[ So: the gardens. The site of many odd things, and a previous kind of shitty conversation between these two, but today's a new day in space and etc and so on.
Today's a new day in which Severus is throwing a stick... to no reaction from the dog in front of him. ]
[ In Diablo's defense, he has gone after the stick once or twice. But that's only resulted in him plopping down on the grass and chewing on it until it's nothing but wet little pieces. Tug is too preoccupied trying to find someplace to go to the bathroom or eat some grass or something, and Izzie is still sometimes too interested in pretending like she's ignoring everyone to have any really effect. ]
They've gone running after a couple of them. [ It's said in their defense, but there isn't much she can do to argue the point. ] I think they've got more interest in eating everything, honestly. That is what they're supposed to do.
[ Severus gives the dogs a lingering judgmental look, then Gives Up. Fine, be like that. It's not his fault if they're still hyper later because they chewed on grass for hours instead of running around. He walks back to Claire, looking vaguely perplexed, but resigned. ]
'Everything', I suspect, is a stretch. [ He sits down next to her, ignoring the tiny voice in the back of his head that screams at him to get back to work. ] How's agriculture been?
[ From where she's sitting, Claire busies herself with trying not to laugh, which is not made easier by the expression on his face. As usual, she has taken to tearing up grass, splitting pieces down the middle, in four chunks or more, and making a little pile next to her. She looks up when Severus sits down next to her, shrugging and looking a little skeptical. ]
Okay, I think. I'm just doing whatever they tell me to do without having a specific job title. Most of it's still training, I think, but...
[ She trails off without having any specific end point in mind. Claire isn't sure how long she'll be able to stick it out without self-imploding in one way or another, but at least there are other avenues to explore. ]
You're doing something. [ Which is, as it should obviously imply, a good thing. Severus definitely projects his workaholic tendencies onto other people, but with Claire, he just-- thinks she's a lot smarter than she gives herself credit for. And she doesn't seem lazy, just not confident in it. ] You aren't bound to it by blood.
[ So relax and do some space gardening until either you start to like it or you decide on something else, jeez, cheerleader. ps this is 100% his supportive tone. ]
Actually, I am. That's what they don't tell you about agriculture. [ She is Very Serious when she turns to more fully face him, angling her knees up in front of her. ] The first rule of agriculture is don't talk about agriculture.
[ Which... is going to mean nothing to him, she knows, but that's okay. Plenty of people have never found her pop culture references hilarious before. She's conditioned. He isn't wrong, though: it is something to do. And it helps her feel productive in light of basically everyone that she knows. Maybe she should stop hanging out with heads of departments and start fraternizing with a couple of slackers instead. ]
Anything fun and interesting going on in your department?
[ Claire scoots forward a bit and offers her hand, no questions asked, no hesitation, palm up and fingers splayed. Even for someone who is fully aware of how petite she is, her fingers are quite small and compact. Spreading them in a star pattern only seems to accentuate that characteristic. ]
Sounds like your average Tuesday with that bunch. No end in sight.
[ She can categorize herself into that classification. Check one and two, sign here, etc. Not for the first time, she wonders what might happen if she asked him to investigate her whole pain malfunctioning thing, but she's not sure she's at the point of discussing the whats and whys with him about that yet, never mind that she isn't even positive he's the right person to ask.
She glances up from the spiderwebs of her palm and looks at him. ]
[ Severus takes her hand, runs his fingertips over her palm, down her wrist, the barest edges of his fingernails ghosting along cephalic veins. If his touch is slightly sensual it's only half accidental. The other half is
something. ]
It appears you aren't cursed. [ Imagine that. ] Mm. Fortune-telling isn't terribly reliable.
[ The thing about goosebumps that's annoying is that they are completely involuntary, and that's the dire circumstance that Claire is faced with following the careful pull of his fingernails across her skin. The same can be said for blood rising to the surface in her cheeks, but she has gotten very good at ignoring that. ]
Good thing it's just as unreliable in your neck of the woods as it is in mine. [ Speaking in mainstream terms, of course. Then again, they'd managed to stop some predicted futures so who's to say. Emboldened, Claire turns her hand over and slips her fingers down over his knuckles. ] Can I try?
[ Except for the odd world-crushing, baby-killing prophecy, but Severus isn't about to go into that; it's an innate power, not crystal balls and palm reading.
Her reactions distract him from those thoughts. ]
If you like. [ Quietly. He splays his palm - as always covered to his wrists anyway, his ID# and ... whatever else, wrapped under a bandage beneath it. ]
[ By contrast, Claire's sleeves are loose enough that she can - and does - push them up, exposing the ID and skin remarkable only for its distinct lack of scarring. She's used to the accessorizing by now. Obviously there are assumptions, little bread crumbs that she can follow when she's actively thinking about it, but the interaction between them has been downright pleasant since they weren't speaking, and she's not interested in upsetting the established order. For right now, at least.
