Skeleton Tree (Frank)

[xiulan zhou]

June 7, 2026

The relief that Xiulan had felt upon hearing back from Frank that he and his twins had made it out of Hogwarts alive had been enough to bring her to tears. Frank and his wife, Cat, had been instrumental in getting her out of Macao and to London after Aloysius's death, and their support had carried her through some of her worst moments. If she was presently reserved, she had been even more so then, utterly and completely lost without her husband. A few years on, and Frank had found himself in a similar position. Cat had been killed in the explosion at the Quidditch stadium, and Xiulan had been devastated for him and his teenage children.

The fact that they had known each other's respective spouses while they were still alive—albeit Frank and Aloysius less so than she and Cat—was enough that she and Frank had maintained a connection with one another. It was neither romantic nor sexual, and if it was love, it was purely platonic. They respected each other and cared about one another's well-being, but neither of them were in a position to be anything more to the other than friends. Even from the time that Cat had died, Xiulan had assured Frank of that, wanting to set that boundary along with clarifying that her not hugging him wasn't because she didn't care; she did, but she didn't want it to be misconstrued from a cultural standpoint. She had many clients who were Chinese like herself and might be inclined to view that differently; people talked, and it made more sense than not to avoid speculation, especially if that were to get back to Frank's kids. There was nothing like that going on whatsoever.

As much as she wouldn't have minded seeing his children, it was only Frank himself who had stopped by her flat. Between the news of the new Minister for Magic and the update that Hogwarts wouldn't be operational for the coming year, forcing its staff and students elsewhere, she and Frank had a lot to catch up on. Xiulan's main concern had been how he and the twins were holding up. It hadn't been a full year since they had lost Cat, and Frank had just had his change in careers, only to have lost his job.

Having conjured up an armchair for him—as she had for Bianca—instead of having him sit in one of the wooden chairs on either side of the table in the center of her sitting room, and having brought one of the wooden chairs over so that she was seated at a bit of a diagonal from him, Xiulan felt that Frank looked better than he might have. She'd brought out tea and coffee for him on a side table; it was still relatively early on a Sunday, so they had the benefit of time.

Xiulan leaned forward slightly as she spoke with him, the bell-shaped sleeves of the robes she was wearing resting as she folded her hands in her lap. "Have you decided what you're going to do for the twins' schooling?" she asked him. The main issue, Xiulan thought, almost certainly must have been if another school could accommodate him as a teacher—and that there wouldn't be any problems for them with his having an injured leg. Ilvermorny came to her mind first, at least from the standpoint of its seeming relatively similar to Hogwarts. It wouldn't be as much of an adjustment for them. "…And for yourself? If it's a question of money, I don't mind, you know—" Xiulan added on after a moment of thought, hoping that Frank understood that she wasn't trying to be rude in asking and that she was coming from a place of concern.

It had to have been overwhelming enough without her questions, though; Xiulan knew that. She'd been in the position of scrambling to pack her life up before, and Frank was as aware of that as she was. At the same time, she had to wonder if Frank wanted to do that. She doubted that it would be anyone's first choice to leave the place where they had so many memories tied to someone they'd loved who was no longer living, not unless they needed that escape.

@frank

[Deleted]

Frank had developed a solid friendship with Xiulan years ago when he helped her get out of Macau and back into London, along with his wife. After his wife died, he grew closer to his friend, as she was one of the only people he knew truly understood what he was going through. This did not mean, in any sense of the word, there was a romantic aspect to the friendship. But the bond had deepened over a shared sense of losing their other halves, and Frank trusted her completely, something he could say about very few people. She had invited him over for tea, and he had asked his twins if they’d wanted to come, but they both had their own plans.

After he’d settled into his armchair, Xiulan asked him what his plans were for the twins' schooling, as well as his own. It was an expected question; he had changed career paths less than a year ago, after the Quidditch explosions. Now with Hogwarts destroyed, most students were transferring to alternative schools, leaving Frank without a job once again. Fortunately, there was news that he received that took a big weight off his shoulder. “I’ll be homeschooling the twins for their final year, and I’ve decided to join the Hogwarts Rebuilding Efforts Council, so that will provide me with income. The Ministry has been good about aiding me financially with homeschooling options, through my connections, so I am feeling okay about it,” he told her, giving her a warm smile. “Thanks though Xiulan, I really appreciate your help. The twins were pretty adamant about not wanting to completely change schools for their final year, so homeschooling ended up the winner,” he added, leaning back in his chair. “Plus my dad has an exciting dig he’s dragging me along with in Alexandria later on this month, so I have that to look forward to.” Frank chuckled; he’d told Xiulan all about his Muggle archeologist father, and how he had nursed his love of ancient history, which had led to his teaching position in the first place. “What about you? How are you doing after everything that’s been going on?” he asked. It was common knowledge she was a Seer, but Frank knew how affected she could be by her visions, and he wanted to make sure his friend was doing alright as well.

