(D)eath [Rhys]

[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

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June 2023

The urgent owl that had been delivered to her at her desk the day prior was the sort of letter she had dreaded receiving for years: an accident had occurred and she was required to go to St. Mungo's immediately. The question of why Rhys had never switched out his emergency contact with the bank following their break up the previous year didn't dwell in her mind long, as whatever potential life or death situation he'd apparently found himself in far superseded her chastising him for forgetting to do so. If he was dead - which the letter did not indicate - then she was going to have to be the one to break the news to his siblings. Somehow that didn't feel right considering that they were no longer together, but someone had to do it.

It felt strange that her nightmare scenario happened now, of all times. Had they struggled through their problems a year ago, would she have been more worried about this? Her hands were shaking as she signed in at the front desk of the hospital, so that was clearly a sign that she was scared. If only the quick apparition could be blamed for the pit in her stomach and slowly spinning head. The hospital did not help her at all. Juniper actively disliked Mungo's, with its sterile hallways and soft buzz of voices that seemed inescapable while traversing the various wards. So many curses, poisons, and spells gone wrong led to people losing their minds, and they were all trapped here to live out the remainder of their days. She hoped that if Rhys was alive, he wasn't going to become a permanent resident. No one deserved that fate.

The minutes that passed following her arrival to the ward that specifically housed injured cursebreakers were simultaneously a relief and one of the worst moments of her life. Rhys was alive - beat up pretty badly, but still breathing. As was one of his partners, Archer. The bank representative couldn't give any more information than that, as they were still conducting an investigation on how the incident happened. With the two of them still out, there wasn't going to be much movement on that front for awhile. Everything was explained to her in the calmest, coldest manner she'd ever experienced. Surely, this was common enough for the bank that they were used to it by now. She certainly wasn't.

It was only as the representative finished talking that Juniper realized that the third member of Rhys's team hadn't been mentioned at all. Saffron. Her closest friend and confidant since Rhys had introduced the two of them to one another years earlier. She knew Saff had been on this job, they'd talked about it before she'd left for it. There was no way to avoid the cursebreaking lifestyle, no matter how hard Juniper tried. She already knew what the answer would be. It was the one that had eaten away at her for years, always wondering if and when that letter would arrive, telling her Rhys was dead and what to do next. The worry that had gnawed away at their relationship piece by piece until she'd had enough of it. Except when it did finally happened, he was fine. Relatively speaking, of course. But Saffron was dead.

There was a brief moment of intense, irrational anger, mostly at Rhys for allowing this to happen, that was immediately replaced with the sudden realization that she was never going to be able to see her best friend again. A choking sadness that gripped her without a second of warning. Apparently she made enough of a scene that the bank representative called several nurses in to usher her off the floor. They seemed to think it was a good idea to put her into Rhys's room. That was who she was technically here for, right? Why should she care about anyone else than the person she was the emergency contact for? That was probably how Gringotts viewed it, at least.

The room must have had a small couch, though how Juniper ended up there she was unsure. From her arrival at St. Mungo's until she woke up inside Rhys's room, everything was a blur. Her eyes felt puffy and her throat was sore. Sliding off the couch, she found her way into the small bathroom. The mirror didn't lie: her eyes were bloodshot and puffed out more than she'd ever seen them before, and her hair a disheveled mess. A couple of long, wet nose blows into a tissue, she remembered what got her into this state. Saff was dead. Another bubble of tears welled up in her eyes, almost like they were waiting to be called. Stifling them seemed unhealthy though, so she let it all out again. It ebbed after a few minutes, long enough for her to take a fistful of tissues with her back out into the room.

Rhys was laying there, obviously looking worse than she'd ever seen him before, but alive and still with all of his appendages (that she could see). The nurses had probably told her what they'd given him to help calm his sleep, but she'd been inconsolable whenever that had happened. Considering there was dim light peeking through the edge of the curtain, she'd slept until sunset.

