3rd March, 1894 — Eugene's Home
Eugene Scamander

Marlena raised her hand to knock at her brother's front door and immediately stilled. It had been a while since it had just been the two of them. Perhaps a little too long for them to enjoy the closeness they had before but since the accident in London, since Eugene had broken off his engagement, Lena had found it unnaturally awkward to be around her brother. Her fear of losing him had collided with her inability to understand his emotional state and left her floundering.

It was not a condition she appreciated and one for which there was only a single solution.

She let herself in without knocking.

"Hello!" She called, hanging up her things in the hallway. "It's only me," Lena trudged through the hallway, rubbing the cold from her fingers as she went into the sitting room. She raised an eyebrow when she saw her brother looking almost willfully pathetic. "Dear me, what's happened to you now?"

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

Theseus had worn himself out in the garden playing in the snow and had fallen asleep on the sofa in the sitting room for an impromptu nap. Eugene had moved him to his bed for a rest, thinking an hour wouldn't hurt him. It wasn't like anyone was going anywhere any time soon at any rate. They'd been warned to stay indoors, so when his opened and his sister announced her arrival, he was startled.

"Merlin's beard Lena, you're not supposed to be out." Leave it to her to not listen to the rules. "And I played a little too hard outside with Theseus this morning, paying for it now." He said as from where he'd just eased himself into the leather wingback chair near the fireplace. His leg was on fire and the salve Miss Hunniford had given him didn't seem to be making much of a difference and he was sort of miserable, but it had been worth it to see Theseus laughing and enjoying his company like they used to. The toll this was taking on his son was the worst part. Eugene could get through the heartache and the physical pain in his body, but for his year old not to understand his dad couldn't move like he used to was truly the most painful part.

"I'll have tea made." Thank Merlin all of his staff lived in the house, he would have been truly sunk if he was on his own. "Or brandy, or both." Both sounded good right about now. m

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Waving aside the suggestion that a dangerous blizzard should deter her from bothering her brother Marlena glanced at the clock and deliberated. She was sure enough in her abilities that she still intended to apparate despite warnings not to, but even Lena hesitated to do so after having imbibed. There was surety and there was foolishness.

“Tea,” she asserted, though she wavered a little. “For now at least,” settling into the seat opposite him Lena smiled ruefully, though a pang of worry remained at how uneasily he was moving. “And you’re one to talk about being outside. At least I have a mission that goes beyond throwing snowballs.”

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

"Do you mind," he motioned to the bell to ring for the housekeeper. Eugene couldn't get up at the moment. Between the ache of the muscles that radiated up through his hip, his joints trying make up for the inconsistencies in his movements, sending a throb throughout his entire leg. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, trying to best figure out how to ease the pain, but couldn't quite settle.

"I'm trying to keep Theseus from being burdened with the injury as well." Eugene said simply. As he grew older it would be easier, but for now, at barely five, Theseus did not need to worry about how well his father was getting around or if he could continue to play with him. Louisa's children were all a bit older and until Helga started having children, he had few playmates. It was a constant struggle Eugene toiled with, trying to give Theseus enough to occupy him, but hardly being able to do it himself. The guilt was so immense some days that Eugene did not know how to carry it; today was one of these days. "It is a bearable consequence." He was fairly accustomed to the pain now, his new, uncomfortable, normal.

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Distractedly, Lena waved her wand to ring the bell and furrowed her brow at her brother. She had been right to be concerned: he was still in obvious pain, could barely get out of his seat and seemed determined to martyr himself for the sake of his son. (It was a noble cause, she granted, because Theseus was her favourite nephew and therefore the most deserving of anyone’s time, but he would not be helped if Eugene injured himself beyond repair.)

“It looks like I came just in time,” she proclaimed, ordering tea from the housekeeper, and smiling stilly while the woman left the room. Marlena had no deference to Eugene’s housekeeper but she had never managed to entirely shake off the feeling that unladylike behaviour would be reported to their mother. “I can play with him, if it helps. How is he at puzzles? Aunt ___ bought me one for Christmas, but it might as well be for children, and it will help him learn his Norse runes.”

