December 31st, 1892 - High Street
Theodore Gallivan

A whole month she'd been home and Gems had rather thought she'd run into everyone she needed to. She had plans to see Zelda soon, which was convenient as her friend did not live in town anymore, rather on the seaside of all places, married with a baby! How unexpected that had been. But still it would be nice to visit and she head heard nice things about the Sanditon, just had never gotten a chance go visit.

That it was New Year's Eve was not lost on her either, 1893 was rapidly approaching and Gemma didn't know exactly what it held for her, but she knew it would be a good one. It was nice to be home, a little respite. She couldn't tell if it would be permanent yet, as she had thoroughly enjoyed her travels, but for now, especially being home for the holidays, she was content. Who knew how long it would take the travel bug to bite her again, but at least she'd landed somewhere coxy and familiar.

The annual festivities would no doubt be starting soon and Gem was surprised to find High Street was quiet as it was. Perhaps everyone was resting up for tonight's events. She had every intention of staying home with a warm cuppa and her new book. Once upon a time she would have eagerly gone out to enjoy the late night, but she felt old these days and would prefer the quiet night in. That wasn't to say she was ready to go home now however and after she drooled over the gear in the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies, Gemma caught a familiar face out of the corner of her eye.

"Gallivan!" She hollered, waving a hand above her head to catch his attention. Okay, so she hadn't yet run into everyone she wanted to!

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set by MJ my love

Theo wouldn’t go so far as to say he had planned today’s outing like this, to get to the High Street before it was chock-full with people for the New Year, and to dawdle long enough on the way back so hopefully the others would decide to leave the house without him... but if it worked out that way, he wouldn’t complain either.

So he was meandering at a very slow pace, ducking in and out of shops on the way back past Quality Quidditch Supplies, when someone called out at him. Theo blinked, glancing covertly in that general direction to see who it was out of the corner of his eye, and ready to pretend he hadn’t heard anything if it was someone he would rather avoid – but that ploy fell to pieces and fast, because Theo stopped dead and stared.

She was short enough to be Gemma Simpson, and loud enough too, and the dramatic waving was also very her. Theo pulled a disbelieving face that turned into a puzzled smile, and, in growing curiosity and surrender, reversed his direction to go and meet her by the window.

“It is you,” he began, once he was near enough to confirm the reality of her for himself – Gemma Simpson in flesh and blood, and not just some doppelganger or weird trick of the light. He couldn’t remember when he’d seen her last, was all. She’d left Hogsmeade, hadn’t she? “What are you doing here?” Theo asked, half-accusatory, half-grinning.

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Oh it was him! Gemma squealed in delight as he stopped to stare at her in disbelief, bouncing on the balls of her feet as he jaunted over, still as handsome and haunted as ever. "It is me!" She grinned, just barely resisting the urge to toss her arms around him in a tight squeeze. Theo, (at least to her) always looked a little like he needed a hug. Gem remembered quite clearly, as she'd still been around then, what had happened to his father a few years back and after losing quite a few family members herself in the last decade, could easily sympathize.

Still, that was then, and this was now, and she had missed his company. "I just got home the beginning of the month, I completed my apprenticeship, so I thought I'd spend the holidays here." Who knew how long she would be here, but for now, she was quite content. "Got a fully-fledged herbologist on your hands now!" She laughed, knowing that surprised nobody. Her research trip to South America had been eye-opening. The amount she had learned in such a short amount of time could not be replicated. Gems felt like she had learned more in those two short years than she had in her entire Hogwarts career. She had always been the kind to learn by doing however, so it felt more valuable and like the work made more sense to her, so therefore stuck with her better.

"How are you? How's things going? It feels like ages since I saw you last!" She passed him a softer smile. "Do you have time to get a drink and catch up? I could use a little warm up." Gem waggled her eyebrows at him playfully.

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   Theodore Gallivan

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set by MJ my love

“That’s because it has been ages,” he quipped, still grinning; and not just because it was an easier response than actually trying to answer how are you? or how are things? with any real conviction.

Besides, if she’d been away, at least her stories would be interesting. And it sounded like things were going well for her – a completed apprenticeship, a blooming herbology career, travel and freedom and (he assumed, knowing her) plenty of adventure – so, honestly, that all might even be more refreshing than the drink.

“Yeah, I could... now?” Theo queried, caught off guard. He glanced along the street and back at her, teetering. “You don’t have plans?” Other plans. Probably more fun plans. It was, after all, New Year’s Eve. On the other hand: he had been looking for an excuse to drag his feet here for a while, hadn’t he? And if Gemma was only here for the holidays, then this might be the only opportunity to see her before she bounded off somewhere else. And the hopeful eyebrow waggle alone was making it hard not to laugh and give in; his mouth twitched, just a little.

