mean is easier than nice [andy]

Once a week, Roderick went from shop boy to coffee boy.

It wasn't always coffee, but coffee seemed to be a recurring theme. Coffee for lonely patients, for loved ones waiting in lobbies. "Smile", the volunteer coordinator had said, "Talk to them, help them around the facility." Help them to the refectory, where there was coffee. Bring coffee and a smile and some conversation. Blessedly, someone had complained about some "tone-deaf" comment he had made - well, the husband WAS disfigured, it wasn't like he had said anything untruthful - and today he was in the back, sorting mail instead.

Andy was here, too. Technically they had reconciled, but Roderick still felt a little uneasy around his cousin. Andy had stopped being "a racist piece of shit" much earlier than he had. It was uncomfortable to think about why that happened. They weren't so different - pureblood, Slytherin, same family on the mother's side, almost the same age. Was it his family's wealth? His girlfriend? Or was his cousin just a better person than him? What did he have that Roderick lacked?

He was trying to change, but the eldest Macnair still didn't like to be outdone.

"Pass me that stamp." Roderick gestured vaguely at a heavy stamp bearing a floor number. He could have spelled it over but wanted to break the silence. "How long are you here for today, then?"


@Andronicus Lovecraft

June 2003

Andy hadn't expected to be volunteering for St. Mungo's over summer but he couldn't exactly pass up the opportunity either. It looked good to perspective professional Quidditch teams that he cared about his community and it kept his mother off of his back. Of course the idea of spending two months with Roderick might have given him pause but he'd forgiven the other Slytherin. Andy knew how it felt to be stuck in the old ways of thinking (old as in two years ago because he was barely a teenager) and he wanted to help his cousin see the light -- if he could. So he'd signed up and here he was, committed to the cause.

"Yeah sure thing."

He replied softly as the silence in the room broke and Andronicus welcomed it. He passed the large stamper to the other wizard and yawned. It was too early and it was summer vacation. He should have been asleep in his bed having dirty dreams about his girlfriend but instead he was here with his cousin sorting stacks of papers. "Damn it." He said abruptly, sticking his finger in his mouth to tend to the paper cut he'd just earned.

The Slytherin returned to the stack of envelopes he'd been sorting, not really wanting to stay quiet but having nothing to talk about. Sure they shared the same bloodline and house and some friends but they were kind of on opposite sides of the spectrum these days. Roderick was still, well, Roderick, and Andy was trying to prove that he was better than his name. He never had it as easy as his sister Eleanora but he was trying. He shrugged his shoulders at the other wizard and answered. "Dunno' probably until they tell me old man Walters needs his bed pan changed again." The pureblood cringed at the though, and even though he was trying to be better, he couldn't help but know he was too good to be changing the pots of other wizards.

"Remind me again why were here on summer break?" He asked the other boy, sighing but smiling, as he shuffled papers with his other hand. Of course he knew it wasn't summer break for Roderick, but he couldn't help but say it that way. The other wizard had graduated so this was the first summer he was going to spend as an adult. Andy for one wasn't looking forward to becoming another cog in the wheel. "I mean.. whatever you know what I mean. Shouldn't you have a job or something?" He asked, his sarcastic
and playful tone shining threw even as he nursed the papercut on his index finger.

Roderick took the stamp and slammed it twice, first into the ink and then onto the envelope. This wasn’t quite what he had imagined when he took Fletcher’s advice and signed up for the volunteer program. There would be shadowing in the months to come, that would be cool, but until then… Thud.

Roderick snorted. Working with - on - Walters was some sort of hazing, he was pretty sure. The man was apparently deteriorating rapidly - he should have sympathy, but Roderick didn’t care - the man was comfortable, with family coming in and out all day, and new volunteers to talk the ear off of on a regular rotation. “I’ll dip then or four-ish, I reckon. Whenever is first.”

