July 2, '76: I Miss Your Shadow: Gracie

[Arnie Peasegood]

▶︎ the whole house in shambles, you stood straight as a beam

"Junior Healer Bones - Roderick, mate, I'm not going to let anything loose, I swear," Arnie wheedled away, trying not to show his frustration at being so close to his target only to find a blockade in the form of his sister's friend. A kind friend of his sister's, granted, but his goal of surprising her with this lunchtime visit could very well be ruined if he didn't get inside before her break! "All the - all the contagions will stay sealed in their jars, the bugs will stay pinned. Just looking to surprise Gracie with my presence, not cause trouble." 

The soon-to-be fifth year wasn't lying, not really. Sure, would he have enjoyed some unsupervised time in the staff lounge of one of the more interesting levels? Who wouldn't, it would be like having a free pass to the Restricted Section! But was he going to risk catching something? Not likely, sir. Flicking his shaggy hair out of his eyes, Arnie looked around in agitation before he shot what some might call a winning smile to the older bloke. St. Mungo's was used to him and his family, especially now that two of them were employed by the hospital, and the lad who took pride in his ability to mentally map routes to go unseen - by prefects and chattier portraits at school, and security and less understanding staff here - found it pleasantly familiar. As pleasantly familiar as a hospital could be. So couldn't he just go in?

If you'd told him just last summer that he'd be here of his own accord to try and spend time with his sister, you would've been treated to a tremendous roll of the eyes. But life at school and life at home turned out to be different without the eldest of their trio around. Dad had become so quiet when she'd moved out, although he denied it, and he'd found himself at odds with Mum more often than not, even though at the end of most arguments it turned out they were trying to get to the same point. And not having Gracie as a prefect? She'd tell him off if he deserved it, sure, but he'd spent far less time in detention when she was there to have his back. So while wanting to grab a bite out with her was a new instinct, Arnie was leaning into it, but swiftly hid himself behind Roderick as he saw his sister turn the corner.

[Roderick Bones]

“If you’re just here to visit your sister, then why did you come to the Healer’s lounge here instead of the second floor?” Roderick asked, an amused grin on his face. It was common knowledge in the hospital that the third floor lounge was superior, and he had to assume that Grace had told her brother that it was where she preferred to take her lunch breaks. Most of their colleagues went to the top floor, where there was a tea room and food. Grace, however, was often here hanging out with him, talking about the latest bug she’d found or working on pinning them into frames to hang around her flat. “Look, Lil’ Peasegood, I can’t just let you into our sacred chambers here at St. Mungo’s. It’s like, what if Grace and I had barged into Ravenclaw Tower?” It was not nearly the same sort of thing, and realistically no one would mind Arnie being there as long as he kept his hands to himself.

Arnie seemed to be ducking behind him, and so Roderick turned to glance down the hall. There was Grace, prompt as usual, not paying attention to where she was going because she was so focused on carrying far too many jars. Roderick could only imagine what types of bugs were in them. He didn’t get her fascination, but she was an excellent Healer. She’d been the one he’d always gone to when he needed help in Herbology, not that he would admit that. He had been the one to apply to the third floor after all, with no surprise as Grace wanting to work with the bugs. “Gracie, you’ve got to stop bringing your bugs to lunch with you,” he said as she approached, taking the jars she forced into his hands, before he stepped to the side.

[Gracie Peasegood]

Pushing out of the lounge on the second floor, Grace avoided some of her fellow junior healers headed to their lunch hour. The second floor wasn’t the bustling place in the hospital, which Grace found nice. It meant that she had time to work with her plants, and her bugs, and she was sure that she was so close to getting some of her more valuable beetles to mate. As much as it crushed her to eventually kill many of her favorite creatures for use in potions and antidotes, she knew it was for the greater good. But her rare beetles would not be ingredients anytime soon if she could help it. Especially not the ones with a pattern she identified as unique, and possibly a breedable gene. But she wouldn’t know until they had baby beetles, and the chance they’d get killed to mix into paste was too great if she left them on the second floor. Besides, Roderick was used to this by now, her coming to see him during lunch with bugs in tow.

This was her first year out of training, and she felt like she had something to prove. The only girl of the family, the eldest child - it felt like a lot was riding on her. Mum had already made a name for herself in the magical world, she was an established mediwitch that people looked up to. She couldn’t destroy the reputation of the Peasegood family because she failed to be the first one to discover how a new bug could be used to heal instead of harm. Her family didn’t really get it - they were supportive, of course, but no one loved the bugs like she did. Her dad was proud of her though, becoming a doctor of some sort, and he was glad she had things she loved in her life. She also thought he was glad that her job took up too much of her time for dating, he’d never handled boyfriends well. It was because of her dedication to her job and the bugs that she spent so much time at the hospital, even working during her lunch. What if one of her rare beetles would be able to be used in a salve to help with dragon pox? The possibilities were unlimited, and even her coworkers on the second floor didn’t love the bugs like she did.

