InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Don't get smart...."

Hannah Abbott (puffprincess) wrote in all_roads,
@ 2008-04-12 21:58:00

Entry tags:

*thread-inprogress, ernie macmillan, hannah abbott, hestia jones

Journal chaos; Abbott's [HA, EM, HJ]
WHO:Hannah, Ernie, Hestia
WHERE: the Abbott's
WHEN: Tuesday, 11 January, 2000; evening
SUMMARY: Hannah unwisely involves herself in Bella's recent journal entry. IN-PROGRESS THREAD.
RATING: PG-13

When she lifted her quill to write-shout at Bellatrix, Hannah had known it was a bad idea, yet had done so anyhow. She hadn't meant to actually read her journal, it had simply been open in the living room where she was hunting for movies for them to watch, but the familiar names, one hurtfully familiar and the other happily familiar, had caught her attention. After she had started, it had been hard not to continue, but she quickly she had reached the point where it was decided for her.

'...letting him end up like your mother.'

That had been the finally blow before tears blurred her vision too much to even respond more. One too many mentions of her mother, one too many bad memories of recent times and the past. One too many hurts.

Sinking to the floor, she wrapped her arms around her legs and pressed her face to her knees, her entire body shaking violently as she cried.

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lost_ernie
2008-04-13 03:09 am UTC (link)

Ernie laughed, gently swatting Hestia with a corner of the blanket. It was so good to have her back, to have her to joke with. It was odd, camping out in Dominic and Hestia's room, but it was worth it to have Hestia home again.

"You're a dork, Jones, and you're boring me to tears." He opened his journal theatrically, pretending to read it when his eyes caught Bella's entry. He let himself scan it briefly, taking in the fact that both Hannah and Miles had talked to he. It was the teardrops that he saw in one of Hannah's entries that prevented him from reading the damned thing fully, because he knew that he had to get to her. He dropped the journal.

He didn't want to worry Hestia right away, didn't want to concern her before it was time to concern her. "I'm going to go see what Hannah's up to." He patted her on the head, ruffling her hair playfully. "If I'm not back in five minutes, you might come after me, we never know when Dominic's coming over." It was a lie, he wanted her to come and help with Hannah if he couldn't manage to make her stop reading and help her in five minutes, but if this was minor, if Hannah could be easily persuaded to stop reading and if he could manage to cheer her up a bit, then he didn't want to worry Hestia. She had, after all, only recently been found after a kidnapping that lasted days.

The owl came a few seconds later, and that cost him precious more time, taking the note from the bird and scanning the contents for a moment before folding the parchment and sticking it in his pocket. You had to love Stebbins's timing always either two seconds ahead of or behind Ernie, but then again, that was the sort of antagonistic partnership they had, they always had to one up one another.

"Gods but I love Stebbins, bugging us at this late hour." Ernie said unconvincingly, gesturing toward the door with a nod of his head. "Anyway, Jones, remember, come to rescue me in five minutes if I'm not back, alright?

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eagleofdelphi
2008-04-13 03:54 am UTC (link)

"You're bored? I have to put up with you and stay in bed," Hestia teased back, facing twisted to comical grumpiness. "This deal is way worse than yours."

Her sharp gaze, despite the bedriddenness of the last two days, didn't miss him suddenly drop the journal, however. Given that Hannah hadn't been gone long, that he was leaving so quickly after that action made long-conditioned senses go on alert. Was something going on? After everyone's behavior the last day and a half, having them hide even little things was far from surprising, and-

Owl?

Okay, something was definitely going on – not that owls arriving was out of the ordinary, but the neat timing of all the events in the last handful of minutes was leading up to one of several assumptions. She hadn't had the right angle to recognize if it was from Dominic or not, but that was what she was assuming. Damn. Dominic had been a scrooge about her journal usage as well, she couldn't even check hers.

But wait. Here was one right within her grasp – well, with a little movement, in her grasp.

"You're not allowed to let me get bored, boss's orders, so five minutes exactly," she said, smiling innocently at him, just waiting for him to leave so she could pick up his journal. "

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lost_ernie
2008-04-13 04:00 am UTC (link)

Ernie bowed quickly. Normally he would have carried on the jig a bit longer, smirked and said some comment about her pulling out her whip to beat her poor subservient trainee into submission, but not this time. This time he was far too distracted with getting to Hannah as soon as he could quickly, so he rushed downstairs, never noticing that his journal was easily within her reach.