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Beaming, Gemma bounced on the balls of her feet as she nearly jumped excitedly at the fact that he seemed to have time for her now. "Yes! No plans!" Oh, how lucky! There were so many people Gemma had missed while she was away, but she had a certain circle of close friends that she had just needed to catch up with and this was the best turn of events, catching Theo unexpectedly.

Eager to get out of the cold, she grabbed one of his hands in both of hers and tugged him toward the Broomsticks. She'd get her hug in eventually, but this would do for now. She wanted to know all about how the team was doing, how he was, what had gone on while she was gone. Once she fell into step beside him, she curled an arm through his and rested her head against his shoulder for just a moment before they approached the Broomsticks and she yanked open the door.

Warmth washed over her and she sighed in contentment. After being in subtropical regions for so long, she wasn't so sure she could handle the Scottish chill in the air as well as she used to. Pulling him up to a cozy booth near the bar, she squeezed into one side and slid her cloak and scarf from her shoulders. Still grinning excitedly, she took another good long look at him. Still has handsome as ever, if a bit haphazard and unaware, but he still didn't have the same spark to him that he'd had back in school. "How are you, really?" Gemma could and would ramble about all that was going on her life, but she wanted to know how he was doing first.

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set by MJ my love

He had been going to give into her, he thought, but if any misgivings had tried to resurface, well – it was already too late, clearly, because she had clamped onto his hand. So the window for protest had passed – and after the sinking feeling of surrender came a startled burst of gratitude at the easy way she had leant on him. It was only for a moment, her head on his shoulder, but Theo felt the ghost of the motion for longer and held his breath as he realised just how much he’d missed having someone close; something, anything, any touch at all. He’d gotten – too used to it, maybe.

Gemma hadn’t noticed, probably, and reaching the Three Broomsticks was as good a distraction as anything. The flood of warm air hit his face, and when she picked a place he copied her and shrugged off his outer layer, rolling his eyes plaintively when he realised she was surveying him.

The good thing about her having been away for so long, maybe, was that he could pretend things were good now, better. He could almost trick himself into it, with the way she was grinning. All he had to do was mirror her smiles, let her exuberance rub off on him, and let her talk about –

Oh no, did it have to be him? “...Good,” Theo answered, forcibly cracking a grin to prove it and to break the inner tension that had crept in the moment she’d asked it. He huffed a laugh, relaxed more into the seat. “Really, good. I mean, the Cannons haven’t won the league yet, and Cecily still isn’t courting –” and his dad was still gone, and he still wasn’t over Cash, and he was somehow lonelier than he’d been before, and he still hated life, and especially still hated parties – “but, otherwise – everything’s good.” He gave her a smile that was more truthful and also more wry. “You haven’t missed much, wherever you’ve been romping around,” he lied, teasing.

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Good was overused and Gem had to purse her lips from prying. She did quirk an eyebrow at him, but he was saved by the barkeep coming over to ask if they wanted anything. Gems ordered a butterbeer and mulled over how annoying she wanted to be. She was a fixer and she wanted to make everyone around her as happy as they could be, but age and experience had shown she could and should only do so much, so she decided not to pester him too thoroughly; he would tell her if he wanted to, she hoped.

"Well, good." She passed him a meaningful look as she rubbed her hands together to warm them up. "There's still time," She said as she nudged him gently with her foot under the table, leaving it resting against his leg without really thinking about it.

Finally feeling the warmth return to her limbs, Gemma realized she should have ordered something hot, but too late. "South America, specifically Brazil, in the Amazon. You would not believe the flora and fauna over there!" She sighed wistfully, she missed the flowers, but not the bugs. "It's a little hot and sticky," The the need for woolen dresses was not required, so it was bearable. It was where she'd gotten into the habit of wearing pants and had made the choice not to give them up upon her return. Oh how she missed light linen shirts and the comfort of not caring what she was wearing in general. "There are carnivorous plants as big as I am!" Which in human terms wasn't very much, but it was for a plant!

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set by MJ my love

Theo ordered a hot chocolate, deciding it was safer not to start drinking so early in the evening, in case one drink led to another and he saw anyone else and got roped into staying out. Or, you know, started actually letting his guard down here. He could pretend he hadn’t noticed Gemma’s eyebrow quirk and that knowing look, but he had, and he knew that meant there was more on her mind, questions she could be asking – but, thankfully, she left it there.

“Yeah, and it’s a new year, so,” Theo said wryly, making the effort to agree with her sentiment, even if he was skeptical about the festivities and also doubtful about Greengrass’ advice about a clean start, about every year being a little better than the last. Never mind, anyway; because just after he’d said that, he felt the touch of her foot under the table. Theo almost pulled his leg back in automatically, sure she’d kicked him accidentally... but when she didn’t flinch and didn’t pull her foot back, he didn’t want to make out that he was uncomfortable by it so, confused, he didn’t move either.

