COUSIN OF MINE | RENARD

[Deleted]

Nefertiti wasn’t close with any of her family members, other than her mother and her maternal grandparents. Her father was hushed, hush about his family, having only met them once or twice. After her father was sent to Azkaban, his side of the family disappeared off the face of the earth. Though she did know one cousin from her father’s side, her Aunt Millicent, whom she had never really met, had a son that had attended Hogwarts and now worked in the Ministry. Renard Goyle was his name, he was older than Nefe, but had been in Hogwarts around the time that she had attended, and now they worked together – sort of. They both had Ministry jobs, but were in different locations, thankfully enough for her. He was a half-blood, which was probably one of the reasons her father had strayed away from actually introducing Nefe to the Goyle family.

They had only had a few run-ins with each other, which was fine by her. But those run-ins were enough for her. But it seemed like whoever was out there, watching over the world, had a cruel intention for today because it seemed like fate wanted them to have one of those fateful run-ins. She had arrived early that morning and had walked her way to the elevators, and guess who else was there, Renard. She sighed internally, shaking her head as she pushed her face up and walked closer to where he was standing. “Goyle,” she said in a monotone voice, greeting her cousin with his last name.

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renard walt goyle
hope you don't mind me starting something for these two, i know we mentioned something along the lines of them threading!

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[renard walt goyle]

@nefertiti

09.19.2024

These early shifts to deal with the interns were starting to get out of hand. He did one nice thing once, for the coworker that was supposed to handle them, and suddenly this was added onto his job description. He wasn’t a babysitter or a teacher; he was a hammer of justice, there to lay down the law for the beasts and half-breeds that couldn’t stick to the laws established for them. The creatures, like ghouls and the sort, he couldn’t blame much since they were of lesser intelligence. As for the half-breeds, they knew better, and it was their idiocy that always left him dragging his feet when it came to assisting with whatever their problems might be. Having a child fresh out of school attached to his hip while completing these tasks was beyond annoying and got in the way immensely. Alas, even with the protests he put up against his boss, things hadn’t changed in the last few months and it was starting to look like he was going to be stuck with the interns for the foreseeable future. Something about ‘understanding the youth’. That was a poor excuse to shackle him down to the children, because he had made it fairly obvious over the last few years that he didn’t give a damn what ‘today’s youth’ said or did, and that those sorts of things wouldn’t interfere with his work.

The only seconds of solace upon entering the Ministry typically consisted of the elevator ride up to his department, which was what he was currently waiting for patiently, that morning’s copy of the Daily Prophet shoved in his face. It was mostly a defense to keep others from bothering him on his way to his desk. Today, though, it failed catastrophically, the dull sound of his surname reaching his ears and causing him to curl his lip unconsciously at it. Was it so difficult to leave a person that was clearly occupied, alone? Yes. Yes it was. He should have known better when it came to the average, dimwitted busybodies that the Ministry consisted of. They would never learn. The newspaper snapped closed in his hands as he efficiently folded it up under his arm, before taking the time to take a gander at the person that had so rudely interrupted him. Of course it was his cousin. “Bulstrode,” he mimicked her choice of calling him by his last name. “You’re quite early. On coffee duty today?” Renard said sarcastically, turning his gaze from her back to the elevator door in front of him.

[Deleted]

Her cousin Renard was older than her, but only by a few years, but that didn’t mean much to Nefe. He may be older and thus “wiser” than her, but she saw it the other way around really. She felt that she was the wiser one out of both of them, or at least, better out of the two of them. She never really knew him before starting school and now through the ministry. He was from the side of the family that was never really talked about or visited, especially after her father’s imprisonment in Azkaban.

She rolled her eyes at his words, “No—I am far past ‘coffee duty,’” she said with a bit of annoyance in her voice. “I have things to do, you know the drill,” she added with a serious tint to her voice. “What about you? Didn’t see you as someone that came in this early…though, if I’m honest, wouldn’t put it past you,”

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renard walt goyle

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[renard walt goyle]

@nefertiti

09.19.2024

It took all of his effort not to scoff at her. ‘Things to do’? An intern? Only the top ones in each department were ever given any real tasks that related to the jobs they were supposedly vying over. That was the trick to it: give them low paying, base level jobs that would eventually bore them to death to weed out the ones that weren’t promising enough. Whether or not his cousin here was one of those was up for debate. Renard had certainly never seen her in action, so that had to mean she was one of the ones lagging behind. Coworkers did talk, after all, and they always had the juiciest gossip to eavesdrop on. “Congratulations!” he mocked her, clapping his hands slowly. “Only took, what…” he said, staring down at the date on his wrist watch. “…four months? Five? Very capable you are, dear cousin.” There was never any reason for him to associate with her side of the family. His own parents were bad enough as it was. The only semi-competent one amongst any of them (aside from himself, of course), was his sister. Unfortunately she was still twiddling her thumbs and fooling around with the idiots running Hogwarts that allowed werewolves to be taught there. So far, he had yet to see her speak out about it, something he had vehemently been against.

