RP: Skeletons
Date: October 2nd, 1998
Character(s): Lavender Brown, Hyacinth Brown [NPC] and Duncan Brown [NPC]
Location: Bluebell Cottage
Status: Private
Summary: A few family truths come out for Lavender over a strained Sunday lunch.
Completion: Complete
Lavender had wondered for months how this was going to go. How she was going to react when she finally saw her father again. A part of her, she hated to admit, had given up, but here he was. And she didn’t know what to do.
Since she had sent her owl on Friday morning, Lavender had felt paranoid. What if she’d got it all wrong and she was just seeing things? For a few hours, she had clung to the idea that Kieran had forged her father’s signature in an attempt to keep his disappearance as quiet as possible from customers and suppliers. By Saturday morning, she had almost embraced the paranoia, finding it easier to hold onto that idea and be as crazy as Malfoy had taunted her about being. She would rather have been a little insane than lied to by her parents.
But now, he was right there, sitting across the table from her. He looked the same as she remembered, even smelled the same. The last time she had seen him had been at a meal, too, when he’d taken her for brunch in London back in January. So long ago. She’d changed so much since then. Had he?
The lunch in front of her was home cooked and delicious, the roast beef perfectly rare enough for her new tastes. Still, she ate very little, eating around the vegetables and barely touching the roast potatoes or Yorkshire puddings. Even if she felt as though she couldn’t get a grip on anything else that was happening in her life right now, Lavender could at least control what she put into her mouth.
She pushed her plate away when they both finished, ignoring the glass of red wine they’d poured for her, too. There was a low anger burning in her, ticking over as she wondered how they could both just sit there so quietly, eating their food as though there was nothing wrong with this situation. “When are you going to tell me what’s happening?” she asked carefully when Hyacinth returned to the table after clearing the plates to the kitchen.
Her parents looked at each other. Hyacinth was the first to speak. “Your father and I are getting a divorce.”
Lavender blinked, genuinely taken aback because none of the explanations she had been mulling over during dinner had gone remotely like that. She looked at Duncan. “That doesn’t tell me where you’ve been this year. What do you mean, divorce?”
“I dinnae want you to get hurt, Petal.” Lavender bristled at the use of his pet name for her. “With the Muggleborn registration stuff. So I thought it would be best to disappear for a while. A cousin of mine helped me get some work.”
A cousin? That meant… that meant he would have been in Scotland. He’d been in Scotland, so close all this time while she’d been worried sick. “Where were you?” she asked in a small voice.
“Paisley.”
Lavender felt sick, fingers clenching. “You were in fucking Paisley all this time? All this time?”
“Language, Lavender,” Hyacinth admonished, though she sounded half-hearted at best.
“I kept an eye on what was happening. The war.”
“You knew it was over and you still didn’t come back.”
“I told him to stay away for a while.” Hyacinth turned to Lavender. “You’d been hurt so badly, love. I wanted you to get settled first before…”
Lavender chin trembled slightly. How many nights had she wanted her daddy to be there for her? “But you’re back now,” she said quietly. “Our family’s back together and that’s what’s important, right?”
They looked at each other again and those unspoken glances only unsettled Lavender further. “This isn’t a decision we’ve made lightly, Lavender,” Duncan said seriously. “We’ve had problems for years.”
“Since before you were born,” Hyacinth added.
Understanding even less than before, Lavender was filling with a sense of dread. They weren’t supposed to be saying this sort of thing. Weren’t they supposed to be saying that things would start going back to normal now and they could get on with their lives? “I never saw any problems.”
“That was the point.”
“We dinnae wanna hurt you.” They’d hurt her now. “But, truthfully, we’ve been struggling for a long time.”
There was a sniff from her mother. “We… tried for a baby for a long time. Every month got more and more heartbreaking. It was so hard, especially growing up seeing all the people we’d been at school with start their own families.”
“It put a strain on our marriage,” Duncan offered.
Hyacinth nodded. “But them,” she said wistfully, “it finally happened.”
Lavender felt something tighten inside her as she watched them take hands across the table.
“We had a beautiful little girl,” her father explained, and Lavender said him squeeze his wife’s hand. She felt almost embarrassed, but that turned to horror as his tone changed. “We called her Daisy,” he said carefully. “She was stillborn. We lost our little girl before she could even come into our lives.”
The feeling Lavender had that something was unravelling in this family tugged sharply on the threads that were holding them together. She closed her eyes. How could they have never told her this before?
“I think you found the blanket we’d got for her once,” Hyacinth said, voice strained. “In the attic. The summer before you started Hogwarts and we were putting some of your things away.” Lavender nodded, but she didn’t remember. This was too much. This wasn’t how the conversation was supposed to have gone.
Duncan stared down at the table. “It made things even more difficult. Thing jus’ deteriorated. Dinnae think we would have stayed together if you’d not happened to us, Petal. We weren’t even tryin’ then suddenly we had this little baby and you brought us back t’gether.”
