have a nice dream [Rhys]

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July 19, 2028

Lunch break! Honeydukes was closed for the next hour or so and Flossie needed her afternoon dose of caffeine to get her through the rest of the day. Pairing it with her lunch was the best way to keep herself from getting the jitters in an hour or so and making sure she didn’t crash from the caffeine. The one problem she’d noticed over the past year of running the candy shop was that it was incredibly easy to try and supplement her energy with sugar. The addition of Spellbucks on High Street meant she could do the same thing with various coffee drinks. And by Merlin did she like those! Making her way through the menu was sort of her personal goal right now, similar to how she once spent a summer trying every flavor of ice cream that her father made. Which, for ice cream makers sort of made sense, but she had taken it to the extreme and ate more than a simple taste test spoon. Some hard truths had to be discussed before she headed back to Hogwarts that year, like how continuously eating sweets was not good for a fourteen-year-old. Now, she really didn’t care. She was going to get her sugary drinks and try every new kind of candy that came into the shop if it was the last thing she did. And obviously whenever she went to Diagon she had to have a scoop of ice cream too…

Basically the walk during lunch to get coffee was more than just that. It kept her moving and helped make her feel better about all of the horrible sugar she consumed. She wasn’t going to stop, of course, because this was the life she had chosen (and because her Gringotts vault was still collecting more cobwebs and dust bunnies than galleons after the purchase of the shop). Treating herself at lunch made her happy, thus she quickly made her way over to Spellbucks and hopped into line. They had a pink coconut ice iced coffee for the summer, and Flossie was incredibly intrigued to see one of her least popular items get sold as a caffeinated drink. And be popular at that. Giving it a try was the goal for today, and she hoped it wouldn’t ruin the rest of her lunch. Because the candy it was based on was not good in the slightest.

rhys alexander greyback ● 400 ● Song by Artist

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[rhys alexander greyback]

Why pay for my mistakes

I get them for free

July 19, 2028
florence violet fortescue

Rhys couldn’t say he found himself in the Spellbucks line very often. Unfortunately, he had drawn the short straw and been sent by the other Cursebreaker trainers to take care of that day’s Spellbuck run. Mentally, he grumbled. Rhys hardly participated when the others submitted their request, and whatever poor soul was forced to trek down to the village and return, trying to float and balance ten or more hot and cold drinks. But his luck was due to run out, he supposed. It always did at some point, didn’t it? Rhys only hoped that being sent as the errand boy that day would be the worst of it.

Walking in through a door held open, Rhys muttered a ‘thanks’ and frowned while he attempted to decipher the poorly formatted text message. What in Merlin’s good name was coconut ice? Rhys merely shook his head with an annoyed sigh and scrolled back up to the top of the message. Thirteen drinks? Of course, it would be thirteen. The almost irresistible urge to simply walk out and go home bubbled inside him, but only his last class later in the day kept him around. He supposed a coffee wasn’t a terrible idea. Merlin knew his usual lack of sleep was catching up to him.

Before Rhys could look up to review the menu, he felt something collide with him. Looking behind him, he saw the apologetic face of a child. No more than a first or second year, he reckoned. ”Sorry.” A smaller kid peered behind this one, and Rhys smiled flatly to brush off the accident. Not that it left him any less annoyed. But then he remembered that others had queued up in front of him. Turning back to face forward, Rhys began apologizing to the person, but he stopped. ”Sorry—“. At first, his heart caught in his throat for a moment when he registered the face, but after a moment, Rhys realized her eyes were blue. Vasilia didn’t have blue eyes. Rhys remembered to breathe.

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Happily bouncing on her toes as she waited her turn in line, Flossie looked around at everyone ahead of her to see if she recognized any of the customers as her own. It was a lot easier with the students that were there, a few that came in every Hogsmeade weekend, and even a smaller number that lived in the community. Buying a drink definitely wasn’t the time to be selling her wares though, and she was content enough with sending small waves to those that spotted her in return.

