Max

Owl: Ellie -> True

For some reason I deep cleaned my living room, spring cleaning without the spring I guess lmao hope you had a good one! <3

December had an awful habit of sneaking up on you when you least expected it, and this year was no different. Once again Matt found himself surprised when he woke up and realized December had come around again. A lot had happened this year – not all of it good – but rather than spending the morning dwelling on that he spent it pulling out all their boxes of Christmas decorations and depositing them in the middle of the living room as he did every year before heading off to work. Hopefully by the time he got home one of the younger kids would have tripped over the boxes and gotten to work untangling those blasted lights. In fact, Matt had half a mind to take Nova out for a drink after work, especially since the rest of his night would be occupied with the family – Mike included, as Matt had been sure to make sure his twin would stop by that evening to help them out. The rest of the kids would see the boxes and know they were expected home tonight. But Nova had told him he should make sure to be home right after work, and Matt had learned quickly that she was nearly always right about these things. So he’d owled her back to make plans for tomorrow and apparated home as soon as his last meeting was finished. And it was a good thing he did, because the house was already on fire. Matt had expected fire, just not this early in the decorating process. He should have known better. “Oi!” Matt paused a moment in the doorway to take in the scene. Max and MJ, rolling around on the floor hopelessly tangled up in Christmas lights, one of them covered in foam that clearly had not hit its target because on the other side of the room was a box that barely even looked like a box anymore, its flames starting to spread to the floors. Quickly Matt pointed his wand at the fire and put it out, laughing at MJ’s cry of ‘Thank Merlin!’ as he turned to his siblings once the fire had died. “What the hell did you two do?”

Now that he’d started smelling the plastic coated candy canes burning Max was starting to take the fire a little more seriously. He couldn’t see it but he figured if the candy canes were burning that couldn’t be good news. Not much he could do without his wand and he was currently trying to wriggle his way over to it without much luck when he heard Matt. Max looked up at him casually as though this wasn’t an unusual sight. “Just untangling the lights, mate,” he answered with a cheeky grin. “Found another spell that doesn’t work on lights.” Eventually they’d find one that would work. Surely. “We’d offer you a candy cane but I think they’re all toast.” Max couldn’t hold in his laughter. Once he’d managed to get it under control he spoke up again. “Wanna lend us a hand, mate?” A dozen more cheeky things came to mind but he’d had enough of being tied up in Christmas lights on the floor.

Being tangled up in Christmas lights was definitely a new one, but the imminent threat of their house catching on fire was hardly unfamiliar. As such MJ was only mildly worried that both she and Max were having trouble getting hold of their wands. She pulled a face at him when he laughed at her, even though she’d have laughed at him if he was the one on the ground, but before she could say anything more he started hopping across the floor and it was MJ’s turn to laugh even as she kept struggling to free her arm. “You got it, Max!” She encouraged through her chuckling, not paying attention to the fact their light strings were connected until she felt a tug and then Max was facedown on the floor. She let out a loud laugh despite the fact the box was still very much on fire and this was a setback to putting it out. “You think?” She retorted, still snickering, but a moment later she let out a triumphant cry as her hand came free of the lights. “Ha! Hang on.” She wriggled closer to her wand, just barely managing to grasp it. The only problem was she couldn’t wave it very much, so she was just going to have to hope for the best here. “Here goes nothing!” She proclaimed before she pointed it at the box and uttered the spell that should put the fire out, hoping her wand would cut her a break and do what she wanted even without the proper movement.

Max ignored her laughter, had he been where she could see him he’d have pulled a face but at the moment he’d been face down. Once he’d gotten himself turned around the moment had passed. Even if she was still snickering. He couldn’t blame her, he was sure he looked like a sight. Somehow he’d managed to tangle himself up even more. Most people would probably be panicking about now but this was by far not the worst experience with fire they’d had. They still had plenty of time to figure something out before the house burned down. Max cheered for her when she got her wand. “Good job! Now put it out and untangle us.” A demand that was apparently not going to be met. He laughed as foam exploded all over MJ. “If we plugged you in you’d look like that snowman mid-melt,” he informed her. Though his eyes went wide when he realized the foam was still building. “At least when the house burns down we’ll be okay.” His quip probably wouldn’t be funny to most but Max hadn’t given up hope they’d stop the fire. Even though the foam that was now spilling out over him was making things more difficult. But if it continued to build it’d eventually reach the fire. “Maybe you should try untangling us first and then we can get to the fire?” Max was useless, he’d lost his wand somewhere to his left in the fall. But MJ had hers so they still had hope. “Wait what’s that smell?” He tried turning to look at the fire as he smelled the all too familiar smell of plastic burning mixed with another familiar smell. “Is that the candy canes?”

