January 19th, 1891 — Ministry Break Room

If it were not for a pair of poorly timed promotions, they might have been married already. Perhaps poorly timed was too negative a phrase, particularly when Walt knew that Gertrude had been working towards her position as a lawyer for so long, but it was inconvenient that she'd received her promotion just prior to his proposal, and his transition to Assistant Head had occupied the Hogwarts break which might otherwise have served as their wedding and honeymoon window. He couldn't, however, be too disgruntled about a delay of some months when it had taken him so long, comparatively speaking, to realize he wanted to marry her in the first place. There had been a number of things to cause delay: the uncertainty of how Lucy might react to the news, chiefly, along with the vague guilt at no longer mourning his late wife and the equally vague guilt of having spent so long mourning her in the first place (causing quite a larger age gap between Lucy and any potential siblings than he would have liked). Then there were the insecurities. Financially speaking, he might have been a tier above the Baker family, but Walt was still unsure what a vibrant young woman like Gertrude could see in a mild old man like him.

He'd spotted a bouquet of yellow flowers in the Hogsmeade Market that morning on his way into work, and had paid a delivery boy to bring them to her desk in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. There was no note, but of course she would know whom had sent them. He wondered if it would annoy her to have such an intrusive display on her work desk, or whether the sweetness of the gesture would outweigh the potential lack of professionalism. In any case, he trusted she wouldn't be too upset. He'd managed to get through his morning passably well, though his thoughts kept drifting to her. By the time he'd reached their accustomed break time he was eager to see her reaction, and was already waiting with his coffee poured by the time she entered the room, trying and not quite managing to hide his smile behind the coffee mug.

@"Gertrude Baker" Josie Jones

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   Gertrude Brownhill

No one who knew Gertrude would would have been surprised to hear that she had that morning (as she did every morning) been working almost furiously at her desk. She was researching for one of her cases, and a huge pile of documents were neatly stacked into on her desk. By the time she got up to go for her break, three full scrolls of parchment also lay upon her desk, which had been neatly all tied up and placed to one side.

So consumed by her work, Gertrude thought as if her soul would leave her body when the delivery boy spoke to her earlier in the morning. She had tried to remain nonchalant as she thanked the boy, stay professional as she accepted the flowers. However, this did not last long, as she felt the corners of her mouth tug upwards.

The smile had remained there almost constantly since. She almost skipped down to the breakroom, eager to see Walt. If possible, her face lit up even more the second she saw his face. "Good morning!" she exclaimed, as she entered the room and walked in his direction, "Thank you for my flowers. They're beautiful."

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"Oh, you got flowers this morning?" he asked, pretending ignorance though his grin gave him away. He couldn't have prevented himself from smiling, seeing her face lit up the way it was. He wanted to ask about the type he'd chosen; while he'd been getting her little gifts for a long time now, they were still relatively new to such overt displays of affection, and he wasn't sure yet exactly what her favorite kind of flowers were. He knew, however, that she would only tell him they were perfectly lovely, and he wasn't quite done playing yet.

"You must have a secret admirer," he teased, as he rose to pull out the chair next to his for her to sit. "Do you think I ought to come sit by your desk this afternoon, to frighten him off?"

  

Gertrude couldn’t help but smile at him as Walt pulled out her chair for her. He always treated her like such a lady. Not just a woman, but a lady. Gertrude had always assumed she did not want to be treated so, as a teenager she would have perhaps said it was demeaning. However how wrong she had been. Her heart swelled with joy.

She squeezed in a quick “Thank you.” as she tried to sit down as daintily as possible. Like a lady. Gertrude was not the best at being ladylike.

She smirked at Walt. “As much as I would obviously love that, that might be a bit unfair. To my admirer that is. After buying me such beautiful flowers, then only to be scared away?” She didn’t even try to keep a deadpan look on her face as she grinned up at him.

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Walt let out a hmph noise, pretending to be put out. "Does his buying you flowers entitle him to some of your time?" he asked. He moved from the table to the nearby counter, to fetch her a mug and pour a hot cup of coffee. Of course she was perfectly capable of getting her own coffee, but he liked to do little things for her when he could. This sort of thoughtless kindness was the backbone of their relationship; it had been little things like this that had set things in motion, long before he'd finally formalized things by asking to court her.

"I wish I'd known," he remarked as he took his seat again and slid her coffee over to her. "I would've bought you flowers every day. Or is it only the beautiful ones?" he asked, teasing again.

  

Gertrude didn't understand what she had done to deserve having such a sweet man in her life. Yes, it was just a coffee this time. But it was always something, whether it was a big act or a small act. He always looked after her. Between being financially responsible for a family of seven, and constantly feeling the need to prove herself professionally, it was not often that someone took the time to look after her.

"Hmm..." she replied, pretending to stare off in the distance in thought grasping the mug in both hands, "I suppose them being beautiful flowers does help - he clearly has good taste. Surely I should reward that with at least some of my time?" She kept her eyes on him as she sipped on her coffee.

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"Well, if you must," Walt said with a smile. He thought the joke had run its course by now, and he had gotten the information he'd wanted — she did like the flowers particularly, and not just the gesture — so decided to move the conversation along.

"Did your father get the cabinet fixed?" he asked. "I could drop by after work today to give him a hand with it, if it's still giving him trouble," he offered. Of course, Gertrude could have done just as well as he could have — it was well within the realm of what could be handily accomplished with magic. Walt understood, however, that sometimes completing the task at hand was less important than giving someone a chance to work on it. He could imagine that if he were incapable of magic, he wouldn't have been eager to pass everything off to Lucy — fathers were supposed to take care of their daughters, not the other way around, no matter how capable Gertrude was. Future sons-in-law, however, might have been a bit more inoffensive. Besides, he'd take any excuse to pop by for a visit outside of working hours.

