Dresden Academy

Who: Bill, Bernadine (as Abernathy) and Tim Ford, Adelaide and Simone Legaux, Jesus Suarez
What: Parents Weekend! A staged fight and some awks.
Where: All over campus.
When: Afternoon, Friday 23rd September.
Rating: Language all over the shop.



Bill Ford hadn't been to one of these things the entire time Abernathy was at school. There was always the risk he'd be recognized by one of his former classmates; surely they had children, some of them were educators at the school. The gig would be up immediately.

He didn't need to worry about that anymore. Abernathy finally understood, though she still wasn't speaking to him. Shortly thereafter Bill had a long chat with his son; the entire family was up to date.

He decided he'd go to Dresden for parent's weekend this year, even if it was against his better judgment. Even if it was for the wrong daughter, though Bernadine had certainly earned the right to have his support.

Tim insisted on coming with him. Bill didn't doubt for a moment that it had everything to do with one Miss Adelaide Legaux, whom his son skittered off to find as soon as they arrived on campus.

Bill was on his own and walking along the edge of the world he'd left behind so many years ago.

The commons were crowded with excited freshmen and their proud parents examining maps and admiring the architecture, and bored sophomores and juniors trailing after their parents with looks that clearly said ‘can you go home now?’. By senior year few parents bothered anymore, and those that did usually took the opportunity to lecture their children about how important it was to focus hard on their studies.

And then there was the escalating scene in the University dormitories. Adelaide had been nonplussed when her brother decided that he and his boyfriend should come and visit on parents’ weekend. Si would show Jesus around and say ‘ooh, look at all this shiny magical shit you never saw before’, right?

Wrong. They seemed determined to play parents and actually get on her case about everything. ‘How are your studies?’ had been fine. ‘Are you keeping your room clean?’ not so fine, especially after her response had been proved to be a massive lie as soon as the door had been opened. ‘How do you expect to get laid in this mess?’ was just inappropriate, and by the time Simone had taken it upon himself to inspect what crimes against fashion were occurring in her wardrobe, Addy was quite over parents’ weekend and fully prepared to kill them both and see if somebody else’s parents might like to adopt her.

Her protests were ignored by both Si and Jesus (whom she had hoped would have been a little more sympathetic when there were things to see that were actually interesting and not her damn bedroom) so she flung a shoe at them and stalked out of the suite to the commons-- and straight into someone else.

Bill turned to find that it was Adelaide stumbling into him, the very girl his son had run off to find. "Good afternoon, Adelaide," he said cordially and nodded toward Bernadine's room. "Happen to know where my children ran off to?"

“Bill! Hi!” She looked around quickly to see if anyone was watching her talking to her mortal enemy’s father. “I thought B was showing you around?” She couldn’t be in her room; not with all the noise on the other side of the wall. It would drive even the most patient person out. The plural hadn’t escaped her notice, and she tried not to look too hopeful when she asked if he’d brought Tim and Abernathy with him too. Not that she particularly wanted to see Abernathy at all.

He shook his head. Chances were that Tim had run off to find Adelaide, run into Bernadine and now both of his children were wandering around on campus leaving him to his own devices. Since he'd never been to the Dresden campus before it didn't take him long to get lost. He got turned around in the wrong dorm and some leggy junior turned him back toward university house.

"Hadn't met up with her yet," Bill replied, eyeing the room at the mention of B. Adelaide wouldn't be so careless with the ruse, but Bill wasn't as confident as his daughters that this plan would work. "Anyone coming up to see you?" he asked gently. He was aware that her family situation was problematic, but he hoped someone would come to support her.

She nodded and sighed. “My fairy godmothers.” She leaned back and banged her fist on her bedroom door. “There are three too many boys in there!”

There was a small thump from inside her room, and a faint reply. “Three?”

“I’m counting Pickle!”

“Pickle is a girl.”

“Pickle is a boy!” Adelaide yelled back through the door, forgetting for a moment that she was supposed to be acting like a properly mature University student while parents were about. Particularly so when she was in the middle of a conversation with one.

