November 18th, 1893 - Three Broomsticks

Reaching out to Theo had been twofold; one they had been friends for a while and Alvin was doing his best to tend to his roots in Hogsmeade lest he get any ideas to take off again. Two, since he and Penny were working together on some new designs together, he thought Theo's connections to the quidditch world would be something Alvin could pick his brain about. He'd been out of touch for too long and despite his father's position as a coach in the league, Alvin didn't like to shoehorn Carson into one loyalty over another. Plus he wasn't entirely sure he wanted his parents to know he was slinking back into broommaking again just yet. Just in case things didn't work out.

The pub wasn't too busy this afternoon, so Alvin grabbed a table near the bar and ordered himself a butterbeer. He hadn't touched true alcohol since his accident and he planned to keep it that way. With a packet of broom designs in hand, he was ready to see if Theo had any ideas about what players were looking for in a broom these days, but also rather thought it would be good of them to simply catch up. Alvin had been in a fog every since his accident and the clouds had only grown darker after Sloane, and then Wally. The need to drag himself up by his bootstraps was so strong that he felt like he was finally starting to make headway. Not to mention he was fairly certain his mother couldn't handle another child who wasn't alright.

Watching the door, he saw Theo make his way in and stood to greet his friend with a handshake and a wild smile. "Been a while," he said mostly by way of apology, smile slipping into a little bit of a grimace. "How've you been?" He motioned for Theo to join him as he took his own seat again. "Team doing alright?" Alvin had always tried to stay somewhat neutral in the quidditch world when he was making brooms, but it was hard between his own family and his friends sometimes.

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Theodore Gallivan

  

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this delightful Alvin set brought to you by MJ

It was rare Theo felt like the more cheerful part of any conversation, but he couldn’t even be too pleased about that today – he felt like the Bixby family might as well be cursed. Any one of their children’s accidents would have been bad enough, but there had been Alvin’s, and then Sloane, and Wallace in the dragons. (The quidditch world was a small one, sometimes.)

And he was glad to see him, but he hadn’t seen Alvin often enough yet to have any grasp on how he was coping right off the bat, so Theo had come in curious and careful and a little wary. But he shrugged off the been a while, because if there was one thing he could do for a friend, it was to prove himself low effort company.

“I’m alright,” Theo said lightly, honestly. “The team’s good, actually.” You’re not keeping up with the league these days, then? He almost asked, but caught himself – what with his siblings and their general closeness to flying, to the sport, it might be a sore spot. He wasn’t sure. “You want a full run-down of our last match,” Theo said instead, making a joke of it, “or are you willing to take my word for it?” He could do it, in full blow-by-blow detail, if Alvin wanted, but he wouldn’t subject him to it unasked.

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"I'll take your word for it," Alvin got enough quidditch talk at home. His father's coaching position demanded some sort of attention to the league itself, but Alvin hadn't exactly had the time nor the inclination. Keeping himself busy was almost a full time job and he needed the distractions to keep him going. "Glad to hear it though." Theo taking over the team at such a young age seemed like every Hogwarts student's dream, but Al knew it had to be a lot of work, especially when Theo had already set his sights on the auror department.

"Been a little out of touch with it, well, as much as one can be when there's a coach in the house," Alvin chuckled, spinning his butterbeer idly on the table. "Hoping to get back into it a little bit, dipping my toes back into designing brooms." He hadn't meant to jump right into the heart of it, but he knew small talk with someone like him was difficult these days. Too much tragedy in his family, too much heartache. Nobody wanted to say the wrong thing or cause any upset, even though Alvin was pretty thick-skinned. He appreciated the forethought anyway.

Flexing the fingers of his band hand under the able, he was still a little lost on missing out on the part of the job he'd loved the most, but even being to design and help with the charmwork was something. It was more than he'd had in well over a year at this point and he desperately needed something to keep him going.

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this delightful Alvin set brought to you by MJ

Theo laughed, understandingly – he had sort of guessed that Alvin wouldn’t have been able to escape, even if he’d wanted to. Meanwhile, Theo did actually like talking about quidditch again these days – it had become comfortable, easy, more painless than most things – but he also did spent a lot of time talking tactics.

But Bixby’s next remark saw his expression brighten, as pleased as he was surprised. How that was quite feasible, after his accident, he didn’t know... but it had been a passion of his even at Hogwarts, so – if it was true, that was good. That was really good for him.

“Oh yeah?” Theo echoed, tilting his head in curiosity. “How’re you getting on?”

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Pleased that Theo appeared to think the idea positive, Alvin shrugged a little "I can still design," he waggled the fingers on his good hand. It was fortunate it was his dominant hand that hadn't been injured. Not having both was the struggle with actually fashioning the brooms themselves, but he could still draw. Alvin couldn't even lift his pint with his bad hand, the grip was far too weak and the glass too heavy, which also attributed to an inability to old onto a broom to carve or sand, or even hold a gauge for that matter.

"Sort of struck up a partnership with Miss Penelope Fawcett." Penny had been the year ahead of him, so two years ahead of Theo, but she was no stranger to the quidditch world either. "She was abroad apprenticing for a while." Just like he had been before he'd accidentally imploded his career. "She's been working with Grimstone too, but we've struck up a sort of agreement. I can do everything but the actual crafting." Which was better than nothing, he'd come to realize after a long bout of self-loathing and hopelessness. "I've been painting to get by financially," which was slightly embarrassing, but anything to have his own income. "But finding I still prefer sketching and now I can do something with it again." Even if crafting and creating had been the part he'd enjoyed the most, having anything to do with the process these days was enough.

Being on the design end wasn't so bad, especially when he had Penny to bounce ideas off of. Not to mention they could piece out the charmwork together. He'd always been pretty good at it, but was finding two heads were better than one.

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this delightful Alvin set brought to you by MJ