The walk up to the third floor was quick, and she was deep in her thoughts, juggling the jars in her arms as she dodged people in the hall. Turning a corner she spotted Roderick, and she gave him a grin as he glanced at her. The look on his face was enough to know that he had been foolishly hoping that today would be a bug free day, but Veronica had mentioned dissections. Besides, not all of the bugs were alive, she had a butterfly to finish pinning up so that she could display it in her house. “Ick, here take some of these would you?” she said as she approached, rolling her eyes at his words. “I’ll bring my bugs wherever I damn well please, Ick. Now -” Her words were cut short as he stepped to the side, and she spotted the person standing behind him. She was quick to shove the rest of her jars at Roderick, before she pulled Arnie into a tight hug, “Arnie! What are you doing here?”

[Arnie Peasegood]

It was damned hard work keeping a laugh from bubbling out of him as Roderick called him out so amiably, but Arnie was here for the challenge, although he did have to at least allow a grin back. "I have my reasons. And they are many. And they are valid," he snorted in futility, giving a grand roll of the eyes as the older bloke continued. Kill me if Lil Peasegood ever catches on. As the seconds ticked by, any hope of a surprise was draining out of him, and he spread his arms wide in slight desperation. "Would've welcomed you with open arms, mate! The knocker's not all that picky, sure you could've managed a surprise visit at least once!" Grace's entry to the corridor - almost hidden behind the precarious stack of jars in her arms, what was she doing? - was enough to send him scurrying behind Roderick in a last-ditch effort. The jig was shortly up, though, but he couldn't really be that displeased, not with the proper reception he finally received.

"Can't believe I'm saying it, but I'm with him on this," he laughed while being pulled into a hug, returning it tightly. He leaned his head down on top of hers affectionately, always forgetting how tiny his sister really was unless she was by his side, and released her from the hug only to hold her face in his hands. "Your brain's going to be much happier if you give it breaks, Gracie. Surely all of that - " The lad let go to gesture towards the pile in Roderick's arms, flicking a few jars to see if any of the unfortunate creatures were responsive. " - can wait? Doesn't look like they're going anywhere, but we can. Caught myself craving cafeteria food today. What d'you say, free to get lunch with your favorite brother?" 

[Roderick Bones]

”I see. You have many reasons. All valid? Interesting,” Roderick said with a laugh, amused as he thought of how Arnie was now tall enough to look him in the eye, and Gracie had never gotten that tall. But what she lacked in height, she made up for in pure bizarre bug-loving behavior and spite. He’d learned a long time ago that if you told her she couldn’t do something - because she was a girl, because she was a half-blood - it didn’t matter. She would do it out of spite and then hang it over your head. As sweet as she was, the girl was a fighter and always seemingly ready to throw down when drinking. Or if someone killed one of her precious bug experiments, he’d watched her terrorize the entire second floor looking for bugs one day when they’d gone missing. “Lil Peasegood, you can’t just waltz into Ravenclaw tower even if you know the knocker’s riddle question, No one wants to be surrounded by that many books, even your sister.”

Gracie was right on schedule, bugs and all, as expected. And calling him the god awful nickname that he only let her call him because she was like a sister to him. It had started in first year, and she’d never stopped calling him Ick. He’d lay into anyone else who tried to use it though because they didn’t know him like Gracie did. She had been there for him through it all, through his whirlwind romance with Mary MacDonald that he, admittedly, was still trying to recover from, to setting up Bilius with her friend Annette at the last party they’d all had. They were a team, full of inside jokes and mutual hatred of certain Healers. Besides, she was weird, it felt right that she had given him a weird nickname. Unfortunately, she was shoving all her bugs into his arms when she saw her younger brother, and he groaned as he held them all. “You two go get lunch, I’ll bring all your friends back to their homes. But I’m leaving them in the jars, I’m not taking them out,” he told Gracie, knowing a lunch with her brother and a break from the bugs was well deserved.

[Gracie Peasegood]

Wes sometimes came to see her at work, the middle child a recent graduate of Hogwarts and Hufflepuff, but Arnie had never stopped by in the year that she’d been working there. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen him, there had always been breaks and holidays, but it warmed her heart that he had come to see her today. She missed the days at school when she would drag Wes over to the Ravenclaw table, insisting that some mornings the three of them eat breakfast together on the weekends, and catching up on the house gossip with each other. She even missed being the lookout for Arnie and Benji’s innocent pranks, not that she would admit that to him. She had been a Prefect after all, and it was her job to make sure students were behaving. But her brother and his best friend were harmless, it didn’t seem right to give them detentions when Slytherin’s were always creating bad situations. She did try not to judge anyone for the house they were sorted into because there were some wonderful people who had been in that house. Take Andromeda, for example, her friend from last year one of the shining lights in her life.

