м j f (catwhisperer) wrote in valesco,
@ 2013-10-27 21:18:00

Entry tags:

max fancourt, melania comstock, oliver comstock

Sitting solemn, Max waited until Melania's brother had passed by before letting his gaze follow the younger boy out of the room. Dinner had been... pressed, as was usual these days, with Oliver seemingly becoming more withdrawn, and Melania, in turn, responding to this shift in the only way she knew how, by loudly addressing it. That didn't exactly lead to the most peaceful of mealtimes, not necessarily filled with yelling fits, but not happy chatter, either. So, it was with an almost silent sigh of relief that half the tension was now currently retreating to his quarters for the night.

Momentary relief, that was. There was still Melania before him, stewing with exasperation and confusion. It created a pang in his chest to see his friend so visibly upset, and, for not the first time in the past couple of weeks, Max thought heavily about a certain piece of information that he was carrying that might help deflate the situation between his best friend and her brother.

Once again, Max felt the difficult rise to speak up fill his throat. That something, that life event, that Melania needed to be aware of... he blinked quickly, and immediately set to busy himself. Pulling his wand out of his pocket, Max collected the plates and sent them zooming toward the sink. But he couldn't bring himself to flick the water on, or begin cleaning up the kitchen (not that it was really necessary to, but seeing as he was living here rent-free, Max liked to do something to pay that back. It was just the right thing to do.

The right thing to do...

He would simply keep his cousin's name out of it. Yes, that would be better.

Max waited for one of Melania's lulls, speaking up quietly, but with purpose.

"Melania." He glanced down at the table before propping himself back up straight in his chair. Oliver's dog beneath him stirred, and even Uffizi turned her head toward him in relative attention. Max tilted his head slightly as he spoke. "There's something you should know about Oliver."

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fire
2013-10-29 01:56 am UTC (link)

"You mean other than his filthy nica—nico—smoking habit?"

The words came out tartly, though Melania had not necessarily intended for them to be so. She simply found the notion that Max had not chosen to share pertinent information about her baby brother's horrific habit very appalling. Melania had let it go with relative calm after the St Mungo's function, after twisting both Max and Oliver's ears respectively, but a hint of ire still arose every time Ollie was discussed between them.

That there was some tension between her and Oliver did nothing to soothe Melania's easily ruffled feathers. Being naturally emotive and effusive and doting around a taciturn and reserved personality obviously resulted in some level of conflict, but Melania's self-assurance and wildly inflated ego tended to compensate for any lack of affection from Oliver. She easily accepted they had different ways of showing their strong love for one another, given their traumatising past, but sometimes she simply did not understand him. This was one of those frustrating times, and the more she opened up, the more her brother closed off.

Folding her arms, she glared under the table at Oliver's dog, who had grown quite used to being slipped (and not quite "slipped" as her brother grew more brazen) tidbits from the floor, nudged her legs. "And what is this thing I should know?"

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catwhisperer
2013-10-30 01:58 am UTC (link)

Max smiled weakly. His feeble response was the only reaction he could muster for Melania at that point, feeling far too busy pooling his thoughts into forming a gentle and thoughtful confession of information to evoke much else for her. She was concerned about Oliver's smoking habits? If he was a different person, Max would have laughed at that irony. Instead, just he found it made him feel more uncomfortable, and more like he had been lying to her for all these years even though he hadn't know he had been.

"When I was in Ethiopia I hadn't realized it at first..." he began, but then quickly shook off that beginning. That wouldn't be the right way to start. Thinking better, Max steadily scrapped his chair closer toward Melania, settling back down when he felt there was an appropriate amount of space between them.

"Four years ago when I was in Ethiopia, I was there with my cousin. I wasn't meant to find out, no one was, but when she got there... she was unexpectedly pregnant." Max rushed his next words, knowing Melania would have much to say before he could continue. "I didn't tell you because she made me swear not to say anything to anyone, and until now I didn't know it even could relate back to you."

He winced, slightly disliking that he had already given away a large hint as to where this story was heading. Max had hoped to ease Melania into the news, giving her (albeit short) time to form it on her own. He pulled his lips back nervously and continued. It would all be clear soon enough.

"She never told me who the father was, so I didn't realize until recently that I knew him." Max chose his words carefully now, watching Melania's face with anxiety as he spoke slowly. His back straightened, and his palms suddenly felt sweaty. Perhaps it was the curse Nona had swore she'd hex him with if he uttered a word of what happened that year to anyone.

