March 15th, 1891 — Crouch Residence, Swallowbury, Irvingly

Nova loitered uncomfortably in the entrance hall of her brother's Irvingly home. She'd only just been let in and she could already hear her brother's footsteps approaching from somewhere out of sight. From what her brother had said in his letter Melody would be home and Nova wanted nothing less than to catch sight of her. That was untrue, what she wanted even less than that was to actually have to greet and converse with her.

"Reuben!" She smiled, half with relief. "You look..." Nova faltered and found the typical pleasantries sticking in her throat. Reuben didn't look like the portrait of marital bliss but that could be for a multitude of reasons, reasons she hoped she'd have some insight into by the time she went home, maybe even the full story if she was lucky. She hadn't actually asked her brother directly in some part because she hadn't had the chance, but today was proof that she could have made a chance if she hadn't been afraid of what she might hear.

"It's good to see you." The slander in Witch Weekly yesterday was so egregious she'd finally reached a point where she needed to hear it from the horse's mouth.

---

Reuben Crouch
Where did that weird title come from?

The following 3 users Like November Malfoy's post:3 users Like November Malfoy's post
   Arthur Pettigrew, Melody Crouch, Reuben Crouch

---

After being surprised by the news that morning in his office, Ben hadn't gotten much done related to his work. It was a good thing that his job was so unimportant, in the grand scheme of things. No one was going to die due a delay in their alcohol sales.

He'd worried about whether or not Melody had seen it, of course, and what she might be thinking, but he was sure (well, mostly sure — fairly sure — a little sure?) that he could defend himself on those counts, if it came up. He was much more worried, honestly, by the implications in the first half of the article — that her illness had stretched to an unnatural length, and she really ought to be in the care of a healer. He didn't know anything about these things, so he'd just been trusting her judgement when she said she was fine and just needed to get through it. He'd been excited to see her able to stomach half a bowl of broth, and had just assumed that somehow her body was working it all out and she was getting enough calories for both her and the baby. But if this wasn't normal, if something was wrong, then he wanted to get her to a healer right away. He didn't want to lose her, or the baby.

He'd forgotten that Nova was coming over until the housekeeper reminded him when he came home, by telling him she'd set out the tea in the garden as he'd asked her to and all he needed to do was heat his own water whenever his sister arrived. Shit, Nova. He probably should wait until after she visited to go and have a heart-to-heart with Melody, since he didn't know exactly where that conversation would lead. This probably wouldn't take long anyway, right? Nova had her own life to worry about — she was probably coming as a perfunctory thing, because it had been a while since they'd seen each other, and she'd be gone after an hour or less.

"Yeah, it's good to see you, too," he said in greeting, hoping it sounded sincere. "The garden should be set up for us already. Just let me grab the kettle from the kitchen and I'll meet you there, alright?"

  

---

MJ made this <3

"All right." Contrary to the impression she'd given Reuben, it was with reluctance that she headed out to the garden alone. She knew it was silly to think her brother's wife would jump out at her from a dark corner but she felt uneasy all the same. Melody Crouch had clearly taken against her so it made no sense that she'd go out of her way to force an interaction that could only be unpleasant for both of them, but knowing this couldn't completely put her mind at ease.

Once she was in the garden she spotted the tea setting and took a seat. Unfortunately the unease endured, she felt as though she was being watched. It was probably her imagination. The urge to look over her shoulder and search the windows for a face looking out her was proving incredibly difficult to resist. Nova willed her brother to make haste.

Nova eventually gave in and had to look over her shoulder and make sure it really was her imagination. If Melody had been watching her then she'd ducked out of sight fast enough to avoid detection. Not a moment too soon Reuben returned and her paranoia thankfully took a backseat again. Instead Nova focused her nervous energy on searching her brother's expression and demeanor for clues. "I hope I'm not imposing too much."

---

The following 1 user Likes November Malfoy's post:1 user Likes November Malfoy's post
   Reuben Crouch

---

Ben walked to the teapot with the kettle in hand and poured it through, then settled into the empty chair so he could wait for it to steep before he poured. He really should have taken the kettle back in to the kitchen, but instead he simply set it down on the brick path behind the chair, likely to be forgotten until the housekeeper arrived the next morning and chided him for leaving it out in the wet dew overnight.

"You could never impose," he said warmly. "Though I was surprised at such a sudden request."

It occurred to him immediately as he said it that there was likely a reason she'd written yesterday with such an urgency to see him, and his stomach sank. This might not be such a quick and painless little interaction after all — but at least it was Nova who had visited and not Aldous. He thought that was better. Whether it really was or not remained to be seen.

