Tea and Conversations

[prof_stargazer]

Date: Saturday, August 25, 2001
Time: afternoon
Location: Stella's Flat
Characters Involved: Stella Sinistra, Anne Shephard, and Caleb Moore
Rating: PG

Stella realized, as soon as Anne had arrived, that she'd made a mistake.

Not that inviting Anne over had been a mistake- ever since they'd run into each other in Diagon Alley last week, Stella's old

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[anneshephard]

The moment Anne had knocked on the door, a shock like a jolt of electricity had raced through her, making her gasp in pain and take several steps backwards. When Stella answered the door, she nodded at the explanation - feeling peculiarly disturbed by it. Clearly Stella's pro-werewolf leanings did not stop her from wanting or having to keep them out. She stepped aside, to let Stella make the necessary adjustments.

"Take all the time you need," she told her. She couldn't be offended by this, not when the gesture of inviting her spoke volumes about Stella's personality. It was one of the greatest acts of kindness in the past two years of Anne's life.

Having had to Apparate into a public place to get here, and not being comfortable with exposure anyway, Anne was wearing robes that covered her collar. She had few outfits now that showed her throat.

[prof_stargazer]

Apologizing to Anne again and cursing at herself for being so stupid, Stella stepped back inside her flat. It only took a minute or two to work Anne's identity into the already existing wards, but Stella was still feeling quite embarrassed by the time she finished. It really was not the best greeting she could have given- 'Hello, welcome to my flat that you can't enter-', and there also wasn't really a way to explain the need for the wards without bringing up a whole lot of other issues.

Stella's cheeks were still little red with embarrassment when she stepped out into the hallway to let Anne back in. "Sorry about that," she muttered as Anne walked through the door without a problem, now.

"Anne, this is Caleb Moore," Stella nodded between the two of them as she introduced them, moving to stand next to Caleb and gesturing for Anne to take the chair that sat nearby. "And Caleb, this is an old friend from school, Anne Shephard."

[anneshephard]

It was an awkward situation, but Anne got through it as best she could (calm face, deaf ears, ignore any blushing, it was routine by now), and when the wards had finally been set to allow her in, she went through Stella's front door. There was a slight tingling through her body as the magic accepted her.

Stella's boyfriend was a nice-looking man, probably a little younger than they were. She greeted him with a polite, "Hello," and took the offered seat, not shaking hands. He was a werewolf, then - she saw the collar around his throat and felt as if her own hidden one had tightened. She'd never sat down and had a face to face chat with another werewolf, and felt oddly anxious about the whole thing. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing up.

She fought each sign of nervousness and smiled warmly, both at Caleb and at Stella.

[wolf_caleb]

The moment Stella had opened the door, Caleb had been nearly overwhelmed by the scent of another werewolf. He could smell nervousness and fear coming off the woman in waves and he was grateful they weren't any closer to the Full. He wasn't sure he would have been able to deal with all that emotion as well has having another werewolf in the flat. Caleb had spent very little time in the company of other werewolves and it always put him on edge. He wasn't sure if it was because she was a female or if it was just because she seemed so timid, but he didn't feel the need to assert himself over her, which was also a blessing.

Caleb waited until Anne was seated before sitting on the couch next to Stella. "Hi, nice to meet you," he said, attempting to smile normally. Stella had told him that Anne was a Hufflepuff, and they probably had a few overlapping years at school, which was probably why she looked vaguely familiar.

[anneshephard]

"Thank you," Anne said as her tea was poured. She felt the conversation was going quite well. They didn't really have much to talk about, after all.

"I don't know any," she told Caleb. "You're the first ... person with our condition that I've ever really spoken to. Most of us try and keep ourselves to ourselves, don't we? I know Lupin has ... his own little group," pack, the papers had called it, "but he's the exception to most of our rules, isn't he?"

She tried to keep her breathing steady; the hairs on the back of her neck were still prickling, even though she was sure she was more relaxed by now, and she wondered if she really was that scared about meeting another werewolf, or if there was more to it than that. As she sipped her tea, it seemed a little more pungunt than usual.