Lavender wondered how she was supposed to respond to that. What was going on in this house? Her parents weren’t supposed to have problems like this. This sort of thing happened to other people. Not to her family.
Hyacinth nodded. “But when you went to Hogwarts the cracks started to show again. I think we nearly split up… when was it? Your third year, I think?” She pursed her lips. “But we tried to work things out.”
“I dinnae want the two of you to get hurt when they started registering Muggleborns,” Duncan explained. “So I disappeared. Kept an eye on what was happening, of course. When I knew the war was over, I came back to check on your mother and we decided that being apart was best for us. We’ve been sorting out our divorce.”
Mouth feeling dry, Lavender still found she had no idea how to respond. This was too much. “But why didn’t you come home? Why did you keep pretending to be missing?” She turned on them. “Why did you lie to me?”
“You were hurting so much,” Duncan offered. “We wanted to protect you.”
“After everything that happened to you, we didn’t want to add any more stress on top of all that.” Hyacinth took a deep breath. “We wanted to keep it quiet until we’d sorted out all the details…”
“You wanted to keep it quiet when you were tearing this family apart.” Lavender’s fist slammed on the table, a spark of anger flaring up. They couldn’t be doing this. Not really. This was a horrible, horrible joke. “This isn’t supposed to happen,” she whispered, hoping she could keep herself under control but knowing already that she was fighting a losing battle against her own emotions.
“This family was falling apart before the war.” Hyacinth pushed up her glasses, the jewels glinting awfully in the light. “If anything, this last year has shown us what we really want.”
“This is all going to be for the best, Petal,” her father assured her.
Lavender growled. “Don’t call me that.” The hurt on his face was evident and Lavender hated herself. But she hated them more. For keeping her in the dark. For not talking to her about this. She was supposed to be an adult, so why wouldn’t they treat her like a grown-up?
“I’m feeling happier than I have for a long time, sweetheart. And your father…”
“We want you to be happy for us making this decision, Lavender. It isn’t easy after so long together. We’re both getting a new chance here. And I want you to meet Cassandra…”
Hyacinth looked at him sharply. “Duncan, not now,” she warned sharply.
“Cassandra?” Lavender repeated quietly. “You… you’ve met someone else.”
Her thoughts suddenly felt too clear amid all her confusion, voice just that little bit too calm. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. Her hands were shaking and that was never a good sign, a sure thing that her anger was sparking up. “I can’t…. I can’t be happy for you when I don’t respect either of you.” She stood. “I’m going to leave now because I am just going to end up saying things I regret if I stay.”
Character(s): Lavender Brown, Hyacinth Brown [NPC] and Duncan Brown [NPC]
Location: Bluebell Cottage
Status: Private
Summary: A few family truths come out for Lavender over a strained Sunday lunch.
Completion: Complete
Lavender had wondered for months how this was going to go. How she was going to react when she finally saw her father again. A part of her, she hated to admit, had given up, but here he was. And she didn’t know what to do.
Since she had sent her owl on Friday morning, Lavender had felt paranoid. What if she’d got it all wrong and she was just seeing things? For a few hours, she had clung to the idea that Kieran had forged her father’s signature in an attempt to keep his disappearance as quiet as possible from customers and suppliers. By Saturday morning, she had almost embraced the paranoia, finding it easier to hold onto that idea and be as crazy as Malfoy had taunted her about being. She would rather have been a little insane than lied to by her parents.
But now, he was right there, sitting across the table from her. He looked the same as she remembered, even smelled the same. The last time she had seen him had been at a meal, too, when he’d taken her for brunch in London back in January. So long ago. She’d changed so much since then. Had he?
The lunch in front of her was home cooked and delicious, the roast beef perfectly rare enough for her new tastes. Still, she ate very little, eating around the vegetables and barely touching the roast potatoes or Yorkshire puddings. Even if she felt as though she couldn’t get a grip on anything else that was happening in her life right now, Lavender could at least control what she put into her mouth.
She pushed her plate away when they both finished, ignoring the glass of red wine they’d poured for her, too. There was a low anger burning in her, ticking over as she wondered how they could both just sit there so quietly, eating their food as though there was nothing wrong with this situation. “When are you going to tell me what’s happening?” she asked carefully when Hyacinth returned to the table after clearing the plates to the kitchen.
Her parents looked at each other. Hyacinth was the first to speak. “Your father and I are getting a divorce.”
Lavender blinked, genuinely taken aback because none of the explanations she had been mulling over during dinner had gone remotely like that. She looked at Duncan. “That doesn’t tell me where you’ve been this year. What do you mean, divorce?”
“I dinnae want you to get hurt, Petal.” Lavender bristled at the use of his pet name for her. “With the Muggleborn registration stuff. So I thought it would be best to disappear for a while. A cousin of mine helped me get some work.”
A cousin? That meant… that meant he would have been in Scotland. He’d been in Scotland, so close all this time while she’d been worried sick. “Where were you?” she asked in a small voice.
“Paisley.”