xiulan zhou

[xiulan zhou]

June 7, 2026

Frank answered her and said that he would be homeschooling his children for their final year of school, and it sounded as though he had some financial support from the Ministry that would at least keep him afloat. That was a good thing, of course, and even more so that the Ministry was being so accommodating about something that obviously had come as such a shock. He thanked her for her help, however, and mentioned that the twins had been "adamant" about not having to change schools in their final year.

For all of the trauma that she had suffered at school, Xiulan had at least had consistency. She hadn't had to be bounced between institutions, and she couldn't imagine what it must have felt like for some of the children as they went through that multiple times over. While some would be able to handle it without a problem, Xiulan doubted that that would be the case for all of them, especially any of the Muggle-born students. It wasn't any of their faults, yet they had to deal with choices that other people had made that were far bigger than they were.

"Plus," Frank continued, sounding much more positive, "my dad has an exciting dig he's dragging me along with in Alexandria later on this month, so I have that to look forward to."

Knowing how much Frank enjoyed that sort of thing, Xiulan smiled. She could hear in the way he spoke that he was excited about the trip, and she was excited for him. He really deserved to have that break. "That's wonderful. You'll have to tell me all about it," she said to him. Xiulan was sure that it would be incredibly interesting, though she couldn't imagine what Egypt had to be like—other than being scorching that time of year, surely.

"What about you? How are you doing after everything that's been going on?" Frank asked her.

Relatively speaking, Xiulan was doing well. What had happened with Hogwarts hadn't been as devastating for her as for some, though she hadn't been unaffected by it. She additionally had been in the position of having to help some of the other people she knew deal with the aftermath, especially Bianca Rivera. There was some emotional strain there, but it was nothing that she hadn't been able to deal with. "When something like that happens," Xiulan acknowledged, "it's always hard."

She realized how much she was downplaying it all, however, and paused. "I don't always think people understand that my Inner Eye doesn't mean that I can See everything, so there's this… It's almost guilt, in a way…" Whether it came from within herself or from other people, there was always that thought of what she might have been able to do in hindsight, even if she had had no more idea about it than anyone else. "And obviously with so many people dead…" The idea that she had just stood by and allowed something terrible to happen was one that bothered her. Xiulan's voice grew softer despite her indignation, not that it was directed towards Frank in the least. "Do they think I wouldn't have tried to save other people's children just because I couldn't have any of my own? Do you think I wouldn't have done something if I had known that I'd been watching Aloysius's death probably as it happened? My own husband? That I would have stood by if I knew what would happen to you or to Cat?"

Nothing that she had said would have come as any shock to him, but Xiulan reached out her hand to Frank to reinforce the fact that she wasn't angry with him; she was only frustrated with the presumptions she received. They didn't come from everyone, but they were frequent enough that she was tired of having to explain herself without revealing the entirety of her past or the state of her mental health to the world. Frank and Cat had been among the few who had seen her at her most fragile, and everything that had happened the previous year had been on her mind a bit more, too, with the first anniversary of the tragedy in a matter of days. "I'm sorry, Frank," Xiulan apologized. "I shouldn't be so upset. You and Cat have always been so kind to me, and I hate to sound ungrateful." She felt bad for not being able to reciprocate their kindness as often as she might have liked but paused. "And I know they have your siblings, but please tell the twins that they can contact me for anything whilst you're away in Egypt," she added. His children weren't yet of age, and she didn't want Frank to have to worry about them—or for them to have to worry with his being out of the country. She could work around her own limitations.

@frank

[Deleted]

Frank nodded. He had not taken Divination at all during his school years, but Catriona had for a few years. She hadn’t been good at it, but she said she developed an appreciation for all Seers afterwards. “Most people I’ve found don’t fully understand your gift. They think you just have access to a line to the future at all times. They don’t realize it’s not in your control most of the time.” He paused before continuing on. “People need something other than themselves to blame. Though I want to be clear I never even thought to try and blame you when Cat died. I blamed the security. I blamed the person who set off the bomb. Hell, I even blamed Minister Granger. But mostly, I blamed myself. For not being there to protect my wife. But if I was there, I would be dead too. And my children would be orphans. I didn’t wish that on them.”