  

"He hasn't, no," Gertrude replied, "I was going to help him with it when I got chance, but you could come by if you wanted? If you don't mind that is. You could stay for dinner?" She looked at him with a hopeful smile. These days, Mrs Baker's cooking was fairly good. Now they could afford decent ingredients, they ate well. It was still hotpot and stews and pies most nights, but it was usually tasty, and adequate at worst. It was common knowledge Mrs Baker was no Mrs Beeton.

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"Of course I don't mind," Walt said immediately. He was more worried about whether she minded; he didn't want to imply that she wasn't capable by swooping in to offer help. It was hardly that he thought he would do it any better than she would; he wanted to do it because he wanted a chance to interact more with her father, and he wanted the man to like him, and he wanted to be seen as generally helpful and useful in the Baker household — and if it earned him an invitation to stay for dinner, then that certainly wasn't a bad thing, either.

"And I'd love to stay for dinner. If you don't think it'll put your mother out too much?" he asked, trying to be conscientious of the work involved in cooking for a large family; on most nights one more mouth might not make much difference, but he didn't want to catch her unawares and make her feel put out about anything. Not that he would mind if the dinner wasn't meant for company, or the house wasn't perfectly clean, but he didn't want to cause her to feel self-conscious about anything if he could avoid it.

  

In reality, Gertrude should have most definitely checked with her mother before inviting Walt round for dinner. However, that wasn't really how her mind always worked.

"Of course not!" she replied matter-of-factly, "Everyone would love to have you round!" By everyone, Gertrude really only meant herself. While the Baker family did very much like her choice in fiancé, and most likely would have been happy to have him round for dinner. It was again another case of her assuming they felt the same as her.

"We were talking about it the other day how they wanted to see you soon. And Lucy." Gertrude added, sipping on her drink.

---

  

Walt smiled at her reassurances, but made a mental note to send off an owl to Mrs. Baker and warn her he was coming after their coffee break. They might very well have been talking, in the abstract, about wanting to see him (or that might have just been something Gertrude was saying to be kind), but it didn't necessarily mean they were prepared for company tonight. It couldn't hurt to give her a quick heads up, just in case.

"Lucy's back at Hogwarts," he said, though of course Gertrude would have known that. "But her first Hogsmeade weekend is this Saturday. As for seeing your family, though — maybe the wedding," he said with a slight frown. He wasn't sure whether Hogwarts students were allowed to travel as far as Irvingly on their afternoon trips to the village. Even if they were, Lucy was a teenager — he was lucky that she even made time for him, with all of the shops and friends and other things to do. It would have been easy for them to come and visit him during one of Lucy's breaks, if they were able, but a Hogsmeade house would never be accessible to Muggles. Lucy would be home for the Easter break, of course, but that was only a few days before they were set to marry.

  

Yes, yes. Gertrude knew all that. "I know," she replied, sighing ever so slightly in defeat, "They're just excited for us to be a family." There wasn't much the Bakers agreed on - a large, almost rowdy family, was perhaps always going to be that way - but the importance of family meant a lot to them.

"We're the Bakers," she stated with a shrug, "We just want to be a big happy family. The more the merrier." Her tone was very matter-of-fact. She was sure Walt knew by now that family was everything to her. And although Gertrude herself did not want to be contributing any children to said big anytime soon, that didn't mean that Walt and Lucy wouldn't be welcome additions to the family.

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   Walter Brownhill

Walt smiled; the sentiment was one that he shared. His family, growing up, had the same sort of energy as the Bakers: large, a bit chaotic, but cheerful and loving. It was exactly what he wanted for his own household, someday. The stars hadn't aligned with his first wife and her fertility issues, and after her death he'd nearly given up on that particular dream, pouring all of his energy instead into caring for Lucy. Now that he was just a few short months from being married, however, it once again seemed like a possibility — no, an inevitability. The prospect delighted him.

"Well, soon enough you'll be a Brownhill," he said warmly. "I can hardly wait," he continued, with a wide smile.

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   Josie Jones

"Mrs Brownhill..." Gertrude replied, as she soaked it in. There was a part of her that thought she would always be Gertrude Baker. When she had spent so much time and energy dedicated to her career - and had been so openly dedicated to her career - it would not be a stretch to say spinsterhood had been on the cards. But no, she had met Walt, who wasn't intimidated by her life choices. It felt glorious.

For a few seconds, Gertrude pretended to have to sum up how she felt about it in her head. She stared off, pretending to be deep in decision. "Well, I think that sounds..." Gertrude couldn't even finish her sentence before she broke out in a huge smile, "I think that sounds real good."

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Walt watched her, unable to keep from smiling like the lovesick fool he was. "Does it?" he asked, leaning in slightly as though he intended to kiss her, though of course he would never engage in such an overt display of affection right in the middle of the Ministry of Magic. "If we weren't at work," he said quietly, "I would kiss you so hard."

  

Gertrude smiled bashfully. She was still getting her head around the idea of actually being intimate with a man. After so long of it being so inappropriate, it was still strange. Despite all of that though, she very much did enjoy it. Despite her awkwardness, her smile was genuine.

"Well Mr Brownhill," she replied, pretending to have an air of professional formality between the two "I'm sure we'll have lots of time for that soon."

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