What was she supposed to even do in this situation? Her ex was half-alive, one friend was in an unknown condition somewhere else in the ward, and the other was gone forever. Was she meant to break that news to Rhys when he woke up? It felt wrong to just leave him here on his own, but she had no idea what to do. Loudly dragging a chair up to the side of his bed, Juniper took a seat. The chair was excruciatingly heavy in her emotionally drained state, but this seemed like the right thing to do. She had never seen him in this state, and the peacefulness of it all disturbed her greatly. As she gently took his hand in hers, another wave of tears let loose, showing no signs of stopping any time soon.

rhys alexander greyback ● 1,027 ● Song by Artist

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[rhys alexander greyback]

there are moments

that words don't reach

June 2023
juniper minerva mcgonagall

A true fog enveloped his brain. Maybe it was a defense mechanism or the potions to keep him still. So when Rhys finally stirred awake, he had no sense of how much time had passed or even where he was. Squinting against the bright lights--he recognized those at least. Something about St. Mungo’s lights made his eyeballs feel bigger than his skull. Blurry images flashed through his mind, and noises were louder than the faint ringing in his ears. What the hell happened? The last thing Rhys recalled—Saffron and Archer in his sights, a lot of noise followed by the unforgettable pain. The thought made him wince. Like a fire burned him from the inside out, he suddenly felt cold while his vision faded.

The lights told him he was at St. Mungo’s. With one hand, he ran a hand over his face. The stubble felt sharp on his skin, and he winced at the cuts and bruises his fingers grazed. And he habitually tried to sit up, immediately regretting that maneuver. Rhys’ body stiffened as he fell back, a loud grunt escaping his dry throat. Breathing heavily, it was easy to feel his heart hammer against his chest. Everything hurt and felt sore, though Rhys could hardly feel the bandages on his skin. Bandages in a magical hospital. Cursebreakers didn’t need to go to the hospital to get patched up for regular cuts and scrapes.

Closing his eyes, Rhys’ mind raced as fast as his heart. And his head only throbbed when he tried to remember anything. Through the bright lights and wobbly room, the only fact Rhys had registered was that he was at St. Mungo’s. Those lights he recognized every time. Running a hand up his face again, he felt his hair sticking to his forehead. This wasn’t the first time, and Rhys figured it wouldn’t be the last time he’d wake up in a sorry state in St. Mungo’s. How many times had the trio take a trip for one or more of them, but they always walked out fine.

And it always went the same. It didn’t matter who was in bed, this time bandaged and dosed up with enough potions to put an apothecary out of business. Saffron always had a laugh at the boys’ expense. Carefully, he rotated his head to the left but only some furniture and an unclosed door, and then to the right—which left him confused. Rhys closed his eyes again. Merlin, he must have hit his head pretty damn hard. Rhys was fairly certain his regime of working every spare minute when he wasn’t in a pub had worked to push his ex-girlfriend to a forgotten place in his mind had worked. Evidently not if his concussed brain brought her image back to the surface.

But he opened them again, blinking to clear his vision and finally noting her hand on his. But he didn’t understand. What was Juniper doing here? This time, Rhys retracted his hand to slowly push himself up to sit up as best he could. This left him feeling a little short of breath and light-headed, but those pain-killing potions tended to leave one’s head feeling empty. ”What are you—“ Again he looked around. It was similar to that feeling when a five-minute nap turned into five hours unexpectedly. His voice was raspy. ”How long…?” Rhys tentatively asked, dazed eyes returning to his ex-girlfriend. How long had he been asleep for? How long had he been here? Her presence registered, but everything else was still processing.

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[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

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She felt stupid that she didn't feel Rhys stirring in the bed, caught up in her silent sobs as if this was all about her. There was a certain level of guilt involved in all of this, as she had chosen to walk away from this life when the others hadn't. And now it finally happened. The calendar on her phone even had a notification set to ping when Saff was supposed to be back from this job so they could meet up. Now it was only going to be a reminder.

The shifting of the sheets under her arm drew her swollen red eyes up, meeting the disheveled and beat up face of Rhys. Her first thought was that she had inadvertently woken him up from either her crying or dragging the chair across the room, but it had been long enough since then that she couldn't blame herself for that too. His first words stung, even though they weren't meant to. She was here because he hadn't changed his paperwork. She would have been here regardless once she heard though. Despite how things ended, Juniper didn't think she was heartless. There had been so many more positives in their relationship than the end made it seem. Regardless, she couldn't find the words to answer him that it was because he had forgotten to switch things over to someone else. That would be cruel and make it sound like she was here out of obligation.

