sickly sweet [rod]

Finally, it was the summer. And in just a few short months, Winifred would be starting her seventh and final year at Hogwarts. It filled her with excitement, it filled her with anxiety, and she couldn't quite decide which feeling was stronger. So in true Wini fashion, she decided to leave the worrying to later and just enjoy the moment. It didn't quite stop her from not being able to sleep as she tried to figure out what in Merlin's name she was going to do once she graduated, but it was a good step in the right direction.

This summer held a lot of promise for her. She was spending extended time with William, her biological father, who she called her bonus dad and that was exciting because, up to this point, she hadn't really gotten a chance to know him all that well. Plus, he had agreed to let Lip spend the summer with him too and if Wini had been anxious at all about the extended time with William, she didn't now. Having @Phillip Donnelly there was like a security blanket, a grumpy little security blanket. But first, William was working on a new assignment for The Daily Prophet. He was a freelance journalist and had chatted to Wini about the article, asking if she wanted to sit in with him on the interview. Wini had nodded her head and tried to smile instead of grimace, but she wasn't positive she got the expression right because William had laughed and said he would meet her outside the Three Broomsticks in about an hour before handing her some coins and asking her to perhaps pick up some of his favorite candies - licorice wands.

Glancing down at the silver sickles in her palm, glinting in the summer sun, Wini smiled and watched him duck into the pub, disappearing into its cozy depths. She tucked her coins into the pocket of her well-worn denim jacket and turned eyeing Honeydukes across the way, her light summer dress brushing against her legs as she ventured over.

Wini called hello to Caoimhe behind the till as she entered, a bell ringing announcing her entrance, and just like always Wini was greeted by all the sickly sweet sounds and smells that was trademark Honeydukes. It made her grin and grimace from the pending toothache she knew she might get all at once. But that wasn't going to stop her from getting her favorites. And Lip's favorites. It was a good thing William was more wealthy than he knew what to do with and didn't mind the extra costs that came along with Wini staying with him that summer. It might have made her feel a tad guilty if he hadn't encouraged her to come here, and then the thought was gone as soon as she saw her favorite boxes of chocolate cauldrons.

After walking round a bit, filling a little basket with this and that, she scoured the shelves for the licorice wands that William mentioned, but didn't see them. She approached someone in a Honeydukes uniform, saying, "Hi, excuse me," in her clear, light voice with a friendly smile. "Do you know where I could find the licorice-- Roderick?" As soon as she saw his face, Wini stalled. She knew of the Slytherin who had just graduated, but had never personally interacted with him. She glanced around and then back at him, as if this was the last place she expected him to be. "Are you working here now?" she asked dumbly, still a little surprised.

@Roderick Macnair

With no more school on the immediate horizons, no leads at St. Mungo’s as of yet, and a deep-seated familial distrust for the Ministry of Magic, Roderick found himself at a standstill, careers-wise. He had assured his mother that he would be getting into either a Healing or Mediwizard program in the near future, but Father would not accept a deadbeat in his house (despite him recently having been one!) now that Roderick was 18. So until something better came along, here he was.

A shop boy. In Honeydukes.

His one saving grace was that it was summer. Most of the students had gone home and would not return until he had moved on from this job. (He was not allowing himself to consider the possibility of staying on more than the summer.) He was mostly serving tourists, Europeans and Americans and the occasional  traveler from Asia - didn’t they have mountains in Japan they could go to, instead of prodding all the merchandise here?

Archie had been thrilled, of course, to learn about the employee discount and occasional free samples. Bringing gifts home for him and Kelsey, along with tucking most of his wages into the hidden compartment in his bed, took the edge off of smiling all the time.

He was stocking the Every Flavour Beans - Bernie Bott’s new flavour for summer, “Melting Ice Cream That Got a Bit of Sand On It” was selling shockingly well, when he heard a customer creep up behind him. “How can I make your life sweeter today?” He asked as he turned around. The line was standard, drilled into him during his brief training. His tone, nauseatingly cheerful, turned sour as the customer recognized him.

