Gid

“Good point,” Fabian snorted out a laugh at Gid’s comment. Fucking Black, honestly. It didn’t come as too much of a surprise, really, that MJ would have shitty taste in blokes, if only because she was so anti-dating that it ruled out a lot of the decent ones. But Black still seemed like a questionable choice, even for her, and it couldn’t even be chalked up to her knowing him better because Gid had shared a bloody dorm with the bloke and still agreed MJ ought to be embarrassed about who she was shagging. Or secretly dating, more like, though Fabian laughed again and nodded his agreement at Gid’s statement. He knew MJ better than anyone, and that sounded about right. “Bloody hell, you’re probably right. They’re just shagging and writing each other bloody owls but Merlin forbid they stick a label on it. Idiots.” Despite the words and the snort of laughter that accompanied them, Fabian’s voice still held some affection for the girl he saw as a younger sister – or brother, for the most part. She was a piece of work, but Merlin did she keep things from getting dull. 

Gid knew why MJ had been anti-dating. Even understood it to a point. They’d just gotten out of school expecting for fun adventures with their older brothers only to have Mike more interested in Nicholson and Fabian enjoying finally getting to be around Ann instead of her at school. It hadn’t been what they’d expected. And then he’d gone and started dating too. So he knew it was more than just not wanting to stick a label on something. Also knew his best mate well enough to know that she was too bloody stubborn to admit she was wrong and sticking a label on something would be admitting she was wrong. He didn’t say any of that to Fabian though, just laughed and agreed with him. “Probably doesn’t want Black to get his arse kicked by the twins again either.” Another complication. “Matt was completely ready to kick Fenwick’s arse so I can only imagine how bad Black’s gonna get it when they find out. Almost feel sorry for the bloke,” Gid was actually relieved to have the truth out to someone, even if he was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that the truth was more than what he’d thought. Dating. What a git.

“Notice or no notice, I’m disapparating the second that shit hits the fan.” Merlin knew that was gonna be a bloody nightmare. Which meant Fabian probably wouldn’t be able to disapparate if Max was going to have any hope of keeping the oldest and youngest from killing each other, but it was nice to dream. Fabian’s confusion at the whole situation only increased when Gid didn’t deny that MJ and Black were secretly dating. In fact, he seemed convinced of the idea too, and Fabian’s only comfort came in the fact that Gid looked just as disgusted as he felt by the whole thing. Fabian pulled a face and the talk of MJ shagging Black – of MJ shagging anybody, really – but before he could say anything to that Gid was laughing again. And it was impossible not to join in, Fabian’s face cracking into a wide grin. “Fucking hell!” He shook his head. “I can get why she’d hide a bloke from the twins but not from you. You think she’s embarrassed?” He wouldn’t blame her, Black was a bloody terrible choice if you asked him. Fabian didn’t have any real problems with the younger bloke, he was a good member of the Order and he couldn’t help that he had a shit family, but those things didn’t change the fact he could be a right git. “Or she just doesn’t wanna admit she was a bloody idiot with all that ‘no-dating stuff.’ That’s a bloody quick turnaround, even for her. Especially for her,” he added after a moments’ thought, given how stubborn MJ could be.

Gid nodded even though he knew he wouldn’t leave MJ to the wrath of her brothers alone any more than Fabian would leave Max to try and keep his siblings from killing each other. The nightmare was just as much theirs as it was the McKinnons. “Well it’s fucking Black of course she is,” he replied easily to Fabian’s question. Even if the fact that she was hiding it did kind of sting a little. But he hadn’t been around much, a fact he and MJ had established the day she blew him off to go shag on a beach somewhere with Black. Black wasn’t the worst she could do but she was scraping the bottom of the barrel in some ways. A thought that had nothing to do with his family and everything to do with having to share a room with the git for seven years. Gid had to admit that Fabian’s words were true, it was a turnaround. Except he knew his best mate. “She probably has decided there’s a loophole. That it doesn’t count as dating because she’s not bringing him around for quidditch or some shit.” Which to him was basically she didn’t want to admit she was a bloody idiot. Not because of Black but because she’d decided dating sucked because it meant things changing and she didn’t want things to change. Because he certainly didn’t think anything between her and Black could be so fucking amazing that she’d make that big of a turn around.

