dorcas meadowes is with john dawlish (warrioress) wrote in find_horcruxes, @ 2009-12-13 11:15:00 |
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Entry tags: | dorcas meadowes, gideon prewett |
rp log - dorcas and gideon
Who: Dorcas Meadowes and Gideon Prewett
When: Saturday night, 12 December, 1979
Where: The Burrow, specifically the living room
What: After the perfect distraction from the DMLE holiday party, Dor and Gid spend their late night having gingersnaps and ciders.
Rating: PG
Dorcas had already mentally patted herself on the back for making this wise decision. She had a considerable amount of fun at the House of Weasley, more than she would have had at the party. And everytime she found herself in this house, it was difficult to leave and retreat back into her room at the castle. No offense intended to its inhabitants, because she absolutely adored Angus (and would be forever grateful for introducing her to the horses), but there was a certain different type of warmth she found here, among her two closest friends and their sister that made the best pies ever. The children made up a large part of it too. They were, however, put into their rooms for their bedtime, leaving the house very quiet, but Dorcas stayed in living room for a while, a little too exhausted to move to one of the guest rooms just yet. The party was probably set to end soon. She wasn't sorry she missed it, though. There were going to be plenty of holiday parties (she hoped, at least, because the more things that stayed consistent despite the war, the better) and maybe the next year, she would feel a little more comfortable going to one. Just not this one. Dorcas commended herself for doing a damn good job of just fueling all that hurt and anger into her training. Throwing stronger hexes was the only way she wanted to let it out -- the next trainer was definitely on the receiving end of that -- not another melt-down like on her birthday. Though in her defense, she had been drunk out of her mind. Gideon didn't hold any amount of melting down against her. She had loved John Dawlish and she had watched the man get murdered in front of the entire wizarding world. Gideon figured Dorcas was pretty well entitled to melt down any time she felt like. The fact that she hadn't completely fallen apart was a testament to her strength and determination, as far as he was concerned. Gideon did, however, do his best to help keep her on even footing. He saw Dorcas for lunch every Friday, and while they might on occasion discuss Order matters, more often than not he tried to keep conversation light and easy. When Dorcas needed rescue from the DMLE holiday party, Gideon helped come up with an escape route for her. And now, when the escape-route party had come to a close, Gideon was there to sit next to Dorcas on the sofa with a bag full of ginger snaps that Molly had technically already put away. "Good night?" he asked after biting off some cookie and washing it down with warm apple cider. She had seemed to have fun so far - he hoped that was actually the case. Dorcas nodded in response, reaching over for a ginger snap or two. "Thank you." She wasn't sure if she had managed to say that before, but it just needed to be said. It was for, well, a lot of reasons. He was contributing a large amount to the sanity that Dorcas was able to keep, still able to keep her smiling during their Friday lunches when the topic was light. She occasionally crashed at the Weasleys' place, spending the night with the family's permission, and she spent most of that time, hanging around Gideon, Fabian, and their nephews. Team Prewett to the rescue indeed. A small voice in her head begged for that sort of normalcy back, before anything between her and John happened, when the lunches were mostly jokes and teases, and there was no horrible tragedy in her life - a second one at least, considering one had already occurred years ago. She really did want to go back to that, but it was far too soon to jump into it without feeling completely guilty that she was trying to have fun. "I probably didn't miss much of that party. There will be more in the future anyway. Maybe next time when our lives aren't in so much danger, I'll drag you there." "I'll be happy to go along," Gideon readily agreed. "Even though work parties are almost always dull, I have faith we could make it fun." At that point, a year would have passed. Everything would be easier then. He tried not to get all hung up on the idea that they might not well live to see another year, what with Death Eaters knowing who they were and all. He even liked to think that maybe by that point, the war might be over. But then, a year ago he'd thought that the war would be over by now, too. There was really no counting on anything, and that was the only way they could deal with any of it. He'd agree to go to the party now, and assuming there was still a him and a her and a party