“’Cause I’m not an idiot,” she retorted easily with another laugh, sticking out her tongue at her brother. It was a stupid comeback, but sometimes the stupidest were the most fun. The same could be said about decisions, which was why she hadn’t stopped to think about what would happen when she pointed her wand at the box of lights. As a result, she wasn’t at all prepared for the strings of lights zooming right at them, knocking her to the ground as her feet – and everything else – became tangled up in the bundle. She let out a yelp of surprise as she hit the floor, already laughing at the sight of her brother just as tangled as she was even though he’d managed to keep his footing. Before she could agree that that had gone well – and part of her believed it, because at least it was entertaining – she saw the shift in his gaze. What? Her eyes followed his to the other side of the room, her eyes widening when she realized the box had landed in the fireplace. Whoops. In spite of herself MJ couldn’t help letting out a surprised laugh. “Oh, shit!” She repeated her brother’s sentiment, reaching for her wand at the same time he did and finding herself with the same problem. Double shit. “Uh…” She squirmed, trying to free herself from the tangle of lights she was in. “Not really,” she answered, sheepish, still struggling. This was just a minor setback. They’d figure this out, and the living already had a few scorch marks. “Hang on, let me….” she trailed off, wriggling her arm and shoulder and trying to free it while also kicking her legs, trying to untangle them from the lights. It was not going well. “Maybe if we can get closer to the box we can just shove it all the way in the fireplace before the fire spreads anywhere else?”

“Gonna have to agree to disagree on that one,” he teased back not worried she might take him seriously. In true McKinnon fashion they went from teasing one minute to being tangled up in lights the next. It was a new twist on Christmas decorating that was for sure. Despite the situation he couldn’t stop a laugh from leaving him at how his sister looked on the floor as she wriggled around. Right the fire! “Yeah. That sounds good. Let me just,” Max tried moving but that didn’t work. “Oh hang on!” Max tried hopping and let out a pleased whoop when he managed to hop. “Just a bunch more of those and I should be there,” nothing but confidence in his voice. He hadn’t taken into account the fact that the lights MJ was tangled up in might be connected to the lights he was. Two more successful hops were accomplished before there was no more give between them and his third found him once again face down on the floor. “Shit!” That was gonna leave a mark. Max tried to get himself back up right but only ended up tangling himself up more. At least he was face up instead of face down this time. “I think I made it worse,” he admitted. “Can you stand?”

“They don’t teach us latin,” MJ shot back, amused both at the fact he thought that and that neither of them had initially considered this flaw in their plan. Sometimes things like that came back to bite them, but MJ had always felt if you spent too much time thinking about things they lost something along the way. Hence why thinking about stupid blokes too long was stupid. Before she could suggest an alternative Max was spewing out his own weird take on latin, the words getting stranger and stranger until MJ was bursting out laughing at her brother. For a moment all she could do was shake her head at him while she laughed. “I don’t think any of those is latin, Max,” she finally managed to answer as her laughter died down. “I think we’ve gotta go with plan B.” That being said, she didn’t wait for an answer before pulling out her wand, pointing it at the box and stating, “Relashio!” 