For as distressed as Gid had looked, there was a small part of Fabian that might have felt guilty for laughing so easily, for being so quick to make light of the situation. But he wasn’t making light of it, not really. Some things were just so ridiculous, so fucking weird, that the best thing to do was laugh about them. So he was glad to see Gid join in with him, at least until the mention of the McKinnon twins. Fabian’s own laughter died down there, and he held up his hands as if in surrender. “Oi! No worries there, mate, I don’t wanna be within fifty feet of any of them when they find out.” And they would find out, of that Fabian was certain. Sooner rather than later, too, if MJ was leaving their bloody love notes lying around. Though his brows pulled together in confusion when Gid said he didn’t know about the letter. “You saying MJ’s got a bloody secret boyfriend? And it’s Black?” Fabian pulled a face; there were so many things wrong with that he didn’t even know where to start. So he went for the obvious. “That’s fucked up!”

Right of course he wouldn’t. Nobody in their right bloody mind would. “Good. Let’s hope we all get enough notice to clear out when they do.” Gid pulled a face because that was gonna be bad. Fabian’s words had Gid looking back at him with confusion of his own. What?

Bloody hell. There was something going on between MJ and Black, and Fabian wasn’t sure if he should be disgusted, amused, or a little annoyed at what a bloody hypocrite she was being about all of them having girlfriends when she’d picked the biggest git possible. Though the git thing didn’t quite line up with him owling to check up on her, but that line of thinking was just too bloody weird. Whatever the hell was going on, Gid clearly knew, and Fabian just looked at his little brother wordlessly, almost feeling sorry for him as he dug himself deeper and deeper into a hole before he finally spilled the truth. Kind of. Only Fabian couldn’t entirely make sense of what Gid was telling him between Fenwick and Black and Matt and seers. Maybe it was because the last two days had been so bloody bleak and miserable. Maybe it was because of how bloody hard poor Gid had tried not to spill, and how quickly that had all derailed. Maybe it was because it sounded exactly like something that would involve MJ, even if Fabian couldn’t follow half of it. Maybe it was because Fabian couldn’t follow half of it. Whatever the reason, he found himself laughing harder than he had since yesterday – a long time, for someone who laughed as often as Fabian. “Bloody hell!” He exclaimed through his laughter. “MJ’s shagging Black and they’re sending bloody owls to each other?!” It was so ridiculous, so out of left field, so bloody weird that Fabian couldn’t stop laughing. “Merlin, wait ‘till the twins hear about this one!”

There were a lot of ways to react to MJ shagging bloody Black, especially since it wasn’t just a one time thing and she was so fucking vocal about how terrible they were for having girlfriends. Or the whole thing of hers about being left behind when Matt and Max clearly didn’t have girlfriends and she was sneaking around with bloody Sirius fucking Black. And given how awful the past few days had been he expected the reaction to be bad. Something else to focus on instead of the pain they couldn’t do anything about. Except Fabian was laughing….what? It was so crazy that Gid found himself laughing. Still laughing Gid shrugged at his words because apparently they were owling. Fucking not dating his arse. Though his own laughter died at Fabian’s last words. “Whoa, mate! You can’t tell! Not only will MJ hex the hell out of me Matt will kill me.” Something he was really certain of after Matt had asked him about MJ having a boyfriend. “I didn’t tell him about Black when he was questioning me about Fenwick. And honestly I didn’t know they were doing that!” He said motioning to the letter that was now ash because that was not shagging or setting up a shag. “Just promise you won’t tell. Obviously MJ is gonna get herself caught, isn’t that funnier?” And maybe they’d be so pissed at MJ they wouldn’t notice anyone else knew. He knew he was getting pretty pissed at her.

