Who: Duck and Mari, and then Duck and Nate Where: Hospital Wing, and then 6th Year Hufflepuff Boy's dorm When: Tuesday evening What: Duck drags Mari to be cured, the siblings talk, Duck lets Nate know all is well again Complete PG-13
It had taken all Duck's powers of persuasion and a large dose of older brother strong-arming, plus the recruitment of Roger (who still had no idea what was going on) to get Mari to the hospital wing. Luckily Zest also saw Mari's behaviour was highly unusual and whisked her away for treatment. Duck sent the confused Roger back to Gryffindor, but remained waiting for Mari outside the hospital wing doors, occasionally kicking at the wall.
He was a little hurt of course, by Mari's words about him. Who wouldn't be? He didn't blame her though, well aware that he did tend to blithely ignore his parents nine times out of ten, and he knew Mari was more sensitive to pressure from their over-achieving mother. It was all very well for him to tell Mari to live her own life, but even Duck felt the pressure from his mother's expectations sometimes - his breakdown last summer when he told his parents he was gay being a prime example.
Two hours passed and he was started to get really anxious when he heard footsteps. Glancing up, he saw Mari coming towards him.
Mari had never been so ashamed of herself as she was when she walked towards her older brother. She was embarrassed by what she'd said in the journals. Who wouldn't be? But what she said to Duck was inexcusable. There were reasons she tried to protect her brothers from the pressures that she felt from their mother and taking out her own choices on Duck was beyond unfair.
When she saw Duck was still waiting for her she bit her lip but continued forward. She was strong, she reminded herself. She regularly faced their mother's disappointment when she failed she could apologise to her brother for being an awful person. When she was about a metre from her brother it was like her feet stopped working. She stood rooted in one spot and she could feel the tears leaking down her face.
"I'm sorry, Duck. What I said was inexcusable."
Duck closed the distance between them and threw his arms around his sister, hugging her tightly. "Don't you worry about it, Mari," he said soothingly, rubbing her back. "I know you feel a lot of pressure from Mum and I'm not much help in that department. And I know it's been a rough year too," he didn't understand the silly boys who were making his sister feel bad, how could they not see what a treasure she was?
He pulled back to look in her eyes and gently wipe away the tears. "Sometimes we have to explode sometimes, and hey... maybe it's a good thing to get these things off your chest."
Mari wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, "No, it wasn't. Not the things I said. What I said to you was terrible and hurtful and wrong and what I said about the boys...well, it's not like it's their faults that they didn't like me like that. It's just what happens. I don't flirt and stuff so it's not like any boy I like would know even if I did. And it isn't that I liked either Ed or Will it just feels lousy knowing you're not chosen. But those are my emotions to deal with and my problems. I had no right to make such an issue of them like that."
"Well... to be honest, I think Edwin will be too embarrassed by what he's doing to worry too much about what you said about him," Duck tried to comfort her, but he knew it was hard to find comfort when you felt you'd done something awful. "A lot of people are acting out, either angry like you were or flirting, and since Madam Zest realised it wasn't natural then it's not your fault and those who know you will understand. And who knows?" he said hopefully. "Maybe your words were a good kick up the arse for them?"
"I'm not upset with you Mari, of course I was a little hurt, but you weren't wrong, I DO ignore Mum and Dad a lot, so I know it puts more pressure on you."
"I do it so you and Roger get to be yourselves without Mum's interference," Mari tugged on the bottom of her shirt, "You mentioned muffins, do you still have them?" she asked. She was a Lee and there were certain things that could be counted on among all Lees: they had terrible bed head, they had bad eyesight and they were emotional eaters.
"I know," Duck gave her forehead a light kiss and squeeze her shoulders.
He grinned at her question. "When don't I have muffins to share?" he laughed, feeling a weight slide off his shoulders. If Mari wanted food then everything was going to be fine.
Duck guided Mari to a window seat in the corridor and then dug around in his copious pockets for the food that was inevitably on his person. Two chocolate chip muffins, slightly squashed but still good, were produced.