And in a moment or two, he had relaxed into that casual leaning like it was nothing, like it was natural. Or maybe it was just that they were talking about her, now, and a fun, faraway topic like South America. Theo smiled at her description, feeling warmer already without touching the hot chocolate. “But you’re going to freeze to death now you’re here again, aren’t you?” he said, like that was a matter of fact; and she had been moaning about needing a warm up already, so he bet she would never see Scottish weather the same way again. “And I can believe the plants,” he answered, leaning forwards with a little more animation, “– the only thing I can’t believe is that you came back with all your limbs intact.” With a grin, he nudged her foot slightly, and shot a narrowed-eye look at her hands as if expecting to see a few chomped-off fingers.

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The warmth of the pub was finally catching up to her and she loosened her scarf a little bit as she eased into Theo's company and the conversation. She wasn't one to enjoyed talking about herself too much, but she did enjoy telling tales from her adventures and Theo seemed far more eager to pursue that course of discussion, so she chuckled when he teased her about the weather.

"It's dreadful, I fear I'm never fully warm anymore." Not uncomfortably so, but it felt like there was always a cold deep in her bones she couldn't completely oust. His comment about her limbs had her laughing again. "Well it was a close call." She unbuttoned the closure at her sleeve and pushed up the sleeve of her left arm up to her elbow. Crisscrossing scars, long and once deep, laced up all the way to her shoulder. "I almost didn't," it was all fine now, obviously, but it had looked like she'd been splinched. "Nasty vines with a mind of their own. Far more good experiences than bad though. The bugs are a little much, but we were able to catalogue hundreds of different species. My field guide is full to the brim." Sometimes she wished she carried it around with her, but thought that might be a bit much.

Taking a sip of her drink, Gemma fixed her sleeve and leaned back once more. "I'm hoping I can find something in Australia or the Far East next." She had the travel bug and it was a hard itch not to scratch.

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set by MJ my love

She was laughing, but when she pushed up her sleeve Theo gave a whistle through his teeth, a hiss of sympathy (and just a little awe). “Christ,” he said, shaking his head a little to stop himself staring at the extent of it. He’d seen field injuries before in Auror training, but – “I never figured Herbology for such a dangerous career.”

(And he might not have been a Gryffindor, but Theo thought it went without saying that it also sounded incredibly fun.)

Even nasty vines and bugs and sticky weather couldn’t dampen that – but maybe it was half the getting away he was jealous of, he wasn’t sure. He took a sip of hot chocolate before his gaze snapped back up, eyebrows high at that next. “You’re not going again already?” Australia. The Fast East. She’d just gotten back from the Amazon, Merlin. But it made sense, he supposed – Theo would have been restless at once for the next opportunity if it had been him.

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Truthfully, Gems knew what she'd been getting into, she rather thought Professor Skeeter did a good job at the NEWT level of preparing them for a wide variety of different plants, but it was entirely different when you were living it. Most people never thought of plants again after school, unless they went into potions or herbology or perhaps gardening, but for some people was just something that Gemma had found herself good at. "It was my fault, I was careless." Reckless, bold, impulsive, all things to characterize her, though she had simmered out as she'd matured.

"There are so many different species out there, it's sort of wild. So much of the world yet unexplored." Gem certainly had the itch to keep exploring. The adventure of travel and seeing, experiencing, different cultures and people was what excited her the most.

Gem furrowed her brows at his quick response to her desire to ship out again. "No, probably not until the end of summer," she assured him with a warm smile. "My sister is due to have her second child midsummer and I missed the arrival of my first nephew already. I want to stick around for this one." Kath married and happy was all Gem had ever wanted for her sister, as it was what she had wanted for herself. Missing all of these big family milestones was tough when she traveled, but Gem was not cut out for a domestic sort of life. "You're stuck with me for a little while yet, don't worry."

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set by MJ my love

He didn’t know why he had already latched onto the thought of her leaving again like that when he hadn’t even known she was in Hogsmeade until today, and felt a twinge of embarrassment at having said anything. Maybe he was just too used to the disappointment of it, that any brief high was inevitably followed by the low of someone leaving. Everyone did, or would – because, well, Theo was stuck here, exactly where he was, and so would always be the one left behind. Maybe he hated that feeling so much that being lonely was actually less bad than the alternative?

Maybe it was jealousy — maybe he wished he could be the one to leave just once.

“Ah, wow,” Theo offered with another low whistle, about her sister’s second child. He wracked his brains to guess which sister she was talking about – there were a lot of Simpsons and half-siblings galore, though as far as he could recall a lot of the latter were younger. “You get to be the fun aunt, I s’pose? That’s mad, though – my half-brother’s going to Hogwarts in September.” Strange how fast things changed, how everyone grew up and settled down and... all the rest eventually.

