June 20th, 1894 - Diagon Alley

It was weird, being back in the Alley after being away for a whole year. With her own twenty-eighth birthday come and gone this week, she had plans to see Cash at some point and check up on him. Letters in their journal only gave her so much information when she could not read his expression. Leaving last June hadn't sat right with her, but it was hard to say no when she needed the job and the money. Being back at the bank didn't sit right either and she was antsy for something new. It was a strange conundrum to find herself perpetually in. Wanting to be home, but not wanting to work there. Ang needed the new and exciting to keep her mind busy, but the bank did not provide that when she was stuck working on planning and other paperwork from her most recent trip.

She needed a lunch break and to get out of the stuffy office and away from the mumbling of the Goblins who always seemed to magically forget that she could understand them now. Or maybe the didn't care. It wasn't often about her, just not things she cared to hear about what they were planning after work or other crass comments about patrons of the bank. Ang worked predominantly with men and somehow this was still worse.

The summer heat hung over the alley like a blanket and Angie was so used to it, that she as unphased as she exited the bank and headed towards the Cauldron for something cold to drink and maybe something to eat. It was strange being back on a normal-ish schedule when she was simply used to eating and sleeping whenever she found the chance to. Dressed in a plain white linen shirt and trousers, hair swept back into a bun at the base of her neck, Ang knew she stood out in the Alley for a variety of reason, but she didn't let the looks bother her. In this part of town she figured there were all kinds, she was hardly the most interesting.

As she rounded the end of the Alley toward the Cauldron, she stepped up to the door, only for it to swing open before her, a familiar face, on his way out. Angie knew Theo Gallivan, though she was pretty sure that Cash hadn't told him much about her. Still in her surprise, she couldn't help but to betray that knowledge, "My apologies Mr. Gallivan," she said quickly as she stepped aside for him to exit.

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Theodore Gallivan

  

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Theo hadn’t been in a hurry – he was on his own schedule today, sorting some investments and making some new purchase orders of equipment – but his mind must not have been on following his feet, because he hadn’t noticed the person on the other side of the door until they had obstructed each other.

“Thanks,” he said, with a short exhale to settle his heart rate, then had made to step past her, but the real surprise came at her address of him. Theo halted suddenly, his hand holding the Cauldron’s door open behind him, as he looked at her again. There was something familiar in her face, he was sure, and she stood out in her choice of clothes (not a face from society, then), but – he also couldn’t place her. Not a quidditch player, he didn’t think. Someone from school?

Some people might know him on sight, but more often just his name, and if they did, usually he could at least guess they were from one or the other. “Sorry,” he said hastily, because his brow had furrowed slightly, and he was worried he’d been staring – and he knew this was more embarrassing than near-colliding in a doorway, but it had to be less awkward in the long run than feigning that he knew who she was, in case they met later, “... do we know each other?”

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Bollocks. Angie didn't often slip up; she knew Cash's world was closed in a lot of respects and she had always been cognizant of that. Clearly she had caught him off guard as well and now she had to figure out how best to navigate this without making it weird or too memorable. "Sorry," she chuckled easily. "I was a couple of years ahead of you, in Ravenclaw." He'd played quidditch with Cash too, it was hard to miss those sorts of things. Ang had never been interested all that much in quidditch, but she had also never missed a house game either.

"We have some mutual friends," hopefully that would help to put him at ease. Note in their journal with Cash were not always the most informative, she was often left reading between the lines and everything seemed to get progressively weirder with his marriage. Ang still didn't know how she felt about that; only for whatever affect it was having on Cash. They had always known he was going to have to marry somehow and that she had been the one to talk him through sex with a woman, but it had to be very strange, trying to sleep with someone you had absolutely no physical attraction to. Cash had been far more forthcoming on the physical attraction to the man standing in front of her and well, Angie could see why. They would perpetually have the same taste in men. "Angie Swan." She supplied, with an easy smile, unexpectedly amused.

