Summer Romances [Casimir]

[Deleted]

Summer 2022
Casimir Elias Karkaroff

Renfri wasn't usually in the Czech Republic, otherwise known as Czechia. But, that blasted attorney at Gringotts had sent a message. She had to take a week off and use some of her saved up time off, or else. Renfri didn't know what the "or else" might entail, but Renfri had learned a long time ago not to mess with attorneys. So, might as well take some time off in Prague. Away from everyone she knew, away from the Selwyn name, and faaaaar away from pureblood drama. Why Prague? Mostly because she couldn't think of anyone she might know that lived here. 

So, day one of vacation. What was there to do? Renfri had gotten a hotel room, and just explored the town, trying to find some sites to see. By the evening found a quiet bar to have a few drinks. 

She sat at the bar, a glass in her hand. Lazily she swirled the remaining amount of alcohol in the glass along the bottom. She wasn't really that interested in spending seven days drinking... But what else was she supposed to do?

[Casimir Elias Karkaroff]

Summer 2022

Cas hated visiting home. Every visit with his family inevitably went the same way –one day of the cold camaraderie characteristic of the Karkaroff household, and then enduring the rest of their time together by studiously ignoring each other. He would have stopped the pointless visits years ago, but his mother insisted and knew how to push her sons in exactly the right way to get what she wanted. And really, Cas wasn’t strong enough to deny her the only thing she really asked for – especially since she’d learned to stop bringing up the topic of eligible pureblood ladies to meet.

It was easier to pretend his family didn’t exist when he wasn’t in the manor, so Cas took to the streets of Prague until he could return to the United Kingdom. There was a particular bar he liked to visit that was popular with Prague’s small magical community, and where he could usually expect to hear news from abroad. It was already getting late, but Merlin knows Cas wasn’t ready to face another awkward family dinner. So he ducked into the bar to delay going home.

It was all familiar faces tonight…except one. Although, at a second glance, she was familiar and Cas didn’t even take a second to hesitate before sliding into the empty chair next to her at the bar. Coming across anybody he knew from Gringotts in Czechia seemed implausible, but he didn’t mind the idea. It promised to be more interesting than spending the rest of his trip skulking, at any rate. He flagged down the bartender for a shot of firewhiskey, than asked casually, “Searching for drowned treasure?”

@renfri

[Deleted]

Summer 2022
Casimir Elias Karkaroff

Renfri hadn't expected to run into anyone she knew in Prague, though if she'd thought hard enough she might have remembered one particular name that coincided with the country. Casimir Karkaroff. He'd been a curse breaker, a few years older than herself. He'd retired though during her training years. He hadn't trained her specifically, but that didn't mean their paths hadn't crossed a few times. As memory recalled he was a decent enough guy. His question announced his presence, Casimir already settled on the barstool next to her. Renfri stopped her absent minded drink swirling and glanced at him, smirking just a touch.

"If only," she answered, just as casual. She motioned for the bartender to get her another drink. She raised her glass and finished her drink, though there hadn't been much left to begin with. "Apparently I had too much time off and a very bossy attorney didn't like it. So," she lazily waved her hand at the bar, as if to explain her presence in a Prague bar without actually saying she'd been forced to take a vacation. As a former curse breaker he'd know what "bossy attorney" she meant. That blasted Mugwump woman. "I heard you were in the trade business now. What are you doing here?" It wasn't uncommon for curse breakers to go into artifact trading after retiring, though since she hadn't worked extremely close with him that was about all she knew, not really any of the specifics to his career change.

(bahahha, name dropping my own other character)

[Casimir Elias Karkaroff]

It was surprising to find cursebreakers in Prague. The city had some magical history, although the truly interesting sites were usually found elsewhere – Africa, the Middle East, Latin America. Eastern Europe was hardly a draw compared to the treasures that could be found in areas steeped in ancient history. After he’d left Gringotts for London (thanks to family matters that were hard to explain to outsiders), Cas had thought that chapter of his life was closed for good. So his mood improved marginally at the sight of a familiar face, even if he and Renfri had never worked so closely together.

