She might have disappeared off the face of the planet for a while, but she did seem to be well enough informed about him, at least in comparison. Clearly Cash talked to her. Or she was an adept Legilimens.
Theo wasn’t, so he was turning over every little piece of information she gave him as she spoke, barely tasting the bourbon for wondering about her partner. Hers, for work? Or maybe there been something more between them than friendship, for her or for Cash. “You lost them,” Theo filled in, in a murmur, at accident. He didn’t know how, but it had always been clear that Cash had lost someone (Someone important to him; someone he had cared about, not his family.) Absence has a weight, he’d said once, a very long time ago – he was sure Angie Swan was talking about the same particular instance of it now.
But there was more to wonder about – about everything else that she knew, and (maybe more importantly in this moment?) could understand. His mouth twisted into a frown again to express his shared bitterness about it. Wasn’t something he wanted felt like the understatement of the century.
Theo sighed, a slow heavy exhale that for once he didn’t need to bother disguising. “Yeah,” he agreed ruefully. He swivelled his glass around, restless. “I know he didn’t have a choice in it. But I think he thought – or hoped, anyway – that things might be better for him when he did marry,” he mused quietly, remembering the way Cash had told him about the marriage and the Vow in one blow. He’d gotten to move out of his father’s house: that had been something. “But... without quidditch... with the baby coming now, I don’t know. I think it might be worse?” And Theo didn’t know – he didn’t know how to be there for him anymore.
Theo wasn’t, so he was turning over every little piece of information she gave him as she spoke, barely tasting the bourbon for wondering about her partner. Hers, for work? Or maybe there been something more between them than friendship, for her or for Cash. “You lost them,” Theo filled in, in a murmur, at accident. He didn’t know how, but it had always been clear that Cash had lost someone (Someone important to him; someone he had cared about, not his family.) Absence has a weight, he’d said once, a very long time ago – he was sure Angie Swan was talking about the same particular instance of it now.
But there was more to wonder about – about everything else that she knew, and (maybe more importantly in this moment?) could understand. His mouth twisted into a frown again to express his shared bitterness about it. Wasn’t something he wanted felt like the understatement of the century.
Theo sighed, a slow heavy exhale that for once he didn’t need to bother disguising. “Yeah,” he agreed ruefully. He swivelled his glass around, restless. “I know he didn’t have a choice in it. But I think he thought – or hoped, anyway – that things might be better for him when he did marry,” he mused quietly, remembering the way Cash had told him about the marriage and the Vow in one blow. He’d gotten to move out of his father’s house: that had been something. “But... without quidditch... with the baby coming now, I don’t know. I think it might be worse?” And Theo didn’t know – he didn’t know how to be there for him anymore.
