Sunday March 22nd, 1890 - Fraser Family Home
Ailsa Fraser Ewart Fraser

Two weeks. No notice. Eugene had assumed that they were just missing one another, after the time disaster and the Department of Mysteries likely being overloaded, he supposed Astrild was just working longer hours, but as they never shared a bed let alone the dinner table, he'd finally realized she was just... gone.

Huh.

Apparently Eugene really was going to rock this single parent thing. However, he thought he out to at least check her parents' house to make sure that she wasn't just hiding from him and Theseus.

Knocking on his in-laws' door, Eugene shifted from foot to foot a little nervously. Why he was nervous he had no idea, perhaps a little embarrassed he was just noticing his wife was well and truly gone, but the fact remained- she hadn't given him any warning or notice, so what else was he supposed to believe?

Once he was let in, he was shown to the drawing room and asked to wait while Ailsa and Ewart were located (which apparently could take some time? Because their household staff had no idea where they were at currently.) This was going to be one hell of a conversation, he just knew it.

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“Eugene, my boy!” Ewart exclaimed brightly as he wandered in after having at last put on some trousers. (These had a terrible burn mark somewhere about the left knee, but perhaps Ailsa wouldn’t see.)

“Ah, if I’d known it was you I’d have brought Humphrey and Gertrude in to say good afternoon!” Or indeed, he would have, if he remembered where in the house he’d left them sitting today. The iguanas were not the liveliest pair, but any young fellow who worked with magical beasts could surely appreciate such wonderful natural specimens. “Ailsa will be in in a jiffy, I’m sure,” he added belatedly, waving a hand to tell their son-in-law to make himself at home. (Ewart didn’t want to pry, but he looked a little -  befuddled.)

“You didn’t bring Theseus along, did you?” Ewart said after a moment, peering around the side of the sofa as if the toddler might be hiding somewhere.

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Technically Ailsa was supposed to be working on a corset for a young lady not at all pleased with the abundance of her figure but somewhere along the line she had begun to wonder whether a sense of self-belief would help Miss ___ more than cinching would and, whilst her mind pondered how to convey that, she had fallen soundly asleep underneath her fabric swatches. The were surprisingly cosy and the last few weeks had been rather tiring with owls occasionally pecking the windows in the dead of night: Astrild’s timing had never been exactly outstanding and it wasn’t really her fault the owl’s took their time to fly across the North Sea.

The maid’s gentle shake roused her from a wonderful dream involving Vikings and stockings and moments later, blinking away sleep, Ailsa ambled into the drawing room to meet her son-in-law.

“Eugene darling,” she greeted, kissing him gently on the cheek, and looking around the ground in the same manner her husband had moments before she'd entered the room. “What a lovely surprise! Where's my grandson?”

  

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Astrild's parents were... well, one of a kind, but Eugene had zero complaints about them. They'd welcomed him into the family with open arms, despite the unusual nature of the beginning of the marriage and for that he was incredibly thankful. In the end, he'd only tried to do what's right by Astrild and Theseus, so realistically he had at least succeeded there.

Their warm greeting was a bit of a relief, it put him a little at ease; if they knew something he didn't at this point, well at least it couldn't be detrimental if they were still so relaxed. "I apologize for showing up unannounced and without Theseus," Eugene had thought about bringing him, they were his grandparents after all, but he didn't quite think, even at a year old, that Theseus needed to hear about the fact that his mother was missing.

"Next time, I promise, but I uh, have a more urgent matter to discuss; do you know where Astrild is?" He didn't feel like mentioning that it had been two whole weeks since he'd actually seen her at home, even in passing.

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No Theseus today, then. More was the pity. “Never mind,” Ewart agreed, opening his mouth to add do tell him hello from us, when Eugene’s urgent matter came to the forefront.

Ah, Astrild.

Neither he nor Ailsa could be surprised to call a child of theirs a free spirit, but that was not to say their children did not retain the capacity to surprise them, upon occasion. Astrild’s departure had been one of them; Ewart wasn’t certain how much her dear young husband knew.

“Ah, where indeed!” Ewart said cheerily, assuming the best - or reading the question a little wrong, one of the two. “Difficult to say, really, for they’re not really on the map out there! Though I fancy it’s somewhere near Geiranger -” although he had been about to sit down, he sprang back up to start rifling through a cabinet against the wall, stuffed full of books and papers, “- and I shall show you, if I can find my best map of Norway...”

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“It’s in the second drawer down,” Ailsa offered with a fond shake of her head and an aside to Eugene. “He barely uses it and yet he’s always losing it.”

Taking the seat Ewart had not she smiled brightly at Eugene, leaning forward in her chair. It hadn’t shocked her at all that Astrild had opted to stay in Norway – it was a delightful place and Ailsa was thoroughly pleased that all those trips abroad during the children’s youth finally seemed to have rubbed off on one of them. Astrild has always been the most like her, though even Ailsa had to admit she would never in a million years have left behind Ewart or one of her babies.

But then it wasn’t as though Astrild was gone for good. At least, not as far as she knew.

“It really is the most beautiful country you could ever see dear, have you been at all? I’m sure your work with the Ministry takes you all sorts of places.”

