| Details for What Friends Are For |
| Summary: | Randy and Aidan catch up. Aidan divulges some secrets to Randy about what's going on with his family. Randy offers her support and makes a promise. |
| Date: | Sun May 19, 1938 |
| Location: | Gardens, Hogwarts |
| Related: | — |
| Characters |
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Gardens, Hogwarts
It is a spring morning. The weather is warm and fair.
Sculpted box woods and grafted flowering trees border fountains and statuary,benches of a wide variety of shapes and sizes affording a person the opportunity to stop and appreciate the beauty here or a quiet moment from the courtyard. A riot of salvia and geraniums are visible from one angle, maroon begonias alongide tall and bright scarlet bee balm blaze from the southern corner. Black eyes susans, contrast with rising sunflowers, tightly-clustered heads of sunny marigold and goldenrod bob lazily in the breezes that blow from the west. Across from the sunflowers, a profusion of green in the form of hostas and ferns coupled with Canterbury bells and even a few pitcher plants twist in a wilder jungle of more loosely-controlled foliage. Deep blue foxgloves, creeping lobelia and Siberian iris serenely fill the northern corner. Seventh Year Herbology students tend the garden of their own House's colors, those who truly care for their duties obviously taking visible pride in the health of their flowers.
Spring. Allergy sufferers are unlikely to be strolling the gardens at this time of year, so it's not super congested, especially as school exams start to wade into view. Randy is certainly one not to suffer at the hands of flowers, so she's welcome to stroll on in. She has, and she's claimed a small patch of grass that isn't covered with flowers to put her blanket down on. It's in the afternoon and the sun is warm to the skin. Randy's legs are crossed at the ankle, a book and some parchment over the book in her lap. She's writing, as it looks by the structure of the page, a letter. Her hair is down.
Fortunately, Aidan is not one of those to actually succumb to allergies, either. Having pretty well caught up with his studying and with his classwork, the Prefect had taken to the grounds this afternoon, and had found himself lookin at various flowers in the gardens. He had even gone so far as to pick a few of them. With them in hand, he moves along steadily, hrming a little bit as, when he peeks over one of the privet hedges that separates him and the little grassy clearing Randy's set up in, he blinks slightly. "'Ullo, Marie," he remarks idly, blinking a little bit as he squints. He then begins to move around the hedge, tilting his head a little. "Classwork?" he asks her, nodding down toward the book and writing…
Randy lifts a hand without lifting her head at first to wave. "Hey," she says and then lifts her head up to turn and smile, leaning back on her quill hand as she twists towards Aidan. "Actually the book just happens to make a great writing surface…and coaster." She tracks him around the hedge and then pats next to her on the blanket. "What are you up to?" nodding to the flowers. "For Di?" It would be…the first time she's even acknowledged it. That obvious romancing going on. "Oh and it's just a letter." she adds.
As he squints down at the book, Aidan chuckles a little, tilting his head slightly and chuckling some. "Same s'always," he remarks, looking then to the parchment and hrming. "A letter, eh?" Well. He begins to squat down as he joins the girl, looking to her for a moment before looking briefly to the letter. When she draws attention to the flowers, he blinks, and ohs. He holds them up, smiling a little bit. "Yeh. Y'think she'll like 'em?" he asks her idly. He had never really considered her lack of acknowledgement to be a problem, really.
Since they are all friends, it was probably easy to mask the lack of acknowledgment as just treating them the same as always. She reaches out to pull the flowers closer, giving them a sniff. "Aye. They're lovely. You could weave them into a laurel…crown of sorts," she suggests. "Oh, the letter is to an Auror. I'm trying to get his recommendation," she explains. "He knew my father." Aidan and Diana are two of the very very few people that Randy will even mention the topic of her father around. "He wants to give me a trial next Hogsmeade."
"Brilliant!" Aidan grins and nods in his approval, and as she draws the flowers closer, he lets his hand extend toward her for appraisal. As she gives her approval, he nods softly, and he moves to quietly move on and sit down. As he does, he grins a little bit. For now, the flowers are placed carefully aside. "I may try that," he adds softly to the suggestion of a laurel. He's got a pretty good hand at crafts… surely it won't be too horribly difficult. As she explains the letter, he makes a small little noise, and he grins, nodding slightly. "Very nice," he adds to her aspiration… But he does tilt his head slightly. "A trial?" He tilts his head again, furrowing his eyebrows a little. "As in… a test. He's going to put you through t'gauntlet?"
She straightens her posture out to overdramatize it, speaking with a serious tone. "Yes, it's going to be an awful trial. I might not make it out alive," Randy says with grin, mischievous eyes twinkling, the evening sun filtering down through the leaves of an overhanging tree. "I'm letting him know when the next Hogsmeade weekend is so that he may embarrass me with ungainly speed and efficiency."
There's a light roll of Aidan's eyes as as Randy explains it, and he just shakes his head a little bit. "Always a flair for the overboard, s'always," he begins to chuckle, sighing a little bit as he leans forward, his elbows resting on his legs as he squints at her for a moment. "I s'pose I should," he remarks idly, "start writin' my own applications and letters. I've got t'see whether or not Gringotts is hirin', too," he begins to remark, sighing a little bit. "I've got… a lot to start working on planning. A lot of things."
