human nature | renard

[bryelle rose goyle]

━ are you, a dream or an illusion? ━

february 2028

IT HAD BEEN ALMOST TWO years since Bryelle and Sami finally spoke things out regarding their house party and well..began dating. It was awkward at first, given it was one of Bryelle's first same-sex relationships. She had a few flings here and there during her time in Hogwarts, with men and women alike, but nothing was as serious as this. Despite all of that, the younger Goyle was now stressed about one thing and one thing only. What in Merlin's name do you buy your girlfriend for your almost second anniversary?

Bryelle almost missed the first one. As bad as it sounded to say, the Gryffindor alum knew everything that Samira liked and yet, still couldn't pick a gift until days before. Low and behold, the Goyle was in the same position a year later. Conflicted with her options and up to her ears with stress from HIT witch training, Bryelle decided the best thing to do for the day was irritate her brother at his line of work of course.

As the elevator opened to the floor of the Beast Division department, Bryelle stepped out, her combat boots making the faintest of sounds as she walked across the office - in hopes in finding her brother. She couldn't remember if he had his own office or a small cubicle but it didn't matter, as she was quick to find the older Goyle anyway. "Renard!" She said, rather excitedly. "Please can I steal you for..five minutes? Maybe fifteen? An hour?"

| renard walt goyle |

hopefully this works!!

[renard walt goyle]

▲

Renard felt like he had become too good at his job over the years. That sounded like a great thing to most he told about his career at the Ministry, but they didn't understand. Being too efficient in the Beast Division meant that he handled considerably more dangerous creatures in a daily basis than one should ever in a lifetime. For example, the events of the previous day: three escaped Demiguise that had been illegally brought into London by an unsanctioned magical circus. Normally that would be all fine and well for most 'peaceful' creatures, yet there were worries about news spreading to poachers that would hunt them down for their pelts. Disgustingly, there was still a trade for them in the invisibility cloak black market.

There were also very few individuals within the Ministry that were competent enough to capture a demiguise to begin with, and unfortunately he was one of them. And that was all well and fine if there was only one demiguise to catch. But three? Merlin himself wouldn't even be able to do that in an average work day. Renard could though. He applied several groundbreaking techniques to shock and awe his invisible little monkey friends, one of which included slipping on a banana peel while simultaneously getting slapped in the face by a self-slapping spatula purchased from Weasleys Wizard Wheezes just for this occasion. The little bugger didn't see that one coming at all. No one ever did with the self-slapping spatula according to the ad-line on the packaging.

Overall, three Demiguise in a day was exhausting but not the worst thing in the world. What the ringleader of the magical circus forgot to mention the day prior though, was that they'd also brought in a Hidebehind, initially mistaking it for a larger Demiguise. They looked nothing alike. Based on his department's records, they'd only dealt with a Hidebehind twice before, the first being almost a century prior in a similar smuggling operation gone awry, and the more recent being when members were on hand for the Hidebehind that was used during the Triwizard Tournament. The former had very little notes on what was done to locate it, other than a note saying two muggle children had been eaten before it was finally found in a wooded area close to the crime scene. To say he was stressed would be an understatement.

"What?" he snapped without looking up from his desk, not realizing that it was his sister that was standing there until she finished speaking. He immediately felt bad because the energy she was bringing was overly positive considering the foul mood he was currently in. "Sorry...someone let loose an extremely dangerous creature yesterday and I've barely gotten any sleep because of it." And wouldn't be until it was caught. As long as Ondina didn't push his buttons when he got home. Speaking of, sleeping at his desk would surely be preferable to dealing with her tonight. "I can do maybe fifteen if that's fine. I need a break anyways, he said, quickly checking his watch. After that, he was out to a potential sighting that had been called in an hour earlier.

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[bryelle rose goyle]

━ are you, a dream or an illusion? ━

WITH EYEBROWS FURROWING AS HER brother snapped at her, Bryelle soon relaxed as he too realised that she wasn't just a stranger trying to bother him but...his younger sister. Just as the younger Goyle opened her mouth to point out Renard's attitude, he immediately apologised which only resulted in Bryelle smiling small. Growing up, Bryelle had her fair share of spats and discipline moments with her brother, especially as he raised her a million times better than their useless parents. "Well..I'll forgive you if you buy me dinner later." Bryelle countered, her lips growing into a grin.

