Fauna gave him an annoyed look, mouth caught between a frown and a pout. Another instance of deja vu; this was a lot like that time she'd run off over the summer when she'd attempted to ask Devlin about another girl and he'd brushed her off.

But... oh, bugger it. It was so difficult to be mad at him when he had that mischievous glint in his eye.

There were several things she still wanted to say, at some point. Fauna wanted to know why he'd become an animagus and how he'd done it, and mention all those very important things that had been swimming around in her head, but one by one she lost track of them as he nuzzled her neck and kissed her collarbone. At least he hadn't only told Kitty his secret. Some of those jealous feelings about Devlin and Kitty faded away, and with it, her earlier annoyance.

Were those- holy shite! Hands under her shirt!

"Let's not talk about it right now... allright?"

Talk about what? What was there to talk about? "Fine with me," Fauna mumbled with a slight smile, leaning in when he kissed her, then pausing when he started to pull her sweater off.

Well, that was just fine with her too. It was much too hot in here anyway.

She ran her fingers through his hair and let out a half-giggle, half-squeal when he pulled her on top of him. Fauna paid no attention to the sounds of footsteps thundering on the stairs, or the creaky floorboards. She pressed her mouth to his, and then-

BAM!

"Oof!" The noise caused them to tumble over the bed and onto the floor, Fauna landing on Devlin with a crash.

"Mother-"

"Shite!" She finished that curse with one of her own, catching her breath. The fall from the bed had been a bit jarring, but like before, Devlin had cushioned it. She sat up slightly, still on top of him, and looked over him for injuries.

"Are you okay? Sorry, sorry," she muttered worriedly.

Sweater (mostly) off, hair disheveled, Fauna glanced up and froze as the door swung open.


((OOC Note: Just so Knox isn't permanently scarred for life, Fauna does have a shirt underneath that sweater. But yeah. Poor Knox!))

Immediately following his loud knock, there was a muffled thump and small rataplan of hissed interjections and protests.  He rolled his eyes and turned the knob and the little door with the rounded top swung into the room.

He immediately drew back again, half way out of the room and his eyes at the ceiling.  "Fauna-" he started. 

She was stradling Devlin who was on the floor, shirt off, and she, having begun to join him in his state of undress.  She was supposed to go up and fetch him.  A very breif errand by anyone's reckoning.  Never before had a man paid so dearly for an innocent night's passions. 

He swallowed the angry lump in his throat and chanced a glance back at them, hoping perhaps his chaparone's gaze might impede any further shenanigans.  It was Christmas or something, wasn't it.

"Can we please...?" Get this over with? "There's... food.  Downstairs.  Perhaps we can all wear our clothing as well.  Sort of a new family tradition we can start.  Everyone wears their shirts.  Look at that: I've got mine already.  Fauna, you're nearly there. Devlin...? Christmas spirit.  Shirt."

Instead of retreating again, like he wanted to, give them a second or two to gather themselves up, untangle from the rug, Knox stood where he was.  He didn't want to fall into another trap where he gave them any benefit of doubt and then have to come up here to get them again.

"Come on.  There's wine."

((warning, bad word ahead also, Elle gave me permission for the godmodding of Fauna leaving))

"Are you okay? Sorry, sorry,"

"Y...yeah I'm fine..." He gasped, wincing as she sat up. The fact she was straddling him would have been much more pleasurable if it wasn't for the pain from the fall. With the wind knocked out of him and his back burning with pain, the weight she was adding on his hips was anything but erotic. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, Knox swung open the door and stood their staring at the two of them. Instantly, Devlin's pain was gone. He stared back.

"Can we please...? There's... food.  Downstairs.  Perhaps we can all wear our clothing as well.  Sort of a new family tradition we can start.  Everyone wears their shirts.  Look at that: I've got mine already.  Fauna, you're nearly there. Devlin...? Christmas spirit.  Shirt."

