Year/Job
Dad
"I'm pretty major and I'll sing it out loud." |
Travis
Fox Bishop
Flourish and Blotts Employee IS OFFLINE
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Post by Fox Bishop on May 27, 2023 10:25:12 GMT -8
As far as summers went, the summer of 2012 was the best in Fox’s life, even overtaking the year he’d spent playing Pokémon Emerald in secret. Emancipation was a quick process in the magical world, and though his parents may have had a claim against the legality of magical world paperwork, it had worked. He hadn’t seen his parents in nearly a year. He hadn’t left Emilia’s side since their last night in their own common rooms at the tail end of the school year.
The majority of this thread is set at Emilia’s childhood home in Frigiliana, Spain where our heroes have spent the summer inseparable, but the first part takes place in the near future in a section that I like to call:
The Trial of Fox Bishop
Fox sits on the witness stand in the Great Hall, staring down the jury made up of twelve of his peers. Mostly Slytherin. While Fox admits that they were clever in selection of the jury members, he remains calm. He sits back almost casually in his seat as the lawyer hired to represent Hogwarts prattles off his questions. It’s been a long trial, but Fox remains impenetrable, firing back his own counterarguments and charming even the most pureblood members with his boyish smiles and hair flips.
Despite this, Fox knows that the game is rigged against him. Until the verdict is read, these are, in Fox’s eyes, his last days at Hogwarts.
Exhausted from their game of psychological warfare, Everett T. Barnhart steps away from the witness stand to collect himself. He pours a glass of water and wipes his forehead with his handkerchief. From the judge’s bench, McGonagall overlooks the makeshift courtroom. In the audience, hundreds of spectators whisper their opinions of the trial. Emilia sits among them, holding their newborn baby girl. She can’t make sense of Fox’s casual attitude. She doesn’t understand that win or lose, Fox doesn’t care. Either way he’ll be with her.
“Do you rest your case, Mr. Barnhart?” McGonagall asks. Everett spins around from his counsel and holds up a finger. The famous windbag seems to have found new life at the bottom of his glass.
“Mr. Bishop,” Everett continues in his long, southern drawl. Though he addresses Fox, he faces the jury. “I may just be a simple country lawyer, but what we have here is a clear violation of centuries of Hogwarts tradition. Do I need to count the crimes? Fornication, procreation, smuggling a newborn pup into the school. Do I have to go on? Now Mr. Bishop, I’ll allow some sentimentality, maybe even a little melancholy. I myself have pups of my own, sixteen. I don’t know about all y’all, but I leave my little ones home when I go work. And you sit here today and tell me that you brought this little angel to the most dangerous school in the world out of love? Well, Mr. Bishop, I apologize if I cast a glare of skepticality on that account.
“Now, ladies and gentlemen of this fine jury, I don’t doubt that Mr. Bishop believed that he was doing the right thing. But if I had a sickle for every defendant I faced who believed they were doing the right thing, I’d have a mighty large pouch. So today, when you go back into those kitchens to do your deliberatin’, I want you to think of all the other little kids who had to stay home when they’re parents went off to make their living. I want you to think of little Oscar, and Hogarth, and Diddy, and Dixie, and Trixie, and Boyd, and Cordell, and Gumby, and Francois, and Othello, and Hades, Chumbawumba, Razzmatazz, D’Brickashaw, Everett, Jr., and Todd.”
As the jury murmur amongst themselves, a slow clap begins to drown out their whispers. Attention in the courtroom turns to Fox as the voices die down. “What is a man?” Fox asks when he finishes clapping. “A miserable pile of secrets.” Slowly, dramatically, he stands.
“Mr. Bishop,” McGonagall says with a stern look, but Fox doesn’t care. He’s had it with this whole charade.
