a jigsaw puzzle together, but he'd done his damned best.

"What do you think?" He did his best to hide the worry in his voice, even as his creased brow gave his concern away.

The pair could have been lost in each other forever. There was something so thrilling about the forbidden love that they shared. From their first meet, Gen’s parents had been against Leo Gamp, but they’d been quite convinced that it would run its course and she’d be back to focusing on her school work. But sixth year had come and gone and, to their horror, their 17-year-old daughter had taken up home with him and was refusing to return to school. For Genny, however, she could conquer anything in Leo’s arms. she was as head of heels for him now as she had been just less than 2 years ago on their first date.

“We both know I’m no lady, Gamp.” One final cheeky kiss was placed on his lips before he dropped her down over the threshold to their new…home. The entrance and staircase had been bad enough. Uninviting, dark, mouldy, dirty. The inside of the flat was only marginally better. Furniture that had fit so well before now left the small space overcrowded and rather claustrophobic. There was no light streaming in because the only windows in the room showcased the wall to the next building only a few feet away.

Leo was concerned, Gen could tell. She wanted to say how amazing it was, how she couldn’t wait to really settle in to their squalor of a flat in Knockturn Alley.
“It’s cosy.” Was all that came out for a moment as her eyes took it in, thinking. “Open plan layout.” 1 room. 1 small room. “Excellent privacy.” The wall outside. “Easy access to the kitchen.” You could quite literally sit on the sofa and make a sandwich wandless. “Original hardwood flooring.” Best not step too hard or your foot might fall through.

Gen stepped away from Leo and opened one of the doors leading off the living area. “There’s a bathtub! We might be lucky and have running water, too.” Grinning, she moved onto the second final door. Inside was a bed and their wardrobe. Tight but adequate. “And you fit the bed in.” Spinning back to face Leo, Gen rose an eyebrow. “Hogwarts is calling. I’ll see you at Christmas, Lancelot.”

His smile grew a little more with every compliment she gave.  Certainly, each of her descriptions was a generous exaggeration, if not an outright lie.  Genny loved stories: she took the world around her and spun it into something more beautiful and more glorious than it truly was, and if he wasn't careful, it was easy to get caught up in them.

After all the work he'd put in figuring out a budget, finding them a flat, and cramming everything they owned into it, he was happy to let her paint their new home in prettier words than it surely deserved.  After all, they had each other; everything else at this point was merely details.  But Genny's last words -- "I'll see you at Christmas, Lancelot" -- broke through the beautiful web she was spinning, shattering the illusion.

His face fell, but he did his best to hide it quickly.

"Not so fast, Guinevere," he said, chuckling, as he swept her back into his arms.  He took her right hand in his, directed her left hand to his shoulder, and put his own hand to her hip, pulling her into a gently swaying dance.  "You're not getting off so easily.  Now that everything's moved in, someone's got to scrub the original hardwood flooring."

“You do know what happened to Lancelot and Guinevere, Leo?” As she swayed gently with him, Gen looked up at her boyfriend, an eyebrow raised in scepticism. He may have been older and academic than her, but Gen had spent her life with her head in books. She loved stories and words. Throughout school, Gen had been far more interested in fiction than essays and her actual education. What were her NEWTS really going to get her when she wanted to be a reporter or an author?

“Queen Guinevere and the Knight fell madly in love despite her being married to the King. So, King Arthur chose to lay siege on Lancelot’s castle.” she spoke slowly, as if reading from a story book. Would Leo protect her like Lancelot had tried to? Of course, he would. They were meant to be together forever. “Guinevere was captured. Well, King Arthur and his knights found her and Lancelot in bed. Awkward. She was condemned to being burned to death for infidelity. Of course, that didn’t happen. She became a nun.” Dark eyes widened considerably before Genny grinned. She’d make a terrible nun.

“Not the love story I want to compare us to. Doomed lovers aren’t really what I’m going for, here.” She leaned back in his arms, pulling him towards the tiny living room once more. “And Queens don’t scrub floors, silly boy.”

Stories were never so simple with Genny.  Every word had meaning; every glance a stolen thought.  As sassy and smart as the young Ravenclaw student had presented herself, she was a romantic down to her very bones.  That was part of the reason why he’d fallen for her, invited her to go with him to Hogsmeade during what now seemed like a long, long time ago.  Genny could match him wit for wit, but she could also sweep him away into a fairy tale, where every ending was a happy one.

Every ending except the story they’d been acting out about Lancelot and Guinevere, apparently.  Leo laughed, shooting his girlfriend a grin.

“Pardon me for continuing with your wordplay,” he replied, not looking sorry at all as he let her pull him back into the main room.  “Shall we try again?  I’ll sing you a song like Orpheus, and you can be my darling Eurydice?”

“You’re pardoned.” Genny grinned. She rarely stopped grinning in Leo’s company. He was enigmatic and enthralling. The boy had a way of making her feel like the only person in the world that mattered. Perhaps even the only person at all. It was not something she ever wanted to change.