“Better not to get on her bad side,” Cas agreed, tapping his fingers on the bar as he fidgeted with his shot glass. He’d had enough run-ins with Scylla to know resistance was futile, especially when winning a battle early meant you were sure to lose the war later. He gave a bitter laugh as Renfri mentioned his career change. “That’s a polite way of putting it,” Cas responded in a wry tone, accepting the subject of his new career as a good enough invitation to down his first drink of the night in one quick swallow. He set the empty shot glass down with a thud. Borgin and Burke’s was a step down from cursebreaking, no doubt about that, but Cas had bigger ambitions than to stay a shopkeeper. It was just a matter of patience.

Renfri asked why he was here, and Cas couldn’t keep the biting sarcasm out of his tone. “Visiting my lovely mother. You might remember her. The woman with the slightly manic look in her eyes.” The number of European pureblood families was rapidly shrinking, so they all knew each other to some extent. Cas knew better than to say these sorts of things at dinners and private events. But to Renfri, who resented pureblood society as much as he did, he could worry less that the wrong people might hear about it.

@renfri

[Deleted]

Summer 2022
Casimir Elias Karkaroff

Renfri snorted at the thought of the part goblin. "You should never get on the bad side of anyone the Goblins like." Having worked with Goblins for years he'd know what she meant. Goblins were tricky beings. You trusted them as far as you could throw them. The agreement between Curse breakers and Goblins was one of mutual benefit, but that didn't mean it was perfect. No curse breaker would say they actually trusted one. So it was always a bit worrisome when you heard about someone the Goblins did like and trusted.

To be honest, Renfri didn't now much about his career change. She knew about it, but not why. Not that she was one to pry. It was his business. Sometimes people just had to get out of the Curse breaking game. The bar tender had brought her a new pint and she took a sip. "How would you have put it then?" She asked, eyebrow raised.

She smirked as he spoke, hearing the tone of voice he used. One so similar to how she'd often referred to her own family. "Oh, wonderful. Is she still nagging you about sitting up straight?" His mother had run in similar circles as her own parents when they'd been alive. Though that was an entirely different mess. The mysterious deaths of the Selwyn parents. Even to this day no one knew "exactly" what happened, but Renfri knew they'd been murdered. Somehow. A mystery for another day however. "You better keep an eye out, she may try to get you to finally settle down and marry a nice pureblood girl. Bet she already has one picked out." She teased, though she wouldn't be surprised if it were true. That was how their parents' generation worked. Trying desperately to keep the pureblood lines pure. It was like a blast to the middle ages, the archaic practice of arrange marriages.

[Casimir Elias Karkaroff]

The bartender brought Renfri a new drink, and Cas nodded slightly at the questioning look they gave his empty glass. Once it had been refilled, he appraised his drink without taking a sip. He couldn’t help the rueful smile that crossed his face at Renfri’s question – exactly how would he explain his career change? It was difficult to put into words, if only because he had been frustratingly vague about his reasons for leaving with virtually anybody who had asked. Other cursebreakers, his old mentor, even the few individuals he counted as friends. Family matters were private, after all, and there was no agreeable way to explain your mother’s slow descent into madness without a significant social cost. And since leaving cursebreaking, Cas had been forced to think about the social consequences more often, if only because no other Karkaroff seemed willing to.

“Advancing family interests,” he finally decided, “through the acquisition of unusual and ancient wizarding artifacts. That’s what it’ll say on my business card, at any rate,” he added dryly as he finally took another drink. It was Borgin and Burke’s tagline, after all, and the phrase had become synonymous with the store located in the depths of Knockturn Alley. Renfri might find it distasteful, like most of the others did. Cas himself couldn’t quite dismiss the pit in his stomach, not because he had any moral qualms about the kind of products that the store handled – no, only because it was a choice many purebloods would approve of and he struggled every day to hide his growing disdain for pureblood society and the things they admired.

He found his gaze sliding over to Renfri at her next comment, and he snorted at the painfully accurate characterization of his mother. “Thankfully, she’s too busy celebrating her victory about my hair to worry about my posture.” Cas ran a hand over the back of his head and his newly short hair, already missing the ponytail he’d favored all those years he’d been a cursebreaker. His mother had complained about how scruffy and uncivilized he had looked until Cas had finally relented and cut it off to stop her nagging. His snort turned into a full laugh as she continued into every pureblood’s second-favorite subject, second only to their complaints about how the last war had turned out. “Oh, so you’ve seen her list? Maybe you can give me some suggestions before she marries me off while I’m not looking,” Cas suggested, shooting Renfri a look that fell somewhere between teasing and pleading. “Then again, only if you can spare the time from your own sacred mission. Somebody has to provide the heir and spare for the Selwyns, don’t they? If you don’t move quickly all the good matches will be taken. Then what will you have to settle for?”

