InsaneJournal

Who: Lorna MacFarlane & Florrie McGonagall
What: Girl Talk
When: Tuesday, 28 November 1999.
Where: MacFarlane Home.
Warnings: None? Kids might be eavesdropping / Also changing clothes!

Lorna had felt bad for blowing off Florrie as soon as she’d done it. That had been the day after her fight with Ellie, and she knew seeing Florrie in person she couldn’t avoid talking about it. Most of her steam was gone from that now… but she was still concerned since Ellie was still not speaking to her unless necessary. Which made things a bit awkward at practice, but Lorna was going to hold off on confronting her sister until after the match this week.

She was tired from practice today, and she had practice to look forward to again tomorrow. This was an important match (well, they were all important) but Ellie was right about needing to get their points up in the ranking. For her own part, Lorna had a new beater to help while still adjusting herself. If their chasers were going to get more points, then she and Luag were going to have to clear the way for them.

But practice was over now. Lorna had the wee ones occupied while she waited for Florrie to come over. Since going back to Quidditch, Lorna had even less time to hang out or social so she was glad she asked Florrie to come over. Lorna was also intrigued about Florrie’s news about her date. It would be good to have that to discuss and not just Lorna laying out all her complaints on Florrie too. And Lorna really did need help planning for the Gala… she couldn’t even remember the last time she’d been expected to show up somewhere looking ‘fancy’.

Lorna had some cocoa ready (and something stronger if Florrie wanted some with her) to really solidify that this was a raincheck from the other day. All Lorna needed was for Florrie to get there.

Florrie had been looking forward to seeing Lorna all day; it had been too long since she'd had time to spend with her favourite MacFusty cousin. She had her broom with her when she stepped out of the Floo, and hung over her shoulder she had a bag with a couple of formal robes that she thought would do for the gala for Lorna. She brushed off the soot from the fire and set the broom and the clothing aside so she could give Lorna a hug. "I'm so glad we're doing this," Florrie said. "I don't get to see enough of you these days."

Lorna smiled and hugged Florrie back. Ellie had always been Lorna’s best mate (though maybe not at the moment) but Florrie was special. She was family, but also they’d gone through school together, and were still close since then. “Yeah, me too. I have to remember that I have a life outside of Quidditch and kids now,” she said with a laugh as she let Florrie go. She stepped back and let Florrie come take a seat. “You’ve been keeping yourself busy apparently between moving and dating. Want something to drink?”

Florrie caught the scent of the drinks coming from the kitchen. "Is that cocoa I smell? We can spike it if you like. The Cattery is on the Floo so I don't have to worry about flying home or anything." She gestured at the dress bag. "I've got a couple of things for you to try in case there's nothing you like in your own wardrobe."

Lorna nodded at Florrie catching scent of the drinks. “Yes, since that’s what you’d promised me. It’s only fair. And yes, plenty of liquor you can spike it with,” Lorna said and stood back up to lead Florrie into the kitchen instead. “Thanks, we can probably take all this to my room then. Go through the closet to see what’s in there, but I’ll take a look at what you have first.”

Florrie scooped up the bag by its handle to bring it with as they fetched the cocoa and the whiskey to spike it with to take up to the master suite. Catching sight of Owen in a doorway, Florrie waved at him silently so as not to alert the children their mum had a visitor. Florrie's experience was that children, once alerted to the visit of a spoiling auntie, would get excited and never go on to bed.

Owen was taking on a lot of extra work lately now that Lorna was working again. Not that Lorna just stayed home all the time in the last six… she’s also worked part time at the reserve, but that was different. He had to take some time off to adjust to her new routine. Everything was going fine so far… Lorna hoped that it would stay that way.

Right now the kids were very happily occupied with their Dad who was putting them to bed so Lorna gave a quick wave too as they walked by, cocoa in hand. She let Florrie into her room and closed the door behind them. “Let’s see what you have first then we can rip the closet open,” Lorna suggested. “And you can tell me about your date.”