Devlin's hazel eyes darkened as they observed his fathers barely controlled anger. It was bad enough that he had interrupted them just as it was getting good, but did he have to look like he was disgusted by the idea of the two of them even being together? It couldn't be that he had some aversion to the idea of sex, otherwise Devlin wouldn't be there and his mothers virtue wouldn't have been molested. And Dev knew that he adored Fauna, so the idea that Knox thought she wasn't good enough was ludicrous. Which meant, of course, that he considered Devlin less than worthy of Fauna's attentions. What kind of prat thought that about his own flesh and blood? Dev glowered at the man as he spoke, willing him to get an aneurysm at the idea that Dev and Fauna were, indeed, together and could have been very well together sexually as well if he hadn't ruined everything.

"Come on.  There's wine."

"We'll finish this later..." Devlin murmured in her ear before giving her a peck on the cheek and helping her to her feet.While Fauna hurried out, perhaps because of embarrassment or perhaps because of all of the tension building in the tiny room, Devlin took his time. Rolling to his feet, he kept his dark gaze trained on the older man with the defiant look of a kid who, in their mind, was doing what was asked of them because they wanted to, not because their parent said so. Every movement was defined by a defiant snap of his arms, from picking up a nearby shirt to pulling it on. Running a hand through his hair in a movement that seemed to have the intention of taming the mess and failing, Devlin pushed past his portly father. He stopped, however, and turned to look back at him, hissing "You know, I have another family tradition we can start right now... It's called 'stay the fuck out of my business'...How does that sound?"

Fauna stared at Greyfriar in horror as he jolted in the doorway at the sight of the hormonal, scantily clad teens. Oh, hell. This was not the impression she'd wanted to give her former headmaster and sorta father figure over the holidays. She'd even taken extra care in dressing 'respectably' for this occasion, which didn't mean anything if those nice, respectable clothes were scattered across the floor. Well, the sweater was, anyway.

Though he'd probably seen much worse in the time that he'd run Hogwarts, Fauna could only think of herself.  Grasping her sweater to her chest like a grandma clutching her pearls, she gingerly crept off of Devlin, throwing her sweater back on as Greyfriar gruffly mentioned Christmas spirit. At least he wasn't yelling! But Merlin, couldn't he step out of the room for a second? She was mortified here.

One glance at Devlin's face made it clear that Christmas spirit, or any kind of happy spirit, wouldn't be present for a long time in this household. The two men looked like they were competing in an Ebenezer Scrooge contest, with Devlin as the victor so far.

After Dev pecked her on the cheek she stood up, hastily smoothing out her clothing, then her hair, and resisting the urge to fan her face, which had turned ten shades of red.

She mumbled a faint "Sorry" as she scurried past Greyfriar, unable to look him in the eye. Fauna started to descend the stairs, self-consciously fussing with her clothes now that no one could see her, and she was just about to reach the bottom step when she heard... nothing. Nothing going on up there. Why was the stomping of angry feet not following her?

Fauna paused and cleared her throat to make sure her voice was still working. "Um..." But that was as far as she got before she crept up the stairs again, just a few steps, trying to hear them.

Just what was his responsibility here.  At Hogwarts he had the support of his four Heads of House and the more codified strictures of school rules to back him up on situations like this.  But how much space to give Devlin? Impossible to do it right, probably.  He was nearly grown, and would probably do whatever he wanted to do anyway, so just father him for the next year or so and let it be done.  On one hand.   On the other, the mixed up kid had got himself arrested and was facing charges of abetting in crimes orchestrated by Theodora Kingstreet!

Knox watched as his teenage son defiantly huffed and rolled his eyes into a shirt, and even though Knox let him have his tantrum, the bile was rising in him.  For a kid who so wanted to be an adult wizard, he oscilated into infancy too often.

Devlin shoved past him and hissed his demands.

Immediately, Greyfriar lashed out and snatched Devlin by elbow and jerked him closer.  "You got arrested! You've been expelled!" he growled right back in a low baritone.  His great bearded head was right in Devlin's face, his large dark brows knit in fury and pain and frustration

"Whatever the f-," he restrained himself with an angry scowl.  "Whatever you did, you've threatened everything good in your life."

For a moment, it looked like he was going to say something else, but he stopped, shook his head and released Devlin. 

"You got arrested! You've been expelled!"

Devlin was stopped short as Knox grasped his arm in a surprisingly strong grasp, his meaty fingers digging into the crook of Devlin's elbow. Fighting the urge to wince, Devlin instead stared back into Knox's stormy face with a hard and rebellious expression. He was about to mention how astute Greyfriars observation skills were when Knox cut him off.