Stopping his thoughts from going on a tangent inside his head, he chuckled and shook his head as she asked what he was doing at the Ministry this early. “Excellent question. Training my lot of interns on how to actually be functioning adults in the work place,” Renard grinned. “Some of your classmates are bright you know. Looks like you may have missed it by just a smidge.” He held his fingers together in an almost pinched position to indicate exactly how much he was talking about, only letting it go when he realized he hadn’t hit the button for the elevator. If he was going to be stuck with her on the ride up to their respective offices, might as well get it over with quickly. “Which floor?” he asked as he turned to face the door to wait for its arrival.

[Deleted]

A growl left the brunette’s lips, and her hair seemed to turn red with anger slowly. “Don’t mock me,” she hissed out in outraged that he would do such a thing. Her fist clenched at her side, and what she noticed people starting to look towards her, she took a breath, straightened herself out and her hair slowly turned from flames to the brunette that she usually sported at work. She usually wore her hair with pink in it, but seeing as work didn’t like that, her ability to change her appearance came in handy. “I don’t even think I ever got coffee, for your information. That must have been you, dear cousin,” she hissed out, but remained semi-composed.

When he answered her question, he quickly finished it with another rude comment. They were cousins, but they didn’t get along, and she surely knew why. He was rude and very horrid. “Oh ha-ha, you’re so funny. Your interns must love you,” she said with a roll of her eyes. When he questioned what floor she needed, she huffed and didn’t answer, “I don’t have to tell you, you’ll probably come to find my boss later and put in a bad word to get me in trouble, or worst, fired. I’m not playing games today,”

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renard walt goyle

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[renard walt goyle]

@nefertiti

09.19.2024

Renard watched as she snapped back, hair color burning into a fiery red long enough to draw a few onlookers. That reminded him why he didn’t deal with her side of the family. They sported a terrible attitude and lacked any sense of humor. What sort of person couldn’t take a joke? “Sorry,” Renard began, slightly apologetic, his lips turning into a small grin as he continued, “I forgot that you do a decent job of making yourself look bad.” From the way some of the people around them had looked at her, she did exactly what he was hoping for. Everyone in the Ministry was looking to push buttons. Making it easier for that to happen wouldn’t help her in the slightest. “You know, I can’t recall if I did or not either. I wasn’t an intern for too long. Some nasty business with a couple of boggarts trapped in cupboard, cleaned up by yours truly, had me out of the trenches and to my own desk in short time.” The story was true, he had proven himself that way. What wasn’t true, was how long he was an intern for. Renard had to go through the standard six months or whatever it was that all interns did, but he was given real jobs much earlier. That and the lack of hands in the department meant delivering coffee was kept for the lowest of the interns.

“Love is a strong word. They do what I need them to do though. Windsor girl ring any bells? Can’t say she agrees with me on everything, but it’s not a bad thing to have a different perspective every now and then.” She was a much better pick than Nefertiti ever would be, that was for sure. Having someone so volatile and swayed by emotions would be dangerous with the beasts they dealt with.

He scoffed as she gave a trivial reason for not telling him the floor she was going to. That was stupid of her. “Then who would I get to talk to every morning?” The elevator arrived and Renard stepped in, his hand quickly finding the button panel, and more specifically, his floor number, the light illuminating upon contact. As more bodies piled into the box, like the little worker bees they were, he kept a close eye on his cousin, curious which floor she really was on. There were so many departments that he could care less about, and he half-figured it would be mail sorting or something equally stupid. He had a long ride to his floor though, so he had all the time in the world to figure out which one it was.

[Deleted]

[googlefont="Open Sans Condensed:300"]

THE DANGER IS
I AM DANGEROUS

[attr="class","next"] Nefertiti didn’t know her father’s side of the family, the pureblood family of Bulstrode or the aunts and uncles that likely came out of it all. She was mostly close with her mother after her father was sentenced to Azkaban for dark matters that never became known when she grew older. Renard, though a Goyle, came from her father’s side of the family and thus, she never knew him much when she was growing up. But she already knew she didn’t like him, even with little interaction between the two of them. Today, at that moment, was another reason that she disliked her cousin. She took a deep breath, her hair changing from the long red strands back to the normal light brown with pink highlights throughout it, her signature look. She had lied when she said she barely got coffee for her department, she had done it on numerous occasions, but she didn’t want him to know about it. She rolled her eyes, “I’ve heard the story a thousand times,” she said as she crossed her arms over her chest. She had heard it, but probably not as many times as she had said.

