October 14th - 3BS

Just to see you smile
I'd do anything that you wanted me to

Alvin was still out of sorts, even though Wally was at least awake and seemed to be doing better. Well, as good as he could, given the circumstances. Alvin still always felt like has walking on eggshells in the house and so tried to stay out of the way as much as possible. Between his own accident that ruined his career, losing Sloane and now this, he was pretty sure his mother was going to have a bout of hysteria or something if anything else bad happened.

The afternoon was relatively warm and sunny and so he'd taken his sketchbook to the Potts greenhouse to sketch. Mrs. Potts was generally pretty good about letting him sort of just tuck himself away into the back and sketch until his fingers were covered in charcoal. He still wasn't ready to head home yet and so thought maybe a drink at the pub would be another good distraction.

Naturally he forgot today would be a visit day from Hogwarts. He wasn't privy to the schedule anymore and almost turned around when he caught sight of Miss Thompsett. Their letters had been a bright spot in the storm of his life, but he'd been a little too scattered lately to focus much on them and he felt bad for it. So maybe he should check in..? Alvin hesitated just long enough that he looked awkward standing there and caught her eye. He gave a self conscious wave and left it up to her.

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Sisse Thompsett

  

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Sisse had longed for a bright fall day for their Hogsmeade trip, but the weather had other plans. The persistent drizzle had driven her into the Three Broomsticks to take a break. Besides, one of the prefects had warned her that a few third years needed someone to keep an eye on them. Inside the pub it was warm and full of cheer, a delightful respite to the gloom she had felt surrounded by lately.

Henry and Matthew had been sitting with her but Henry had spotted a few friends and left with them for Honeyduke's and Matthew had gone to get her another butterbeer. Sisse was sitting there taking it the world when her breathe caught at the familiar face in the doorway. As their eyes met she realized she'd begun to smile. Well it'd see silly to smile at him and not acknowledge him. Mr. Bixby solved the dilemma for her by waving, she waved back then slid out of her seat and made her way to him.

"Mr. Bixby," She greeted looking up at him with a smile. "What a surprise." A surprise that Sisse was very grateful for. She'd been hoping to run in to him today, she ought not have hoped she would, indeed she had suspected she likely wouldn't, yet here he was.

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom

Ah well, Alvin hadn't exactly expected her to come over, surely she had plans today with her friends, but as she made her way across the pub, he found himself smiling nevertheless.

"Miss Thompsett," he greeted warmly. "I forgot how busy this place can be on Hogsmeade weekends." Truthfully, he probably would have avoided it completely if he'd known or remembered, but he supposed it wasn't so bad. He wouldn't mind checking in on Calla or Miss Thompsett if he saw them. Certainly it had to be quite the change for them too, not having Sloane around at school, and he worried things were worse than he may have originally thought. She seemed perfectly fine though, which was good. "Have you been enjoying the day?" The sunny morning had given way to a cold drizzle while he was hibernating in the Potts' greenhouse and so he wasn't surprised the pub was more packed than usual.

Truthfully he didn't know what young ladies got up to during their free time, Sloane hadn't exactly been the best representation of a proper young woman, so he supposed this was their social time? Perhaps Miss Thompsett had Head Girl duties to attend to. Merlin it hadn't been that long since he'd been at Hogwarts himself, but it still felt like it was eons ago now.

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"Indeed." She agreed amiably. "I tend to avoid it as it is hard to hear anyone talk." Sisse's involuntarily found herself providing a small pout with these words, "But my brothers love meeting here." She gestured toward Matthew deep in a conversation at the bar.

"I have, the weather leaves much to be desired, but it is October." October in it's finest, blustering preview of the incoming weather of fall. "Would you care to join Matthew and I?" She found herself having the audacity to ask as she brushed a strand of blond hair that had fallen from her bun out of her face. In truth Matthew would likely not even arrive back at the table for some time, and if truth were told she'd be alright with the company of Mr. Bixby over her brother anyway.

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom

As Alvin looked around the packed pub, he suddenly realized just how much older than all of these students were, Miss Thompsett included. A solid decade in more cases than not. He felt a prickle of discomfort, though he couldn't place why. He was starting to think he should just bow out gracefully and leave her to enjoy her time with her friends. He was in a bit of a sour mood, which was unusual after he spent some time in the warmth and solitude of the greenhouse, but he'd been a pensive mess for weeks now, he supposed he wasn't surprised this was any different. It was better though, not everything felt so dark and dreary as it had a month ago, let alone two.