"Only fifteen minutes?..Surely we can't fake a death in the family for something a little longer?" She asked, slightly pouting. Since starting her HIT witch training, she felt like moments spent with her brother were hard to come by lately. But fifteen minutes was not enough for the younger Goyle to spill out her emotional guts on while she absolutely loves her girlfriend - she has no clue what to get for their anniversary - and fifteen minutes was definitely not enough for a life update altogether. "It's important anyway, since you're married and all and have been for some time.." The reminder of it all was painful no less.

| renard walt goyle |

sorry for the wait!!

[renard walt goyle]

▲

How Renard had managed to make it this far into his life without having an ulcer due to stress was honestly impressive. Between work, Ondina, his parents, and the budding alcoholism and nicotine addicted lifestyle he held, it was bound to happen. But it hadn’t yet, and the stress still continued. Something would kill him eventually. His bets were on his wife. “Today?” he asked about the dinner. “I don’t…maybe.” It wasn’t like he ever spent time with Ondina at night. That was a complicated ordeal that he tried not to think about throughout the day. A mess that had become even messier than when it started almost two years ago. Renard blew a long exhale out of his nose as he leaned back in his desk chair, already wondering what it was exactly that his sister needed him for.

In Bryelle’s defense, she didn’t know that the entire department was looking for this Hidebehind. Those details were trying to be kept quiet for the time being, at least until someone turned up dead. That, unfortunately, was how the Ministry liked to work. Pretend everything was perfectly fine until there were bodies strewn on the floor from some sort of preventable disaster. Luckily that hadn’t been much of an issue for him since he’d started in the department, as all of the attention the last several years had been on the Aurors and Hit department for failing to stop people from blowing up.

Anyways, fifteen minutes – maybe even five minutes – was certainly long enough for his Hidebehind pal to slaughter a small child or two, so it wasn’t like they’d get the details on that for a while. He had his magic phone thing too, which meant he was able to be reached should anything actually happen. “Can’t make any promises for how long I’ll have. If I get a call, I have to take it,” he stated rather seriously. Which wasn’t completely unlike him, but it had an added tone of urgency that he normally lacked. He wasn’t sure what Bryelle meant by him being married and whatnot, unless it was news that his lovely wife had expired. Merlin, that would be his highlight of the week. “Where are we going?” Renard added as he scribbled a note and stuck in square center on his desk in case anyone needed to know where he was. Knowing the way things worked around here, this was literally when the Hidebehind was going to show itself.

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[bryelle rose goyle]

━ are you, a dream or an illusion? ━

ROLLING HER EYES AT HER brother's expected answer, Bryelle decided to compromise. "It..doesn't need to be today, it can be tomorrow..next week..next month..next year..you know, when your dragon wife will actually let you see your family." Regardless of it, discussing dinner plans or shaming Renard's wife was far from her purpose of being here.

The real purpose was to burden him with questions about the perfect gift for ones girlfriend..yet just from talking, the younger Goyle felt it was odd to even ask such a question to her brother. "Fineee." Bryelle whined, looking over at the elevator as he asked where they were going.

Bryelle looked back then, noticing the pen and post-it-note in hand, probably for his colleagues to note on. "Downstairs, they got coffee near the elevator. So if you..really need to leave you'll be able to just head back upstairs."

| renard walt goyle |

sorry for the wait!!

[renard walt goyle]

▲

"I'm working on it," he grunted in response. Merlin, he despised Ondina. If she just told him when she was visiting her parents ahead of time, then he could make visiting Bryelle a more regular thing. But apparently that was all part of her game. Keep him on his toes all the time. Ondina forgot that he had some degree of power in their marriage. He didn't want to flippantly use the Vow though. It needed to be kept for the most important of situations. When he already had the high ground and needed to cut her down again. There was nothing healthy about their relationship, and at this point they would both benefit by calling it quits. Whatever.

Despite what his sister was saying, talking did have to happen now. It was the only chance she was going to get for the foreseeable future. They could pencil in dinner for any given day down the road, but if there was any spontaneous meetups, they would have to be like this.