Florrie pulled out three dresses, all in dark colours, and, she was quite aware, probably more modest than Lorna typically wore. Florrie was more than aware of her assets and typically dressed to minimise them, so she was careful with her necklines in a way that Lorna didn't have to be. "With some adjustments to the front, I think this one would do," she said as she pulled out a long gown in dark red velvet. "You'll want a necklace of some sort to go with it, of course.

"... and it's Sebastian Cavallero."

Lorna was momentarily distracted with the dresses. She knew Florrie was a bit more self conscious of her womanly figure, which was a bit of a shame. When Lorna was single, or even just dating Owen, she had been a bit more overt in her attire. She might have tried to push Florrie a bit more when they were young to dress more sexy, but Lorna hadn’t applied that pressure in a long time.

Though that train of thought was immediately cut off when Florrie finally let the truth slip out. “WHAT! Cav… as in my team’s manager? When did this happen? How did I not know about this beforehand?”

"He asked me out across the journals, I said yes, and here we are. We have dinner, go broom flying, that kind of thing." Florrie looked like the cat who had eaten the canary, which suggested there had been some of that kind of thing. "So maybe you'll be returning the favour and dressing me up some for this Gala, hmm?"

“Florinda McGonagall, you have been holding out on me!” Lorna said. But this was good. Florrie deserved to be happy. “I’m happy for you, and absolutely I’ll help dress you up. You’re going to have a date after all,” she said assuming that would be the case. She couldn’t help but wonder what Ellie would think of that though… but this wasn’t the moment for that. “What else did you bring me?”

Florrie pulled out another dress in a flowing black fabric, one that was lower cut but draped artfully across the chest. "How about this one? You'll want to try it on, I think. Looks like less on the hanger and more on the ... rack."

“Ha, I see what you did there,” Lorna said at Florrie’s pun. She looked the dress over and opted to try it on as she got up. “So if I’m helping you pick something too, did you bring anything over for that? Or is this going to be a late night mission Wednesday night?” she asked as she started changing out of her clothes to try the dress on.

"Oh, I've got something in there for me, too, though I'm sure you'll have opinions about how to alter it to better suit." Florrie stuck out her tongue teasingly at Lorna as she reached in to pull out the dress she meant to wear: long, dark blue, and classic in cut.

“Yes well if you’re going to have a date, it might not be a bad idea to alter your classic tastes a bit!” Lorna said as she smoothed out the black dress on herself as she got it on. “That does look good though. Good colour on you,” Lorna commented as Florrie pulled out the other dress. “I’m really just hoping to be presentable at this thing. Two days of intense practice, and then a match the following day. I’m glad we’ll have a break after this. Except I’m still going to have to keep training to stay in form anyway…” Lorna explained with a sigh.

"I know, ugh." Florrie stripped off as well so she could get into her own dress. "We'll need to re-hem yours depending on the shoes you wear. I can't imagine how Muggle girls wear heels. How do you walk in them without stabilising spells?"

It was apparent that Florrie had lost a little weight since the last time she'd worn her dress once she got it on. It was probably all that exercising she was doing following the team round and flying with them: more than she'd had while she was leading the ambulance corps at St Mungo's and certainly far more than she'd had in her last year at a desk.

“Seriously. I like my dragon hide boots just fine thanks,” Lorna said looking the black dress over to see if it was what she wanted, or how far she could adjust it to her own style. Florrie was a bit taller than her too, so the length showed there too

“That’s looks good, though you might want to take it in a bit,” she said. Whatever Florrie was doing, she looked good and more importantly seemed happy. “Thanks again for helping. I swear I’ve just had quidditch brain for the last month or just worrying about Elsie. And the ‘reminder’ of the Gala was more of a first notice.”

"Should I ask how she's doing? Or more importantly, how you two are getting on?" Florrie was pulling the front of her dress in various ways to see what she could do about the front of it, and how much she could take in without dropping the neckline to what she thought of as an indecently low level. (For all that she reckoned Cav might like it.)

So the moment was there, and really it was what Lorna wanted to talk about but she still hesitated. Florrie was happy talking about her date, and now Lorna was going to get into her complaining. “I don’t know how she’s doing. We’re not even talking, that’s how we’re getting on,” she said honestly going right to the point. “We had a fight the day after the Fall Classic. We haven’t really talked since. So much for the return of the MacFusty sisters then,” Lorna said. It was frustrating. It was hard to want to be back when her sister, the one who wanted her to come out of retirement, didn’t make her feel like she should be there. Lorna just kept telling herself that she was there for the team, not for Ellie (at least not right now).

