February 3rd, 1894 — Ministry of Magic

They had made progress in the past few years, despite continuing to live in separate homes. Now, Kit came over for dinner a few times a week. It had been awkward at first, but Emilia felt they'd started to hit a good rhythm. one where they understood each other.

The maid who came by a few times a week had done most of the work for Emilia, who was wrapping up the meal by occasionally stirring the stew on its spot on the coal-fired stove. The floo lit up green and she turned, smiling at her husband's arrival. "I think Ned is staying late at training tonight," she said — she wasn't sure, but her son was not home yet, and she tried not to worry over-much about his travels. "So it may just be the two of us."

Christopher Moony Aldous Crouch

  

"Paperwork, I think," Christopher Moony affirmed. He had been unhappy when their son had joined the Auror Training Programme, feelings that had not shifted even slightly in the months since, but at leas this own position in the Auror Office allowed him to keep tabs on the lad.

He had almost begged off dinner himself, knowing it would be just the two of them. They may have rediscovered their rhythm in recent months, aided, at least in part, by his injuries in September (nothing like a disaster to bring family together), but Kit still maintained an emotional wall between himself and his family. He loved them, by God did he love them, and he had finally come to terms with the fact that his self-imposed isolation did none of them any good, but the auror still didn't beleive that he could love them, properly love them, without ruining them.

Hence, wall. Sturdy. No sign of shoddy workmanship.

If anyone could chip away at it, though, it was Milly, with only sheer force of will and prime access her tools.

"He is doing well, by all accounts," he added... helpfully? Kit doubted Ned would have any difficulty finding a mentor when the time came—well, any difficulty beyond his father's interventions.

Emilia Moony

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   Emilia Moony

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Emilia hummed. She did not want Ned to be an auror; she did not think that Kit wanted him to be an auror, either. It could ruin him. It had ruined them. Things were better now than they had been a few years ago, but she still missed her husband as he had been — open and good-natured, and sleeping in her bed.

She gave the stew an unnecessary stir. It gave her something else to look at.

"Do you think he's liking it?" she asked; she wasn't sure what she hoped the answer was.

Christopher Moony

  

He gave a noncommittal shrug of one shoulder, a non-answer. There was a great deal Kit could say in answer to that question, though very little of it would be specific to Ned. They were all, largely, the same reasons he had been so opposed to his firstborn following him into the Department of Magical Law Enforcement—in any capacity, really.

While the wizard had little doubt that Emilia encountered danger in her line of work, it had always seemed to him to be more controlled danger. Better an unspeakable like his mother for Ned, Kit thought, than the shambles of an auror the wizard himself had become.

"He hasn't... hasn't expressed otherwise, at least not to me," the wizard eventually settled upon. The training, Kit expected, the boy probably would enjoy as much as such a thing could be enjoyed, but the work, what came next...

That wasn't a thing one liked.

Emilia Moony

  

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Emilia hummed again. "He's a good man," she said. She looked out of the corner of her eye at her husband. Kit was a good man. He was still a good man.

Being an auror had made him worse.

"Maybe Anne will follow my path, instead," Emilia offered. She was not sure that her daughter had the patience to be an Unspeakable — but then again, Emilia had not been sure that half of her coworkers had the patience to be an Unspeakable. Still, the Department of Mysteries was much safer than being an auror was — and Emilia was not sure she could handle her entire family being in such risk.

Christopher Moony

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   Aldous Crouch

He is a boy, not a man! Kit wanted to shout. Good, yes, Lord knew Edison was that, but he was a man only in the eyes of law and tradition—and apparently his mother. For the auror, who had seen the evils of the world more than most, each time he thought of his son following in his footsteps, he saw only the small toddling thing he had once been, only now, screaming in agony.

But at the mention of Anne—

"Anne will not become an auror!" Kit snapped, voice raised as he pouned his fist on the table for emphasis, matching the din of his pulse in his ears.

If he had been tense before, the wizard was in full fight-or-flight now, and the former had long come more easily to him. It was a ridiculous reaction to what must have been meant as a gentle reassurance, but of course, Kit would not see it that way until later, when the mistakes of his day fended off sleep with a long, sharp stick.

Emilia Moony

  

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Emilia didn't flinch; she went still. A beat passed before she spoke. "Kit," she said tentatively — she had an impulse to touch him, but experience had taught her that she had to wait until he relaxed to try to do so.

  

He breathed heavily, rapidly, nostrils flaring on each exhale. Ned becoming an auror was undesirable, but for Anne to do so would be unconcionable. On some level, Kit registered the sound of his name, eyes meeting his wife's as the storm within continued to build.

Emilia Moony

  

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He was breathing heavy. He was meeting her eyes. Emilia still knew she could not touch him. "She won't," Emilia said, tone as if she believed it. Their daughter was too strong-willed. Her lips quirked up, and she tried a joke: "She'll become a seeker for Holyhead and we'll have to attend a whole season of games."

  

Kit nodded slowly, willing himself to believe it if only so that he might not feel like this anymore.

"Games," he echoed.

Emilia Moony

  

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Kit was nodding at her, and echoing. Emilia held his gaze. "Do you think she'd rather join Holyhead or the Howlers?" she asked. She had to keep him distracted.

  

He should probably attend one of her Hogwarts matches, Kit realized; was she even any good? Surely she must be, to have made the team, but this was just another on a long list of his failings as a father.

"Howlers," he answered, voice still rather strained. "She'd want to beat out men for the position, too."

Anne was stubborn that way.

Emilia Moony

  

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Emilia managed a smile. It was slow, and genuine. ''She'll manage it, I think," Emilia said. ''She's fast."

  

Milly was patient and present—a good wife, and a better mother. In both marriage and parenthood, she put Kit to shame. It was the sort of thing the wizard knew always, but simple comments really underscored the fact. She's fast.

It was not quite a knife to the ribs, but at the very least it was a grazing fist to the cheek.

"I'm a mess," the wizard acknowledged, trying for a self deprecating smile but mouth instead finding itself in more of a grimace.

Emilia Moony

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   Emilia Moony

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Before his accident, Emilia would have silenced Kit with a kiss, rather than relying on her words. As it was, she took a step towards him, and reached out as if to touch his cheek — and lowered her hand. "No you're not," she said, "Come eat some soup."

  

He tensed, not at her touch but at the touch that failed to materialize. Another sign of what a wreck he was: all these years later, and Kit still hadn't recovered enough for the two of them to recover. He shook his head before standing slowly.

"Some air, I think," the auror explained apologetically. "I'll come back."

Probably.

Emilia Moony

  

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