Claire drops her knees down and twists her legs into a pretzel, smoothing her thumbs over the lines drawn across his palm and hunching forward. Very serious. She makes a thoughtful sound in the back of throat and leans more carefully forward. ]
[ It's a little bit silly how he covets the privacy of the brand on his arm-- everyone who knows what it is already knows it's there, and no one else would understand it. But that part of him just isn't anyone else's business.
He sits still and lets her take his hand, flexing fingers open, pliable. ]
[ Claire makes a face, sucks in a hiss of air between her teeth, and looks up at him very carefully. ]
It looks like it. [ It's always hard for her to get through a joke without first privately finding it hilarious and consequently ruining the whole thing, but she makes a hard try at it. ] See these two lines? [ The swoopy one under the fingers and the one directly below it. She presses her thumb between them. ] They state very clearly that at some point in your life you were destined to be harassed by a pushy blonde in a space jumpsuit.
[ As far as pushy blondes go, Claire is pretty mild-- compared to the Malfoys, she's probably a saint. Or maybe it's just that she's the perfect amount of pushy to deal with a paranoid asshole like Severus.
He thinks about saying that's not a curse, but can't figure out how to word it in a way he doesn't hate. ]
You're not going to cure me, are you? [ He curls his fingers inward, over hers. ]
That's not part of my ability, so. [ That's the first time in a while that she's addressed it with any real amount of levity that doesn't have some secondary condition of self-loathing. ] Probably not.
[ At least, that's the game plan. Not that there's a game or a plan. Everything so far has been very by the seat of her pants, just as it always is, and maybe he doesn't intend it but she can root her way through the underlying doubt or paranoia or whatever it is this time and manage to stay above water without having to tread too hard. ]
It's already happened, anyway. We're too late for a cure.
[ Severus doesn't say anything - what the hell can he say without sounding like a total idiot? Probably nothing. He laces their fingers together and puts his free hand over their joined ones, a silent Good obvious in those movements.
Somewhere nearby the dogs are still rolling around uselessly, but he's not paying attention to them. ]
[ Which leaves her to try to find something to fill the quiet with. It doesn't come right away, and that's fine. She's gotten very used to comfortable silences even if the urge to fill them with something more substantial presses right into her breastbone. Maybe that's due to the fact that something is always supposed to come next, traditionally speaking. Claire, for her part, constantly seems to be stuck in neutral.
The dogs do catch her attention, the sudden rustle of grass close by making her turn her head in their general direction, but Izzie has maintained order as the established matriarch and is capable of wrangling them into place, so Claire only spares them a brief glance and then is back to Severus. ]
You know, you've been coming down to my floor a lot. [ Said with the very clear implication that she understands how much he hates her floor. ] Maybe we could switch off once in a while.
[ The fifth floor and its menagerie of assholes is something that Severus thinks of fairly often; Claire could at any time decide to pull any number of stunts with her neighbors to humiliate him. It's a paranoia that exists constantly like a program running in the background of his head - he tells himself she doesn't even know enough about that old hate to do anything with it, but it still lurks there. ]
I don't know that my quarters are pet proof, [ he says, ] but you're welcome.
[ She has a list, at this point, of people who she knows would be willing to find themselves preoccupied with puppy slobber for any amount of time, and she is pretty sure that she is going to at least let one of those people adopt Tug - she's not getting rid of Diablo; his name is way better and he's less ornery despite that fact. Looking at him, her eyebrows raise skeptically. One of these days he will wake up to find that puppies are not so bad. ]
It's been very fine. Nothing out of the ordinary. [ Her tone says that it's not a lie. For the most part, living on the fifth floor is no different than the one she was on previously. Except maybe Kate and Darcy now have easier access to her door at all hours of the day. She hasn't even seen Sirius, however - ] I did meet Remus Lupin. Bumped into him on his way... somewhere. I can't remember. It was a while ago.
Mm. [ He doesn't quite go rigid, but it's clear he's not pleased to hear the werewolf's name. (Not that Claire knows he's a werewolf. Probably. Severus is still being good about that.
For now. ]
I'm sorry to hear that, [ he can't help but say, only slightly reeling in the unpleasant tone. ] He's of a particularly insidious passive aggressive nature. Thinks if he pretends he's above everything now that he's absolved of ever apologizing for it. He's still a complete prick, he just likes to smile nervously at people so it's less believable when it happens.
[ Claire, while privately finding the experience not altogether unpleasant - she's never going to like Sirius, no matter how many of his thirty-two teeth he shows off in a smile, and anyone who can claim to like him that much is always going to make her head turn - does understand the new tension in his grasp. She laughs, a little, not really a laugh in its nature but still easily classified as such. It's funny - well, it's not funny, but it's something - because she can see that being an accurate description.
