Who: Nate & Lavender When: Friday, 3 June Where: St. Mungo’s What: Nate goes to visit, whether they’re happy with it or not Rating: PG-13 Status: started in gdocs, continued in thread
Nate had made sure to let Luag know where he was going before he left work to go over to St. Mungo’s. He’d promised to send a message if there were any problems, and then packed up both of his decks (if all else failed, whether they did readings or not, he thought Lavender would be distracted by the new deck) and headed over.
It wasn’t easy getting in to see her. They’d searched him, making sure he wasn’t carrying anything sharp, hard, or potentially damaging. When Nate had tried to push back, they’d said they didn’t want the patient injuring herself, but it was obvious that they really didn’t want to risk her injuring them. Nate pressed his lips together, not commenting on the fact that if she were going to injure them, he was pretty sure she would’ve already, weapons or not. But that wasn’t Lavender. Instead he just bore the search and the long list of questions with as little commentary as he could manage. His only outburst was over his decks, making sure they treated them well as they unwrapped the silken bundles and rifled through the cards.
However, in the end, they finally let him in to see her. He winced and stood there, just inside the door as it closed behind him, and spread his hands in an open arm invitation for a hug. “Hey, luv.”
They had given back her journal and the human contact was nice, but she had trouble believing it was entirely real. No matter how much she thought about it she couldn’t figure out how they could replicate her friends and their responses and slowly she began to believe that the words on the pages were authentic. The downside of that was obviously that a lot of what her friends had to tell her was not good.
When Nate stood in the doorway of the room that had seen only Healers and Medi-Witches she likewise thought it unreal. Lavender had to wipe a tear from her cheek before she pulled herself off of the bed and ran to him, accepting the offered hug with a flourish. “They let you in?” she asked with an emotional voice. She didn’t want to cling to him and so she peeled herself away reluctantly.
“C’mon.” Nate kept an arm around her shoulders and led her back to the bed, sitting down comfortably and tugging her to lean against his shoulder if she liked. He’d never been one to shy away from contact, and remained of the firm belief that a hug went a long way towards curing ills. “They almost strip-searched me, but yeah, they let me in. Even let me keep my decks.” He produced the two silk-wrapped decks of cards, one old and one new, and held them out on the palm of his hand. “But they made it difficult. Wouldn’t be surprised if they expected me to back down. On the other hand, how much damage is a fashion designer going to do? They made sure I didn’t sneak in any needles.” His tone was wry and teasing, but there was an undertone of truth to it.
As he pulled her back to the bed and against him she didn’t exactly shy away. It may have been weak but she missed human contact more than she could say and the touch meant a lot to her. Somewhat childlike she leaned her head against him, listening to what he had to say. “Decks? You have two now?” she reached out, letting her fingers reverently fondle the silk wrappings. She’d missed tarot, her ball, her room in general. They were things that kept her life in line and they had been ripped from her just like her friends.
“That’s a pity, really, these hospital robes are horrible. They should hire you to redesign them.”
“I have two,” he said. He tilted his hand, so that one deck was slightly higher than the other. “It called to me when I saw it, so I bought it. I’ve only done a couple of readings with it so far, but the few things I’ve done have come up fairly well. Right now I’m doing parallel readings, using one then the other, to get a feel for it, but eventually I figure I’ll just use whichever one feels right at the moment.” He wanted to tell her a little more, but given where they were, he didn’t feel comfortable talking in detail.
He kissed the top of her head, and set the decks in her hands. “Turn around, luv, and give me your back. Can’t see any harm in giving you a bit of a redesign if you’d like. Certainly something a bit less ridiculously open than these seem to be. After all, don’t need a needle for everything.” He gave her a teasing grin. “Imagine the looks on their faces if you’re actually dressed in something that looks good and isn’t the colour of...” he hesitated, description failing, “well, whatever this is the colour of.”
“Where did you find it?” she asked, looking at him as she reached out and took the deck, being respectful. “Parallel readings? That sounds really interesting... How is it working out? Would you try one?” Once the words were out she realized that she had no idea what to ask a deck right now. She didn’t want to ask if she would get out, if it turned out poorly she wouldn’t be able to handle it- she didn’t particularly care about her love life anymore, things were a lot more important.
“Really?” she asked, turning so her back was facing him. “Did they allow you your wand? I haven’t had mine the whole time. These robes are just horrible.”
