lavinia travers is a little bit clingy (tentatively) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2009-05-14 09:50:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! [1980-05] may, kate proudfoot, lavinia travers |
Who: Kate Proudfoot & Lavinia Travers
When: 14 May 1979
Where: The Cottage Aloysius prepared for Lavinia's safe-keeping.
What: Kate tries her hand at some rehabilitation of her own.
Rating: Low
Status: COMPLETE.
Kate Proudfoot had made a cup of tea for the young Lavinia Travers and now she found herself opening the cottage door, and making her way into the room. The scene at the Travers' house hold still disturbed her. What sort of father wouldn't care if his daughter was taken? And what sort of young woman of seventeen would be so sheltered? It had been almost like taking a much younger child, which had made the entire thing more difficult, really, which made Kate determined that she would come and be nice to the poor girl. And that being nice to the girl might include a discussion of things she thought were probably not even alluded to in Purist Women's circles was a bonus benefit, really. As she looked at the girl, Kate had a sudden flash of awareness for why Gaius Travers might have been chosen for the task of rehabilitation. Although she knew the werewolf nonsense were a joke, she could easily believe that he might be able to make someone spout nonsense after having seen his family. That kind of ignorance and submission was almost abusive, she thought to herself, and yet the Purists saw it as normal? For the first time since she'd began fighting in this war, Kate wondered if (murder and prejudice aside) the cultural differences between the Purists and everyone else in the Wizarding World were actually reconcilable. Perhaps the Travers' were among an extreme - certainly Gaius Travers had been a misogynistic ass in a way she hadn't seen demonstrated among the other Purist men - but if they weren't...? Well, it wasn't something she had time to ponder right now. "Afternoon, Lavinia," she said with a reasonable smile. The door was closed behind her, and warded and Lavinia was not going to go anywhere. "I hope you're not too uncomfortable here." Lavinia was having a rather dreadful day. Week, really. From the moment she'd been deposited in this cottage, she'd been sobbing, and feeling especially sorry for herself. Eventually, she was so puffy and exhausted for crying that she had to give up so that she could breathe and sleep, and consider her position without the distraction of wretched, weepy noises. This sort of thing wasn't supposed to happen to well-bred ladies like herself, and she couldn't imagine what they could want from her. They had no money to pay a ransom, not that her father would pay a ransom, and all they were going to accomplish was a scandal. And then she'd never be married. Never. And everyone would hate her for being a horrible old maid. And Gaius would hate her for being a burden. And she was crying anew, throwing herself onto the bed in her little room and wailing like a spoilt child. She wanted to go home where Sera would feed her and Gaius would take care of her and she wasn't dirty and tainted by mudblood hands. A little stab of hateful fury elicited a harsh scream from her and then she was back to feeling silently self-pitying. When interrupted by the 'unspeakable' who'd torn her out of her family's grasp, Lavinia was too tired to be afraid. She stared at Kate with tear-stained cheeks, eyes rimmed with red and freshly wet. Refusing to eat since her arrival had done nothing for her but make her more miserable, and rather exhausted, and she eyed the cup of tea in the other woman's hand with sullen resignation. She really ought to refuse it, but there was something simply indecent about not having a proper cup of tea in the afternoon -- a situation that was aggravated by terrorist attacks on their docks (or so she'd surmised from one of her father's Daily Prophet articles). Deciding she was more likely to get the tea if she was polite, Lavinia said, wetly, "no ma'am." Kate was glad for the reasonable response. At least she would not be required to deal with more tears and while Kate could hold her own with female issues, she was far too practical to put up with hysterics and that was really all you could have titled Lavinia's display thus far. It was the sort of thing Kate might have put up with from a two-year-old, and even then she would have thought it needed to be stopped. For the moment, she set the tea on a nearby table and took a seat so she was facing Lavinia. She had every intention of giving her the tea, but she wanted to talk to the girl first. In truth Kate almost felt sorry for her. It wasn't her fault that her brother worked with werewolves, or was a misogynistic creep, or was feeding Jo nonsense, and if she could give Lavinia a chance to have a better lot in life, she would do so. "I brought you some tea," she said unnecessarily. "I always think that it can't be a good day if I've