"Ah, I would hate to interrupt your time with your friends." There, a perfectly reasonable out if she so desired. He really didn't want to disrupt her afternoon. He remembered those days with such fondness that he should hate to mar her fun with his surly attitude. Plus he didn't want anybody to think poorly of her for sitting with an unfamiliar gentleman. Or get any looks of pity from Sloane's former classmates either. He wasn't so sure he could stomach that. He already suffered through enough sideways glances when out and about and even at home that he didn't think he was interested in having it happen here too.

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"You won't be interrupting." Sisse assured him with a smile, "It's just my brother and I, and as you can see," She gestured toward Matthew's back as he leaned on the bar chatting to the barkeep, "His company leaves a great deal to be desired." If only she didn't need a chaperon to speak with Mr. Bixby than she might have considered inviting him on a walk. But Matthew would never agree to that and the weather outside really didn't lend itself to a pleasant walk.

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom

At a crossroads between what was appropriate and expected, and hurting Miss Thompsett’s feelings, Alvin was waffling on what to do. He knew he didn’t have much time to make the decision, but worried about what would be said about her if he did join her. She seemed sure of herself and he had come in with a purpose which was better served with company. Plus it did look like her brother was otherwise occupied.

”Alright, if you insist.” He decided upon finally, smiling gently. It was strange, he looked around for whoever it was acting as her chaperone, when he himself had served the role in the past. Of course that had been with Sloane and at least four other teenagers in tow, but this felt markedly different. Alvin glanced around for a spot in the middle of the madness and spotted an open table near the bar where her brother stood. It was going to have to be good enough. ”Can I get you something to drink?” He offered, heading in that direction, trying to make eye contact with her brother somehow, hoping he at least looked somewhat familiar.

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For a moment Sisse felt a bit shy that he'd agreed. She almost hadn't thought he would, but instead she mentally shrugged it off and gave him a cheery smile, "I do."

"Oh, a butterbeer would be wonderful." It would seem weird to sit here with nothing after all.

As he left her to head to the bar she settled into the empty table she had been at not far from where Matthew stood at the bar and watched as Matthew nodded toward Mr. Bixby in some form of acknowledgement. However, her eyes drifted back to the table so that Mr. Bixby (and Matthew) wouldn't notice her watching them. Instead she focused on sitting demurely and trying to look as if she weren't just a school girl with her friend's older brother.

When Mr. Bixby returned to the table with drinks she smiled up at him, what did she say now beyond thanking him (which she did as he handed her her drink)? It was so easy to write to him, but sitting here across from him was entirely different. It had been so natural this summer, so easy to lean into their shared interest in art and their own grief, but now, with his letters that had once been so cheery now turning to short missives, Sisse wondered if she'd overstepped.

"Have you been working on more landscapes?" She found herself asking.

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom

Alvin managed to have an eyebrow conversation with Miss Thompsett's brother just after ordering the butterbeers. It all felt a little surreal, but he supposed there really wasn't anything amiss. It might raise a few eyebrows, but they were clearly in the middle of the room and her brother was right there and he had no idea why he was overthinking this. If Sloane were here it would have been completely normal. Perhaps that was the hiccup. Sloane wasn't here, so it felt far less normal.

Setting the drinks down, Alvin slid into the chair opposite Miss Thompsett, and passed hers over. He took a healthy swig of his own to give himself a moment. Her question about landscapes had him thinking through his last few pieces. "I suppose, a bit." The focus had been far too much on family recently to really have much time to paint. He supposed he had taken his small easel to Wally's hospital room and done a few smaller pieces, but not much. Mostly he was deep into his sketchbook, between Zinnia's and the broom sketches.

"Been doing a lot of sketching lately, much more portable." He felt like he was rarely home these days, which was probably for the better. "How's school going?" Man that made him feel old. It was fine in letters, but out loud it made him feel the age gap even more apparently.

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"What have you been sketching?" She asked, her head tilting slightly with her curiosity. Given the state of his family and how the past few weeks had gone she didn't want to linger on any reasoning for portable. She already knew it and didn't need to dredge that up for him.

