[who] Brier and Rory Stebbins, Emmeline Vance
[what] Trick Or Treating and some booboos.
[where] Emmeline's place
[status/rating] Finished. G.
Brier loved trick or treating, he really did. And now that Rory was old enough to sort of understand what was going on - enough to know that he was dressed up and it was fun to shout at people who opened the door with bowls and to squeal when he was given something to put in his bag. There was still a lot of carrying him and trying to keep him from picking up leaves and things off the ground but for the majority of the time Rory seemed to be having a great time and that was really all that Brier cared about.
They had visited a lot of former Ravenclaws and year mates, because Brier didn't like the idea of going to strange houses, so he'd looked up some people's addresses and had hit nearly all of them. Rory loved apparating, so it wasn't too terrible, but now it was nearing the end of their trip and the little boy was starting to fuss. He was wiggling to get down as they approached Emmeline's house and as Rory turned to climb up the steps he tripped and before Brier could catch him the bag of candy dropped and Rory was on the ground.
"Oh, no!" Brier said, picking Rory up and checking his face for blood or cuts, but Rory was starting to bawl and twisting and it was really hard to see in the dark, so Brier took the few steps up to Emmeline's porch and hit the doorbell. Looking panicked when she opened the door, he gave her an apologetic smile, "Sorry, we just had a little bit of an accident," he said, motioning to the spilled candy on the ground, "Do you mind if we come in and use your loo? I need to check him to see if he's hurt."
"Er---"
Emmeline motioned awkwardly toward the loo, glad that she'd locked up Max for the night. Halloween had been something she'd dreaded for the past few weeks, but couldn't escape. The library had spent every weekend reading spooky stories and decorating. Emmeline had to force herself not to get annoyed at the muggle tales of witches with green skin and pointy noses, and busied herself with the everyday work the other employees were ignoring in lieu of the holiday.
Her bowl of candy on the stoop was charmed to refill itself, but her street was rather lacking in the children department. It had been a quiet evening until the baby's cries had caught her attention, and when a familiar face had appeared at her door, she was more than startled.
She stood by the open door, her arms crossing tightly as the cold air filled her living room. Should she offer assistance? She hadn't even known that Brier had a kid, let alone one that big. Emmeline wondered if she'd fallen far out of the Ravenclaw circle that was once so tightly knit, but then she could probably say the same about most of her friends from school.
"Need anything?" she offered, coming closer, mostly to get out of the cold.
"Um, sorry," Brier said, slipping in the door and setting Rory on the counter. He flicked on the light and glanced over his shoulder at Emmeline with an unsure smile. "Could I have a small towel with a piece of ice? I don't think he's really hurt, but if he thinks he's being 'fixed' he'll calm down a little quicker," he said looking back at Rory and starting to inspect him. The make up was a little smeared and now sort of coming off with the tears that were rolling down the toddler's cheeks.
"Shh, baby it's okay," he said, quickly pushing up sleeves and pantlegs to check for skinned elbows and knees, but there was nothing. His hands were a little red and now dirty, but that could be fixed easily. Brier kissed the boy's cheeks and palms to 'make it better'. At least the yelling had stopped, even if the tears hadn't.
"Sorry about dropping in on you, we were trying to see everyone tonight. Well, friends and stuff, to show off our scary dinosaur costumes," Brier said, pushing off his own hood (that had some scales fastened to it that also ran down his back and the twitching tail he'd transfigured from a stuffed animal earlier. "It's kind of past bedtime you know? I thought he'd make it this year, but I don't think anything is complete without an oops," he laughed nervously, feeling a little terrible for being such a bother and ruining the surprise. "I hope I didn't interrupt anything."
Emmeline waved a hand, shaking her head, "No, it's fine, I was waiting for some excitement."
She smiled at the little boy, unable to resist a pouty face. Emmeline hurried over to her counter where Anneliese's package of French candies was still sitting. There was no way Emmeline was going to go through them all by herself (well...she wasn't going to allow herself to), so sharing some of the sugar-filled wealth was necessary.
"Here, they're foreign delicacies," she said, tying the small bag with a quick boy. Emmeline offered them to Rory, wondering if it could be the final part of his calming-down. She really didn't need a weepy kid in her flat, her dog definitely was not appreciating it from the whines he was emitting, and she did not know how to handle kids who weren't---not her own, but Henry and Neville were babies she really knew, and had managed to learn the tricks to soothing them.
"Is sont français."
"And now you have bucketfuls," Brier joked, putting a wand-chilled corner of a towel on Rory's knee. The boy gave an exaggerated shiver and looked down at his knee, pointing at it with some sticky, dirty hands. "See, fix it better," Brier said. Rory leaned into Brier so he picked him up and held him so the little boy was leaning back against his chest, using his arm as his seat.
"Ooh, Rory, look what pretty Emmeline has for you," he said, urging the boy (who was now suffering a slight bout of shyness) to look at the candy. "What do you say!" Rory mumbled and reached his hand out with a smile to take the candy. Rolling his eyes, Brier smiled at Emmeline, "I believe that was mercĂ, Emmeline, thank you for the candy. But don't quote me on that, I don't want to misstate things. But really, thank you."