Who the hell was this? Roderick racked his brain. Fifth, maybe sixth year maybe. Hufflepuff, definitely. An ex prefect? Gwenyth? “Gwartney,” he finally realized, spitting the name out of his mouth.

He gestured broadly at the hot pink apron he was wearing. “Can’t say I go shopping like this, can I?” Her look - was that fear? Again? A year ago he would have revelled in it, but now Roderick was just annoyed. “Can I help you, or are you here to gawk at the working class?”

Wini's trying smile faltered a bit when Roderick spat out her name like it was a curse. She tried to smile in greeting out of politeness and courtesy, nodding in response acknowledging her name, even though she was sure it was probably coming out more of a nervous twitch than anything genuine. His razor-sharp tone and demeanor set her on edge immediately. Her mum had told her she was as easy to read as an open book and the Hufflepuff fretted that he would take one look at her and know it. It made her nervous and she had an urge to turn right around and leave Honeydukes, find William, and pretend as if the shop was closed and she couldn't buy anything. Non-confrontational was her middle name when it came to real conflict, not the little inconsequential squabbles that she had with @Marin Clare or @Phillip Donnelly .

He gestured to the apron and Wini glanced down, looking at the embroidered little bonbons charmed to dance and wiggle on the fabric and couldn't help the smile that tugged at her lips. Big bad Macnair in a pink apron that Wini would, quite frankly, love to own. "It's very cute," she managed to say with a smile, hoping a bit of levity would help the dynamic.

But nope. Didn't seem to. Working class? Did he not know her family was a working class too? Sheep farmers in Wales weren't exactly the height of society, but she tried to take a little breath and do what she did with Lip when he was grumpy. She forced a bright smile, but she couldn't quite meet his gaze, as she said, "I'm looking for licorice wands? Do you know if you have any? I didn't see any on the shelves over there and since you were restocking, I thought I would ask. Have you worked here long? I didn't know they were hiring." Wini took a deep breath and held it, gripping her little shopping basket tightly as she tried to reign in her chattiness. She knew she could be extra chatty when she was nervous, but maybe he couldn't tell, she thought hopefully.

This? This interaction? Was the whole reason he had thought twice about accepting the gig at Honeydukes. Customer service was already painful enough. Adding people who knew him from school was a nightmare. It was the whole reason he had ruled Ministry work right out. Maybe not the whole reason. A large reason.

There was a real chance he would have to escape to America to get relief from all the people who knew him in school.

Gwartney looked like a startled rabbit staring down a hunter, as if she might bolt at any moment. As much as he would enjoy her turning tail and dashing out of the store, Roderick was pretty sure “scaring away customers” was not a good impression to make on his boss. She was in the back right now - he didn’t need to push it. Roderick ignored the “cute” comment entirely, because the alternative was not family friendly. “Licorice wands,” he repeated dully, staring about a foot above the girl’s head. “Were hiring,” he offered, glossing over everything else that had babbled out of her mouth. “Position’s filled.”

Roderick turned on his heel and strode further into the store. “This way,” he said, but surely that wasn’t necessary, she couldn’t be so dim she wouldn’t know to follow him. Licorice wands were… yes, he remembered now, buy the bulk candy in the big glass vase thing. “Here.” He had marched all the way back to the bulk and gestured dismissively to the wands. “Is there,” he sighed. “Is there anything else I can help you with today. Miss.” The title was added with dispassion. It was yet another thing from on boarding that was less painful to do for someone he didn’t know.

Wow. He was even more monosyllabic than Lip was. And that was saying something considering was someone of very few words. Again, she tried to handle him like she did Lip, smiling kindly and nodding. Everything's fine, she coached herself, it's not like he's going to curse you out in Honeydukes. That would be crazy. He's not crazy. Just a little... unique. Yes, unique, that's what I'll go with. Lip is unique, Marin is unique, I can deal with Rod's.. uniqueness for long enough to get some candies.