Both Roderick and her brother were complaining about her bringing bugs, and she laughed at her brother’s words as he flicked one of the jars. Roderick was kindly offering to take her bugs back to their homes, or near their homes at least, and she grinned at her longtime friend, “Just don’t let anyone cut them open, Vee was making vague threats towards my beetles.” She slipped her arm around Arnies, waving to Roderick as he left, and steered them towards the nearest lift. “Free lunch on you sounds great, I’m so happy you came to visit. How’s the house holding up without me?” Living at home during her first year of training has been wonderful, and superb on her wallet. But it was nice having a flat of her own, even though she missed the presence of her brothers. She did wonder if Wes would be staying at home or moving, she did have two rooms, with hopes that she could get a roommate at some point. Bilius and Roderick had so much fun together, it made her jealous. And while their bachelor pad was great for parties where they all got sloshed, hers was nice for dinners with her parents and more sophisticated adult parties. Not that she had thrown any yet. Soon she would have to have them both over, maybe cook dinner. If she could get a day off. And figure out how to cook. It wasn’t as if her father hadn’t taught her all his secret cooking abilities, she just preferred to do things with magic. But anything she cooked never seemed to turn out quite right.

They stepped onto the lift, joining others heading up for lunch, a sea of mostly green robes and people looking over charts. Arnie was right, she did need to give her brain a break - or else she was going to burn herself out. But it was hard to not dedicate her time to her bugs and her patients. She was a good healer because she cared so much. “How were your last days of fourth year? Catch me up, do you have a girlfriend? Or a crush, maybe?” Arnie’s puppy love for Athena had not gone unnoticed by her in past years, the older sister of her brother’s best friend quite a beautiful sight to behold. But she’d never teased him about it, she wanted her brother’s to trust her with this kind of information. She’d always tried to be honest with them about her feelings (if they asked).

[Arnie Peasegood]

"No one wants to be - Roderick Bones," Arnie exhaled, aghast, and began gesticulating widely in the active hall, "it's like you're living in a library. So your bed's right there, and your resources are right there, and the stars are right there, and your friends are right there - it's perfection." He'd not always been fond of his House, initially finding the upperclassmen off-putting with their unnecessarily complex and excluding language that went in one ear, swirled around as he tried to lock in on a recognizable root, and blew out the other in disgrace more often than not. They were not at all what he wanted to be doomed to become, too big for his britches, but thankfully saw overtime that those students were in the minority. And perhaps he'd been trying to find reasons to dislike his House, seeing as he'd been separated from his siblings when they each went off to school, and again so soon off the train. Hiding behind the Hufflepuff graduate won him no points in defense of his accepted House, but the joke was up soon enough, Rod being a dear and leaving them to sibling shenanigans and taking the bugs with him. "Later, Ick!" Arnie called in tease as he left arm-in-arm with his sister.

The gangly lad matched Grace's step as she steered them to the nearest lift, and he gave a great roll of the eyes - who'd said he'd be paying? fine, twist his arm - but had to laugh as she asked about the house. "Five-legged table, right? Think we'd be alright short one of them, but it's gone all wobbly," he started, elbow up at his ears and wrist down at an uncomfortable angle before letting it fall to his side. "We've just got to figure out a new way to balance, but it's weird right now. It'll be alright - summer's short, then they'll have rejigger again with Wes, without me. What was it like when it was just you?" 

He squeezed in beside her on the lift, Healers left-right-sideways, and tried not to laugh too loudly. Only Gracie would ask about his nonexistent love life surrounded by, thankfully, strangers. And Healer Murtaugh. He shot their mother's friend an embarrassed grin before answering. "Nothing like watching the fifth years suffer through their O.W.L.s and realize that's you next year," he chuckled. "Some seriously sleep-deprived fifth years, seriously. They were either losing it or nonplussed, seemed like. And I'm...playing the long game," he decided, more confidently than he felt. "Not pining after anybody, just, y'know, doing what makes me happy and hoping it'll bring somebody in. Sometime. Whatever happened to you and Bill?" A masterful diversion, Arnie continued, "Liked him best of anybody you were with. You crazy kids give it another shot since graduation?"