“I do have a job,” Roderick shot back, trying not to think about his Honeydukes shift coming up the next day. “What I don’t have is a career.” He was still nursing some resentment from conversations with Deyer and other people from the end of term. It was so easy for some people. “You’re boosting your Quidditch marketability. I’m trying to do the same for my Healing prospects.”

He hadn’t mentioned the healing aspirations to… well, anyone, actually, except that one Healer Pomfrey had connected him to. It felt weird to be saying it out loud. For so long he had just had ambition, not a goal.

“Where else would you be right now? Bumming around the estate?” Probably snogging Jacqueline, no doubt.

A career.

What a daunting idea. Andronicus had had a "career" lined up for him since the day he was born and the medi-witch had called out his gender. Being the first, and one of the only, male heirs in sometime meant there were quite a few things he was supposed to eventually ascend to. He had a career, and a future it seemed, lined up for him but the teenager wasn't sure he wanted to be another cog in the Lovecraft war machine for the rest of life. He wanted to play Quidditch, something Rod and a lot of his peers knew but he hadn't officially told his parents yet. He would be lying if he said he wasn't putting that off as long as possible.

He tended to the paper cut as his cousin answered and shrug his shoulder. "You think this will help?" He asked flatly, knowing Roderick probably wouldn't be doing it other wise but second guessing it just the same. Technically they were volunteering for St. Mungo's but this wasn't exactly what Andy had pictured when Rod asked if he wanted to join.

"I don't know, probably." He answered, sorting a bit more papers. "Or with Jacqueline, her family does all kinds of fun stuff during the summer months." Her family was Scottish like the sun was hot and growing up together he'd been exposed to quite a few of their traditions. He loved every one of them, but not as much as he loved Jacqueline. He thought about her for a moment, that stupid goofy grin coming on to his face as his eyes glossed over a little. The love struck teenager couldn't hide the fact that he was smitten, not even in front of his older, Slytherin cousin.

"Or maybe visiting Eleanora. She got a job at Coven you know?" He was still hoping she'd sneak him in. "What would you be doing?"

Roderick snorted. "It better," he said. There was some delay with the scheduling, he couldn't begin shadowing Healer Fletcher until July, earliest, but with no school to go back to in the fall that wasn't really an issue for him. If the volunteer coordinator said he should be here while he waited, well, here he was. And if Mother was playing nice with the Lovecrafts again, and suggesting he bring his cousin Andy along, well. what was the harm? Better Andy than some stranger.

Glancing over, he noticed for the first time that Andy had managed to injure himself doing paperwork. "For Mordred's sake, man," he sighed. Wait - Andy was still underage. "Come on," he said, indicating to his cousin to stick out the finger. "I'm no Healer yet but I can manage a papercut like that." He waited for Andy to offer the wound before casting. "Episkey." He didn't need to do a verbal spell, probably, but he wasn't sure how confident Andy was in him.

He rolled his eyes. Andy and Jacq were stupid smitten with each other - it was alternatively nauseating and endearing. "Sorry to take you away from it, mate," Roderick said, half genuine, half envious. He raised an eyebrow at the mention of his classmate and other cousin. "Has she?" Interesting. When was the last time he had spoken to Eleanora, anyway? He could use a drink and maybe a reference - Honeydukes wasn't ideal.  "Maybe I'll stop by."

Roderick shrugged. "Work, I supposed. Or watching the kids." Kelsey was acting out more and more, he had noticed in the few weeks he had been back at home. He needed to take her on a playdate. Or possibly to karate lessons. "How old is Morgana now? Do you think she'd like to hang out with Kels for an afternoon? It'd be a big favour for me and Archie."

Andy would have been just fine sucking on his papercut until it stopped bleeding, it wasn't that deep, really it was just annoying and stingy, but when he heard Roderick sigh and motion Andronicus didn't fight it. One day he'd be old enough to take care of things like that on his own but not yet. He'd always found it strange that they were taught all of this magic during Hogwarts but not allowed to use it at home during the summer. Half the time he went away for two months and showed back up at Hogwarts forgetting a lot of what he'd learned the previous year.