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She was someone from school, then. Theo knew her face had been familiar, but even as he stared at her he was having trouble placing her. They had been in the same house. A couple years above. A thought crossed his mind before he could help it, because the only person he had known around that age was –

And he had been little more than acquainted with Cash in those days. Cassius Lestrange had been his teammate and his captain, but they hadn’t exactly – mixed socially. Things had been different then. Theo had been more outgoing, more involved in clubs and classes and being a prefect, and Lestrange and his friends had been somewhat more removed. He remembered that small set of Ravenclaws, in the later years, the blond boy and girl...

Theo’s brows had knitted as she spoke, feeling like he was missing something. Was she one and the same? The girl he remembered had definitely been blonde, someone he had written off in his head as one of those upper class brats; this woman had brown hair and was wearing trousers and looked like she led an altogether more adventurous, rough and tumble life. “Oh,” he realised, a little bewildered by the incongruity of her between then and now. “Sorry, I thought it was Sinnet.” He shrugged at his own confusion. Maybe she had always been Swan; maybe he had mixed up one of Cash’s friends with the other. Or maybe she had gotten married since. “And that you were out of the country?”

The latter had been more of a guess, connecting dots he perhaps ought not, but he was sure she had to be the cursebreaker friend. She definitely looked like one. And he didn’t know why she was being so friendly, or what else she knew about him, but they had mutual friends, and – who could she mean except Cash? (Friends, she said, as if what Cash was to him was not altogether more complicated than that.)

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"It was, and it's a long story." Angie had fabricated a good story to explain away the name change, but most people didn't truly care. The bank messed up her paperwork with Eli's when they were apprentices and after that, they decided being siblings was easier. Nobody needed to know that was the plan and that Angie had forged some of her documents to make the change permanent. People could make their assumptions and she would continue to live her life unbothered by the weight of other's expectations. She had very few people in her life that mattered in that respect and she preferred it that way.

Being out of the country was easier to explain and so Ang went on with that trail of thought. "I'm a cursebreaker for Gringotts, I'm in and out a lot. Mostly out, but every once in a while I come back and do some business back here for the bank." It was wild to think she had graduated from Hogwarts ten years ago. "Been in the Mediterranean for a few months. Lots of ruins there to explore." It had been the better part of a year, but she had been busy the entire time; there were lots of ruins between Greece and Italy and several of the small islands. The climate had agreed with her and she already missed the constant sea breeze and fresh air. Still, she would never begrudge being home; she needed to see Cash and check up on him and make sure he was keeping his head above water.

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A long story; he believed it when she said it, and curious as he was, it wasn’t the sort of thing he could just out and ask about. They did not really know each other, ‘mutual friends’ or not.

But her answer to his other query came free and easy, so Theo managed to relax a little. “Sounds like an adventure,” he said, with the quirk of a smile. He had never seriously considered cursebreaking, back when he’d been leaving school, but if he had been drawn to becoming an Auror, he had at least understood the appeal of something – thrilling and sometimes dangerous. And she got to travel, then; he was almost envious. “Must be nice to get away. Have you,” his tone turned more careful in the asking, though he wanted to seem nonchalant about it, “seen many people, since you got back?”

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"I enjoy the nomadic sort of lifestyle, but it's certainly not for everyone." Angie was sort of transient in many respects, that her job kept her moving was good. She didn't sit still very well these days and needed to be some kind of occupied at all times. It was rare that she could slow down and enjoy a day off in its entirety.

His question about seeing people had her shrugging. "Not yet, I only got in a couple days ago and have been at the bank for most of it." She had a couple days off coming up and would harass Cash then to see if he could slip away for a visit. Besides Cash, there weren't a lot of people she kept in regular touch with that she felt the need to check up on. Letters usually did the trick when she needed information or something came up. Not having a lot of friends was something she was used to, it was easier, in a way, nobody had to worry about her when she was gone. "Not many people to check in on, anyway." Ang was used to quality over quantity.

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Not for everyone, she said, but Theo didn’t know what would be hard about it. He shrugged. “Seems freeing to me.” There were some perks to his life and his job – he made his own decisions, didn’t work under anyone, didn’t get up and go to the Ministry every day – but he also couldn’t just up and leave. (His father may have, but what was Theo going to do? Fake his death too?)