She flushed, embarrassed. “My brother and his boyfriend are playing Addy’s Gay Dads. Pickle is my owl.” She wasn’t sure if Bill had noticed Pickle visiting every now and then over the summer with notes and packages for Bernadine and Tim.

Bill couldn't help the laugh that escaped. "Well good luck with that," he offered heartily. "Sounds like a wild weekend." Then he had an idea. "Got a phone on you?" She could call either of the kids and then he could properly harangue them for letting him wander around on his own.

“Oh, I hope not,” she groaned. Si and Jesus deciding her life needed a little more spice! and pizazz! and action! was pretty high up on her list of nightmare fuel. She could only hope they only wanted to visit today and not stay the whole weekend. Obligingly, she dug around in her pockets until she found her phone, unlocked it and handed it over.

It was only after she let go of it that she realized Bernadine was in her contacts under Abernathy’s phone number-- named ‘Bitchface Fuckhead’. “Um... just ignore the name that comes up... or call Tim.”

Bill gratefully took the phone and opted for Tim anyway. He didn't make a habit of guilt tripping Bernadine, because heaven's knew she'd do that herself. Tim on the other hand needed the extra nudge. The phone rang a single time before his son picked up.

"Where are you?" Timmy asked, terribly excited to see Adelaide's number popping up on his phone.

"More to the point, where are you?" Bill replied.

Tim's face fell and he frowned at Bernadine who had dragged him out to the quodpot pitch expecting to find Adelaide hiding from her "gay dads" there. "We're out by the quodpot field," he replied. It was kind of a treat to see the school that Abernathy had only shared a bare minimum of details about.

"Funny thing," Bill replied darkly. "I'm in the dorms with our family friend, Adelaide."

"Got lost on the way?" Tim guessed.

"Get your ass back here," Bill said quietly to the point. He hung up the phone and handed it back to Adelaide. "Thank you," he said genuinely.

Addy tilted her head curiously. “Where are they? I can take you there if you want.” The more distance between her and the Closet Inquisition the better. Actually... she excused herself for a moment to poke her head back in the door and yell “I’ll kill you if you read my diary!”

She hoped it would be enough of a diversion to stop Si from trying to burn all her clothes. He could tear the room apart looking for it all he liked, but he’d never find it unless he figured out she kept an online diary. And then he’d have to guess the password.

Pickle peeped hysterically as she almost shut the door on him, scooting out with the barest amount of space saving his tail feathers being nipped off. She scooped him up and petted him apologetically. “Really,” she promised Bill, turning her back on the sound of her room being ransacked. “There’s not much to see here. I promise her room is super neat and probably the worst thing she’s got stashed is maybe a year’s worth of candy.”

"Is it kosher to be seen hanging with the enemy camp?" he asked with a delighted grin. He might have offered her his arm, but he didn't think young kids were into that sort of chivalry and that would push this weird situation into another stratosphere entirely. "They're on the quodpot field," he replied.

“The quod field. Home sweet home,” Addy said lightly. It was probably her favorite place on campus, given that the lake wasn’t technically a part of it. “I think later in the day there might be a game. Not part of the season, just a show-off match for the first-time visitors.” Quodpot rarely failed to impress the muggle parents. Hell, Addy had been playing for years and she still loved to watch it.

Giving up flying was probably the worst part about leaving his wizarding life behind. He didn't know how much Adelaide knew. He assumed Abernathy had spoken less words to Adelaide than to him. He had no idea what Tim or Bernadine might tell their friend. "Who gets to play?" he asked, thinking to keep it casual.

She didn’t really know the answer to that. “Whoever shows up, I guess. I mean, Professor Walsh will probably tell the Champlains to stay out of it; season starts next week and if they want to crush everyone like they did last year they can’t start off with any injuries. Probably none of my guys will show. Dicks.” The last part was muttered under her breath. Her team’s lack of commitment to the game was especially frustrating to her, seeing as she wanted to play more than any of them but wasn’t allowed to.