“With respect, Headmistress,” he says. “I’ve had it with this whole charade. Yes, it’s true. I’ve laid with a woman within these very walls. And does that make me guilty of the charges? Absolutely. But I ask: are these charges just?” Fox steps down from the witness stand now, beginning to pace in front of the court. “Who among us wouldn’t enjoy the flesh of a beautiful woman if offered?” Fox points at Professor Flitwick. “I know you’re raw doggin’ it every night. And who among us would look their newborn baby in the eyes and abandon him? I was faced with a tough decision to be certain, but I decision that I never truly had to question.
“And I say to everyone to today,” Fox continues, turning toward the audience to address the crowd directly. “Think of all the things that we do simply because that’s the way they’ve always been done. We stand on top of the Chamber of Secrets, sealed but not destroyed, a monument to hate, and why? Because of its historical significance? We sleep in segregated dorms, we eat at segregated tables, food served to us by modern slaves. You can send me packing today with my wife and my son, but first you must ask yourself: why can’t things be different? Why can’t we build a better future for all the Wolfs now and to come?”
Silence grips the hall for a moment as Fox studies the faces of everyone watching. He can’t tell if his speech had any affect in swaying the court of public opinion. But Gus breaks the silence, standing up from his seat in a slow clap of his own. “O Captain, my Captain!” Gus shouts.
Gooby follows close behind him, “O Captain, my Captain!”
And soon, the whole courtroom erupts in whoops and cheers. Professor Tannen stands straight up and, through tears streaming down his cheeks, salutes. “What in tarnation!” Everett T. Barnhart exclaims as a mob of students close in on him. He shouts obscenities as they carry him through the large double doors of the Great Hall. “I’ll get you for this, Fox Bishop!” he cries. “You haven’t heard the last of Everett Tatertots Barnhart!”
McGonagall bangs her gavel until the noise rings out louder than the voices in the hall. “Fox Bishop,” she says in her signature stern tone. “I hereby pardon you.”
The crowd roars in approval. Fox turns to smile at his wife in the audience, and Emilia returns the favor. In her arms, baby Wolf offers Fox a thumbs up.
And now we return to present day, in the second section of this post titled:
Five Minutes to Midnight
“And that’s how I plan to smuggle our baby into the school,” Fox said to Emilia with a confident smile. It was a plan that he’d been working out for months. He’d briefly considered approaching Hogwarts’ resident smuggler William Clay to help with the job, but ultimately Fox decided to move forward with a plan that didn’t involve hiding a baby in the greenhouses for eight months. No, his plan relied on being caught. “It’s like they say,” he explained. “Don’t ask for permission, ask for forgiveness.”
This had been the back and forth all summer. Fox and Emilia lived in Spain in hereto unknown peace, but like their all-to brief honeymoon over Christmas break, it was a peace that couldn’t possibly be sustained. Emilia was showing more every day and Fox knew what was coming. She wouldn’t go back to school, not when she had a baby to raise. And no matter how often Fox insisted that he was happy to drop out with her, Emilia was never going to let him abandon all of his dreams.
So why couldn’t their baby be a part of those dreams? Fox’s short term goal had always been to change the culture of Hogwarts. It was true that the school had come a long way since the war, but there was still so much to fix, and he knew that he was the person to fix it. And of course, if that opened up some opportunities for him after school, all the better. Why shouldn’t baby Wolf be the catalyst for all that change?
“I know it’s a long shot but I really think that it’s what makes the most sense for us.”
The closer they got to the school year, the more the Bishops debated over their options. Fox was more than happy to ignore the issue entirely, choosing late nights with Emilia to cuddle, share his favorite movies, and swap possible baby names. But they always seemed to land back on this topic before nights end, and it was always Fox who was prone to spiral into flights of fancy.
He studied Emilia’s expression on the couch next to him, her face lit up by the television. What was she thinking? He’d pitched her a hundred ideas before and each time he believed it would be different. He wanted so badly for her to say yes, to accept this ridiculous scheme and join him at Hogwarts for the year. He didn’t want to leave her, he didn’t want to leave their baby. “What do you think?” he finally asked.
The night was growing old. He could hear the seconds ticking away on the clock on the wall. They were running out of time and still there was no answer to their problem.