not had a decent cuppa in the afternoon, so I thought perhaps we could have some together." She kept the smile on her face. "I'm Madison by the way, and you're Lavinia, aren't you then?" She didn't really stop to allow Lavinia the chance to answer - she knew who she was, obviously. "Do you have tea in the afternoon with your sister?" Striving for some attempt at normalcy, Lavinia smoothed her dress out and sat up straighter. Gaius bought her this dress and she could smell his cologne on it, from when they'd hugged goodbye or she'd put on his tie or some other careless encounter that she desperately missed. He had always been there to take care of her, even when their domineering mother was browbeating her or their passive father was insisting she wasn't actually his -- and now she was alone. Completely, terrifyingly alone. And she was expected to hold a pleasant conversation with this woman who had ripped her away from everything she cared about? She didn't even have her sewing to keep her company. She could not contemplate what she was meant to say to this woman, this creature who obviously had no breeding. Lavinia was not a haughty person by nature, but she was well aware of the superior blood that ran through her veins, and that made this situation doubly horrific. Clearing her throat quietly behind the back of her hand, Lavinia took a deep breath to compose herself, and stared at 'Madison.' She was unable to manage imposing and looked instead resigned. "Thank you, ma'am," came her hushed reply. "Yes, we usually take tea together." She used the least words necessary, attempting to minimise the tainting as much as she was able. Well, it was a start, Kate thought to herself and she smiled. "It's good to keep normality about, I think," she pushed her hair back from her face and tried to think what she might be able to ask Lavinia that would get her talking. Or perhaps she should simply just start talking. Yes, she supposed that might make the most sense at the moment. "Here you are then," she handed the tea over and then reached into her robes for a small bag of ginger biscuits which she left on the table near Lavinia. Kate didn't think that the young girl had eaten since they'd pulled her away from her family and no doubt she was hungry. "It can be a bit difficult sometimes," she added. "When you're away from your family, and you're used to seeing them frequently, it can be quite difficult. My Mother moved away when I was a bit younger than you and she took my younger brother with her and I haven't seen either of them for quite some time," she drew up a cup of tea for herself and took a sip. "You'll be back with your family soon, I think," she reassured her. "At least it is not our intention to keep you away from them forever. Your brother kidnapped a friend of mine," she added quietly. "A very dear friend who is a remarkable woman. She is strong, intelligent, and cares deeply for the people in the Wizarding World. I think if you knew her you would like her a great deal and I am certain that she would like you." Or at least she was fairly certain that would be true if Lavinia were not like a spoiled child. "What do you do at home? Besides keeping up with your studies, of course." Lavinia took the cup with trembling hands and cradled a small palm around its underside, warming herself. She patently ignored the biscuits, having sworn she would eat nothing while here. Though her instinctive attitude towards Kate was one of anger and disdain, she had begun to reticently warm to the woman, and almost smiled with tired hopefullness when told she'd be home soon. And then Kate made a very grave mistake. At the suggestion that Gaius had done anything resembling the situation she'd just found herself, Lavinia baulked, cheeks flushing in protest. Though halfway desirous of pitching her teacup to the floor, she'd been raised never to waste, and so merely pushed it away angrily, splashing tea onto the table as she pulled her chair back and stood. "Don't speak about him that way," she said, fury catching on her raw, wet throat. "He would never do anything so crass!" Kate furrowed her brows slightly, she should have let that lie for a little bit, but she was not precisely the manipulator that Gaius Travers clearly was and she was rather learning at this entire thing as she worked through it. She wondered if it were simply a knee jerk response to anything someone might say about her brother, if she had said, for instance 'your brother kissed a woman on the street' if she might have gotten a similar outburst, or if it were an actual disbelief that her brother would do such a thing. Either way, she backed down immediately. "You must care about your brother a great deal," she said simply, without any accusation, but certainly inviting a response from the girl. Perhaps, Kate thought, she ought to get Lavinia to talk about her brother. She wondered if Lavinia even recognised the bits of Travers that seemed to think half the world was rendered useless by their