InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Eep op ork ah-ah"

arrogant_black (arrogant_black) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2011-02-19 11:22:00

Entry tags:

james potter, molly suresh, regulus black

Who: Regulus and Molly, with a guest appearance by James
What: Breakfast then discussions
When: This morning
Where: Molly's flat
Rating/Warnings: We'll go with medium to start with...
Status: In progress, closed

Just when Regulus thought things couldn't get worse, they did. Not something that rested lightly on an already damaged, pessimistic mind. There were two glaring positives his previous 'family' held over this new configuration. First, he'd established a routine, one small thing that garnered familiarity. And for someone with an abused past like Regulus' any amount of steady repetition, even in the smallest measure was an island refuge in a wide tempestuous sea of uncertainty. That was gone now, he was back to square one, he had to figure everything out again. The second thing was the previous 'family' lacked one James Potter.

Juno had promised they wouldn't let things get worse, but that only held true if it were a pandemic complaint. His new situation affected solely him (and James and Molly, but they weren't 'everyone else'). He'd promised to keep things together to stay with Juno, but he couldn't handle this, all of this, the change plus the forced association with someone he despised so much now on top of the removal of his consent. Would someone as severely abused as him consider this forced 'family' situation anything but the taking away of his autonomy? He simply could not process this like everyone else could. He knew there would be no storming the Library for this, he was on his own, and he could not keep the promise made to Juno.

And when Regulus couldn't deal with something, when it seemed as if all avenues of recourse were bared to him, he checked out. He shut down the part of him that engaged with his environment.

He heard Molly at the door, asking him if he wanted to come out to eat breakfast with her and Potter. From where he sat inside the bathtub he ignored her. No, he didn't want to come out to eat with them, not that he had anything against Molly, if it were just her he wouldn't have had this strong of an objectionable response. But she'd just asked a question about how he felt on a particular subject, plus it was a Yes or No question. Those were easy to ignore. But after some coaxing phrases, which he also ignored, she switched tactics and framed her words in the form of a command. She was no longer asking. He got up.

Wordlessly he opened the door, left the bathroom and walked to the kitchen to take his seat at the table. He didn't look at James, he didn't touch the plate in front of him, he just sat silently, intent on filling his obligation that allowed them to eat, and nothing more.

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stolensnitch
2011-02-19 07:34 pm UTC (link)

James was already sitting at the table when Regulus showed up. His chair was tilted back, held up by magic, and he was tossing the snitch up in the air and catching it as he waited. Molly had made the really weird (but tasty!) potato things again and he wanted to eat them (and whatever else was on offer, since he was hungry). Besides, he was going to spend time with Lily and Harry. Sirius's stupid brother was taking up time he could be spending with his family (no matter how weird it was to think that), and that annoyed him more than he would be allowed to say.

"Finally," he muttered, then let the snitch fly around the room as he grabbed his wand from behind his ear and let his chair drop down onto all four legs once more. "So, Mum," he called out, ever-so-cheerfully, "Harry and Lily said I could spend today with them, and I said I'd go. And Jude offered me a job. Did you have anything to do with that? Today has been a great day. Within reason." He stuck his hand up at the end of that, and grabbed the snitch out of the air as it flew past, then resumed tossing it into the air and catching it.

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humanmapquest
2011-02-19 07:55 pm UTC (link)

Having always been the voice of reason in her own group of friends, and having been raised in a home that had consisted primarily - for her time in Colligo, at least - of just herself and Mohinder, Molly wasn't the loud or rambunctious type and didn't tend to steep herself in drama. She preferred calm order, truth be told, but dealt with Adam and Jude's (and Ben's, when he'd still been there) tendencies to lean toward the ridiculous. So while she wanted very much to grab James' snitch out of the air and lock it in a drawer until breakfast was over, she didn't say anything right away.

Pick your battles. She could remember her mother telling her father that, back when her parents had been alive and she had been being exceptionally difficult once or twice. She decided to employ the same tactic now. He'd have to stop to eat and, if he didn't, then she'd speak up.

Instead she waited until Regulus was seated before taking her own seat and reaching for her napkin. She'd made aloo paratha for breakfast, taking the time to fix up some raitha to go along with it. She wasn't really expecting Regulus to eat and knew James liked the meal well enough. If there was one silver lining in this, Molly knew, it was that at least she and James got on well enough. She just had to find some sort of common ground with Regulus.

