More Volunteering at St. Mungos Who: Gregory Goyle and OPEN What: He still has..what? 900+ more hours to do Where: St. Mungo's cafateria When: Monday morning Rating/Status: open/incomplete/tbd
Greg was standing in the line, getting himself some breakfast before he would start his volunteer time at St. Mungo's. He had started doing this, coming here so early in the morning for a variety of reasons. It was in part for the want of being closer to Theo, but it was also out of necessity; employees got a huge discount on food prices, and Greg qualified as a volunteer. He couldn't cook for shit, so getting a good hot meal to start the day was a blessing; he could not stomach what the Till, the family House-Elf, cooked his mother for breakfast. He was almost completely moved into the hut at Hogwarts, and things were going pretty well in general. It was huge relief to be out of Azkaban, and he was grateful for it daily: the new job, the place to live, the volunteer gig, just all of it.
He stepped closer to the front of the line, glancing about at the fairly empty room. The whole volunteering thing wasn't turning out to be so bad, coming here and reading aloud to patients. He was still working on the same children's book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and was working through all of the stories for his third time. His reading was definitely improving and he was surprised how each time he read the stories, he picked up on different facts or images mentioned. It made reading it not so much a task; and the patients didn't seem to mind as most of them were almost comatose. All were fairly out of it, except for Theo, and he wasn't too far off that mark as well.
Theo made Greg smile and feel sad simultaneously. It was an odd state to be in, so happy to have found him and spending good time with him, even if the time could not exactly be called quality time. Theo, for what Greg could tell, moved between three different time zones. He would seem to be in the present and not hardly recognize Greg. Then he'd switch to the days at school when Greg was clearly known by him and loved. And then Theo would slip to this other time zone, somewhere from his past with his tyrant father torturing him, sending Theo into agonizing mixed up memories. It was agonizing to watch and made Greg feel utterly helpless.
But all of it was surprising Greg as he found a new quality in himself that he would have never identified before; Greg could be eternally patient, for the right person, in the right circumstances. With Theo, for Theo, Greg would wait until the end of time to help his dear love get better. There was never a question of giving up on Theo as he doggedly worked at trying to bring Theo back to the present over and over.
Finally able to pay for his meal piled high on the tray, Greg looked about for an empty table and set his food down, ready to tuck in.