w o r r i e s (open)

[gage]

Gage, like a good chunk of the wizarding world, was concerned about what had happened- the attacks on both the auror office and the Hogwarts grounds, and with them being both so close together. This "new evil" as the media was calling it was bold, and from the looks of it growing stronger with each passing day. The rumours of course, didn't help the general panic the public was now facing. Gage had even taken up a subscription to the Prophet, just so he might learn something once everyone else had. He would glance at headlines, though nothing else had occurred yet, skim through the obituaries to make sure there weren't any familiar names.

Thus far, Gage considered himself lucky, nothing had directly effected him or the people he was close to. His parents, the muggles that they were, remained oblivious, and didn't even inquire although he figured it was more than likely obvious something was wrong. How much Gage had elected to hang around the house that holiday rather than vacate it... But that morning he had been unable to stand it, and had jumped on a train to London, to one of those little coffee shops, just for the sake of getting out of the house.

In jeans, trainers, and a heavy winter coat, Gage blended seamlessly into the muggles. The poor, oblivious muggles that had no idea what might possibly happen around them. Thus far, this "new evil" had yet to effect them, though Gage had the nasty feeling that sometime soon, something would. Gage sat down at a corner table with his coffee and a pastry, watching the muggles in the shop without really paying attention to them, he was too lost in his own thoughts. Gage was only brought out of his thinking when the bell over the door dinged, and he saw a surprisingly familiar face come in from the cold.

[tain]

Tain was frantic. Everything in his life was just getting too complicated so he had run away, someone his age had just left the house in the morning and run off to London with the excuse of buying school books for his siblings. He had bought the books and had the prophet out over the top of them, half of it was colored in highlighters with his ideas of where and when another attack would come and the rest of the highlighters was ways to keep his family safe. He was going to break down if he didn't pick himself up soon.

He spotted a little coffee shop out of the way and pushed through the door quickly, his cloak didn't seem too out of place among the muggles as it was the middle of winter which he was thankful for. He took a seat at a small table and then looked around as he felt eyes on him, he shrugged off his clock and dropped it over his chair as he caught a pain of eyes looking at him. He knew the face of the boy but couldn't remember where from so just gave a small wave in an attempt to say hi without actually having to go and say it

[gage]

The young man that had walked in looked somewhat familiar to Gage, he was obviously a few years older, though not by much- he appeared to be in his early twenties while Gage was, as of October, just eighteen. That made him one of the older students in Hogwarts, though he didn't mind, a good handful of his fellow seventh years would also be turning eighteen before they graduated. Gage frowned when he saw the look on the young man's face, he looked more worried than he himself was. Of course, these days, it wasn't saying much- it seemed everyone was holding their breaths, waiting for something to happen to them.

Gage took the wave of greeting as an invitation to go over. Truth be told, ever since the holidays had started he had been craving more contact with the wizarding world than what he was able to get at his parents' house. Sure, he had Emily, but she was also a muggleborn, and frequently just as in the dark as he was. He vacated his table to go over to the man whose name he couldn't quite remember. "You all right, mate?" asked Gage, it was a dumb question, but he looked particularly on edge.

[tain]

Tain looked over to the till area and noticed that no one had come over to him so nodded to the boy behind till and he looked up and saw him before nodding back, as he turned to tell someone to serve the new guy, the boy Tain thought he knew came over. Tain waved his hand over the only other empty seat at the table and then forced a weak smile as the other boy spoke to him ,"I'd say good but I'd be lying, what about yourself?" Tain asked with a little sigh at the end of his words.

The waitress had now come over and Tain looked up and then pointed to a hot chocolate on the menu and then a rather over filled chocolate cake at the till and the girl nodded before walking away and talking to the other working girls. Tain hated chatting girls, they were always so annoying. So he looked back to his new companion and then leaked a small smile ,"I warn you now, I'm not going to be very good company. Im having a bit of a stressful time in life at the moment"

[gage]

Gage frowned, he wasn't sure what he was expecting to hear from this guy, though the blunt honesty had sort of taken him off guard. It was an answer that he himself might have given if someone were to ask him, but Gage had been known for his say-it-like-it-is kind of attitude. He wasn't one to sugar coat or beat around the bush, if something was bothering him, he would say it. He took the out of place answer as a cue to sit down at the table with the vaguely familiar man. He still wasn't sure how to place him, but he knew that he had seen him before.

