Mother Revolution (Dusti)

[parvati patil macmillan]

October 19, 2025

Between the students in Hogsmeade and the students in the Hebrides running Zombie Island, the previous day had been a nightmarish logistical challenge of ensuring that there was enough staff supervision between not only Hogwarts and the Hebrides but also Hogsmeade added into the mix. As a result, Parvati hadn't anticipated needing to go back to Diagon Alley—especially after having just been there a few days prior, but there was only so much that she could order to be delivered by owl post.

Arriving at the Leaky Cauldron and heading outside and down the shopping street felt like déjà vu, though she bypassed Madam Malkin's that time in favor of Slug & Jiggers, since the potion shop in Hogsmeade no longer carried what she was looking for.

As she was walking, though, she noticed someone whom she hadn't seen in some time. Parvati paused and turned, offering the blonde young woman a small smile of recognition before saying anything to her. She wasn't sure how much Dusti wanted to keep her distance from her, if it had been intentional that she hadn't heard much from her.

It was an awkward and uncomfortable situation for her, too, but she knew that she was probably one of the closest people to a parental figure that Dusti and her twin had, not to mention their other siblings who weren't connected to Parvati's family by blood. Obviously, Ernie wasn't going to step up into that role, and she was, at least, the mother of the Flint twins' half-siblings. She hadn't asked for what had happened, but it wasn't any of their faults.

@dusti

[Deleted]

October 19. 2025
parvati patil macmillan

It had been a long time since Dusti had spoken to Parvati Patil Macmillan. They had an... interesting history. While the school counselor had never been on Dusti's radar the first 6 years, their paths had crossed several times during seventh. For some very unfortunate reasons. Infidelity and murder. Two strangers that had somehow become colliding forces. Dusti's biological father was Parvati's ex husband. Oh, and then the whole Pansy killing Marcus incident. While Dusti didn't "do" parental figures anymore, Parvati was, ironically, the closest she had to one. Which actually made her angrier. Because Parvati was a decent person. So her half siblings actually had one decent parent in the picture.

Dusti was working the night shift today. While the shift was rough it meant she had time during the day to run any errands she needed to. In particular, she needed to pick up some ingredients for the hangover cure she made for a particularly idiotic friend. Her purchases in hand, she headed back down Diagon Alley, not in any rush to get back home quite yet, when she saw her. "Madam MacMillan." Dusti wasn't good at greetings. Didn't really try though. Pleasantries were stupid.

[parvati patil macmillan]

October 19, 2025

"Madam Macmillan."

Parvati hadn't fully expected Dusti to acknowledge her. It wouldn't have been out of the question for her to ignore her outright and pretend that she hadn't seen her there. In her experience with her, Dusti had never been exceptionally forthcoming. With her parents' having been who they were, plus the added twist of Ernie's being her real father, it was understandable. There had been the rare occasion when she had felt as though she had gotten through to her in some small way—looking through photographs in her office, for instance—but that was it, really. Hearing Dusti verbally respond to her by name came as a surprise, and Parvati initially wasn't sure that she hadn't made it up.

"Hi, Dusti," Parvati replied, her smile widening just slightly. She looked to be doing well enough; there wasn't anything in her appearance that immediately set off any alarms in Parvati's mind, which was positive. "How have you been?" she checked casually. She probably should have been doing more to remain in touch, just in case Dusti or her twin needed anything, but it was an understatement to say that life had been busy. Parvati didn't doubt that it had been for Dusti in some way, too.

@dusti

[Deleted]

October 19. 2025
parvati patil macmillan

Dusti really didn't know why she hadn't just ignored Madam MacMillan. Perhaps it was because... Well, deep down Dusti knew the mother of her half siblings wasn't a bad person. Madam MacMillan had been the harbinger of bad news Dusti's seventh years, but she'd never been horrible about it. Never pried when Dusti had shut her out. Madam MacMillan had also, in a way, helped Dusti at least somewhat come to terms with being Ernie MacMillan's child. Somewhat being the keyword, as there were still a lot of unresolved feeling regarding that whole mess... The point was, Dusti could have just kept walking and acted like she hadn't even seen the older woman.