"Hannah?" He called softly, finally finding her on the floor with her face buried in her knees, her whole body seeming to shake with the force of her tears. Damn Bellatrix Lestrange for doing this to her. Regardless of what you might have thought about Hannah (and he thought that she was the single most caring, compassionate person on the planet, no one deserved to hurt like this, and even had Bellatrix been a saint before (and Ernie knew for fact that wasn't the case) this alone would be enough to make Ernie want to condemn her to eternal, very painful, damnation.

"Oh Hannah..." he sat on the floor next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I didn't read it, but I saw you talking to her."

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puffprincess
2008-04-13 04:11 am UTC (link)

Still smiling innocently, Hestia waited until the door closed and a count of ten before scrambling to snatch up the journal. Opening it, she paged through, hunting. It didn't take long before she found what she had been looking for and out of the bed she went in search of writing instruments.

Hannah didn't hear Ernie until he was in the room with her, at which point she looked up at him for a moment with tears streaking down her face. A second later, she had lunged at him, wrapping her arms around him as she cried now into his shirt rather than her damp trousers.

"She said... she said she's going to tell everyone, tell them he's a Death Eater!"

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lost_ernie
2008-04-13 04:17 am UTC (link)

"No one will believe her." Ernie said, hoping that his voice was more reassuring than he felt just now. After all, while you could say many things about Bellatrix Lestrange, most of the public knew that, unfortunately, she still possessed most of her sanity. She wasn't the sort of raving lunatic that came up with things that outlandish, not yet anyhow, perhaps not ever. "She's a horrible, wretched woman, and your dad has done a lot to help everyone. They'll believe him over her in a heartbeat."

Unless, of course, they didn't. Ernie would kill anyone who harmed, or hinted at harming, Hannah, but even he couldn't stop public suspicion forever. "Besides, if she does, then it might work out in our favor anyhow. He would have no more obligation to them and we could show how he's been helping the aurors. They could protect him, and they'd likely think more of him for risking so much to help."

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puffprincess
2008-04-13 05:14 am UTC (link)

Hannah shook her head fiercely. She couldn't believe that, not entirely. People might not trust Bellatrix, of course, but the suspicion alone might make them willing to find answers. Her father had no way of truly removing the Mark and it was damning proof if they made him submit to a search. And it was about more than just what it would mean for his job, it was about his safety. The Aurors weren't infallible.

"No, it won't even take that much! There are... there are Death Eaters who don't know about Dad. They could come after him now!" she sobbed, holding tight. Then he would be gone, just like her mother.

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lost_ernie
2008-04-13 06:24 am UTC (link)

Ernie lifted a finger to press over her lips. "Shhh...hush now. He has people who care about him, in you, and Hestia, people who will work tirelessly to protect him, and he has people who support him, like most of his staff, and many of the aurors, and even me. We won't let anything hurt him, not his job, not his position, not him. Lestrange, for all of her raging, can't change that."

He pulled her closer, kissing at a few of the tears on her face. "We've been through worse than this, and if we have to, if we think that it warrants it, we'll find a way for your dad to spin this, to out himself as the Death Eater informant before Lestrange gets a chance to. He'll seem like some sort of martyr, people will love him, and be that much more protective of him. Of you. Of Hestia and the baby. Listen to me, Hannah Abbott, I'm not going to let anything happen to anyone, alright?"

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puffprincess
2008-04-13 07:17 am UTC (link)

"I can't lose him," Hannah cried, pressing her face to his shoulder as she held tighter, "or anyone else, and no one can stop everything, otherwise Hestia would have never been kidnapped!"

She wasn't blaming Ernie, at all, as that would have been ridiculous, but the kidnapping and the infiltration of her home by a Death Eater, even one who had turned out to be sympathetic one, had still rocked her to the core. It was only in forgetting something bad had happened, as she had done with him for a sadly short time earlier, that she could feel secure again. Now she felt shaky and anxious and afraid all over again.

Admittedly, she didn't feel entirely exposed and vulnerable, and it had nothing to do with the Aurors and guards and more, just with Ernie. She clung to him now as safety, as something to make sense when right now, she couldn't make some of this make any sense at all.

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