"That stuff is swill," Renard mumbled as he looked over his desk one last time. "We'll hop over to Horizont. That's still close enough." And a possible lead to where the Hidebehind could be. Getting the call and already being there would score him some points for sure. He was due for a promotion in the department anyways. Seven years, and while he supervised interns and new hires frequently enough, he hadn't been truly
bumped up to the next level yet. As long as it happened before thirty, he was fine with that. He wasn't exactly hurting for money anyways. "We can take floo. The direct jump there got cleaned recently. No soot at all. Never thought I'd see the day," he said as he started heading towards the floo network area. And it was easier than doing side-along apparition. With both of them capable these days, he liked choosing the simplest solution.

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[bryelle rose goyle]

━ are you, a dream or an illusion? ━

SLIGHTLY SMIRKING AT HER BROTHER'S response, she felt somewhat proud to be raised by him. He was more of a father figure than their own father anyway. Regardless, she had no business in her brother's marriage, nor did she care to know the details. But the suspicion that Ondina was hated across the board was secretly acknowledged. "Noted, will keep the books open in between dragon wife's schedule."

Following behind her brother as he already took off, Bryelle couldn't help but grin. "Horizont it is!" She chimed, catching up to his pace. "No soot?..The last time I've heard of such a thing was when we cleaned our area." Using floo in the Goyle family home was common, but given the dunces within their family it was up to Bryelle and Renard to clean, to rid the area of soot.

"You seem..oddly stressed out." Bryelle added, looking at her brother's facial expressions as they walked. To the younger Goyle, Renard seemed to..always be stressed but this was different. "But I won't talk about it if you don't wanna. I have a dilemma to cry about after all."

| renard walt goyle |

sorry for the wait!!

[renard walt goyle]

▲

Calling Ondina his ‘dragon wife’ was such an accurate description that Renard had to prevent himself from grinning silly. And it actually fit for more than one reason. His father-in-law was quite literally one of the foremost experts on dragons in the world. He secretly believed that she managed to get some dragon DNA in her and that was what led to her shit personality and proclivity to screeching like one too. The only difference is that as her fire petered out, so did her oxygen. Renard did feel bad when she struggled with her health; no one deserved to be that poorly their entire life. He imagined that was part of the reason she was the way she was. Because having met her parents, siblings, and extended family, she definitely didn’t get it from them at all. And here he thought he’d never get along with his in-laws. They were beyond wonderful!

”At least it didn’t have any the other day. I’m sure someone has already managed to muck it up though. We can never have nice things when magic is involved,” he continued to grumble. Whenever something was made or fixed, some wild thinking wizard came along and decided they could do it better or more efficient. And then they always failed. Time and time again it happened that way. That was also the exact reason he refused to work in the Magical Accidents department. Those guys sounded like they were constantly beat down by stupidity. The creatures he dealt with weren’t even that bad, which was amazing to point out.

”Three demiguise were on the loose,” Renard answered his sister. She would find out one way or another, and more than likely from him after the job was completed anyways. ”So I found them and managed to get them back. But the dolts brought in a Hidebehind too, so that’s great. Some poor bloke is going to get his face torn off before I find it, and it’ll be all my fault.” He could already feel his blood pressure starting to rise from it. Maybe coffee wasn’t a great idea after all.

Stopping in front of the floo to Horizont, he motioned for Bryelle to go first, before stepping inside himself. The instant transportation was always nice, though all these years later and he still disliked the feeling of entering the green fire. Somehow, he preferred the whole body tug of apparition.

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[bryelle rose goyle]

━ are you, a dream or an illusion? ━

LAUGHING QUIETLY AT HER BROTHER'S grumbles, she knew he wasn't far from the truth. If neither Renard or Bryelle paid attention, life would've been far more chaotic for their family, as such a life came with the usage of magic. Finding out the cause of his stress, the younger Goyle felt a frown form on her face.

She knew her brothers job was demanding in some aspect, always having to maintain beasts that made their way out, but she hadn't seen this kind of expression on her brother's face before. As he continued, Bryelle kept quiet, listening, thinking of the best response to level-head her brother. She knew sometimes reassurance wasn't what he wanted to hear, but in this moment - she felt like he needed it.