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

"Mm, he does enjoy them, but he's napping at the moment. Wore himself right out." Eugene chuckled. It was easy to turn the topic towards his son as Theseus was easily the best of him and the only thing keeping him going these days. If Astrild did anything right in their time together, it was leaving their son here with him and his family. Eugene wasn't convinced it would be any easier with her here, so he was content with his life, most of the time.

Eugene snorted at the Norse runes part. He still couldn't quite tell what interested Theseus yet, aside from Sage. He and the young niffler were inseparable and always getting into something. Maybe he'd enjoy working with creatures in the future. "I'm sure he'd love that. I would give him a little while more, though." Another twenty minutes or so wouldn't ruin bedtime and he and Lena could enjoy their tea.

"What's with this weather then?" The storm had been incredibly weird, the snow impossible to move magically and Eugene couldn't shovel manually, so it had been a bit of a predicament.

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Leaning back into her seat Marlena considered whether there was anything she could actually tell her brother. Officially they didn’t know anything. Unofficially they didn’t know much more, but the speculation had been rife in the Department of Mysteries – naturally, she couldn’t repeat anything that went on in there. The very last thing she wanted was to get into Miss Foxglove’s bad side…

“I don’t think I can tell you,” Lena said carefully. It was technically true. She didn’t know anything more than Eugene did but the Department did have a reputation to uphold. “I’m sure it will pass. Everything does,” she said with a clumsy attempt at subtlety. “Even broken hearts mend…or so I’m told.”

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

"Always the answer." Eugene chuckled. He knew he wasn't allowed to ask much about whatever it was that went on down in the Department of Mysteries. Even working for the ministry himself, they were often left in the dark to trust that the unspeakables had it under control. And knowing how his sister was one, if not the smartest person he knew, that was probably for the best.

"Let's hope it's quick this time. None of that weeks long fog nonsense." Too many magical disasters. Not only in Hogsmeade; there'd been the hurricane at the Sanditon where here and Tilda had holed up in the cottage through the entirety of it. No, best not to think of that.

"Blegh," he groaned. It was if she'd been reading his mind. "I don't want to talk about that." He would rather discuss the weather; anything other than his broken body and heart. Thankfully he was spared by the entry of the housekeeper with the tea cart. She graciously fixed his tea for him and handed it over before retreating to the kitchen. "Have you been to see Helga and the babes?" There that was easier too.

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Lena scrunched up her nose at the very notion. She supposed she ought to really – it would make her mother happy if nothing else – but she had never understood quite what one was to gain when it came to observing babies. Theseus was different; he had reached an age where he had his own personality and was therefore interesting. Helga’s new children were noisy blobs for the time being.

“I don’t want to talk about that,” she parroted back, slumping back against a cushion the moment the housekeeper was out of the way. “It’ll only give mother ideas if she sees me near a baby and everyone always asks the most interminably boring questions.”

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

Eugene should have expected that answer. Her favoritism of Theseus was noticeable on his end, but Eugene had needed her help after Astrild had left and she'd had dutifully pitched in. Eugene also rather thought Theseus was fond of the fact that Lena spoke to and treated him like someone intelligent, rather than babied him. In time it would likely be the same for the rest of the nephews. There was a big difference between a five year old and newborns, after all. Not to mention, without a mother figure around, there were far were worse options for a strong female role model out there than Lena.

"Entirely fair," at this point Eugene rather thought the two of them would be able to live their unmarried lives in peace, or so he hoped. Lena didn't want to, he thought he was done with romance at this point. Wildly different reasons, but with the same end game. He wasn't struggling to raise his son on his own; Lena was plenty fulfilled with her work. There was no need to dwell on it and whenever his mother brought up the subject, he immediately shot it down in both of their defenses. Being the only boy, he had that luxury and she didn't argue with him, thankfully.

"There's not much to do but hold and feed them as newborns anyway." He would check in on Helga because he had been there and knew just how overwhelming it could be, but aside from that, he knew she had good staff and a present husband, there wasn't much for him to do.

