Who: Wadcock Brothers
What: Mah more feels
When: Today!
Where: Henry's house
Status: Finishing in comments
The loud thudding in Henry’s head wouldn’t go away, no matter how hard he’d dug himself into the cushions of the couch. His head had constantly been throbbing for the past month and it seemed like he couldn’t even escape the feeling in his dreams. Henry opened his eyes and stared out at the blurry world, blinking rapidly as he realized that the thudding was not being caused by a migraine, but by someone at the door. He looked around the living room of his home, a decent sized house that had barely been lived in. Without any magical or muggle lighting it was brightly lit, a selling point of the place, one of the main reasons why Heidi had fought so hard for it.
Dismissing the thought, Henry sat up and rubbed his hand over his face. The banging on the door wasn’t stopping and he looked at his watch. His mother shouldn’t be back with Brandon for another few hours...or was it Daniel Twilfit who had taken the boy? No, Daniel was coming tomorrow, yes, he was sure of that, and there was no way that his mother would be causing such noise. Henry forced himself up and off the couch and slumped his way over to the front window to peer out at his porch, pulling back a curtain slightly. He shook his head at the sight of his brother and let the curtain drop again. Henry had no desire to talk to anyone right now, but if he ignored Seth then he would go to their mother and that would cause her to panic and it would create a domino effect of unwanted attention.
He went to the door, but didn’t open it. Instead Henry dropped his head to the wood and allowed Seth’s knocking to rattle his skull a little more.
“Not in the mood, Seth,” he called through the door, shutting his eyes.
Seth drew a long breath through his nose as he pursed his lips. Once he heard Henry’s voice, verifying his brother was indeed alive, his worry dissipated into utter frustration. He ran his hand over his face, finally able to breathe. It had been a long day and it wasn’t even three in the afternoon yet. “I don’t care, Henry.”
First an owl from the ministry asking if he would please come in to make a statement about the attempted abduction the previous year. Something Seth truly wished he could leave in the past. He dealt with it, responded telling them he would help how he could in the investigation and pushed it back out of his mind. He had fallen behind on all things quidditch and he was trying his best to play catch up. Seth hadn’t thought of it again until a W.Q.W. events coordinator stuck her head asking after Henry. Who should have been at a meeting more than an hour prior. With everything that had happened in the past few months, Seth’s heart dropped. Henry was the most punctual person Seth had ever known. He sent owls if he was going to be merely five minutes behind. It was
annoying.
And so far, Henry had been fairly on top of delegating and rescheduling his appointments, but to straight up not show? That had Seth grabbing his coat and heading to Henry’s house in mere moments. He had been doing his best to keep his distance, let Henry have his space, but there was a certain point when Henry had to return back to his life.
“Open up.” Seth said rapping his knuckles on the door gently, now knowing his brother was on the other side. “I’m not leaving until you do.”
Henry pulled back from the door, running a hand through his hair. “Just go home, Seth.”
He dropped down to sit on a bench by the door, shoulders heavy. There was still sleep in his eyes, and Henry was sure he could fall asleep right here if given a few moments of silence. Sleeping had been the hardest part of the past month; there were the nightmares, the constant ringing in his ears of Heidi’s voice, the inability to sleep in the bed they’d shared, and there was Bran. His little boy had immediately noticed the disappearance of his mother’s presence and had seemingly reverted to being unable to sleep through the night. Three, four hour intervals were the most Brandon could manage, and Henry’s soothing tones and calming motions couldn’t lull him back to sleep. There were times when Henry just let the baby cry and cry, miserable with himself for doing so but unable to build up the energy to do anything else.
The healers said he’d get used to it. Bran would one night just sleep straight through and they’d be back on track. They said the same thing about Henry, too, that there’ll be a day when he wasn’t immobilized with grief on an hourly basis and he’ll be able to function in society once again.
That was for another day, however. Henry pressed his back against the wall and stretched out his legs, knowing Seth was going to be stubborn and continue to knock. Hopefully he wouldn’t literally barge his door down.
Seth listened carefully through the door for any sign that Henry was going to open it. Silence was all he got after the insistence that he just go home. Well at least he was still on the other side of the door. Technically knocking was just a formality. Seth knew the wards to his brothers house and could easily let himself in. Which is exactly what he would have done had he not gotten a response. But doing so now, after already acknowledging his brother’s existence in the house, that would just irritate him even more.
And as much as Seth ached to irritated his brother out of his skin for giving him such a scare, it wasn’t his fault. Not entirely. Starting off this visit intentionally upsetting his brother would just make everything worse. After another knock of his went ignored, Seth ambled to the ground. He knew just how stubborn Henry could be, both of them had their moments. And when they had them at the same time, it could end up being a very long haul.
Leaning back against the door, Seth let out a long sigh rubbing his forehead. Henry was fine, well he was as fine as he could be considering the circumstances. He certainly wasn’t kidnapped or dead, which had been his running thought from when he was told Henry didn’t show up until he had heard his voice. He sat in silence for a few moments before lifting his hand to knock half heartedly over his shoulder.
“Henry? Just let me in, please.” Seth pleaded not caring a bit how desperate his voice sounded. “I don’t want to have this conversation through a door.”
