WHO: Noah and Odette Boot
WHAT: Noah's done some detective work and truths are revealed
WHERE: Their front porch
WHEN: Tonight?
He sat on the porch with Terry for a long time. Most days Terry liked to run free, get himself buried in something and go exploring, but he seemed to sense that his father needed to hold him and the nearly four-year-old sat comfortably on Noah’s lap. Terry fiddled with his toy trains as Noah sat in silence, trying to get himself to stand up and enter his home. Odette was home, he’d heard the dog barking as they played. How could he go in there? Noah shut his eyes, trying to understand how the hell any of this had actually happened.
It was all her fault. Kate, Kate that----Noah shook his head. What’s done was done. He’d had a nagging suspicion that Terry’s birth mother had been trying to get in contact with him the last few months, but after reading that Skeeter woman’s report, Noah’s mind had begun to race in terrible circles. A child birthed in secret? Noah had always assumed that the girl who’d left Terry in the planetarium’s bathroom had been a Hogwarts student, by her plain black robes---it had been September first, it was just so easy to assume, but what if that’s what Kate had wanted? She was smart enough to disguise herself, to send a letter that completely sent Noah off her trail.
On his own, he’d taken the clues left by Skeeter to figure out who the mystery woman was. Noah, by process of elimination had narrowed the players down to a handful, Kate Dagworth-Peakes being one of them. She hadn’t been married when they were together that one night....which had been around New Year’s of 1979, nine months before Terry was born. It was all too perfect, everything fit so perfectly that he couldn’t believe it...but St. Mungo’s told him the truth. A quick swab of their cheeks and a cotton ball dropped into a potion vial told Noah the truth. He was Terry’s biological father.
Which meant that Kate was his mother. Noah felt like screaming, but he just held onto Terry tighter. This---this could have been a good thing. Terry, his son! His son. But with the way Kate was going about things, it seemed like it wouldn’t be long before she revealed the truth and wanted some part of their---his son’s life. Odette would never---Noah would never...
The door creaked open and he turned to face his wife, smiling sadly. The folder with the results sat beside him on the porch swing, and Noah didn’t bother hiding it.
“I have something to tell you.” Noah lifted up the folder and held it out for Odette. “Sit down, though.”
She had come outside to figure out what to have for dinner, because if that wasn’t one of the hardest things to constantly figure out all the time--- well, it was. One would think with two small children that ate whatever was put on the table for them would make it easier, but it really didn’t. Her cooking skills weren’t that extensive, either, which probably made it the worst part because how many different times could you cook chicken or pasta without---
Odette blinked, caught off guard by Noah’s strange nature. Her eyes followed his extended arm down to Terry in his lap, finding this scene quite odd. Was she missing something? Her brow furrowed, and a wary look spread thick across her face. Happy things tended to not come in the form of paperwork. She did not like the color of this folder either. Wasn’t that green St. Mungo’s green? What was going on? She took the folder from him cautiously, and choose to stay standing. She did not like sitting, they only said that to each other when there was big news, and the kind they knew the other would not like.
With one last suspicious look, Odette turned her attention to flip through the parchment. And though she could read perfectly fine, the words on the page simply did not make sense. It was-- that wasn’t even--- they made no physical sense to her. Was this some weird astronomy thing that made no sense to her. She flipped to the back of each parchment, as if looking for a written in explanation because this just--- Odette’s face contorted as she began to feel frustrated for not understanding.
“What--- what?” she let out forcefully. How was that possible? Noah had said--- “I can’t--- what?” Odette dropped her hands to her sides, looking at Noah expectantly. She needed to hear this from him.
Noah finally let Terry slip off his lap, and the boy ran off to run his train along the banister of the stairs and down the steps of the front lawn. His hands went to his head, the throbbing that had been swelling up his brain since he left St. Mungo’s starting to beat even heavier. He just---he had not felt such a shock, not since Terry had actually arrived in the planetarium. How was he supposed to explain why he’d even gotten the test? What would have brought this sort of suspicion?
