(Untitled)
Date: November 25th
Time: 'Round Noon
Place: Spinner's End
Characters Involved: Oliver Wood, Wini Wood, Perry Derrick, and any of the other residents
Rating: PG-13 at least, probably.
( Oliver had something that he needed to give Perry... )
Time: 'Round Noon
Place: Spinner's End
Characters Involved: Oliver Wood, Wini Wood, Perry Derrick, and any of the other residents
Rating: PG-13 at least, probably.
( Oliver had something that he needed to give Perry... )
"Right," he said, rubbing Wini's back. She seemed a bit ill at ease in this new environment, and so Oliver began digging around in the bag for her colouring book and crayons.
"She's not hungry. I keep her fed," Oliver said testily, but Wini's blue eyes had rounded and looked up at Snape when he said 'biscuit.'
"Bic't," she whispered, looking at her dad for confirmation.
"Yeah, alright then," Oliver said, looking at Snape. "That'd be nice." Because she wanted it, not because he'd offered.
He jiggled her in his lap, hoping that she wouldn't start warming up to Snape again. Any child of his should rightly hate the man.
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Well, okay, maybe Severus had intended to imply that Wood was continuing in his inadequacy in the parenting department.
Still, Severus was too pleased to see Winifred showing signs of 'life' to bother to sneer at her father. Instead he offered her his rare, almost-fond-smirk, and nodded.
"Biscuits it is, then."
He, too, realised there was nothing which a toddler might find appealing about his floor-to-ceiling-book-decorated house. Severus could not recall ever possessing 'toys', himself, so he certainly had none stashed away in an attic somewhere to pull out for her amusement.
It was then that he remembered the Bobble Heads the Weasleys had presented him long ago, and quickly summoned the box. He took care to leave the Lucius one, Remus' likeness, and his own inside the box, but took out the others and set them on the coffee table, before putting the lid back on and setting the box on a high shelf.
"There you are, Winifred - you may play with these if you like, while you wait. Biscuits, juice, and Mr Derrick, then - though not necessarily in that order," he said sardonically as he left the room at last.
He did start at Derrick's door, but had no idea if the young man was awake or even decently clad. Knocking firmly, he called through the door.
"Derrick, Wood is here - he says you were expecting him. In the sitting room."
Without needing or waiting for a response, he returned to the kitchen to make up a tray of biscuits and transfigure another child's cup for Winifred to use. He would wait until he was sure Derrick was in the sitting room to act as a buffer before he returned there, himself. Perhaps, if Wood and Derrick were in conversation, he might be better able to observe Winifred for residual damage of the Asphodel.
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It was by chance that Perry had come home for his lunch break. Since agreeing to meet Wood, Charlotte had informed him of her plan to be away for the weekend, leaving him alone in the bookshop. He had planned to take his break in Diagon Alley, but by the time eleven o'clock rolled around, he was sick of people. Half an hour later he locked the place up and went home.
Indeed, he was fully dressed when Snape knocked on his door, but by the time he opened it the man was already gone from the hallway. Perry ran a hand through his hair and walked out, closing the door behind him before he headed to the sitting room.
Hm. Seemed Wood brought the kid along. Perry leant against the doorframe and crossed his arms.
"Is that what you're giving me?" he said dryly, nodding to Winifred. "If so, I'm not interested."
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He looked up, nonplussed, at Perry.
"Don't be a git," Oliver said, grunting at him. "She's much too precious," he touched his daughter's shoulder gently as she coloured, looking much more at ease now that she was distracted by the dozen crayons right at hand. "I've got something else for you," he said, slowly moving his hand from Wini's back. He reached into his pack and withdrew a bag of gold. It was charmed to weigh only a fraction of it's natural weight -- not even Oliver Wood could carry around 1,000 galleons easily. He tossed it to Perry.
"Here."
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Here was the answer to so many of Perry's problems. His life having gone from riches to rags, this was like a sudden windfall. In his hands was money that he had earned, that he could call his own, with which he could start a savings and attempt to gain some independence in his life.
He looked up to Wood with a bit of a dark expression, both regretful and annoyed, as if what he was about to do was all the Quidditch player's fault.
"I don't want it." He tossed the bag to the space of floor between them.
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"Take it," he said. "There was a reward. It was posted. It's only fair." He didn't like the idea of the person who found Wini not having a reward for it. It made it seem like he didn't love his daughter enough. Oliver reached out and touched Wini's head insticntively.
Oliver couldn't read Perry's expression very well. He figured it had something to do with not wanting to take anything from Oliver. Pride. Oliver understood pride, but, hell, this was Oliver's pride at stake, too.
"You saved her, you get the reward. Do whatever the hell you want with it, I don't care. Just take it."
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...And perhaps, in a twisted, indirect way, robbing Wood of a chance to ease his conscience would serve as vindication for the way he'd treated Perry in the past.
Besides, it wasn't as if the wolf had searched for Wini wholeheartedly. Really, if it weren't for June, they may not have found her so quickly. It had all been a very lucky sequence of circumstances, of which Perry could only take partial credit.