She doesn't know about the werewolf thing. Just. For the record. ]
I don't think he had anything to be passive aggressive with me about, or be a prick about. Maybe because I just caught him on the way to the bathroom and he was distracted by having to pee. [ She shrugs, not wanting to make it into a bigger deal than it needs to be. They all live on the same floor. It's a consequence of reality that they're going to run into each other at some point. Technically she could use the boys' bathroom again, but in this situation she doesn't see how that's going to work. ] He was nice. I'm sure it could've been a lot worse.
[ Also just for the record. It's not something he's going to compromise on; some people would (will, and do) find it childish that he's incapable of maintaining a friendship with anyone who'll put up with the Marauders, but that's the reality of it. This isn't about schoolyard bullying, it's about nonstop harassment that more often than not bordered on persecution and made frequent stops in flat-out assault. And it continues.
Lupin may be a lesser evil, but he's a cowardly evil who enables and supports it. He's just as bad as Black. ]
[ And she will, also just for the record. She's perfectly capable of forming her own opinions about people and maintaining them, regardless of what anyone else thinks, but she knows that his opinions aren't formless, they didn't just appear out of the ether. And she also knows what it means to see one kind of face and eventually find out the one beneath it is a distorted and inverted image of what you expect. Severus hasn't disappointed her in that regard, and if she's being honest, she doesn't expect him to. Claire knows without having to think about it where her loyalties lie.
She wants to drop it altogether, get the change in the atmosphere back to the way it was. Her fingers are still pressed carefully into his, so Claire leads with that, stretching them a bit and resettling. ]
I'm actually jealous. Not that I don't like living by Kate and Darcy, it's just kind of... a lot, sometimes. And everyone else. Sometimes it's a relief when everyone just shuts up for a little while.
[ He can't help but be on guard when shit like this is brought up; they're the people whose role in making his life a living hell was second only to his abusive father. It's possible he wouldn't have become a Death Eater if he hadn't been so driven to oppose the people who hurt him.
But. Anyway. He forces himself to let some of the tension uncoil from his spine. ]
It reminds me of a dormitory. I spent enough time in one. [ Mildly observed. ] Kate's been.. Kate's fine?
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Today's a new day in which Severus is throwing a stick... to no reaction from the dog in front of him. ]
Isn't this what they're supposed to do?
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They've gone running after a couple of them. [ It's said in their defense, but there isn't much she can do to argue the point. ] I think they've got more interest in eating everything, honestly. That is what they're supposed to do.
[ At least, it's what they're expected to do. ]
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'Everything', I suspect, is a stretch. [ He sits down next to her, ignoring the tiny voice in the back of his head that screams at him to get back to work. ] How's agriculture been?
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Okay, I think. I'm just doing whatever they tell me to do without having a specific job title. Most of it's still training, I think, but...
[ She trails off without having any specific end point in mind. Claire isn't sure how long she'll be able to stick it out without self-imploding in one way or another, but at least there are other avenues to explore. ]
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[ So relax and do some space gardening until either you start to like it or you decide on something else, jeez, cheerleader. ps this is 100% his supportive tone. ]
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[ Which... is going to mean nothing to him, she knows, but that's okay. Plenty of people have never found her pop culture references hilarious before. She's conditioned. He isn't wrong, though: it is something to do. And it helps her feel productive in light of basically everyone that she knows. Maybe she should stop hanging out with heads of departments and start fraternizing with a couple of slackers instead. ]
Anything fun and interesting going on in your department?
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[ He hasn't seen Fight Club, but he can pick up on the fact that she's being ridiculous on purpose. Still, c'mere you. ]
Non-humans dealing with not being human. [ As usual. ] Some are angry. Some are afraid.
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Sounds like your average Tuesday with that bunch. No end in sight.
[ She can categorize herself into that classification. Check one and two, sign here, etc. Not for the first time, she wonders what might happen if she asked him to investigate her whole pain malfunctioning thing, but she's not sure she's at the point of discussing the whats and whys with him about that yet, never mind that she isn't even positive he's the right person to ask.
She glances up from the spiderwebs of her palm and looks at him. ]
Are you gonna tell me my fortune?
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something. ]
It appears you aren't cursed. [ Imagine that. ] Mm. Fortune-telling isn't terribly reliable.
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Good thing it's just as unreliable in your neck of the woods as it is in mine. [ Speaking in mainstream terms, of course. Then again, they'd managed to stop some predicted futures so who's to say. Emboldened, Claire turns her hand over and slips her fingers down over his knuckles. ] Can I try?
