Week In, Week Out

Home

21 Jan 1992

The next week, everyone showed up again, and seemed slightly less reluctant to be there. Professor Sprout considered this to be a success, but things were only superficial so far. She wanted them to build lasting connections.

She decided that this week was all about building on the previous one, and ended up asking the house elves for sandwiches made from cheeses other than cheddar. She also decided that as it was only January, it was exactly the right season for soup, so acquisitioned several different types. The lentil soup was fairly bland yet hearty, and the pepper soup was spicy and had an abundance of flavour. This spread, she hoped, would give all her charges something they wanted to eat while also being different from the usual fare from the Great Hall. Soup had been banned in 1976 after an irate Severus Snape had emptied a bowl of parsnip soup over James Potter's head, glared at Sirius Black and then stormed out of the room. She did not know what that had been about, but had missed soup ever since. She had once attempted to get soup reinstated in 1979 claiming that everyone deserved soup and that it would be a comfort to the students during the war. The Headmaster had claimed that it was a question of hygiene and she had proposed him tucking his beard behind his ears. Strangely, this solution had not been popular.

The group sat down in exactly the same formation as the previous week in the same not quite circle and Professor Sprout decided to give the same type of brief remark as last week.

"This week, we will be focusing on Home, and Adrian will be speaking."

Adrian cringed slightly, before straightening up and saying, "I live at my parents' estate, Morrel which is in Cumbria. It was bequeathed to my grandfather, who was the youngest son of The Earl of..."

Professor Sprout very quickly realised that her success in the first week had very likely been a fluke. Adrian Pucey talked about the home in which he had spent most of his childhood like he was an estate agent. He spoke with none of the passion or spontaneity that Cho had spoken with the previous week. He was...boring. Clearly everything had been rehearsed and he didn't sound like he believed what he was saying. It was all 'reputation this' and 'Bagnold, a dear friend of my Mother's'.

"...and that is why I think my house is such a wonderful place to live. It is a testament to the principles of Palladian architecture thus demonstrating my own family's influence in the symmetry and structure of our magical society. It has state of the art self lighting candles..."

"I think that's enough Adrian," Professor Sprout finally said. "Does anyone have any questions?"

The entire group sat in silence. Adrian looked panicked and was clearly not comfortable with either the question or the answer. His fingernails which were already nearly non-existent, were going through more shredding. The others were clearly not quite sure what to do as they had never been to an estate showing before. She wondered whether they knew anything about Palladian architecture. She did. She had been to a National Trust property with Charity Burbage, an old friend and muggle studies enthusiast once and although she had mainly been there for the café, the tour had been interesting as well.

"Are there...portraits?" Addie had presumably just said the first thing that had come to mind. She had clearly been looking around in an attempt to avoid looking at any one person throughout the talk, and on the walls of Professor Sprout's office there were a variety of pictures of plants and a large unmoving portrait of Helga Hufflepuff. Unlike most likenesses in the castle, this portrait did not move as the art of capturing a person as they were at a certain point of their life in canvas had not yet been invented when the portrait had been taken.

"Yes," Adrian said reservedly. "Since the days of the first earl, my family has been collecting portraits from throughout the magical commonwealth. We have the third most extensive collection unique magical portraits of subjects ranging from Ministers from the last 200 years, all of whom have stayed during hunting weekends, to members of my own family. Family portraits of this generation are in existence but will not be mounted permanently until after any members of my immediate family are dead. Smaller photographs of my immediate family are available on the antique piano in the drawing room, and demonstrate some of the best developments in colour photography. We have a selection of portraits of men and married women from my own family, as well as simplistic profiles of any unmarried women."