If anyone deserved that gold, it was not him... not that he would admit that verbally.
He remained resolutely in the threshold, hands in his pockets. "I'm not taking it." And then he pushed away, turning to go.
"Give it to the others. June, Snape, Remus... they're the ones who worked to find her." He shrugged. "I just happened to be in the right place at the right time."
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To hell with Perry's pride.
"You got this with bein' there at the right time and the right place," Oliver said. "So, if you think my daughter's life means a damn thing, just take the money." He'd forgotten Wini was there for a second and closed his mouth, a bit annoyed at himself for letting his language get away with him.
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However, he had promised Winifred biscuits, and so biscuits she would have - complete with juice in the Slytherin cup. He returned to the sitting room and completely ignored Wood and Derrick, choosing a chair nearest to Winifred. He set the tray down on the table near the bobble-head dolls he had gotten down for her, and pretended to be engrossed with the child.
It didn't take much pretense - he was glad to see her colour much improved and her eyes having lost the very glassy look of the poisoning she had endured.
However, he also spared a moment to cast Derrick an approving smirk. Granted, it was a lot of money, and Severus knew any one of the werewolves could have used a windfall like that in light of their difficulty in finding employment. But there were some windfalls that came with just too high of a price..
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"Ginny reckons the antidote worked," said Oliver smoothly as Winifred picked up a biscuit and began nibbling at it, studying Snape for a few moments before she set it down next to her paper and began colouring a picture that had a lake on it, surrounded by trees.
She scribbled over the lake with greens, yellows, blues and reds in turn, never making a neat line or a correct judgement of colour. Wini reached down her hand and picked up her biscuit again, her blue eyes moving back to Snape. "Pot'n?" she said, pointing a chubby finger at the colouring page she had just scribbled over.
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He was trying, for Remus' sake, to be something less of a total bastard.
It was very 'trying', indeed.
Instead of turning his attention to Oliver when he spoke, Severus continued to watch Winifred, noting with satisfaction that she did not seem to have any fine-motor-tremour or weakness as she gripped the crayons, which again assured him of her physical wellness, at the very least.
If it was possible for a man such as Snape to 'melt' in the presence of hostile company, then he did so as Winifred pointed at the picture and said the word she had learnt from him. His thoughtful expression and frown-line softened into an almost-smile and he nodded.
"Yes, Winifred. Potion. I've seen Mr Longbottom make a potion which looked just like that."
Only after addressing her, did he lift up his eyes to the father, striving to find something neutral to say.
"Of course it worked," he said dryly, though there was no real bite in his voice. "I have been brewing potions longer than you have been alive."
Not so good at neutrality, then - though at least his hauteur was not derogatory toward the other man. His gaze drifted back to the winsome child and he added, in softer tones, still.
"I am very pleased to see she has recovered so fully."
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He nodded to the bag then returned his sharp gaze to Wood. "And you certainly think very highly of her. Is that all your kid's worth to you? Or perhaps you think a bag of money is all you need to settle our differences?"
The heat in Perry's gaze was rising as he warmed to this new material, and his tone along with it. "Why would I give a kneazle's arse about your kid? Just last week I was nothing but a 'mongrel' to you. Just last week the papers were speculating that it was a werewolf that snatched her in the first place. You know how your friend the Ministry is thanking us for finding your spawn? A fucking tag around our necks. And you'll be glad for every night you can sleep knowing I can't walk within a stone's throw of your house without Aurors knowing, won't you?"
The nerve of that self-absorbed twat. Like Perry could take his money, when he was just going to go back home to his old prejudices as if nothing had happened... when he was probably wishing that anyone but Perry had found his stupid brat of a child. Hell, Wood had never even thanked him properly.
As if Perry was going to let Wood believe he was so easily bought.
"Do whatever the hell you want with your money, Wood. I don't want it."
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It wasn't right.
"Glad you think so," Oliver said, more relieved than he cared to admit. He didn't know what he would do if Wini had been damaged. He knew that at the least he wouldn't be able to wait until the Wizengamont took charge of the situation. He would have destroyed the slag himself.
"I haven't called you a mongrel in weeks," Oliver said sharply, standing. This was it. He was going. He had tried to wait around for June, but he wasn't about to try his luck that Perry and Snape would play nice.
"Just shut up, alright? I didn't write that bloody article." He bent down to where Wini was still nibbling at her biscuit. "And of course my daughter is worth more, but I fucking said that I was going to give a thousand galleons to whoever found her. If I don't honor that then I say that I don't honor my daughter. Dump the gold in your fucking backyard, if you want." He was breathing quickly, his brow furrowed dangerously. "I really don't care what you do with it."
"Tell Snape thank you, Win, we're going," he said quickly, picking up her crayons. She gave a small whine, grabbing the picture she had drawn, but he wasn't going to stay. He straped the child carrier on to himself and placed her into it, tossing the rest of her things in the bag.
She dropped the picture, whining again at her father but he just put an arm around her, shushing her lovingly, but determinedly.
"We'll show ourselves out," he said, making his way to the door quickly.
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