closed RP: reunion (Henry Winter, Camilla Macaulay, Francis Abernathy)

[c-macaulay.livejournal.com]

True to her word, Camilla had come by the Sorting Room to collect her old friend Francis when his Sorting ended. She'd worried a bit that the talking hat would send him into another anxiety attack or something, and was pleased to find he'd weathered the final interrogation scarcely breaking a sweat. "There's a bar in Ravenclaw but it really isn't a good idea to bring Henry there," she confided. "Henry and Charles still aren't getting along. I'm taking you back to Gryffindor, and we can have a drink in the common room there, the three of us. Gryffindor's my house."

She didn't actually specify who she meant by the three of us, but assumed that was obvious enough.

She murmured the requisite password to the Fat Lady for entrance to the common room, with an aside to Francis, "I'm sorry -- you'll get used to things here, in time. The portraits do move and talk." He seemed awfully tense. A cocktail or two should settle his nerves. "I'll bring you some of Henry's cigarettes, how's that?" Nicotine might help too. "Unless Priscilla's finally weaned you off smoking. I stopped a while ago, when Nana got very very sick toward the end. Henry still does smoke." And why shouldn't he? Dead people couldn't get lung cancer, Camilla imagined.

Ever the hostess, Camilla settled her friend into a cozy armchair. "I'll just be a moment. I don't know whether Henry's reading or napping or what, but he'll want to come down, I'm sure." With that, she left him alone.

Comments

[fabernathy.livejournal.com]

"I suppose that's true." Francis topped off his glass again. He fell silent then, unable to think of anything else, but unable to figure out how to change the subject.

[c-macaulay.livejournal.com]

Camilla understood. "It's going to be all right. He can't get in here at all -- into Gryffindor House, that is. Silas makes sure of that. We're working on a more permanent solution, of course. We really are. And then we'll all be together again, as we should have been, without him."

[h-m-winter.livejournal.com]

"We'll have to introduce you to Silas soon," Henry said, also understanding. "He looks a bit...intimidating...but he's intensely loyal." To Camilla, but that shouldn't be a sticking point, since the whole point was that both Henry and Francis were loyal, too.

[fabernathy.livejournal.com]

"I'd like that," Francis said, smiling. "You've said much about him. I have to admit, I'm more than a little curious about him."

[c-macaulay.livejournal.com]

"Yes, you'll have to meet him formally, so he'll know you're allowed." Camilla lowered her voice, unnecessarily given the privacy ward; she did it out of habit. "He thinks I'm literally an angel. It's best not to disillusion him, the poor man. He isn't the most stable person."

[h-m-winter.livejournal.com]

"Indeed he is not," Henry admitted. "However, I trust him. He needs something divine to worship, I think, and if he believes he is protecting an angel, it gives him some kind of anchor."

[fabernathy.livejournal.com]

Francis smiled at Camilla, a glint of teasing entering his eyes. "You mean you're not an angel? I'm crushed." Then his expression sobered. "I won't disilusion this friend of yours, though it seems a lot of people around here are... well, unstable."

[c-macaulay.livejournal.com]

"Yes, the school is about as selective as ... well, Hampden," Camilla said, with a glint of wicked amusement. "What did Charles use to call it? "The last place on earth for the worst people in the world.' "

[h-m-winter.livejournal.com]

"You've no idea," Henry muttered, shaking his head. "Some of the people here shouldn't be allowed anywhere but a padded room--I've met some who make Silas look normal." And anyone who could manage that was extremely odd indeed. "Some of them are nice enough, though," he added. "Odd, but nice."