A(nother) Harry Potter Story by Chyna Rose

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Neville hadn’t been close to his late Great Aunt Agnes (in fact, he hadn’t been aware that he even had a Great Aunt Agnes), so it was a bit of surprise to find out that she had left him her house and all its contents when old age had finally caught up with her and she passed away after a long bout of illness. Great Aunt Agnes had never married or had children, and had been the last one alive out of all her siblings. Yes there were other cousins; grandchildren and great grandchildren from her brothers and sisters, but they were about as removed from her as Neville had been so they hadn’t had a better claim on the bits of Great Aunt Agnes’ estate beyond what had already been willed to them. Which is not to say that they hadn’t tried to grab more of the inheritance pie than they’d already been given. The contesting of the will by a small unhappy group of cousins - centering mostly on what money she had had - fighting among themselves over their respective shares had drug the probate of the estate out longer than it realistically should have. That drawn out probate period coupled with some bad luck with work and other responsibilities was why Neville was only now able to find the time to head over to the house to look it over and perhaps figure out what he was going to do with the place despite his Great Aunt Agnes having passed away months ago.

The house - more of a small cottage than anything else - looked to be in good repair at first glance upon driving up. The yard had gone a bit wild with no one coming by to tend to it in the months since Great Aunt Agnes’ passing and perhaps the whitewash on the walls was a bit faded, but the roof looked sound from where they were standing and the windows were all in one piece. Of course time - and a closer inspection - would tell just what kind of condition the cottage was in, but Neville took this first impression as a good sign for what to expect. There was, as could be expected given what little history Neville had been given about his great aunt’s house from the solicitor who’d told him about his small inheritance, no garage but there was enough of a driveway for Neville to park on. All of this was quickly and efficiently noted down by Percy who had, along with Draco, agreed to accompany Neville on this trip to check out the house he now found himself in possession of (and wasn’t that a bit of a trip. Sure he split the expenses on their shared accommodations, but there was that and then there was owning an entire house all by yourself; particularly one that you owned free and clear) as the three of them got out of the car.

“At least getting the yard back under control’s going to be easy enough for you.” Draco drawled as he made a quick scan over the house and grounds.

Neville just sort of gave a Draco a Look; he wasn’t wrong. Between his quirk and his honest love for gardening he wouldn’t need to hire anyone else to do the work. Not that the yard was that out of control for all of it having been pretty much ignored for most of the spring and summer. Sure the grass was a bit long, the shrubbery had gone out of whatever shape they’d been put in, and the ivy was in the beginning stages of its takeover, but it could’ve easily been much, much worse (as in Neville didn’t have to use his quirk to try and shrink anything down so that they could even reach the front door or else fear getting lost in the impromptu jungle. Of course that had been a bit of a special case involving him having to be called in to counter someone else’s plant based quirk).

The interior of the house was a bit... cluttered. Right at the door was a coat rack, umbrella stand, hall tree, end table, coat cupboard, and quite a few pictures hung on what available wall space there had been. Further in was more pictures and furniture, as well as various potted plants (Apparently Great Aunt Agnes had been as much of a fan of gardening as Neville was - or at the very least, had been as much a fan of greenery if one were to judge based on the amount of it she had scattered about). Again, much like the yard it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been; cluttered as it was, there was still plenty of room to walk about without the fear of knocking over a pile of stuff and accidentally trapping or crushing yourself. Nothing that they’d seen so far had been in so bad a condition that it would qualify as unusable junk and it even somewhat matched - there just happened to be a lot of it.

Draco whistled as he ran a hand along the side of a worn grandmother clock made of dark wood. “If the rest of the stuff is anything like this beauty, I think you just hit the jackpot.”

“Hmmm?” Neville asked as he drew his attention away from a potted kumquat tree. He hadn’t really given much thought to the furniture, knick knacks, and other assorted items that had been left in the house; mostly figuring that he’d do a quick sell of whatever was left after he let his family go through and grab up whatever sentimental items they wanted and then just donate what was left after that (provided that it was in good enough condition for the charity shops to want to take them).

“Your Great Aunt Agnes had an excellent eye, and from what I’ve seen took very good care of what she did have. This clock for example, is a gorgeous art deco piece dating back to the early 1900s - and all it needs to start working again, is to be properly wound up. Do keep an eye out for its key.” Draco said, having gone from simply stroking the clock to practically molesting it, “A clock like this would easily start out at nearly two thousand pounds at auction and likely end up going for much, much more - especially once the antique dealers get into a bidding war over it.”