Bryelle waited first, so stepping in front of the floo, the younger Goyle was immediately transported to Horizont. Comparable to others, Bryelle much preferred floo travel than apparition, as she always felt a little sick from it afterwards. Unsure if her brother had arrived also or not, Bryelle spoke anyway. "It's not your fault, but the rest of the team should be made aware..or even yelled at for not providing help before it got too late."

| renard walt goyle |

[renard walt goyle]

▲

Even though everything his sister said made sense, she hadn’t even seen the start of it when it came to bureaucracy within the Ministry. As much as he hated to say it, the fact that there were certain details missing about this job or the appropriate people had been left out of the conversation, was probably some political move by one official against another. Those at his rank within the government always took the full brunt of whatever the higher-ups decided. This was all just a game to them after all. Bryelle would understand it eventually. Becoming a Hit Witch was prime territory to be used and abused by the Ministry unfortunately.

”Well, you would think it would be a department wide issue,” he shrugged. ”But we’re too spread thin. So even if others are made aware of what’s going on, this is ultimately my assignment. I could have a dozen people working for me and it would still be my fault at the end of the day. My boss’s boss will argue that I should have had the forethought to have this group communicate exactly what they were bringing in, despite them not even knowing what they had. It’s all a way for them to deflect blame back down the chain.” Renard really didn’t care about that. Him ‘getting in trouble’ was more a slap on the wrist than anything else. As long as someone didn’t die, he was going to be fine. Most injuries could be fixed in a jiffy with magic anyways.

Now that they were in Horizont, he could feel his shoulders relax. Any time he wasn’t at the Ministry or at home, he felt like a normal human being. There were times where Renard forgot what this was like. Sometimes weeks went by where he only went between the two, never having any deviation. That was what led to outbursts like the one he’d had at his desk earlier. It wasn’t even the work that stressed him out. It was being stuck inside the office that did it. He loved being out and trying to catch creatures. There was nothing else like it.

They approached the bakery run by the Vector family and Renard held the door open for his sister to enter first. ”See? Isn’t this better than the charcoal they give us?” he asked, referencing the aforementioned coffee stand by the elevators that most of them were slaves to throughout their long days working at the Ministry. ”I’ve thought about putting in a complaint to the health department about how it tastes like they use dragon fire to roast the beans. It’s not pleasant at all.”

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[bryelle rose goyle]

━ are you, a dream or an illusion? ━

STILL NEW IN HER POSITION as a HIT witch, Bryelle was rather naive when it came to understanding the political and social hierarchy within the Ministry. Given her perfect test scores, and close numbers while in training, she didn't hear most of the complaints from her superiors aside from the Goyle's tendency to be late at times for early morning training. But she understood where her brother was coming from..different departments dealt with things differently. Renard's department was just..slow altogether.

"Too spread thin?" She repeated. "How many people are in your department? Beast Division and the other departments on the floor?" Surely they had enough of the numbers to devise a well thought out team to bring an end to whatever chaos her brother had to endure for the week. "It's still shitty knowing that no matter what you do, good or bad, if a poor result happens you or someone else will get the blame for it..but I guess..that's life in the Ministry.."

Looking over at her brother as they arrived in Horizont, it was like an immediate weight had been lifted from the older Goyle's shoulders. She couldn't help but laugh quietly at the realisation, making a note of it in her mind to bring it up to him later. As they arrived at the Vector's bakery, Bryelle peeked her head in first, trying to see if she could spot the usual girl that would serve up front.

"Much better." She agreed. It wasn't any better within the HIT department also, the coffee they served and the 'treats' they served after training felt like they had some kind of hex on them. After the first stomach ache she had gotten, Bryelle swore off of trying the 'complimentary' food again. "Please do..I'll vouch for it. With evidence on how it gave me acute food poisoning."

Looking at the options before them in the bakery, Bryelle's mouth watered at the baked goods. Some still had faint steam marks coming off from them, signaling that they were just taken out of the oven or overall made fresh. Bryelle never had a complaint anytime she visited this bakery, it was probably the reason Sami was always bringing home snacks from here considering how much the Goyle had raved about it.

| renard walt goyle |