| Details for A Belated Christmas Gift for Madeline |
| Summary: | After Megan and Angelus' argument, Megan gives Madeline a late Christmas gift |
| Date: | 1940-01-04 |
| Location: | Gryffindor Girls' Dormitory |
| Related: | Who Can You Trust, The Perpetual Argument |
| Characters |
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As much as Madeline doesn't like Quidditch - she does like flying brooms. But there's only so much flying you can do in the dark - especially when it starts to snow. So she comes in before too long, saying goodbye to her friend in the entry hall, and tromping up six flights of stairs. She's breathless when she reaches her dorm, and tosses the used broom she'd gotten for Christmas onto her bed. "It's coooooold out tonight!" she announces - flopping onto the bed next to her broom, landing on her back with her arms stretched out.
Megan is standing beside the pipe stove in the center of the room when Madeline enters, having just heated a kettle of milk. She's still wearing her school robes, except her necktie has been loosened and she's taken off her shoes. "I imagine it would be, given the frost on the windowpanes. Would you like some hot cocoa?", she offers after wiping something from her cheeks. It's perhaps a redundant question.
"Oh, that'd be great!" Madeline agrees. "Thanks. I, uh, hope your walk wasn't too bad. Hope he wasn't too insufferable," she offers hopefully - and even a bit apologetically. She knows the tension between her and Angelus can't be easy on poor Megan.
"It was the usual," Megan laments. "I love him to pieces, but he's dead-set in his beliefs, however misguided they may be." She stirs cocoa into the milk, then pours two mugs. "Here, this should warm you up. And calm me down," she says, stepping around the stove to offer one of the mugs to Madeline.
Madeline happily accepts it, and sips from the warm chocolate, letting out an appreciative sound. "It's good, thanks," she says. "'n I'm sorry, Megan. Really. I tried my really bestest best to get along with him. I just can't."
Megan sits down on Madeline's trunk, where she has the benefit of being close to both her friend and the fire, and wraps her hands around her hot mug, looking down at the swirly pattern the cocoa makes. "Unlike him, I can't blame you for his biases. I'm afraid I may have to appear more…detached…from you, at least when we're in public, if only to keep him from hounding me with ultimatums."
"…oh," Madeline says quietly, looking down at her cocoa. "Okay," she agrees in a somewhat subdued tone. She's been afraid something like this would happen. "It's okay. Family needs to come first. They always need to come first." Even if Megan's brother is a horrid little-
"Thanks for understanding. I promise I won't stop being your friend though," Megan says. "I just need to adopt an appearance of distance so he'll back off a little." She sighs. "I'm only twelve. Life shouldn't be this complicated."
"It really shouldn't," Madeline agrees. She shrugs her shoulders, then adds, "I'm only twelve - I shouldn't be an Auror. Even a Junior one." She stares at her cup of cocoa, holding it in both hands. "I just wanna learn magic."
Megan sips from her mug and then leans her head back over the foot of Madeline's bed to stare up at the rafters. "Let's talk about more pleasant things," she suggests. "Oh, right!" Suddenly she stands up to retrieve something from her trunk. It's a slim, gift-wrapped box! "This might've helped when you were out flying earlier," she says as she offers it to Madeline.
"Ooo! A present!" Madeline is quick to cheer when the brightly wrapped parcel is brought out. "You didn't have to get me anything, Megan," she says eagerly. Still, she's more than happy to accept the gift and start tearing it open - the cocoa set carefully beside her for the moment.
The box contains a pair of knit black fingerless gloves and a pair of knit black socks, each with a tag labeled 'EverWarm'.
"I know they don't look like much, but they have a charm on them, that siphons a tiny amount of magic from you when you put them on, so they stay warm for as long as you wear them," Megan explains, again sitting on Madeline's trunk, but this time on her knees, facing her friend. "So the charm doesn't wear off over time like it does with other clothing."
"Oh, wow, really?" Madeline asks. She beams at Megan. "That's brilliant - thanks! Because you know how I love snowball fights and everything!" She seems very genuinely pleased with the gift. "I'm gonna make a huuuuuuge pile of snowballs, and then when Adam comes by - pestering jinx! It's gonna be amazing!"
Megan grins. "It was the most practical thing I could think to get you." At least the most practical thing that Madeline might not be able to afford on her own. A small luxury. "I wanted to give them to you before the winter break, but they were back-ordered."
"Practical things make really great gifts - that's what my mum's always said." Madeline's pulling the gloves on as she talks. "Oh, wow, they're soft too. A jar of jam's pretty practical - everyone needs a little jam on their scones - but this is loads better than the jam. Thank you so much, Megan!"
"You're welcome," Megan replies. "I'm sure an older student can change the color if you'd prefer something other than black." She picks up her mug again, now that it's cooled a bit, and sips generously. "It would be fun if we could work on some kind of secret together," she muses. "We'd have to keep it to ourselves, though, or—a certain person would attempt to lecture me again."
"I'm a Junior Auror," Madeline says with pride. "I'm really, really good at keeping secrets. I was sending Rena secret messages last year, even, and I never told anyone. Not even Adam." A sheepishly she admits, "That was pretty hard." Curiousity leaks into her tone as she asks, "What kind of secret did you have in mind?"
"I don't know. Maybe try to figure out some obscure bit of magic, or brew a difficult potion, or build something that somehow combines muggle technology and magic," Megan suggests vaguely. "Anything that we could work on together when we had free time, just for our own enjoyment."
"I love making potions," Madeline admits. "And I've been trying to figure out a spell that makes a pile of snowballs - so I can use pestering jinx - but I haven't gotten it figured out yet. No one could beat me at a snowball fight if I could do that!"
"I was thinking of something more practical, but I'm flexible," Megan replies with a smirk. "Like a spell or device that could encrypt a written message, so we could send messages without worrying about them being intercepted."