Emilia Montes
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Year/Job
Healer
Potion & Plant Poisoning
Heaven’s here, it’s right where you’re standing. |
Steph
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Post by Emilia Montes on May 28, 2023 19:03:12 GMT -8
This started as the best summer of Emilia’s life. The five months between Christmas and the end of the school year had been full of surprises and tears. Mostly tears. Every night Fox had to leave Emilia back in the dungeons, she held on for as long as she could but without fail, they had to part for the night. It was bearable, the first two months, until they learned Emilia was pregnant. Suddenly, the heavy sighs and I already miss you's turned into full blown tears when it came time to say goodnight. They spent every possible second together, longing for the nights they had shared in Spain. Emilia, somehow, managed to get through the rest of the school year and thanked her lucky stars that it had been cut short. The second she could, she grabbed Fox and ran away to Spain once again.
The topic of whether or not she was going to continue her education came up pretty quickly into the summer break. She’d been laying in bed enjoying the gentle summer breeze filtering through the open window, Fox was reading next to her, when she felt a fluttering in her tummy. Emilia ignored it at first but the tiny pulse continued and she knew then that there was absolutely no way she could ever leave their baby behind. But Fox always found a way to avoid the topic. Or when Emilia managed to bring it up in a conversation, Fox was quick to point out all the ways he could make this work. Baby Bishop could be smuggled into the castle, Fox could plead their case to the Headmistress, they could hide her in the greenhouses with the baby mandrake. Okay, well, the last one was her idea but it was meant to be a joke.
But this wasn’t funny anymore.
Fox was in the middle of explaining one of his many plans again. Emilia heard his voice but it mingled in with the soft noise coming from the television. Seven months prior they had sat on this very couch with a blanket wrapped around both of them as they shared sweet, soft kisses. She could remember feeling like they had all the time in the world to figure everything out. At the time, she thought she would find the right time to tell her mom about her marriage and Marianna would have to accept it.
Her mind wouldn’t focus on Fox’s words, all she kept thinking about were the countless letters sprawled on the small table next to the couch. They started arriving in the beginning of June. Simple messages like ‘Where are you?’ and ‘Why aren’t you coming home?’. They developed into long letters explaining that her mother most certainly knew what was going on and she was not going to stand for it. Marianna had made it very clear that she wanted nothing to do with Emilia and her baby. Even if she didn’t express it, it killed Emilia inside to know that her mother prefered to stay with a man who despised them and told them time and time again that the blood in the veins made them monsters. Mariana chose a true monster over her daughter.
“What do you think?”
Emilia swallowed the knot in her throat and managed to give him a smile. She thought about agreeing with his plan but how was that helping? No matter what she said right now, come September Fox would be on that train to Hogwarts and she was going to stay behind. Her smile slowly faded at the thought.
"Do you really think that makes the most sense for us?" she asked but didn't want an answer. She was tired of going in circles. Emilia knew she didn't want to have this conversation anymore and the smart thing to do would be to change the subject but she was still hurt from reading the last letter her mother sent her. "For us to risk you being expelled? Do you think I want us to be the reason you have to give up your dreams?"