"Over time, I gathered that... she mentioned that he played quidditch, and smoked." Max paused, leaving the most conclusive detail for last. His voice lowered slightly. "And that he had tattoos, one of a rabbit... which I didn't know... but when you were upset about Oliver's tattoo..."

He looked down at his hands now, thinking that Melania would like some form of privacy to react. Speaking with a sad truth in his voice, he offered, "They're the same age, they were in the same year at Hogwarts." It came out much more definitive, deafening than it had meant to be.

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fire
2013-11-02 12:21 am UTC (link)

Melania blinked rapidly at him. "You're not—" she started to say, shaking her head slightly as though she had misheard him—because, surely, she had misheard him. "You're not trying to tell me that that—" Melania pointed above, presumably toward Oliver, "he is the father of a—of a—that he is a father."

She started to laugh. "That boy—" Melania made it her business to know every single event that happened in Oliver's life. The goal was lofty, to be sure, but she had damn well succeeded at every big sister's right to nose right in to a little brother's life. Surely, at some point, she would have noticed that her precious baby brother had a baby himself.

"—has never even had a girlfriend, to my knowledge, he's not—he can't…" her laughter trailed off as she watched Max's face. "You're—you're serious."

How could he not tell her? How did Max, close as family as he was, find out this news out before Oliver's own sister? She started to feel licks of panic.

After a moment, Melania shook her head more vigorously. "No. You're wrong. I would know if my little brother had a four-year old running around. That's not something he would hide from me."

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catwhisperer
2013-11-03 09:03 pm UTC (link)

Max stared intently down at his hands, feeling filled to the brim of responsibility mixed with regret. He hadn't been sure if it was his place to inform Melania, to let her in on this piece of information that by many means was only indirectly related to him. But... it felt like the right thing to do. Melania was one of his best friends, Max couldn't bare the thought of keeping a secret from her, especially one such as big as this.

And he was sure, he was so sure after how he had seen Ollie look at Nona across the room at the Mungo's Gala...

"I don't think he knows," Max responded, as delicately as he could. Max had thought, briefly, about informing Oliver himself, but even he knew that would be inappropriate. No, he couldn't do that. He didn't know the boy very well, and it would be better for his own sister to be someone he could turn to? "I don't know if it has changed, but back then she had been adamant about not telling anyone."

Max pressed his lips together purposely, thinking back as to how he had frequently pleaded with Nona to tell him, someone, anyone outside of the bubble she had created in Ethiopia about her pregnancy. It hadn't been right, hiding herself away, trying to deal with it all by herself. But she had insisted, sworn Max to secrecy, leaving not much else for him to do but help her in any little way she would allow.

He suppressed a sigh, and finally unlocked one of his hands to rub it against the side of his face. Nona was not going to be pleased with him, and Melania looked as if he had just hexed her in the back. But it was the right thing to do. He turned more toward Melania, finally picking his head up to gaze at her fully. Solemnly, he shook his head, unsure what to say next.

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fire
2013-11-04 05:36 am UTC (link)

"He doesn't know?" Melania echoed incredulously. "How does—Four years ago? He had just left school four years ago, I don't understand how this—"

Her mind whirled as she tried to wrap it around this enormous idea that her precious baby brother had created another tiny human life. Moreover, he didn't even know about it. Melania tried to picture her as a mother right now, at this age in her life, at the idea was horrific. Her brother was so young, he was in absolutely no way ready to be a father, and yet—

"We have to tell him," she said suddenly. "Your cousin has to tell him—or we do, he has to know that kind of thing. Don't we? Doesn't he?"

Would that not be the right thing to do? Or, as her first instinct screamed at her, should they hide it from him forever and keep him away from Max's cousin for the rest of their natural lives? She didn't even know who Max's cousin was—she was not, she thought, confident that Max had cousins at all, let alone ones of the female temptress variety.

Leaning forward, she demanded, "Who is she? Your cousin. What is she doing in Ethiopia with my four-year-old niece—or nephew—that I've never heard of before this moment? Everyone knows Ollie is loaded, how do you know she hasn't asked for—I don't know, support or something."