"You don't play in University house?" Blue Ridge had a university team, but they were more of an established college than Dresden. Bill wasn't a regular quodpot player himself, but he was a bit of a fan. He hadn't kept up with it much since the kids were old enough to know better. The university teams were never quite as good as the professional teams, but they tended to feed into them. He wondered why Adelaide would stay here if quodpot was such a passion.

She’d whined long and hard about it her senior year, but been told with absolutely no room for negotiation that there wasn’t going to be a University House team. “It’s not fair to the other teams,” she recited, sarcasm evident. “‘cause there’s no limit on when you can leave, so if you got a team of people who’ve been playing for ten years against a high school team then they’ll crush ‘em with experience. But I don’t see how it’s any different than playing seniors against freshmen.” She kicked at a bush on the side of the path as they neared the quodpot field. “If you’re gonna complain about experience being a factor then the teams should play against each other on talent level, not by house.”

Bill kept pace with Adelaide and chatted amiably about quodpot along the way. They ran into his son and daughter before they reached the field. He couldn't decide if he should grill Tim once again, embarrassing him in front of Adelaide was certainly fair enough revenge for being ditched. Then again, Bill didn't hold much with the concept of eye for an eye. "Nice jaunt?" he asked as Bernadine and Tim sidled up to him.

Tim forced a smile. "Wanted to see the field, since I've never seen one before." It was true enough, though what he really wanted to see happened to be escorting his father to him.

They made a peculiar little bunch and Bernadine quickly became aware that people would start to wonder why Adelaide was hanging out with her family, even if she had visited her house and everyone knew it. "Hey dad, why don't I show you around campus? Timmy can keep Addy company."

“It’s just a field until something gets played on it,” Addy pointed out with a small smile. “We’ll come back when the game starts, then you can see Quodpot and know what life’s really about.” She grinned at Bernadine for a moment, before composing her face into a scowl. People might not be able to hear them from this distance but they’d certainly notice anything else, especially if the combination of people in the group wasn’t odd enough.

She sighed at the mention of a tour. She should really have been showing Si and Jesus around, but that had been quickly sidetracked. “Just avoid the suite,” she advised Bernadine. “Si’s gone all Gayzilla in there. He’s probably feng-shuied the bathroom or vacuumed or somethin’.”

“It was really nice to see you again, Bill,” she said politely as Bernadine started to tug him away. “Do you want to turn around for a sec so ‘Abernathy’ can kick me goodbye?”

Bill nodded with the most charming of smiles before scowling at his son and turning away. "A pleasure," he assured Adelaide and started walking back toward the campus.

Bernadine rolled her shoulders back and cracked her neck to the side to loosen it up. "I don't give a shit how much you like her Timothy Ford! She's a SLUT. A total, epic SLUTZILLA. And she's from the dirty south. You're likely to catch something."

Timmy looked at his sister completely horrified. It was the first time he'd seen her in character, but even then he couldn't quite believe that Abernathy had ever been this way to Adelaide. It was fairly mortifying to watch those words come out of Bernadine's mouth.

Bill just shook his head; Bernadine was loud enough that he could hear her from where he was standing. He turned back and put his hands on his hips if highly disappointed. "Come on Abby, let it go," he instructed calmly.

Adelaide was completely dumbstruck at that. It wasn’t as though Abernathy hadn’t said worse, but Bernadine had just called her a diseased skank in front of Tim. She forgot for a moment that they were play acting and launched herself at the other girl. “Take that back!” She yelled, crashing them both to the ground.

Bill didn't think they'd take it quite this far, but he was impressed. If there was ever any doubt, anyone could look back to the parents' weekend spectacle that the two girls caused. He was about to step forward to split them up when he realized he'd probably take a punch in the tussle. There were some things that Bill just wasn't up for. "Girls, come on. You're supposed to be on your best behavior. And honestly, Abernathy Ford, I thought you'd outgrown this kind of bullshit."

Timmy continued to stare on, entirely mortified at the spectacle his sweet and usually shy sister was causing, even if she was pretending to be his obnoxiously outspoken sister. "Honestly Abby," he added in. "Grow up."