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Year/Job
Dad
"I'm pretty major and I'll sing it out loud." |
Travis
Fox Bishop
Flourish and Blotts Employee IS OFFLINE
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Post by Fox Bishop on May 28, 2023 19:10:32 GMT -8
For all the reasons that Fox married Emilia, at the top of the list was that it felt like the answer to all of their problems. In the weeks leading up to Christmas break, it grew harder and harder to be apart from Emilia. Fox would sink to the deepest depths of despair just at the thought of leaving her for a couple of hours let alone a couple of weeks. He truly believed the marriage would change everything. That once their union was complete, nobody would be able to pull them apart. And in some ways it worked: Fox sent his family a letter from Frigiliana the Muggle way that told them everything they needed to know:
Dear Mother and Father,
I won’t be coming home for Christmas this year. I won’t be coming home again. I’ve married the love of my life in Spain and you’ll never have to see me again. I just want you to know that I’m okay and happy. I’ll write you in greater detail when I’m ready, but for now I just want to enjoy my wife. I’m sorry that I couldn’t be the god-fearing son that you always wanted. In the end the only thing I fear is my own failure. I don’t intend to be a father, but if I ever find myself taking a second look at that bassinet in the shop window, I sincerely hope that I could apply the lessons I’ve learned from my childhood to be the best father I can be. It’s sad to say, but the both of you have provided for me a template for how not to raise a child. All I’ve ever wanted in my life was to find a place where I’m accepted for who I am. And I’ve found that now in her eyes, and her lips, and her body, and her words, and her compassion. Regardless of my feelings, I fear that I’ll miss the idea of having a home to return to. I hope that one day you’ll meet her and accept her in a way you never could accept me.
With love, Fox
P.S. Her name is Emilia
It wasn’t quite the fifteen-page takedown that Fox had planned, but when he returned to Hogwarts he finally put the full extent of his feelings on the page and sent the correspondence by owl. The final product was twenty-pages of critical reflection. Fox had spent many nights that summer simply running his hands over Emilia’s stomach. He loved the feel of her skin on his, but now that he could feel the subtle nudges from his daughter, he loved everything so much more.
“Baby Bishop,” he repeated to Emilia. Bishop was a name that he would carry forever, and he didn’t even know if he wanted it. If Fox knew what he was feeling, he would explain that he didn’t hate his parents at all. It was simply the feeling that they hated him. He didn’t reject Bishop because he didn’t want to be a Bishop, but because he felt that he could never meet the standards of what the Bishops expected him to be. But it would be several more years before Fox came to that realization with the help of a therapist.
But Fox moved on from his concerns about Baby Bishop’s name as the summer nights passed. All he could think about was the end. How in a couple of weeks he’d be packing his bags and Emilia wouldn’t. She had her aunt. He knew that she’d be okay. But would he be okay. As Fox told Emilia his newest plan, he patted his lap in a way that Emilia surely recognized by now, and when she lifted her legs onto the couch, he began to massage her feet. His words hardly mattered. There was nothing realistic about their future that didn’t involve one or both of them never going back to Hogwarts. But he still allowed himself to fantasize. He still allowed himself to dream.
“I know it’s a long shot,” Fox said when he was finished. “But I really think that it’s what makes the most sense for us. What do you think?”
There was a silence between them that seemed to last longer than any they’d shared since they’d begun dating. The television, its volume low, filled the silent space of the moment. Walter White sputtered, “Jesse, you’re not thinking clearly!”
And finally, Emilia spoke. “Do you really think that makes the most sense for us? For us to risk you being expelled? Do you think I want us to be the reason you have to give up your dreams?”
And there it was again. This wasn’t different at all. They were trapped in the same cycle of argument. An idea, a rejection, an objection, and a rebuttal. Eventually Emilia always brought up Fox’s dreams. He was starting to resent his dreams.
“Fuck school!” Fox walked just up to the edge of yelling. “I have Sequester. If I get expelled, he has the money to help me fight it. I don’t even need a diploma to do everything that I want to do. Being a lawyer? I’m already a pretty good word using guy. Fighting the system? Technically Hogwarts is complicit in perpetuating the system that I want to fight. I don’t need some piece of paper that says I can do magic, I’m already pretty damn good at it.”
It didn’t occur to Fox until that moment what he was actually saying. Was he wrong? Was he just crazy? “Listen,” he said. “My dreams are nothing without you. If I can’t be with you, if I’m not here to see my baby girl’s birth, those aren’t dreams that are worth having.” He took a deep breath then through tears he said, “What if I just didn’t go back?”