sex organs. "Yes," Lavinia replied, though the answer caught hard in her throat, trailing into a tone of mixed pain and self-pity. She wrapped her arms around her middle in some some haphazard attempt to remind herself what affection felt like, and missed Gaius desperately. She hadn't done anything to deserve this. She really hadn't. She'd been so good for so long and now she was trapped with a stranger who could kill her without impedance. Lavinia wasn't even sure she knew how to struggle. Drawing in a shuddering breath, she tried very hard not to begin crying again, and pressed her fingers across her lips in a quick stifling of emotion. "He's a good person." She was almost pleading, though she couldn't look at the other woman. "He takes care of his family." Kate nodded, trying to fight down the urge to tell the girl that keeping her tied down and absolutely clueless about the way the world worked was not taking good care of his family. Kate had seen enough ridiculous posts from the pureblood women to know that they tended to think they were being taken good care of when they had no idea what was going on in the world around them. "I'm sure he does," she said as calmly as she could manage. "Why don't you tell me about how he takes care of you?" She asked, taking a sip of her own tea to encourage the normality of the situation even though she really wasn't certain that there was normality here. What she wanted to encourage, though, was Lavinia sharing, so she'd keep mum on most things, and hope she didn't accidentally set her off on something or another. Lavinia hesitated a moment but then moved back to the table, where she sat with uneasily reclaimed poise; she was too used to being mistreated and then cajoled to fight any lingering protest, and it provided an almost familiar atmosphere. Her tea was gathered back into her hands, and she dabbed fretfully at the drops she'd spilled with her fingers before answering. "Well," she began uncertainly, knowing that airing out family laundry was highly frowned on, "he provides for us." She hoped Kate wouldn't force her to spell out financial matters, as that was nigh on indecent for a young woman to talk about and she was loath to refuse a topic outright. "And he helps me with my lessons now that Hogwarts is no longer open." They were too poor for a tutor, and this ugly fact tinged Lavinia's cheeks red. She certainly wasn't going to discuss that, however. "And he bought me a very lovely new dress so that I could go to Mrs Malfoy's ball, which he certainly did not have to do and so was very thoughtful." Kate was silent for a moment trying to think where on earth to go from here. Providing for them seemed obvious enough, although she wondered what on earth Mister Travers did if Gaius Travers was the one providing for them. She wondered, for not the first time, what You Know Who promised his followers, and if that 'provision' for the family had been part of what had lured the younger Mr Travers into the circle. On the other hand, it could be outright prejudice, seeing as how he seemed to rather have a lot of it. The dress seemed more useful than the lessons for what Kate was hoping to do, but the lessons infinitely safer. "Oh, a new dress," Kate smiled genuinely, the smile lighting up her eyes. "Those are always a lot of fun and utterly essential for any woman at a party. You can't wear the same dress twice!" In actuality, Kate had done so and would do so again, but even she didn't like doing it and she was fairly certain it was an absolute no-no for a society woman to do so, which somewhat contradicted Lavinia's statement that Gaius didn't have to buy her a new dress, but in a way Kate hoped was non-threatening as it was the sort of obvious woman any well-bred woman would probably know. "Did you get many dances? I bet you did, you've got such lovely hair and skin." Lavinia's smile became a shy one that she hid behind her cup of tea, though she couldn't hide the way it wavered at wearing the same dress twice. She didn't own a single dress but for the two Gaius bought her that hadn't been worn countless times before she'd even received it, by Seraphina. It was difficult being poor surrounded by so much resplendence, particularly when status and pride made it impossible to accept charity, even from the most well meaning of their peers. "It was very lovely," she said gently, setting her cup down and hesitating before reaching for a biscuit. She broke it in half, set the rejected part back, and then broke it in half again so she could nibble on one corner, her late-mother's severe objections to sweets ringing in the echoes of her memory. "I danced with a few very nice gentlemen. Gaius did not wish me to over-exert myself." Sibling code for his possessive distaste for people touching his sister. "I don't suppose you dance frequently, Miss Madison?" No, Kate thought, she did not dance frequently. At least, nowhere near as frequently as she would have enjoyed the activity, but she gave Lavinia a smile. "Not