Randy blinks a little as Aidan starts listing off things he has to do, and then the vague last one seeming like a mountain of undefined. She grins softly, head falling a little to the side, "Just do it one at a time. Everything doesn't need to happen at once," she assures him. "You still have your NEWTs to worry about," she reminds him, and then a moment later her smile fades into a rather lame expression as if to say, oops I just reminded you of that one giant crushing thing.
"NEWTs aren't my concern. I've bigger fish t'fry, m'dear Marie," Aidan remarks, shaking his head a little bit and rubbing his eyes a little. He purses his lips slightly, glancing toward Randy for a moment as he tilts his head. "S'not just work I'm having t'worry about." He looks back off, and then rubs his neck slightly. "I… uh." He clears his throat slightly. "… Well."
Randy puts her book and sundries to the side and puts her hands on her knees. "Aidan?" Her head drops a little forward and to the side, her gaze trying to pin his. "What's going on?" as if to say, you can't hid this from me. She shifts.
"Ah… Just some stuff." He clears his throat, and Aidan has this rather… odd look, which he gives Randy in turn. He rubs his nose slightly. "I… I got a letter." He clears his throat again. "From papa." He purses his lips then.
"Oh…Is he pressuring you to choose someone?" Randy has a slightly pained expression for her friend. She reaches up and pushes her hair behind her ears. "What are you going to do?"
"Ah… nnnnnoooo." Aidan begins to shake his head a little bit, and he breathes in. He slaps his hands together slightly and steeples his fingers in front of his mouth. "M'papa knows about Diana, y'see. He's known since the summer," he remarks idly, breathing in. "And… he's… ah." He clears his throat. "… he's not pleased. I believe that the… term… he used in the letter was…"
He purses his lips. "Mudblood whore."
He clears his throat again. "He says that if I expect t'be able t'return to Kenmare this summer, and not find all of my personal belongings on the curbside of the estate… That I will… ah." He makes a small sweeping motion with his hands.
"Merlin's beard," Randy mutters as she stares off into the background for a moment. "That's awful." She blinks back to look at Aidan, that slightly horrified look in her eyes. "So you have to figure out how it's all going to work…"
"Basically." Rubbing his hands together, Aidan sort of just… keeps them steepled in front of him, and he purses his lips slightly. "S'just a slight problem in the grand scheme of things, really," he notes idly, glancing toward Randy. "I think m'papa forgot that I stopped caring about his opinion in fourth or fifth year about t'whole situation, 'cause he never approved of me bein' friends with her anyway." He just shakes his head a little and breathes in.
"Yes, but," that wasn't what Randy was asking. Well not all of it. She purses her lips, eyes now filled with more concern, lifting a hand to rest on his shoulder. "What are you going to do about it? I mean, he will disinherit you?" she half asks. "Will you have enough money?"
"Mama will probably keep him from emptying the contents of my room onto the curbside," Aidan remarks ruefully, shrugging his shoulders a little. "I… don't know, though. I don't know if he's going to make good on t'threat or not." He then glances toward Randy for a moment, clearing his throat as she rests her hand where she does. "… I haven't told Diana yet. I'm almost afraid to. I mean… I've told her that he may take it badly," he remarks, "and may even get a little… aggressive. But… not to this level." He just shakes his head a little bit. "I'm going to just… cross the bridge when I get there, to borrow a Muggle euphanism."
Randy gives Aidan's shoulder a little squeeze and then she retracts her hand. "You know you always have a room at the castle. Always, if you need it. And I'll help you pick up your stuff." She sighs. "You need to tell her…eventually. But just, maybe figure out how you want to say it first," like censoring out the hatred.
"I know, Marie… I know." Rubbing his nose slightly, Aidan looks down and continues to rest his arms on his legs. "I'm going to tell her. And I'm going to write him," he remarks quietly, breathing in, "and actually give him a piece of my mind." He pauses, then, looking toward Randy for a moment. "Promise y'won't say anything t'her? I need to deal with this first, and work on making sure… things line up right."
Nnnnnnnnnngh. Such a hard thing to ask of Randy, but it's Aidan. And the reality is, she'd do the same thing for Diana too. "Just hurry. You know she can tell when I'm lying," she says, taking a little breath and shakes her head. "So you won't care to reconcile with him? Give him a chance to turn around?"
"Ah. I'm pretty sure that he won't want to reconcile after I tell him what I need to tell him," Aidan responds softly, shaking his head a little and sighing. "Y'know. Before all of this… blood warfare. He was… such a kind man." He sighs, then, shaking his head. "Blood warfare. What a term," he whispers to himself. He then glances to Randy, smiling a little bit, and nodding. "I… what it is I've got to tell him," he remarks, "is something I'll end up tellin' you and everyone else later on. Probably around the end of June." He smiles, then, and begins to stand, grabbing the flowers up and breathing in. "I think I'm going to go work on this," he adds, holding the flowers up. "I'll catch you in the commons?"
Randy doesn't say a word. There are mixed views in her own family. She's never quite figured her Grandfather out, has no idea of her father, and her Grandmother made her viewpoints well known. It's all a sticky mixed up bag. "Really? June? With all the rest?" She rolls her eyes a little. "Yeah yeah. I'll see you later loverboy." She reaches over to pick up her book and quill.