a year from now, he was sure they'd have a grand time. One side of her lips twitched upward in a slight smirk. "Too bad guest is likely limited to one only. We could have had our Prewett sandwich to liven things up more." There... keeping it light and focusing on just the good. She wasn't inclined to think of what would happen if they didn't make it through 1980 either. Or even this year. Dorcas had simply learned to take things in stride, focus on the now, and if thinking of the future was a must, make it look enjoyable. Of course, enjoyable had been her how her thoughts on her future with John had been, never taking it into account that either of them could have ended up dead before the year was over. Learn from that and don't take anything for granted, Dorcas. Or don't get attached again. That seemed like sound advice too. "I have a feeling Felicity might object to that," Gideon replied with a bit of a grin. "She seems to have a touch of a jealous streak." Gideon was glad to see that his brother had someone, and that the someone in question was Felicity. They really did seem to be good for each other, when the complications weren't bringing them down. He had real hope for them that this would work out. As for himself, Gideon just hoped that he got through the war alive and that he might find someone after the end of it. He was too lousy at lying and presently a little too hung up on his ex to be any good to anyone. One day, though, he figured he'd be over this and the war would be over, and maybe he'd at least finally be able to tell Miriam he hadn't been cheating on her. In the meantime, he could just try to focus his attention on something else - and Merlin knew there was enough stuff requiring his attention. "This is true. I guess we'll just stick to half of the sandwich," she said, leaning over again, to grab another ginger snap. Dorcas hadn't been aware of that, but she knew how to be the sweetest person ever, willing to make a new friend, and so had been nothing but friendly to Fabian's girlfriend. "Think the Order ought to do something collaborative as this? I can see myself bringing out the Risk board and challenging the older men to a game." She was damn good in that one, and finding newer opponents was always interesting. "Risk?" Gideon asked, curious. "I've never played. What is it?" Gideon's experience with Muggle stuff was mostly limited to the Beatles, the Stones, and going to the movies. Board games were not a matter he'd investigated thoroughly. Being a fan of games, though, he was up for learning more. "A strategy-based board game," she started, sitting up and facing Gideon directly. It was a favourite game. Once she started talking about it, it was hard to stop her. "You basically have a map divided into territories, and the players' jobs are to dominate as many as those territories as you can. You play with little figurines of the army soldiers, and artillery, and choose territories to occupy when you start the game off, and each player gets a certain number of army depending on how many players there would be..." Really, she was going to end up explaining the entire game if Gideon didn't stop her. "No, it's okay!" Gideon laughed. "You had me at 'dominate as many territories as you can'. I like a good strategy game. If you've got a board, I will play." He'd always liked games, ever since his grandfather started teaching him checkers when he was just a little kid. While he was generally more of a get-outdoors type, Gideon would seldom turn down a good run at a board game. "Hopefully that game was in the pile of things we ransacked from my old apartment." Clothes and books weren't the only things she had rushed to grab from her old flat after the library battle. She had tried to get as much as possible, especially photos and albums (mostly in fear of someone coming upon those should the Death Eaters decide to take a visit there). "If not, then I'm sure I can pop into Muggle London sometime and go searching. Then I'll teach you!" His birthday was even coming up. Hell, why not just buy him that board game? "Brilliant!" Gideon declared. It sounded like a good plan to him. New game, someone fun to play it with - a nice time all around. "Speaking of games, don't leave her without letting me show you the chess set as it stands so far. I'm nearly done with the samurai side." Gideon had started the chess set for Bill and Charlie not long after he read the conversation about samurai and Vikings in the journals. It had seemed an excellent theme for his carvings, though a month and a half into carving sixteen little samurai he was beginning to wonder what the devil he'd been thinking. He was justifiably proud of the set, though, and quite enjoyed forcing people to bear witness to his progress. A chess board was a chess board. And no matter what shape the pieces were, it was still awesome. But even more awesome with samurais and Vikings. "If you