Lavender felt sick, fingers clenching. “You were in fucking Paisley all this time? All this time?”
“Language, Lavender,” Hyacinth admonished, though she sounded half-hearted at best.
“I kept an eye on what was happening. The war.”
“You knew it was over and you still didn’t come back.”
“I told him to stay away for a while.” Hyacinth turned to Lavender. “You’d been hurt so badly, love. I wanted you to get settled first before…”
Lavender chin trembled slightly. How many nights had she wanted her daddy to be there for her? “But you’re back now,” she said quietly. “Our family’s back together and that’s what’s important, right?”
They looked at each other again and those unspoken glances only unsettled Lavender further. “This isn’t a decision we’ve made lightly, Lavender,” Duncan said seriously. “We’ve had problems for years.”
“Since before you were born,” Hyacinth added.
Understanding even less than before, Lavender was filling with a sense of dread. They weren’t supposed to be saying this sort of thing. Weren’t they supposed to be saying that things would start going back to normal now and they could get on with their lives? “I never saw any problems.”
“That was the point.”
“We dinnae wanna hurt you.” They’d hurt her now. “But, truthfully, we’ve been struggling for a long time.”
There was a sniff from her mother. “We… tried for a baby for a long time. Every month got more and more heartbreaking. It was so hard, especially growing up seeing all the people we’d been at school with start their own families.”
“It put a strain on our marriage,” Duncan offered.
Hyacinth nodded. “But them,” she said wistfully, “it finally happened.”
Lavender felt something tighten inside her as she watched them take hands across the table.
“We had a beautiful little girl,” her father explained, and Lavender said him squeeze his wife’s hand. She felt almost embarrassed, but that turned to horror as his tone changed. “We called her Daisy,” he said carefully. “She was stillborn. We lost our little girl before she could even come into our lives.”
The feeling Lavender had that something was unravelling in this family tugged sharply on the threads that were holding them together. She closed her eyes. How could they have never told her this before?
“I think you found the blanket we’d got for her once,” Hyacinth said, voice strained. “In the attic. The summer before you started Hogwarts and we were putting some of your things away.” Lavender nodded, but she didn’t remember. This was too much. This wasn’t how the conversation was supposed to have gone.
Duncan stared down at the table. “It made things even more difficult. Thing jus’ deteriorated. Dinnae think we would have stayed together if you’d not happened to us, Petal. We weren’t even tryin’ then suddenly we had this little baby and you brought us back t’gether.”
Lavender wondered how she was supposed to respond to that. What was going on in this house? Her parents weren’t supposed to have problems like this. This sort of thing happened to other people. Not to her family.
Hyacinth nodded. “But when you went to Hogwarts the cracks started to show again. I think we nearly split up… when was it? Your third year, I think?” She pursed her lips. “But we tried to work things out.”
“I dinnae want the two of you to get hurt when they started registering Muggleborns,” Duncan explained. “So I disappeared. Kept an eye on what was happening, of course. When I knew the war was over, I came back to check on your mother and we decided that being apart was best for us. We’ve been sorting out our divorce.”
Mouth feeling dry, Lavender still found she had no idea how to respond. This was too much. “But why didn’t you come home? Why did you keep pretending to be missing?” She turned on them. “Why did you lie to me?”
“You were hurting so much,” Duncan offered. “We wanted to protect you.”
“After everything that happened to you, we didn’t want to add any more stress on top of all that.” Hyacinth took a deep breath. “We wanted to keep it quiet until we’d sorted out all the details…”
“You wanted to keep it quiet when you were tearing this family apart.” Lavender’s fist slammed on the table, a spark of anger flaring up. They couldn’t be doing this. Not really. This was a horrible, horrible joke. “This isn’t supposed to happen,” she whispered, hoping she could keep herself under control but knowing already that she was fighting a losing battle against her own emotions.
“This family was falling apart before the war.” Hyacinth pushed up her glasses, the jewels glinting awfully in the light. “If anything, this last year has shown us what we really want.”
“This is all going to be for the best, Petal,” her father assured her.
Lavender growled. “Don’t call me that.” The hurt on his face was evident and Lavender hated herself. But she hated them more. For keeping her in the dark. For not talking to her about this. She was supposed to be an adult, so why wouldn’t they treat her like a grown-up?
“I’m feeling happier than I have for a long time, sweetheart. And your father…”
“We want you to be happy for us making this decision, Lavender. It isn’t easy after so long together. We’re both getting a new chance here. And I want you to meet Cassandra…”
Hyacinth looked at him sharply. “Duncan, not now,” she warned sharply.
“Cassandra?” Lavender repeated quietly. “You… you’ve met someone else.”
Her thoughts suddenly felt too clear amid all her confusion, voice just that little bit too calm. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. Her hands were shaking and that was never a good sign, a sure thing that her anger was sparking up. “I can’t…. I can’t be happy for you when I don’t respect either of you.” She stood. “I’m going to leave now because I am just going to end up saying things I regret if I stay.”