"Whatever the f-Whatever you did, you've threatened everything good in your life."

There was a time, the span between Devlin's 1st and 3rd years at Hogwarts, that the anger, and more importantly the disappointment, on Greyfriars face would have made him feel terrible and even ashamed. But now it just filled him with disgust, twisting his already frowning face into a grimace of hate that could have turned Knox to stone if he looked long enough.

When he released his arm, Dev pulled away sharply, his eyes so dark they were nearly black. "Oooh, You're one to talk about ruining everything good in your life... I mean look at you. Your wife left you... You lost a great job because you couldn't deal with the idea that you screwed up...and now you are a werewolf that lives in this... this shit-pile with a bastard son whose innocent mother you lied to, knocked up and abandoned..."

Stepping back, Devlin shook his head and curled back his lip as he sneered "Who the hell do you think you are? Acting all self-righteous, like you have any right to judge me. You don't know shit about me or my life, so back the hell off." He started to turn and go down the stairs when he paused. Turning back, he added "Oh, and for your information, the only good thing left in my life is that girl down there..." he motioned towards where Fauna had paused "... And we were doing pretty damn good until you decided to finally man up and act like a father... Too bad it's too late."

---

^{note- I dunno what happened between Meredith and Knox, and I am sure Devlin doesn't either. I would presume he is just repeating what he heard through the gossip mill.}

He'd been expelled? That was news to Fauna. She slouched against the wall, stunned. The possibility had hung over her this week, but she'd held onto the hope that this would be taken care of quickly, that the Aurors would realize he hadn't known what he was doing, and then he'd go back to Hogwarts and everything would be normal again.

Fauna couldn't see their faces, but she could hear the anger between them, and she was tempted to sneak away to the kitchen and pretend to be oblivious. But she stood transfixed, listening. When Devlin lashed back at his father, the things he said... it was as if they were coming from a different person. Even his voice barely sounded like him. He wasn't just angry; he sounded like he hated Greyfriar.

Devlin insulted his father's wife, his job, even being a werewolf. And then he brought her into it by saying that the only good thing in his life was her. Fauna looked up the stairs at him as if this were the first time she saw him. Hearing that made her so sad. She wanted many good things for him, and she wanted Greyfriar and Devlin to help each other out. She didn't want to be the only good thing. What would happen to him if they ever grew apart? Fauna had always felt that she was lucky to date him, even though he seemed to need her more.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to replace the shocked, embarrassed look on her face with something more neutral. Fauna slowly went up the stairs and touched Devlin's hand, intending to separate the two men and lead Dev to the kitchen for a moment.

Before turning to go down the stairs she sent a sympathetic, worried glance at Greyfriar, at a loss for how to deal with this. She was chilled by the things Devlin had said towards a person she respected and cared about, who had taken him in and was trying to help him, as far as she could see.

"I'll just... so I, um... I'll just set the table?" Fauna offered lamely, hand still in Devlin's, about to head down stairs.

If Knox was angry, Devlin was murderous.  His wrath, his disgust - it was all written so indelibly on his face.  His clever tongue was biting, scathing, hateful, and Knox was shocked.  His face softened somewhat, a glimmer of obvious surprise as his teenage son attacked him for the three things in his life that hurt him most.  Meredith, Hogwarts and his bite.   

Knox immediately regretted losing his temper, grabbing Devlin.  If he thought for even a split second that intimidation was going to help either of them, he'd been very wrong.  The anger in this kid was harrowing, and Knox couldn't match it. It just wasn't in him.  What could he do? Yell back and aim to hurt just as badly? Of course not - that kind of acid just wasn't in his veins.  And not with sweet, quiet Fauna standing there now.  Was he just supposed to let this go? Troop downstairs, try and smile and get through their falafel and wine? Fake it?


With a deep frown and heavy sigh, Knox shook his and  Apparated from cramped upstairs landing back down into the living area.  CRACK! He didn't have the patience to try and shuffle past the teenagers on the stairs.