Neville rolled his eyes at Draco’s antics (because really). In a way he could kind of see where Draco was coming from - and where he was going to (can you say hello large commission). And it wasn’t like he couldn’t understand geeking out about your passion and area of expertise (friends quickly learned not to let him get going about plants unless they were willing to sit through a long, rambling lecture about the minutiae of any particular plant). It’s just...

“From what I’ve seen so far, the house shouldn’t need more than minor repairs.” Percy said as he finished poking about the main room of the house, “You still might want to call out some professionals to make sure that things like the plumbing, wires, and foundation are still good though. Oh for the love of!”

Eventually Draco left the poor grandmother clock alone and moved on to fondle pretty much everything else in the room much to Percy and Neville’s annoyance. Great Aunt Agnes it seemed, had been the kind of woman who bought stuff to last and took excellent care of what she had so that it would - without going so far as to turn her home into a museum where one could look but not touch (as too many seemed to do). Nothing was broken, but all the furniture showed signs of the kind of wear and tear that one would expect from such objects being used.

The kitchen was a bit more modern than the main room had been. The stove, sink, fridge, and counter tops had been updated at some point in the last twenty or so years, but were still a bit too dated to not need to be redone in order to bring it up to ‘standard’, while the faded wallpaper and linoleum likely hadn’t been touched since before their parents had been born. The kitchen table and its matching set of chairs stood out a bit, being more in line with the other furniture they’d seen in the main room (and presumably would be in the rest of the house).

“Have you thought about what you’re going to do with all this?” Percy asked as he closed the pantry door he’d opened long enough to stick his head through for a quick look around.

“As nice as it is, I think I’m going to sell the place. I just wouldn’t be coming out here often enough to justify keeping it, and it’d be a shame to just let it sit empty for so long.” Neville replied.

“You could always turn it into a rental property.” Draco pointed out.

Neville shook his head. “With the way I’ve seen some people treat the homes they rent... I’d really rather avoid that kind of a heartache; even if I don’t have an emotional attachment to the place, it still belonged to family and I’d hate to watch it be destroyed by people who didn’t care about it. I know, I know. There’s no telling what whoever buys the house is going to do to it. They could always end up demolishing the whole place and rebuilding a new house from the ground up if they wanted, but by that time it would no longer be a family house if you know what I mean”

“That makes sense. Sort of.” Draco said, cocking his head to the side for a moment before being distracted by an old porcelain pitcher.

