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last online Apr 25, 2024 6:49:54 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Mar 30, 2020 9:37:29 GMT -7
Post by maxima ruqayyah greyback on Mar 30, 2020 9:37:29 GMT -7
Just as soon as she had backed up against her bed, Max could feel Jamie's arm wrap gently around her shoulders, hugging her. She had to have been sitting on her bed, Max realized, though she didn't check to see. It wasn't a problem if she was.
"But we weren’t anywhere else. We're safe."
Max tried to relax into Jamie's touch. It took effort from how tense she was, but she wanted to. She wanted to pretend as though they hadn't barely made it from the stadium with their lives.
"Mungo’s is used to dealing with these sorts of disasters, and the people who are hurt will be healed."
Even though she hadn't seen any evidence of it for herself, Max could only assume from how quickly the fire had spread that it hadn't been survivable for anyone who had been in the sections of the stadium where it had hit the hardest, especially the lower parts as it crumbled from the inside. Of course the Healers would do what they could. It was their job. But, as Jamie reminded her, it wasn't hers.
"You have an extraordinary ability, Max… but it’s not your job to save everyone."
She swallowed hard and shook her head in response to Jamie's comment. It wasn't that, for once. No, Max knew there was no way that she could have run around the whole stadium and healed people. Even outside, where it had been safer, where there were Mediwizards…
"Do you understand?"
"Yeah," Max answered, though her voice came out almost quiet. They were alive and safe and hadn't even needed to see a Mediwizard, but there were probably people who hadn't made it out at all.
Shakily, she heaved another sob. "P-People must have… d-died again." She didn't want to think about it, but the news would be everywhere. And it was still so close to the anniversary of Elias's death, and of course there would be comparisons made.
@jamie
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last online May 2, 2024 17:00:22 GMT -7
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Apr 15, 2020 9:33:44 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2020 9:33:44 GMT -7
Max said she understood, but that meant little; it was possible, Jamie knew, to understand something intellectually but not emotionally. Still, she wasn’t sure pushing that particular line of thinking would be helpful to either of the sisters at that moment. Jamie squeezed tighter when Max sobbed, saying people must have died again. Again, there was no use in denying it. People were dying. People kept dying. They kept dying too young and too soon and it wasn’t fair. Jamie wished she could stop it, but what could one werewolf do? Absolutely nothing, it felt like.
“But people lived again, too,” Jamie said, trying desperately to find something light about the situation. The Durmstrang ship Elias had been on had some survivors. The Beauxbatons carriage had had a survivor, too. There would be deaths, but there would be people who didn’t die, and remembering that was the key to not going absolutely insane. “Wherever there is darkness, Max, there will be people who oppose it. Wherever there is death, there will be life.” It had to be true. It had to.
maxima ruqayyah greyback
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last online Apr 25, 2024 6:49:54 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Apr 16, 2020 13:14:50 GMT -7
Post by maxima ruqayyah greyback on Apr 16, 2020 13:14:50 GMT -7
June 10, 2025 "But people lived again, too."
Of course people had lived, Max thought bitterly. They had lived. But everyone could have left the stadium alive, too. It was a Quidditch match; obviously, injury by Bludger was to be expected for the players, but that was supposed to be the end of it. It was a sport. It was meant to be fun. No one should have died.
"Wherever there is darkness, Max, there will be people who oppose it. Wherever there is death, there will be life."
It didn't feel like it, even as Jamie tried to be of help, comforting her how she could. She was tired of it all, barely getting past one death and being faced with another—probably dozens more "others", with how large the stadium was. And then it would keep happening like that. Like it had and like it would.
"I don't care a-about d-darkness," Max cried, balling up her hands into tight fists that continued to hang at her sides. How many more mass-casualty events were "acceptable"? How many more times could they watch these things happen and remain powerless to them? It felt like it was something else every few months. "It—It shouldn't've h-happened again."
