Jay Carey
July 20, 2014 9:20 PM
Family problems by Jay Carey
Once he finished reading the letter his cousin had sent him, Jay read it over again, then just looked at it for a long moment. Then he stood up, crumpled the letter, and threw it toward the common room fireplace, even though he knew there was no fire to burn it at this time of year in the warm weather. After another moment, he went over and rectified the situation with his wand, setting the parchment on fire and watching as it burned, a few colored sparks bouncing off because of the security charms Arthur had put on it. Arthur liked that sort of thing – being overly clever and secretive, as though they were carrying on affairs of great importance.Jay pinched the bridge of his nose and wondered what it was he’d ever done to deserve to be surrounded by the people he was.
Your sister is quite right when she says I am very fond of her, Arthur had written, but I am not going to commit serious crimes for the sake of her love life. If it were something truly serious, I might feel otherwise, but unless you are willing to seduce Miss Renaldi, I really do not see that there is much it would be appropriate for us to do. Should you be so willing, I would provide such support as I could within the family, though I do think it is not really worth the trouble…
On one level, Jay wondered what in the world he’d ever done to make Arthur even think he would consider that. On another, he wondered what it said about him that the thing which bothered him most was not that Theresa’s response to a bad breakup was apparently to ask Arthur to do...something illegal to somebody, or even that Arthur would at least say - he was never sure how seriously to take Arthur’s pretentions of grandeur – that he might ‘feel otherwise’ about such an action being appropriate under some circumstances, but that Theresa and Arthur had both been stupid enough to mention it in the mail, Theresa no doubt without even the precautions Arthur had taken against someone else reading it. Honestly, how stupid could they be? Was he the only one who listened to hurried, whispered discussions he wasn’t supposed to hear? The first rules of doing anything crooked were to look innocent and put nothing direct in writing. His dad’s occasional arrests hadn’t stuck because of Uncle Anthony and sometimes, in a real pinch, Grandfather Macomber, but Dad got arrested a lot less than Jay had gathered he deserved because he adhered to those principles. They were good principles, and Theresa, at least, should have known better. Arthur could afford to walk around with his head in the clouds, but Theresa had grown up in the same house he had.
Merlin preserve me from ever falling in love, he thought sourly. Theresa doing so had done nothing but cause problems, for her and for her family. Now they were stuck with her reputation being something less than that of a flower carved from ice, even if he didn't think it was as bad as it would be if more people knew the whole story, and he couldn't even really break Princeton's kneecaps on the Quidditch Pitch and let him use the time it took him to drag himself back to the main building to reflect on wise life choices since the life choices hadn't even been made by Princeton himself. It just...was what it was, and what it was wasn't good.
He noticed someone watching his odd activities and smiled. “Cousins,” he said cheerily. “Can’t live with them, can’t curse them, I suppose.” He went back toward the chair he'd been in when the letter arrived, trying to decide if he wanted to keep working on his Charms homework or try out going to bed before five o'clock.
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Jay Carey
Family problems
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Jay Carey
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