But not with James sitting right there.

Grateful for the conversation starter, she smiled at the teen over her plate. "I didn't ask Jude to offer you a job, no. I was going to offer you one myself, actually," she answered him. "But I think working with her will suit you a little better. I say go for it."

Then she glanced toward Regulus, not really expecting him to eat or even acknowledge her but wanting to give him the opportunity. "There's cereal and milk if you'd rather," she said. "I have a habit of cooking when I have things on my mind, hence all of... this." Molly busied her hands by picking up her fork and cutting off a bite of food. She looked back to James.

"Where are you, Harry, and Lily going?" she asked curiously.

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arrogant_black
2011-02-20 03:35 am UTC (link)

The snitch didn't bother Regulus. Well, it would have had Regulus been all present, there would most definitely have been feelings of jealousy about a certain lack of magical ability on his part. As it was, everything, the snitch, the wand use, were all easy to ignore. When James started talking Regulus even retreated further into himself. He just picked a spot on the wall to fix his gaze and sat motionless, ignoring the prattle quite obviously directed at Molly, and her alone. He heard both of them just fine, but he filtered everything back and away from the forefront of his mind to some closed room where he didn't have to process anything. It's not like James wanted him to contribute to the conversation anyway.

Molly told him about other options, but he wasn't interested in eating, he wasn't hungry. In moments of emotional distress Regulus lost his appetite. Something both Neria and Mordred would have noticed the previous week, hell anyone who took a second to look at him would noticed he didn't look 'healthy', a lack of eating and sleeping did that to a body. He was here for one reason only, if he didn't join them Molly and James couldn't eat.

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stolensnitch
2011-02-20 02:34 pm UTC (link)

James was busy piling his plate with everything he could see, although he was careful enough to make sure and leave enough for everyone else. He was sixteen, after all, and a very active one at that. He'd been accused of having hollow legs more than a few times in the past. Regulus's complete lack of movement or caring had him wanting to poke the older wizard in the face, just to make sure he was actually there, but he figured that wouldn't go down well, and Molly's pre-emptive telling-off was still fresh in his mind. He liked her, and so he left well enough alone, which basically meant ignoring Regulus, and ate.

"I think we're going exploring through the city. Lily asked if I wanted to go for a walk, anyway, and then she said about going out with Harry and that I could go along with them. And Harry said I could go and play vido-games with him and Ron," James babbled happily, "and I think that'll mean I could work on sorting out Quidditch stuff as well. Harry said that my first fake-Dad made some equipment before, but he doesn't know where it went, so we'll just have to work on muggle things."

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humanmapquest
2011-02-20 03:01 pm UTC (link)

She could do this. For about the billionth time since waking up and discovering her newest situation, Molly told herself that she could do this. She just had to get through each meal, one at a time, and make it through each night. That was it. The rest of the time, Regulus could stay locked in the bathroom if he wanted, James could go be a teenager and get to enjoy himself, and she could focus on her job and schooling. It wasn't ideal, of course, but Molly knew better than to expect such a thing from the current living arrangements. No, she'd be lucky to get out of this without something exploding, all things considered.

Especially given the fact that they weren't the only ones in the flat. A fact made more than obvious earlier that morning when Molly had finally taken notice of the small house elf that was perched, drunk, in the corner of the living room, muttering what equaled obscenities whenever she wandered too close. Yes, she had ignored Kreacher - had actually felt a rather large spike of pity for him, in fact - but he, too, was liable to wear thin before this was all said and done. However Molly was determined to make the best of it so she shoved the thought of the house elf from her mind, did her best not to let Regulus' lack of acknowledgment get to her, and focused almost primarily on James.

Her smile had been a polite one when he'd first begun speaking but, by the time he was finished, she was authentically smiling. For the briefest of moments she forgot that things had changed, that Merlin wasn't the other person sitting at the table, that the entire meal wasn't quite as awkward as it really was. She simply listened as James told her about his plans for the day, glad he seemed to have things to keep him busy throughout all of this.

"Video," she said when he'd finished. Her tone wasn't rebuking, just soft and amused. "It's pronounced 'video games'. And I'm sure you'll have a nice time." Pausing to take a bite of her food, chewing and swallowing, she finally added thoughtfully, "And if you want some help finding that equipment from before, I can probably manage it."

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