"A day," she answered. "I think. I got the owl late last night at work..." It would have sat there until this morning had it not been for the long hours she'd been working. With the way Hogwarts ended the year with their kidnappings, there had been a moment where her department had worried about exams being cancelled. Now it all seemed so trivial to her. Caring about a piece of paper that dictated whether one passed or failed a class was so incredibly stupid when there were more important things out there. Like being alive. "The bank wouldn't tell me much about what happened...just that uhh..." She couldn't even complete her thought as she felt her eyes start to moisten again. Was she even supposed to be the one to tell him about Saffron? Surely the nurses would have told her not to drop that news on him so soon. "Just that the healers seem to think that you'll be fine," Juniper corrected herself. She'd tell him if he asked, but she was fine with lying for now. It would give him a little more time to think everything was fine.

rhys alexander greyback ● 438 ● Song by Artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

there are moments

that words don't reach

June 2023
juniper minerva mcgonagall

She looked upset. Her eyes were red, and the thickness of her voice. Merlin, they hadn’t seen one another in a year, and Rhys still made her cry. A bit of guilt ate at him, especially after he could finally look at himself. His eyes scanned his arms and torso, and his fingers lightly grazed his neck. Everything else he more or less felt, along with the familiar uncomfortable tingling of bones, just regrown. It had finally happened, hadn’t it? An injury so bad he was now in the hospital. Not that Rhys could remember any of it.

”The owl…” Rhys closed his eyes to think. Of course. The owl—this meant Juniper’s name was still on his paperwork. What a stupid thing to forget, and yet she had shown up. While things still felt as raw at times as they had that day, Rhys’ mind would wander to those happier memories. The kind that would leave you doubting the bad times existed. Looking back at Juniper, Rhys waited for a beat before speaking. ”They don’t know what happened?” He hated this empty feeling like his memory was just plucked out of his brain unwillingly. But in any case, it looked like he would heal and go home. Though he was curious about the random bandages—probably from some kind of cursed object.

”I—um—thanks for being here.” Rhys muttered, still trying to sit up comfortably. Even in their low points, he hardly felt this awkward. The healers said he would be fine. ”You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to…” Rhys added. It felt like the polite thing to do—offer her an out. They weren’t together anymore, Rhys reminded himself regretfully. ”I guess I broke my promise.” Rhys alluded to their conversation when she’d signed all that paperwork all those years ago. They’d been just kids entering the world together. It had never crossed his mind he’d be at it alone. At least he had his few siblings and his team—his best friends.

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[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

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Even if she wanted to lie about the accident, she really couldn’t because she had no idea what had actually caused it. She decided then and there that she wasn’t going to bring up Saffron unprompted. It would hurt too much to lay it all on him right now, even if she was distraught over it. The gross thought that it could have been so much worse, that Rhys and Archer could have also died in it, had trickled through her head. She immediately cast that out because it wasn’t fair to any of them. Whatever had happened inside the tomb, or wherever the three of them had been, was only known to them. Gringotts would figure it out eventually, and she desperately hoped that it wasn’t due to some sort of negligence on one of their parts. If it was an unavoidable trap or situation that was bound to leave some or all of them dead, then that was that. The sick nature of their chosen profession that she hated so, so much.

”If they do, they didn’t tell me,” she answered honestly, avoiding eye contact momentarily because there was some important details she was leaving out. Focusing on Rhys was what she needed to be doing right now, even if it was hurting her to do so. Listening to him say that she didn’t need to stay, and that he broke the promise they had made years earlier really dug into her, bringing out a fresh line of tears that she failed to blink back in time. ”We both knew this was a possibility,” she sniffled, before clearing away the wet in the corner of her eyes. ”Listen I’ll uhh…I’ll stay as long as you want me to. Or if there’s anyone else you want me to reach out to and let them know you’re here…” They hadn’t seen one another in so long, she didn’t even know if he had moved on to someone else, or if there were newer siblings he’d found that needed to be alerted. She only knew of Max, but this wasn’t exactly the sort of news you effortlessly dropped onto a little girl. That would be cruel.

rhys alexander greyback ● 365 ● Song by Artist

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[rhys alexander greyback]

there are moments

that words don't reach

June 2023
juniper minerva mcgonagall

A small part of Rhys was glad to see her, although not like this. Eyes swollen, and she looked tired. The pain he felt in that bed wasn’t nothing compared to when she left him. And Rhys knew Juni. She was a caring person, not likely to easily walk away without an explicit push. And he was so tired. How was it possible to feel so lightheaded while sitting down? And since no trace of a dream or nightmare lingered in his mind, potions had kept him asleep. Made sense—bone regrowth wasn’t for the weak. And by how pale his hands were and how they lightly trembled—blood replenishing potions as well.

