Given how she'd pulled her hand away before he hadn't been sure how receptive she would be to hearing about his work, but it seemed his concern there was unfounded.

"That's kind of the thing," he said uneasily. "It's... tough." He shifted in his chair. He'd been trying to do anything he could to help, but at a certain point there was nothing more to be done. He couldn't conjure bottles of whiskey out of thin air, and he couldn't make the unfulfilled contracts disappear. The most Ben could do was try to sweet-talk their way out of a few of the ones that they couldn't fulfill, but even if he got out of half of them that only went so far. If there was nothing left to sell, there was nothing left to sell.

"I don't know how it's going to work out," he said with a gentle frown towards Nora's bed. "It might not."

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MJ made this <3

Melody tried to keep her expression neutral, but it was impossible to keep her brows from furrowing. She hadn't been privy to the inner workings of their finances before their split, but she'd known enough to understand they weren't exceedingly well off. Him becoming unemployed put them in a precarious position - especially since he was currently supporting two households.

"Oh." She replied simply, her surprise evident in her tone. Then, after another moment of contemplation she asked, "what does that mean for you?" For us? Melody wanted to add, but thought better of it.

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Ben sighed. "It might not mean anything," he hedged. If Jewell was able to pull out a miracle — by which Ben meant either a large bank loan or a significant investment from someone rich — then life would slowly crank back to normal. Otherwise...

"It might mean I need to look for a new job," he admitted. "But we'd be okay, even then."

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MJ made this <3

Perhaps it was because she'd become so secluded in the past few months or because she simply was biased to Jewell, but Melody could think of no other distilleries with as strong a presence in wizarding Britain. Did he mean to find a lesser one to promote or another career path altogether? He'd held an assortment of jobs over the years, each almost completely unconnected to the last, so perhaps a new path wasn't entirely out of the question.

Or, perhaps if he did become unemployed, Melody would have to find work herself.

She'd considered it before, especially early in their marriage when she was alone so often. But Ben had always made his stance on the matter clear and so she hadn't pursued it. In recent months, Melody had assumed that once Nora was old enough to be parted from her for long lengths of time that Ben might ask her to begin supporting her own household. This though - this was too soon. Especially if Nora wasn't speaking and required all sorts of extra attention.

"Are you sure? Is there anything I can do?" The thought of having to leave Nora for any length of time had her stomach in knots. Melody would do it if he asked though, she owed him at least that much.

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"No," Ben said firmly. He pulled his eyes away from Nora then long enough to offer her a reassuring (if thin) smile. "My brother's going to be Minister of Magic," he said. "We'll be alright."

The crux of it, really, was his faith in Aldous. Ben had never imagined that Aldous would lose the election, because Aldous had never been the sort of person to fail at anything, but even if he hadn't been campaigning for Minister Ben had an endless supply of faith in him. There had never been a problem in Ben's life too big for his older brother to solve — except for his marrying Melody, but even then he'd done his best to help mitigate the damage.

Aldous might not have cared for Melody, but family was family — he'd never allow Ben or Nora to be destitute. And Ben wasn't too proud to ask — not with Nora like this.

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MJ made this <3

Aldous was maybe going to be minister, Melody thought to point out. He was, in her limited opinion, the most sound of the candidates, but that didn't necessarily guarantee him the win. Not when there were still such extreme radicals in their midst. Another non-descript ministry man leading the ministry likely wouldn't amount to much change. Someone like Dempsey though (or, if they were lucky, Wright) weren't already chained to the ministry's ways. They might actually be able to enact change - they might actually manage to secure women the right to vote.

Aldous would do no such thing.

"If you're sure." Melody was already considering what she might be able to do from within the cottage and her limited free time. She could brew potions, maybe, but the supplies were costly and her allowance wouldn't allow for her to purchase high quality ones. "Will you tell me when you know more about Jewell?"

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Ben nodded. "Yeah, course I will. Soon as I know something certain." He made the promise easily, despite not knowing if he'd keep it. He hadn't known when he'd come here today whether he would even have told her as much as he had. It really depended on Nora's recovery; he didn't want to put too much on Melody while she had other things on her mind. There was a reason he hadn't told her before today.

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MJ made this <3