Emilia Montes
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Year/Job
Healer
Potion & Plant Poisoning
Heaven’s here, it’s right where you’re standing. |
Steph
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Post by Emilia Montes on May 29, 2023 8:57:37 GMT -8
Seventh year was supposed to go a little easier than this. Fox was meant to focus on his career path and Emilia would enjoy being on the field with her friends while she tried to decide between studying magical medicine or playing quidditch professionally. Now, her options were very limited. Every day that passed brought new anxieties. Would she be okay on her own? Was she even going to be a good mother? She didn’t have the best example of what a mother should be, if she was being honest. And what would happen with her relationship with Fox? They’d fought so hard to be together just so they could be apart? None of it made any sense anymore. All she wanted was for Fox to hold her and tell her that they were doing the right thing and that it would all be okay. She didn’t need countless, absurd plans that were never going to pan out.
The second Fox raised his voice, she felt her breath catch in her throat. She held it there for a few seconds, telling herself not to react but she could feel the tears well in her eyes. She took offense to every single one of his words now. It wasn’t about some stupid paper and Fox knew that.
And when she felt like she couldn’t keep it in any longer, every thought came out.
“You fought so hard to be there in the first place and now you’re acting like it’s nothing! How can it be so easy for you to just give it up? I’m trying to help you, I’m trying to give you a way to finish what you started. It’s what you wanted for so long. So, what? Will it be easy in ten years to give us up too?” God, she regretted it the second it spilled out of her mouth. There was another long silence as she sat there staring at him. Except this one was worse for her, she knew she’d gone way too far.
Emilia swung her legs off the couch which admittedly was not the best thing to do these days. She managed to get on her feet, wobbling a bit, and she stormed off. She couldn’t talk to him when he was being like this. She understood why he was reacting this way but it didn’t mean she had to engage in this never ending argument. She stopped right outside her childhood bedroom, now converted into a nursery. Emilia stood in the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest and she took a deep breath. She could feel the knot in her throat getting bigger and bigger until she felt like she couldn’t swallow it down and then the tears came. They felt hot against her cheeks but she didn’t bother wiping them away.
She wished she could explain to Fox how she was feeling but every time this happened and she tried, it’s like her mind went blank. All of a sudden she couldn’t translate her thoughts from Spanish to English and she stood there with nothing to say. While he always found the right words to say, she was completely silent. It must have felt like they were reverting to the beginning of their relationship when Emilia kept him at a distance and made sure not to let him break down her walls.
Looking for any place to hide while she cried, Emilia entered the small room. The tiny crib had just been built the day before and it was full of presents from her friends. They had gifted her more than any baby could ever use and she had been trying to find a place to store it all in the meantime. It had been a nice distraction, just like the hundred other side projects she had taken on in the last couple of weeks.
Her vision was still blurry from the tears in her eyes as her hands reached for a small object on top of the rocking chair in the corner of the dark room. She took a seat, small sobs still managing to escape from her lips, as she placed the gift in her lap. This was definitely not how it was supposed to go, at all.
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Year/Job
Dad
"I'm pretty major and I'll sing it out loud." |
Travis
Fox Bishop
Flourish and Blotts Employee IS OFFLINE
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Post by Fox Bishop on May 29, 2023 11:11:09 GMT -8
Emilia was right. Fox did have dreams that long predated any concept of feelings for Emilia. But sitting there with her on the couch, her legs spread across his, he was ready to let it all go. Her face had this muted tone in the light from the television but Fox was so familiar with every one of her features that he could still everything. It was true that Fox had loved Emilia since their first night together when he’d taken her away from the party and to the clocktower. It was his favorite place to escape to until he’d met her.
At first, though, Fox didn’t understand Emilia’s reaction. This wasn’t a decision that he made lightly. It was one he’d thought of over several months, and when all other attempts to convince Emilia to sneak their baby into the school failed, he knew that it was his only option. He loved Emilia, he couldn’t imagine leaving her to give birth on her own. But what about her? Didn’t Emilia have dreams too? She could be a star Quidditch player if she wanted to be. He’d almost certainly taken away her final year at Hogwarts playing for Slytherin, and the work required to recover from a birth and play a professional sport was tremendous. It wasn’t something he wanted to put his wife through. And what about healing? The years of schooling it would take, paired with raising their child. It didn’t seem fair that Emilia would have to give everything up so that he could become a lawyer.