Dusti really hated that question Madam MacMillan asked. How are you/have you been. It was an empty pleasantry. Most people didn't actually want to know the real answer when asking it. They just did it because that's what manners told you to do. Though, Dusti knew that, as the school's counselor, Madam MacMillan was probably more likely actually want to know the answer than most. It was her job, wasn't it? To listen to people about their "feelings". Ugh. What a waste of time. Dusti's expression remained the same, in a "I hate the world, but I'll tolerate it" sort of way. There wasn't anything particularly bad about today, so saying something rude seemed unwarranted, though Dusti couldn't exactly say she was good either because what even was "good"? "Usual..." There wasn't really anything worth noting, was there? "You're still at Hogwarts?" Dusti intentionally didn't ask it back because... Well, she didn't really care. But, no surprise. Dusti didn't care about most things.

[parvati patil macmillan]

October 19, 2025

"Usual…" Dusti replied to her. The inference there, of course, was that she was just so-so, really. "You're still at Hogwarts?"

That hadn't changed, either, though Parvati was obviously away from the school at that moment. Things had been going well enough there. The mood might not have been the most joyful; it felt as though a lot of the students were still trying to make sense of the summer (as were they all), but it could have been worse. Parvati responded with a small laugh, one of the bittersweet variety. "I am." She didn't mind having a break. "The students are mostly in the Hebrides for 'Zombie Island'," she explained. "I can't say that it's my idea of fun, exactly," though the students seemed to be enjoying themselves with it, "but things are going well."

Parvati paused. "Are you still working at St. Mungo's?" She knew that the Flint children weren't suffering for need of money, but all the Galleons in the world couldn't buy happiness; Marcus and Pansy had proven that. "I'm sorry I've not been in touch lately," she apologized, sincere in that. While the conversation could have gone the course of being the sort of thing where they exchanged small talk about planning to catch up or something without having any intention of following through, that wasn't what Parvati meant at all.

@dusti

[Deleted]

October 19. 2025
parvati patil macmillan

Zombie Island. Right. She remembered reading and hearing about that. Personally, she thought it was a stupid waste of time. But she'd give the school credit for the work they put into it. It wasn't her scene at all. To crowded. To festive. Dusti just wasn't that type of person. She preferred to either be totally alone, or only in small groups, and she'd never really felt much desire to celebrate holidays of any kind. Mostly because her parents had always made such a mockery of holidays. Their stupid, frivolous pureblood parties. Pretending every part of the Flint family was perfect. Well, it wasn't. Holidays were just a time of faking to her. While she'd come to learn that her own feelings for holidays was... abnormal, and that most people the holidays were a fun or joyous time, it didn't shake her own feelings of them. "I'm glad it's working out," she answered shortly. Her "I'm glad" was really just a polite "Well, at least it isn't a total failure.".

As the question of her work was posed, Dusti nodded slowly. "Yes." Though she didn't elaborate. She wasn't the rambling type. Though, she could almost feel one of the next questions that would follow before Parvati would have time to even process her answer. "I don't know how you're daughter's doing." Your daughter. The wording wasn't... rude but it was very "Dusti". Calling her half siblings by name just wasn't something Dusti did often. Nor did she even call them her siblings aloud often. Because they were still virtual strangers to her. They just had the same rather worthless sperm donor.

[parvati patil macmillan]

October 19, 2025

Parvati didn't expect Dusti to be an open book with her. She knew that that would have been completely unusual for her, and Parvati was happy to take what she could get in terms of a response. Dusti wasn't being hostile to her, either; Parvati knew that much, too, and she had no plans to force her to do or say anything that she wasn't comfortable with doing or saying.

