Michael Corner (folkdevil) wrote in caged, @ 2013-08-24 23:17:00 |
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Michael had known that his father’s plan to forge his papers was stupid when Charles had first implied that it was his plan. He’d felt even worse about the prospect after the Prophet had published its stupid list and Charles was on it. But that was nothing to how he’d felt when his father told him that he was going in to the Committee that morning with a promise that it would be fine. He’d be home for dinner. Fiona went with him, of course, but they’d both put their foot down at the idea of letting Michael come along. So he hadn’t. Instead Michael had just done something he hadn’t done with his father in ages. He’d given him a hug and told him he loved him. Charles had promised again that it would be fine. It wasn’t. Fiona came home that afternoon in tears, and Michael knew then that it had obviously gone badly. It took a while before he could coax what had happened out of his mother, after hugging her and making her tea, but finally she explained it all. How they’d determined that Charles’s papers were forgeries and sentenced him to Azkaban. She didn’t say that she wasn’t sure she’d ever see her husband again, but Michael didn’t need her to. He had the thought all on his own. It wasn’t until much later, after he’d gotten his mother to eat something and put her to bed, that Michael gave himself the opportunity to react and feel something about the whole business. But mostly he just felt numb and a lot like not being alone. So he’d apparated himself into Anthony’s room, fiddling with the various things about the space. Eventually Anthony would come in, he was pretty sure of that. Anthony, Terry, and Michael had been Flooing in and out of each other’s houses for ages - since first year really, he didn’t remember Hogwarts without his two best friends, but this year had the added ease of being able to Apparate. So when Anthony heard the familiar crack, he didn’t immediately go to his room, he finished a very quiet dinner with his father and then did the washing up. His father wasn’t nearly as good of a cook as his mother had been and Anthony had looked at the slightly charred remains of his dinner with a sad expression before going to his room to investigate which one it was. It was Michael, who was now making himself at home in his bedroom, fiddling with a few of the things in his room. Anthony sat down on his bed. He didn’t need Occulmancy to be able to tell that something was wrong with the other boy. His expression, his body language, at least to Anthony, were a dead giveaway that all was not well. “Sorry you missed dinner, Dad burned it again,” he finally said. “Oh,” Michael replied, setting down the book he’d picked up and turning to look at Anthony instead. “I’m not really very hungry anyway, so it’s probably for the best.” As much as Michael hadn’t wanted to be alone, which was very much why he was standing in Anthony’s room in the first place, he didn’t actually know what to do with himself now that he was there. He ran a hand through his hair, trying to pinpoint how he was feeling and how to articulate it, but the words didn’t really want to formulate into something comprehensible. Because he wasn’t prepared to deal with something like this. He didn’t know how to deal with something like this. “So, my Dad’s in Azkaban,” Michael finally said after a long pause, blurting out the words before he could convince himself to dance around the subject. “Or on his way to Azkaban. I don’t really know how long it takes to get to Azkaban or how they really bring people there, but that’s...happening.” It took Anthony a minute to process what Michael had just told him. There was no way Mr Corner - no he wasn’t, it had to be a joke, this was ridiculous. The man was perfectly harmless and Anthony rubbed his forehead as the air hung in silence between the two boys. This wasn’t happening, the summer between their seventh year wasn’t supposed to be like this, it was supposed to be one last hurrah before they headed into a stressful seventh year, a seventh year that was supposed to be stressful because of NEWTs not because their families were being torn apart. “I - I’m sorry” Anthony finally managed to get out. He had almost said that he couldn’t believe it, but he could believe it. His own grandparents were now forced to beg in Diagon Alley with the threat of what would happen to anyone who tried to help them. His words weren’t comforting but was there anything comforting at this point? People who went to Azkaban were never the same once they entered the dementor filled prison. “This is complete shit you know. All of it.” “I know it is,” Michael said because he knew. He really, really knew that now, more than he had even a day before, which seemed so absurd because he hadn’t really thought that was possible. “It’s complete shit. It’s completely and utterly fucked and you know what the worst part is? I’m so fucking mad at my Dad right now, because he was stupid enough to think he could forge his stupid papers instead of running, and I know that makes me really fucking terrible because I’m not supposed to be mad at him. I’m just not.” It may have taken awhile for it to catch up with him, but Michael was finally feeling something other than numbness. He swallowed hard against a lump in his throat and ran his hand through his hair again, if only for something to do with his hands. “I don’t even know what to do right now, Anthony. What do you even do when your dad goes to Azkaban?” Anthony shrugged, he honestly had no idea and he couldn’t blame Michael for being angry. He was angry with his own parents, if he was really honest, he was angry at the Ministry for doing this, he wasn’t sure how at 17 he was supposed to get through the next however long without his mother, and he was angry that his family felt like they were in the situation where his mother had to run and it was her only option to survive. “I don’t know,” Anthony said shaking his head. “I honestly have no idea.” None of this was right. For a second, Anthony remembered Kevin and he hoped the other boy was smart enough to run while he could. “I have no idea what we do now. We can’t do anything and it’s so frustrating.” It wasn’t that Michael really expected Anthony to have answers. He didn’t, because there weren’t really any answers to have. Mostly he’d just known that Anthony would understand, and Michael had just needed to talk it out with someone. To