i'm with you the only way that i can be [max]

[Deleted]

december 24th, 2024

Hogsmeade was even colder than London, and Jamie ducked her head against the wind that was nipping at the parts of her face that weren't covered by her scarf or hat. The cold hardly mattered, though, because today was the day. It was Christmas Eve, but that wasn't the holiday Jamie was celebrating. She was celebrating the day when she got to see her sister again. Jamie had sent Max an owl asking to see her again, and the winter festival in Hogsmeade provided both a location and an activity for them to do together. Jamie had already done some wandering, having gotten to the village earlier than the agreed-upon time, and was currently beside a little pop-up that had a variety of trinkets for sale. Jamie hadn't thought as much about Christmas gifts as she ought've, so there was another purpose to the visit - to get her sister a Christmas gift. Jamie tucked her head down at the wind blew again, but kept her eyes sweeping across the crowded village so that the moment Max came, Jamie could give her a long-overdue hug.

maxima ruqayyah greyback

[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

From the moment that her older half-sister's seventh year at Hogwarts had come to an abrupt end, Maxima Greyback knew that starting another year at school without Jamie there would be strange. What she hadn't expected at that time was for Jamie, who had had a promising career with the Holyhead Harpies ahead of her, to leave the magical world entirely. It had been sudden, though Max knew that Jamie had no control over her mother's having fallen ill. The whole situation had been more devastating than the press had let on, though the fact that it was a family situation luckily fit with Elias's death, too.

In reality, Max knew, Jamie's relationship with her mother hadn't been the greatest, but Jamie also wasn't someone who could allow bridges to stay burnt forever—especially when, from what Max understood of the situation, Jamie's mother's recovery wasn't a sure thing.

And so, for months, Max's only contact with Jamie had been via owl post. It must have been even harder for Jamie than she had let on, she imagined, to be so removed from the magical world, especially as a werewolf. She had had to give up her dream of playing Quidditch professionally, which she had fought for for years.

As time went on, Max never knew what tone Jamie's letters would take. Sometimes, her mother would take a turn for the worst, only for it to be a false alarm. Max grew hopeful, however, as Jamie's mother's condition began to show signs of improvement, and she crossed her fingers that it would last.

It was only around when she was preparing to leave Hogwarts to go home for Christmas that she received yet another letter from Jamie. Expecting that it would be bad news that time, she had waited to open it until the end of the day, just in case. It had been, instead, the very opposite: Jamie felt comfortable enough to return to the magical world, and Max had almost cried. Immediately, she had written her back to tell her that they had to meet up once she was free from school; it had been so long.

A few more letters followed, in which they solidified the details. They would meet at the Christmas market in Hogsmeade on Christmas Eve, for which Max could hardly wait. She had no idea what to get Jamie for Christmas—although another charm for her bracelet, if she was still wearing it, was a thought—but Max was sure that she would come across something nice.

Still unable to Apparate, Max had settled for the use of the Floo Network to get herself into the village. She checked her watch once she arrived and found that she was right on time to meet Jamie, provided that she could make her way through the high street in time. There were all sorts of stalls and activities set up that weren't normally there—everything from a Ferris wheel to a skating rink.

Having agreed to meet Jamie at a place called Knick Knacks and Nut Cracks, Max weaved her way through the people who were doing their last-minute shopping to find the temporary shop, one which sold holiday decorations of all sorts. It was windier out than Max had anticipated, and she had to pull her hat down further onto her head to make sure that it wouldn't get blown off as she walked. It wasn't very long before she reached the shop, though, and she breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped inside it.

Not seeing Jamie among the shoppers in the shop, though, Max grew a little disheartened. She couldn't help it; it was the longest that she had gone without seeing Jamie at all since she had known her, though she would have recognized the former Hufflepuff's penmanship anywhere. At the risk of losing her hat, she decided to step outside, just beyond the doorway, to watch for the blonde.

Making sure that she wasn't in anyone's way where she was standing, Max watched the crowd in anticipation. Any minute now, she thought, and Jamie would be… There! She spotted someone who—not unlike her—hadn't planned for quite so much wind, someone whom she would have recognized anywhere, too.

"Jamie!" Max called over the commotion, darting in between some others to reach her. She couldn't help herself. It was Jamie. What she thought was the wind stinging at her cheeks—which it very well might have been—were also tears of joy. She beamed. Jamie was back.

