January 1st, 1890 - Scamander Home, Bartonburg
Marlena Scamander

Eugene had to marvel at where the fuck his life had taken this turn, but there he was, in the house his parents had to help him buy, on a Wednesday night, a half-asleep toddler fighting sleep in his arms, while his "wife" was who knew where doing who knew what while he was left to his own devices to raise the child what felt like kind of on his own. Of course they had a household staff and Eugene's own mother had made sure they had the most capable of nannies, but the poor woman was not on duty 24/7; she needed to eat without a child on her hip at some point.

Thankfully Theseus was not a terribly demanding babe, though Nan thought that he was cutting a tooth, or two, and was therefore irritable a fussy. Eugene had no choice but to go with what she said, as she clearly knew best. Also quite fortunately, Eugene, though he had been thrust into fatherhood unexpectedly, immediately and unprepared, he wasn't a complete failure at it. He was certainly around more than Astrild at any rate.

In the dim light of the nursery, Eugene was half asleep himself when he realized Theseus had finally stopped fussing, the toddler snoozing contentedly in his father's arms, with steady breathing and the cutest snore Eugene had ever heard. A master at handling small beasts, Eugene was able to transfer his son into his bassinet smoothly, without waking the babe and slipping from the room entirely. Dragging his hands over his face to ward off the exhaustion, Eugene debated between heading to the kitchen for the dinner that he'd missed and straight to bed. The former won out, his stomach rumbling so loudly he paused in his retreat down the hall to make sure Theseus hadn't woken at the sound. When the coast seemed clear, he continued toward the kitchen, only to find once of his sisters suspiciously perched at the table in the kitchen, very much making herself at home.

"Marlena?" He questioned, brow raised, though not as surprised as he probably should have been to see his closest sister unexpectedly in his kitchen without any kind of warning or heads up. "Fancy meeting you here, anything I can do for you?" The fatigue was clear on his face and though he was never one to turn down a visit, he was absolutely knackered and very ready for bed.

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The Scamanders, Marlena believed quite firmly, were cursed when it came to matters of the heart. Alright Amina and Louisa appeared fine of the surface but neither of their husbands were especially interesting as far as Lena was concerned, Helga was days away from selling herself to the highest bidder, Eugene had all but been abandoned and she didn’t have the mental energy to think about her own disasters.

Better to think about her brother’s instead.

Astrild had seemed like a good enough fit. For all their schooldays Lena had know her only as the odd girl in ____ house, had spent previous little time thinking about her until years later when she had been presented with her new sister-in-law. And now she was gone – or at least it certainly seemed that way – and Eugene, barely equipped to survive life, now had another life to maintain.

Upstairs she knew he was dozing and she opted to leave him like that for the time being, making herself a sandwich which she waited on the counter, patiently chewing on bites as she flicked her wand at patches of the ceiling to remove the cobwebs.

“Change your maid,” she said by way of response, holding out the untouched half of her sandwich. “They’re taking you for a fool if they think this is clean.”

  

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

Knowing Cook had left him a plate, Eugene rummaged around for a minute, poured himself a glass of whiskey from the cupboard and took the sandwich offered by his sister. Frankly he was so hungry he'd wind up eating both before he went to bed.

"Let Ma know, she did the hiring." The house, the staff, everything had been their mother's doing, though Eugene had shelled out half of his savings to buy the house itself, his mother had haggled a decent price in the end. It wasn't large by any means, but didn't need to be either. There was only the three of them, Nan and Cook were housed in the servants' quarters at the back and the three bedrooms were occupied upstairs for the most part- at least his and the baby's anyway.

After demolishing his section of sandwich in three bites, Eugene washed it down with a generous sip of whiskey and turned for the leftovers he'd thought of first. "And to what do I owe the pleasure this evening?" He questioned almost warily as he pulled his plate from the icebox.

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Pushing herself gracefully off the countertop Marlena helped herself to a whiskey when it became apparent that her brother was definitely not in the right headspace to be a functioning host. Not that it was either of their specialisations – spending yours days with beasts and oddballs did not make for the sort of training that most of society considered useful.

“Bored,” she replied simply, taking a seat at the kitchen table so she could at least pretend to be civilised. “And I thought I’d make sure you and Theseus hadn’t fallen into the same vanishing cabinet as Astrild.”