"Is this, uhm — about that magazine?" he asked awkwardly.

  

---

MJ made this <3

It hadn't occurred to her until she noticed the awkwardness set in that he hadn't guessed at her reason for wanting to see him. In hindsight it ought to have been obvious from how unburdened by apprehension he'd seemed until now. Not that she was in the habit of making him uneasy, in fact she couldn't think of an instance where she had - it was more Aldous' territory than hers. At least this gave her an easy segue into the matter. It also meant that the next words out of her mouth wouldn't have to be an awkward token gesture inquiring after Melody's wellbeing, she hadn't been relishing that prospect at all.

"I suppose you could say it is." The feeling of being watched returned for a moment but she forced it to the back of her head again. "I do not believe for an instant that you are the villainous libertine that Witch Weekly would have people believe you are. I hope I don't need to tell you that?"

---

  

---

"Well," Ben said with a wry smile and a shrug. "It's nice to hear it, all the same."

He wasn't sure he believed her, was the thing. Most people would have believed it; he had that sort of reputation, although he was really very tired of it at this point. Aldous probably believed it, or would have if anyone had brought it to his attention — hopefully no one would have. He'd still hear ripples from it, anyway, but at least he might miss the main event.

  

---

MJ made this <3

His response only deepened her concern. "I know it is not so because I know you. You have a good, kind heart." An abnormal flush of color flooded her face as she anticipated her next words. "I do not mean to speak ill of our brothers but... I daresay you have the kindest heart of all of us. The man they write about has no regard for others, he is selfish, scheming, and cruel. Perhaps you share a tendency towards imprudence but that is where the similarities end." She was caught a little off guard by how emotional she felt, it was almost dizzying. Nova felt a great deal of things but they never overcame her like this, but then it was a swathe of feelings she'd been carefully bottling diligently for a while in particular over the last year or so.

"However, I am not so foolish as people would like to think. I know there is no smoke without fire, but it is equally true that embers when smothered release twice as much smoke as a roaring fire." Nova hadn't meant to get so intense and certainly not before the tea was even served. At least she'd forgotten to worry about spying sister-in-laws.

---

The following 2 users Like November Malfoy's post:2 users Like November Malfoy's post
   Arthur Pettigrew, Melody Crouch

---

Ben tensed as she started talking. He could tell that she was very affected by the words, even though she didn't look it. Nova was always composed, though, so the little things like the color on her cheeks and the barest hint of emotion in her voice was enough to betray how strongly she felt on the subject. And that was before he even considered the content of what she was saying, and her choice of phrasing. Coming from Nova, the remark that he had a good, kind heart was high praise indeed — up there with Aldous saying that he'd done the honorable thing, back in January. Luckily, Ben wasn't feeling quite as emotionally fraught now as he had been then, but his lump formed in his throat all the same.

But what did Nova know about it? The article came closer to the truth than she would have guessed. Not that he was waiting around hoping Melody would die, of course, but he had been in the company of Miss Scrimgeour and Mrs. Lestrange earlier that month, and he'd been involved with both of them previously. Was the man she was describing with the words selfish, scheming, and cruel him, too? She might not see it because she was his sister and she was blinded by affection, but he — well, he had a history, to say the least.

She finished speaking, and Ben remained quiet for a long moment. No smoke without fire — the meaning there was clear enough, but she had lost him a little at the allegory of the embers. She didn't think he was chasing other women, then, but... she thought maybe he wanted to, and was holding himself back?

Oh. Suddenly this made sense. If he hadn't already been tense he would have tensed — as it was he clenched and unclenched his fist in the air over the arm of his chair. "What did Aldous tell you?" he asked quietly.

The following 3 users Like Reuben Crouch's post:3 users Like Reuben Crouch's post
   Arthur Pettigrew, Melody Crouch, November Malfoy

---

MJ made this <3

Nova was confused and visibly so, at least for her. What had Aldous told her when and about what? What had Aldous told her about the article or something else? The article seemed the most logical conclusion although she didn't know why he'd just to the conclusion she'd spoken to him about already. "I haven't spoken to Aldous yet." What she didn't add was that she wasn't sure whether he'd mention it to her anyway. It wasn't like the elopement, it was surely exaggeration and falsehoods for the most part. Anyhow, she knew her brothers kept her out of the loop where family drama was concerned unless it was so monumental there was no escaping it - like the elopement. They were protecting her and ultimately she was grateful for it, she didn't want to mar her image of her brothers with sordid details but there was no way to know if there things she was kept ignorant of that she would want to know.

