Closed; Run In With The Press At Roger's Quidditch Game

[lavender_x]

It was a beautiful and clear night for a Quidditch. The Montrose Magpies had beat the Appleby Arrows in an intense match and Lavender, by pure luck, had gotten a gorgeous shot of their seeker catching the snitch. In fact, all of her shots tonight had been spot on that night

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[rkdavies]

The locker room had been a disaster with all the yelling and self-congratulating. The Arrows were a hard team to beat and several players on the Magpies' roster were there through the Arrows - at least at one point. Players started streaming out pretty quickly, some barely bothering to change before getting out to the easiest spot to floor or apparate from - either home to their boring, grown-up lives or a bar for less boring, grown-up drinking

[lavender_x]

Roger pushing himself through the crowd didn't stop them. It barely even slowed them down. They were swarming around the couple down, only more frantic for answers than before.

"Roger! Roger! Is your new wife pregnant? Is that why you two married so quickly?" one of the asked, shoving that recorder in his face now.

"Is this a stunt to pull away from your bad boy image?"

Lavender was nearly shocked to silence, just doing her best to turn away from the cameras. Their questions were ridiculous and out of control, latching onto anything for the sake of a good story.

"Lavender! Tell us, do you trust him? He cheated on you once!"

"I said no comment!" she said again frantically, turning to Roger for some sort of way out of this. This was all new to her. She didn't know how to react.

[rkdavies]

Roger grabbed Lavender's hand, tugging her closer as he closed that last little bit of distance. This was ridiculous.

"Did I call a press conference when I wasn't looking?" He snapped. This wasn't the first time he'd been swarmed. While it was annoying, he usually just made small talk, gave them a couple pictures, and went on his way. Or he glared and dodged them as quickly as possible.

It's when they started swarming people he cared about that he got a little ... touchy. Apparently, it had been too long since his last run-in, when he had Fay and the rest of the Bats PR team in a tizzy because he's lost it when they'd followed Lily, Maeve, and him to St. Mungo's.

"Get the camera out of our faces before I use it to bust your nose. I've done it before."

[lavender_x]

Lavender grabbed into him, letting him shield her from the majority of the photographers. She rarely ever saw him get this upset and wished they could just push themselves out. But the reporters didn't seem as fazed by his threats.

"Are you saying this is a stunt? Is your marriage a front?" one of them went on, refusing to back down.

"WHAT?" Lavender blurted, her grip tightening on Roger's. They were jumping to conclusions left and right and none of them painted a very good picture of the relationship.

"Lavender, please - how can you trust him? Roger Davies is a lady's man! He'll cheat on you again!"

The reporter stepped forward and this time touched Lavender's arm, hoping to pull her attention towards him.

[rkdavies]

"I've never actually cheated - " Roger started. Normally, it was better not to feed into it, avoid giving them anything they wanted. After a while if you just stood there long enough, they tended to get bored and wander away. Why couldn't the seeker be coming out about now? He had to be more interesting.

Those laments flew straight out of his head, though, as he saw one reporter slide closer. That was bad enough, but then the guy had the audacity to actually reach out and touch Lavender?

Roger reacted so quickly, he didn't even realize what was happening. One minute he was shielding Lavender, the next he was catching the guy's chin with a sharp right hook. The reporter fell back but didn't fall down so Roger did the only logical thing - of course - and grabbed the man's shirt, tugging him closer just for the leverage he needed to properly throw him back into the crowd, which essentially parted to let him hit the ground.

[lavender_x]

Once the reporter was reaching out to touch her, everything sped up. Lavender didn't even realize what had happened until Roger was throwing the man backwards, the sea of flashing lights and pointed questions finally parting as he fall back.

Lavender gasped, covering her mouth with both hands as she looked back up at Roger. She knew how protective he was, knew exactly how angry he could get, but she had never seen him actually hit anyone before. He didn't even pause to think about it.

"Roger- let's go, please," she breathed, reaching for him again. Her hands were shaking as an eerie calm settled over the crowd. But it wouldn't be long until they were jumping all over them again.

[rkdavies]

Roger was still glaring, entire body tense. He unclinched his fist and flexed his fingers. Not that Roger punched photographers - or anyone - often, but he always seemed to forget how much it hurt.