The butterbeer was warm between her hands as she took the mug from Mr. Bixby, she could feel it through the thin fabric of her white visiting gloves. She waved away his question. "It's fine." In truth classes were good, her extra duties were good, but the school was shadowed with those who were missing. her usual haven in Hogwarts was only a thin veil from reality now. In only a few months she would never return to Hogwarts again. But with all the changes.... the thought didn't seem as daunting, as sad, as it once had. Now she was looking forward to it.

She'd shared such thoughts with Mr. Bixby before and so with a sigh she found herself admitting it, "I never thought I'd be ready to graduate, and yet now I can't wait." There was just so much sadness everywhere.

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom

"Florals, brooms, a weird variety of things." Alvin had been spending quite a bit of time in the greenhouses, with and without Zinnia and he'd gotten much better at sketching in detail, little close ups, snapshots of what was around him. "Thought about designing a few brooms." He had been in touch briefly with Miss Penelope Fawcett, had thought about collaborating with her, but hadn't been able to really reach out to realize the hopes. In time. Maybe. If he could come up with something worthwhile, it would be easier.

Alvin could only imagine what Miss Thompsett was going through this year. It wasn't quite what she'd expected and now that it was here and different, there must have been some level of disappointment. He nodded along, taking another sip of his butterbeer. "It's something to look forward to, a new chapter." He'd been terrified to graduate himself, even though he'd known what he'd wanted to do and had been granted the opportunity, it wasn't something one could really define until you went through it. Not to mention the experience was different for everybody. What he'd gone through would be so wildly different than what Miss Thompsett would endure based on gender alone. "Do you know what post-graduation would look like?" Alvin wasn't sure if she would go the debutante route or if she would find something else to occupy her time.

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A small smile tilted her lips at the mention of sketching brooms. But any inquiries further about it were stopped by his admission that he was considering designing brooms again. She had been bringing her drink to her lips when he had mentioned it and stopped, the mug hovering for a moment by her mouth for a moment before she placed it back down. A true (and what she hoped was encouraging) smile was on her lips. "Really?"

Sisse considered his question, taking a sip of the butterbeer to give her time to collect her thoughts. Delicately she set her mug back on the table, watching the surface gently move within the wood. "I'll debut, have my season." Once this thought had made her smile. Now that it was so close though it had begun to lose its luster. She still looked forward to the balls and dinners, the gowns and the dream of romance, but what it all meant, where it would lead. It was less like a fairy tale or a romance novel now, and more like.... she didn't quite know the word for it.

"Nothing very interesting, truthfully. But tell me of your design ideas! They are much more interesting." Then my impending doom. She finished in her head, trying to steer the conversation away. She had always wanted a great romance, a love of her life. She had thought she'd fallen in love or close to love several times before. But they were childish fancies. She could see that now. Childish fancies that had broken her heart and lost her friends. What if her season, her supposed great romance was nothing more than anotehr heartbreak?

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom

Alvin rather thought he would be useless at a discussion about the season, so was somewhat relieved when Miss Thompsett seemed more apt to talk about broom designs. Judging by her dismissal of the subject, Alvin also got the impression she didn't really want to talk about her debut either.

"It's not much. An contact in the business has reached out," and Alvin was still sort of pushing Miss Fawcett off gently because he didn't know exactly what to do. Most broommakers worked solo, didn't often partner up, so he wasn't sure how a collaboration would truly look. It felt different than apprenticing, somehow, though he supposed it really wasn't. When he'd still been learning it was making someone else's designs, which he supposed was what would ultimately happen if he and Miss Fawcett could make something work. "I've been working on some sketches in my spare time," which he had more of than he liked, but even now that Wally was doing better, Alvin found himself trying to spend as much time making sure everyone else in his family was doing alright.

It was a strange sort of guilt that kept him from accepting the invitation from Miss Fawcett, seeing how both Sloane and Wally had their futures ripped out from underneath them. He too, had lost his, but due to his own stupidity; it felt wildly different. Or at least he'd lost the full realization of what he thought his future would look like. To be involved again in any capacity felt unfair somehow. "I haven't decided what to do about it yet." He admitted, thinking the truth was probably the easiest route to tread.