"Why?"

---

The following 3 users Like November Malfoy's post:3 users Like November Malfoy's post
   Arthur Pettigrew, Melody Crouch, Reuben Crouch

---

Ben had thought Aldous must have told her, because he didn't think there was any way she could have deduced any of it on her own. She wasn't lying, though; he would have been able to tell if she was lying, he thought (though in all honesty, he didn't think he'd ever heard her lie, so maybe he wouldn't). Which meant that she'd somehow determined that there was some truth to this article without knowing any of the context that Aldous had. And she didn't seem to think that the truth was any of the parts that were true, because she thought too well of him. So when she'd said smothered embers, she'd meant...

"I don't know," Ben said with a flush, worried that he'd put his foot into his mouth and wouldn't be able to back out of it now. "I don't know that I'm following you, exactly."

He leaned in to pour the tea, since it must have finished steeping by now. It gave him something to do for a moment while he considered how he ought to respond. He moved her teacup over to her place and chewed his lip idly as he poured his own tea.

"There's a reason you didn't want Melody here for your visit," he said eventually, once he had replaced the teapot. "And it's not just because you missed me."

  

---

MJ made this <3

It seemed like he was backtracking, what did he think Aldous had told her? What didn't she know and was it important? Interrogation was not Nova's strong point or really anything she'd ever tried with anyone before, she didn't think she was about to start now but she did hope for another opportunity in their conversation to draw it out of him naturally.

All thoughts of whatever Aldous knew went out the window at the mention of Melody. Nova was squirming on the inside. It took serious effort not to look over her shoulder again but this time she didn't, if only because she thought it might upset Reuben. "I cannot be honest with you in front of her, and I think she dislikes me." And if her own suspicions about how their elopement came about resembled the truth in any way then she could never like Melody. "And-" She hadn't assembled the question fully yet but it was on the tip of her tongue. How could she ask it without upsetting him or seeming like she was bitter towards his wife? No matter how it had come about she was still his wife in the end. That was the most tragic thing of all.

---

The following 1 user Likes November Malfoy's post:1 user Likes November Malfoy's post
   Melody Crouch

---

If the purpose of getting him away from Melody for this meeting had been to enable her to speak plainly, Ben wished that she would have been more plain. That wasn't really November's style, he knew; she had always preferred to be indirect and she had been so enamored with metaphors when she read. He thought he'd followed the reference to the embers, but it had apparently lead him to the wrong conclusion, so now he wasn't sure. He'd thought she meant to imply he was flirting with other women because Melody was making him unhappy, but if Aldous hadn't told her anything about that, how could she have known? She must have meant something else. They'd been so fastidious about playing the role of smitten newlyweds... and granted, his performance did sometimes slip, but Nova wasn't around often enough to have seen any of those moments, right? If this had been a conversation with Art or Jake Farley and they'd guessed, maybe it could have been just a guess, but he didn't think Nova was capable of piecing it all together, from what she had.

Then again, she’d just said she wasn't so foolish as people thought. Was he giving her too little credit? Or had he misinterpreted her metaphor entirely, and she meant something else? He couldn't bring himself to say anything of substance in case he had misjudged; he didn't want to incriminate himself unnecessarily.

"And?" he prompted.

  

---

MJ made this <3

"I'm worried for you." Her voice was suddenly hushed, her confidence wavering. "No one believes me." She looked down at her lap where she had clasped her hands as if to wring them. "The one consistency throughout is your unhappiness. I know little of men but I know a lot of brothers, of you, I know that I do. Perhaps Witch Weekly want to make an example of you for breaking with decorum and eloping for love but I cannot believe that is all it is." She'd been silently weeping into her lap for several seconds and didn't want to make it more obvious by looking up but she felt she had to.

"Everyone said such cruel things about you, others said you did it for love, but... in my heart it felt wrong. It feels as though the world has gone mad, Ben, and I am the last sane soul left in it. How are you married before Aldous when you have never expressed a great inclination towards marriage? If it was love why had I never heard her name on your lips or even Aldous'? Had I heard only that you had eloped I would have asked 'with whom'?" It was out now and it just kept coming. A year of trying to block out every malicious piece of gossip, every write off of Reuben's character. She needn't point out now that a child hadn't been the reason, she didn't even want to believe he would have done such a thing with Miss Finch prior to the elopement. "You are not so selfish as to intentionally destroy someone else's life. You would not have wished that fate upon me, I cannot believe you would inflict it upon another."