A small commotion behind her had caused her to momentarily break from her little bubble, and she turned to see what the matter was. Call it a shopkeeper’s curiosity. She could hear the sound of collisions and minor accidents from a room over at this point. Every once in a while, a display would be bumped into. Nothing a charm couldn’t correct. But she was so aware of these sorts of things now, that she knew there had been a small bump between the patrons in line behind her without even having seen it.

What she was not expecting was that the man directly behind her was Rhys Greyback. Her former classmate. Her first crush. Her sister’s extremely recent ex. Flossie didn’t believe in holding grudges – those were far too aggressive for her – but she could feel her breath catch in her chest and her nostrils flare slightly. It was a similar feeling that she recalled when she first learned of him and McGonagall all those years ago, yet more anger because this was about Vas. She also wasn’t dumb. She knew relationships fell apart and went different ways. Just like her own marriage had. That didn’t change the fact that in this moment, she sort of hated Rhys Greyback, if only for a second or two. He probably also had a horrible choice of drink. That made her feel a little better.

”Rhys,” she said slowly. ”Never took you for the Spellbucks type.” More like whiskey straight from the bottle, if what she’d heard about him since coming back to England had any bearing. Not like she didn’t enjoy a strong drink every now and again too. ”Don’t tell me you came all the way to Hogsmeade just for this?”

rhys alexander greyback ● 381 ● Song by Artist

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[rhys alexander greyback]

Why pay for my mistakes

I get them for free

July 19, 2028
florence violet fortescue

Seeing his old friend didn’t stop the thoughts from flooding his mind. ”Floss.” Merlin, how many years had it been? Now that he thought about it, Rhys hadn’t recalled even speaking to her during the entirety of his relationship with Flossie’s younger sister. Thinking about Vasilia was still a sore point, even more so because Rhys couldn’t find any fault in her actions, no matter how much he wanted to bend logic. Also, how did Flossie look the same as all those years ago? Still, his brain struggled to catch up to the moment. ”Erm—I’m not.” Rhys remembered his phone. ”Just the messenger.”

He turned the phone screen with the messy text of his colleague’s orders. Quickly, however, Rhys began to settle. Flossie had always been an easy person to be around. It seemed that hadn’t changed. Then again, Rhys also braced himself. One thing he had not anticipated with discovering younger siblings was how protective he’d grown to feel over them. He could only imagine Flossie was the same for Vasilia and Felix. Merin knew what kind of damage resulted from a breakup, not that Rhys would bring it up. ”I’m at the school till the end of Summer—trainee Cursebreakers.” The simple explanation of it all.

Rhys could have been done over a month ago, but remaining for the extra time ensured he was home for Amelia’s second birthday, which occurred at the end of the month. Another reminder of how time flew. One moment she was making noises while intrigued by the mobile of Quidditch broomsticks, bludgers, quaffles, and a snitch. Unsurprisingly, the shiny golden snitch had been her favorite. And now she spoke as often and as fast as her little lungs let her. The line remained at a standstill, a blonde woman discussing something intensely with the employee. Looks like they would awkwardly stand here for a while. ”How’s Honeydukes?” Rhys asked, remembering Vasilia telling him about all that. He never needed to visit much. Sage often went since chocolate was her favorite, and Amelia was always delighted to visit.

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She didn’t know why her first thought was that Rhys had quit his job as a Cursebreaker and had become a delivery flier, but it happened regardless. Supposedly, it was a pretty lucrative job after Blishwick popularized it with his pizza delivery. There had been a few of them that had popped into Honeyduke’s since she took over to grab a bag or two of candy before going on their way. While in New York, she had used the muggle version of this plenty of times but never thought it would translate well in the magical world. She was apparently wrong.

Then he cleared the air by explaining he was working. At Hogwarts. Training the next generation of Cursebreakers. There it was. For as long as she had known him, especially in those years near the end of school and right after, that had apparently been his goal. She could never see herself doing that job though. Too dirty, and a lot of sand at the start. It was course and rough and irritating, and it got everywhere. Totally not good for ice cream and candy making.