Rhys didn’t respond immediately, eyes focused on the body parts he could immediately see compared to where he felt the most pain. The bandaged and unhealed cuts signaled that curses were involved, but thinking too hard about it all made his head hurt again. Rhys leaned his head back and closed his eyes for a few moments. When he finally looked back at Juniper, he was all too familiar with how she appeared when she cried. ”I don’t…I don’t remember anything.” Rhys admitted, eyebrows furrowing in a bit of frustration.

Maybe his memory would return soon as he healed up. In the meantime, he pondered a question that wasn’t much easier to answer. His siblings were so young and still in school he didn’t see a reason to worry about them. He figured letting Nell know would be a good idea, though Veronica still kept her on quite the work schedule. So, Rhys knew she would stop by eventually if she could help it. Lightly, he shook his head ‘no’. ”Erm—you can probably tell Nell. Though maybe wait a couple days when I don’t look so bad…and stress that I’m fine.” Rhys’ best friend was a walking ball of anxiety that did not need more on account of seeing how messed up he currently looked. As an afterthought, he glanced at Juni—preparing to answer for the umpteenth time that his relationship with Nell would always be platonic.

The only other person he would contact soon was Claire, but he wasn’t interested in a lecture on how dangerous his job was. So, that could wait. But did he want Juni to stay? A tightness and bitter feeling grew in his chest at the question. ”Stay or don’t stay, Juni.” Rhys muttered with a light shrug. ”I’m sorry to drag you back into my mess. ” She’d always been so worried about receiving this call, Rhys remembered. ”I’ll figure it out.” ’I always do.’ Not even a severe accident could bring down his walls. Had he wanted to say yes? Of course, but Juni would do it out of obligation or perhaps some pity for him, which Rhys didn’t want. He wasn’t rude and was even too exhausted to pick a fight where one wasn’t warranted.

”Have you been to see Archer and Saff?” Rhys asked after a few silent moments. ”She’ll get jealous you’re spending so much time in here.” While said mostly seriously, it was a joke. The girls had grown close since Rhys introduced them and were still close. No doubt their fiery friend would have some quip ready whenever Juni saw her. Rhys figured they either looked like he did or were managing far better.

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[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

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Memory seemed to be the most important part of all of this. They would both undoubtedly be plagued with nightmares over this, between what actually happened, the hospital stay, and Saffron’s death. Sleep would not come easy; she could already tell. For better or worse, today was already burned into her core memories. Any day she had previously thought was horrible or the worst ever did not even come close to this and what she assumed the coming days and weeks would be like. It was unfair, being an unwilling participant in it all. A bystander that could merely watch her closest friends run off to their potential deaths every couple of weeks without a care in the world. It was why her and Rhys’s relationship had imploded the way it had. And now it had killed her best friend too. Ironic how cursebreaking gave her so much and then yanked it all away in an unbalanced game of tug-of-war. She was currently flat on her face on the ground, still trying to figure out what went wrong, and where.

Rhys proposed the idea of contacting Nell Ollivander, and she nodded her head. That made sense to her. Especially the waiting a couple of days part. If this was a less severe injury, she probably would have laughed about her former classmate’s anxiousness over everything. Juniper had once wondered if Ollivander was only like that around her, because of the spilled potion incident, or if it was just how she was in general. It seemed to be the latter.

She wasn’t sure if he was upset or not about her being there. Obviously, there were a lot of emotions involved, more on her end because he didn’t know the exact cause yet, but it was slightly frustrating to be told that she didn’t have to stay and that this had pulled her right back into it all. While their break-up was about his work, it had always been the lack of communication that came along with it. They had not ended it all on a good note and she was still here. She always would be, as long as he was fine with it. No one deserved to be forgotten and left on their own. She chose to not say anything in that moment, because it ultimately wasn’t her decision. Once he was in better shape, he could decide whether he wanted her there or to buzz right off again.