@jamie
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last online May 2, 2024 17:00:22 GMT -7
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Aug 20, 2020 18:57:55 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 20, 2020 18:57:55 GMT -7
Jamie watched as Max’s fists curled up, could almost feel the anger radiating off her sister in waves. And she was right to be angry – she was right to be furious. This shouldn’t be happening. The world shouldn’t have been falling to pieces, but it was, and it wasn’t like two people could fix that, at least not on their own. Jamie’s eyes slid closed. She knew what she needed to do, even if she wasn’t particularly happy with it. There were people who were fighting for what was right, and it was about damn time she accepted if she was going to be a part of the Wizarding world again, she needed to be a part of all of it.
“It shouldn’t have. But we can’t change that it did happen. We can only work with what we have left.” And that was the frustrating part – they were left dealing with the fallout of something they hadn’t helped to create, watched the world collapse with the knowledge they were going to have to build it up again, maybe without the help of the adults they had once trusted with their lives.
maxima ruqayyah greyback
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last online Apr 25, 2024 6:49:54 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Aug 20, 2020 19:21:54 GMT -7
Post by maxima ruqayyah greyback on Aug 20, 2020 19:21:54 GMT -7
June 10, 2025 "It shouldn’t have. But we can’t change that it did happen. We can only work with what we have left."
And what was there left of the Quidditch stadium and the pitch? The crowd and half the people in it? They hadn't asked for any of it. Max knew that Jamie knew that, but she wasn't in any frame of mind to be thinking rationally about much of anything. They were alive, and Max hated that that fact alone made her feel so selfish, even if none of it was her fault.
"I d-don't know what to do a-anymore," Max begged. She was at her wits' end, searching for answers. Standing by and waiting as people just kept dying wasn't fair, but Max felt stupid to think that there was anything she could do to take a real stand. She hated it, but what could she do but patch things up after the fact? Some ability she had!
@jamie
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last online May 2, 2024 17:00:22 GMT -7
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Dec 29, 2020 18:56:50 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2020 18:56:50 GMT -7
I don’t know what to do anymore. Jamie wanted to have a neat answer, something simple to say – or anything at all to say, really. The truth was she was just as lost as Max was, and pretending she wasn’t because that was what an older sibling had to do at times like this. Jamie had to be the rock, be the optimistic one. Even though she was naturally inclined to optimism, it was difficult to find something good to come of this, or a next step that felt actionable. Max was still a child. It wasn’t like she could stand up to the terrorists herself. Even the Ministry, with all its manpower, couldn’t seem to keep bad things from happening, and that was just as scary.
“We do the next right thing we can,” Jamie said eventually. “I don’t know hat that is, though.” She couldn’t bullshit her way into a better answer than that. “Maybe it’s just being here, together.” Being with max had certainly always felt right. It wasn’t going to save the world, but maybe it didn’t have to.
maxima ruqayyah greyback
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last online Apr 25, 2024 6:49:54 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Dec 30, 2020 1:05:24 GMT -7
Post by maxima ruqayyah greyback on Dec 30, 2020 1:05:24 GMT -7
June 10, 2025 "We do the next right thing we can," Jamie advised her, even though she readily admitted that she didn't know what that thing was. There wasn't a simple how-to guide, and Max knew that she couldn't expect that. She didn't know what it was that she wanted—not exactly. She knew what it was that she didn't want, which would have been sitting in a room across from a Healer or Madam Macmillan and being talked down to. She was very nearly seventeen; she wasn't a little kid, and she'd seen enough to know that she just wanted everything to stop.
Really, Max wanted time to stand completely still. She didn't want it in a "life flashing before her eyes" sense, though. Just… calm. That was what she wanted. She didn't want to have to take baby steps towards that. It just needed to happen. Jamie had a point, though, and Max nodded her head. Neither of them had answers, but they would have to take it step by step.
"Maybe it’s just being here, together," Jamie added, which did seem like the right thing in that moment. She had already promised to stay with her. That might not have been the perfect solution to everything that had gone wrong, but it was something; it was a start.
"Y-Yeah," Max agreed with her, trying to allow herself to calm down some more. After a few moments more and a few deep breaths, she managed to offer Jamie a tearful apology. "I'm sorry the match went to sh*t…"
@jamie
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