@renfri

[Deleted]

Summer 2022
Casimir Elias Karkaroff

It took Cas a few moments before he finally seemed to decide how to explain his career change. When he did, her eyebrows raised in momentary surprise before she laughed. Well, that was one way to put it! Obviously she didn't know the details for his change so hearing it made it sound so diplomatic and intense. "I think that's quite the noble explanation. You should stick with it." Certainly it was a nice play on words. "If it makes you happy, or helps you achieve whatever your end goal is, I say stick with it." She added. Sure, some curse breakers might scoff at the idea of jsut quitting curse breaking for a career change but Renfri knew first hand it wasn't for everyone. You should do what you wanted and sometimes that meant changing a course you were already on.

Pureblood parents could be quite... intense. A fact Renfri knew painfully well. She often wondered what her own parents might think of her current life style if they were still alive... Though she tried not to dwell on it. "Sometimes you have to give them the little victories so they leave you alone on the more serious matters," she responded with a smirk before taking a drink from her pint. She set her pint down and full on grinned. "No need to see it. No doubt her list is quite similar to the list my parents had for my brothers," she teased. The pureblood world was quite small, after all. "Nah, passing on the Selwyn blood is on my brothers or younger sister, not me. No doubt my parents would be mortified if they saw me today." Though it was a joke there was a hint of truth to it. Her parents would be absolutely horrified at Renfri's life style choices. "Curse breaking is not ladylike in the least, plus no doubt they'd considered me quite tainted from the company I keep. Too many muggleborns and half bloods." She shrugged and took a much longer sip from her drink.

[Casimir Elias Karkaroff]

“Happy?” Cas echoed at Renfri’s response to his vague job description. He shook his head slightly at the strange thought, if only because it was so out-of-place in their pureblood upbringing. His father had taught him that advancing the family’s interests was the most important thing of all, and his mother had taught him how to do it. He’d spent his whole life looking after his younger siblings as they went through Durmstrang and moved into pureblood society, and now he had to carefully plan his own future too. And in the middle of all that… “What does happiness have to do with it?” He sighed into his glass and drained the rest at the depressing thought. Cursebreaking had been the first, and only, thing in his life that he had chosen because it made him happy. Everything else – his schooling, his future career, no doubt the woman he’d be forced to marry someday…was chosen for the good of the Karkaroffs, not because it would make him happy.

Renfri was right, ultimately, if not cunningly strategic in how to best thwart your parents’ wishes for you. Give them the small victory so they wouldn’t notice when you snatched the bigger one right out from under their noses. He murmured an approval into his glass, then watched as the bartender shuffled over to refill it. Once he was a good enough distance away, Cas snuck a glance over at the other cursebreaker as she listed off all the terrible company she kept. Muggleborns, halfbloods, the goblins no doubt… “Don’t forget blood traitors,” Cas added softly, tapping his fingers on the bar at that troubling thought. Blood traitors were cursed nearly as often, if not more, than Muggleborns by the upper crust of the pureblood elite. Because wizards and witches born to Muggle parents couldn’t help it, could they? But a blood traitor chose to turn their back on their family and society, and they were shunned for it. That label was a chilling reminder of how important it was to wear the proper mask, to constantly hide your true intentions…

He shook his head and let that subject drop – it was too personal for a random meeting like this. But despite the fact that it was a Selwyn sitting next to him, he calculated that they were more similar in a few key areas neither would be willing to admit out-loud. Instead Cas watched as she slowly drained her pint, and he returned her grin. “How about," he began with a challenging gleam in his eyes, "I buy the next round, and we have a little competition over who’s been on the more dangerous assignment? I promise I have an unbeatable story.” His lips curved into a smirk as he stacked a few sickles on the countertop invitingly. It was a favorite past time of cursebreakers, although these new trainees had nothing on Cas and the wild adventures he'd barely survived. Still, Renfri seemed to be made of tougher stuff than most -- he liked that.

@renfri