”That sounds fun! I’d heard they were integrating the program into the school but didn’t realize they were pulling active Cursebreakers into it. Those kids are lucky…” Hogwarts was definitely the place to be now. It sort of made her jealous because their time there had been so normal and average. At the same time, she didn’t envy what all of the current students had gone through to get to this point.

”It’s an experience,” she answered about her shop. ”Also sort of ironic, considering I never wanted to run a shop, but here I am.” Her dad was probably rolling over in his grave right about now. The thing was, she was fine with not running the ice cream parlor. Felix was exceptional at it, and she was sure her mum would agree. It never needed all three of them anyways. Having a divide and conquer plan where they each set up in their own area of expertise worked just as well. Because she could never run a pub like Vas could, and she was sure the same could be said for the two of them about Honeyduke’s.

Speaking of her sister, it was taking everything in her not to bring that up. Rhys had held her attention for so many years, even after he’d been involved with McGonagall. That had disappeared by now and seemed more like a teenage folly than anything else. If there had been any lasting feelings about him, they were dashed immediately when she found out Vas was with him, and even more once that ended. Deciding on how to talk to him was difficult though. ”So. How’ve you been? I feel like I’ve missed quite a bit since I left.” And that was about literally everything in her old circle. Some were married, others had children. Nell had her own shop, even. And she was even divorced. All in the span of ten years. It was quite amazing, really.

rhys alexander greyback ● 513 ● Song by Artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

Why pay for my mistakes

I get them for free

July 19, 2028
florence violet fortescue

Rhys resisted the temptation to roll his eyes. Fun was not really the word he would use to describe it if anyone asked him. But nobody had, fortunately. ”Erm—yea. The Professor there, Vector, began reaching out. I initially didn’t want to.” Rhys began to explain. The line still did not move. ”But he wanted us to help certify the second-year trainees for the field.” In hindsight, it was a smart initiative. With less field time under their belts than before, this was a chance to up the ante a bit and weed them out before handing out stamps of approval.

In terms of “lucky,” that probably depended on who you asked. Rhys taught a course on advanced charms, focusing on protective charms. These had saved his life on more than one occasion and could be utilized in almost any situation. However, that meant his field training was quite intense. Such a charm’s strength came from the individual, and a Cursebreaker had to really want the full strength rather than expect it. And how did Rhys bring that out? Throw whatever he thought of at the trainees—literally. Of course, others assisted him to ensure no serious injury should a trainee freeze and fail to stop the large boulder heading their direction.

”Almost all returned to work at the end of term. A handful of us remained for the summer. I needed to be home this month anyway.” Rhys added. It was just easier this way and already scheduled when Rhys returned home in March. At the time, the thought was to stay home in June for Vasilia’s birthday and then in July for Amelia’s, but obviously, some plans had changed. Rhys nodded as he listened to Flossie answer his question. Very quickly, it all felt familiar. ”Funny where life leads us.” How many years had it been? He didn’t often think about how long ago his school years felt. Some days, it felt like yesterday. Other times, it was a distant and fading memory.

”Yes, how many years now?” Rhys had focused so intently on finding a place to live and preparing for training that summer after leaving school. All he had time for was occasionally seeing his friends by proximity. He wasn’t far from Diagon Alley, so seeing Nell and Flossie was easy, but mainly, he’d spent time with Juniper. ’How’ve you been?’ What a question to ask. Once upon a time, Rhys felt at speaking to Flossie, easily speaking what came to mind. Now, he wasn’t sure if he didn’t want to say or know where to start. Maybe that was a family trait—Vasilia had also been so easy to talk to. ”Working, mainly. Still with Gringotts.” What a poor way to summarize a decade.

”And I have a kid—a daughter.” Rhys added. It had taken some time after Amelia’s birth, but Rhys eventually got over feeling weird sharing the fact. He pulled out his phone again, navigating to a picture and handing it to Flossie. A candid photo of Amelia playing recently with something shiny, a stuffed giraffe faithfully with her as well. ”She’s two end of the month.” His eyes and features softened, as they always did regarding his daughter. Carefully reaching over, he gently touched his phone screen to pull up another picture. It was just one album on his phone of her. Pictures with Dahlia and Max. Probably some with Sage, of course, and probably a few with Vasilia. Rhys hadn’t realized how many pictures he had accumulated while teaching at Hogwarts. His colleagues and coworkers were happy to engage with the toddler, who was anything but shy. Just Amelia and her giraffe.

