uh oh, you made the wrong sucker a cuckold [parvati]

[Deleted]

The truth had a way of coming out, and this case was no different. A secret he had kept for seventeen years had finally been discovered. His daughters weren't rightfully his - of course they weren't, how on earth could his children with Pansy be blonde? - and he had been getting paid hush money ever since he had figured out their biological father's identity and contacted him. Ernie Macmillan was the worst kind of person, in Marcus's mind. Sure, he had cheated on his wife more than once, but he was never stupid enough to accidentally impregnate someone, and certainly never stupid enough to pay extortion money to someone to keep quiet when the truth was always hovering just beneath the surface.

In light of the recent events, Marcus had asked Parvati Patil-Macmillan, Ernie's now ex-wife to meet him in the Hog's Head. Normally it wasn't his location of choice, especially when he couldn't watch his back due to his increasingly blurry eye, but it was good for anonymity. Marcus's conscience was what had pushed him to meet her - they could commiserate over their spouses' infidelities, and Marcus could return to Parvati something that was rightfully hers.

parvati patil macmillan

[parvati patil macmillan]

Upon entering the Hog’s Head, Parvati’s guard was raised. Marcus Flint had been receptive to meeting with her, which was just about the only positive thing that had come out of any of this mess of lies and adultery, but she knew that any man who had married Pansy Parkinson must have been foolish—or brilliant in the most horrible way imaginable. As the saying went, poisonous toadstools didn't change their spots, and she doubted that Pansy had changed hers.

What little Parvati knew about Marcus himself was residual from her time at Hogwarts, which didn’t tell her much about the grown man with whom she was about to meet. She knew him to be a member of the Wizengamot, so the rumors from their school days of his lack of intelligence must not have been entirely true. The Hog’s Head, meanwhile, wasn’t the sort of place that she imagined a man of his standing would frequent, but he was the one who had suggested it. Despite Aberforth Dumbledore’s assistance in the Second Wizarding War, the establishment still left a bad taste in her mouth. Granted, Parvati knew that his wife’s affair with her ex-husband probably wasn’t something that Marcus Flint wanted the Daily Prophet to discover.

Parvati had never been able to tell if there was actually a floor beneath the layer of dirt at her feet, and this time was no different. She hadn’t bothered to obscure her face, either, though the amount of dust in the air made her wish that she had worn a hooded cloak over her robes. She tried not to cough as she glanced around, recognizing the wizard whom she had seen photographed in the newspaper plenty of times before.

As calmly as she could, she approached him and offered out her hand for a handshake. “Parvati Macmillan.”

@marcus

[Deleted]

Marcus didn’t need the introduction to figure out who Parvati Macmillan was – though he was surprised that she still introduced herself by her married name. The fact that anyone – and Marcus didn’t mean to be sexist, but especially a woman – would come into the Hog’s Head without a head covering or any extra protection was a little naïve, which, of course, fit his preconceived notions of Parvati quite nicely. Other than the fact that their spouses had cheated together, Marcus knew little about the woman; she had been in Gryffindor, and a few years beneath him, so there hadn’t exactly been a reason for them to cozy up together.

“Marcus Flint.” He responded to her name, shaking her offered hand firmly. On principle, he didn’t touch Gryffindors, but this entire day was bending what he normally thought was right. Speaking of that…Marcus reached deep into his cloak to where a purse of Galleons (a large purse of Galleons) was sitting on the small of his back. It was the safest place to keep anything, especially when you dealt with business in places like the Hog’s Head. He slid the purse onto the table as discretely as he could, and then looked at Parvati. “This belongs to you, I think.” Marcus said quietly. This would be a whole lot easier if she didn’t ask any questions, but Marcus didn’t think that was going to happen – it wasn’t every day that a virtual stranger offered you a ludicrous amount of money with no explanation. She probably thought he was paying for her silence or something equally absurd. That wasn’t it. Ernie had paid Marcus a lot of money to keep quiet about the whole affair and not to tell Parvati about it, and it was only right that she saw some of the money returned to her.

parvati patil macmillan

[parvati patil macmillan]

Marcus shook her hand and introduced himself to her. She sat down, about to speak, when her eyes fell on the sizable purse that he had set upon the table.

