A few firsts on At Home

Jeremy Mordue

March 07, 2021 6:49 AM

A few firsts by Jeremy Mordue

Breakfast was as formal a meal as any other in the Mordue household. You stood behind your seat, waited for the adults to give you permission to sit, and then ate together in well-mannered silence or with pleasant small talk. Disruptive topics and disruptive behaviour were not conducive to good digestion. Even during the holidays, it was required that all members of the household be up promptly in order to eat together. And anyway, today marked the point where the holidays were over.

That also meant there was the tiniest bit more leeway in that, as it was a special day, Jeremy was allowed to make special requests at breakfast. Whilst there was normally a large selection of toast, cereals, and fruits on the table, and the children could tell the house elf to cook their eggs however they liked or get them hot fresh bacon, there were only certain days where more indulgent treats were allowed.

“Would you like anything special?” Avery asked, as they took their seats.

"Can we have pancakes please?" he asked.

It was the tiniest syllable of difference. And, given how often the royal version got thrown about, perhaps unnoticeable. Avery, in fact, did miss it, or take it for the latter.

“An order of pancakes for Jeremy then,” she added to the house elf.

“And Nathaniel,” he corrected her. “Please.”

“Nathaniel isn’t going off to school this morning,” Avery pointed out, looking at Jeremy a little quizzically.

“I know,” he stated, staring evenly back and pretending he hadn’t just had trouble swallowing right before saying that. “So, I won’t have breakfast with him for months. So, I’d like him to get the same. Please.”

Avery regarded him for a moment longer. Objectively, she couldn’t say there was anything wrong with his request. A little pushy, perhaps. A little like he was taking liberties. However, when it came to Jeremy, ‘a little’ was often rather a good day, and it didn’t feel like that was what was bothering her about it. It just somehow didn’t seem like him, in spite of the fact that being awkward was him to a tee.

“Very well,” she said, deciding she had more important things to worry about than the slightly odd whim of her nephew, especially when it didn’t seem to be particularly bothersome. “If he wants them?” she checked with Nathaniel

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Nathaniel Mordue

March 07, 2021 5:06 PM

Hopefully to be repeated. by Nathaniel Mordue

If he had made decisions based solely on his personal inclinations, Nathaniel would have moved out of his uncle’s house immediately after his departure from Sonora. He was sick of the rigid formality which passed for family life, sick of smiling at people he despised, tired of…all of it. Even of the room he had occupied during the holidays for the past three years. Even after all this time, it still felt like a guest room, something one hoped would empty out as soon as possible, before the occupant damaged something. Everything that was really his was either inaccessible at present or else would fit inside his school trunk.

Practically, of course, it had been quite impossible to do so. For one thing, there was Jeremy. He needed to prove that he wasn’t leaving in the way Jeremy had feared he would, which made it seem like a bad idea to seem like he was in a hurry to get out of the house where Jeremy lived. For another, there was Sylvia, who would doubtless be upset and hurt at the same show of being in a hurry. And finally, there was the issue of how, exactly, one even went about striking out on one’s own – how to obtain a place to live, where to look for one, how and where to find someone or something to cook and clean for him….

And so, he had stayed.

It hadn’t, to his surprise, been that bad. There had been the usual tedious rounds of parties and garden parties and tea parties and card parties and such, but the weather had been beautiful and he had felt easier in the company of other people than he had in a long time. There had been Jeremy’s summer Quidditch games to applaud and photograph (and, on one occasion, smile a little to himself upon noticing a figure off by itself in the back, its face quite obscured by a vast sunhat swathed in a great amount of veils…), and that one game which he had given Jeremy tickets to for at Christmas. He had expected it to be dreadfully awkward, at least for him, but in the end he’d actually…had fun.

Now, though, the summer was over. Nathaniel was still musing over how to go about exchanging goodbyes after breakfast without it being too much but while still conveying the correct sentiment, when Jeremy’s request to their aunt made him look up suddenly.

Was…was Jeremy actually…making a gesture?

“I’d enjoy that very much,” he said, when asked if he in fact wanted the gift being offered. “Thank you, Jeremy.”

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