Why the fuck was there a letter from Black in their garbage? Addressed to McKinnon, but there was only one McKinnon it possible could have been. Only even that didn’t make sense, because what the hell was Black doing owling MJ to see if she was okay? Were they…? No way. Fabian brushed the thought aside as soon as it arose, waiting as Gid read the letter for his younger brother to shed some light on whatever was going on. Whatever it was, Gid surely knew. And maybe Fabian wouldn’t have cared very much under different circumstances, but this was bloody weird and his mind was also happy to latch onto any sort of distraction from recent events he could find. And he cared even more when Gid was so quick to toss the letter right into the fire and offer up an excuse. Wait what? “Wait, what?” Fabian narrowed his eyes at his brother. It was all well and good if he and MJ were keeping secrets, but it wasn’t like Fabian would let anything slip to Matt or Mike. “The hell was that about, mate?” He asked, looking over to where the letter was quickly turning to ash. “MJ’s not…is she?”

“What?” Gid asked trying to look innocent and like he had no idea what Fabian was questioning. Throwing that letter in the fire, something MJ should have done, was normal. Or something. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. “What?!? No way!” He looked over at Fabian trying to look shocked, amused, and dismissive all at once and failing miserably. All he managed was to be way too over the top. Fuck why did MJ make him cover for her? “Matt thinks she’s shagging Fenwick. And now you with Black. You blokes are too much.” Gid laughed except it came out sounding wrong, nervous. Yeah this wasn’t going to work. Matt and Mike were much easier to lie to. “Fine! They’re shagging but you can’t tell anyone! Matt was ready to kill Fenwick of all people just because some seer he met in a bar said MJ was shagging a bloke whose initial was B.” Not that Gid blamed the seer, MJ was a dumbass for doing that. When you have actual things to hide you don’t antagonize a bloody seer, even if that whole thing was a joke. Because there’s always bound to be the one that isn’t and of course Matt had to have found that one.

It felt as if there was a storm cloud hanging over the house ever since they got home yesterday. Ever since the patrons message from MJ, really. The attack on headquarters. The inferi. Losing a member of the Order. Penny getting hurt. And finding out Mike and Penny were having a baby, only to find out the baby had been lost. They were all used to a lot, but this was heavier than anything they’d ever faced before. This cut deeper, hurt more, and it was going to take longer to heal from. But they would heal, that Fabian was sure of. Because they had each other, and where one or two of them might falter there would always be more of them to help the others back up, to keep each other on track. 

This was not how Gid imagined his first year out of school. Near deaths, kidnappings, and now inferi. It felt like too much. Except there was more. Because Mike and Penny had lost their baby. A baby he hadn't even known about till he found out it was gone. Gid had felt a little selfish the night before telling Melia about the baby. She had just had the inferi and the death of one of their own to worry about. Both huge. But at the same time it had been nice to share it, his surprise and grief, with someone not feeling it too. Because they were all feeling it. Maybe not the surprise part but the grief. A weird feeling when they hadn’t even known about the baby. But seeing Mike at the hospital had shaken them all.

There was a small part of her that was worried Gid was going to get annoyed at her for leaving at all when he was here, and she was glad when he didn’t. In fact, he actually seemed happy to agree to hang out with her when she got back, and she smiled widely in spite of his teasing. It felt normal, finally, and it was harder to think Gid had been intentionally ignoring her – or that he didn’t care – when he was here, and they were talking and joking like normal. When she was telling him the things she couldn’t tell her brothers, because he was her best friend and he would always be on her side. “Deal,” she agreed when he said he’d hold her to it, though her grin was replaced with confusion when he walked over to her and looked at her with a surprisingly serious expression. Fortunately an explanation came quickly. “Shut up!” She reached out to shove him, but she couldn’t help letting out a snort of laughter in spite of herself. And maybe it was because she felt like it had been much too long since she’d really talked to Gid, maybe it was because she’d missed him, maybe it was because she couldn’t forget the fact that she’d almost died. Whatever the reason, a second after she pushed him away she reached out and pulled him back to her, wrapping her arms tightly around him. “I love you, Gid,” she whispered. “Even though you’re a git.”

Gid laughed even harder at her reaction. This felt good. Felt normal. He’d missed this. Joking around with his best friend. And later they’d throw some stuff on the fire. Good times. Things he needed to make more time for really. It was a surprise when MJ pulled him back in for a hug. Though honestly with everything that had been happening, all the near deaths, it wasn’t. Or maybe it just wasn’t unwelcome. Either way Gid wrapped his arms around her, hugging her just as tight. “I love you too. Even if you do have Black cooties,” he whispered back. Yep definitely needed to start finding time to hang around the best friend. “Now go, get laid. Bring back some food cause this will probably be gone.”