"About the same as everyone else, like we're all paranoid that something like those attacks is going to happen any second," Gage responded with a shrug. But that was the problem, with this new force of evil something like that could, quite conceivably happen without warning. He sipped his coffee, taking a quick look at the poor, unsuspecting muggles before looking back at the man, he still couldn't come up with a name. "Seems everyone is, except maybe them," said Gage, of course referring to the muggles around them, "ignorance is bliss, eh?"

[tain]

Tain gave a little but dark chuckle, "they just get to worry about little things where as even the little things I worry about turn out huge" he said as he looked to the table next to him. A young girl with blonde plaits ran over the man sitting at it and jumped on to his knees and gain her a sickening feeling in his chest and he turned sharply back to the table when it hit him. "your a gryffindor aren't you? That's how I know you, you know my little sister nix" he said with a small smile at having working it out before the normal grimace fell on to his face again, he couldn't think about her without feeling awful anymore.

She had owled him only this morning to say that she wasn't hiding it anymore and since the teachers already knew, she could deal with the students knowing as it was due in only two months now. But he still couldn't bring himself to reply to her, he knew from rumours that there was another guy she liked and so he felt bad about including himself in her life again. Her older adoptive brother couldn't even talk to his sister, all because of one mistake

[gage]

Gage shrugged, not quite sure what the man had meant by that. To him, at least at that moment, a muggle life seemed fairly inviting. Away from all the worries, the wild rumours, the possibility of a new war on their hands. That was what frightened Gage the most, he wasn't sure how he, or anyone else for that matter, would be able to handle it. He had half-thought about going abroad, but had realized he didn't want to leave Emily behind. She was too important to him. And he knew there was no way in heaven or hell he would be able to get her to leave school before she had graduated.

"Oh, that's why you looked familiar," said Gage, remembering that Nix had pointed him out before. But what the hell was his name? Gage couldn't remember for the life on him. He took a sip of his coffee, now thinking on his redheaded classmate. She was a damn good chaser, and the captain their team needed. He felt bad for next year's Gryffindor team, they wouldn't have her or him since they would be leaving school.

[tain]

Tain gave a little smile and then looked back at the boy ,"either you don't know who I am or you haven't seen nix recently" he said with a slightly bitter edge to his voice. "I guess I may as well tell you as she's telling everyone else now, I'm Tain forest. The father of nixs unborn cold who's due in february, I haven't spoken to her or owled her about it since she told me in September" he said in a bitter voice

He dropped his head back into his hand and clawed at his hair before he felt the familiar pain in his chest, he felt like he wanted to cry but he had run out of tears months ago now. He couldn't bring himself to talk her her because of what she had said that night and then admitted in her owl, he knew someone else was with her now and he thought it would be better if he just allowed her to move on from him and just allow their child their best life. A life away from him

[gage]

Gage sipped his coffee, unsure of what to make of this situation which was growing slightly awkward. But for so long he had been craving face-to-face interaction with another wizard who was not a muggleborn like himself (and thus likely out of the loop), though this guy did not seem to be too eager to discuss current events. Not that they were particularly pleasant, though Gage was now finding that he would much rather hear about what was going on first hand- instead of reading about the Ministry-censored version of it from the Prophet. Call him conspiracy-obsessed, but he had a feeling deep in his gut that a lot more was going on than what the Ministry was saying.

It was only a matter of time, he felt, before things would really go haywire. Hence why he had been debating on leaving the country, it seemed to be a good idea to him. Gage forcefully swallowed a mouthful of coffee, coughing a bit as he had nearly choked on it. Nix hadn't told him who the father was, but to hear that it was the guy in front of him, Tain Forest... For once in his life he didn't know what to say, or even think. "Erm, okay," said Gage.

[tain]

Tain gave a small hiss at himself before lifting his head and looking at the other boy again, "now these attacks coming to light and the damned newspaper hiding it all form us, im worried about my siblings. All of them are muggleborns, or we think they are atleast. Now the business in the shop is going down and i have the baby to worry over and keeping the other four safe, im really not going to be good company for you" he said in a tight voice that showed his stress all too well.

