Who: Lavender & Grey Brown When: June 9 | Friday Where: St. Mungo’s What: Lavender's brother gets over himself and comes to visit Notes: NPCing of Michael was done after discussion between 'bri and I of a scene that happened off screen. Written in log format.
Lavender had stopped counting the tiles in the room a week ago. She wasn’t allowed to see anyone but her medi-wizards and Healer. As paranoid and crazy as it sounded, she believed they were trying to make her go mad- to support their theories about purebloods Her only saving grass was the medi-witch on afternoon/evening watch that came in and played chess with her. Just plain old muggle chess (as wizarding was considered too exciting for her delicate condition. It was a testament to her boredom that she played- she even learned a few strategies and what’s more, she looked forward to it. When Anne came in today she didn’t have a chess set and Lavender assumed it was another luxury that was removed from her.
“You have visitor today, Lass,” Anne told her. She hoped for a moment it was Michael (Anne had relayed that he tried to get in often) but was proven wrong when Grey stepped into the door frame.
Grey had been nothing but a wreck since Ben’s little brother had left a hole in his wall at work. Michael Corner certainly shared some of his brother’s passion. First he had to explain to his boss why there was a hole, then he had to pay for it’s repair. Michael’s claims about his sister being held hostage and Ben’s imagined disappointment was enough to send him uncharacteristically to the pub. Grey’s fear- induced by Michael’s accusations on his sexuality (and the fact that Grey had essentially confirmed it) was enough to keep him there for two days. Then there was his massive hangover to deal with, and another day of guilt intermingled with re0mouning Ben and admitting to himself that Michael had been right in this much: Lavender was his little sister and he had been letter her rot for his own cowardice (even if Michael hadn’t put it so elegantly.)
“Hey Lav,” he greeted, unsure how to break the silence that had grown in the room. He stepped in, noticing she’d gained weight but choosing to keep that observation to himself. What did he say next though? He was panicking that Michael had told her about Ben but to bring it up he’d have to confirm it himself. “Can I come in?” he asked when he meant to ask if she’d seen Michael.
Lavender was staring, there was no denying it. She hadn’t seen Grey in weeks which wouldn’t have been strange if she wasn’t in the hospital. Even so, he was the only family member that bothered to visit. “Hey yourself,” she replied, the entire atmosphere a little awkward. She tried to tell herself to just relax but it wasn’t working. She was closer to Grey than the rest of her family but that wasn’t saying much and his sudden appearance was odd to say the least. The only comfort she had was that Grey didn’t have it in him to be up to something nefarious, what you saw was what you got with him.
She didn’t really see the point to the question as Anne had already left the room and Grey was obviously coming into it. Rubbing her face and running her hand through her hair she stood up and moved over to him (more glad than ever that Nate had transfigured her robes into something more like a real garment) and gave him a hug. “What are you doing here?” she asked. There was no un-awkward way to have this meeting was there? She was sure Grey thought that the papers were right: she was mentally unstable. Sometimes even she thought the papers were right.
Grey reasoned that the question probably meant that Michael hadn’t mentioned coming to see him which meant Michael hadn’t told her that he’d confirmed his sexuality. Deep down he felt guilty for even worrying about it, there were more important things in life right now. And they weren’t him.
“Your boyfriend put a hole in my wall and demanded that I do something.” He gave her a bit of a sheepish grin as he hugged her a little longer than was typical for them. The longer he was with her the more he saw the fear and uncertainty in her eyes and the more protective he felt. He really had been an ass to leave her in here for so long. “So I’m here to try and do something,” he told her, running a hand over her hair. There had been plenty of times in his life when he had envied Lavender. She was the only girl, she was vivacious, and that flat that their parents had set her up with was a little over the top. He always seemed to forget that she got she short end of the stick in most things though. Michael was right- she had shown a lot of courage and sacrifice for what she did during the war and the way their family treated her after it wasn’t fair. No flat made up for being ostracized from your own kin the way she had. He was ashamed to have been a part of it.
Lavender raised a brow and looked at him, the hug had been nice, reassuring and relaxing, but the comment was weird. “Um- I don’t have a boyfriend,” she told him a little slowly, trying to work through it. There were really only three guys she could think of that would have visited Grey and could have given him that impression- Seamus hated her right now and she wasn’t sure that Isaac even knew her brother. Michael on the other hand? Grey could have assumed they were back together and she didn’t have a lot of trouble imagining him putting a hole in Grey’s wall. She blanched. “I’m sorry Grey, I’ll talk to him… do you-“, she was about to offer to pay for it when she remembered that she didn’t have a job anymore. “I’ll make it up to you some how… But we’re not dating anymore, not for a year at least now, remember?” She stepped back and motioned to one of the chairs, she sat in the other. Once she thought about it Michael had talked about going to see her family. Things must not have gone well if he was punching walls.