"Oh fuck off," Bernadine growled and tussled with Adelaide lightly, trying to make it look as serious as possible. A crowd had formed not far off, all of them pretending not to watch this ridiculous farce, but they were definitely lingering.

“Get your hand out of my mouth!” Addy yelled. “You taste like engine grease and squirrel!” She butted her shin up against Bernadine’s chest as gently as she could without making it obvious that she wasn’t trying to leave a giant bruise, and pushed herself away. “You’re like a fuckin’ two-year old!”

"Eat a whole bag of dicks, skank," Bernadine replied and struggled not to blush. She pushed off the muddy ground and joined her father. Then she cast the filthiest look possible to Tim. "You're on my shit list," she said pointing an accusing and seemingly angry finger at him. Then she stalked off with Bill who looked just about as exasperated as any parent could.

Tim turned to Addy. "You're a little muddy," he said quietly, still not entirely sure what had just happened.

She looked down at her dirty jeans and what had only minutes earlier been a perfectly pristine white top. “God, Si’s gonna have a field day with this.” Add two more to the pile of clothes he wanted to throw on a bonfire. She stuffed her hands into her pockets awkwardly, not knowing what to say about the little spectacle. Obviously she wasn’t a disease-riddled slut. That was obvious, right? Oh god, what if he believed her? She cringed. “Let’s get out of here, people are still staring.”

"Yes please," he said relieved that she had suggested it. "Lead the way; I'll just get lost."

She bumped him with the cleanest part of her arm as if to say ‘this way’ and led him towards Dresden Hall. It wasn’t particularly the most interesting place on campus, but it was the biggest and had the most things they could ignore while talking about other stuff. “We... we’re not always like that,” she offered in an embarrassed mutter. “Just when people are looking.”

Tim followed behind eagerly. "Was Abernathy ever that bad to you?" He didn't really want to know the answer. All he really wanted to do was tangle his fingers with hers, maybe run his fingers through her hair. He couldn't really get away with it when there were so many people around, especially not after the spectacle outside.

“Oh, well... yeah.” She had started to say that it hadn’t been that bad, but it really had. It had just never bothered her so much before, and she suspected that had everything to do with Tim’s involvement this time. “It’s not like I wasn’t just as rotten back.” She started walking around the outside of Dresden Hall, taking the long way around back towards the farm. “B’s frighteningly good at channelling her sometimes.”

"For a minute there, I was convinced." That was the test to pass, because Timmy was fairly good at telling them apart. Seeing Abernathy coming out in Bernadine was both terrifying and impressive. "She's good," he said and then laughed a bit. "I can't believe she called you a slut."

Addy reddened. “That’s all Abernathy. She always calls me slutzilla and it’s the stupidest thing. You’re only the second boy I ever kissed, how does that make me a slut,” she grumbled, belatedly horrified that she’d said the last part aloud.

"I don't think Abernathy's kissed anyone besides that Hawthorne kid. Not that she'd admit to it." Tim didn't have an actual idea of how many people his sister kissed. He kind of wanted to keep it that way. "So, you know, having kissed two boys, you're like... a seasoned pro compared to her. Clearly, such a filthy slut," he teased. He hadn't been paying much to the route they were taking across campus, or any of the scenery around them. He couldn't stop looking at Adelaide long enough to take anything else in.

“Oh she has definitely made out with Cinna don’t even try and tell me she’s some innocent little butterfly.” She didn’t know that for fact, but she also didn’t know as a fact that Cinna had ever not kissed someone and she was always pretty vocal about her love for Abernathy. And making out with Thorn was some other kind of gross because who knew exactly where he’d been putting his mouth? She shuddered at the thought because that was not a place she wanted her brain to go. “Anyway, you’re not allowed in that conversation because you’re a boy. No one calls you a slut.”

He shrugged because no one ever had. He didn't know if it was because he was a boy or because he kept his romantic/sexual endeavors to himself. "You could call me a slut if it'd make you feel better," he offered. "I haven't kissed too many girls myself." Then he felt stupid because he never wanted to talk about the girls he'd kissed before with the girl he was hoping to kiss now.

