Boxing Day Bump [taylor]

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The problem with having a Muggle family was that when it came time for Christmas, she could only get Muggle presents. It wasn’t that she hadn’t loved and appreciated the presents she’d got - they were awesome and perfect. She just wanted a few things from Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes and Flourish and Blotts too. But she’d been given a little money from her parents because they knew the dilemma, so it was Boxing Day, hectic and busy, even after seemingly everyone had been at the Yule Ball until late the night before, and Jess was Christmas shopping - for herself.

She had a bag over one shoulder and another in her hand, and she was heading down to the bookstore when she - unsurprisingly - clipped someone on her way by. “Sorry,” she said, before looking up to see who she’d bumped into.

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With their father still hospitalized at St. Mungo's, Christmas hadn't been as joyous as it should have been. Part of being an adult, however, was the understanding that life had to go on, which was why Taylor Fortescue was back in Diagon Alley on Boxing Day. The street—as might have been expected—was crowded when they left on their lunch hour, and Taylor cursed themselves for having decided to venture out instead of Apparating home to make a sandwich.

On their way to the Leaky Cauldron, they had managed to avoid running into anyone—literally and figuratively speaking—since more people were concerned with buying up whatever happened to be in the sales. That lasted only until they felt their arm make contact with a young woman's shoulder. “Sorry,” she said, apologizing, though Taylor was certain that they were the one at fault.

They smiled back at her, glad to see that she hadn't dropped any of her shopping bags. “Sorry,” Taylor apologized, too, vaguely recognizing the young woman in question, although they didn't know her name. She looked to be just a few years older than they, though they were sure that they would have remembered if she had been in Ravenclaw. Referring to her bags, they asked, “Do you want some help with those?” They weren't terribly hungry, anyway.

@jessica

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Jess didn’t recognise the person she’d bumped into, although they looked no older than her, so she thought she probably should. “No, really, I’m sorry. Thanks for the offer, but I’m fine with the bags, they’re just a little bulky.” And about to get more so - the bookstore was good for that, incessant crowds and all. Good thing she liked people.

”I’m sorry,” she said again, tucking herself to the side and out of the flow of people going by. ”I’m sure I ought to know you from school, but I can’t quite place you. I’m Jess, Jess Wei.”

@taylor

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“No, really,” assured the young woman, “I'm sorry.” She thanked them for the offer and said that she was fine with handling the shopping bags on her own; they were just a bit bulky. Taylor nodded in response, though they were plenty willing to help her.

The young woman apologized again. “I’m sure I ought to know you from school, but I can’t quite place you.” Neither could Taylor place her, exactly, though they knew that she had gone to school for at least a few years of their Hogwarts education. “I'm Jess,” she introduced herself. “Jess Wei.”

“Taylor Fortescue,” Taylor replied back with a smile. “Like the ice cream parlor.” They never knew whether to mention their pronouns initially or not. Their name was unisex, anyway, so it would probably come up when Jess came to the inevitable conclusion that she couldn't tell whether they were a boy or a girl. It wasn't that Taylor thought that she would end up being insensitive, but—even with well-meaning people—that was how it went.

@jessica

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“Oh, I love that place! I went there all the time last summer!” Jess had a situation when it came to ice cream, and that was the best place in Wizarding London to get her fix. “It’s good to meet you, Taylor. Definitely should have lead with that." Jess was of the opinion that she wasn’t normally this kind of a social mess, but that was what happened when you actually physically bumped into people.

“So, how is your boxing day going? I wouldn’t have thought this would be a busy time of year for ice cream.” She assumed that Taylor worked there or - he? She? They? She would go with they for the moment, but she should ask - they wouldn’t have identified themselves with a name like the ice cream parlour. And now that she was thinking about ice cream, she was going to have to go. Even if it was winter and cold.

@taylor

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“Oh,” Jess recalled, “I love that place! I went there all the time last summer!” Taylor laughed. Most of the rest of the magical community in Britain had, too, it had seemed at the time. “It’s good to meet you, Taylor. Definitely should have lead with that.”

“Likewise,” they nodded.

“So, how is your Boxing Day going? I wouldn’t have thought this would be a busy time of year for ice cream.”

