RP Narrative: Walden & Sophia Macnair. Who: Walden & Sophia Macnair. What: Doubts, accusations, hugs, and invitations to tea. Where: Macnair townhouse; London. When: 27 November; Evening. Rating: G
The Macnair home in London was silent and dark as nighttime fell over the city. The curtains were pulled closed and had been so for the entire day. In fact Sophia Macnair had not seen fit to draw them back at all that week. She spent most of her days locked up in her home, too ashamed and too upset to even think about a world outside of her own misery.
That particular evening she found herself perched behind her husband’s desk, a crystal decanter of brandy open with an empty cup sitting beside it. She hadn’t been to this room since he’d left and she wasn’t sure why she’d chosen to step inside. It still smelled like Curtis, as if he’d just been there that afternoon.
She poured the brandy into the dry glass and huffed. Of course he hadn’t been there. He’d run off to get himself killed in some rundown cottage in the middle of nowhere. He would have rather spent his nights alone in the country than with his family. She couldn’t even remember the last time he’d said that he loved her. The words were so few and far between that it was easy to forget, she supposed.
Was she just as easily forgotten? Was she really the reason he'd been so cold all those years and then finally just given up? She'd done everything in her power to love him and to feel the same in return but had she tried too hard in the end? Sophia took a long drink from her glass (she didn't sputter at the taste of liquor anymore) and then topped it off.
She also found herself wondering why her son and her husband were constantly at odds. It had always been like that, Curtis and Walden fighting. The older man hadn't even taken offense when Walden had gone to live with his uncle. Clement had usurped Curtis's role as a father and he didn't even seem to notice. With slow movements she took another sip from the glass and the set it down again, hearing the familiar sound of her alerts warning her that her son had Apparated onto the front steps. She was surely in for another lecture.
Walden stepped through the front door with a shiver and he frowned at the darkness that greeted him. He started down the main hall, expecting to find her in her sitting room when he noticed light coming from his father's office. He had no desire to ever step foot there again but it seemed his mother had other plans.
As he stepped into the room she looked across the desk at him. She thought he looked tired. She found an inappropriate comfort in his lack of rest but she smiled warmly at him just the same. Her son, the possible villain.
" What are you doing?" he asked, not wasting time with pleasantries.
She gestured to the glass, her eyes lingering on the moisture ring forming on the wood. Curtis would be furious. " Would you like a drink?"
He frowned. " No. Why are you in father's office?"
" I am trying to piece myself back together. I am quickly learning that my family is not what I always thought it was."
He swallowed a grumble. This was not how he wanted to spend his evening. " Mother, what are you talking about?"
" We have had this conversation before, Walden. What are we going to gain by rehashing things one more time? It won't bring her home to me."
He crossed the space between himself and the desk and he snatched the bottle of alcohol away. " Mother, the liquor is becoming a bit much. Father would pour a glass and you'd barely get a quick smell and you'd be complaining so I don't see how you can drink yourself into a stupor every night."
Sophia lifted the glass from the desk and cradled it protectively as she stared at her son. Her only son. He was her little boy, no matter how old and cranky he managed to grow, but something had changed. She was looking across the desk at a man she wasn't sure she recognized. Curtis had always grumbled about Walden making poor choices and picking the wrong sides but Sophia had always defended him because that's what mother's did but now?
" I need you to tell me the truth, Walden. I'm going to ask you a question and I expect an honest answer."
He face didn't betray his emotions. His expression remained unchanged but his stomach knotted. He knew what was coming and he already knew his answer.
" Did you do this to her? All those years that she shadowed your every move, even when you didn't know she was there. Your father said that you were less than honorary, as a boy and even now as a man. I defended you and now I lay awake at night and wonder if you're the reason she's locked away in prison with all those madmen. You and that Lestrange, both of you with sisters who look up to you and what have you shown them?"
Walden felt a fire in his stomach as he gripped the decanter in one hand and he managed to quell his temper before he squeezed the glass to shards in his fist. She would have no idea that he asked himself the very same question everyday, that he wished that he could do for Eva what Rodolphus was able to do for Marius. There wasn't a single day that he cursed himself for letting her get involved in any of it but his mother could never understand. She was a closed minded woman of society. She wasn't like the wives of the Death Eaters or even of the supporters. She was one of the few purebloods who couldn't see that far beyond their own scope.
" No, mother. I did not do this to Evangeline. Do you really think that I would do anything to hurt my little sister? I value her life more than I do my own. Don't you think I would trade places with her in a second if I could?"
" I don't know what to think anymore, Walden. My son, my daughter, even my nephew, all involved in this cryptic circle."
Walden put up a hand. " Mother, stop it. I won't stand here while you insult me, let alone let you insult Eva or Aeneas. We're family and just because father is gone does not mean that we all have to crumble. We have a chance to put this family back together. Evangeline will get out of that rock and we can rebuild. She has a marriage prospect, mother. A very fine gentleman has asked for my permission and I have granted it. I'm trying so hard to fix this, mum. It can be done but I need you to trust me and I need your complete faith."
Sophia stared at him, slowly rising to her feet. She placed the glass back on the desk and then came out from behind so she could stand in front of her son. The dark haired woman stared up at the man before her, clearly in as much pain as she was, and with a small step she closed the space between them and wrapped her arms around his waist.
Walden's breath hitched in his throat and he closed his eyes, wrapping his own arms around his mother. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd been given a hug and they both stood there, silently embracing as the anger and tension slowly evaporated.
He pulled away and looked down at her, decanter still in hand. " Stop drinking. Let the sun in. Go shopping. Have tea with friends. Do not let your life stop because you find yourself in an unimaginable situation. We will endure. We can fight and we will win. No matter what." His words were clearly riddled with double meaning and as he spoke them he thought of his friends and family in Azkaban. Their time was coming and it wouldn't be long before the Ministry realised their very grave mistakes.
" Thank you, darling." She leaned up and kissed his cheek. He was right. She would endure. They would all be fine, or at least she had to believe they would be. " Come by for tea tomorrow. I'll have biscuits made up."
Walden nodded. " Yes, mother. I'll come by after work."
He returned the kiss, tucked the liquor away where it belonged and then left the townhouse having completely forgotten his original reason for visiting his mother in the first place.