Nefertiti rolled her eyes, “Guess your side of the family don’t understand sarcasm when they hear it,” she said enthusiastically. “I’ve heard the name Windsor, but not the people within it—though, there are four of them? Royalty of the muggle world or some shit,” she said with a wrinkle of her nose. “But I’m glad you have one rational female intern, maybe she’ll get through your thick skull.” She rolled her eyes, “You don’t even like me, so why would you even care if you got to speak with me each morning?” she questioned with a raised eyebrow as the two of them stepped onto the lift. Once he had hit his floor number, she quickly followed suit, hitting her own number and revealing which floor she worked on anyways.

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TAG renard walt goyle

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[renard walt goyle]

@nefertiti

09.19.2024

A thousand times? That was a lot to hear about his gallant battle against boggarts, each of them appearing as his higher-ups, glaring down at his inability to function in the working world. It was a silly boggart to have, but also one that he was thankful for. There was nothing truly terrifying about his bosses, and they were only what appeared at the time. In school, it had been older students or his parents, who were suddenly more intelligent than he was. That was where the boggarts ultimately failed with their abilities. Having his fear as an irrational thought meant that the physical appearance did little to no lasting psychological damage to him. Renard had seen people collapse on the ground in fright from clowns, dead relatives, puppies – the fact was that his story wasn’t remotely interesting to be reiterated one thousand times. “Really? Pretty sure I haven’t mentioned it to you more than a few times now. People really talk about that like it’s some amazing feat?” He was criticizing his own experience, mostly because it wasn’t as great as it sounded. Something like that, facing off against two boggarts, was a daily task for him now. Doing it as an intern fresh out of Hogwarts may have been a success story to share with new interns, but it was just another day in the life of Renard Goyle now.

The conversation continued, going onto the bit about the Windsor girl. Nefertiti seemed to know more than she was telling. Probably wanted to act tough, like she was better than the Windsor girl was. He didn’t want to break it to her that Susan was possibly the smarter than she was. “Maybe she will. I doubt it. Her kind get bored of their positions and tend to move between departments a lot. If you manage to stay here long enough, you’ll see what I mean,” Renard explained, purposely implying that she could get sacked at any given moment. When one intern was fired or left, there was always another to fill the spot. She wasn’t anything special to her department, at least not yet.

“Those are your words, not mine,” Renard tutted. She followed his motions of hitting the floor number by pressing down her own. “Ah. Department of Mysteries. I see why you couldn’t tell me.” He was joking of course. The strange folk that worked there matched their job titles: a mystery. How Nefertiti fit in with them was hard to grasp, but also meant there was a chance she wouldn’t last there either. “If you ever get bored there, I have a few open positions under me in the Beast Division. Hunting down loose werewolves and fighting dark creatures is exhilarating, you know?”

[Deleted]

[googlefont="Open Sans Condensed:300"]

THE DANGER IS
I AM DANGEROUS

[attr="class","next"] She let out a soft laugh as her cousin didn’t seem to understand her joking manner. She was exaggerating of course, but it seemed to go over his damn head. Not that she was surprised, not in the slightest, he did have a thick skull after all. In one ear and out the other, as her grandmother used to say. She rolled her eyes at him, “It was an exaggeration Goyle, you know what that is right? Or do I have to spell it out for you?” she questioned, raising her eyebrow at him as she looked at him expectantly. Her annoyance level was growing, and it wasn’t even work time yet – god she should have just stayed home and hit snooze a few more times than perhaps this run in could have been avoided.

Nefertiti was determined to last at the Ministry, even though she knew that she hated it here. She just wanted to help out the Purifiers in any way, and working here seemed to be the best option. She always enjoyed her mother’s work and had wanted to follow in her footsteps, but that had changed over the years. It didn’t faze her as Renard said something that implied her getting sacked, quitting or let go gently, but she didn’t care. Maybe if that were to happen, she could do what she always wanted to do. “I plan to be here for a very long time. And I bet you she does as well. But as you said, I guess we will see what you mean as time passes,” she said in a bitter tone.

She rolled her eyes, remaining silent as the elevator lurched to life. “I won’t get bored. And I’d rather be eaten by one of those loose werewolves or mulled dark creatures than work under you…thank you very much,” she said, her eyes narrowing ahead of her.

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TAG renard walt goyle

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[renard walt goyle]

@nefertiti

09.19.2024

The bickering between them was silly. All Renard was doing was setting her up with the ammunition to be angry and she was wildly firing it off at him. As if it would actually hit him. The personal jabs, if the piss-poor attempts could even be called that, at him about his side of the family and his job didn’t even have the chance to be properly deflected; they fell short well before they even reached him. Nefe thought she had him caught in her trap, or whatever it was she was trying to do, and she was so far from that it was sad. Bringing that sort of attitude to the table in the Ministry wouldn’t get her far, especially in the Department of Mysteries. They were, from his understanding, more about research than talking. Nefe liked to listen to herself talk, much like Renard did, but that was her fatal flaw in his opinion. She should have picked a better career path, one that would allow her to talk and act in the same manner as right now. Then again, what she did with her life wasn’t of any importance to him. Needlessly criticizing his stupid parents only proved that she lacked understanding what he had dealt with growing up and that he was ultimately smarter than her.