“That---stupid book,” Noah said with a shake of his head, thinking of the article that prompted his investigation. “Flying--Flying Above the Standards. Some things in it, in that article the Skeeter woman wrote made me...think and---”
His hands dropped to his lap, turning to Odette. “I don’t know why. I just had this feeling and I---started to narrow down who it could be, and when----” He couldn’t say her name, Odette hated Kate with a fiery passion. Noah had only been with her the one time, they were drunk and he was miserable. It hadn’t meant a bloody thing! “When I got down to a few names...one of the women...I was--with a quidditch witch nine months before Terry was born. It---I just had to see and---”
Part of him was thrilled, elated that he was actually Terry’s real father. It was---beyond amazing, it was beautiful, it was the best news he’d ever received, but also the worst. It meant that he’d had a child with Kate-Bloody-Peakes, and there was no one who did anything with that woman and enjoyed their time. Kate was the hardest person he’d ever had to deal with (and he’d married Odette); she’d made his life miserable in Hogwarts, and now---
“I’m the ‘simple wizard with no social standing,’” he muttered with a shake of his head. Noah’s hands went to the back of his neck, his gaze dropping down as the stress headache began to pound harder and harder. “What if I’d given Terry up? What if---she knew what she was doing and---”
“You---” Odette started, but found she could not focus long enough on one thing to address it. Where to even bloody begin! The fact that he did all this without her knowledge, that he was now Terry’s father, because of a-- a--- an affair with a quidditch witch that had just so recently and conveniently written a tell-tale book-- how was this happening?
“You went behind my back--- brought Terry to Mungo’s--- to figure all this out--- without telling me----” Odette put her hand to the side of her head, deciding to start there, because why the hell not. That book had come out ages ago, that article hadn’t just popped up yesterday, and now her husband lying to her and bringing her child to a hospital without any kind of... anything! She turned her head away from Noah for a moment to look to Terry who, had begin to play in the grass. He wasn’t the infant she had first met, but a child that would soon begin to understand things....
“Wait---” she said, Odette’s head snapping back to Noah as she put her hand up to stop him. “Who’s the witch?” she demanded, her eyes turning into tight slits. While she would begrudgingly admit that she hadn’t pressed Noah’s to tell her about past relationships, this seemed like a rather important one to mention. She probably knew her. She probably--- something tight and cold filled Odette as this realization sunk in. Someone she most likely knew was the biological mother to her child, had made it a plot point in this book, and now-- what did he mean, ‘knew what she was doing.’ What was she planning on doing?!
“Who is it?” Odette repeated, crossing her arms over her chest. Noah was much dumber than she ever thought he could be if he was thinking he could keep that information from her. It because she knew her, wasn’t it? She knew her, why else wouldn’t he tell her right away? If it meant nothing, then why withhold it?
He was----distraught, confused, angry, embarrassed, it was...Noah had never felt so many things at once, he had never been this conflicted. There were so many things that were wrong with this situation, there were so many things that could go wrong with it, and in the middle of this very convoluted state he’d found his family in was Terry, the center of his universe, the one thing that had kept him from letting his life spiral out of control again. His Terry, his Terry!
“Dagworth...it’s Kate.” Noah was so ashamed to admit his weakness to his wife. Kate had tortured him in Hogwarts, she had literally driven him to the lowest point he’d ever reached in his life, but that one night. That one night, she’d managed to convince him that he was good enough, that she desired him. Noah should have been strong and denied any advances made by the woman who nearly ruined his life, but he was drunk, she was all over him, and she had taken advantage of the scrawny sixteen-year-old she’d put under her spell all those years ago. One night to release his inhibitions and one night would change his entire world---only it took him four years to find out that it had.
His face was in his hands; Noah felt like he couldn’t breathe. Odette was going to kill him, she was going to leave and take everything, he wanted to disappear, he felt like such a disaster, it---Terry was his! But now Kate could--she could try and get custody, would she try? How could she have left his son in a bathroom, how---he could have given him up it----
“I almost gave him up,” Noah wailed, ignoring all of Odette’s other concerns and dropping his head to his knees, doubled over. He almost gave Terry up, he had been so close to giving the baby up because what did he know about raising a kid? He’d barely made it out of Hogwarts alive, how could someone have expected him to do better with the baby? With Terry. Noah’s hands turned into fists against his eyes, and he couldn’t muster the strength to sit up, he felt like he was going to be sick.
“I almost---I was this close to---”
What--- was he doing? Odette looked down at Noah with nothing less than pure shock spread across her face. Kate Dagworth?! That miserable, nasty excuse for a witch--- was Terry’s mother? Birthmother! Birthmother. If it wasn’t so ridiculous, she wouldn’t have believed it. But you couldn’t make shit like this up. How could a woman so vile have created such a perfect little boy? Such a sweet, innocent, smart little wizard that could perform his own magic and had already begun to develop a sense of humor---- Odette was having difficulty distinguishing which of Terry’s birth parents she was upset by more.
