"Mum, for the last time I don't have a -" and for the umpteenth time Conor was having to keep up pretences with his scatterbrained mother who on many occasions he had apparently told her an array of things that simply weren't true. He grit his teeth and listened to her next screech about when the girl should come visit her in St. Mungos, but of course Conor had switched off since then and had shifted his weight to one side of his body, all the while fingering the ergonomic handle on the orange briefcase he had been instructed to bring with him today.
Walking down Diagon after getting it from a big numbered vault at Gringotts, Conor had almost felt like a criminal. Almost. He of course had not even an inkling as to what was in there, but from what it felt like when he swung it gingerly, it was nothing. Not even the tell tale swish of parchment inside, which made him even more nervous. But as he'd felt that familiar scratch from his watch strap pinching at hair and skin on his wrist, and he saw it was nearing time for his mother to call, he'd decided it best to take rest at the Leaky Cauldron and lay low- after all, with this pick up from Gringotts being so covert and all, what did it hurt to be a little more secretive? It'd give him the time to get the old bat out of the way anyway. He wasn't expecting David to be a petty overseeing employer, but he didn't want the old bag ringing up just as they were about to sign plans to get rid of Goblins or something. Conor had made a pristine reputation and not even his mother was going to mess that up.
"I don't know about that," he said vaguely, shifting further away from the crackling embers with his mother's face on. "She's been deployed overseas for a while. Desk work. We don't know how long she's gone for, nor if we'll even last that long. It might be a year. Maybe two," he added hopefully, thinking of all the time he'd have not having to make excuses for a made up girlfriend.
Conor sighed and decided he wasn't in the mood to play Shelly's game to day and made a garbled goodbye, propped an ankle over his knee and waited for the other ministry officials he was supposed to rendezvouz with on Diagon.