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Rhys broke down his job a bit, explaining that most of the cursebreakers that had been brought to Hogwarts to teach were mainly there for the second-year trainees. It was uplifting news to hear that there was more care being put into the training. Hopefully to reduce injuries and casualties. The news of Saffron Grimstone’s passing had reached Flossie relatively late, mainly due to her proximity from home. Her old roommate had been a firecracker of a character and imagining more bright lights like her disappearing was hard to process at times. She didn’t know if Rhys had continued the career out of joy for it, or if it was a money thing. But she hoped he and any of her other former classmates that were still in the field learned to be more careful. It seemed like they were if Gringotts was allowing better training like this now.

”It really is,” she responded breathily. Life was strange like that. A decade passed and so much had changed. And also a lot hadn’t. Sure, people were older and their own lives now, but the general surroundings hadn’t morphed that much. Hogwarts, despite its new appearance and educational programs, was still Hogwarts. It loomed over Hogsmeade atop its hill, albeit slightly different looking. The school always persevered. ”Just about ten since graduation.” And a little less than that since she ran off to New York City. She wouldn’t have it any other way, really, despite the stress she caused her parents and the infrequent calls she made to them. Looking back on it now, that wasn’t the way to go about it at all.

Then Rhys produced his phone to show her a picture of his daughter, and Flossie’s eyes widened at the cute little girl on the screen. ”No way!” she said in surprise. She had been filled in on a few of the details over the last year from her family. The girl’s combination of Rhys and Sage Grimstone was unbelievable to see. ”She’s adorable, Rhys,” Flossie continued. ”Merlin, that’s such a big change to go through too.” She was selling herself short, as if her own experience of being married for six years wasn’t nothing. There were plenty of old classmates that hadn’t even done that yet.

rhys alexander greyback ● 379

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[rhys alexander greyback]

Why pay for my mistakes

I get them for free

July 19, 2028
florence violet fortescue

Internally, Rhys winced at the thought—it had been a decade since he’d left school. If not for the occasional backache or popping noise from his joints, he wouldn’t have thought it had been ten years. So much had happened, and it also felt like a blur at the same time. He supposed the feeling would be worse if not for Amelia. Something about a toddler at the center of his world forced him to slow down and stop from time to time. He shook his head thoughtfully, glancing again to the front of the line where nothing had changed since he last looked.

”With work, I feel like I’ve missed a lot, too.” This had been brought to Rhys’ attention more than once and by different people. Juniper had been the first, and in hindsight, Rhys could see possibly where things had derailed a bit. Vasilia had mentioned it rarely but mentioned it nonetheless, especially after a fight. But he tried not to think about her because that was something he was still working to get past. Distractions such as work, whisky, or (apparently) sex in the Hogwarts library seemed to do the trick. His mind jumped back to not even a fortnight before when catching up with Juni.

But Flossie just about jumped out of her skin when Rhys showed her his daughter. And he couldn’t help but beam with pride. ”Thank you. But she only got my eyes, and that’s probably it.” He joked. Such things like that never bothered him. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, sometimes he watched Amelia and noted little things about her actions or temperament that must be from him. At first, he had mixed feelings that she had inherited his eyes—Fenrir’s eyes, but it bothered him less now because Amelia didn’t know who Fenrir Greyback was. But she knew who Rhys was, and Merlin, if it didn’t leave him feeling warm and fuzzy when she excitedly would run up to him.

He nodded. That was putting it lightly. Fatherhood had and still was a little scary, but he was doing it, one day at a time. ”Yea, I—uh—wasn’t expecting it.” Rhys looked back at the picture, his eyes softening. Despite his doubts and fears, he couldn’t imagine Amelia not existing.