Frank trailed off, lost in thought. It was easy to talk to Xiulan, not just because they had suffered the same type of loss. She was a good woman, kind and caring. Someone who Frank could count on. A friend. Frank didn’t have many of those, so it was nice to know he had at least one. “The twins would probably be grateful for the invitation,” he admitted, chuckling lightly. “My oldest brother is coming over to stay with them, but he can be a little much when you’re around him for too long.” Frank’s eldest brother had been the one to help him shake out of the downward spiral he had experienced after Cats death, but even as kids Frank had always needed a break from him if they were together for too long. “They’ve been pretty quiet on the Hogwarts fire; both were unhurt but Caillen I believe had a friend perish,” he told her, frowning. He knew Caillen had struggled to open up to Frank after he had shut down after her mothers death, and it still wasn’t perfect. Perhaps Xiulan could help.

xiulan zhou

[xiulan zhou]

June 7, 2026

"Most people I've found don't fully understand your gift," Frank said to her. "They think you just have access to a line to the future at all times. They don’t realize it's not in your control most of the time." It was no more in her control than it was in anyone else's, yet Frank elaborated that it was because people needed something other than themselves to blame that they thought that way. To some extent, that was probably true. With his bringing up how he had blamed himself for Cat's death because he hadn't been able to protect her, though, Xiulan watched Frank even as he left the subject. She was the one who had brought it up in the first place, and she felt bad that it was sensitive for them both. At least it was much easier to be open with him about it, Xiulan thought. It was less of a point of shame than it might have been, in any case.

His children, he continued with a laugh, "would probably be grateful" to get to go on the trip to Egypt, too. "My oldest brother is coming over to stay with them, but he can be a little much when you're around him for too long." Xiulan smiled slightly, though the smile faded as Frank brought up how the twins were doing. They had been quiet about what had happened, he explained, and weren't hurt, though he believed that his daughter, Caillen, had lost a friend in it.

Xiulan knew that it must have hurt Frank that he couldn't protect the twins as much as he might have liked, even though they hadn't been harmed from a physical standpoint. She wished that she could have spared them that suffering, too. Just because they hadn't been injured didn't mean that they had gone through it without any adverse effects whatsoever. Mentally, they would need some time to process it all, and Xiulan guessed that having his children close would help to keep Frank from being as stressed in the months ahead.

"They're probably still in shock," Xiulan commented sympathetically. "And so close to the anniversary of when they lost their mum…" she noted, not that Frank needed the reminder. It was going to be hard for him and the twins for a little while, an understanding that wasn't coming from her ability to see into the future but from her own experience with grieving her late spouse. She was sure that it would have made it easier on Frank to have Cat there, and she didn't doubt that he missed her at least as much as their children did.

Hoping that she might be able to alleviate some of Frank's concerns, Xiulan gave him a contemplative smile. "Homeschooling them is the right choice," she reassured him. She knew better than to think that Frank would take any of that time to rest, but it was an option for him. "Would you like me to try to talk to Caillen about how she feels? I know I'm not Cat," she acknowledged with a hint of sadness in her voice as she elaborated upon her offer, "but it might help her? To not feel so alone, at least?" Xiulan wasn't sure if it would help, but she had hope that it could.

@frank

[Deleted]

Frank nodded in agreement, grateful that Xiulan could understand without him saying much. Cat had always been the talker in their relationship; he had been happy to just follow her lead and allow her to take control. It was a dynamic that had worked wonderfully for them, but had left a wide, gaping hole when she died. No one in his family had approached him on the prospect of marrying again, but he knew they thought about it. He didn’t feel ready to get back out there though; the memory of losing Cat was still too painful, and he didn’t feel as though his twins were keen on the idea of a step-mother any time soon.