She sighed and shook her head. “I don’t think you get it,” she said, but dropped it anyway. She wasn’t going to try and explain the things girls said to make each other feel bad about themselves. She stopped walking and waved to the vast expanse of greenery in front of them. “This is the farm.” There were people clustered towards the Herbology lab at the far end, and she wondered how high Professor Crinshlow was and if any of the parents had picked up on it. “I don’t know if they have the Bestiary open while people are just wandering about.”

He really didn't and he was quietly thankful that she wasn't going to lecture him on it or catch him up in a conversation about double standards. He'd had enough of those with Abernathy. He looked around the farm, impressed that the school had this much land. "How much of it is organic?" he asked out of curiosity. He'd been doing a lot of research on organic living and had tried to start eating more local food. As for the bestiary: "I'd hope not. That just seems like a bad idea."

“Um... not sure, really.” She climbed up on the fence, holding onto his shoulder for balance while she kicked her legs over to sit. “Probably most of it? There are spells to keep most pests out. The gnomes are a pain in the ass; Abby and I got gnome duty for fighting about a million times.” Then she laughed. “If you’re real bad though, they put you on ‘poo’. Punishment and sustainability all in one! And it keeps the Bestiary clean.”

Tim laughed, joining her up on the fence. "It's a beautiful piece of land." He just shook his head about getting poo duty for detention. "That might count as cruel and unusual punishment in the State of New York." Then again, the wizarding world was sometimes miles ahead and other times miles behind where the muggle world was. At least that was what Tim thought, in his limited experience of wizarding culture. "I wouldn't mind working this land a bit. Get to know some of the weird plants you all keep hidden from us squibs and squares."

“You already know most of this,” she offered warmly. “This is all food, supplies.” She reached across him to point out the other side of the field. “The trees just leading to the start of the woods are ‘wand trees’. We harvest parts of them every year for Magical Crafting students to practise on. They’re special trees; the wood has magical properties. That’s what makes them different to the trees in the forest behind them.” She glossed over the crops and plants in front of them as they would be familiar to anyone, muggle or magical. “Closer to the greenhouses are the more magical plants. Things like potion ingredients. Some of them are regular plants like wolfsbane, toadstools, daisies... and the interesting magical ones, like puffapods and mandrake.”

"You mean you can't make a wand out of any old tree?" That was something he didn't actually know. He figured they could go wander around the woods and take a bit of branch and turn it into something spectacular. "Are you going to be a herbologist?" he asked entirely serious. Her love of trees and plants had him swooning harder than he'd been over the summer. "Because I'm totally cool with that. Think it's kind of hot, actually."

She pulled her wand from her jeans pocket and handed it to him. “Madrona. It’s the only North American wandwood. It’s actually really important that you use the right wood to make a wand. Different woods have different strengths. Madrona’s good for Transfiguration and Charms. Holly’s better for protective spells.” She thought back to her first year, when she’d been to Stark’s to be matched to her wand. Two had fought for her attention, a Holly and the Madrona, but the Madrona had felt right. “And then the core and the way that plays against the wood is important to your magic too. Regular wood can’t hold a core, it’s like the magic doesn’t fit in it.”

“I’m no good at Herbology,” she said, only being mildly upset about it for the first time just now. “Black thumbs. I still can’t pot a mandrake without getting knocked out.”

He held her wand very carefully and with great respect. It just felt like a stick in his palms and it was only the second time in his life that he regretted not having an ounce of wizardry in him. The first had come only weeks before when his father pulled him aside to tell him the truth. Besides his mother, Timothy was the only person in the family to not take to magic naturally. Bill's admission came as a shock and while Tim dealt with it far better than Abernathy, he was still reeling over it in private.

He passed the wand back to Adelaide gently. "You don't have to grow plants to have a love and appreciation for them." He knelt down to pick a blade of sweet grass near the fencepost. "And you certainly don't need magic to grow organically. It's a little more work, but that's pretty much how it is in the muggle world." Up until now Tim had been perfectly okay with that. He'd be okay with it again, at least he hoped.