At least it was internal talk and not her usual outer chattiness. She wasn't positive, but she would probably bet that he would look at her like a crazy person if she started murmuring to herself to stay calm. Wini followed behind him as she led her over to the licorice wands on display that she had somehow missed. She gave him a bright smile as she went over to take a few and place them in her basket. "Actually, if you don't mind," she found herself saying without thinking.

"I need some of the chocoballs with the icing on top? Do you know what I mean? Only the regular were out so I'm not sure if you have any others in the back maybe? They're Lip's favorite and he's coming to visit so I wanted to get some for him--" When she realized she was doing her nervous chat thing again, she stopped herself and gave him a nervous smile. "I would really appreciate it?" she added with a little shrug.

Gwartney have him the most irritating, simpering smile he had ever seen on a real human person, and she was aiming at him. Disgusting. And the nodding! It was condescending and offensive. But at least she had located the candy with minimal assistance. Roderick rolled his eyes as she walked past. What a drag. At least that was over with. She hadn’t responded to his question right away, so he felt safe to turn on his heel and walk away-

Hm. Nope. She was babbling at her about chocoballs. Chocoballs. What a stupid name for a candy. A groan escaped his lips, not that he was really trying to hide his disinterest in the girl’s plight. “If they aren’t out, then we. Are. Out.” He enunciated the beginning of every word - she really seemed dim, this blonde girl. He didn’t even bother offering to help her more - why bother, he didn’t want to help her, there were other customers in the store, and Roderick was unlikely to be helpful while annoyed this way. He turned on his heel and walked away, back to the boxes he was unpacking before this interruption.

Her polite smile grew a little tighter as he made a little annoyed(?) noise. His short little enunciated reply grated at her so in true Wini fashion, she tried to cover it with chatter and sweetness. "Oh, then no worries, I was just wondering. Thanks for letting me know. Maybe I'll stop back and check in if you have more at the end of the week." She made a mental note to add it to her diary. She really wanted to get some as a nice welcome gift for when he arrived from his uncles.

"Thanks for your help," she mumbled as he turned away without a word and she worried her lip between her teeth. "I guess I'll just get some--" she started to say swinging around, accidentally bumping into some tall glass containers encasing hundreds of little rainbow colored candies. It was like it was happening in slow motion. Wini reaching out for the glass container, her basket falling to the ground, just as the glass shattered and candies went everywhere.

She couldn't move as she stared down with wide eyes as the candies and glass mixed together, forming a huge mess right in the middle of the store. Her cheeks tinged pink with embarrassment as she glanced up, looking in Rod's direction. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to.."

She just kept yammering on and on with no sense of when to quit. Roderick didn't care if she stopped back on Friday or next Thursday or in the year two thousand and twenty three. And he thought the tourists were annoying. At least they didn't prattle on like this. The language barrier was a blessing he longed for right now. Maybe he could pretend to suddenly only know Latin. Or Gaelic.

He had hardly stepped away for a second when a loud crashing sound came from behind him. Roderick drew his wand, but he knew the damage was already done before he had turned back around. The tubes were shattered, the shards mixed in with the candies, all about the same size. He stared blankly at the situation for a moment. If the glass had shattered bigger, maybe he could have fixed this, but he wasn't quite good enough to do this - not without mixing the glass in with the candies too. He couldn't fix this.

God, for once he wanted to be able to fix a problem.

"You're sorry?" he said slowly, old practiced menace and rage slipping into his tone. Roderick clenched his wand. "You're fucking sorry?" He looked up, glared at her. "You didn't mean to?" He laughed, loudly and cruelly. "Well that's all right then! She didn't mean to!" Mordred be damned. Roderick just wanted to feel in control again. "I didn't mean to, is that the spell to put the display back together?" He didn't wait for a response. "No? Then what good is your stinkin' 'I'm sorry' for?" He hadn't realized how loud he had raised his voice. People were looking.

Wini glanced between Rod's angry expression and the wand gripped tightly in his hand. She logically knew that he probably wouldn't hex her right here in his place of work, but for the briefest of moments, she had a flashback to when she was a first year and Professor Carrow had demanded students perform hexes on her as part of their 'classwork.' She pushed that thought away in mild panic, grabbing at her own wand.