so much recently," she said with a touch of regret in her tone. It was actually real regret although the times she missed - going out dancing with Elle - were the sort of thing that would have no doubt shocked Lavinia into silence and perhaps tears knowing the girls propensity for crying at the slightest provocation. "I used to dance quite a bit, and I do enjoy the activity. It is certainly one of those things that you can do and still be quite lady like while enjoying it, and yet, it's a bit invigorating as well - so long as one has a partner that makes one's feet glide over the dance floor." And this, she thought to herself, was something that she had in Gawain, but wondered if Lavinia would have an opportunity for that. She took a sip of her own tea and reached for a biscuit, giving the young girl a conspiratorial smile. "Did you have any that you quite preferred?" Lavinia's lips pressed into a very narrow line, and she held her cup aloft, as though it might prove an adequate barrier between them. She didn't care to admit that she was fairly terrified of every male in her life but Gaius -- no, well, she was afraid of him as well, but more in the afraid-of-rejection sense -- even when interacting pleasantly with them, and dancing as politely as she could. It was very easy to be afraid; very very easy. "No," she finally said, with hint of malaise. "I don't believe it would be very proper of me to prefer any one over the others." Particularly as she'd danced mostly with married men who likely only asked because they felt sorry for her. She missed the ball. The socialising and her new dress. She missed her family. A few tears sprang behind her eyes and she looked down at the table, jaw setting. "I think I should like to converse about something else, if you please." And she took a deep breath and dug deep down into herself for some tiny shred of scrappiness. "I should like to know why you are keeping me here." Oh bother, this, Kate thought irritably. The last time they had discussed it, it had brought up a whole - tirade and Kate really didn't want that again. "Oh, well, I suppose that's true at your age," she allowed, avoiding the final question. "Although I know when I was in my final year at Hogwarts I did have a dreadful crush on a young man, not that anything came of it. It was mostly just silliness, you're probably just as well off if you have no preference." And she had no idea what to say next. Interrogation and mind manipulation was clearly more the purview of this girl's brother rather than Catalina Proudfoot. "I explained that earlier," she finally decided on rather than actually repeating it entirely. "We will be speaking to him and when we can come to an amicable arrangement, you will be returned to him. I understand the importance of family," she added quietly. "We don't particularly wish to keep you from them longer than is necessary. Think on it as a bit of an adventure. You get to do something on your own." It was a pathetic attempt, Kate thought to herself and wished suddenly that the Auror office had given her lessons in mind control and manipulation, or perhaps she'd had a year in Slytherin, or something. Lavinia cheeks pinkened at the response but there was no outburst this time, some comfort taken in not having to bear the actual words of Gaius's "crime". She merely set her teacup back on the table and struggled to swallow down her bitterness. Do something on her own? What sort of ludicrous notion was that? She had absolutely no desire to do something on her own -- precisely the opposite; in fact, she would have preferred if Gaius took more of an interest in her and rewarded her constant attempts to gain his praise and affection. Her own? She simply couldn't. "I don't believe you," she replied with a husky breath. Lavinia didn't dare look the other woman in the eye. "That's all right," Kate said simply, trying to keep very calm. "After all, I'm certain your brother doesn't share with you all of the details of what he does and it would surprise me if he had told you this." She hesitated for a moment seeking out the right things to say. Finally she decided to see if she could get some information about what the girl might like to do when she grew up - encourage a dream or two or perhaps even plant one. "You said he helps you with your studies - what are you doing classwork in?" "No," came Lavinia's breathless reply, and her face, her neck, was going redder than it had been in a long time. She wanted to feel angry -- it was an emotion that she hadn't expressed or even remembered in a very long time -- and her heart was pounding, her lungs were squeezing. How could she even ask the question; she didn't know where to begin. "You don't understand. He would never. He isn't like that. Why would you say such awful lies?" It was by far the bravest statement she'd ventured in years, and her hands shook so hard she had to steady them against the table. Kate was beginning to think she should have read up on the subtle art of