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Her reactions distract him from those thoughts. ]
If you like. [ Quietly. He splays his palm - as always covered to his wrists anyway, his ID# and ... whatever else, wrapped under a bandage beneath it. ]
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Claire drops her knees down and twists her legs into a pretzel, smoothing her thumbs over the lines drawn across his palm and hunching forward. Very serious. She makes a thoughtful sound in the back of throat and leans more carefully forward. ]
Well, that's very interesting.
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He sits still and lets her take his hand, flexing fingers open, pliable. ]
Am I cursed?
[ (Because he's actually cursed.) ]
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It looks like it. [ It's always hard for her to get through a joke without first privately finding it hilarious and consequently ruining the whole thing, but she makes a hard try at it. ] See these two lines? [ The swoopy one under the fingers and the one directly below it. She presses her thumb between them. ] They state very clearly that at some point in your life you were destined to be harassed by a pushy blonde in a space jumpsuit.
[ God, Severus, it was so obvious. ]
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He thinks about saying that's not a curse, but can't figure out how to word it in a way he doesn't hate. ]
You're not going to cure me, are you? [ He curls his fingers inward, over hers. ]
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[ At least, that's the game plan. Not that there's a game or a plan. Everything so far has been very by the seat of her pants, just as it always is, and maybe he doesn't intend it but she can root her way through the underlying doubt or paranoia or whatever it is this time and manage to stay above water without having to tread too hard. ]
It's already happened, anyway. We're too late for a cure.
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Somewhere nearby the dogs are still rolling around uselessly, but he's not paying attention to them. ]
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The dogs do catch her attention, the sudden rustle of grass close by making her turn her head in their general direction, but Izzie has maintained order as the established matriarch and is capable of wrangling them into place, so Claire only spares them a brief glance and then is back to Severus. ]
You know, you've been coming down to my floor a lot. [ Said with the very clear implication that she understands how much he hates her floor. ] Maybe we could switch off once in a while.
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I don't know that my quarters are pet proof, [ he says, ] but you're welcome.
[ Just. Find a puppy sitter, first. Eugh. ]
You've been fine, there?
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It's been very fine. Nothing out of the ordinary. [ Her tone says that it's not a lie. For the most part, living on the fifth floor is no different than the one she was on previously. Except maybe Kate and Darcy now have easier access to her door at all hours of the day. She hasn't even seen Sirius, however - ] I did meet Remus Lupin. Bumped into him on his way... somewhere. I can't remember. It was a while ago.
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For now. ]
I'm sorry to hear that, [ he can't help but say, only slightly reeling in the unpleasant tone. ] He's of a particularly insidious passive aggressive nature. Thinks if he pretends he's above everything now that he's absolved of ever apologizing for it. He's still a complete prick, he just likes to smile nervously at people so it's less believable when it happens.
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She doesn't know about the werewolf thing. Just. For the record. ]
I don't think he had anything to be passive aggressive with me about, or be a prick about. Maybe because I just caught him on the way to the bathroom and he was distracted by having to pee. [ She shrugs, not wanting to make it into a bigger deal than it needs to be. They all live on the same floor. It's a consequence of reality that they're going to run into each other at some point. Technically she could use the boys' bathroom again, but in this situation she doesn't see how that's going to work. ] He was nice. I'm sure it could've been a lot worse.
[ So just move along from it. ]
How's your floor? Any fun neighbors?
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[ Also just for the record. It's not something he's going to compromise on; some people would (will, and do) find it childish that he's incapable of maintaining a friendship with anyone who'll put up with the Marauders, but that's the reality of it. This isn't about schoolyard bullying, it's about nonstop harassment that more often than not bordered on persecution and made frequent stops in flat-out assault. And it continues.
Lupin may be a lesser evil, but he's a cowardly evil who enables and supports it. He's just as bad as Black. ]
No. It's quiet.
[ Severus likes it that way. ]
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[ And she will, also just for the record. She's perfectly capable of forming her own opinions about people and maintaining them, regardless of what anyone else thinks, but she knows that his opinions aren't formless, they didn't just appear out of the ether. And she also knows what it means to see one kind of face and eventually find out the one beneath it is a distorted and inverted image of what you expect. Severus hasn't disappointed her in that regard, and if she's being honest, she doesn't expect him to. Claire knows without having to think about it where her loyalties lie.
She wants to drop it altogether, get the change in the atmosphere back to the way it was. Her fingers are still pressed carefully into his, so Claire leads with that, stretching them a bit and resettling. ]
I'm actually jealous. Not that I don't like living by Kate and Darcy, it's just kind of... a lot, sometimes. And everyone else. Sometimes it's a relief when everyone just shuts up for a little while.
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But. Anyway. He forces himself to let some of the tension uncoil from his spine. ]
It reminds me of a dormitory. I spent enough time in one. [ Mildly observed. ] Kate's been.. Kate's fine?
[ Er. ]
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