In the quiet that descended and through the blood pounding in his ears, Roger still managed to hear Lavender.

"Right," he nodded, breaths still sharp but calming. He gripped her hand with his, ignoring how his bruised knuckles protested.

As the walked away, he could hear them start talking, chattering again. It would have been best to let it go, but he had to turn to look over his shoulder. "There's your story. Congratulations."

[lavender_x]

Lavender couldn't get out of there fast enough, holding onto him to steady herself. It felt like her entire body had turned to jello, so shocked and overwhelmed by the entire experience.

Well, they had certainly worked up a story and probably a couple of photos for the magazines as well. She realized then that she'd be hearing about it the next day at The Prophet, one of the cheap freelance photographers trying to make a few quick bucks.

But none of that really mattered.

"Are you alright? I'm sorry. I didn't know what to say to them-" she said, stopping them when they were far enough away, in a completely different corridor now. Lavender brought his hand up, already swelling.

[rkdavies]

After his parting shot - sure to be twisted and used in the worst possible way - Roger couldn't get away from them fast enough. Correction, he couldn't get Lavender away from them fast enough.

When Lavender pulled Roger down a different alcove, he finally took a breath that wasn't ragged with anger.

"I'm fine. It's fine," Roger promised. He let her pull his hand up to look at it and settled his other hand on her arm. "No one knows what to say to them. They're insane. That was not your fault. I'd have sent pitch security out to run them off first if I'd known." He shook his head. "I should have known. I'm sorry."

[lavender_x]

She may have been press herself but Lavender had never acted like that. Those people were vultures for rumors and drama. All they were looking for was a cheap story. She knew their kind and should have anticipated it.

"No, don't apologize-" she told him, taking a deep breath. Her fingers were still shaking as she examined his hand. They were going to need to put some ice on it.

"I'll um- I don't know, wait for you somewhere else now on."

[rkdavies]

Bruised and vaguely scraped knuckles or not, Roger curled his fingers around hers when he felt the shaking.

"The lobby. They're corralled there. Less likely to swarm." In retrospect, he should have told her that. Hell, he should have thought that far ahead.

"Lav, are you okay? Did they hurt you before I showed up?"

[lavender_x]

"No. No, they didn't touch me or anything. Not until that one guy-" she told him quickly. The last thing Lavender wanted was for Roger to march off to go find them again. She had a feeling he'd hunt down every last one of them just to cover his bases.

"I'm just a little overwhelmed. They cornered me. Started asking me if-"

Lavender sighed, pulling her hands away to run her fingers through her hair.

"Everyone thinks we did this because I'm pregnant."

[rkdavies]

"We should have expected that," Roger sighed. He settled his hands on her hips and ducked his head, trying to catch her eyes.

"They want a story, that's all. It's more scandalous if we're trying to correct a mistake than we just wanted to get married and couldn't be bothered to wait."

[lavender_x]

Lavender didn't want to admit that it bothered her. But it did.

The press had spotlighted Roger through his entire career, or at least since he started getting noticed. They liked a great player with a messy personal life. It made her uncomfortable thinking that they knew all about their past relationship - implying that he had cheated or that she'd let him do it again to her.

"I didn't answer their questions anyway so it doesn't matter," she said, her gaze settling down on that bruised hand resting on her hip. She didn't want him to see her rattled over this. Not when he was physically hurting.

[rkdavies]

Roger tapped his fingers against her hips a bit, not too terribly bothered by the pain. He'd had worse, anyway - taken more falls off a broom and bludgers than he could count. An aching hand was nothing, and it was worth it.

"This is going to be everywhere tomorrow, you know that? It was the last time I got physical with them. Honestly?" He shook his head and looked at her sadly. "That'll probably make the rumors worse. I got heated because it was the truth. I was holding onto you too hard so he tried to step in."

[lavender_x]

"It wasn't true. Not about our marriage being a shame or you cheating," she said firmly, finally looking up to meet his eyes. Lavender placed her hands on his arms and squeezed lightly. It felt good to hold onto him and steady herself there.

Their questions had dug deep, hitting nearly every insecurity that Lavender had about their relationship. It was like they had gotten into her head.

"I might have felt that way before but it doesn't matter now. It's in the past."