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Flossie, admittedly, knew very little on how much time cursebreakers spent on their jobs. She did know that there was a disproportionate amount of them from her graduating year though. Missing important events had to happen frequently. It was a strange concept, as that had almost never happened in the Fortescue household. If there was a birthday or a special thing they had to go to, the ice cream parlor was locked up and off they went. She supposed that could still happen now with them, but with all three running different stores, that might end up getting tricky. Once she had enough to start hiring employees, she absolutely would. That made a world of difference.

”Careful,” Flossie warned, ”She may have your personality too. You can never be too sure.” A Greyback and a Grimstone. Knowing that combination, even with Sage being relatively tame back in the day, the little girl was more than likely going to end up like her aunt. Now that would be entertaining. ”I know it might be late, but congratulations. It really is amazing…” And here she thought her giant life change was momentous. Former classmates were out having kids too. She’d known about Sarah Oliveira’s son already, a chance conversation she’d heard. He was apparently a bit older though. That wasn’t as much of a surprise as it probably should have been.

”I’ve seen Nell around a few times since I got back last year. Was crazy to see that she had her own shop now too. Everyone’s made it well for themselves it seems.” There were others that she hadn’t heard nor seen from in almost ten years though. She’d run into Dolohov and Rosier by chance in Horizont the previous summer as well. The fact that they hadn’t torn each other apart over men yet had absolutely been shocking to her. They actually seemed like well-rounded adults now too, which was strange. Trying to compare everyone to how they were when she up and left only a year after graduation wasn’t fair to them either. ”I’m trying to think who else I’ve bumped into as well…it’s like every once in a while someone will pop into Honeydukes and be surprised to see me behind the counter. Sort of hilarious, really.”

rhys alexander greyback ● 379

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[rhys alexander greyback]

Why pay for my mistakes

I get them for free

July 19, 2028
florence violet fortescue

Rhys softly chuckled. ”I suppose that may be good or bad, depending on who you ask.” He lightly shrugged. Those who knew him best might have an opinion, and so would those who thought they knew him. At a moment like that, Rhys could hear Vasilia saying something incredibly positive and heartwarming about Rhys. Quickly, he pushed that thought out of his mind. Vasilia was only in the forefront because Flossie was right in front of him. ”Thank you.” Sometimes, he couldn’t believe it himself. That Rhys could have taken part in creating something so wonderful. And sometimes, his thoughts were so sappy that even he wondered where they came from.

He almost commented verbally how he wished Saffron was around to see this, to see her niece grow up and participate in all that. But Amelia had no shortage of aunts and uncles, official or otherwise, to spoil her rotten. ”I’ll bring her by sometime.” Rhys had avoided bringing Amelia into Honeydukes. No doubt she would want everything, but maybe it was a chance to work on teaching her that she could only have one item. Then again, it would be challenging for Rhys not to cave when Amelia hit him with those eyes.

Rhys pulled out his wand at the mention of Nell. ” Yeah—she’s been doing well. She made this for me two years ago after a work incident.” Incident almost didn’t sound better than accident, but he didn’t want to get into those details. It was still better than his old wand, and considering how well he’d done with that one, it was saying a lot. But Nell had a different vision for wand making than her older sister. Rhys could see that now, even if his own werewolf hair constituted the core. Not that he shared that tidbit much.

”I’m sure they wonder if they’d walked into the ice cream parlor or—erm—the pub.” The words left his mouth before he could stop himself so much for not mentioning Vasilia in this conversation. For Rhys, it felt like an unfortunate situation. He and Flossie had been good friends all those years ago. Reconnecting would have been nice, but there was that fact of his, now, history with her younger sister. Glancing to the front of the line, the troublesome customer finally appeared to be finishing up.

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Flossie didn’t know if Rhys had brought his daughter by the shop prior to her acquisition of it, though that probably didn’t matter much when it came to an almost two-year-old. The excitement children had when they entered was quite literally the reason she had purchased the shop in the first place; aside from hoping to keep it true to how it always had been and out of the hands of an owner that would replace it with something else entirely. Staving off change was difficult, but she had a feeling she could run the candy store as it was meant to be. ”Excellent! I’ve got a good selection of candy perfect for toddlers too.” Candies that were almost impossible to choke on but still had fun shapes and flavors. Even some muggle candy she’d brought back with her from New York. There were a few boxes of it left still, well over a year later. Drip-feeding her customers with it was fun.