In truth Max hadn’t thought they had because he hadn’t thought too deeply at all about this. It had just been a passing idea he spoke out loud that she’d taken off with. Sadly it snowballed into nothing. Max did not regret the gibberish that came out of his mouth. It would have been pretty cool if something had happened but he hadn’t expected it to and he laughed along with MJ. “But you don’t speak latin, how do you know,” he countered through his own laughter. Max wasn’t surprised when she went ahead with plan B without first telling him what plan B was. He was however surprised when the lights started coming at them, the box shooting in the opposite direction. Before either of them could do anything they became part of the tangle of lights. “Well that went well,” he said with a chuckle. The laughter died when he saw that the box the lights had been in was half in the fireplace. “Shit!” Max went to point his wand at the mess and found he couldn’t move his arm. “Fuck! I can’t move. Can you put out the fire?” Considering the circumstances he probably shouldn’t have sounded amused but this wouldn’t be the first burn marks on the living room floor.

“Oi! You’re one to talk!” MJ retorted with a laugh, chucking a bit of her own candy cane right back at him and not in the least bit offended. Maybe she and her family were all a little cocky, but that was just because they were all so awesome. Anyways, chucking candy canes at her brother definitely beat talking about blokes, even though she did appreciate that Max would do that for her. It was just nice to have that behind them. Nothing to focus on now except getting the house looking even more festive than they’d managed last year. If they could just get the bloody lights untangled. MJ grinned widely when Max agreed to her suggestion so quickly, even more excited by the fact it hadn’t gone well last year. There was no telling what might happen, and if you asked MJ the house could use a good dose of chaos right about now. She followed Max’s lead, dumping her own bundle of lights back in the box and moving around slightly, rolling her shoulders and considering his suggestions. “Hm. I like the last one,” she decided with a spark of mischief in her eyes. It could potentially do nothing, but it was also the most likely to do something ridiculous. Except – she frowned. “Do you know the latin word for untangle?”

Sure last year’s try had been unsuccessful but that was last year. If you let your failures stop you, you would never succeed. This year they very well could get lucky. He felt lucky already just being up off the floor. A good start. Max smiled when MJ chose the last suggestion. Pointing his wand at something and saying random words didn’t sound like that terrible of an idea. He was certain they’d had worse. Probably. Or would eventually. Besides there was only one way to find out if it worked. Except… Her question had his smile turning into a frown. “No, how am I supposed to know. You’re the auror, don’t they teach you shit like that?” Well this was disappointing. “What about untangleo or unotangle?” They sounded sort of latin-y. “Non-tangle, lostangle, tango, tangeo, lestangle?” Max stopped throwing butchered versions of the word untangle out. So much for inventing a new spell. Maybe rediscovering it probably. Either way it didn’t matter because they didn’t know latin aside from spells they already knew.

MJ was pretty certain the reason Max wasn’t looking at her when she said he was right was to stop himself from gloating, and as much as she wished he didn’t have reason to gloat she appreciated that he was stopping himself all the same. Just as she appreciated the next thing he said. He was right; Ann and Melia were great, but they were the last people she wanted to talk to about blokes with. Well – the last people after Molly. Now there was a scary thought. Gid she could have talked to as well, and she could hear in Max’s voice that he knew that. Awkward as it was to have to talk about this sort of thing with either of them, MJ felt lucky to know they both had her back. She looked over at her brother with an appreciative grin, happy to roll her eyes and snort out a laugh when Max brought up the twins. As annoying and stupid as they were about her and blokes, her only options were to laugh or get pissed off, and getting pissed off was useless if neither of the twins was actually around to have to deal with her wrath. “They won’t catch me,” she answered perhaps too confidently given that they had caught her on more than one occasion, but the times they hadn’t caught her far outweighed those ones. “But don’t worry, my lips are sealed.” She looked back down at the lights she was untangling; they were making slow progress. “Think we could try some sort of spell to untangle these for us?” They’d tried before and ended up making an even bigger mess, but it had been exciting. And who was to say they wouldn’t come up with the right answer this time? 

It was Max’s turn to snort out a laugh at her confident words. “Don’t get too cocky,” he joked, tossing the rest of his candy cane at her. It was clearly a joke because too cocky was practically a family trait. One they were very proud of. But one they messed with each other about all the same. Max was glad to have talk of blokes behind them. Though now they were just stuck with tangled lights. Bloody hell. It felt like the box was bottomless and they’d been sitting for hours. More like twenty minutes but sitting still for that long was torture when it came to untangling lights. Everything was torture when it came to that. Or maybe not. “Yes!” His agreement was probably too quick given their failures in the past. But if nothing else it’d pass some time and maybe the other blokes would be back by then and they could have a break. Max tossed his lump of lights back in the box and jumped to his feet. Before he did or said anything else he walked around rolling his neck and shoulders to unkink them. “Alright. So what do you think? We could try mobiliarbus or relashio?” Max brought out his wand while he waited for MJ to weigh in on their options. “I wonder what would happen if we just use the latin word for untangle while pointing our wands,” he added thoughtfully.