“So, what? Will it be easy in ten years to give us up too?”
Emilia’s words took Fox by complete surprise. It was like they were having two completely different arguments now. He understood how she may have jumped to that conclusion, but it hit him like a freight train. He couldn’t keep the tears back anymore. Why was it so hard? It wasn’t supposed to be this hard.
Fox waited until Emilia was out of the room to begin sobbing properly. He curled up on the couch for a moment, holding himself there as the television continued. He reached for the throw pillow by his side and buried his face into it. His whole body seemed to dissolve into it. He felt like he was breaking down until there was nothing but heartbreak.
How long did he sit there? Ten minutes? Twenty minutes? His face was red by the time he managed to stop the tears. He tried his best to stop the snot too. Once he collected himself, he rose from the couch and followed her into the small room. It was only a day earlier that Fox had sat in this room with Emilia, stressing out over the instructions for their son’s crib. He found Emilia sitting on the little rocking chair next to the crib, holding a gift in her lap. Fox took a seat on the carpet next to her and reached out for her hand.
It was silent again as Fox collected his thoughts. Her realized that he hadn’t even planned for what to say.
“It’s hard to explain,” he finally said quietly. “But my dreams…they’re nothing if they’re not with you. And I know how that makes you feel, but listen: I love you. I’ve always loved you. I loved you before I even knew that I loved you. I had all of these dreams before I met you, yes, but if my whole life was leading to us, how is letting them go a bad thing? I waited long enough to be with you. I can’t be apart from you again, I just can’t. And I don’t know what to do. Because I’m so scared and I already miss you. I’m not strong enough to do this. I can’t leave you like this. Do you understand that?”
Emilia Montes
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Year/Job
Healer
Potion & Plant Poisoning
Heaven’s here, it’s right where you’re standing. |
Steph
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Post by Emilia Montes on May 29, 2023 11:42:15 GMT -8
Emilia held her breath when she heard Fox enter the room and as he sat in front of her. He was reaching out to her but she sat still. She had never been good with words or expressing her feelings. That is until Fox came along. He had a way of making her feel at ease. Every time she spoke, Fox gave her his undivided attention and his eyes sparkled with that same look he had when he was reading a book. So why was it so hard now? She knew she had hurt him. Even in the darkness, Emilia could see he had been crying too. He looked tired and defeated as if the emotions of this never ending argument were knocking him out. And she was only adding to the stress, she felt it deep inside too.
She could feel Fox waiting, but she couldn’t seem to look at him. All she could do at the moment was hold on to his touch. Her fingers curled into his until they were entwined.
Seven months ago, the world was full of possibilities for Emilia. Unlike some of her classmates, Emilia had a clear understanding of what she wanted to do after graduation. She had been toying with the idea of playing Quidditch. While she was part of the unstoppable trio that was Olivia, Genna and herself (and they were not a trio you would want to go up against on the pitch), Emilia knew that she was an exceptional player on her own. She’d have no problem achieving her goals if she went for it. But that was mostly something she’d thought of to occupy her daydreams.
If anyone had paid close attention and saw the years of hard work she had poured into her potions, they could clearly see what her true intentions were. Emilia had only spent ten short years of her life with her father, but he left an impression that she’d never forget. He spent his entire life dedicated to helping others and Emilia knew she wanted to continue in his memory. But Andres also showed Emilia that his family was his priority and she felt like she would be betraying him if she didn’t do the same.
Emilia focused on Fox’s touch now. Her eyes met his again. She felt some of the tension start to leave her, through their fingers, as if he was pulling it out of her by some force. She felt her body shiver, her eyes not daring to look away from his eyes. If they had a limited amount of time left, Emilia didn’t want to spend it in tears.