"Fauna, get your things.  I'm taking you home," he said with a tone he hadn't used since he was Headmaster.  It was calm, but absolutely uncompromising.  He strode around the room, wrapping some of the falafel in a faded cloth napkin, scooping up his heavy cloak from the the iron coat tree by the door.

((Alisha gave me the ok to skip ahead and godmod))


CRACK!

With a shake of his head, Greyfriar apparated to the living room below, leaving Devlin and Fauna upstairs. She blinked in surprise, glancing at Devlin in dismay when Greyfriar called up to tell her he was taking her home. For a moment she felt like a kid about to throw a temper tantrum. She didn't want to go home! Then disappointment and guilt rushed in - everything had been ruined. Again.

Before she could say or do anything, Devlin brushed past her, moving towards his room.

"Devlin. Dev!" She repeated in a whisper, wanting to at least say goodbye.

SLAM!

The door slammed shut. Fauna stood at the top of the stairs for another few seconds, then headed down, walking towards the kitchen where Greyfriar was wrapping up some falafel for her. Standing in the doorway, she glanced around at the fresh bread on the table, the soup simmering in the pot, and felt close to tears. 

When he moved, she moved too, putting on her coat and boots, and glancing at the small stack of wrapped presents before meeting Greyfriar at the door. Her bright scarf looked almost garish next to her pale face, and she tugged her hat over her ears, avoiding his eyes. She thought about apologizing, or about offering to talk to Devlin. She thought about asking if this kind of thing happened a lot, or if it was just around her. But instead, she swallowed the lump in her throat and prepared to face the cold.

"I'm ready," she said quietly, sending one last glance up at the stairs.

Knox opened the door for them both.  He felt terrible - Fauna looked brittle about to break.  Perhaps all parents were mystified at their teenagers' choices in friends and more-than-friends, but Fauna and Devlin hadn't made sense to him since word one.  On the other hand, Knox didn't know anything in Devlin other than defiant and irate.  Surely there was some fun and tenderness between them? But behaving the way he had tonight, in front of Fauna, showed immaturity and a dangerous temper Knox didn't want to think about in conjunction with Fauna.

He sighed and closed the door as he moved down the path.  He didn't know where Fauna lived, so an Apparition wasn't practical.  But he didn't feel right just ushering her into his fireplace and saying 'Well, toodle pip!' Not only that but he'd be stuck in the house with a sham Christmas supper and the explosive son. He was now thinking they'd catch the Knight Bus; give them both a chance to relax, time to decompress the tension.

Knox's cottage was located in a dense thicket in a very rural part of Kent.  The nearest road was accessible by a winding, overgrown path, and then once reached - it was just a half-mile or so of tire ruts.

"I should apologize," he said in the cold, darkness of the evening.  "I didn't want for this to happen.  Family dirty laundrey's... embarrassing..."

Fauna didn't mind taking the long way home. Even if it was cold and awkward, she felt grateful for the company, and relieved that she wouldn't have to floo straight home to her mother, who would pepper her with questions. Well-meaning questions, but still. There was so much her mum didn't know. She didn't know about the huge fight she'd had with Sophie, Chance, and Devlin, or that Kitty had told her exactly how Devlin had broken into St. Mungos. And she couldn't know that the fighting between Greyfriar and Devlin had been bad enough to cause Greyfriar to call off the whole supper. Catherine had already been nagging her to break up with Devlin simply because of his arrest, so if she knew the whole story, Fauna was worried she'd make her break up with him, or make her choose, which she just couldn't think about at the moment.

When Greyfriar said he should apologize, she looked at him, trying to read his face in the dark. A part of her felt justified. Yes! Exactly! Why'd he have to interrupt them earlier, anyway? What exactly had happened up there that had caused Devlin to react like that? And now, now he was giving up and taking away the very little time she had before school to be with her criminal boyfriend.

The nerve!

Then moonlight filtered down on them through a patch in the trees, highlighting his face creased in worry and his drooping mouth. For a second he looked older than she remembered. In those seconds she remembered the things Devlin had said. Greyfriar was not this... symbol that couldn't be affected, or this mysterious adult who had no concerns or cares. Whatever else she was feeling, she couldn't be angry at the man for escorting her out.