”Look at that…” Flossie breathed out as she examined Rhys’s wand. ”Nell really does great work. I’m glad she was finally able to figure it out for herself.” The talent had always been there. Anyone that watched the Ollivander woman long enough in school could have seen that. She just lacked a spine. It felt horrible to think of her old classmate that way, but it was the truth despite being harsh. During their few conversations recently though, it seemed like Nell had learned how to advocate for herself. So that was good at least.

The fact that she had followed her siblings into running her own place wasn’t lost on her at all. That comment had been made by a few others that knew the Fortescue family well. They knew what they were good at and followed through with it at the end of the day. ”Maybe. But I was also gone for seven years. I think that’s more of the shock, rather than seeing me behind a counter somewhere.” She really didn’t know though. It did feel like she was stepping back into a world that felt familiar, yet really wasn’t. So much had happened here since she moved to the US. Everything that her friends and family went through had been without her. Often times, she felt like a stranger returning once the dust had settled. It was an odd feeling.

rhys alexander greyback ● 397

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[rhys alexander greyback]

Why pay for my mistakes

I get them for free

July 19, 2028
florence violet fortescue

”As long as Sage never finds out.” Rhys added. Merlin knew Sage would loathe the idea of adding sugar to their child’s never-ending energy. But Rhys could never quite explain the strange phenomena that made it immensely difficult to say no to Amelia. The two-year-old probably had figured that out by now. A toddler had cracked the code of an often insufferably obstinate Rhys. ”I’m around until the end of August, so we’ll be by soon enough.” It worked out that Rhys could be home for his birthday as well. He never wanted much fanfare, but he supposed it would be nice not to work for once and return home exhausted.

Rhys nodded in agreement. By all accounts, Nell’s older sister was unpleasant, to put it politely, and seemingly doing whatever it took to squash the ambition from Nell. Unfortunately, it had not been a situation Rhys could help much with aside from the old days of testing her makeshift wands in the Slytherin Common Room and occasionally losing an eyebrow. ”It took her a minute—but she’s doing well.” A decade certainly flew by, and he genuinely liked seeing his close friends succeed, especially after nearly two decades of friendship. Merlin knew Nell had always been there for him when he was down.

Flossie’s observation reminded Rhys of a long-time incident before Amelia was born. Rhys couldn’t help but share the story as the line still had not budged. ”You know—people often mistake you and Vasilia for one another.” Bringing up Vasilia always left Rhys feeling weird, but it was sometimes unavoidable. She was his ex-girlfriend, but at one point, Rhys and Flossie had been close friends. ”Juni swears she saw us together once, but you hadn’t yet moved back.” That random encounter at the bookstore had been interesting and unexpected. Rhys recalled his shock at how easily people thought Vasilia was her sister often, but he supposed it was expected if they were used to seeing Rhys and Flossie together during their school years. At the time, Rhys had considered Flossie a close friend, although it seemed they’d drifted apart at some point during their final year.

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Flossie's immediate thought when Rhys answered that the candy would be fine as long as the mother didn't find out, was that Sage Grimstone had become one of those crunchy, all-natural types. Which certainly wasn't bad for small children. They needed nutrients and healthy food over sugar and sweets. But kids were also allowed to explore the foods they wanted to eat. Restricting them now only meant they'd go insane by the time they got to Hogwarts. She saw it happen during her own time there, with classmates that were 'vegetarian' instantly dropping it to eat a steak for the first time. It seemed like some parents forgot that their children had the right to choose how they ate too. In response, Flossie mimicked zipping her lips shut. She never told when someone came in and bought pounds of chocolate for personal consumption. Plus, she and Sage had never been close close. All these years later would almost be strange.