The sounds of footsteps turned his head towards the counters, the waitress was back with his cake and drink. he nodded to her in thanks before dipping a hand in to his pocket and taking out a £20 and just handing it to her, she wandered back to the counter and tain grabbed his cake fork with a savage movement and then stabbed at it a few times before spearing a bit. "chocolate can only do so much" he said in a low voice to himself as he spotted another muggle reading their own paper, nothing in there about things he needed to worry about anymore

[gage]

Gage coughed a few more times to clear his throat, his chest felt a little strange from nearly inhaling his coffee. If he hadn't felt awkward before, he certainly did now. What was he supposed to say? Gage could tell that Nix was upset, even though she did hide it well, and if it was his baby... It wasn't right of him to be ignoring her. But with the particular state Tain was in, Gage didn't think that he should bring it up right now. Truthfully, he didn't even feel that he should be hanging around him, maybe he ought to leave.

Gage took a more cautious sip of his coffee, this time being more aware of his swallowing so he wouldn't come close to choking on it again. "Wish I knew what to tell you mate," sighed Gage, figuring it was the only non-offensive thing that he could say. He sipped his coffee again, unsure of how to politely excuse himself from the shop, he couldn't just up and leave...

[tain]

Tain reached a hand out and grabbed his drink and pulled it over to him and took a deep breath in, he picked up the small spoon that came with his drink and then he scooped a little bit of cream off the top of his drink and then put it agains this mouth and then just put his spoon back down again. He rolled his eyes at himself and then scooped the whole of the top of the cream off and stuck it in his mouth and then swallowed slowly ,"it's a bad day when her chocolate cream is unappealing" he said in a low mutter before he then put the spoon down.

"I told you that you wouldn't wanna stay" he said as he lifted his head up and looked at the younger boy and then his drink and took a sip before he nodded towards the door. "you dont have to stay if you don't wanna" he said with a little sigh and then he put his drink down again

[gage]

Gage absently traced the design on the side of his cup with a forefinger, hardly aware that he was doing it. Anyone that had spent more than ten minutes with him knew it was near impossible for the boy to sit still, he almost always had to be doing something. Squirming in his seat, bouncing his leg up and down, tapping the tip of his quill against the paper, or even rapidly flipping through the pages of whatever book he had out if he were in class. Gage was a busybody in most regards, extremely active even for teenage male standards- hence why he felt he was well-suited for professional Quidditch.

That and he knew he could fly, and fly well. May simply wasn't coming quickly enough, he was more than eager to get out of the school and start getting paid for his real talent. He would be sad to leave Emily behind, of course, but he didn't want to hang around the school. He drained the rest of his coffee, glad to be given the excuse to leave. He glanced at the clock, though didn't look long enough to properly decipher the time. His dyslexia had always made it hard for him to read clocks. "I'd best be going anyway," said Gage, standing up, "I'll see you around."

[tain]

Tain gave a stiff nod as he heard gage speak again. He had been thinking about the baby again, he often found himself wondering about it. Would it have his eyes of hose of it's mother? Would it have their same red hair? Would it have her love of qudditch and animals or his love of brooms and maths? He saw a little girl with nix's looks yet his freckles when he though of the bay but she was always crying, he also felt that it was his fault thar she was upset

He looked back across the table to the other boy and then looked around carefully and held his hand out ,"good luck for the future, make sure to keep yourself safe" he said with a double meaning. Firstly it seemed to be a friendly gesture and then second, It acted as a warning that the wizard world was not safe for anyone at the moment and he would need to be on edge and alert to keep himself safe

[gage]

Gage bit his lip slightly, not quite sure what to do with the information that he had been given. On one hand he felt that he ought to be furious, Tain had made all of Nix's problems and had been ignoring her. He would fight for his friends, but right now was one of the rare times that logic was appealing to him. That was a really stupid idea. That and he was still a student, this guy had been out of school a couple years and would have more experience on Gage. That and he didn't really seem a threat at the moment. The guy just seemed lost to him, confused.

"You too, mate," said Gage, taking Tain's hand and giving it a firm shake before vacating his chair. He ran a hand through his hair, wanting to say something else, not just leaving it at that. He looked Tain straight in the eye, very serious expression on his face. "Just talk to her, okay?" said Gage, "nobody needs to feel like they're alone right now." He left it at that and walked toward the door, buttoning his coat as he went, and not taking another look back at Tain.