What are friends for?

[safinnigan]

Date: Saturday, 30 September, 2000
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Location: Trésor Littéraire
Characters Involved: Seamus Finnigan, Charlotte Aurelius, open to others who wish to help clean up
Rating: G, or maybe PG-13 for French invectives

Comments

[beautesolitaire]

The front window was still broken, shattered with the glass littering the flower boxes and having been swept up against the building side until it could be dealt with properly by Charlotte and the cleaning crew, whom had yet to arrive.

She hadn't slept. She had had to count inventory of ruined books. She had lost a substantial amount of money from this vandalization, all for something senseless. She was about ready to drop wherever and sleep when the knock on the door came. She opened it, seeing Seamus there. She swallowed the lump in her throat, it was the first time she hadn't greeted Seamus with a smile, "Bonjour, Monsieur Seamus." she said, seeming so.... deflated from her normal personality. She was exhausted, plain and simple.

[safinnigan]

Seamus looked at Charlotte, seeing the fatigue on her face and in her posture. She was not smiling. He looked past her and into the shoppe beyond, his eyes inevitably drawn to the handwriting on the wall: Death to Death Eaters. Death to their Supporters. Everywhere he looked he saw the destruction of overturned bookcases and shredded books and furniture. He also noticed the beginnings of her efforts to clean up the place.

Once again his eyes found hers. He gave her a small smile of comfort and reached out with his hand to lightly touch her arm. “Sorry, lass. What can this Seamus do to help?”

He had no idea why anyone would think that Charlotte was either a Death Eater or a supporter of Death Eaters, but he was not about to ask her a lot of questions, not now when she had lost so much and was already tired and worn with the effort of recovering.

[beautesolitaire]

She took a shakey breath and turned to look at her store. It was a mess. It was a damn mess and for no reason. She swallowed the lump in her throat. She wanted to cry, but she was trying her best not to. She looked to Seamus as if to ask him why this had happened to her. She had done nothing to deserve it.

"I don't know what to do, Monsieur Seamus." she all but whimpered, trying her best not to cry.

She had learned a long time ago that tears didn't help anything, they only hurt things if they were shed in front of others. It was weakness. She wanted to curl up and cry herself in a black hole and never come out again.

"I don't know where to start...."

[safinnigan]

Charlotte seemed overwhelmed by the look of her; and she certainly had good reason to be by the looks of her bookstore. Seamus entered the shoppe, closing the door behind him and putting an arm loosely around her shoulders to quide her back into the place. He could see her quandary. Where did you start when there was too much for any one person to do

[elegante_fleur]

She came bearing an armload of food and flowers, and even if the food wasn't edible, she had cooked it herself, atleast the flowers were beautiful. Fleur was broken, and filled with guilt. She hadn't been able to keep Gabby safe, and each day that passed was one that she felt closer to losing Bill, and she had abandoned her dearest friend. Whome Fleur had convinced to move to England in the first place. Life was in shambles, and she'd been so preoccupied with saving her marriage, her husband, she'd neglected thought of anything, or anyone else.

Apparating from just outside her cottage she arrived in front of Charlotte's shop she was devastated to see the damage, and stared somewhat stupidly at the broken windows and grafitti'd walls. She sighed softly and choked back tears shed on Charlotte's behalf. "Mon ami!?" She called from outside the door.

"A leetle 'elp, s'l vous plait!" She'd approached the door juggling the large amount of food and the arrangement of flowers and realizing to late she had no free hand to open the

[safinnigan]

Seamus had reshelved a number of books, setting aside those that were damaged, and righted a few more overturned bookshelves with his wand, but Charlotte’s words indicated to him that she was more troubled than he had originally surmised. Looking at her again he realised that she was not just tired, she was exhausted. She was not just overwhelmed, she seemed to be done in by this entire experience. Suddenly, he wondered if she’d been down here trying to deal with this situation all by herself since she’d written in her journal the night before. That would certainly explain a lot

[beautesolitaire]

Charlotte didn't get a chance to answer before she heard Fleur's voice. She turned to look to the front of the store, standing amongst the disaster that was now her store. Fleur might recognize the level of devastation in her eyes. She might have seen it in her own eyes in the mirror before. It was that level of utter emptiness, lost, alone. Charlotte was alone. She had friends yes, but this shop had begun to heal the holes in her heart left by the deaths of her parents.

Someone cruel had destroyed that little bit of something in her life and it hurt. It hurt so much, like someone had taken a knife and driven it into her flesh again and again. She couldn't just collapse under the pain, it hadn't helped the last time. She needed to re-collect herself and get her brain about her.

The store needed to be the first priority, she could worry about herself later. She tried to offer Fleur a smile and failed miserably.

[elegante_fleur]

"Merci beaucoup, Seamus!" A sigh of relief escaped her lips as the weight left her arms.

Fleur smiled happily hiding the fear and the hurt in her eyes from seeing the devastation and held out the flowers, "Amidst any mess, and any amount of ugliness one should always have something beautiful." She said as she settled the vase onto the top of a broken end table before moving to wrap her friend into a tight hug.

"Bill should be along later to 'elp as well. We've decided to move you eento our spare room until your shop iz safe again. We'll put eet back togezzer, mon ami. We'll put everyzzing back together."