Was Noah expecting her to console him? Because of his own--- not a mistake, because Terry was everything but that, but--- lack of discretion almost four years ago? Was that why he was--- Odette watched Noah intensely, so caught up in--- this, that she lacked the ability to form a response for the time being. What do you even say? There was nothing--- she stopped herself, realizing there was a lot she wanted to say. So much, it began to fill up her thoughts, overriding everything to create this fury, this irritation that consumed her. How dare he fall apart like this in front of her?! How dare he--- just go without a second thought to the ramifications of this family! Was there anything else he’d done without telling her? Had he already informed Dagsworth as well? Was she due for tea tomorrow afternoon?!
Odette’s face screwed up tensely. Noah was so busy lost in the past that he was ignoring the future. Their future. The future where she was going to-- to--- she couldn’t even think she was so angry! She couldn’t even--- Odette let out a painfully frustrated sound and finally her thoughts spilled without hesitation.
“But you didn’t. Get over it,” she snapped, finding the more Noah struggled, the more irritated she became. “How about you focus on what’s going on here,” she said aggressively, waving one of her hands around the porch forcefully. This situation, this horrible delivery--- this everything! “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me--- what were you thinking?” Odette hissed.
Noah sat up, running his hands down his face as he tried to push away his stress, this stress. Odette was right, he didn’t give up Terry, but his guilt was overwhelming. It would be hard to deal with---to accept that---what’s going on here. Noah took in a few deep breaths, staring out as Terry chased what must’ve been a frog in the front lawn, as he was hopping along through the grass. Their little boy was so happy, he was so much happier than Noah had ever been; what if Terry found himself with the same devils in his own head when he got older? The idea that Terry was a fresh slate had given Noah the courage to raise the child right, but knowing that he could end up just like him, sad and miserable because his peers had made his life a living hell...
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.” Noah was always honest with Odette, sometimes brutally so. He looked up at her, feeling absolutely miserable. He’d never held anything back from her, and he had felt awful going through this without her, but he’d thought it for the best. “If everything had been negative then---I didn’t want to stress you out for no reason. It sounds----I’m sorry.”
As much as the thought of Terry being all his delighted Noah, he had been hoping more than anything that he wasn’t. The ramifications of Kate being his mother, of this child being caught up in some big quidditch scandal that he and his wife had been so very good at avoiding since they’d gotten married...that was something he’d never had wanted to put onto Odette and his family. All he could think about while waiting for the results was that maybe it would be for the best if Terry was just a random child left for him. Now, now there were all these strings attached----no, no, no!
Terry was his, he was theirs, he was Odette’s.
“I don’t know what to do, or if we should do anything because----because obviously I wasn’t important enough for her to tell anything, so...so...” His voice trailed off as Terry bounced up the steps with the frog in his hands. Noah forced a smile and stood. He pushed a hand through his hair before letting his palm drop out in a peace offering. To Terry or Odette, he wasn’t sure.
“I’m not going to do anything without you,” he said honestly to his wife, his mouth pressing into a thin line. “I’m sorry I went behind your back, but----I need you, Odette.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. Odette believed that Noah was speaking the truth, but that didn’t subside the burning sensation that had spread throughout her body. And he had apologized, she heard what he had said, but she couldn’t--- just couldn’t let it go, just not yet. There was nothing he could say, Odette was sure, that would defuse her anger, because.... just because! Because he slept with Dagsworth, because he was Terry’s father, because--- he didn’t tell her! He just did all these things, and it made her feel--- Odette closed her eyes and pushed her tongue into the roof of her mouth.
Odette had nothing to say in return, so she stayed quiet during his round of apologies. She did not forgive him, she expected him to say he was sorry at the very least. It was... the bare minimum of a response that at the very least didn’t infuriate her more. She pulled her lips back, a retort on the tip of her tongue after he had finished, but she held it when Terry appeared. With a toad.
A pressed, small smile appeared on her face as she looked down at her child. Odette bent down to meet Terry, beckoning him close so she could pick him up. It was only until she had stood back up and hiked Terry onto her hip that she spoke. “We’re not going to do anything about this yet,” she spoke coldly, finding it easy to create a chilled gaze with her husband.
If Noah’s extended hand was for her, then he would find it unaccepted. Odette turned her back to him, and walked into the house, child and toad in tow.