Shrugging and holding his finger out to his cousin Andronicus watched him perform the spell and felt the zipping feeling of the wound closing quickly. It was tingly, like a scab he didn't have, but it wasn't bleeding any more. "Thanks, man." He said softly as he wiped the little droplet of blood that had escaped before it was sealed on the side of his thigh. "Yeah you should, she said it's pretty cool. Better than washing old lady hair at the apothecary." Andy knew this personally, but he wasn't going to tell his cousin Roderick that story. He cringed internally, memories of old witches copping a feel while he gave their hair a rinse.

He nodded along with Rod's words and felt himself getting more comfortable with the conversation. "Uh, fourteen I think?" He said with another shrug, clearly having no idea. He loved Morgana, she was cool, but he was way closer with Eleanora than he ever would be with his kid sister. They were a few years apart and he felt like there was a whole world between them. "Yeah I'm sure she would... want me to ask her?" He smiled at the end of Roderick's question and spoke again. "Kelsey driving you two crazy?"

Roderick felt a little of proud of himself. He shouldn't, it was a basic spell, but healing, instead of hurting. On purpose. There was some satisfaction in it - but was that pride in his spell work or in healing itself? It remained to be seen. "No problem," he replied,  setting his wand down. The Coven was intriguing, he thought, but he was distracted by the offhand remark about the Lovecraft Apothecary. He quirked an eyebrow up. "Know that from experience, mate?"

Fourteen. Roderick whistled. "Getting big." It had hit him over the last year, how fast Archie had grown. He was only twelve, sure, but a Hogwarts student. And Kelsey could read! Read! Actual words, instead of pointing at the pictures and making up some nonsense. Morgana, the last time Roderick had checked, had been similarly tiny - with a shock, he realized Andy's kid sister was the same age as his ex-girlfriend. He suddenly couldn't look Andronicus Lovecraft in the eye. "She's getting a little stir-crazy, I think." Roderick frowned. "I think she thought we would be able to give her more attention when school ended, but..." He shrugged. "I'm working, and here, and Archie's going to camp in a few weeks." He worried about Kelsey. He didn't remember being that rambunctious at her age. Same for Archie.

"Anyway, if Morgana doesn't mind babysitting for a day maybe," he was embarrassed to ask, now that it was coming out of his mouth, "it would be great if you could ask."

"....Possibly.. but I don't want to talk about it." Andy replied when Roderick asked if he knew from experience, and yes, yes he did. Too much experience to be exact. The little old witches at the apothecary were ruthless, he had never felt so objectified before in his life. He was still reeling from it really, and glad that he had quit. He'd rather be poor then have to swat away their wrinkled crypt keeper fingers for the next two months of summer. And besides, he could always ask his parent for money, or crash on Eleanora's couch if he didn't want to talk to them. He had options.

Nodding along as Rod whistled Andronicus agreed, it was like he blinked, and all of a sudden she was in Hogwarts. He remembered when she was just a little kid, of course, he'd only been a handful of years older at the time, but he thought of himself as much, much older. "Yeah, I bet," he answered, not really having much to say on the topic of their younger siblings. Of course, Andy had heard about what happened with Archie the last term, everyone had, but he was no longer the type of Slytherin to poke at things like that. He wasn't going to ask about it, bring it up, or even acknowledge it unless Roderick did because it wasn't his business and he was cool with that.

"Yeah I will ask her tonight, I have to go home for family dinner tonight," Andronicus said with a roll of his eyes. Maybe it was because he was a teenager who thought he had it all figured out, or maybe it was simply that he'd rather be spending time with his girlfriend, but Andy was starting to hate the family dinners even more than normal. It had always felt forced, awkward even, and now without Eleanora there for a majority of them most of the attention was on him and he was not a fan. "Probably get an ear full for quitting the salon, whatever," He shrugged, finishing what he was working on and then leaning back casually and waiting. Surely there would be another stack soon enough, but for now, he relaxed and looked at his finger for a minute. It was completely closed, it didn't even sting anymore, and nodded at it silently.