LOG: Hestia/Christian FORMAT: Log WHO: Hestia and Christian WHEN: Right after the attacks WHERE: Mungo's WHAT: Christian is not always a douche. NOTES: No, seriously.
Hestia sat in the waiting room, along with what seemed to be the rest of the wizarding world, with a sleeping Gwenog in the chair next to, head on her lap. As she sat there, stroking her little sister’s hair, she did everything possible to not think about the past two days. Her little brother being ripped from her arms and killed, her parents in critical condition down the hallway, and her boyfriend and friends all in rooms of their own. She didn’t want to deal with it, so if she just thought about something else, anything else, it would help.
But it was hard to do so in the environment they were in, especially with an eight year old to look after. She had wanted to go to Devin and find comfort with him, but he already had so many loved ones to worry about, she didn’t want to add on.
So she had warded Christian, hoping he would show up. She wouldn’t have blamed him if not, of course, as who would want to enter such a depressing place with so many people mourning or worrying, but she still hoped. She needed a friend.
You could count on one hand the number of people Christian actually cared about; one of them was Hestia.
Christian, like his brother, had been apparated out of the train station fairly quickly. And, to be honest, for all the screaming a lot of people were doing about how those who apparated quickly were disgusting cowards, he was glad he'd been apparated out. Besides, what good would sticking around and getting your family hurt or worse do?
Also, as a member of that same 'cowardly' segment of society, he knew full well that any purist family that had tipped off the DMLE instead of getting their family out like they were told to would have found themselves at the top of the DE's list. He wouldn't for a world have seen his family in that position.
None of which meant he was happy about what had happened. For all Christian could be an asshole, particularly when it came to girls, he didn't necessarily want to see people killed. He certainly hadn't wanted to see it happen to Hestia and her family.
When he found her in the waiting room, he sat quietly down next to her. "Hey."
Hestia conjured up her best smile when Christian took a seat next to her. She gently lifted her sister’s head off her lap, standing up to place it back on the chair, to let her sleep. She asked the woman next to them, who had been helping Hestia out with Gwenog to watch her, and turned to Christian, gesturing for him to stand. “Can we go for a walk? I need fresh air.”
"Of course," Christian said, rising and offering her an arm.
Hestia gladly accepted his arm, wrapping both hers around it. She leaned into him and smiled up at him, this time it was a bit more genuine, just glad to have a friend there. “Did I take you away from super urgent matters?”
"Nothing that can't be put off," he promised her. "How are you doing?"
Hestia shrugged in response, not wanting to really go into it. Not acknowledging the facts was the only thing holding her together. Instead, she would focus on other, less grave matters. “Do you think it makes me a lousy girlfriend that I haven’t gone to visit him yet?”
"I think that depends," Christian told her, "On the reason you haven't gone, and whether he knows what the reason is."
“I don’t know,” Hestia shrugged, focusing her eyes ahead of her. “He has so much going on, and so many others hurt, that I kind of feel like I would just be putting more on his plate. If that makes sense.”
"It does," Christian told her. "But on the other hand, is it going to hurt him if he thinks you aren't there for him?"
“I don’t think I know how to grieve for myself and someone else at once,” Hestia admit, hugging herself close to him as she frowned. “Basically, I’m a horrible girlfriend.”
"No you're not," Christian told her. "You're human. You're a human who's been caught up in the middle of a tragedy. I imagine most people would have a difficult time handling this sort of thing. But you're not a horrible girlfriend. Trust me, I know all about being a horrible significant other."
“That last part is true, I guess,” she tried to joke, her lips lifting slightly into a small smile.
He grinned. "It is," he admitted. "Probably always will be, too."
“What?” Hestia asked, feigning shock. “But I thought you wanted to settle down right after school and start popping out little Pressons. What changed?”
He made a face. "One of the downsides of being born pureblood," he admitted. "Is that for the most part, families do tend to expect that. Hopefully, I can put that particular trauma off for a while."
“If you need me to distract your family, just say the word, and I’ll flash them as you run the other way,” Hestia offered.
"That might work on my father," Christian admitted. "But not my mother. Eyes like a hawk, that one."
“My breasts are fantastic,” Hestia pointed out. “Your mother will fall prey. Don’t worry. I will set you free.”
"Yes, I remember them quite well," he said, perhaps a little more devilishly than he should have said to someone else's girlfriend. "And I suppose if anyone's breasts are capable of distracting my mother, it'd be yours."
Hestia punched arm playfully, but still her smile grew a little more genuine. “You’re such a cad. I love you dearly, but a cad nonetheless.”
"That's probably fair," he said neutrally. "But it doesn't make what I said less true. You have magnificent breasts."
“I don’t hear any complaints from Devin, so here’s to hoping they stay perky well into old age.”
"There are probably spells for that," he said, though his knowledge of augmentation magic was sketchy at best.
Hestia just nod her head in response, walking along in silence for a moment. She was happy to have a moment to not think about everything, to not drown in the anxiety and grief that she had been feeling ever since the train platform. She didn’t count on it lasting much longer, but she going to try her hardest to not let it drag her down until she was alone. “Hey, Christian?”
"Yeah?"
“Feel free to say no,” Hestia started, worried that she was asking too much of her friend. “But I want to take Gwenog home and get her out of the hospital for a bit. I’m legal now, so I can do that, but if we had someone else there, it would be really helpful. I don’t know. So, if you want, maybe you can come stay at our place for a night or two? Just to keep my mind a bit at ease?”
Christian considered this for a moment, staring at her quietly. "Alright. Will your parents mind?"
“I haven’t been able to speak with either of them yet,” Hestia said, the worry clear on her face as she thought about both of her parents in their hospital beds. “But they won’t. They would be glad that Gwen and I wouldn’t be alone.”
"Then I'd love to come and help distract you."
Hestia leaned up a kissed Christian’s cheek and thanked him. “I’ll even try to cook something. It will be hilarious.”
"No, what would be hilarious is if I tried to cook something. Though I guess it's probably not so different from potions."
“I tried once before with mum,” Hestia cringed. “Trust me, it’s different from potions. I don’t know why, it seems the same, but it is. You are going to help me try.”
"This is going to be a travesty," Christian said optimistically.
“And just to be clear,” she said pointedly at her close friend. “You are aware that we will be sleeping in separate beds, right?”
"Naturally," Christian said, though his mind didn't really think sleeping was all that important anyway."
Hestia stopped walking, holding Christian back to prevent him from taking another step as well, and looked him in the eyes. “Thank you for this, Christian. Really. It’s been hard to really try and hold myself together, so thank you.”
"It really isn't a problem," he told her, and it wasn't. There were very few people Christian bothered to make an attempt for, but she'd long been one of them. "Do you want to get out of here for a bit? Go blow up the kitchen?"
“Absolutely,” she said, laughing her first genuine laugh since before the attack. “We just need to go grab Gwen. She’s probably sleeping, so I can just carry her back, and she’ll be out for the rest of the night.”
"Alright. Go ahead and grab her and I'll meet you outside, alright?"
“Yeah,” Hestia said with a nod before leaning up to give him a friendly kiss on the cheek. “Thanks.”