weren't going to show me, I would have pestered you to do it, Gideon. That's some painstaking amount of time you must have put into it." Dorcas loved games, but she didn't think she could ever have the patience to actually make a set herself. Plus, she was a perfectionist. Something would always be a little off if she was making something. "It's the most detail work I've ever done on anything, honestly," Gideon admitted. "Which is almost a shame, given that by the time it's been out of its wrapping paper five minutes it'll probably have pieces thrown across the room and the twins gnawing on a couple more. It's going to be really nice, though, and I can probably count on Charlie and Bill to protect it at least to some degree." And Molly. They didn't have a lot of Nice Things, so Molly tended to be protective about the ones they had. As far as Dorcas could see it, everything in this house, even if it was obvious that it was old, could be considered nice. "You never know. Maybe gnawing on the pieces symbolizes that they accept it," she said with a slight laugh. "And it is truly theirs! Maybe a charm that manages to find all the pieces, however far they are thrown, so they're all back on the set when no one's playing it." Gideon laughed at the idea that gnawing on the chess set was a sign of acceptance, loud enough that he had to quickly quiet himself so as not to wake any of the family who had already gone to bed. That second bit, though...that was bloody well brilliant. Gideon nodded, impressed. "Dorcas, you are the smartest witch I know. That charm is the best idea ever." Dorcas blushed slightly, waving her hand dismissively. "It was just a thought." That didn't mean the compliment meant nothing. Coming from a close friend, it still meant a lot. "One that I think you should definitely take into consideration.. of course! You know what else would be a really good idea? Handing over more of those ginger snaps and refilling my glass with that cider." She winked at him before promptly grabbing the bag out of his hands. "Of course, your ladyship!" Gideon was trying to be sarcastic, but just ended up laughing instead. He was already getting up with her mug and his to fetch more cider from the kitchen. "Anything else while I'm up? I think there're still a few sugar biscuits left, too." Dorcas held up her arms, shrugging her shoulders. "Hell, why not? I've got no work tomorrow. We can stay up late with our sugar rushes and creates superhero stories of Team Prewett or share embarrassing stories. Or something." Whatever they could talk about, she suddenly didn't want to night to end so quickly. "Sounds brilliant!" Gideon declared, grabbing up the bag of sugar biscuits and what remained of the lemon shortbread while he was at it. People did enough staying out late and drinking to take their mind off things. Why not stay in late and eat biscuits? Might be childish of them, but children had more fun anyway. "Let's skip on embarrassing stories until sometime when we're drunk and therefore have an excuse for it," he said as he came back into the living room and dropped onto the sofa. "But as for superheroes...who's your favorite?" "Batman," Dorcas replied, almost immediately, except with half a cookie in her mouth. Before she went into the why behind that, she had to pause to chew and swallow. "Bloke does no magic, no superhuman power, yet he has access to so many gadgets and he can take criminals down so easily. That's brain over brawn! Even though, yes, he has those too. Plus, men look good in black." "Men look good in black," Gideon mused with a grin, snapping up a cookie. "Duly noted. Batman's a good choice, though. I'm a Spiderman fan, myself, when it comes to Muggle comics, but that's just because I can't help loving the idea of a superhero who's funny and a bit of a dork. I empathize." Gideon tended to use being a bit of a dork to his advantage. Girls thought it was cute. Not that he was really out there impressing the ladies at the moment, but he liked to think that someday he would date again. Hopefully before his charm wore off entirely. "Well, you have nothing to worry about, because I think it's cute." Yes, despite being interested in the older and broodier, she was one of those girls who thought it was cute. Plus, she was a bit of a dork herself (and the word was in her name... somewhat). She took another cookie, but turned it in her fingers, suddenly becoming thoughtful. "Team Prewett plus me, or not, I like to think that in the future, we'll look back and be seen as the superheroes." Or at least she hoped so. Hoped that there would be a future for them to be in, in order to look back to today. "Because we're pretty awesome, without the red and blue tights or black cape." "We're even better for our lack of ridiculous costumes, I think," Gideon decided aloud, and then raised his cookie in a toast. "To Team Prewett Plus Meadowes! May we fight on sans Spandex." |