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A(nother) Harry Potter Story by Chyna Rose [Reviews - 0] Chapter or Story Table of Contents - Text Size + Neville hadn’t been close to his late Great Aunt Agnes (in fact, he hadn’t been aware that he even had a Great Aunt Agnes), so it was a bit of surprise to find out that she had left him her house and all its contents when old age had finally caught up with her and she passed away after a long bout of illness. Great Aunt Agnes had never married or had children, and had been the last one alive out of all her siblings. Yes there were other cousins; grandchildren and great grandchildren from her brothers and sisters, but they were about as removed from her as Neville had been so they hadn’t had a better claim on the bits of Great Aunt Agnes’ estate beyond what had already been willed to them. Which is not to say that they hadn’t tried to grab more of the inheritance pie than they’d already been given. The contesting of the will by a small unhappy group of cousins - centering mostly on what money she had had - fighting among themselves over their respective shares had drug the probate of the estate out longer than it realistically should have. That drawn out probate period coupled with some bad luck with work and other responsibilities was why Neville was only now able to find the time to head over to the house to look it over and perhaps figure out what he was going to do with the place despite his Great Aunt Agnes having passed away months ago. The house - more of a small cottage than anything else - looked to be in good repair at first glance upon driving up. The yard had gone a bit wild with no one coming by to tend to it in the months since Great Aunt Agnes’ passing and perhaps the whitewash on the walls was a bit faded, but the roof looked sound from where they were standing and the windows were all in one piece. Of course time - and a closer inspection - would tell just what kind of condition the cottage was in, but Neville took this first impression as a good sign for what to expect. There was, as could be expected given what little history Neville had been given about his great aunt’s house from the solicitor who’d told him about his small inheritance, no garage but there was enough of a driveway for Neville to park on. All of this was quickly and efficiently noted down by Percy who had, along with Draco, agreed to accompany Neville on this trip to check out the house he now found himself in possession of (and wasn’t that a bit of a trip. Sure he split the expenses on their shared accommodations, but there was that and then there was owning an entire house all by yourself; particularly one that you owned free and clear) as the three of them got out of the car. “At least getting the yard back under control’s going to be easy enough for you.” Draco drawled as he made a quick scan over the house and grounds. Neville just sort of gave a Draco a Look; he wasn’t wrong. Between his quirk and his honest love for gardening he wouldn’t need to hire anyone else to do the work. Not that the yard was that out of control for all of it having been pretty much ignored for most of the spring and summer. Sure the grass was a bit long, the shrubbery had gone out of whatever shape they’d been put in, and the ivy was in the beginning stages of its takeover, but it could’ve easily been much, much worse (as in Neville didn’t have to use his quirk to try and shrink anything down so that they could even reach the front door or else fear getting lost in the impromptu jungle. Of course that had been a bit of a special case involving him having to be called in to counter someone else’s plant based quirk). The interior of the house was a bit... cluttered. Right at the door was a coat rack, umbrella stand, hall tree, end table, coat cupboard, and quite a few pictures hung on what available wall space there had been. Further in was more pictures and furniture, as well as various potted plants (Apparently Great Aunt Agnes had been as much of a fan of gardening as Neville was - or at the very least, had been as much a fan of greenery if one were to judge based on the amount of it she had scattered about). Again, much like the yard it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been; cluttered as it was, there was still plenty of room to walk about without the fear of knocking over a pile of stuff and accidentally trapping or crushing yourself. Nothing that they’d seen so far had been in so bad a condition that it would qualify as unusable junk and it even somewhat matched - there just happened to be a lot of it. Draco whistled as he ran a hand along the side of a worn grandmother clock made of dark wood. “If the rest of the stuff is anything like this beauty, I think you just hit the jackpot.” “Hmmm?” Neville asked as he drew his attention away from a potted kumquat tree. He hadn’t really given much thought to the furniture, knick knacks, and other assorted items that had been left in the house; mostly figuring that he’d do a quick sell of whatever was left after he let his family go through and grab up whatever sentimental items they wanted and then just donate what was left after that (provided that it was in good enough condition for the charity shops to want to take them). “Your Great Aunt Agnes had an excellent eye, and from what I’ve seen took very good care of what she did have. This clock for example, is a gorgeous art deco piece dating back to the early 1900s - and all it needs to start working again, is to be properly wound up. Do keep an eye out for its key.” Draco said, having gone from simply stroking the clock to practically molesting it, “A clock like this would easily start out at nearly two thousand pounds at auction and likely end up going for much, much more - especially once the antique dealers get into a bidding war over it.” Neville rolled his eyes at Draco’s antics (because really). In a way he could kind of see where Draco was coming from - and where he was going to (can you say hello large commission). And it wasn’t like he couldn’t understand geeking out about your passion and area of expertise (friends quickly learned not to let him get going about plants unless they were willing to sit through a long, rambling lecture about the minutiae of any particular plant). It’s just... “From what I’ve seen so far, the house shouldn’t need more than minor repairs.” Percy said as he finished poking about the main room of the house, “You still might want to call out some professionals to make sure that things like the plumbing, wires, and foundation are still good though. Oh for the love of!” Eventually Draco left the poor grandmother clock alone and moved on to fondle pretty much everything else in the room much to Percy and Neville’s annoyance. Great Aunt Agnes it seemed, had been the kind of woman who bought stuff to last and took excellent care of what she had so that it would - without going so far as to turn her home into a museum where one could look but not touch (as too many seemed to do). Nothing was broken, but all the furniture showed signs of the kind of wear and tear that one would expect from such objects being used. The kitchen was a bit more modern than the main room had been. The stove, sink, fridge, and counter tops had been updated at some point in the last twenty or so years, but were still a bit too dated to not need to be redone in order to bring it up to ‘standard’, while the faded wallpaper and linoleum likely hadn’t been touched since before their parents had been born. The kitchen table and its matching set of chairs stood out a bit, being more in line with the other furniture they’d seen in the main room (and presumably would be in the rest of the house). “Have you thought about what you’re going to do with all this?” Percy asked as he closed the pantry door he’d opened long enough to stick his head through for a quick look around. “As nice as it is, I think I’m going to sell the place. I just wouldn’t be coming out here often enough to justify keeping it, and it’d be a shame to just let it sit empty for so long.” Neville replied. “You could always turn it into a rental property.” Draco pointed out. Neville shook his head. “With the way I’ve seen some people treat the homes they rent... I’d really rather avoid that kind of a heartache; even if I don’t have an emotional attachment to the place, it still belonged to family and I’d hate to watch it be destroyed by people who didn’t care about it. I know, I know. There’s no telling what whoever buys the house is going to do to it. They could always end up demolishing the whole place and rebuilding a new house from the ground up if they wanted, but by that time it would no longer be a family house if you know what I mean” “That makes sense. Sort of.” Draco said, cocking his head to the side for a moment before being distracted by an old porcelain pitcher. Previous Next You must login (register) to review.

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