do more than curl up in a ball and cry in his room which he knew was probably going to happen at some point, as much as he didn’t want to admit to it. Michael was angry and sad and so fucking frustrated, but he was also at a complete and utter loss for what to do. So he walked over, taking a seat on Anthony’s bed and trying to figure out what to say or do but mostly just staying silent. Because he wasn’t supposed to be dealing with this fuckery at 17. He wasn’t supposed to never see his dad again over something as stupid as being born with magic. “This is going to be a great fucking year, isn’t it?” he asked finally, voice cracking somewhere in there and not even having the energy to care. Anthony exhaled loudly. “Yeah. Dead brilliant,” he replied sarcastically. He didn’t know what to do for Michael, so he clapped his hand on his mate’s shoulder and didn’t say anything for a minute. It was one thing when you were at Hogwarts and your family was at home, they could do long spans of time without seeing them, but this was different. This was Azkaban and the only crime that Mr Corner had committed was the crime of being born magical when the rest of his family were Muggles. Stealing magic was a joke, he couldn’t believe that anyone could believe it but sure enough. “They took my grandparents wands,” Anthony finally said. “They went the other day, I thought they might try to do a runner but…” He shook his head. “I’m sorry about your dad, I wish we could do something for him.” “Shit,” Michael responded quietly, not knowing what else to say. He remained silent for awhile because he didn’t know how to process any bit of this and it was all shit. Every single bit of it. “I guess this answers the question of if it’s ever going to be a good idea to go in pretty firmly. I hope everyone we haven’t heard from ran and got out of the fucking country.” Which was what he’d wanted his father to do in the first place. Which was what his father had clearly thought about doing, which was the part that angered Michael so much. Because he didn’t understand what changed his mind and now it didn’t matter because he was in fucking Azkaban. “I’m sorry about your grandparents,” he said finally. “I should have started with that, I just...I don’t know what to say or what to do or any of it.” “No, I know,” Anthony said. “What can you say?” he added with a shrug of his shoulders. “We both know that it’s not right and we can’t do anything about it.” He ran his free hand through his hair and sighed. There really wasn’t a cure, nothing they could do or say would help any of this make sense or fix what had happened. “There’s nothing to say because we’re both completely normal people who know how wrong all of this is.” “Do you think Kevin did a runner? Or Mandy?” “I don’t know. I really hope they did.” Michael really, really hoped that they did, because if there was anything he was sure of here, it was that anyone seeing the Committee ever was going to end badly. Michael leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and driving the heels of his hands into his eyes as he took a deep breath and counted backwards from ten in his head. He just needed to take a moment and he knew that Anthony wouldn’t judge him for that. Once he’d reached zero, he stood up, running a hand through his hair and looking over at Anthony. “I think I’m going to go. I need to...I don’t know what I need to do right now, but I think I’m just…” Michael let his words trail off because he didn’t actually have a thought to finish it. “Just - be careful okay.” Anthony didn’t want to say don’t do anything stupid because he knew that Michael wouldn’t take that risk and even suggesting it was an insult to Michael’s intelligence. “If you want to come back later, you can, I think Dad and I are just going to play chess or something.” It was a sad Saturday night in the Goldstein house but it was better than the two of them sitting in different rooms and worrying. At least it was a kind of distraction. “Do whatever you need to do though.” Michael nodded, rocking back on his heels. “Maybe I’ll come back later. Or, I don’t know. But thanks.” He really meant that, for more than just the offer to come back, but for letting him be here now and for all of it really. Not that he’d thought it’d be any different, but he appreciated it all the same. “I’m not going to do anything. I just...I probably shouldn’t be away from Mum for too long, you know?” He felt guilty enough that he was going to have to leave for school so soon, when really Hogwarts and N.E.W.T.s were the furthest damn thing from his mind at the moment. He pulled out his wand to apparate when he stopped himself, frowning slightly. “If you need anything, too, you know. Let me know,” he added. He felt bad that he was making it all about himself when Anthony was clearly been going through his own shit with all of this. Even if it took him a moment to get there, Michael wanted it clear that he was there for him. Anthony nodded his head, of course he understood, it’s why he made sure he was home for dinner in the evenings and all and any plans were made during the day. He didn’t know what his father was going to do when he was gone, maybe he should make sure that Sarah or Leah would come around a lot. “Maybe you and your mom can come over for dinner later in the week...I’ll be sure that we order something though, you don’t want Dad to cook.” He made a face. But he knew his dad was trying to make sure things were as normal as possible at home. “We’ll get through this somehow. We have to.” “You know, Mum would probably like that.” Michael was pretty sure she would and he knew that he definitely would at any rate. “We could bring dessert. I think Mum’ll be looking for a reason to bake the entire world into a pie.” He had a feeling that was going to be a thing for the next few days while Fiona pretended things were all perfectly fine. Michael hesitated for a moment for adding, “and we will get through this. We’ll fight our way through this. It’ll...well it’ll be okay.” He wasn’t sure how much of that he really believed, especially in the moment when it all felt so frustrating, hopeless, and utterly raw, but there was still something in him that felt the need to say it. And to leave before he could backtrack into taking it back. “I’ll see you later, yeah? Let me know about dinner. And...thanks.” With that he apparated out of Anthony’s room, because as much as he hadn’t wanted to be alone before, suddenly that’s all he very much wanted. |