“I do,” she answered, her voice barely above a whisper at first while she gathered her thoughts and emotions. “You know I love you more than anything in the world. And I always think the universe is so unfair to us, but I have never thought that we couldn’t handle it. Nothing has ever really been easy except loving you and that can get me through anything. I know you’re strong, much stronger than me, so why can’t it also help you through what’s ahead?”
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Year/Job
Dad
"I'm pretty major and I'll sing it out loud." |
Travis
Fox Bishop
Flourish and Blotts Employee IS OFFLINE
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Post by Fox Bishop on May 29, 2023 13:38:25 GMT -8
It would almost be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
A younger Fox would never have imagined he’d find himself here, sitting on the floor of some house in Spain next to a girl that he’d eloped with at sixteen, a month removed from her due date. That he’d be seriously look into her eyes and announce that he planned to drop out of school and stay there with her to raise their baby. Emilia was right, Fox did have a lot of dreams and before he’d met her this was not one of them. But that didn’t make his conviction any less real. None of it seemed to matter anymore if he couldn’t be with her.
Though his goals were numerous, Fox’s dreams had always been broader, and less defined than Emilia’s. Her love was Quidditch, but her passion was medicine. That was something that Fox loved about her: Emilia had a gentle heart that he’d once believed Slytherins weren’t capable of. She wanted to carry on her father’s legacy as a healer, to keep him close in her heart and save lives just like he had. Whatever Fox wanted, it wasn’t to be like his dad. The magical world was full of endless possibilities. He was a gifted wizard, and with his dueling ability and high marks, he would make a good fit for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Of course, Fox had no interest in fascist institutions, but he took some pride in simply knowing that he could be an Auror if he wanted to. No, Fox’s goals were greater than that.
He saw himself upending the Wizengamot one day. He imagined sitting on the council for fifty years and never voting guilty for a single case. Or maybe he’d stay away from government altogether. At night, Fox could get lost in long conversations with Emilia where he planned out the future of his nonprofit charity. Right now the Bishop Muggleborn Foundation was a small club at Hogwarts consisting of a single member—Fox himself. Its aim was to aid young Muggleborn witches or wizards in the transition from the Muggle world to the magical one. Fox talked about expanding this goal: one day he wanted the foundation to have enough power and resources to influence Ministry policy. He could codify Muggleborn protections and take on the remaining Pureblood families without having to sacrifice his principles by working inside the government.
Once he was a household name, Fox imagined that he’d have his own regular guest column in The Daily Prophet. This was where he would use his platform to speak directly to voters, to publicly criticize the government and affect change. Occasionally, he’d use this space to review the newest releases available at Flourish and Blotts and once he built a large enough reputation as somewhat of a culture columnist, maybe he would even branch out into writing his own novels. He had already outlined a legal thriller, an enemies to lovers romance, and a science fiction adventure novel that he described to Emilia as, “The Jurassic Park of Diagon Alley,” whatever that meant.
In his craziest fantasies, when Fox had trained with Emilia and studied the subtle nuances of the sport, Fox even imagined himself becoming a Quidditch coach. It was an incredible story—a Muggleborn who didn’t even know how to fly discovers that he has a brain for Quidditch. Hmm. Sitting on the floor of the nursery, Fox made a mental note to write that one down when he had the chance. But for now, thinking about it all, he knew that Emilia was right. It wasn’t that he didn’t want any of it, it was that he wanted all of it. And he wanted all of it with Emilia.
“You know I love you more than anything in the world. And I always think the universe is so unfair to us, but I have never thought that we couldn’t handle it. Nothing has ever really been easy except loving you and that can get me through anything. I know you’re strong, much stronger than me, so why can’t it also help you through what’s ahead?”