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Despite their eclectic nature and sweet willingness to welcome him into the family, Eugene was often frustrated by the sheer lack of common sense his in-laws possess. If they weren't so damn good to him and Theseus, he probably wouldn't have bothered to even as here.

They knew though, and they didn't fucking think to tell him.

"I'm sorry Norway? You know she's in Norway and didn't bother to let me know?" Eugene tried to keep the incredulity out of his tone, but honestly. "And why is she in Norway and not home with her son?" Eugene was not one of those men who assumed a woman was going to stay home and be a housewife if that wasn't what she wanted. Lena had beaten into his subconscious that babies did not mean that one had to give up a career when the were in the position to hire staff, but leaving with no warning was another thing entirely.

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“Ah, thank you, dearest,” Ewart said, with a little flourish of rusty Norwegian as he found the map precisely where his wife had said. He had been quite interested in the next question she’d asked, but their son-in-law’s tone saw him turn to face them both again, map half-forgotten in his hands.

He blinked. “My boy, didn’t she tell you?” he exclaimed, suddenly bemused. It had come as quite a shock to them just the same with the first owl’s arrival, but the impulse for adventure Astrild evidently had was understandable... Why Eugene seemed unaware was rather the mystery, though. “Of course, she didn’t tell us her plans either...” He added, mulling the entire thing over in his mind, “...but perhaps one of her owls got a little lost on its way over?” It seemed a reasonable guess to account for this particular missing puzzle piece. The owl that had delivered theirs had looked a little haggard after its journey. Ewart glanced at Ailsa, quite perplexed. Had Eugene really not heard about Norway?

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It had never seriously occurred to Ailsa that her daughter might not have told Eugene as, for all her own flightiness, Ailsa would never have conceived of going anywhere without informing Ewart. She had assumed given the whirlwind nature of Astrild’s marriage that there was a deep well of love between the young couple and she was temporarily shocked into silence by the revelation.

Her husband seemed just as confused as she, which made her feel moderately better, but turning back to Eugene she leant forward in her seat, expression as guileless as a child's.

“I’m quite sure she meant to tell you she was staying on for a little while,” Ailsa offered, oblivious to the young man’s ignorance that she had been in another country in the first place.

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If the Frasers hadn't been so good to him in the past year he would have up and walked out. "Unfortunately no, Astrild did not tell me anything about her plans to leave or even that she was thinking about it." They didn't speak much at all, but this was huge! How could she think that leaving their young son without a mother for any length of time? To say Eugene was perplexed and angry was an understatement.

"Did she give any indication if or when she was coming back?" Honestly! Eugene understood that their marriage was pretty much a sham but he was doing everything he could to do right by Theseus, why was he the only one? He fucked up and that was on him, he was doing his best, but this was not a solo project. He needed her help for fuck's sake!

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“I’m afraid I really... can’t say,” Ewart began, befuddled by this whole sequence of events. “It is rather a shame she didn’t take you and Theseus along with her. Norway is a glorious place, much to see, you know...” He had been speaking earnestly - perfectly sincerely - but he trailed off here, with the strangest hunch that Eugene was not in the right mood to hear of the country’s virtues, if he had not known of her destination at all.

“Perhaps you might write to her directly?” He suggested, trying to be helpful. Or optimistic. Or both. Now that he knew where she was, he could send along an owl and he was perfectly sure Astrild would divulge her plans. “And the moment we hear another word from her, we’ll...!” Ewart again nodded himself into silence, trying to unpick what had been in Astrild’s head lately; and what indeed was going through Eugene’s, being left here with little Theseus and his Ministry career.

Ah, settling down to the typical life. He remembered quite how difficult it was it do - it had taken Ailsa and he a decade at least!

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“We’ll send an owl to you straight away,” Ailsa finished for her husband, sensing as he had that Eugene was rather more agitated about this that she had initially imagined. Which was quite understandable now she came to think about it – the poor boy had a child to look after all on his own! Well, not entirely on his own, she supposed, what with the nanny and his sisters and them, but still! Far from easy.

“And of course you must still come to dinner on Sunday. We won’t hear of you going to work on Monday without a good meal inside you!”

Eugene would of course remain part of the family, Ailsa couldn’t conceive of any other eventuality, and once Astrild came back they might reconcile and all would be well!

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"I have, no response." Maybe the owl hadn't found her, maybe she had chosen not to respond, Eugene really didn't know, but it was frustrating to say the least. He could see that Ailsa was starting to clue in and he was appreciative of that. They had been so good to him in spite of the nature of his marriage to their daughter and the surprise arrival of Theseus that even if Astrild never popped back up, he rather thought of them as extended family.

He simmered a little, reminding himself that this was not their fault- or his for that matter. "Of course, Sunday night dinner, Theseus and I will be there." They were still his grandparents and nothing would change that, regardless of his mother's involvement, or lack thereof. It would probably be a little awkward for some time, but he could suck it up and deal with it for the benefit of his son. People who chose to stay and be involved were welcome and he would make the effort to keep the relationship available to them.

"We'll see you then." He promised, giving them a passable smile, as he stood to excuse himself.

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wrap?

  

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