“‘We all have our strengths and weaknesses’,” Addy recited dutifully. She reached out with her foot and hooked it around the back of his leg. “I’ll be good at Transfiguration for us both and you can be good at not killing everything. I’m including your sister in that, by the way.”

"Someone will get to her eventually. I can't take responsibility for that." His heart sored however as her foot hooked on his leg. He took that as a signal to move closer and sidled as close as he dared on the fence with the possibility of onlookers. "Any secret hideaways where we can go snuggle away our problems?"

“I’ll look one up in the slut’s handbook.” She didn’t know of any hideaways; she’d never had to hide. “I could take you back to my room but one, I have a prude bitch reputation to uphold; and two, Si is probably still tearing the place apart looking for my diary.”

Tim was a bit disappointed, but he half expected they wouldn't have the ability to be as close here. "Maybe we should break them up before they get into your candy stash."

“Teeth,” she informed him smugly. “My candy is safe. Well, I think so, anyway. If Bernadine hasn’t gotten to it, I don’t think Si can.” Adelaide was infinitely more certain that Bernadine could outwit a fingernipping box before Si could; he was far too precious about his fingernails. “That girl is dangerous around sugar! We went to Apple’s Sweets last weekend, and I felt kind of like I just let Lindsay Lohan loose in a crack den.”

"Oh yeah," Tim said, slipping down off the fence and offering Adelaide a hand. "She's got a real sugar problem." He glanced around. "Looks like rain. Might as well head for somewhere indoors, even if you don't want to be cloistered up with your gay dads."

She took his hand and jumped down beside him. “It’s not that I don’t want to be around them; I mean, Jesus is awesome. Si’s just been a total dick lately, ever since...” Oh. She let go of his hand and moved a bit away from his side with a little sigh. “Recently.” How easily she had forgotten. “Yeah, let’s get inside.”

Tim didn't press, mostly because that was his way with people. He followed Addy back to the main campus quietly. It started to drizzle on the way there, but he didn't mind getting a little wet. He was used to it running around in the woods behind his house.

Addy would have minded getting wet a lot less if she wasn’t making herself so miserable at the same time. It annoyed her when the weather reflected her mood, because it was really the sort of inconsiderate bullshit that mother nature should know better than to pull. Unhappy people were just naturally happier when it was bright and sunny, so why go and rub it in with gray skies and rain? She hated fall. It was a long, depressing lead-up to winter. Spring rains at least had the decency to be working their way back up to summer.

This time she didn’t bother with the scenic route, taking Tim back to the dorms the most direct way, past the gardens and straight over the green in uncomfortable silence. At least back at the suite, it seemed as though the ransacking of her room had been abandoned in favor of a cup of tea... though this remained to be seen as an improvement, depending on how Si wanted to behave.

Tim didn't really know what to say when they arrived back at her room. Things went from smarmy to awkward and his head was swimming. He couldn't figure out where he'd gone wrong. "I guess I should leave you to it then," he said quietly. Bernadine's door was open and he could see his father sitting at her desk chair. He'd have to face the music for ditching his dad, might as well get it over with when he was already in a weird mood. That and he couldn't imagine standing around while the infamous Simone and Jesus sized him up and the awkwardness kept building between himself and Adelaide. "It was nice to see you," he said genuinely.

“It was nice to see you too,” she murmured, wanting to say so much more, like I missed you or come hang out more, we don’t need to be back so soon, but she just swallowed it down and tried not to look as though she cared at all while Si was watching. “Hope you liked the farm,” she added, scuffing her foot against the doorframe.

"Yeah, it was cool," he said with the slightest frown. He was certain Bernadine would offer him nothing but reproachful glances later, but there wasn't much he could do about it. This awkward was approaching critical mass and he wanted to be clear of the blast zone. "Have a good night. Maybe I'll see you around this weekend." He prayed that didn't sound as stupidly hopeful as he thought.