"It's not your fault. It's... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have... well, you know." Actually, she didn't know. She shouldn't have what? Not gone up the stairs to fetch Devlin, and then not made out with him? Fauna couldn't quite make the connection there, but she knew it had to be something, that she could have done something different, because the idea that this blow-up would happen with no rhyme or reason scared her a little.

"I keep messing up," she mumbled, head bent, shoulders hunched, hands fisted in her coat pockets. Greyfriar had gone to so much trouble to put together a nice dinner for them, and their happy holiday visit had turned into disaster.

"You did great," he responded quickly, with a concerned smile.  As her professor, he'd worked hard to build up her self esteem.  She'd always been so shy, she often needed boosts along the way to keep her confidence going.  But this past year, she'd thrived.  She was taking on the whole wizarding world by Merlin's beard, working tirelessly with SAWS, advocating for Ollie, and being charitably loyal to Devlin.

She wasn't messing up.  She just wasn't a superhero.

"What do you see in Devlin, Fauna?" he asked, trying to ask it kindly because that's how he meant it.  Whenever he thought about Devlin he had to fight to keep down the anger and worry and frustration.  He just couldn't do a damn thing right with that kid, and Devlin probably felt the same way.  It was easy to see how someone would want to spend time with Fauna, but not so easy for Knox to relate to Devlin.  He'd realized lately he didn't know the kid at all.  The last time they'd had a positive interaction it was...

Well, it was before Lucretia died, when Devlin was younger.

"Don't take that the wrong way," he added quickly.  "But I'd like to know."

Fauna bit her lower lip and looked worried, trying to figure out why he was asking. His tone wasn't accusatory, or upset, or that very serious tone that her mum used when she was being Very Serious. But what could she tell him? How could she explain it?

"Well... I guess it's because he's friendly and charming. And smart, even though he doesn't apply himself. He has a good sense of humor."

These were much the same things she'd told Tamis back when she'd first started dating him, hoping her description would make a favorable impression on her. But those were surface things. Yes, he was friendly and funny sometimes, and that was a genuine part of him, but as she got to know him there was a lot more there. Both good and bad.

"He's popular, or he used to be." If she was honest with herself that had been a factor.

"And... he encourages me. Like with things I want to do. I don't think he's all that into SAWS, but he shows up anyway without me having to ask. He compliments me, and they're not, you know, empty compliments... but I think he really means them. It's like he sees something good in me. Or mostly good things."

That, and despite the insults that girls like Maeve and Kitty had flung at her in regards to her outfits or her 'lack of experience', he'd never once seemed bothered by her hats or her kissing style. That wasn't something she could easily say to an older man, however.

"I can relate to him," she told him instead, which was true. "I understand where he's coming from if he talks about his mum, or his family. I get what it's like to lose someone, and to have a difficult father situation. Er... not that, I mean..." Fauna glanced at Greyfriar anxiously. "Not you. From what I've heard his Da is kind of an arse and mine, well, is just not there. So I get it."

They'd come to the main 'road', just as Fauna was finishing her explanation.  It was easy to walk and talk in the evening darkness because they could just keep their eyes down on the uneven path before them.   He raised his lit wand in the air, like he was hailing a taxi, and held it there.

Everything Fauna said had seemed alien to him, but as she spoke, he began to get a clearer picture.  He was popular, wasn't he? When he contributed in class, it had always been astute, his essay work sound.  He smiled, he dressed well, he was cheeky and funny, and clever.  Never with him, but with his friends.  And only by talking with Fauna would he have remembered a lone game of Wizards' Poker they'd played last spring.  It had been pleasent and he'd played well for a youngster.  It hadn't ended well, but it had mostly been fun.  For both of them, he hoped he was remembering correctly.

"Fair enough," he said.  But his next word were drowned out by the rumbling of the giant bus careening towards them.  It was a giant purple, double-decker and it shook and bounced violently down the rocky, pot-holed wheel rut road until it cam to a grinding halt in front of them.  The doors snapped open and the stubbly-faced driver smiled at them. 

"Both of ye?"

Knox shook his head, but leaned in to hand the driver a handful of sickles to pay Fauna's way.  "Just her."

And to Fauna with a smile that had a tension to it he knew she'd understand.  "Thank you, Fauna.  You can come round again any time.  Happy Christmas."