“Still, I don’t blame you for wanting to go,” Theo admitted lightly, pushing down the itch to escape in himself. “Do you actually miss people when you’re halfway across the world, or it is just too different out there?” He might have asked Gemma the question, but he wasn’t really thinking about her, because thinking about family and people leaving made him wonder whether his father had ever looked back since he’d gone, or if distance and time eventually lessened everything.

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"Ha," Gem hadn't thought of it that way. "I guess you're right. Probably won't have any of my own, so that'll have to do." She probably had never expressed as much to anyone, but Gem didn't see herself settling down or having kids so she could most certainly be the fun aunt. "My youngest half-sister goes next year." It was wild to think baby Edith, that Gem had held as a newborn, was nearly ten and Hogwarts was not too long after that. It made her feel incredibly old.

Theo's question about missing people when gone was a tricky one. There was what she would consider a "right" answer, but it wasn't what she felt deep down. "Yes and no," the unvarnished truth of it would be appreciated here, she supposed. "I do miss people, but I don't miss them more than thriving in my independence." Theo knew what it was like growing up in a blended sort of family. Gem had always looked up to her father, but never had been particularly close to him. They'd suffered so many losses in their family that Gem knew she should be around more to enjoy the people that were still here, but she selfishly needed the escape. Hogsmeade was stifling and she felt like she was slowly being suffocated the longer she was here.

"I get the itch to come home every now and then, it's good to keep me grounded, but I can't stay too long." That she'd learned over the years; she could do short stints at home, but not too long. If she stayed too long she'd wind up never leaving and then she'd probably wither away to nothing (metaphorically of course).

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set by MJ my love

He couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at that comment, as offhand as it had come. Wouldn’t have any of her own children? Theo hadn’t exactly had many conversations with women about motherhood (– who would have guessed? –) but it had always seemed so ingrained as the expected route, even for the girls who graduated Hogwarts and set out into work instead. Occasionally they had the career and the family, but hardly ever just the first. So that was... unusual, to say the least. But then Gemma Simpson was an unusual girl.

He’d never really thought about it, himself, but – maybe he wouldn’t, either? He’d have to get married first, and Theo wasn’t sure he would make it there. It wasn’t like – wouldn’t be like Cash, forced into an unhappy arrangement for appearance’s sake. But maybe one day he’d be so lonely he wanted it. He wasn’t sure.

He took a long draught of his hot chocolate to drown the thought, but everything else she said seemed to strike him anew. (Did his father ever get the itch to come home? – did he miss his family? – was this independence, living in his absent father’s shoes? – how much longer could he do it for?)

Belatedly, Theo realised he had set down his drink and still been resolutely quiet for a while. “Sometimes I wish I could leave, too,” he admitted, a little rueful, circling an old glass-stain on the table with his fingers.

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If she were being honest, Theo's admission didn't surprise Gemma much. He'd set out to be an auror after graduation, a job that required a lot of independence and travel. That he had to completely switch responsibilities and live a wildly different life probably left a bit of a hole. It felt incredibly unfair to her, but she was a middle child, not the eldest nor even the eldest girl and so her familial responsibilities were minimal to non-existent at best. He carried a lot of weight on his shoulders, too much, in her opinion, especially since it didn't really suit him.

Gems passed him a wry smile, barely resisting the urge to reach out and give his hand a squeeze. She had no good advice there, didn't know enough about his current life situation to try and give him any hope, but, "You can come with me any time you like." That was about all she could offer. Gem could always tote him around like a research assistant if anyone questioned her.

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set by MJ my love

He didn’t know what he’d been expecting, in saying that to her – but it was nice to say it to someone, all the same.

And Gemma was someone safe to say it to, anyway. Not that they had ever been that close before, at Hogwarts or anything; and not that she had ever given the impression of someone who sat and listened generally (she was loud and outgoing and active, a doer, a distraction, or at least she should have been –) but he realised, now, that maybe she was just an open person. And – like it or not – an open door went both ways.

And she would be gone again sooner or later, so anything he admitted to might as well be thrown onto a distant tropical wind somewhere, never to be seen again. So he shot her a lopsided smile at her answer, a joking invitation he couldn’t actually take her up on, though he fancied a small part of him might honestly have liked to. “Thanks,” he said, trying to impress his gratitude on her across the table in just the word and just a look.

“I should probably go,” he added, sucking in a breath and breaking the spell. She should go and enjoy her New Year’s Eve with people who might actually be fun. “But it was good to see you. Really.” (And now he would miss her when she left again, but what was one more person to miss, anyway?)

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