She was trying to be at least a little humorous, he recognized, and probably he should have just taken it at face value there and appreciated her attempt to lighten the mood in the same spirit that he had offered he wouldn't like to ruin her life entirely. But she had chosen a subject that he had very strongly held (if very seldom discussed) feelings about, and so he could not help the flicker of trepidation when she said she had always wanted to live in Hogsmeade. Ford had grown up in the countryside, and would have been quite content to have stayed there his whole life had their financial situation been different after his father's death. He missed his childhood home every day — or at least every time he let himself think about it. Hogsmeade was dreadful by comparison: the neighborhoods too crowded; the architecture too uniform; the weather too monotonous; the nights too quiet; the days too loud. When he'd sold the Greengrass house in the country and moved to Noble's rented home in Bartonburg he had told everyone it would be a great benefit to be so much closer to society, but he had never believed it and had always regretted it.
He had sometimes fantasized about being able to buy it back at some future date, when he wasn't busy fantasizing about faking his own death and fleeing the country. The latter had taken primacy as the years went on as it seemed the more realistic of the two daydreams. Both were quite firmly out of reach now.
So if she was looking forward to living in Hogsmeade it meant one of two things: either the pair of them had hardly anything in common, because she wanted all the things from a residence that he didn't care about and disregarded all of the things he valued — or she was about to be monstrously disappointed when she came to Hogsmeade and reality settled in.
"Do you have friends there?" he asked. The proximity to people he liked was the only thing that had made it tolerable for him — though he suspected this would feel more like a burden than a benefit after the wedding, since Tycho would still only be a few streets away.
He had sometimes fantasized about being able to buy it back at some future date, when he wasn't busy fantasizing about faking his own death and fleeing the country. The latter had taken primacy as the years went on as it seemed the more realistic of the two daydreams. Both were quite firmly out of reach now.
So if she was looking forward to living in Hogsmeade it meant one of two things: either the pair of them had hardly anything in common, because she wanted all the things from a residence that he didn't care about and disregarded all of the things he valued — or she was about to be monstrously disappointed when she came to Hogsmeade and reality settled in.
"Do you have friends there?" he asked. The proximity to people he liked was the only thing that had made it tolerable for him — though he suspected this would feel more like a burden than a benefit after the wedding, since Tycho would still only be a few streets away.
Set by Lady!