Ford winced slightly at the noise Grace's chair made, but tried to hide it. Maybe if everyone was just going to pretend it hadn't happened, Lestrange would ignore it too and not read it for what it was: a very obvious signal that Grace was already panicking about this, and she hadn't even managed to say one word to their guest yet. Merlin help them when it came time for her to debut. If Ford thought attending dinner parties was tedious with Verity for company, he could only imagine how much he'd hate them when it was Grace's turn. At least Clem was bound to be a little better company — assuming they actually made it to Clem's debut without ruining the whole family first, which wasn't actually a given.
Mama's question was a fairly innocuous one, with a very simple answer, but it made Ford anxious all the same. What if instead of just saying school, Lestrange got into the details of how their actual friendship had started? They had been little more than acquaintances at school — they'd been lab partners once and even while working on the same project together for weeks, Ford felt like Lestrange had barely spoken to him — so it wouldn't have been out of the realm of possibility for him to have answered with only the more recent things. What if he mentioned the night in Londonderry? Ford had never told his siblings about his hobby of tracking down Muggle spiritualists to internally ridicule them, but he had also never mentioned to Lestrange that it was sort of a secret, so he might bring it up. At the very least, Ford would be in for some teasing from his siblings. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility that Verity might demand he stop, least someone else in the magical community find out and deem him eccentric, which (at least in Verity's mind if not in reality) would ruin her marriage prospects by association.
"We were yearmates at school," he said quickly, before Lestrange could say anything about haunted houses — hopefully he either wouldn't care that Ford had jumped in to answer the question, or would interpret his eagerness to do so correctly and pick up on the whole let's not talk about Derry energy that Ford was trying his best to exude. "And we see each other at the club from time to time."
Set by Lady!
Mama's question was a fairly innocuous one, with a very simple answer, but it made Ford anxious all the same. What if instead of just saying school, Lestrange got into the details of how their actual friendship had started? They had been little more than acquaintances at school — they'd been lab partners once and even while working on the same project together for weeks, Ford felt like Lestrange had barely spoken to him — so it wouldn't have been out of the realm of possibility for him to have answered with only the more recent things. What if he mentioned the night in Londonderry? Ford had never told his siblings about his hobby of tracking down Muggle spiritualists to internally ridicule them, but he had also never mentioned to Lestrange that it was sort of a secret, so he might bring it up. At the very least, Ford would be in for some teasing from his siblings. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility that Verity might demand he stop, least someone else in the magical community find out and deem him eccentric, which (at least in Verity's mind if not in reality) would ruin her marriage prospects by association.
"We were yearmates at school," he said quickly, before Lestrange could say anything about haunted houses — hopefully he either wouldn't care that Ford had jumped in to answer the question, or would interpret his eagerness to do so correctly and pick up on the whole let's not talk about Derry energy that Ford was trying his best to exude. "And we see each other at the club from time to time."
Set by Lady!