In the heart of London's downtown core was a rickety looking old apartment building that looked like it had survived the WWII Blitz. The filigree and moldings along the outer windows and roof top were crumbling and rust stained and the building had a slight tilt to it.
However like most things concerning magic the outer appearance to the building was vastly different to its interior. High up on the uppermost floor, in the last apartment on the right was a door with the number 34 nailed to it. There was nothing odd about the door, only the welcome matt was a little, unusual.
"Wizards Parking Only. All Others Will Be Toad."
It was Mordecai's idea of a harmless joke. His neighbors already thought him to be an odd bloke, one of those rugby hooligans that spends all his time down at the pub with the rest of the gang and the game, and who was Mordecai to crush their dreams?
On the other side of the door was Mordecai's personalize bachelor pad. There were five large rooms instead of the two that he was paying rent for. The perks of magic I tell ya. The main entrance led into a large games room, complete with a massive mahogany pool table in the center. A Muggle home entertainment system was set up in the far corner, surround sound, leather couches, and big screen plasma TV included. Everything was dark leather and oak paneling with rich carpeting. Yet just about every inch of wall space was filled with Quidditch artifacts and memorabilia. A vast collection of imported racing brooms was hung on the right wall, incased in glass that was bewitched to repel anyone from touching the brooms expect for the rightful owner. Mordecai was very protective of those brooms.
Frames pictures, posters, trophies, flags, jerseys, and just about anything else you could think of that was Quidditch related was neatly hung on the walls. Twenty years of memories flashed and flew from picture to picture and in the center of the impressive collection was a life-size replica of the Quidditch World Cup with the dates 1992 and 2008 engraved on its base along with the names of the team members. Those were the years that the New Zealand Nationals won the Cup. Only a decade between wins that took most teams a lifetime to achieve. Not bad for a bunch of Kiwi blokes from a small island eh?
The kitchen was off to the side, a small hallway connecting it from the Main Room. High-tech, stainless steel and all Modern Muggle. Mordecai couldn't cook worth a damn but frozen dinners tasted just as good to him as home cooked ones. He could have gotten a house elf to do his cooking for him but Mordecai wasn't the servitude type. Freedom was a precious thing, why should he be responsible for taking away someone elses?
The bedroom was connected to the bathroom and well, no one had any business going in there expect for Mordecai. However he did manage to install a full size Jacuzzi and a sauna, for health reasons of course. Britain's damp climate had a tendency to play havoc with his aching joints.
The last room of the place was his study. It was taller than it was wide and a large oak desk took up the majority of the room. One wall was lined with shelves of brandy, whisky, scotch, rum, vodka, and various other strong liquors that he had acquired a taste for over the years. A mid-size fireplace took up the other wall and over the mantle hung a collection of various Maori weapons that surrounded the biggest stuffed Crocodile head you ever saw. Two full sized Taiaha spears with the traditional greenstone tongues embedded in the ends were propped up on either side of the Croc head and in the croc's gaping jaws was a polished New Zealand greenstone jade carving, roughly the size of a dragon's egg. Everything about the room spoke of a lifestyle that didn't quite fit in with the British standards. There was something odd about the room, as if the atmosphere were heavier there. It could be the fact that the room was the only spot in the flat that was over 38 degrees while the rest of the place was of an average temperature.
Whenever Mordecai wasn't up at the school coaching the Quidditch teams he could be found here, his home away from home. The door was always open to anyone who wished to pop in for a visit. Just as long as they remembered to bring the Fire Whiskey with them.