Florrie dropped the front of her dress and came to give Lorna a big hug. "That's awful. It was a rough match and you did the best you could, all of you. It's not on you that Portree didn't win. I'm sorry she's being--whatever it is she's being--about it."

Lorna should have expected a hug from Florrie, but it did take her surprise in that moment. She smiled and accepted the hug. “Thanks. But… I don’t think it was the match. Not really. Maybe the catalyst,” Lorna explained. She sighed as she thought of how to explain it. “She sent these gifts to everyone that night. Mine was a dragon that basically ignored me and flew away. I knew she was upset so I went to see her,” she said remembering that day… “She provoked me into a fight basically. To avoid what was really going on. She said that she regretted ever getting me involved in Quidditch in the first place. She said I wasn’t a MacFusty anymore. She insulted Owen…” Lorna said and kept her voice down at that part. She really hadn’t told Owen about the whole fight. “So I punched her. She ended up pushing me off the porch… which we broke. And she bit me. Davina had to break it up. And… she’s barely talked to me since.”

Florrie cleared away a space on the bed so they could sit together and pulled Lorna down next to her. "Merc and I have been worried about her. Apparently she sent him something too, after the match, I mean, but she's been behaving strangely for a while. Part of it has to be the pressure--even Merc gets cross now and again these days--but Elsie seems like she's upset about something more."

That just made Lorna even more concerned that Florrie and Merc had been noticing it too. “It doesn’t really surprise me that she’s putting herself under so much pressure… but I don’t know how to help her. Especially if she doesn’t want to talk to me,” she said. “I mean… she wanted me back, she wanted my help, but now I don’t know what she wants.”

"She wants to be 6-aught and for Oighrig MacDonald not to be out for the season, never mind the other possibilities." Which was all Florrie wanted to say about that. "I've seen Merc agonise over the same kinds of things with players who are injured. How to balance what's best for the team with the individual players. Reliving the grief of his own injury, I think. And he won the Fall Classic, for all that I think he cares less than Elsie does. Not that he doesn't--just not as much as Elsie."

Lorna knew it was tough that she was coming in and replacing Oighrig, even if she’d been beater and captain before. Ellie was more emotional than she really let on to most people. She was her closest friend, not even just her sister… so that’s what made it so hard for not knowing what to do. “Again… I’m not even sure it was the Fall Classic exactly. Like. Maybe she thought everyone would all be alright, but then the loss proved that it wouldn’t be,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. Though something that Florrie said did trigger something for Lorna. Merc reliving the grief of his own injury… “I wonder if it might be the same with Ellie. She’s reliving her own injury too.”

"Could be," Florrie agreed. "The thing about the Classic is she's more competitive with Merc than makes any sense to me. I don't think it's about the match; I think it's to do with the two of them. Though now that I hear everyone got one, I feel less worried about the one she sent to Merc. It was a dragon eating a crow." She made a face. "I mean, sure, I know you want Portree to win, and I know I want Montrose to win, but we're also all in this together. And for Elsie it seems harder to step back and remember that."

“Ellie has always been one to go all in,” Lorna said and that was her only explanation for that. “Maybe it would be a good idea for Merc to talk to her then. I’m not saying this to push the problem off… but if she won’t talk to me, maybe she’ll talk to him,” she suggested. “This coaching thing is new for her and Ellie is not always as confident as she makes herself out to be.”

There was another nod of agreement from Florrie. "We've been considering staging a whole-family intervention, but maybe you're right and it should just be Merc."

Lorna nodded. “The whole-family might be a bit much… if Merc alone could talk to her. But definitely keep me informed if that has to be the option. With all of us.”

"I will. But let's not worry about that any more right now. Let's worry about getting you into fine MacFusty form for this thing tomorrow." Florrie stood up and offered her arms to pull Lorna to her feet. After all, there were still more dresses to go through.