“It seems that when we take one step forward, one step towards beginning to consider moving on, something happens that sets us three steps back,” he started, sighing as he rubbed his eyes tiredly. “The twins were starting to open back up after the death of their mother, and they were looking forward to finishing up their schooling at Hogwarts and graduating as normal.” He shook his head with a wry smile. “But, Elaine Dupree, yet again, decided to shake us up a bit.” Frank's expression grew pained at Elaine’s name. This woman, barely an adult herself, had been the source of so much pain and grief in this world, particularly with his family. She apparently was finally dead, but Frank always kept one eye open in regards to her; they had thought her dead for months when it was revealed last year that she had not in fact been killed. “Hopefully she stays dead this time,” he said darkly, then shook his head. “My apologies, I sometimes find myself in this dark place when it comes to Elaine,” he admitted guiltily.

Frank listened to her suggestion of his daughter talking to Xiulan and nodded. His twins liked Xiulan, at least they had never expressed anything to the contrary. Perhaps a woman was who his daughter needed to open up to. “Maybe you can go to lunch together, I can’t remember the last time I took either of them out to a restaurant,” he suggested, feeling guilty again for all he didn’t do while he was in the black fog after his wife had died. He would do better this time, and if that meant getting outside help, then so be it.

xiulan zhou

[xiulan zhou]

June 7, 2026

Though Frank apologized to her for the way he spoke about Elaine Dupree's attack, Xiulan couldn't blame him. It was awful what Elaine had done—not only then but all the crimes of which she had been accused previously. Xiulan knew that youth didn't keep people from committing terrible acts against others and that Elaine had been no exception. There was no denying that her apparent final act had been truly horrific. It was enough to put anyone in a "dark place" for a long time, and Xiulan didn't expect that Frank would suddenly snap out of it with the month of May behind him.

"Frank…" She addressed him gently, not wanting to upset him any more than she knew that he already was, but she wanted to get her point across. "You have no reason to apologize to me," she reminded him. He hadn't done anything wrong, and she didn't mind that he needed to vent.

In relation to his children, though, Frank suggested that she could take his daughter out to lunch. He said that he couldn't remember the last time that he had taken either of the twins out to a restaurant, but it wasn't as though they hadn't been at Hogwarts for months and grieving the loss of Cat before that.

Xiulan herself couldn't remember the last time that she had been out to eat at a restaurant, but she nodded her head in approval. "I would be delighted to," she confirmed to Frank. As long as she planned it enough in advance, she could probably handle going somewhere magical. There must have been a restaurant in or near Diagon Alley that would work, she thought, while knowing that she would have to look into it.

@frank

[Deleted]

Frank nodded gratefully at Xiulan. “I know…bad habit of mine,” he admitted. Xiulan was uncommonly kind, something his wife Cat had pointed out numerous times. A good person, Cat had said shortly after they had first met the young widow. I can see us being good friends for a time yet. A time that had been cut unceremoniously short after the explosions at the Quidditch Match. Frank was at the very least grateful both of his twins had escaped unscathed from the fires Elaine had unleashed at Hogwarts.

“Good, her tastes are relatively simple. Well, she eats what I put in front of her at the very least, which isn’t as varied as I’d like it to be,” Frank admitted. Cat had always been the one to enforce the ‘one vegetable or fruit a meal’ rule, which Frank had let lapse after her death. Perhaps he should reconsider his position on the matter. Thankfully at Hogwarts he had noticed his twins picking up their mothers rule, so at least this school year they had eaten well.

“Thank you, Xiulan. For everything,” he said softly. He didn’t have to elaborate; he knew Xiulan would know what he was thanking her for. A constant, friendly presence where he didn’t have to make a ton of small talk, and a person who knew exactly what he was going through. There were mercifully few people who could understand Frank’s anguish and though he wished Xiulan’s husband were still alive, he was thankful for the company.

xiulan zhou


ooc: we can wrap this one up and start a new one with the seminar ideas!

[xiulan zhou]

June 7, 2026

Xiulan had had to learn not to apologize as frequently as she probably would have otherwise because of the Lin Sòng. There had been no point in apologizing there; she had learned very early on that it wouldn't spare her from pain and suffering. She didn't want anyone else to feel that they couldn't express themselves around her, even if it wasn't "proper" to behave that way.

Frank added that his daughter had relatively simple tastes, and Xiulan nodded. Although it was obvious from the way that she dressed and decorated her flat that she had money, she didn't mind going somewhere that wasn't fancy—or even cooking there at her home, if that would work best. She and Frank could iron out the details on that once he'd had a chance to speak with his daughter about it.

"Thank you, Xiulan. For everything."

"It's nothing, Frank. Really," she smiled. It was the least she could do to help him after everything he had done for her.

@frank
Fin!