Maybe that was the downside, as she said, that she didn’t have many people to check in on. Miss Sinnet – Swan – seemed perfectly fine with her lot, but maybe she wanted pity there, he wasn’t sure. And sure, it must be hard to stay in people’s lives from so far away, busy and distant. He tugged at his collar unconsciously. Not yet, she said: so presumably she would. “And while you were gone? Do you – write to, or hear much from –” Cash, he wanted to say, because he didn’t see nearly as much of Cash as he had used to, and glimpses into how he was coping were few and far between (and better avoided, after the last time). Lestrange, he tried, but it had always felt strange in his mouth afterwards – so he settled for the phrase she had used first. “those mutual friends?” He buried his tongue into his cheek before he could say anything else. How is he? How much does he tell you? Did you know his wife is pregnant?

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Angie thought there was something in Gallivan's tone that said he might actually enjoy the sort of lifestyle she lived. She could imagine it would be freeing, knowing what she did know about him. Other cultures and other places in the world did not have the same oppressive views that the society they lived in seemed stuck under. He looked like he would do better elsewhere.

It wasn't hard to catch his underlying question and Angie would have smiled, but instead she shrugged a little. He was important to Cash and she didn't want Gallivan thinking she had opinions any which way. "We write, but I move around a lot, so it isn't as frequent as I would like." Letters were superficial, it was their shared journal where the important things got shared. Still, they both led somewhat busy lives and it wasn't always easy or practical to sit down and write everything out. Usually they just unloaded when she came home and they got to spend time together. "But I'm sure I'll see him in the next few days..." she trailed off, leaving it open; she could pass on a message or leave it alone. Mr. Gallivan would come up as a topic of discussion regardless, but Angie felt for him, a kindred spirit of sorts, and so she would only share anything permitted.

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He nodded, understanding. It was hard to stay in touch with someone, at a distance. And not even oceans, really – there were other gulfs that couldn’t couldn’t be bridged any better. If she saw him soon, she might as well see him more often than Theo did, nowadays.

He felt the feeling flicker across his face briefly, a dull ache of loneliness or something else, and he considered her unspoken question, tentatively. No, there was – nothing to say now that hadn’t already been said. So he shook his head, just slightly, and said, the words coming out – horribly stilted, because he didn’t know if anyone else found the thought still as unpalatable and incomprehensible as he did. “Well, I hope things are – good with him. You know, and with – his wife. And the baby coming.” (Theo could still hardly believe that Cash was married, let alone the rest.)

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Angie's immediate reaction was a noise of derisive dismissal. She should have schooled her expression better, but any mention of that and she automatically became a little defensive. The whole thing grated at her in a way she knew was irrational and unavoidable, but she hated it and hated that he had to endure it, but he seemed to be handling it as best he could. (So far as she could tell at the moment, that might change when she saw him.)

"I'm sure I'll find out." Angie thought she knew Cash better than she knew herself sometimes. Their friendship had been so tightly interwoven over the years that had she not travelled as much as she did, Angie would be too empathetic to his moods and would be spiraling with him. It was good she could keep her head above water when he could not. They had always, always, functioned like that. It just seemed like over the last few years, she was the only one thriving instead of just surviving. "I'll be sure to tell him you said hello, though." She shook herself from her reverie and managed half a smile for Theo. If she had been too transparent, she wasn't sorry about it.

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He didn’t miss that derisive noise – for all he knew, it might as well have been his own. He couldn’t begin to guess just how close she was to Cash, but everything she had said thus far pointed to an old friendship, someone who knew him well – which meant she certainly knew the marriage had not been his idea, if not all the rest of it.

Theo shot Angie Swan a grimace he thought might be similarly reflective of the expression – and whatever fleeting thoughts that had caused them – to just cross her face. “That happy for him, huh?” he said wryly, mouth still a little downturned at the thought of it, this next inevitable stage of the duties Cash owed to his father, and his family, this evolving prison of his life. “Yeah,” he agreed, seeing no use in hiding his bitterness about the whole situation, now. “Great news, isn’t it?” A child really would just be the cherry on top, wouldn’t it?

