After Mason Skeeter's Funeral Services, July 7th, 1895 — Asphodel Cemetery, Hogsmeade

Barney currently has a black eye and a split lip.

While he hadn't exactly wanted to visit his parents' graves, he would have felt a bit guilty if he hadn't, considering he'd gone to Irvingly to visit Amelia's the day before. What kind of son would he be if he came all the way here and didn't stop by? Besides, Tamsin had suggested they walk over together and he couldn't very well have said no. So together they went, with him offering his arm to hold as they made their way over.

Now that they were in front of them, he didn't know what to do. Should he speak to them? To Tamsin? Recite a bit of poetry? He'd brought Amelia flowers and made a fool of himself–Barnabas certainly didn't want to repeat that here and in front of his sister no less. He cleared his throat and glanced toward her, hoping to take his cue from whatever it was she was doing.

Tamsin Skeeter

  

---

Barnabas walks with a cane • Set by the lovely Lady • plot with me

Barney had clearly upset someone. If she knew her brother then he had probably upset a lot of someones since his return but apparently one of the someones had not been prepared to let her brother walk away from whatever he had said. The notion that it might not be deserved never entered her mind.

“I’m sure they’d be glad to know you’ve come home,” Tamsin said, leaving dangling the question she had not wanted to ask – namely, when he would be leaving. Tamsin, perhaps alone in the wizarding community, was actually quite glad to see her brother and though his face was broken currently it was at least a familiar one. She was losing people rapidly and did not care to add another to the tally quite so soon, but she would like to know when she was likely to be abandoned again.

  

Ah, so they were going to talk about him. His favorite topic, if he was being honest.

"I always come home for these things," Barnabas replied as if it were a given that he was considerate enough to cross the ocean on a moment's notice. Perhaps it was too honest for even him to admit, but he did feel guilty that he hadn't been there for his mother's last moments. Or his father's, for that matter. He'd attended their funerals, of course–only for long enough to attend the services and then leave again. "I'm fortunate that MACUSA has given me leave each time. They did give me a bit of trouble this time, but we were able to sort it out." He offered his sister a completely oblivious grin.

  

---

Barnabas walks with a cane • Set by the lovely Lady • plot with me

Tamsin had a very vague idea of what MACUSA was, but she nodded along as though it were not a jumble of letters to her. It was something magical, either way, and something American, so she probably didn’t need to worry about it.

“I only hope this is the last of these things,” she said solemnly. She was running out of family to bury and she wasn’t even married yet! What would happen to her if all her brothers perished as Mason had and she was left all alone? It was unthinkable

“I expect you have a terribly exciting life waiting for you, but will you stay a little while at least?”

  

He nodded in agreement. There weren't a lot of Skeeters left at this point. He hoped it was a good long while before another funeral took place–obnoxious as his brothers were, he didn't want them dead. "Stay?" He repeated curiously and turned fully towards her. Not that he had a terribly exciting life to go back to. It was mostly work, solitary dinner and drinks at a muggle pub–though sometimes he did have coworkers join him–and then home to do it all again the next day.

He and Tamsin weren't particularly close, but he suddenly had the worrying thought that she was in trouble. If she'd come to him for help, who was he to say no? She'd chosen him over their other brothers. He furrowed his brow and winced, his injury forgotten for a moment, "Is something wrong?"

  

---

Barnabas walks with a cane • Set by the lovely Lady • plot with me

“Wrong?” She replied lightly, brushing a stray piece of moss from the top of her mother’s gravestone. “Why would anything be wrong?”

He sounded concerned though, which meant someone was paying attention to her at last. She signed extravagantly and wiped a tear from her eye. (It might have been dust, but it was gone so soon no one would ever know one way or another.)

“It’s nothing, I suppose.”

  

Oh Merlin, now she was crying. Barnabas patted her shoulder awkwardly in an attempt to comfort her. That's what you did when women were upset, right? "It isn't nothing, Tams. You may think me an idiot–which is far from the truth, for the record–but I know when my sister is upset. What is it?"

  

---

Barnabas walks with a cane • Set by the lovely Lady • plot with me

“It’s just,” she sniffled, doing him an inadvertent favour by not looking at him with her mostly dry eyes. “I feel so terribly lonely all the time and the others are hardly ever around,” which, now she had said it, she knew to be true.

But it wasn’t the entire reason. Whatever else Barney might have been – and she knew the list was long and rarely flattering – he was at least someone and if she intended to have the sort of life she had dreamed of then she would need someone of note in her corner. She was getting old. She needed a husband and Barney was just the idiot that could help her stand out amongst the great and the good.

The following 1 user Likes Tamsin Skeeter's post:1 user Likes Tamsin Skeeter's post
   Barnabas Skeeter

Oh, Merlin. This had not been what he'd expected. He'd been prepared for her losing her favorite glove (of which he could easily buy another) or him needing to go revenge-hex some tosser who broke her heart (which he'd also gladly do.) The soft blanket of brotherly guilt had him saying, "There there, it can't be so bad as all that. Surely you have friends from school? Or the paper?"

  

---

Barnabas walks with a cane • Set by the lovely Lady • plot with me

Tamsin had to resist snorting with derision – it didn’t entirely fit with the image of herself she was currently trying to impress upon Barney, though in truth he probably wouldn’t notice. She barely had colleagues at the paper, let alone friends, and she had never really had many of them at school either.

Everyone just seemed to hate her without her doing anything at all wrong!

“No. The other girls were always so terribly jealous, and it wouldn’t be seemly to be friends with young men,” though she had always found them far more amenable to her charms. “Perhaps if I had a chaperone, I could do the season?”

  

Barnabas Skeeter

Barnabas frowned slightly at this news. Tamsin was decent enough. She was objectively pretty (though as her elder brother, he didn't see it personally), only slightly annoying, and had likely grown out of her spoiled ways. She ought to have plenty of friends. He was inclined to believe the statement that the other girls were simply too jealous for friendship. Not that he was well-versed in friendship, but even he had a few gentlemen he could meet up with for a night out.

Besides, wasn't Tamin a bit old to be thinking of the season? She was right on the cusp of spinsterhood. If she didn't have anyone considering popping the question now, she likely wouldn't before the clock struck and she was officially placed on the shelf. Still, he couldn't very well deny her. It wouldn't be the brotherly thing to do—and it wouldn't be his problem to deal with anyhow. He'd be back in America soon enough. "I don't see why not." He agreed, "Thompson will do it. He doesn't have anything going on anyhow. Not that he actually new this for a fact, but it was a safe assumption.

  

---

Barnabas walks with a cane • Set by the lovely Lady • plot with me