mind manipulation. It was hardly something that came naturally to a former Hufflepuff and she wondered what Pepper would have been able to do with the girl, or even Aloysius, whom she assumed had been a Ravenclaw, although she didn't know it, he just seemed rather Ravenclaw-esque to her. But those thoughts were not going to help her here. "What makes you think they're lies?" She asked. Let the girl sort it out a bit for herself. Lavinia's patience was beginning to wear too thin, and she clutched her little fists together in a silent rage as anger burrowed into her brow. She wanted Kate to go away, now, and leave her to her misery. She shouldn't have had to listen to this nonsense. She was a purist. She was a Travers. "Because Gaius has more important things to do than kidnap some impure woman," she said, voice low, and surprisingly scathing for its usual timbre. "You are lying and I do not wish to speak with you any longer." Reaching out, she shoved her narrow palm into the teacup, which she sent sailing to the floor -- practically violent behaviour for Lavinia Travers. Ah, a response - if not precisely the response she'd been looking for. Although, maybe it was - it certainly had engendered an emotional response from the girl and emotional response meant that possibly she was more frustrated by the idea than if she were simply calmly saying that it was ridiculous. "What sorts of things?" Kate asked calmly. It seemed that her own ability to stay calm was increasing with Lavinia's frustration. "What does your brother do? What is his work? I'm certain he does a great many important things, but you haven't told me what they are." "I said," Lavinia repeated, her voice rising several octaves, though it trembled. "I do not wish to speak with you any longer." She stood, cheeks a brilliant pink and eyes wide with mixed fear (at her own assertiveness) and uncertainty. "I do not have to justify Gaius's work to you; he is better than you." Tears hovered at the edges of her eyes and she took a step backwards. "He is better than all of you!" Kate had a hard time not looking bemused at that. The idea of Gaius Travers being better than her, or really any of the people she knew - Gawain for instance - was almost laugh worthy, but she managed to keep a calm expression on her face. The girl was actually standing up for herself, she thought. It might be something silly and she might be quite wrong, but she was doing something on her own whether she liked it or not. Kate had a sudden wish that she could just keep the girl for a year, or maybe two. She might end up liking Lavinia Travers after all. "Except that isn't how the world works, Miss Travers," she turned somewhat serious. "And I'll wager your brother knows that as well. You do have to justify him to me, at least in the world your brother lives in. I might not have to justify myself to someone, but the Purists? They are all about proving your worth, having the right blood, the right money, it's not just about someone being a wonderful person, or a nice one, which I'm certain you know your brother is a very wonderful person, you have to prove that you're worth while. Can you do that? Can he?" Lavinia's cheeks were wet again before she realised what was happening, in both anger and frustration. "I don't have to tell you anything," she blustered, voice reaching dangerously high pitches. "I WON'T TALK TO YOU!" She'd started strong but she couldn't quite hold it, and soon she was turning away from Kate and pooling down into the floor, arms around herself in a meagre attempt at comfort, at remembering her brother and his comforting presence. Soft sobs spilled out against the wall. Lavinia wanted to be away, more than anything she'd ever wanted. Her heart burst against her chest, and all she could hear was her heart and her choked, wet noises. "I won't. I won't. I won't," she repeated through haggard gasps, again. Again. Again. Kate gave her a smile which probably ended up almost more of a smirk. The statements held force and opinion, and even if they were closer to temper tantrum than actual strength, it was something, she supposed. "All right, I'll let you think about that for a while," Kate said simply, standing up and giving Lavinia more of a genuine smile. "I'll bring you some food and tea later on and we'll talk some more then. You're a very strong woman, Miss Travers, and you do know how to say what you want, that's not a bad thing." And with that, she gathered up the discarded tea cups with her wand, and gave Lavinia a final smile before she left the room making certain to ward it strongly behind her. Lavinia, curled into her ball of protest, was scandalised at the assessment, which she took as an insult rather than a compliment. The notions of strong and woman were two utterly contradictory adjectives, and she cried rather a bit harder rather than reply, refusing to do anything else until Kate was out of the room -- and even then merely migrating to the bed so she might continue in relative comfort. |