Lupin was the exception, and it rankled with Anne. She didn't know the man at all, but he had an influential, responsible job, he had clear friends and supporters, he didn't suffer nearly so much from the poverty and ostracisation that were the secondary

[wolf_caleb]

Caleb frowned, sensing a rising agitation in Anne, though he wasn't certain of the source. Was it because of Remus? "I don't know about that," he said carefully. "From what I've been told, pack behavior is actually rather common. I assume that some people are more suited to it than others. It beats being alone," he said, reaching for Stella's hand. "I think the last six years would have been more bearable if I had others I could talk to, who I knew would understand."

[anneshephard]

Pack behaviour? Anne felt uncomfortable, and started when something touched her hand - she looked down, saw that it was just Caleb, and blushed. He was right. Someone to talk to would be good; even now, with this small conversation, she felt as though a weight was slowly being lifted from her heavy-burdened shoulders. As Caleb touched her hand, a gesture of kinship between one outcast and another, she avoided looking at Stella. Try as she might, the fully-human woman couldn't understand the significance of such small things. The hairs on the back of her neck finally began to stand down.

"It's easier, though, to just - get on with things," she said. "That's what I've spent my time trying to do." She gave a short nod. "You get used to the way things are, I'm sure you know that." With a little shrug, as if it was nothing of importance, she continued. "Pack behaviour, though? I thought that was a word used in the newspapers, don't tell me people actually want to - well - call themselves packs." Who would want to emphasise the side of

[wolf_caleb]

"Just getting on with things is great. We've got no choice but to do so, otherwise we'd just crawl up in a corner somewhere and die, which I've thought about doing on more than one occasion," Caleb admitted.

Caleb sat back against the couch again. "As for pack behavior, I'm sorry Anne, but that's who we are, like it or not. Werewolves are guided by instinct and the canine instinct is to be a part of a pack. That doesn't even have to mean it's a bunch of werewolves together. Right now, Stella is my pack and I'm happier for it. I'd do whatever it takes to protect her, because she's...," Caleb almost said mine but he had a feeling Anne wouldn't understand what he meant by that. "She's my family. That's all a pack is really, a family."

[anneshephard]

They had only been together a few months, and Anne couldn't help but wonder what would happen when their honeymoon period was over - when the heady rush of new romance had faded and the day-to-day grind of Caleb's life would really hit Stella. But she was not a nasty or uncharitable person, and she tucked those gloomy thoughts aside and didn't dwell on them.

"I thought people stopped wearing expressions like yours when they hit thirty, Stella," she said, nodding at the silly smile the woman often wore and the way they clearly couldn't keep their hands off each other at times. It made Anne feel like a matron or chaperone with two young lovers.

"How did you meet?"

[prof_stargazer]

Stella laughed at Anne's observation. "So did I, really. I think we were both more than a little surprised at how quickly things just fell into place." They had felt a connection, right from the start, though- from that very first meeting that Anne was inquiring about.

"We were sitting next to each other at the Leaky Cauldron, and just started chatting," Stella explained, the idiotic grin still plastered on her face. "And I asked him out, because he was too nervous!" Not that she minded at all, as it had turned out to be a very good idea.

[anneshephard]

"Well, I wish you two all the happiness in the world," Anne said sincerely, glad to see a friend happy. She wasn't a jealous person, she didn't start bemoaning her own losses. Having told Stella she was divorced, she didn't really expect any questions on that front - from her, at least. She didn't really feel like explaining about Miriam and Artie, partly because she didn't want any more pity than they already felt for her.

The loss of Miriam was the deepest wound Anne had received when Greyback had bitten her. She didn't like to talk about it, and one of the reasons for that was because she was scared of breaking the injunctions against her. What would be construed as an attempt to contact Miriam or to get another to do that for her? It still wasn't clear ...

[wolf_caleb]

Caleb shifted nervously on the couch as he felt the blood rush to his face. It only worsened when he became embarrassed about being so embarrassed. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked sideways at Stella, who was still grinning widely. "Thanks," he said to Anne, though he couldn't quite look at her.