“If you’re not dating how did you know who I was talking about?” he asked, his grin turning more relaxed and brotherly, even a little teasing. He found it hard to believe that they weren’t together considering Michael’s defense of her but he also doubted that his sister would deny a relationship if she was in one.
“Well month long hospital stays in solitary don’t really do much to feed your love life,” she pointed out a little bitterly.
Grey sobered and nodded, taking a seat and leaning forward, his arms on his knees. “Right, about that. I’m sorry, Lav, I shouldn’t have let you stay in here, I shouldn’t have played mum and dad’s game…”
Lavender frankly didn’t want to discuss her parents, from whom she’d heard no word. After the second or third article she figured that they would at least contact her and remind her that their agreement was she would bring no more shame to their family with her condition. Of course that would mean actually admitting that there was an agreement and she didn’t think her parents had the backbone for that. She was half-expecting her flat to be taken away from her when she got out. “Yeah, it’s fine. I wasn’t expecting anything better.” Hell, Sid probably didn’t even know she was here, he was probably too coked out to even realize a month had passed.
Her bitter reaction made him flinch internally. He remembered a time when Lavender always seemed to rely on him. He was the big brother he was supposed to be. Obviously now he’d failed her. It was all he could do not to bring to mind Michael’s own intoning of how he’d let down Ben as well. “No, it’s not fine. I’m going to get you out of here, okay Sunshine? I just- don’t really know how yet.”
Lavender looked at him, touched by the childhood nickname but not letting it show on her face. This was all very strange and she was starting to wonder what it was that Michael had said to him. “Are you up to something?” she asked, wary. It wasn’t like him but she was having trouble coming to terms with this man in front of her. He was something like what her big brother had been- back before the war.
“What? Me? Come on, you know me better than that.” If Grey had any bragging points about himself it was that he was simple. Generally. And he looked good in suits.
“No, but B- your friend was right, what they’re doing here isn’t fair and I shouldn’t have let you stay in this mess for as long as I have. I’m sorry, Love, I’ve- been a coward, I guess.” These sorts of talks didn’t come naturally to him and he ran his hand over her hair to diffuse tension as best he could. “I’ve asked them to release you into my custody as a member of the family but they are saying because you are an adult, I can’t be considered a legal guardian. I’m pretty sure that’s wrong and I’m going to look into it. In the meantime I got you this back-“ he handed over the journal that he’d put into his pocket. “You might want to tone it down a bit on the ranting though. Sorry to hear about Finnigan.”
Lavender took the journal back, shocked into silence. She smiled at him a little and opened it, thumbing through the pages of writing, some familiar and some not. A reminder that life was going on while she was stuck here with endless days. “Thanks Grey,” she said, smiling again.
“Maybe- if you really want to try and get me out-“ she thought about bringing up the solicitor idea to him. It had seemed sound to her but she didn’t want to be in debated to Isaac or Padma in the end she knew Grey could never afford the costs either and even if he could convince her parents to stop ignoring her, they hardly had any money at all. “There’s a Healer here, I’m friends with him, he might be able to help. I don’t know if he can convince anyone of anything but at least it’s something, right? Do you remember Healer Pye from the last time I was in here? He was my primary then, in the- other ward.” If there was one constant in their family it was that they didn’t mention anymore about her attack than they absolutely had to. She didn’t want to make things awkward and scare Grey off by saying more about it than she had to either. “Augustus Pye, that’s his name. Maybe you can owl him, ask him if there is anything he can do?”
A tension went through Grey’s features as she started talking about The Incident (as her mother had taken to calling it) but she listened closely to what it was she was trying to tell her. He didn’t really remember the names of her healers but he could probably remember this. Just in case he took out a sheet of paper and jotted the name down. “Yeah, I’ll contact him. If nothing else maybe he knows a bit about what they are and aren’t allowed to be doing here.
Lavender smiled and it was the first genuine one he’d seen since he’d walked in. It was so hard to see his sister like this but it only steeled his resolve to help- in whatever manner he had to.