Nodding through their quick conversation about Nell, she was almost more interested in the assumption that she had been back in London earlier than she actually was. It made her laugh that her sister was being mistaken for her. For starters, they weren't even close in height and Vas was covered in tattoos from head to toe. She was the only one that didn't get the Fortescue height, funnily enough. More of a shock was that he was talking to Juniper again. Maybe he always was. She had given up trying to understand that relationship the second they all graduated and she ran off to New York. None of that was her business anymore, and even though she had agonized over it when she first moved, Flossie also knew that she never would have won against McGonagall. Hell, even her own sister seemingly hadn't.

"I guess it just shows I wasn't forgotten?" she laughed again. Sometimes she wondered. Running off and having her own life away from everything here had been fun, right up until the end. Now that she was back, she was starting to realize that she had missed a lot. At times, it was frustrating. Like all of her old friends had secrets that she wasn't privy too because of her chosen absence. She was a stranger at best.

rhys alexander greyback ● 383

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[rhys alexander greyback]

Why pay for my mistakes

I get them for free

July 19, 2028
florence violet fortescue

Flossie agreed to keep this unofficial secret. Rhys knew Sage wasn’t against candy, per se, but it was more judgment on his parenting skills. This was a typical point of contention for them as their styles clashed, but Rhys would have rather focused on the limited time he could spend with his daughter than leaving her with negative memories of him. Sage still didn’t understand Rhys’s perspective, but hopefully, Amelia was young enough not to notice. Even Vasilia tried her best to empathize with Rhys’s frustrations, patiently letting him vent until he had clearly worn her down too far.

Half smiling, Rhys shrugged. ”I suppose not.” Flossie hadn’t blended into the background like others. Sage was the first person to come to mind on that note. ”I didn’t.” Rhys admitted. Rhys and Flossie had gotten along well throughout school and their classes together. Their constant Astronomy class left them in the Tower at odd hours, where they would talk about whatever came to mind while finishing their homework. Not to mention typical awkward teenage moments, especially as Rhys watched other boys in his year flirt or try to get close to Flossie as she was one of the prettiest girls in their year. But somewhere near the end, that had faded. And while Rhys had started dating Juniper, it didn’t mean he hadn’t felt the distance. When Vasilia entered Rhys’s life, he thought about these things after such a long time, but only because the Fortescue, in general, had reentered his life.

Hearing voices, Rhys glanced over and noticed the customer at the front of the line had finally completed their order. Merlin, at this rate, he’d reach the front when Amelia was ready for her first year at Hogwarts. But the impatience had become contagious, and the next customer in line spoke his order quickly. It wouldn’t take long for Rhys and Flossie to reach the front.

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Had she heard Rhys Greyback say that he hadn’t forgotten her at fifteen years old, she probably would have melted right then and there in line at Spellbucks. The years, life, a brief marriage, and him dating her sister later, it was hard to admit that those same teenage follies were still around. Everything was so much more complicated now than it was back then, even if she had felt like the world would have ended if she asked him out back at Hogwarts. Becoming an adult sucked on so many different levels, and she wouldn’t be lying if she said running off to New York City was her way of escaping everything that existed back home. Her family and Rhys included. Once she knew she absolutely didn’t have a shot, thanks to Juniper stepping in, it felt easier to leave. And the second she had, she felt like she could finally be herself without any distractions.

She wanted to thank him for saying that, but the distraction of the line finally starting to move forward seemed to draw both of their attention away. The poor girl working the cash register looked exhausted by the previous customer, a dour expression on her face as she took the next order expeditiously. She also worked for Felix at the ice cream parlor, having apparently committed herself to working in the service industry. Clearly it was taking a toll.

”Hopefully your order isn’t that big,” she said quietly to Rhys as the customer that had taken forever walked by them impatiently to begin their wait for their drink. It was sort of ironic, being ignorant of everyone else’s time just to start getting into a tizzy over a drink. Flossie couldn’t stand that sort, but also knew she had to keep her mouth shut in situations like this. Anything that could harm her newly acquired business had to be kept at arm’s length.

rhys alexander greyback ● 320

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