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Sisse didn't bother to hide the delight on her face when Alvin mentioned someone had reached out to him. "That's wonderful!" After everything that had happened to Alvin, everything that he had mentioned and everything that she knew from Sloane, Sisse thought he deserved to find a way to keep doing what he loved. Just because he couldn't make the brooms didn't mean he couldn't see his creations take shape another way. She truly felt that it would help him find some joy in the world.

Perhaps she felt so strongly about this because she suspected that it was the only way she would end up seeing her creations either. She could sketch them on paper, but she wasn't destined for a life as a modiste. While she had fought her mother for years against attending Pendergast it had less to do with a fight against her fate to marry than it did with staying with her friends. Ironic, wasn't it? Now she had gotten what she wanted but her friends had left her instead of the other way around. And to make it worse, winning that argument had only come with her own mother's death.

It was much easier to focus on Alvin - Mr. Bixby - that her own thoughts , Sisse realized as her hands spun her butterbeer back and forth unconsciously. She had been lost for the moment in the bittersweet realms of her own thoughts that she had almost missed what Mr. Bixby was saying.

"For what it's worth," Sisse started, with a slight self depreciating shrug, as if her opinion didn't matter - which, in reality, it didn't, "I think that designing them for your contact would be a wonderful idea. It gives you a chance to do what you love." Her cheeks warmed as she realized her mouth was running off with her, implying things that he hadn't told her, things she had learned from Sloane, but now that the words were flowing she couldn't seem to make them stop. "You'd get to see them created, get to create them in a way. See them take flight. I'd think it'd bring you more joy than portraits and landscapes." Despite her embarrassment Sisse kept her gaze on him, she might wish she hadn't said anything, but she wasn't going to back down from what she truly believed would help him. If he didn't want her advice well... she'd face that bridge when she got there.

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom

Alvin couldn't help but to smile a little bit at Miss Thompsett's enthusiasm. She was right that it would bring him more fulfillment than painting for a living, but he still wasn't so sure he could realize it. The guilt over his siblings was still so great, and he wasn't sure how he would handle someone else physically making his designs, but maybe it was time he reached out to Miss Fawcett. He still had some connections to various magical tree farms locally too, maybe that would be a good place to start. First he needed a solid design or two, and he wasn't there yet.

"We'll see," he was still hesitant, but the encouragement was good for him. Maybe it wouldn't be a disaster after all. There was only one way to find out. "I've got something in the works, maybe I'll run it by some of my contacts to see what they think." That was a step in the right direction at least? He hadn't been in touch with any of his friends from the business for a while, first out of his own depression, and now because he was far too busy. It was one thing to design and make something himself, if it failed it wasn't anyone's problem but his. Now he felt like the design had to be exemplary because it wouldn't be only his name attached, if he was even able to convince someone to collaborate. It was all so up in the air.

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She had definitely stepped out of place with her comments, Sisse realized at his words, her stomach sinking. How could she remedy this?

"If you do I'd love to help." Well now she'd done it. Just how did she expect she could help. "If there's a way I can help." She added hastily. "Looking over sketches, or... something." She definitely was not doing herself any credit here. "I don't know if I'd be much help, truthfully I likely wouldn't, but I know it helps to have someone there." To support you. Went unsaid. Her cheeks and ears were warm, but she smiled at him anyway, braving her own discomfort. She only wanted to help, only wanted him to know that someone was there for him. As if he were one of her friends her hand ached to reach out and reassure him, show him she meant her words, but she held back.

A few tables away voices were getting louder, there had been a group of fourth year boys sitting near there, if Sisse recalled. At the noise she turned and noticed what was happening. One boy was pushing away from the table, angrily gesturing, the other was already standing wand out, sparks dancing around him. Of all the moments to have to go take care of something, Sisse was quite certain this was one of the worst. "You'll have to excuse me, but," She nodded toward the boys, "I have to go assist." And likely drag them back to the castle for the Deputy Headmaster to handle. She slipped out of her seat but turned one last time to look at Mr. Bixby before she wound her way through the crowd, "Thank you for the company, and the drink, Mr. Bixby." She offered him one last smile and then before she could second guess anything, she slipped away to take care of the adolescents boys.

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom