most days i don't recognize me [open]

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It was another average day at the orphanage, and Asa wasn’t having a good day. There were more people around than they were used to – whatever Frederick had done to try to improve the number of volunteers at the orphanage had worked, at least for now. It wasn’t that Asa didn’t like that the orphanage was busy; they thought it was fantastic that the kids were finally getting the attention that they needed, and the long-abandoned tasks that none of the regular staff didn’t have time for were getting done. Asa wasn’t sure they had ever seen the place so clean before. Still, the hustle and bustle made them feel like they were just another cog in a machine, instead of a unique individual capable of contribution. It was one of those thoughts that Asa had that they knew was selfish. Those didn’t come often for Asa, so they were a little perturbed, especially since the idea had wedged itself deep into their psyche. Their solution was to continue to ignore the thought, and by extension, ignore all the other people in the orphanage, too. The door to Asa’s office was firmly shut, and they were poring over a series of documents from earlier in the year that were not yet translated. The one good thing, Asa thought, was that they could translate French documents more quickly than those documents were being created. They were snapped out of their rhythm, however, when a knock sounded on the office door.

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Hugo was volunteering at the orphanage. He'd signed up to do so with Xan, but she was too sick to be there today, so Hugo was doing his part on his own. As a student volunteer, he was really just in charge of cleaning specific things. Not that he minded. Cleaning was a nice distraction and excuse to think and let his mind wander. His instructions today were to clean all the windows in the orphanage, without exception. So far, all the rooms he came to had open doors, so his job was pretty easy. However, it couldn't stay that way forever. Hugo finally came to a closed door, so he knocked on it, hoping that whoever was inside wouldn't mind his interruption. "Sorry for the interruption, but I'm supposed to clean the windows, if you don't mind," Hugo called through the door. 

@asa

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Asa was rather startled to hear that the person at the door was intending to clean the windows. They only had two small windows in their office, so they expected the chore wouldn’t take long, but perhaps it would be nice to have some company to reduce the monotony of grinding through so many translation papers. Asa scooted their chair over to the door and reached their arm to open it with a flourish, smiling at the boy on the other side. Asa recognized Hugo, since he had been a volunteer at the orphanage for some time now (and he was related to Lucy, though Asa was trying not to think about Lucy at that moment), and they smiled at him. “I don’t mind at all.” They said. “How have you been, Hugo?” Being of few words didn’t mean that Asa was above polite conversation.

@hugo

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Hugo smiled when he recognized the person that opened the door. It was Asa. Hugo and Asa weren't particularly close with one another, but Asa was dating Hugo's cousin and he saw them when he volunteered, most of the time. "Thank you," he said when Asa invited him in. He walked across the room to the small window and started to clean it. Of course, he could use magic but there was something about using his hands that Hugo loved. "I've been good. The tournament's going on at school this year, as I'm sure you know. So that's been very interesting. I like it, I guess. How have you been?" He turned to look as Asa as he worked on the windows.

@asa

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Asa nodded when Hugo thanked them for inviting him in. It wasn’t a big deal, especially since Hugo was just doing his job as a volunteer, but it was nice that he was so polite. Most of the Weasleys were, really. “I have heard a fair few things about the Tournament.” Asa said with a laugh. Lucy hadn’t been happy about her sister being chosen as Champion, and while Asa hadn’t received too many angry owls yet, they were prepared for some sort of explosion. “I’ve been very, very busy.” Asa said with a sigh. “I’m trying to catch up on the backlog of documents. Apparently the orphanage hasn’t had a French translator for a long while, so there’s stuff from ten years back that needs to be put into English and then properly filed.” Asa didn’t know how the orphanage had managed to do anything with all of the French documents in their original language, but they weren’t going to ask.

@hugo

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Hugo smiled at Asa. "What have you heard about it?" He asked curiously. If they hadn't heard much, Hugo was willing to talk about it. After all, he was quite proud of Anna and didn't mind bragging about her, though Asa probably read an article about the first task or something. Oh well. He nodded after Asa explained how busy they'd been. "Well it sounds like they really needed you here," he said with a smile. "Or else another ten years worth of work might have stacked up on them." Hugo was trying to make a joke, but he wasn't entirely sure how they would respond to it.

@asa

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Asa shrugged when Hugo asked what they had heard. “The usual. Your cousin Anna is Champion.” They paused a beat, then decided to be candid. “Lucy isn’t happy about it.” Hugo might have heard about that, or maybe he hadn’t – Asa didn’t know how well Lucy had advertised how much she disliked Anna being Champion, but it wasn’t exactly difficult to guess, if you knew her and her competitive streak. Asa chuckled when Hugo said that they really needed them there. “I don’t know how they managed before. But it’s quite a lot of work. But I would like to finish someday, you know. Maybe have a day off.” Then again, since they got paid for all their overtime work, it was kind of nice. Pocket change was a fun thing to have.

@hugo

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Hugo smiled when Asa mentioned Anna being made champion. He was glad that she was champion. Then they said that Lucy wasn't happy about it. Not that Hugo was particularly surprised about it, since the twins never really got along, but he didn't expect to hear that from Asa. "I didn't hear that," he said. "But I'm guessing it's because she wanted to be the Hogwarts Champion, huh?" It really wasn't a question, it just came out that way. Hugo wasn't exactly sure if they would answer it, thinking that he expected them to, or if they would just ignore it. Either way, he didn't mind. "Well if getting days off work are liking getting days off school I hope you can catch up quick enough to get one," he answered, finishing his job at the window. "Is it mostly translating you do then, or are there other things?" Hugo was curious. He'd never really asked Asa what they did before, but he couldn't seem to help himself now.

@asa

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Asa nodded when Hugo said that he hadn’t heard Lucy was upset. At least she was doing a good job keeping up a public face, Asa thought, not sure whether to sigh or smile. “I think part of it is that she feels she got so close.” Asa explained. “They’re twins. They were raised by the same people with the same values. And yet one of them is somehow better than the other.” Asa wasn’t going to say whether they agreed with that line of logic or not, but they were disappointed, too, for Lucy. She had wanted to be Champion, obviously, and it was a shame that she didn’t get that opportunity. When Hugo said he hoped they got a day off, Asa gave him a wary smile before answering his question. “Mostly translation.” Asa answered, lifting up the document they were working on to show Hugo. “I can’t tell whether this is a record for one of the orphans here, or if they’re at another orphanage and we’re just translating the record for convenience.” The sigil at the top where the orphanage’s name was written was just smudged enough that Asa wasn’t going to try to decipher it.

@hugo

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As Asa explained why Lucy was upset about not becoming champion, Hugo nodded. It made sense for her to be upset that her twin got what she didn't, in a way. At the same time, Hugo hoped that if he had been in Lucy's position that he would have been happy for his twin. But he wasn't surprised that she wasn't. Lucy and Anna didn't seem to be very close at all, so why would she be happy for her. "I don't think that Anna being champion means she's better than Lucy," Hugo responded thoughtfully. "It looks for specific qualities in its champions, but that doesn't mean the champions are better people than anyone else. They just had what the Goblet was looking for." Hugo wasn't sure if that made sense, or if they would think he was lecturing them, which wasn't his desire. He just wanted to say that Lucy wasn't inferior to Anna. When Asa lifted up a document, Hugo took a step nearer to look at it. Of course, he couldn't understand a word of it, but he was believing what they told him about it. "Do you like translating or does it get boring after a while?" He asked impulsively. Hugo wasn't trying to be rude, but if all Asa did was translate documents that mostly said the same thing ... wouldn't that get repetitive?

@asa

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Asa shrugged. “You know Lucy.” They said simply. “Everything has to be a competition between her and Anna, and this time, Anna won.” Of course, if Asa had to show a preference for one of the twins, it would be Lucy, hands down, but their opinion was obviously biased, and probably not worth all that much to Lucy, when it came down to things. “She doesn’t see it as having different traits, I don’t think. Just as losing.” Which was a shame, Asa thought, because Lucy did have many, many amazing qualities. Just none that would make her a good Champion – even Asa could recognize that.

“No, not really.” Asa said when Hugo asked if they got bored with the document translation. “It’s…different, I guess. Every time I get a file, it’s somebody else’s story I get to translate. And sometimes they’re good stories, but most of the time, it’s something sad. And then I get to be grateful for everything that I have.” They still had both of their parents, and even if something were to happen to their parents, then they’d have their aunt and uncle and cousins to help them. And of course, now they were old enough to take care of themself even if the worst did happen.

@hugo

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Hugo nodded when Asa explained a little. Of course they were right. Lucy and Anna seemed to always be competing with one another, but he wasn't sure that Anna saw it that way. Either way, Lucy did and that meant that there was a competition even if Anna didn't want it. "I can see her thinking of it that way, but I don't think Anna does" he agreed, but also put his own thoughts in. Hugo didn't really want to make a big deal about it, but he knew Lucy enough to believe what Asa was saying.

"That sounds really interesting," Hugo said, surprised. He didn't realize they were translating stories. "So what exactly are the documents? Like a history of what has happened with them or ...?" He trailed off, realizing how little he knew about what they did. Granted, he knew that working at an orphanage was all about helping those who needed it, but he hadn't realized that Asa got to know all of their stories. Which was definitely something to make one feel more grateful.

@asa

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“Oh, I doubt that Anna does.” Asa said with a laugh. They had sent Anna a letter recently, and they had to admit that they enjoyed getting to talk to Anna about everything, the Ball and their fears about what would happen included. If things kept going the way they were going, and Asa and Lucy ended up as partners for life, Anna would be Asa’s sister-in-law, and that wasn’t an unpleasant thought. “She’s sweet. A little naïve sometimes, but sweet.” And also Lucy’s sister, which merited Asa’s unconditional affection.

Asa’s eyes widened a little when Hugo asked what the documents were. They often forgot that not everyone was familiar with case files and what they were. “It’s a case file.” They began. “So it has the child’s name, age, date of birth, if their parents are known, then those too.” And if the parents weren’t, it said that, too. “And then, basically, a summary of how it came to be that they came to the orphanage. So that we know how to help. Like, if we have to avoid certain things.” There were kids who got freaked out if there were things that reminded them of their family or abandonment, which was the saddest part of the job.

@hugo

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Apparently Asa knew Anna more than Hugo expected. Not that that was a bad thing. At least it meant that they wouldn't think Anna was rude or that she hated her sister, which was the vibe that most people got when they heard Lucy talk about Anna. At least, that's what Hugo thought when he heard them talking. Hugo smiled, liking how Asa reacted when talking about his cousins. "Why do you think she's naïve?" Hugo asked curiously. Honestly, he wasn't going to argue, but he was curious about how well Asa knew his cousin.

Hugo listened to Asa's explanation of a case file. "That sounds more sad than happy," he said once they were done with the explanation. Granted, there were probably some stories in there that were lighter than others emotional-wise, but if it was talking about an orphan, wouldn't it have to be a sad story? Hu couldn't imagine what his life would be like without his parents. Which was one of the reasons he volunteered here, to help others that were less fortunate than he was.

@asa

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When questioned why they thought Anna was naïve, Asa shrugged. “It’s not one specific thing that she said or did. It’s just, in general, she doesn’t seem to have a lot of experience of the world outside Hogwarts.” Asa didn’t want to say that Anna was narrow-minded, but she had a different way of looking at the world, one that wasn’t exactly the same as Asa’s. Which wasn’t a bad thing, of course, but Asa didn’t know how to explain the feeling any better than that. “I never said it was happy.” Asa pointed out. “But since some of these files are so old, these kids have already been adopted. And it’s nice to know that they got their happy ending.” And even if they hadn’t been adopted yet, Asa was hopeful that they would. That they wouldn’t have to spend their days in the orphanage, until they were old enough to be cycled out of the system.

@hugo