“I dunno, ‘cause he’s a bloody good shag and I don’t have to worry about him trying to date me,” she answered Gid with another shrug, even if that probably wasn’t something he wanted to hear. If she was being honest with herself, that was half the reason she said it in the first place. “Oi!” MJ’s brows pulled together at Gid’s objection, half amused and half offended that he’d thought that was why he was asking. “I’m not gonna shag him here, that’s boring.” Okay, that was probably more than Gid needed to know, so she continued on quickly, “I just wanted to make sure you’d still be here when I get back.” And now that it seemed he would, she figured it wouldn’t hurt to fool around with Black for a bit. It wasn’t like she’d made the plans after she knew Gid would be here, and it wasn’t her fault he’d ended up back home. MJ couldn’t be expected to just sit around in case his plans fell through, and with that in mind she wrote out a reply to Black on the same piece of parchment and sent it off with the owl. Then she looked back at Gid. “Maybe we can set some things on fire.”

Gid did not want to know the first part though the second half of that sentence made sense. Black had never seemed the type to be that interested in birds in general, certainly not to date them. Right up MJ’s alley. Though he didn’t want to think about that too much actually. Just like he didn’t want to think about what she’d said. Easier just to put that down to her trying to get at him. She had shagged him before, assuming that’s what they were doing that night. He couldn’t help smile at her next words though. Sure she was ditching him to go shag Black of all people but at least it didn’t seem like she was gonna be gone long and she did wanna hang out with him. “Yeah, I’ll be here. Disinfecting my brain.” He teased back. “I’m gonna hold you to that.” Gid got up and walked over to MJ not able to resist one last thing. “MJ I need you to promise me one thing.” Putting his hands on either side of her face he stared deeply into her eyes with a serous look on his face. “Use protection because he probably has STDs we haven’t even heard of.” That said he laughed and let go of her face.

MJ had to hold back a laugh at the way Gid’s jaw dropped, and a small smart of her almost regretted not telling him sooner. This was bloody hilarious, and she couldn’t stop herself from chuckling slightly at the question that left his lips. “Nope,” she answered him with a casual shrug and a cheeky grin, her eyes sparkling with glee at just how shocked he was. If someone had told MJ this time last year that she would be casually hooking up with Black, she’d probably have been just as surprised. But he was exactly what she was looking for right now, really. “I tried to tell ya you didn’t want to know,” she reminded him in a slight singsong voice before turning back to the owl Black had sent her, considering her reply now that Gid was actually around to hang out. Felt wrong to leave Black hanging, though, after she’d owled him first. What if it put him off the next time she wanted to fool around? And it wasn’t as if she suddenly didn’t want to. She glanced back at Gid. “You gonna be around the rest of the day?”

“But why?” Gid didn’t actually want to know the answer to that he just couldn’t stop himself asking it because this was so bloody weird. They’d talked about what a git Black was on numerous occasions their seven years in school with the bloke. And now she was shagging him. Too bloody weird. “Not if you’re shagging him here I’m not!” There was no actual objections to the bloke. He was a stuck up git, full of himself, way too conceited, not to mention a huge fucking git. But there were worse blokes out there, probably. Unlike the twins he hadn’t wanted to murder Black for what happened to MJ. He hadn’t been happy about it. But it wasn’t like Black’s Slytherin kid brother was a new thing. They all knew about him. Just like they all knew the rumors about Black getting kicked out or running away, there were a few versions. Gid was just glad he didn’t have to deal with fucked up family dynamics or relatives joining the Death Eaters. He didn’t know how he’d deal with any of it. Not that he’d been upset at news that the twins had beat him up. Anyone could have seen that coming, especially given everything going on lately. Things just kept getting fucked up more and more. Right now though he wasn’t thinking of fucked up war things he was thinking of not having to hear his best mate shagging.