Zombie Island wasn't of that much interest to Parvati, either, really, so she was glad that Dusti didn't linger on the subject too much. There was only so much excitement that Parvati felt she could fake for that sort of thing. It wasn't that she hated it, exactly, but her own enthusiasm for it just… wasn't there.

Dusti's response about working at the hospital was nothing more than a simple yes, and she quickly added that she didn't know how her daughter was doing. She wasn't asking Dusti how she was just to use that as a segue into an update on Shreya and her Mediwitch training, but she understood why Dusti might have jumped to that conclusion.

"I wasn't asking after Shreya," Parvati noted, though her voice was soft rather than terse. She wasn't offended that Dusti hadn't referred to Shreya by name, even. Her children weren't close to the Flints, and she knew that. Maybe eventually they would be closer to one another, but she couldn't force it. Sav and Shreya hadn't been raised as their siblings. If Dusti felt more comfortable with putting a little bit of distance there, then she wasn't going to fight that. "Work's alright, then?" she asked her. "I imagine it's been busy, with the Hag's Fever outbreak and all."

@dusti

[Deleted]

October 19. 2025
parvati patil macmillan

Even those that knew Dusti "well" would find it like pulling teeth to get long winded answers and total openness from the blonde. She just wasn't programmed to be open with people, about anything. Even people she didn't immediately label as dangerous, or untrusthworthy. In fact, Parvati fell in the "trustworthy" category of Dusti's mind, but that didn't mean her guard was lowered. It just meant she was less hostile. She actually bothered being at least a decent person.. to some extent. Perhaps it was the shared connection of her deadbeat father being Parvati's deadbeat ex husband. They both shared a huge disappointment in their lives.

Dusti nodded just a little as Parvati confirmed that she wasn't going to ask about the daughter, Shreya. To be honest, Dusti avoided her half sister at the hospital. Dusti had put in little to no effort getting to know her MacMillan half siblings since finding out about the relation. Thankfully it wasn't wide spread knowledge. The Flint family had enough shit to their name already, they didn't need the illegitimacy to be publicized as well. Though as work was brought up again, and Hag's Fever, Dusti shrugged. Her expression had relaxed form her extreme resting bitch face to her more laid back resting bitch face. "It has. But it's slowly down. Cases are dropping and herd immunity is finally kicking in," She answered. It was a good topic for her. Completely clinical, nothing personal. She preferred those topics. It was partially why she worked in the lab. Feelings didn't matter, just the science. "I've heard Hogwarts case have dropped as well." To no surprise. Consider student proximity, the school's cases were dropping very quickly, faster then the hospitals.

[parvati patil macmillan]

October 19, 2025

In response to her question about how work had been for her, Dusti appeared to relax a bit. Parvati wasn't sure if that was because the expectation was off of her to talk about Shreya or what, exactly, had sparked it, but she appreciated that the young woman was comfortable enough with her not to be completely on edge. Dusti said that it had been busy, as Parvati expected it must have been, although she added that the case numbers were going down. "Cases are dropping," she said, "and herd immunity is finally kicking in."

Parvati, who had become used to hearing the term "herd immunity" thrown around more and more—even if it reminded her of some sort of animal—nodded her head, understanding what Dusti meant. In essence, it was that so many people had been exposed to Hag's Fever that they were immune to it, and that then kept it from infecting more people, including those (herself included) who hadn't fallen ill with it.

Dusti added that she had heard that cases at Hogwarts had dropped, too. Parvati nodded her head again. Cases had been dropping substantially from where they had been, though she had heard from a number of the students that they had been unwell over the summer months. Whatever the explanation for why cases were so low, Parvati supposed that she would take it. There was little doubt in her mind that the school's nursing staff and all of the hospital's staff were relieved to be seeing the end of all of that on the horizon, especially.

"Touch wood," Parvati smiled, "but I think we are turning a corner with it. Have you had it?" she checked. Parvati hadn't heard anything about that, to her recollection, though that didn't mean that Dusti hadn't ended up with Hag's Fever at some point.

@dusti