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Her brother’s greatest kindness – and he had many so Marlena did not count this lightly – was that he had never, ever asked her about her romantic life. For others it was like a compulsive sickness; most people could not conceive of why an attractive woman from a good family had never been courted once, why she rejected the ease with which she might find herself in a comfortable, companionable marriage. She actively avoided her sister’s circle because they looked at her like she was a disease they could catch and, unfortunately, she wasn’t yet old enough for the venerable spinsters she spent her days at work idolising to consider her one of them.

It was good to have goals though.

“How is work by the way? Now that you’re nearly the boss?” She smiled wryly. Eugene was only four years older than her but he was a step towards having the run of the department – she expected she would have to work ten years to his two to reach the same position but perhaps one day she would? “Is the Department falling apart without Mrs Skeeter?”

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*sorry, couldn't resist :P

  

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

"It's alright," Eugene answered honestly. It was fine. He needed something that paid more, needed more desk time after the dragons, the hours were more predictable. On paper it was great. In reality it was a little miserable, but he would never say as much out loud. It was an inevitability no matter how much he had enjoyed his previous position. He missed the physicality of the work, but he was no longer able to keep up with it. At least this way he was still in the same department

At the mention of Morwenna Skeeter, Eugene could only chuckle. Working for her had been mildly terrifying, but she'd been someone to admire after all her years in the department. "Not quite the same, not as scary, but she was always so organized and on top of things, now it takes both Adlard and myself to do what she did." Fortunately it worked well enough.

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Chuckling to herself Lena sipped her tea and immediately decided that Eugene’s suggestion of brandy would have been far more welcome – fortunately for them both Eugene was one of the few people in the world Marlena would not be stubborn with on pure principle. Indeed, as though the idea had been hers in the first place she got out of her seat and opened the sideboard where she knew a bottle dwelled.

“How is Helga?” She asked as she poured, her hand steady despite the fact that it was a quite different question to his. Helga had been unwell after the birth, or so she had heard, but Lena had no more wanted to see her potentially sickly sister than her new nephews. When had that happened? They had never been close but somehow she now thought of her own sister as being the most distant of creatures. “You must have seen her.”

He was, after all, quite a significantly better person than she was.

  

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

"She's alright, birthing twins is quite the event." Eugene had been around for Theseus's birth and that had taken its toll on Astrild; having two must have been a feat. "She will be fine with enough rest." Eugene didn't pester, got most of his information through their mother, but he would visit when everyone was up to it. His mother was quite convinced that Helga would come around soon enough and that was good enough for Eugene.

Holding out his own cup as Lena went for the brandy, he appreciated her generous addition before stirring it and taking a sip. Yes. That was the trick. He leaned back again, adjusting his hips to get more comfortable and sighed softly. "I haven't been yet. Waiting to be invited." Eugene, though the older brother, was not dumb enough to show up at Aldous Crouch's home uninvited. Not if he wanted to see his nephews any time soon. "We could go together for a short visit if you like." Theseus would be over the moon. He loved going to see Selene and Nat when the opportunity arose.

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The kindness of the suggestion was not lost on Lena. With Eugene in tow, she would be of significantly less interest to her family – her brother was more eligible, more amenable, and far from being the lost cause that she was – and perhaps when she saw Helga and the babies, she might think of something to say to them?

What did one say to women like Helga anyway? She had never been sociable but then Helga had never had any interests to speak of other than marriage – it was a wonder they were relate at all.

“That sounds an excellent plan,” she replied without looking at her brother, instead glancing out of the window where, if possible, the weather was getting worse. “No sitting on the roof for us today,” she commented with a sad smile. “Those woes will have to wait for another day.”

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

Eugene agreed with a noncommittal noise over his drink. He was saved from finding something else to say by the arrival of his son tearing into the room and shouting, "Auntie Lena!" before attempting to pounce on her. It wasn't like Eugene could climb on the roof anymore in his condition, though he supposed if Lena was determined enough she would levitate him up there somehow.

"Now you can do your puzzles." He laughed. Clearly Theseus' nap had given him the second wind he'd needed. And Lena could take a turn entertaining and let Eugene off the hook for a little while.

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