MJ let out a snort of laughter when Gid said he didn’t need to hear about her shags – that’s what she’d been telling him, after all – but then she made a face when he turned things around. “Oi! You’d bloody better not, or I’ll tell you all about the crazy sex I’m having.” She shot him a cheeky grin, not at all kidding about either the threat or the sex, though she would let Gid think what he wanted to. Though the grin faded when he didn’t let up on wanting to know who it was. “Oi!” She made a face, indignant. “He’s not ugly, he’s fucking hot. I was just warning you ‘cause you know him.” In fact, Gid had shared a room with Black for seven years. “But if you insist…” she gave him a shrug before she let it out, resigned to deal with however Gid might the news. “It’s Black.” As if on cue, the owl returned with a new reply from him, dropping it in front of MJ once more. She looked away from Gid so she could open it, the smirk returning to her lips as she glanced back up at her friend, waiting to hear his response before she got to owling Black back.

Gid just rolled his eyes at her comment not wanting to even know if she was joking or not. He was far more interested in finding out who it was than what they were getting up to. The more she said the more he wondered. Gid knew him. Well honestly that didn’t narrow it down much. It could be any bloke in their year, though who he wasn’t sure about. Till she was telling him and his jaw dropped just like the owl from fucking Black dropped into MJ’s lap. “Black?” It had to be a joke, right? “Are you fucking with me?” He stared over at her as if staring at her hard enough would allow him to read her mind and see that she was indeed fucking with him. Because Black? No way.

MJ frowned, bothered by the fact that Gid would even think she was hiding a boyfriend. So maybe she hadn’t kept him up to date on what she was doing, but that was only because those were the things she had to do now that he was too busy to hang out with her. “I wasn’t trying to keep it a secret from you.” She told him, sulking a bit. “I just didn’t want the blokes to find out. And I only ever owl him when you lot are all busy, it’s not like it’s something important.” And it wasn’t. “Didn’t think you’d want me to wake you in the middle of the night just to let you know about the great shag I had,” she added with a slight smirk, for that was another part of the reason she hadn’t told Gid what she was up to. She doubted he needed a play-by-play on her sex life. Even if it was bloody awesome, now. Her smirk faltered slightly when he asked who it was, and she hesitated a moment, looking at him closely. She was almost positive he wasn’t going to think very highly of who she was hooking up with. Black didn’t have the greatest reputation – he certainly wasn’t the kind of bloke one would want to bring home to the parents – but that was his appeal, right now. He would never want anything serious from her, and that was why MJ felt comfortable owling him whenever she was in the mood the fool around. “I’ll tell you,” she told Gid after a second, if only because she was tired of being mad at him, tired of him not knowing everything about her, even the things her brothers didn’t know. “But only if you’re really, really sure you want to know.” She doubted he was going to enjoy knowing who she was hooking up with.

Gid was about to start sulking again when she lumped him in with the blokes but she continued talking and it made sense. It even made him feel a little less guilty to know she wasn’t just hanging around alone. Apparently going off for a shag was what she’d been doing but Gid wasn’t about to judge her for that. Instead he made a face, though his amusement was clear in his voice as he replied, “No, I don’t bloody need that. Or I’ll start waking you up talking about me and Melia to you.” Two could play at that game. Not that he wouldn’t be happy for his mate to have a great shag but he didn’t need to be woken up with that. Or details for that matter. Except maybe a few like who. Especially now that it seemed as if she was reluctant to share that. Made him wonder who the hell she was shagging. “Is he ugly? Look even if he’s as ugly as Flich I’m not gonna judge ya. Laugh, yeah but not judge.” He tried to hide his curiosity behind his teasing. Because really her reluctance was making him more not less curious to what his mate was getting up to. Or more who his mate was getting up to.

Gid didn’t try and see what she was writing. Even as mad as he was he respected her privacy, even when she’d been a bloody git about it. And maybe she had a point. Though he still felt like he had one too. Whenever he was home she wasn’t, maybe some of that time was legitimate auror and Order things but still not all of it was. And he wasn’t always with Melia, though he was with her a lot. Maybe a little more then he meant to be. He was pulled from that back and forth brooding when she started speaking again. At first he was indignant at her words, like he would ever tell Matt or Mike anything. “Oi! I’ve never had to swear before,” he told her with a scowl. It wasn’t long after speaking though that he realized what that meant. She wasn’t going off having a good time with ‘we’re better than you cause we’re aurors in training’ gits. She was hiding someone. Or more like hiding what she was doing with them. “Wait a second. It’s the bloke from the other night innit? Are you dating?” MJ had better not have a boyfriend without telling him, that was bloody messed up. Though all his previous anger and hurt was now replaced with curiosity and a little confusion. 