Of course, Leo had clearly heard the names of powerful love stories. But that was it. He’d heard the names and nothing more.
“Oh, Leo!” The young witch faked a groan and exaggerated a roll of her eyes. “Doomed! Do you only know stories about doomed lovers?” He probably did. “Next, you’ll tell me you’re Romeo to my Juliet. We can commit suicide together and lie side by side for the rest of time.” Genny broke away and stepped past the sofa to the kitchen area where she proceeded to open cupboards to check inside and survey her boyfriend’s unpacking skills and choice of placement of items. She’d be moving it all soon enough.

“Oedipus and Jacosta, Pyramus and Thisbe, Cleopatra and Mark Anthony.” She continued, her remarks timed rather perfectly with an inspection of each cupboard.

“Meeeooow!” Genny jumped back from her crouched position as she’d been at a lower level cupboard. She fell onto her bum with an expletive. Inside the cupboard was a little grey kitten curled up in a bowl.

“Merlin’s saggy balls…” reaching into the cupboard, Gen tentatively took the tiny kitten in her hand and scooped him from the cereal bowl. “What were you planning on doing with him?”

Genny couldn't resist.  Even in this cramped, dingy flat, she had to explore everything and make sure that he'd arranged things to her liking.  Leo knew that within the hour, she'd be moving it all around again, until she had the entire flat organized perfectly to her tastes.  It was one of his girlfriend's more endearing traits:  she knew exactly what she wanted.

That meant that she'd fallen into the trapped.  He leaned one hand against the wall, grinning, as he watched her go through the cupboards one by one.  Doomed lovers or not, before long she'd come upon...

"Meeeooow!"

The Auror trainee burst into sudden, uproarious laughter.

"I don't know, have him with our tea?"  He grinned at Genny, still chuckling, as she scooped up the small kitten into her hands.  "Too bad he's too small for a proper meal.  I think he's barely big enough for a snack."

Leo, clearly having been waiting for his curious girlfriend to go searching through the cupboards, let out one of his distinctive roaring laughs when Genny found the little surprise in the cereal bowl. She loved his laugh, it was that of a happy and confident man. The sort of man that you wanted to  be around because he made you laugh. And apparently, he also arranged for kitten treasure hunts to make dowdy drab flats more exciting.

Cuddling the little fella close, the witch looked up from the floor to grin brightly at her boyfriend. “Is that what people do in Knockturn Alley?” She'd always avoided it before. Her parents had been quite clear about that. “I know we’re poor now, but this is pushing it, Gamp.” In her hands, the little grey fluffy thing was trying to escape, wriggling its body in her grip. “He knows what you're saying!”

Gen pony remained sat on the floor as she rose her eyebrows. “Oh merlin, I know you're joking but do people actually do that here? There were a couple of wizards downstairs at the front door that looked like they wanted to eat me. I love you, Leo but this place really is the dire.”

Leo laughed, grinning back at his girlfriend.  "It's a lot more chipper now that you've graced it with your presence, my love," he replied cheerfully.  "The wizards downstairs won't bother you.  Nobody's going to want to trouble the lady love of a soon-to-be Auror."

Still smiling, he watched Genny as she cuddled the tiny kitten.  It still troubled him that she might not like this place -- the dank walls, the dim light, the tiny rooms in not the best neighborhood.  But Genny had been the driving force in insisting that they could make things work.  Their love, she insisted, would be more than enough.  And besides, in a few years when he was making a proper Auror's salary, they'd be able to afford better than a dingy flat in Knockturn Alley.

"Well, it looks like that little one adores you so much that it's going to make me feel bad about eating him," he said, nodding to the kitten.  "I suppose that you're going to have to name him.  I can't keep calling him Afternoon Tea if we're adopting him as another mouth to feed."

It was challenging not to laugh out loud at Leo’s referral to her as his ‘lady love’. Perhaps he was still in mind set of all of these historically doomed couples. Even if they were madly in love, which they were, Genny García was no lady. Her boyfriend could surely attest to that.

With as much grace as one could muster in a short skirt with their hands full of kitten, Gen stood up off the floor and moved back over to Leo. He looked concerned. It meant a lot to ihm that she be happy, Gen knew that. He’d put up with so much off of both of their families to make her happy. He’d never asked her to leave school. That had been Gen’s choice. What more was Hogwarts really going to give her that Leo couldn’t?

“Bruce.” The name came to her mind immediately and she grinned. “Sounds like a strong name, don’t you think, mi alma? With a name like that, he’ll scare off all of the other pussies. This one’s going to live a long strong life. Bruce, el rey de los gatos.”

“And you’re my King.” Genny lifted Bruce up, placing him on Leo’s shoulder. “Leo Ophiuchus Gamp, el rey de shitty little castle.”

Bruce.  He wasn't sure the little mewing kitten looked much like a Bruce, but leave it to his Genny to start spinning grand tales immediately after meeting the tiny thing.  Their new pet would likely have grand novellas written about his adventures by the time he grew into a fully-fledged cat.

It was clear that the kitten had softened at least some of the blow of the less-than-charming flat.  Leo grinned at her again as she placed Bruce on his shoulder, clearly pleased that she liked the gift.

He checked to make sure that the small, mewing creature was balanced, and then reaching out to pull Genny into his arms.

"Shitty Little Castle," he murmured, slanting a look down at her.  This transition to a new flat and a new life had been difficult, more so than he was really willing to admit to her, but those tribulations were simple to forget when it was so easy to kiss her.  "I have to say, that has a certain ring to it."