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catwhisperer
2013-11-04 04:47 pm UTC (link)

"I don't know," he answered honestly. He didn't know, he wasn't sure what would be the right thing. It was such a complex situation, made even more complex by the amount of time that had lapsed, and Max felt unable to discern what was appropriate. "I don't know, I--"

This decision was only made more difficult by the moral obligation he felt to protect Nona, to stand by the decisions she had made and help her in any way he could. He was betraying her a little, he knew, by revealing this information at all, and there could only be so much he could tell Melania before it was too much for him to explain away. This much, he knew: he had to let Melania know as much as he could concerning her brother. Anything else... Max frowned, and shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

He shifted even more uncomfortably when it was clear that Melania wasn't understanding. Support? Ethiopia? No, no.

"She doesn't live there," Max supplemented quickly. "She lives here. And she didn't--" he hesitated, glancing down at the dog at his feet. "She didn't---" Was there a way to put this delicately? "The child isn't in her care. She wouldn't need---"

Max shook his head. No, this was heading toward a place that he couldn't quite go. "I can't-- I promised her that I wouldn't--- but maybe you can---"

Just as he was about to explain that Melania had all the information she needed to perhaps explain to Oliver, help him along this path, when the cool voice that he had so thought would be tucked away in his room spoke up from behind him.

"Isn't in her care?" Oliver Comstock echoed suddenly from the door. Max's stomach dropped, and he felt his body freeze in its spot. No--- How long had he been there, how much had the boy heard?

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fire
2013-11-18 02:39 am UTC (link)

Melania's head jerked up in the direction of her brother's voice, and felt the blood drain from her face. She, a person who had no real connection to this situation other than potentially having just becoming an aunt to a child no one but two people previously knew existed, was having a difficult time understanding the ramifications of what Max had just told her. There was no way, no possible way, for her to understand what Oliver was feeling with this startling revelation.

"Ollie, we don't know that it's yours," she said hurriedly, jumping out of her seat. If she knew her brother, and this entire conversation aside, she did quite well, he had been listening from the moment he'd left the room. He would take this idea and obsess over it until something horrible happened, Melania just knew it.

Frantic to reach him, she started toward the door. "I know what Max said—but there's no proof, not really. Max was just speculating… This all might just be a—big misunderstanding."

Melania shot Max a helpless look, wringing her hands. She had planned to verify Max's story herself before breaking the news to Oliver gently. Having the news dropped on him like a stone meant without a doubt he would act out irrationally in some way, she was sure of it.

"You musn't worry about this, I'm sure everything will sort itself out soon! We'll get answers, we can figure this out together."

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catwhisperer
2013-11-19 10:57 pm UTC (link)

As insurmountable wave of guilt took over him, Max thought vaguely back to how he had envisioned this would all pan out. And, he realized that he hadn't specifically thought much about what would happen after he had passed his information along to Melania. In hindsight that had been a very poor choice-- what kind of wizard was he to not think his actions through? But, Max resolved fully, there was one thing he was certain he had not wanted to happen: Oliver hearing a whisper of his or Melania's worries, thoughts, or concerns over this potential development. That hadn't been... he wasn't meant--- he had been wrong to bring it up here, now. And he should have been more veiled, withstood the drive to not keep secrets from Melania...

All of the sudden, Max jumped from his chair. He hovered behind it, feeling uncertain and weary of opening his mouth again, or even approaching Oliver. What if all it did was make matters worse? Could they become even worse? It was possible... he had been careful to not speak Nona's name, but Max's thought that perhaps the father was someone else began to sink quickly as he took in Ollie's blank stare, a stare that made him think this was not going to end up as a big misunderstanding.

Max watched as Oliver allowed his sister to approach him, though how aware the proximity of Melania was to the younger boy was unclear. His eyes looked far off, and Max thought it unnerving how casually he stood. After a few silent moments, he broke his gaze to glance at Melania before speaking tentatively.

"It wouldn't be right to automatically assume that I... know what I am talking about. Your sister is right, I just thought she would know what to do about properly investigating the possibility before... potentially making something out of nothing." Merlin, that sounded awful. Maybe it sounded awful because he was awful. What he was doing was awful, wasn't it?

"I saw Nona Pepper seventh year." Ollie's stoic gaze broke, a twist of subdued confusion set hard in his brow. "Is Nona Pepper your cousin?" His voice was so full of raw innocence that it made Max struggle, enough to be unable to properly respond. He looked back at Melania, at a loss for words. Unable or unwilling to give up such information, Max simply frowned at Oliver sadly.

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