“It's not,” Taylor answered good-naturedly, but their family would have lost revenue if they only kept the shop open seasonally. They probably should have closed through the new year, they thought, given that it was more trouble than it was worth to run the ice cream parlor while their father was near death.

When they felt compelled to answer to how their day was going, though, Taylor tried to keep their tone casual. “My dad's in hospital—he's not been well,” they said, “so it's been…” They could have ended that thought with a number of words, but they allowed their voice to trail, bracing themselves for inevitable sympathy.

@jessica

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"Open for the odd ones then? Although, honestly, I'm probably one of the odd ones. Ice cream is the best." She hadn't been around, but once she made it through her list, she was totally going to the ice cream parlour now. Excellent idea.

And then Taylor said their dad was in hospital, and that was awful. But this was an all-but total stranger, and she wasn't going to push. And sympathy was not always welcome in these circumstances, even when it came easy. "That must be rough," she said, "especially given Christmas and all. Have you been able to spend much time with him?" Not too much, she hoped.

@taylor

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Jess asked if they were still open for “the odd ones”—presumably those who defied the weather and still purchased ice cream in the middle of winter—which prompted a laugh from Taylor. “Yeah.”

They were glad to have found themselves in the company of someone who didn't appear to be interested in prying into every little detail of their father's condition. Taylor still hadn't come to decide which were worse: those people or the ones who said nothing at all, as though they wanted to ignore that not everyone's lives were perfect. Jess, meanwhile, said that it must have been “rough” on them, “especially given Christmas and all. Have you been able to spend much time with him?”

Taylor nodded. “Yeah. He was admitted to hospital yest—Sorry, on Christmas Eve,” they explained. Celebrating one Christmas at St. Mungo's was enough for a lifetime. “Now, it's just… about keeping him comfortable.” It was what it was. “My mum and sister are there now, I think. My mum hasn't left his side, really… She's been his carer ever since he fell ill.”

@jessica

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"Well, I'll have to stop by later, help keep business up." Plus ice cream. She did like ice cream.

It sounded like Taylor had come to a certain degree of... acceptance of the fact that their father was dying. And at Christmas. It sounded awful. "At least he's not alone. That must help him." Not that she was a Healer or anything, but suffering with company was an awful lot better than without, she was pretty sure.

There was something she couldn't quite place about Taylor. "Sorry, this sounds a little weird, but were you in Ravenclaw? I swear I should know you." It wasn't a missing memory, she was pretty sure. Just something that didn't quite fit right.

@taylor

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Jess offered to stop by later so that she could help to keep their business up, which Taylor appreciated. Ice cream was good at any time of year, in their view, even if others didn't always see it that way.

They smiled a little, though the discussion of their father was too much for it to last for long. “At least he's not alone. That must help him.”

Their father had been so brave about the whole situation; their mother had been, too. Taylor didn't want anyone else to have to go through what their family had been through, but—even as their father began to resemble a shell of his former self—their mother had done everything that she felt was right for him. Not many people could say that. “He held on through Christmas,” Taylor stated, the slightest hint of hope in the way that they spoke. He had done that, at least.

Then, Jess changed the subject. She apologized for it, but Taylor wasn't bothered. “Sorry, this sounds a little weird,” she began, “but were you in Ravenclaw? I swear I should know you.”

“I was.” They had been until more recently than most who weren't in school, though they hadn't graduated, either. “I would be in my seventh year still, but I left school because of everything with my dad.” For Taylor, it was no longer the life-changing decision that everyone always made it out to be. Sometimes it felt strange to them that they weren't at Hogwarts anymore, especially when they thought about what they might have been missing by not being there, but they couldn't imagine being at school.

“I'm, um, gender fluid,” Taylor added in explanation of why they might not have been the easiest to remember. “I was designated male at birth, but my pronouns are ’they’ and ‘them’.” Without going into how they could identify as a boy, girl, both or neither as quickly as their sister could change her hair color, that was the quickest and easiest way to put it, especially because they were beginning to feel more and more inclined towards the feminine.

Taylor looked at Jess again. They had already narrowed it down in their mind before they had started talking to her that she wasn't in Ravenclaw, which left the three other Houses. Based on their conversation, though, Jess didn't seem like the average Gryffindor or Slytherin. “You were in… Hufflepuff?” they asked, fairly confident with that deduction.