---

The following 4 users Like November Malfoy's post:4 users Like November Malfoy's post
   Adrestia Dantés, Freddie Prewett, Melody Crouch, Reuben Crouch

---

Her voice dipped to such a low volume that Ben had to lean in to be sure he was able to hear her. Her words surprised him. The one consistency throughout is your unhappiness. Was that true? And more importantly, had it been that obvious? Ben hadn't been actively miserable for the entire year he and Melody had been married. There had been moments of levity, and even occasionally moments of tenderness between the two of them. Would it have been incorrect, though, to have said that he was generally unhappy? That was the whole crux of what he'd confessed to Melody before Christmas, which had lead to all of their fighting through the holiday season. He'd started off pretending to be in love with her, and in many vital ways he never felt like he'd been able to stop pretending. He was just putting it on every morning.

But not anymore. He'd stopped that in January, and now things were going to get better, for real. That had been his plan, anyway... In reality, he'd barely seen Melody. It was hard to build up a foundation for a real, genuine relationship when she couldn't drag herself out of bed half the time. He was still devoted to trying — he still felt he really did love her, or at least that he really could — but as the days wore on with no change in their relationship, nothing to build on, nothing solid for his feet to find purchase against in order to propel him forward down this path... he did worry that maybe the task was too big for him to accomplish. Certainly, he worried that he couldn't do it before the baby came, if this was going to be how things were for her entire pregnancy.

So, yes, he supposed she was right. He had been unhappy, and was still unhappy, despite his best intentions to patch things up. And she was far more perceptive than he had given her credit for. Ben supposed he had always known that about her, but it was one thing to know it in the abstract and another to hear her list out everything she had put together so starkly. Ben had never wanted to marry; he had never talked about Melody; there was no reason to suspect he would have agreed to elope with her. He didn't know what he was supposed to say to any of that, because she was right. He wouldn't have done that to Nova, and would almost certainly have challenged any man who had the gall to try. He had always maintained that marrying him would have ruined Melody's life, and it had. He'd known that, Nova knew that, and she knew that he knew — and apparently she knew him a little better than Aldous did, because she was unwilling to believe that he'd agreed to it.

She was right, but he was going to have to tell her she wasn't. He was going to have to lie to her, and the thought made his stomach sink.

"Oh, Nova, don't," he pleaded quietly. "Don't cry over me. I'm not worth it, honest." Maybe he could work up the courage to lie to her, and maybe he could try hard enough that he could sell it, but he couldn't do it while she was crying.

The following 2 users Like Reuben Crouch's post:2 users Like Reuben Crouch's post
   Arthur Pettigrew, November Malfoy

---

MJ made this <3

"Of course you are, Reuben." All the same she reached into her bag and produced a crisp handkerchief to dab at her eyes with. If she wasn't so wholly convinced that his marriage had come about through some mysterious coercion then she might have been concerned that the first words out of his mouth hadn't been a rebuttal. "I am sorry for crying, but it pains me to think of you treated so ill."

---

The following 2 users Like November Malfoy's post:2 users Like November Malfoy's post
   Arthur Pettigrew, Reuben Crouch

---

She might as well have physically struck him with that — except it probably would have stung less and surprised him less if she had, because she was so small and fragile he didn't imagine that her fist could have half so much bite as this phrase had. It certainly hadn't been her intention, but that idea — it pains me to see you treated so ill — was surprisingly touching. It was misguided, though. Nothing about his current situation had just been inflicted upon him, no matter what he'd told Aldous or what excuses he'd used when trying to convince himself for the past year. It wasn't as though Melody's feelings for him had arisen in a vacuum, and that he'd done nothing to encourage them. He'd ruined her long before their interlude in the closet on Valentine's Day. Not in the traditional, physical sense, maybe, but he'd ruined her emotionally, getting her all caught up in him and in this stupid notion that they could have been happy together. And marrying young women after you'd ruined them was what gentlemen did — was being forced into it by a potion really much different than being forced by her parents or an older brother at wandpoint? He deserved this, was the point. He'd gotten them into this mess just as certainly as Melody had, and now they were in it together — and now that he'd finally woken up to the fact, a year later, they were going to have to sink or swim together. He wasn't a victim in this any more than Melody was.

It pained him, though, to think that he might have to convey this sentiment to Nova. It was touching that she had such an innocent ideal of him, and he didn't want to disabuse her of it, but he didn't see any other way through this conversation.

"I'm not being treated ill, November," he said solemnly but firmly. "I did all of this to myself."

  

---

MJ made this <3