@jamie

[Deleted]

Sending letters was good. It was certainly superior in every way to cutting off contact completely. It was good, but it wasn’t great. A hug could do a world of good for Jamie right about now, which was why she was glad when she heard a voice above the bustle of the crowd and the shriek of the wind. It didn’t take even a second longer for her eyes to lock onto Max’s form in the crowd. Jamie’s mouth opened so she could call back to her sister. Instead of Max’s name, something that was half-laugh, half-sob escaped. Jamie rushed forward, tears already streaming down her face at the sight of her sister. She loved all of her siblings, of course, but it was Max who she had missed the most. Max was her baby sister – her only baby sister – and of all of her siblings, Jamie felt like Max was the one who needed her most. Whether Max actually needed her was disputable, of course, but Jamie liked to think that she did. Jamie needed her younger sister, after all. She needed the balance that Max brought to her life and needed the feeling that she was doing good by helping her sister.

Jamie opened her arms to her sister as she met Max in the middle, unable to do anything other than wait for Max to hug her as she continued to cry. This was really happening, and everything was real, and just for now, nothing hurt.

maxima ruqayyah greyback

[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

It had been so long since she had had so much as the opportunity to wrap her arms around Jamie that Max didn't even fight hugging her half-sister. She couldn't, and she didn't want to. It had been months, probably closer to half the year, though Max wasn't going to waste the time on counting at that moment. However long it had been in actuality, it had felt like a lifetime, and Max never wanted it to happen again.

It was a relief to the Slytherin to see that Jamie was crying, too, and it made her feel a little less like she was being overly sappy about their reunion. Jamie's arms were already outstretched for an embrace, and Max pulled her into a tight hug, unable to stop smiling as the tears ran down both of their faces.

It was a long hug, a Jamie hug, and Max couldn't bring herself to be the one to let go first. She didn't want to let go of her—not in a million years did she want to do that—but the wet trails down her cheeks had already begun to sting in the winter cold.

"I missed you," Max spoke finally, her voice breaking a little, even still. "I missed you so much, Jamie."

@jamie

[Deleted]

Jamie forced her breathing to steady, inhaling deeply to stop herself from shaking quite so much as she clutched her sister close. The warmth of the tears on her face was quickly whipped away by the persistent wind, and Jamie closed her eyes against the stinging so she could have one more precious moment with her sister close to her. When it finally became unbearable, Jamie pulled away, studying Max closely. It was hard to see much beneath the layers of clothing keeping Max warm, but everything looked alright. She hadn’t been seriously hurt when Jamie was gone, and that was really all the Hufflepuff could ask for.

“I missed you too,” Jamie said, resisting the urge to pull Max into her again. Instead she tugged her sister towards the pop-up shop they were standing near, hoping to take refuge from the cold. Before they got in, though, Jamie paused. “I’m sorry.” She didn’t have much of a choice to leave, but she felt like an apology was due anyways.

maxima ruqayyah greyback

[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

Between the wind and her tears, Max's face was beginning to hurt as Jamie pulled away from her. Jamie looked at her—though Max didn't think that she would be much to look at, puffy-faced and bundled up against the cold. She said that she missed her, too, and she dragged her in the direction of the shop.

Though Max was glad that they would be getting out of the wind, she also wanted to make sure that she wouldn't lose Jamie in the crowds. Fortunately for them, they ran into no issues moving through to the door. Jamie, however, stopped short outside of it. "I'm sorry," she said.

"What, for taking care of your mum?" Max asked her, shaking her head. Jamie didn't have to be sorry for that. It was sudden and it had hurt because of that, but it had been what Jamie had needed to do for her mother's sake. "I don't blame you, Jamie. I'd do the same for my mum, too." Of course, if put in that same position, she wouldn't have to figure out how to negotiate two very different worlds. "She asks after you all the time, if you were wondering," Max laughed softly. It would have been annoying, possibly, but she had been wondering the same thing for months, letting her own mother know whenever she had received an update from Jamie about hers.

@jamie

[Deleted]

Jamie shrugged helplessly when Max asked if she was sorry for looking after her mum. She wasn’t sorry that she had left, but she was sorry that she had left people behind. It was a complex cocktail of emotions, one that she was mostly planning on ignoring until she was in a better place to figure it out. “I didn’t want you to think that it was something you, or anyone else, did wrong,” Jamie finally answered. She didn’t want anyone thinking it was their fault she had gone; the only fault was of circumstances.

“Good,” Jamie breathed when Max said she didn’t blame Jamie. The Hufflepuff didn’t know what she’d do if Max was mad at her for leaving. “I hope you never have to do that, Max.” Granted, Max would have support from her maternal half-siblings and her step-father, but watching your mother wither away in front of your eyes was… hard, to say the least.