@jessica

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"You dropped out? I mean, pretty compelling reason, but I couldn't imagine missing out on any of what Hogwarts had to teach me." Although, maybe that was because she was Muggleborn and needed as much experience as possible. Or her sheer bloddy mindedness.

She nodded once at Taylor's gender identification, to show she understood. "I'd bet it's the age thing that tripped me up, though." She didn't want them to feel self-conscious about revealing it to someone who was for all intents and purposes a complete and total stranger.

"I was a Puff, yeah. Graduated a couple of years ago. I was the one who was obnoxious about football." She didn't set out to be noticeable or recognizable, but enough attention had come her way that even if people didn't know her, they'd probably seen the games.

@taylor

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“You dropped out?” If they had a Knut for every time they had heard that same question, Taylor thought to themselves, they would end up being very rich by the time that they should have been graduating from Hogwarts. “I mean, pretty compelling reason, but I couldn't imagine missing out on any of what Hogwarts had to teach me.”

“No,” they replied, not negating her question but understanding exactly what Jess meant. “I still wonder what I'm missing, not being there.” They missed being in school, too. The stress of assignments would have been far too much for them to handle, but they missed the atmosphere of learning.

They were happily surprised when Jess didn't seem overly concerned about how they identified. That it had been their age made perfect sense. Unless there was anyone around who had never been to Hogwarts to begin with, they were younger than anyone else in Diagon Alley, besides the children who were still below school age who didn't even have wands.

Jessica confirmed that she had been in Hufflepuff—or that she had been a “Puff”, as she said. “Graduated a couple of years ago. I was the one who was obnoxious about football.”

“Football?” Taylor repeated with a smile. Not Quidditch, for a change. “Are you Muggle-born?” they wondered. The Muggle magazines that they read didn't focus much on professional sports, but, if Jess knew something about Muggle things, then she must have known something about the things they read about.

@jessica

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"Yeah, that would be difficult. We covered a lot of material in seventh year, but I don't think I've used an awful lot of it. And as for the Triwizard Tournament, the Yule Ball was pretty fun, but it's probably more trouble than it's worth, overall." It would still have been hard to not be in that environment, but she could definitely imagine being away from your family at a time like that being worse.

Taylor asked if she was Muggle-born, and that could be a loaded question with the current purist actions, but she was pretty sure that wasn't why Taylor was asking. And anyway, it wasn't a secret. "I am, yeah. Football's a bit of a giveaway, isn't it? I come from a tech-y family too. It was one hell of a change."

@taylor

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Jessica explained that they had covered “a lot of material” in her seventh year at Hogwarts, and Taylor didn't doubt that it had been because of NEWTs. They had been through their sixth year—the first year of preparation for the exams—and the very beginning of their seventh, so they imagined that the workload with which their former classmates were faced now was considerable. Even so, Jessica said that she didn't think that she had used very much of what she had learned in her final year. Taylor had to admit that they probably wouldn't have, either, unless the Ministry had decided to incorporate material that pertained to making ice cream.

“And as for the Triwizard Tournament, the Yule Ball was pretty fun, but it's probably more trouble than it's worth, overall.”

There was that, too, Taylor thought, although they were most intrigued by Jessica's saying that the event—held just the previous night—had been fun. “You went?” they asked.

As for Jessica's background, they had been right; she was Muggle-born, she said. “Football's a bit of a giveaway, isn't it?” Taylor chuckled. It was. “I come from a tech-y family too. It was one hell of a change.”

“Tech? Like… technology, right?” Taylor wondered. Being from a purely wizarding family, they had never spent any real length of time around Muggle technology; they had never had the opportunity. They knew what some of their devices looked like. The ones that they had seen advertised were primarily rectangular screens that did all sorts of things with a mere touch, but they hadn't used one for themselves.

@jessica

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Taylor asked if she'd been to the Yule Ball, and Jess nodded and grinned. "They combined it with the Ministry Christmas function, so I got to go! Lots of dancing and lots of schmoozing. Good food, free drinks, fancy dress, good music, over-the-top decorations. And it was nice to see the castle again."

"Exactly. Phones and computers and things like that. Did you take Muggle Studies, or just something that interests you?" Most wizards and witches seemed to not care, which didn't make an awful lot of sense to Jess. But she liked finding people who were interested, because she really did enjoy talking about it.

@taylor