“Oh I understood it well enough. You asked me if I understood sarcasm, and I was simply exercising that. Maybe you don’t actually know what that is, Bulstrode. I can spell it out for you, if you’d like?” Another nasty grin spread across his face. He liked toying with her. It was fun. They should have been doing this more often when they were both in school together. “See, that’s what everyone says. I’m just saying that not all jobs in the Ministry end up being what they advertised. Why do you think it’s so easy to get an internship? Every department goes through replacements. You have to learn how to fend for yourself at some point if you really want to stay.” Renard thought he was being pretty generous, giving her advice like that. Especially because it was going to be preparing her for the inevitable. Which, funnily enough, lined up with asking her to join his department. “I can arrange that, you know. Might finally put a smile on poor old Doris’s face over at Claustrum De Lupus. She hates everyone equally.” There had to be a handful of killer pooches in the werewolf hotel at any given time. The problem was that Renard couldn’t lay down the law if they were caught committing a crime. What they may have done in the past unfortunately couldn’t be held against them without proper evidence. He hated that part of the job.

[Deleted]

[googlefont="Open Sans Condensed:300"]

THE DANGER IS
I AM DANGEROUS

[attr="class","next"] Nefertiti was oblivious to her cousins plan to lead her into a trap to be angry with him, and she was playing right into it. She had always been an angry young woman, maybe because the way she was raised or perhaps because of the person she had become to protect herself. Ondina was always better at the angry thing, controlling it that is, and was way better at sarcasm and the jabs that Renard seemed just as good at. Maybe she wasn’t cut out for this life? She always knew that she wanted to follow in her mother’s footsteps, but being a part of the Ministry and in a department that held so many secrets, it seemed like a way to gain her acceptance into the Purifiers. But what if she didn’t get past interning because of her lack of secretively and her personality? She’d likely become unemployed and no help to the cause, not like Ondina and everyone else. Where did she belong?

She rolled her eyes at his comeback, his grin making her want to punch him, but she quickly crossed her arms and just kept silent. He went on to give her advice, or what seemed like advice in her mind and she mused over it for a second. It was solid advice, which caught her slightly off guard but she didn’t show it. “I know how to fend for myself, thank you very much,” she hissed out just as the elevator came to a stop, and a few people came in and went out. They were never alone on this ride, but they were close enough that it seemed people didn’t care about their conversation. She just prayed that one of their stops would come already so this nightmare could end.

Renard was quick to give into her idea of being murdered by a beast instead of working for him, and she looked at him. “Isn’t it your job to protect people from getting murdered? Already fucking up I see,” she said with a soft laugh.

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TAG renard walt goyle

NOTES i don't know who's floor would come first...but we can bring this to an end soon if you'd like!

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[renard walt goyle]

@nefertiti

09.19.2024

Watching his cousin cross her arms was basically a victory sign for Renard. He had been here long enough to know how to get under the skin of virtually everyone; Nefe wasn’t the first whiny intern that he had dealt with, and being family only made it easier. Renard raised his arms up in defense as she barked that she could defend herself. He had said what needed to be sad, and it was up to her to decide what to do with the advice he had given her. “I’m sure you do, cuz,” Renard snorted. “I’ve heard the suck-up line is like a battlefield these days. Surviving coffee duty gets you one step closer though.” He made sure his words were laced with condescendence. Between her and Ondina Weasley, they had enough poison in their veins to kill a small village. They were such hateful little girls. Pitting his wits against their vitriol always made him feel better about himself though, and this morning’s events were sure to put a pep in his step for the rest of the day. Maybe he would even be nice to a werewolf or two, should he come across one.

“My job is to clean up the mess and enact the laws that the Wizengamot puts forward. If you want anyone to take responsibility for fucking up, we passed the Auror department two floors ago,” he hissed through a whisper. His own confidence in the law enforcement unit had been plummeting over the last few years; they were far from being effective when it came to doing their jobs, and only a few of them managed to actually do anything useful. “I believe this is where you get off, Bulstrode,” Renard added, straightening up and stepping further back in the elevator to let people get off as the bell dinged for the Department of Mysteries. “It was fun catching up.” He gave his cousin a small wave before turning away. His department was only a few floors up from here, and he would have to get straight to work once he got to his desk. She had been but a small distraction for the trip there.

[Renard End]