Now that the baby was calmed down and fiddling with his candy, Brier had the chance to look around the place. "This is really nice! How long have you been living here? What have you been up to? I feel really bad, it's hard to keep up with some people when you've got this," he said, jostling Rory a bit and getting a little laugh out of him. "Tonight was kind of a catch up night, I suppose. We went to mostly former Ravenclaws, it's pretty cool. We started early so people wouldn't be gone for the party."
Emmeline looked around the flat, one of the few things that hadn't changed much since she'd left Hogwarts. Of course, it had been torn apart by a death eater during the earthquake chaos, but nothing terribly valuable had been disrupted (Emmeline had learned to superbly lock and hide whatever was important to her in an undisclosed location). Her flat was the only place she felt normal, so she took a bit of pride about it.
"Frank--Frank Longbottom? He found it for me before school finished, and I've been here ever since. Nothing really exciting happened," if you completely ignored the well publicized death of her fugitive, death eater boyfriend, of course. Emmeline smiled tightly, glad that Rory had taken a liking to the candy.
"The only Ravenclaws I've really kept in touch with are those in my year, so---not much has happened. But by the looks of it," she said, pulling some grass from Rory's hair, "You've had your share of excitement since Hogwarts?" Emmeline couldn't recall a girlfriend or anything like that, but clearly something interesting must have occurred.
"Ah, yes, I remember Frank. I felt bad for him having to room with Potter's gang, though I didn't really know them. I just knew who they were through their pranks and, uh, well, Gideon knew them, I guess," Brier's eyes flicked to Emmeline's before looking away. He was really terrible at this catching up thing, because bringing up dead roommates was exactly the way to do it.
He gave her a slight smile and Rory beamed at her, generally he didn't like a lot of new people, but this was good. Plus, the candy was always the way to win over a toddler. "Him? No big deal there," Brier joked, "He's my sister's. Or was, I adopted him. I went straight from N.E.W.T. taking to the hospital and helped her out with him for awhile, and then one day she was just gone," he shrugged, brushing his hand through his own hair.
"We're doing good though. I'm a lawyer, at Cornfoot and Trimble and he's at that daycare in Hogsmeade. We were at the one in the Ministry, because that's where my offices are but after the Earthquake stuff, I figured it was too much of a target," Brier shrugged.
"Right, yeah." Emmeline was grateful that he'd moved past the topic of Gideon Prewett. Emmeline hadn't been in much contact with the rest of the Order or Gideon's family since the Prewetts' murder, and she found herself just as sad about their deaths today as she had felt when the news first broke. The war was not going in their favor. It felt like the end was nearing, and the Order wasn't going to come out winning.
"A lawyer! That's great," Emmeline said with an impressed smile and nod. A lawyer, Merlin. Sounded much better than working at a muggle library stacking books. Her smile faded slightly as her hand gripped the door. It would be rude to not offer them drinks, or something, right? And the baby did seem awfully tired. But maybe that meant Brier wanted to get him to bed?
"Do you want a drink, or? I have milk," she offered awkwardly Brier, then to Rory, remembering she had a few of Neville's bottles in her cabinet. That was the polite thing to do, right?
"I like it, it's just academically challenging enough to be really interesting without being boring. I um, I don't really have the best personality for the in court stuff, but I'm working on it. At least my supervising associate takes me mostly serious now," Brier said, chuckling a little. Okay, there was no need to go into how Brady called him nancy names and teased him terribly.
Brier glanced at his watch and down at Rory who, despite the candy, seemed to be nodding off. "Can I take a rain check? I should get him to bed and stuff. It's really nice of you to offer," he said, touching her shoulder lightly, "I'm glad to see you're doing well and all. Thank you for the emergency help and we should get together sometime, you know, not awkward and stuff."
Emmeline's mouth dropped for a second before shutting. This was fine! This wasn't---what did she think it wasn't? She'd offered to get him drinks, he said he'd take a rain check. Which could just be a nice way of saying not now! That didn't mean...no, it didn't mean anything. She was sure. Right?
"Yeah, that'd be--great," she managed, feeling her chest constricting at the words. What would be great? Drinks? Seeing him? Catching up? Awkward was right, and Emmeline nearly broke a piece off the door as her mind whirled. Why did she have to think so much? She already knew; she was going to get herself worked up over absolutely nothing, and when the nothing happened, she'd wonder why she'd worried about nothing in the first place and---it was nothing.
"All right, get to sleep, Mister Scary Dino," she said to Rory, and Emmeline loosened her grip on the door.
"G'night," Rory said and Brier gave her a little wave as he headed out the door. He grabbed the spilled candy and some of the less-tiny pieces off the ground (he'd toss them out when he got home and replace them later) and Rory twisted to wave good-bye over his shoulder before they took off into the night.