And then the question came. She had momentarily forgotten about it, caught up in her other thoughts about everything that had led them to this point. It wasn’t fair to hear him joke about Saff without knowing. Juniper tried not to look at him as she spoke, because it was still all so raw with her. ”Archer’s fine, she answered. As fine as fine could be, she supposed. From what she had gathered, he was in better shape than Rhys but still severely injured. ”Umm…Saff is…she didn’t… Juniper couldn’t finish before feeling like her stomach was going to flip again as a new stream of tears ran down her face. There was a finality in saying that Saffron was dead. An end to it that she didn’t want to accept just yet, for her own sake.

rhys alexander greyback ● 546 ● Song by Artist

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[rhys alexander greyback]

there are moments

that words don't reach

June 2023
juniper minerva mcgonagall

If she stayed, Rhys couldn’t help but think it was out of obligation. And if she left, he’d likely not be less upset about it either since not even he could lie to himself about how he still felt about Juniper. Who else did he have? His list of close friends was small, two of which he figured were in one of the beds next door. Otherwise, they would be in here. However, Rhys’ couple of injuries over the last year hadn’t warranted a call to an emergency contact. The day had finally arrived—the day Rhys promised never would, yet here he’d been trampled by a graphorn.

”She’s what?” Rhys held his breath and gritted his teeth as he forced himself to sit up properly. The pain radiated throughout his body, but all he could feel was his heart hammering in his chest. Adrenaline seemed to give him a little boost of energy. Rhys opened his mouth to ask again for clarification, but his eyes focused on the fresh tears pouring down Juniper’s face. A fresh knot formed in his stomach, and his throat tightened. No. Juni hadn’t said it. Nobody had said it. The last thing he remembered was the three laughing as Saff made a joke at Archer’s expense. And then? Nothing.

Why did his mind go to the worst place? ”Juniper.” Rhys didn’t mean to sound so demanding and serious. But he struggled not to leap out of his bed to look for himself, though who knew which bones were still regrowing. ”Juni…” This time, he reached out for her hand, leaning forward despite the pain. But it wasn’t the pain of his physical injuries that began to overwhelm him. What was this? Not anger, no. Fear? What wasn’t she telling him? ”Juni…tell me Saff is alright.” His eyes pleaded with her to tell him their best friend was OK. She was sleeping and would be by tomorrow with her usual string of curses and why Rhys was an idiot. To tell him the one person who unconditionally had his back was gone. The truth fought against denial, and he began to feel the disconnect. Even after Juniper had left him, it had taken a few days to properly hit him. And how he was just about holding his breath as he waited for someone to say out loud what his brain told him was true, but his heart didn’t believe.

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[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

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Watching Rhys sit himself up through her blurred vision only hurt her more. Knowing that he was already in physical pain and that she was going to drop this on him too didn’t seem fair at all. But keeping it to herself just to have a nurse tell him later wouldn’t be right either. Gripping his hand tightly as he reached out for it, Juniper swallowed, hoping that would help her find the words. Because one way or another, she had to utter them eventually. That Saffron was dead. Gone forever, only to ever exist in their memories and when they had to look at her identical twin. There, but not.

The sick pit in her stomach had been growing over the last few seconds, and she felt like she had to get it out before she returned to the same hysterics she had experienced earlier. It was an overload of feelings that she didn’t even know was possible until today. Going from Rhys to Saff, then back to Rhys, and now they were here, back to Saffron.

But she couldn’t speak through the low sobs that had begun to rumble out of her again. All she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and hide away again, like she had earlier before Rhys woke up. After a few moments of being incapable of looking at anything but their hands clasped together, she finally shook her head side to side before burying her face into the hospital bed sheets. ”No…” The singular word came out like a painful whine, somehow distinguishable between her crying. Saff was dead.

rhys alexander greyback ● 269 ● Song by Artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

there are moments

that words don't reach

June 2023
juniper minerva mcgonagall

Rhys stared blankly at Juniper. His mouth slightly parted, ready to speak, but nothing would come out. A dazed look entered his eyes as Rhys tried to comprehend it all. And all the while pushing his brain to remember anything. He hardly noticed how hard Juniper grabbed his hand, like she held on for dear life. Physically, he felt tense as if to brace for an impact.

Juniper’s sobs cut through his momentary stupor. And the urge to leave and be anywhere but here came over him. But Rhys knew he wouldn’t get far. Something he’d learned some time ago, and healers were not to be underestimated. They’d restrain him in the blink of an eye. So, Rhys did what he did best—he let the shock settle and numb him. Push down the thought that Rhys could no longer look to his right and see his best friend.

Uncomfortably, he clenched and released his jaw several times. Finally, he squeezed Juniper’s hand in return. Like some old instance, Rhys pulled on it to encourage her to move closer as he finally made up his mind and hoped she didn’t leave him, too.

[ end rhys ]

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