"I can fix this," she tried to say, but ended up backing away, her face paling as he started shouting at her. Her cheeks were red with embarrassment, not only having caused this debacle, but now being berated by him as well. She glanced around, her gaze flicking to the others in the store apologetically, before finding him again. Something told her it wasn't wise to take her attention off of him.

She wanted to stand up straight like Lip might have done and matched his angry words with some of her own to defense herself or maybe just apparate away as Marin might have done, but Wini was stuck. "It's alright, I can clean it up, I'll help," she tried to reason with him. She did not like the look in his eyes at all and she took another half-step back, almost slipping as some of the candies got under her shoe.

The blonde girl's hand flew to her own wand. Roderick tightened his own grip, eyes narrowing. Wasn't she underage? Didn't matter. This was an unmitigated disaster. Whatever she had to say, whatever stupid thing she had to offer in this situation, was drowned out by his own rage-filled tirade. She was flushing, she was backing off, he should let it go. But goddamnit. What a shitty year! Couldn't something go right for once?

He kept advancing on her, crushing more glass and candy under his boots. "I think," he snarled, "that you've done quite enough already." Gwartney looked so small now, cowering from him. It almost made him feel normal, like January had never happened and he was still on top of the gang, on top of the school. She lost her balance for a second - seeing the opportunity, Roderick reached out and shoved her backwards. Maybe she would cry. That would be refreshing. Maybe he would feel normal again.

Around them, the patrons had all gone silent, but the blood rushing in Rod's ears kept him from noticing. There was some movement toward the back office, where @Honey Bea Flume was working. He should be paying attention to that. Roderick wasn't.

"No, really, I can get this cleaned up in a jiffy," she tried to reassure him confidently, but it came out more like a squeak. Wini had never been great at confrontation and standing up for herself. That was much more Lip's mode of operation and while she might be able to later think of exactly what she should have done and exactly what she could have said to put Roderick in his place with the right amount of sass mixed with cool bravery, it was clearly not something that she could do in this moment.

He kept on coming towards her and an uneasy feeling swooped through her. She kept on taking little steps back, but the candies were everywhere. The worst thing was she knew this was her fault. She had made the mess, she could understand why he was angry. Even she might be a little annoyed. But when he shoved her, Wini gasped, candies sliding under her shoes, making her wobble a bit before she fell hard on her bum. It was more shock than injury, but she could feel tiny pricks against her palms where she had tried to catch herself and had ended up with little cuts because of the glass shards.

That wasn't really the most pressing concern though considering Roderick was still hovering over her, wand in his hand, and she wasn't much of a gambler, but she couldn't help but think he might use it on her. She knew she should be trying to think of some protection charm or shield charm or maybe even an offensive one, but the only thing her body seemed willing to do at that moment was let little traitor tears slide down her cheeks before she tried to get back to her feet.

The sound of sweet-filled glass jar hitting the ground was so familiar that it almost didn’t register; almost. Honey straightened up, rolling her shoulders back, about to put her piping back down before she remembered there were other people working who could manage a mess; even the new kid could manage -- she’d made sure of that before hiring him, before asking him to name as many flavors of Bertie Bott’s as possible, both very serious interview questions.

Honey leaned back over her work, tracing out delicate lace patterns in chocolate to decorate some of the truffles that were setting on a tray behind her. She concentrated for nearly two seconds before she straightened up again, a one-sided argument drifting through the open kitchen door. She sighed, setting down the bag and wiping her hands on her apron, figuring she should be the one to break things up and shoo them out of the shop because none of her employees deserved to deal with such lousy customers.

Caoimhe wasn’t behind the till; she was grabbing something in the cellar, maybe, though that job now fell to-- Roderick was standing over someone -- Honey recognized her as a student that always bought chocolate cauldrons -- with his wand out and what the fuck? She pulled her wand from the pocket of her apron and moved around the counter, calling for Caoimhe as she walked toward her almost-former employee. “Kitchen. Now.” It was all she could manage to say without swearing at him in front of everyone.