Nate shook his head. “They took my wand, but I don’t need a wand if I make the changes nice and slow. Transfiguration’s... not exactly an innate skill, but there’s a reason I went into fashion other than the love of it. My fingers get on well with fabrics.” His fingers caught up the fabric, stroking it into a more reasonable shape with slow, careful touch. “Just give me plenty of time and tell me what colour you want and I’ll do my best.”
As he worked, he nodded towards the cards in her hands. “Go on and look at the new deck. It’s more colorful than the other. Looks like the original art was done in colored pencil, rather than paint. Overall it’s brighter, even if the meanings are just as dark sometimes. It was just-- in this shop window, and I was walking by and I had to stop. And of course I’d read for you. The new deck’s been surprisingly spot on sometimes. Did one set of readings where one card came up in the first reading, and a different one came up in the second in the same exact position. But I’d already commented during the first that I used the second as an alternate option for that meaning, so it was like the second reading echoed the first fairly emphatically. I took that as a good sign.”
“Really?” she said, looking over her shoulder slightly as he worked with the fabric. “That’s amazing. Transfiguration never came very easily to me. You’re so talented, Nate,” she told him as she rested her forehead on her knees. She was tired pretty often lately but she mostly attributed it to being bored. Now that wasn’t the case, she was just tired. “Oh colors... something happy, I think. Maybe yellow- or orange.
“Well it sounds like there was a reason you needed this deck, to feel that connected to it... I need to go shopping for a new crystal ball. I still can’t believe I broke it.” As he worked she opened the new deck and began to shuffle through, examining the illustrations. They really were beautiful and bright. She looked closer at a few, enjoying the detail in the Queen of Cups. “I think I like the style of the your aunt’s deck but these really are beautiful. Honestly... I don’t even know what to have you do a reading on. My life feels endless and bland anymore.”
“Really. It’s the first thing I could ever do magically. I apparently got upset when my Mum refused to buy me a pair of green trainers, so I changed the colour of the dull tan ones I had. Mum thought I’d gone back and nicked the pair, but I was only seven, and she decided she must’ve imagined things when they went back to tan because she was so upset.” Nate smiled slightly. “Mum forgot all about that until the letter from Hogwarts came, and even then, they still had to convince her I was magical.” His fingers left streaks of yellow as he carefully drew the colour out of the strands of fabric that wove together to make up the cloth of her robes.
“I love the brightness of them. They’re very different, and have a different feel, not just because they’re so much newer,” Nate admitted. “When we get you out of here, I’ll take you shopping if you’d like. It probably broke because it was time for a new one. That’s what I’m thinking it is with the deck. We always change as we grow older. Life happens and we aren’t the same person, so unless our device changes with us, we might need a new one, right?” He smiled at her. “And we could read on anything, even life in general. Lately the cards seem to be picking their own stories to tell.” His voice lowered, for her ears alone. “Some of them aren’t appropriate for here, though.”
Lavender smiled and looked behind her. “Of course your first sign of magic was something to do with clothes,” she teased. “You were destined.” She had to admit she was jealous of Nate’s career. Times may have been tough but she’d dreamt of designing clothing before, in the end she had to admit it probably wasn’t for her. Just like studying law. And divining. And working with music. She sighed softly. “I can’t imagine having to convince your parents to send you to Hogwarts. That must have been rough. Did you know?”
When she looked down yellow strands were starting to over take the drab anonymous ones that had been there. “I’d love to go shopping,” she told him with a smile though she wasn’t sure she’d have been able to gather the energy or focus for it. “I think it probably broke because I threw it out a fourth story window onto a car though.”
She leaned back slightly, turning her own head to whisper. It may have looked romantic to anyone who’d been watching (which she was sure there were some) but not to people who knew either of them. “Do you think it’s safe to do a reading here then? Not that I have any idea when I’ll be released... but maybe over the journals?” She didn’t think that the journals gave as clear of a reading, the energies weren’t there for the cards to feed off of.
His hand slid down her arm, mimicking the lover’s role, since he figured the blokes out there didn’t know any better. “We can get the energy now, if you shuffle the deck, and tell me which side’s up. I’ll settle the cards so I can lay them out later, and let you know what the reading is over the journal. But the most important bit you’re needed for is to shuffle them yourself,” he whispered. “I’ll look at them before I go, in case they arse them up. Just right now... spill whichever deck feels right into your hand, and shuffle them like you’re just playing about, yeah?”