"So..." he said after there was a short silence for some serious munching. "There's a bunch of people acting all ga-ga. Think we should try and persuade them to get to the hospital wing?"
Mari shrugged, "Perhaps? I really don't know Duck, I'm glad that you made me come but I don't know about forcing people. Maybe people we know well?"
"I have to admit it was a lot easier making you come here knowing I had 'big bro' rights and all," Duck agreed, licking chocolate from his fingertips. "Mmm.... yeah... perhaps drop a word to the people who are siblings or boyfriend/girlfriend of an affected person, they might be better able to do something. I know a lot are just riding this out...." he smirked then. "Have we become to used to weirdness?"
She nodded in agreement to his suggestion, "Magic makes weird things happen so I think part of the reason things like this happen here is to prepare us for the weirdness after school is over," Mari had heard plenty of stories from their father about the odd things that happened every day that he saw at St Mungo's.
"That makes sense," Duck agreed and then, his muffin finished, he put his arm around Mari and gave her a one armed hug. "Still, I think this one was actually a useful weird event, because if you ever do feel like you need to vent I want you to feel you can and not hold everything in, okay? I know I'm a flake sometimes, but I'm still your brother and I want to know when something upsets you."
Mari nodded, "Of course, Big Brother," she gave him a slight smile, "I'll let you know if anything is bothering me."
She really hated lying to Duck sometimes but she wasn't about ready to mar his view of the world by letting loose on him when things were bothering her. It just didn't seem fair. But he didn't need to know that.
"Good," Duck smiled back.
Later, when he'd seen Mari back to the door of her common room, Duck returned to Hufflepuff. He'd promised Nate he would see him after Mari was cured and therefore went directly to the dorm room where he was sure his boyfriend would be at this time.
The dorm was empty except for Nate, which Duck was glad about because it meant there were no qualms about bounding straight over to Nate and greeting him with a kiss. "She's all right now."
Nate kissed him back before settling down against the pillows with Duck resting against his chest, "Good, now you can tell me what she said that had you so worried. I'm sure that it wasn't her rant about how dumb boys are."
Duck snuggled against Nate, his head on his chest so he could listen to Nate's heartbeat. He loved being like this with Nate, he could happily stay cuddling him for ages. "Well... yeah, it was more than that," he said slowly and then told Nate what Mari had said to him that finally pushed him to drag her to the hospital wing.
"It hurt, but she was right," Duck sighed softly. "So I'm not mad at her for saying it, and she was very upset about it anyway. But that's what worried me, because she never ever says things like that to me."
"It doesn't matter how right she might have been she still shouldn't have attacked you," Nate rubbed his chin over the top of Duck's head. He always felt...stable when Duck was close to him like this.
"She wasn't in possession of her right mind, it wasn't her fault," Duck pointed out mildly. He could excuse his siblings practically anything, it would take a lot more than a drugged angry Mari to upset him completely. He chuckled and nuzzled at Nate, chuckling. "My defender."
Nate rearranged himself so that he and Duck were face to face, "I love you, Duncan Lee, that means I defend you. You love so easily and so unconditionally that someone has to keep you safe," Nate told the other boy not realising that he was echoing Mari's sentiments from earlier though (obviously) their motivation was worlds apart.
Nate didn't see it as protecting Duck from pain so much as keeping that thing about Duck that was so special from being altered. He would do nearly anything to protect that spark that only Duck seemed to possess.
When Nate said his full name in such a context, Duck wasn't distracted by his dislike of the name. He blushed, his mouth curving into a blissfully happy smile at his boyfriend's words.
"I'm very lucky to be loved so much," he murmured, stroking Nate's cheek. "I love you too, Nate Roberts," the words were sealed with a soft kiss on the lips. "And I feel very safe," he added before following up with a more lingering kiss. After all his worrying about Mari, and his other friends, as well as the horrible things that had been throw around in journals, he was more than happy to spend some time in his boyfriend's arms and let Nate protect him from the world.
Nate closed the curtains around his bed and set the usual sound deafening wards before snaking his hands up under Duck's shirt and settling in for a good, long snog.