Stealing the corner off his sandwich she glanced between the table and his face with a little more apprehension, speaking quietly. “Has she been around much at all?”

  

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

"Ah, I see how it is." Eugene chuckled as he leaned against the counter with his cold dinner beside him. He tore into the chicken without much remorse, watching as his sister got herself some whiskey. Though his dinner was cold, it was the last thing he was going to complain about really.

Eugene's expression soured at the mention of his "wife". They were married in title only, bound by Theseus and nothing less. The fact that Eugene had put in the effort to try and make it work could not chance the fact that Astrild was, "not cut out for this," in her words. "Perfectly here, perfectly fine." He said before he popped a potato in his mouth.

Shaking his head at her last question, Eugene shrugged. "Nope."

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Marlena stared unerringly at her brother, trying to discern from his expression how he was coping with this desertion because it certainly didn’t seem like he was going to tell her. But that was alright – she was good at guessing, after all, and a brother who only shrugged and continued to eat his supper when asked a difficult question was hardly a great conundrum of their age.

“And she didn’t say anything at all?” Lena asked, though she already knew the answer and didn’t wait to have it confirmed again. “Have you asked her parents about it? I know they’re mad but surely they can keep track of their children?”

Unless Astrild was with them? Merlin, relationships were bloody confusing - at least Theseus wouldn’t have to worry about this for years yet!

  

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

"She comes and she goes, it's not like she's never here." Eugene interrupted after a mouthful. He never saw her, but the staff did. Theseus did. Sometimes. "You work with her, you probably see her more than I do." Though Eugene didn't pretend to know how the Department of Mysteries operated, he assumed they had some mutual space where they worked. Or they didn't. He really didn't know.

"My marital problems and their grown daughter are not my in-laws' problems." Though Eugene rather thought his marriage was a sham at the very best, he was at least trying to make good on a promise. Astrild may not think their son's life was worth being involved in, but he sure as hell did. Plus he didn't exactly want to broadcast the fact that things were not working out. Appearances were somewhat important in the Scamander household, he didn't exactly need to let everyone and their brother know his wife cared more about her job than her family.

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In all honesty Lena thought she probably saw more of the maintenance men of the Ministry than she did her colleagues, such was the nature of their often solitary work. The last she had heard of Astrild she was working on something or other to do with the Pictish artefacts – as the rest of them were, but who was doing what was a mystery only known by Urquart and even then Lena was quite sure he couldn’t know everything – and she hadn’t seen her sister-in-law since…when had it been? A week? Perhaps two?

“Shouldn’t it be though? It doesn’t seem fair for you to have to worry all by yourself.”

Leaning on her elbows Lena eyed her brother, wondering how it was that a carefree life could morph seemingly overnight. Last year New Year’s Day would have found them nursing their respective headaches, ignoring Helga’s much more peppy post-celebration chatter and now there was a child upstairs and a wife god knows where.

“You can always ask me for help you know? Proper help I mean?” She smiled wryly. “If Ronnie’s too busy that is.”

  

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

Eugene knew it came from a place of concern, and so he did his best to keep his frustration below the surface. He'd been forced to become and true adult virtually overnight and he was eternally grateful for the help both families had provided thus far, but he was alright.

"It is my responsibility," He shrugged. "My screw up, my kid, my responsibility." Not that he saw Theseus as a burden in any way. Frankly Eugene was pretty thankful for the jump start to his focus and determination to not crash and burn. Polishing off the plate, he left it near the sink for cook to take care of in the morning. He would have done it himself, but he'd been chastised last time for doing it incorrectly, so they'd agreed to just leave it.

Passing his sister a smile, Eugene followed it up with a chuckle. "Are you offering to babysit, Lena?" He'd pay money to see that actually. "But thanks, I appreciate it." He had a very capable nanny for Theseus, but Ronnie did take him every now and then so he could go hang out with his cousins.

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Screwing up her nose at the notion of being left alone with the baby – that was emphatically not what she had meant and it was for his good as much as hers – Lena poured out two fresh glasses and pushed one towards her brother. She might not have much expertise with children but she was wise enough to know when somebody needed a drink and to forget about the stresses of the day for a little while.

“I mean,” she smirked at her brother. “You could have done a lot worse in the long run.” She took a sip of her drink and grinned. “Honestly brother, I never expected you could make anything half as good as Theseus!”

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022