He hesitated before stepping around them -- crunching sweets and glass underfoot -- and Honey waited a beat before kneeling down next to the girl, free hand on her elbow. “Up with ya,” she said, offering a smile before standing her up and looking her over, trying to see if anything had been hexed off. “Alright?” She asked before catching sight of her palms and inwardly screaming; it was just a little surface abrasion thought, nothing she couldn’t fix, and everyone’d be alright and no businesses would be faulted and-- “I can heal this, if you’d let me.” She was speaking quietly -- soothingly, she thought - and moved her hand from the girl’s elbow, holding her hand palm up in her own.

Wini saw a woman with pretty auburn hair come out of the back and while she looked vaguely familiar, she didn't really take her eyes off Roderick until he had stepped around them and stalked off. She took an uneasy breath and tried to give the woman a thankful smile, but it was still a little watery. Her relief was paramount now that Roderick wasn't there gripping his wand with that look in his eye. "Of course, yes, I'm fine," Wini tried to reassure her as she glanced down at her palms and then down at the floor, unable to meet her eyes.

She picked up from the apron that she worked here so she felt the need to apologize to her as well. "I'm really sorry about all this, it was my fault, not Roderick's. I can help clean it up," she offered, her voice a little quiet, as they stood in the middle of what Wini considered a tiny disaster. She tried to subtly wipe away the little hint of tears that had formed at the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand before she looked at her palms again, red and angry little abrasions.

"That would be nice, thank you," she told her as she opened her fingers a little more so her palms were flatter. Wini was embarrassed and wanted to just run away and not return to Honeydukes until this was all a very distant memory for her, like it had happened to someone else instead of her. But she felt bound to help because it was her fault in the first place. So she tried to be patient and not think about Roderick storming back in her, although she couldn't help but glance at the doorway where he had disappeared.

“Kitchen. Now.”

Honey's voice filtered through the anger haze slowly, tinny, the words not processing right at first. They seemed to filter through molasses to get to the part of Roderick's brain that could actually comprehend English. His eyes, still narrowed threateningly at his quarry, drew close together as he processed.

Ah, fuck.

His hand dropped, wand lowering with it. Honey was - a bit of a force of nature, that woman. Roderick could see the situation slipping away from him, like so many hard candies through the shattered glass. He hesistated a moment, his face curdling into a calmer sort of disgust. He knew better than to say anything thought - just stomped through the wreckage.

Behind him, Honey and Gwartney in soft conversation. Roderick scowled. Well, that was short. He could at least get the day's pay. Good thing he hadn't actually turned down the other jobs quite yet.

There was an uneasy twinge in his stomach as he cast his eyes back to Gwartney and Honey, his eyes meeting Winifred's briefly as she looked toward the kitchen door. The fuck was that feeling, coiling tight and low in his abdomen? Why was it familiar? Why did it feel like a cousin to the sick feeling he had in January?

The door to the kitchen fell closed behind him, leaving Roderick to contemplate this alone.

[[out?]]

She was fine, she said, and that was good. Honey nodded, doing her best to be reassuring, but the girl wasn’t looking at her so Honey probably wasn’t making any difference.

“No, not necessary.” Her accent was thick as she kept speaking softly. Honey was more concerned with her, the state of her hands. (The jar was fixable and the spilled sweets weren’t exactly the top-of-the-line offering Honeydukes had on display.) It might not have been Roderick’s fault, but he had been the employee brandishing a wand at a customer; Honey didn’t think explaining any of that, or mentioning that Roderick was about to be fired, would do anything for her conscience so she neglected to mention it.

Honey got the okay to heal her hands and she didn’t waste any time in doing it. It took just a few seconds, but the girl’s palms returned to normal--Honey assumed--and Honey nodded one more time before she removed her hand from hers. She turned to find Caoimhe returned from the cellar and she pointed her out. “Caoimhe will get you settled with whatever you want. My treat.”

She repaired the jar--save for what Roderick had brought to the kitchen on the soles of his shoes--and vanished the ruined sweets before she offered one more friendly smile headed back to deal with the rest of the situation.

[[out!]]