[Gracie Peasegood]

Whatever detailed conversation her brother and best friend were having ended before she arrived, and Grace made a mental note to see what exactly Roderick had been giving her brother a hard time about. Whatever it was, she knew her brother could easily hold his own and she laughed as he used her nickname for Roderick as he walked away. She owed Roderick a drink as thanks for the fact he was taking her bugs back safely to their home. Lunch with her youngest brother was far better than a lunch spent sorting out her bugs, even if she was slightly obsessed with the beetles that she hoped would soon be eggs. Grace missed being at home with her brothers, and so she was pleased that Arnie had sought her out. She knew things at home had to be different now that she wasn’t around, and a laugh escaped her as Arnie described it as a five-legged table. That was accurate, and it was heartwarming to hear that it felt weird for her to not be there. “It was too quiet when it was just me,” she admitted with a grin up to her brother, “Although I doubt it will be the same when you are back and school and it’s just Wes there to cause trouble.”

She sent a smile to their mother’s friend and they found space on the lift, knowing that her tease to Arnie would be returned in some manner. She remembered her sleep-deprived fifth year quite well, staying up late with Roderick going over their notes and quizzing each other. Becoming a Healer was a rather competitive field - perhaps not as competitive as the Auror department - but they’d both needed to be on top of her game. And Grace knew both of her brothers were smarter than they believed they were, so she wasn’t worried at all about Arnie’s fifth year. He was their resident Ravenclaw after all. “Well, I do still have all my notes if you would like them, but I’m sure you are going to do fantastic,” she said with a smile, only to have it become a smirk as he pried about her love life as she had done to him. She didn’t miss the looks some of her colleagues shot her as Arnie mentioned Bill, and she shook her head enthusiastically. “Bill has just started seeing Annette Greengrass, you remember her yeah? Just graduated with Wes, and I introduced the two of them. Besides, I’m too busy for dating right now. Just me and my bugs.”

The lift came to a halt, and she waited for others to exist before she led them out onto the top floor. The smell of teas was pleasant, the area bustling with Healers on their lunch breaks. “In all seriousness, it’s good to see you, Arnie,” she said as they joined the queue for food, “I’ve missed you and Wes both, although I doubt he will be showing up at the hospital any time soon. But the two of you should come by and see my flat, I promise the bugs will all stay in their boxes.”

[Arnie Peasegood]

Arnie returned his sister's grin, almost in disbelief. Their house - quiet? As it was never that way even when he was the only one home, the lad found it difficult to believe. Then again, with their parents working, and Gracie deep in her Healer studies, there wouldn't have been much time or space for frivolity or arguments. She did far less wrong than he and Wes did anyway, so it seemed a safe bet at least that it had been...peaceful. More than what he anticipated awaited their brother when it was his turn. "Best get a cot ready for him at yours, don't think he'll be spending much time at home alone if he can help it. Make it two, by the time I'm out?" Arnie added hopefully, grin stretching. He and Wes weren't as focused in their career dreams as the wisest among them, certainly they'd need some time to determine what they wanted to do, and while they were working here or there figuring it out - what a lark it would be to stay together!

The lift rattled and rocked its way through the hospital, and Arnie did his best to keep his limbs to himself, smirking as his sister offered her own notes. And greater still, when she so eagerly, emphatically, enthusiastically made excuses for why she and Bill were not together. If she really was happy doing her thing, and they could all just be mates - that was grand, truly. And maybe the ex's had seemed like a bigger deal to him than they had really been. They'd dated on and off for a while, and stopped, and seemed happy enough palling about. He'd been even greener, and he and his mates still hadn't really done more than waded into the shallows of the dating pool. Doc and Hestia had something indefinable going on, but other than that... "That wouldn't be cheating, Prefect Peasegood?" he gasped, tempting as it was to snag her notes. Her penmanship put his to shame, so there was no chance of turning in her work as his own - but the professors didn't mix it up all that much, from what he could tell, and surely she'd taken the content down well. "The lady doth protest too much, methinks," Arnie teased under his breath, before holding his hands up in peace as his chest shook with quiet laughter at the look on her face. "You and your bugs, then, just you and your bugs!"

He followed Grace's lead, waiting for the lift to clear out before exiting with her, and turned to her with a grin as they joined the queue. It really was something to see her in this space now in Junior-Healer-Green robes - weren't they just left here by mum a few minutes ago, told to stick to one table and not make a fuss? And now Gracie was getting all trained up to take care of everybody herself? If they all had their backs to him, could he still pick her out of the crowd? Sure, they'd all had their uniforms at school too, but this was just - this was different, special, and strange. "It's always serious," he affirmed, "and it's good to see you too. And you never know, we might break something - it's a joke, we could handle that, it's just Espikey - I'm joking." Chuckling to himself and the highly amused gaggle of Healers in the queue, Arnie took up a tray and started helping himself to the familiar lineup. "Be grand to see your place, though, really - leave it to me, I'll wrangle Wes."