“This belongs to you, I think.”

Looking at him in bewilderment, Parvati could not comprehend, at first, why Marcus had said what he had said. He hadn't owed her any money. They had never had a conversation before in their lives, as far as she could recall. Then, after turning it over in her mind, she gasped, quickly understanding. “Ernie.”

Subtly, Parvati set the purse in her lap and opened it up. Her eyes widened. The sheer quantity of it told her that it was no Leprechaun gold. Marcus could have kept it, yet he had chosen to return it to her, even though she had never known that it was missing. She remained gracious about it, though she felt a twinge of guilt for accepting it.

“Thank you, Marcus.” Making eye contact with him, Parvati smiled and closed the purse again. “I'm really sorry about everything.” She felt stupid for giving him an apology as soon as the words had come out of her mouth. He had already known, and her ex-husband had bought his silence.

She looked at the purse in her lap and then back to him, speaking quietly. “Seventeen years?” she asked him. Why was she always the last to know?

@marcus

[Deleted]

Marcus nodded when Parvati said her ex-husband’s name. he had been quite forthcoming in his payments, and while Marcus certainly hadn’t returned all of the money – a sizeable portion of it had been evaporated by his wife’s spending habits – the total value of everything in the purse was…significant, especially for someone who was now working on a teacher’s salary. She was smart, to have figured it out so quickly. He appreciated that, because having to explain the money’s appearance would have made things all the more awkward. “I can’t say I’m surprised by it, at least at my wife’s side of things.” He said with a sad chuckle. “Flints have never been known for their fidelity. I just didn’t think that extended to those who joined the family by marriage.” There had been significant evidence that Marcus’s father hadn’t been faithful to his marriage, and of course Marcus’s own hands were dirty, but as far as he knew, Pansy was the first Flint who had been born without the surname that had cheated on somebody. Her name would go down in infamy, and Marcus was quite sure that she didn’t care, as long as her name went down at all.

“I didn’t know for quite that long.” Marcus demurred when Parvati asked about the timespan of the entire thing. “I had my suspicions for a while, but it was only when the girls got older and their hair reminded as blonde as it is that I had enough evidence for our…fiscal interaction, shall we say.” For the blackmailing. Marcus wasn’t going to say that aloud, even if it would hardly bat an eye in the Hog’s Head. The transaction was suspicious enough to anyone watching without the intrigue of blackmail being added to the plot.

parvati patil macmillan

[parvati patil macmillan]

The joke that Marcus had made about infidelity made her uncomfortable, though Parvati forced herself to laugh at it out of politeness. Thinking over every little thing that Marcus said to her would only make her head ache, however, so she tried not to. The surprise purse full of gold had been enough for one day.

Even Marcus had not known about his daughters' actual paternal origins for the girls' entire lives, he corrected. The blonde hair had tipped him off that perhaps Dusti and Rosaria weren't actually his. He added something about “evidence” for the “fiscal interaction”, and Parvati clutched a hand around the purse.

“Yeah,” Parvati nodded tensely. “I'm sure he would have loved to keep it a secret from me. We're already divorced, so…” She waved it off. In reality, she cared too much; that was the answer, and she knew it.

@marcus

[Deleted]

Marcus regarded Parvati critically after he had finished his story; she was one of Potter's friends, if he remembered correctly. No wonder she was looking at him so strangely. Then again, that could also be the byproduct of their unfortunate situation. "If it eases your mind at all, I did a little more checking into the parentage of my other children." It hadn't been hard, especially with all the opportunities he had to collect samples of his children's blood or other DNA vesicles. There were spells for that sort of thing, if you knew where to look. "Both of the boys are mine. I suppose I should be happy about that, but with the way the oldest acts sometimes..." River was getting better, but Raleigh was still his usual obstinate self. "If you feel the money isn't fair recompense for your troubles, feel free to contact me." Marcus stood up, pulling the hood of his cloak all the way over his head so it cast a shadow on his face. "It was a pleasure to meet you. I'm sorry for your husband's flaws." Sweeping out felt like a haughty thing to do, but Marcus couldn't help but flourish his cloak as he turned to the door.