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Ang coughed as somebody pressed past them into the pub and she thought better of saying what was really on her mind. She'd be lying if she didn't at least like the tone with which Gallivan was speaking. It made her feel a little better that she wasn't the only one who thought that. Ang knew that caged feeling of helplessness at the situation, but that didn't mean she had to like it. There was nothing she could do of course, their time for action had been years ago now, when the three of them should have left the country and stayed that way, but all she could do now was live in the shadows of Cash's life and support him the best that she could.

Perhaps that meant making friends with Gallivan here.

"I've got thoughts on that," she promised him with a wry smile of her own, lowering her voice just a little bit. "My flat isn't too far away from here, care for a drink?" She knew she was probably toeing the line of overstepping here, but he had to know what Cash had been up to more recently better than she would, and Angie had Cash's past kept tight to her chest. Putting all of the pieces together might make the picture clearer, if nothing else. She didn't know what good it might do, in the long run, but she was worried about Cash and had learned that asking for help wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

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   Cassius Lestrange

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She had thoughts. Theo thought he would probably like to hear them.

If only so he wouldn’t be so alone in dealing with his; if only so he knew better if there was something else he was supposed to be doing here. Was he stupid still to care? Or was he a terrible person for having ended things, letting the distance spread and letting Cash go on alone? It was hard to know, when all you had was turning it over and over in your own head.

And he knew there were things about Cash he still didn’t know, for all his trying. Angie Swan probably did know better. He glanced down the street and back to the pub door and, weird as this was, it felt like a risk worth taking. “Yeah, alright,” Theo agreed, after a beat. “I’ll never say no to a drink.” (If they were going to say any more about Cash there, he was probably going to need one.)

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   Cassius Lestrange

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Ang was oddly relieved when Gallivan agreed to the drink. She rather thought they both needed the space to have a frank conversation and her flat was always the place. It wasn't much to speak of, it held more sentimental value than any practical use, but it was hers and it had a history both hers and of being a safe place to land for people like them, the misfits of society who needed somewhere to just be.

She motioned with one hand for him to follow her up the Alley to a turn off toward the less desirable section, holding the same hand out to him once they were out of view to apparate home. Ang was so used to apparating that she landed easily and moved from the center of her living room to the visible kitchen without so much as a misstep. Reaching for the good bourbon that was normally reserved for Cash, she pulled it and the rocks glasses down, pouring them both a healthy measure. Cash was as good as here for the discussion they were about to have.

"Have a seat," she offered as she plopped down in what was normally Cash's seat. It would feel weird looking at someone else in that spot. "I suppose I need some background," Ang knew enough about Gallivan, could tell just by the way Cash had spoken about him what Gallivan meant to him. "You haven't any clue who I am to Cash, am I right?" It wasn't accusatory, more curious. Ang knew well enough that she was one of Cash's better-kept secrets and that was fine. It was probably better that way, but it would be easier to form a coherent, if incomplete, story for Gallivan if she had a starting point.

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   Theodore Gallivan

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He didn’t move as fast as she did from the spot they had apparated into, too busy gauging his bearings in the unfamiliar flat. But she was moving into the kitchen, so – they were alone here, at least, which certainly made it easier to speak honestly in the street – Theo paced after her, watching her pour the drinks. She was practised at it; relaxed.

Theo sat and curled a hand around the glass Angie Swan had given him (– this felt too unorthodox to even think of her as Miss Swan to himself –), but he was surprised at the notion she needed any background. She had seemed to understand the situation better than he had – she had known him, for one. Theo had supposed if anyone needed more background here, it was him... but they would see.

Her question was straightforward enough, even if the answer was awkward to admit. “Uh,” Theo hedged, with a wry look he imagined made it clear enough. “Sorry. I knew you were a cursebreaker, but he – never said much else. I’m not sure if that’s your fault, or mine.” (That was a joke, but there was a grim fear underneath that his friendship with Angie was just one of a countless many things Cash had never really felt comfortable talking about with him.) “But I take it you both go back a while.” Since Hogwarts, if he remembered her right.

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