“She could have sent an owl. I’d have answered.” It was probably easier for Khadija to get her information from Max, but Jamie always treasured the letters she received from her friends and family while she was in the Muggle world. It made her feel like she was still wanted, even if she had had to leave them. “Have you got your mum a Christmas gift yet?” Jamie suspected Max wouldn’t leave it to the last minute, but it was always better to check.

maxima ruqayyah greyback

[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

"I didn’t want you to think that it was something you, or anyone else, did wrong," Jamie admitted, not that Max had thought that Jamie's leaving had had anything to do with that. If Jamie had wanted to leave the magical world because of her, she probably would have done it well over a year before, when her Slytherin half-sister had had the brilliant idea that poisoning herself would somehow solve her problems. But Jamie had stayed and supported her, too; she had given her a reason to stay and to work through everything—something that she was still working on but getting better at.

Jamie sounded relieved to hear that she didn't blame her. "I hope you never have to do that, Max," Jamie said of the possibility that she would have to do the same as Jamie had someday. Hopefully that wouldn't come for some decades in the future, though, when she and the twins were adults and prepared for the reality of dealing with aging parents.

Speaking of their mother, Jamie said that she would have answered Khadija, too, if she had sent her a letter. "She probably got busy with work or something," Max shrugged. Things at the Ministry—at all levels—had been rather interesting, to say the least. If they weren't dealing with an international tragedy, they were taking precautions to ensure that wizarding secrecy wouldn't be broken in the wake of the killings that had been happening in the Muggle world. "The donations for the fund have stopped, though, mostly," Max noted. "Émile Chevalier has got a sister in my year," she added, "I don't know her well enough to, you know, ask about… everything, though."

She didn't know how Madeleine Chevalier would take to that conversation, honestly, but she didn't have to think about it for very long, before Jamie asked if she had already bought a Christmas present for her mother.

Max nodded. "Mike took Simon, Sarah, and me to buy stuff a few days ago," she told her, "but I'll see if there's anything here, too."

@jamie

[Deleted]

Max said that her mother had probably gotten busy with work, and Jamie accepted that answer with a nod. Being an adult was hard, and trying to keep on top of day-to-day tasks was enough work without adding writing letters to your daughter’s half-sister to the mix. Max’s maternal half-siblings were also of the age where they were getting involved in more activities, Jamie would bet; everyone wanted to do football or dance or something when they were eight or nine.

Max moved on to say that the donations to the Elias Greyback fund had mostly stopped. Jamie pressed her lips together, but nodded. The fund had been a good way to honor their brother’s memory and Jamie was glad that it had had an impact, even if it was fading now. “Maybe there will be an uptick in donations around the anniversary,” Jamie suggested. The first anniversary of something was always the hardest, she thought. She raised her eyebrows when Max mentioned that Émile had a sister in her year. “I didn’t know he had any family,” Jamie mused. She hadn’t heard much of the French champion other than that he existed and not that many people seemed to like him. She hadn’t really thought about his family, which made her feel kind of bad, in hindsight. Jamie doubted that she’d see enough of the little sister to do much, but it might be worth doing a little more research.

“That’s good,” Jamie said absent-mindedly. “Let’s get looking, then.” They could keep talking while they walked through the stalls.

maxima ruqayyah greyback

[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

“Maybe there will be an uptick in donations around the anniversary.”

That was certainly possible. It felt as though it had just happened, but Jamie was right; the first anniversary of the explosions was almost closer than the actual event. Max wasn’t sure how she was supposed to feel about that. The same feelings that she had had then were going to resurface; even that realization brought some of it back to her all of a sudden. She was even more grateful to have Jamie back. And Adrian would still be there at Hogwarts for just a little while. It would be strange, but they would make it. Maybe they could commemorate it somehow? She would have to think about it.

It was also the case that they weren’t the only ones who had been so closely affected by the explosions. Jamie said that she hadn’t realized that Émile Chevalier had had any family.

“I didn’t, either,” Max admitted. She hadn’t ever seen any siblings of Émile’s mentioned in the news coverage of the tournament or what had happened after, from what she could recall. That was probably how Émile had wanted it, though. “She’s in Hufflepuff, actually. Madeleine,” Max added. If someone had asked her to place a bet on where Émile Chevalier’s sister would end up, Hufflepuff—of all the Houses—wouldn’t have been her answer. At least it was some reassurance, however shallow, that Émile’s sister probably wasn’t as stuck-up as he had been.

Back to the subject of what they were there for, Jamie said that they should get looking. It wasn’t as though their conversation had to stop just because they were shopping, nor did Max intend for it to. Seeing some ornaments and other assorted trinkets that had a clear Quidditch theme, she immediately moved towards them, thinking of Jamie’s bracelet. “L—” Max cut herself off when it hit her. She wasn’t sure if something too Quidditch-related would be rubbing salt in the wound for Jamie, who had had to give up her professional career for her mother’s sake.

@jamie