Fox was tired. He felt like he’d been talking for a thousand years. His mouth was dry, his lips stuck together. He searched his mind for a response, anything to talk Emilia out of what she had decided. What she had planned to do all summer long. Fox believed that he could do anything. If he didn’t, then he wouldn’t be Fox Bishop. And he would die believing that some combination of words existed that could talk Emilia out of staying behind, and if he had enough time he could find those words. It wasn’t that he’d failed. Summer only lasted so long. He was aware now that his next words had to be that supernaturally persuasive cocktail of logic and emotion, or he’d be spending the next eight months apart from his wife. He replayed all the conversations they’d had over the summer back in his head. He sifted through the pointless details, scrutinized the comments Emilia had made about their future, trying to find the one thing he could say to convince her to come back with him. It had to be there somewhere.
“You’re right,” he finally said. Fox’s eyes close as he spoke, taken by complete shock as the words slipped from his mouth. This wasn’t a supernaturally persuasive cocktail of logic and emotion. It sounded a lot like defeat. His stomach was sinking, his heart was breaking. He’d never felt more low. Fox slumped down, his head resting softly on Emilia’s stomach. “I have to go back,” he said quietly. “I have to go back for me and for you.”
He didn’t know what else to say. He didn’t know what to do. It was his worst nightmare. They were out of time.
Emilia Montes
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Year/Job
Healer
Potion & Plant Poisoning
Heaven’s here, it’s right where you’re standing. |
Steph
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Post by Emilia Montes on May 29, 2023 22:14:38 GMT -8
Emilia should have felt relief wash over her when Fox agreed to go back. He’d been right that Emilia had planned on not returning since the beginning of the summer, she didn’t have to say it. And it really made the most sense in their situation, but it hurt to think about. When Fox fought her back on the subject, she could at least pretend that maybe they could find a way. Or that she was open for ideas when they knew she really wasn't. Now it was set in stone. She finally managed to look away from him, she didn’t want the tears to come back so she tried to focus on the room around them. This was going to be her own small world from now on.
She had been in this room a million times in her life. First as a child, this was where she spent the first ten years of her life, later while she brought Fox here and tried to make it their home. Every day she spent with Fox in this room, planning out where to put the crib or laughing over the silly muggle nursery rhymes he shared with her, she fell even more in love with him. She'd experienced so much love in this room. But it all seemed so empty now. The family pictures that had adorned her room as a child were gone, who knew what Marianna had done with them at this point. Maybe she had thrown them away or, Emilia desperately wanted to believe, she had stored them away somewhere safe. The countless baby toys around the room couldn’t fill the void she felt.
Emilia felt her breath catch in her chest and she had to, once again, swallow the knot in her throat. She brought a hand up and gently placed it on top of Fox’s head as he rested on her stomach. Her fingers tenderly ran through his soft hair. There was a long moment of silence where Emilia didn’t dare move, she wanted to burn this into her memory. It would be one of the last moments where they could be completely together and alone. She felt the small jab in her stomach as if Baby Bishop was letting them know he was also with them. No matter how many times it happened, and it was more frequent these days, it was a strange sensation to feel him move or kick.
“For us,” she whispered back as her hand pulled away from Fox’s hair. She knew there was so much left to say, but none of it would help at the moment. Emilia didn’t want Fox to change his mind or think about it the whole train ride back to school. She knew she had to put on a brave face now more than ever.
“I have something for you.” Emilia’s hand lingered on the object she'd been holding in her lap before she tore the wrapping paper to show him the small mirror. Its counterpart had been sitting on her bedside table for almost a month now. “I know it’s a little late for a birthday present but I couldn’t give it to you last month. I don’t feel complete when you’re not with me but, at least this way, we can talk and I can see your face.”
Emilia knew it wasn’t the same as physically being with him. She had gotten so used to feeling him next to her all summer. Most of the time Fox’s hand was on her swollen belly, eagerly waiting for their baby to move. And as annoyed as she liked to act about it, Emilia knew she’d miss that the most. The mirrors were better than nothing.
“I love you, Fox.” She set the mirror down on her lap and reached for his hand again. “Let’s not spend the next week crying. All I want now is for you to hold me every night until you have to leave. Just hold me and kiss me and tell me we’ll be okay.”
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