MJ just rolled her eyes when Gid scowled at her. Here she was trying to make something of a peace offering and if he still wanted to be mad at her over nothing then fine. Except he didn’t stay mad, surprised confusion coloring his tone and expression when he spoke again, though his words caught her too much by surprise for her to be glad about the change. “Wha - ugh, no!” MJ pulled a face at the thought of dating. “Yeah, okay, it’s the bloke from the other night. But we’re not dating –” Again she pulled a face at the thought. That might be for Mike and the Prewetts and probably Matt and Max soon enough, but it wasn’t for MJ. “And that’s exactly why the blokes can’t find out,” she continued, giving Gid a pointed look. “They’ll just freak out and be gits about it, and it’s really not a big deal,” she watched Gid closely, hoping he wasn’t going to freak out on her, too. “We’re just fooling around. When there’s nothing else to do.” She shrugged. That was that, and hopefully Gid would just accept it. 

It was a relief to hear that she wasn’t secretly dating some bloke. Because that would have meant their friendship was in real trouble if he didn’t know something like that. Not to mention that MJ was so freaking adamant about how everyone else was throwing their lives away practically by having girlfriends. “Good. I mean, it’d just be weird if you had a secret boyfriend.” Gid wasn’t too happy about her sneaking around even with just a fling. Didn’t seem fair to him that she had to. But she was right about her brothers, they would flip. “So who is it?” He assumed it was one that MJ had fooled around with before but it wasn’t as if Gid had kept track. Not that it would have been hard to, he assumed that she had fooled around with about as many people as he had or less, probably not more. Most of their free time at school had been spent hanging out with each other so there wasn’t a huge window of time for MJ to be out racking up her numbers.

“Oi -” MJ began, indignant as he started accusing her of not wanting to hang out. Her! As if she was the one spending all her time with a stupid boyfriend and leaving him to his own devices more often than not. But she didn’t get to retort as Gid was not finished talking, and his question made her scowl deepen. Now she was mad, and while she didn’t have a problem with sharing with Gid, she sort of had a problem sharing with him right now when he was being a giant git. “Maybe you’d know who the hell I’ve been hanging out with if you hadn’t stopped doing it yourself. I’m not the one who’s never around anymore.” And if she was, that was just because she’d found something (or someone) to do after Gid had left her on her own. Angrily she unfolded the parchment and tore of the bottom half, grabbing the pen she’d stuck in her back pocket and scrawling out a reply to Black on it before attaching it to the owl’s leg and glancing over at her friend once more. She didn’t like being mad at Gid, and she didn’t like keeping things from him even if she was certain he didn’t want to know the contents of the owl she’d just sent, and after a second she spoke up begrudgingly. “…..I’ll tell you who I’m owling. But you’ve got to swear you won’t tell any of the blokes. Especially Mike or Matt.”

Gid didn’t try and see what she was writing. Even as mad as he was he respected her privacy, even when she’d been a bloody git about it. And maybe she had a point. Though he still felt like he had one too. Whenever he was home she wasn’t, maybe some of that time was legitimate auror and Order things but still not all of it was. And he wasn’t always with Melia, though he was with her a lot. Maybe a little more then he meant to be. He was pulled from that back and forth brooding when she started speaking again. At first he was indignant at her words, like he would ever tell Matt or Mike anything. “Oi! I’ve never had to swear before,” he told her with a scowl. It wasn’t long after speaking though that he realized what that meant. She wasn’t going off having a good time with ‘we’re better than you cause we’re aurors in training’ gits. She was hiding someone. Or more like hiding what she was doing with them. “Wait a second. It’s the bloke from the other night innit? Are you dating?” MJ had better not have a boyfriend without telling him, that was bloody messed up. Though all his previous anger and hurt was now replaced with curiosity and a little confusion.