MJ bit the inside of her cheek, listening to her brother and frowning as she slowly came to the realization that – well, he kind of had a point. …Okay, he really had a point. MJ did not like that. Although – begrudgingly she had to admit there was some comfort in his words. Max was right; she didn’t have to do anything she didn’t want to. That didn’t entirely change the feeling that that seemed to be what everyone else was doing, and what they all seemed to assume she was going to up and do at some point. But it was nice to hear that Max, at least, didn’t necessarily expect that sort of thing from her. She let out a sigh and reluctantly admitted, “…I guess you’re right.” MJ wasn’t sure she wanted to date other people. She wasn’t even sure what she wanted from Black, or she didn’t want to admit what she wanted. Because even if that was just Max’s loose interpretation of dating, Black had made it pretty clear – while on truth potion, even – he didn’t want that. This was why feelings were dumb. Maybe Max was right. Shagging Black and hanging out with him had been so good MJ hadn’t even bothered going after any other blokes. Maybe that was what she needed. A clean slate, a fresh start. Maybe once she was at a party with firewhiskey and a bunch of hot blokes that would sound more exciting than it did right now. This whole dwelling over a stupid bloke thing was not something she wanted to last long. “Maybe,” she finally answered her brother with a nod. “Thanks for not being weird like the twins about this. Or for pretending it’s not weird, at least,” she added, because it was kind of embarrassing to have to talk to her brother about this. Bloody hell, she was a loser. This wasn’t the first time it occurred to her that maybe she needed to make some new friends of her own, but her first attempt at that was what had her sitting here talking to Max about bloke problems in the first place. Maybe she was just a lost cause. 

Max did his best not to gloat over the admittance that he was right. Looking down at his tangle of lights to hide his smirk. MJ didn’t have to know he’d had his own little freak out over Cat and had to get Fabian to set his head on straight. He figured it was sort of normal to get to into your head a few times. Even for people like them that hardly spent any time too deep in their own thoughts. But that’s what they had each other for, pull them out when they got too deep. They all balanced each other out. Most of the time. At least when it came to freakouts. Not so much when it came to potentially dangerous stunts. In the important stuff they did, that’s what mattered. He chuckled lightly at her thanks. “Well it is kinda weird but I know Ann and Bones aren’t your type of birds. That just leaves Molly and well that’d be even weirder probably. And we both know Gid’s useless when it comes to dating advice.” Once he’d gotten to Molly his voice changed to teasing. What he said was true about Molly but the Gid addition was just to mess with her. MJ’s best mate was a good bloke. But he was also like a brother to Max which meant even when he wasn’t around he got messed with. Curse of the younger siblings. Or something like that. “But if the twins catch ya snogging don’t rat me out,” he added with a smile. It was probably too true to joke about but better joking than getting pissed off. Eventually they’d get over it. Especially now that Mike was getting married. Matt seemed pretty into Nova too so maybe they’d both be too distracted. Wouldn’t be the first time MJ used them being distracted to her advantage while the rest of them pretended not to know.

MJ had missed just hanging out and laughing with her brothers. A slightly overdramatic sentiment, perhaps, because it wasn’t as if they’d all just up and disappeared. But it didn’t happen nearly as often as it used to, and MJ felt like she was the odd one out, the only one who felt it as strongly as she did. Right now things didn’t seem so weird, at least. Except she was talking to Max about a bloke, so – yeah, never mind. This was bloody weird. And annoying, because she didn’t like thinking about Black at all. More specifically, she didn’t like thinking about how she felt about Black, because that meant admitting she felt anything at all. Stupid git. And Max had the nerve to look amused! MJ opened her mouth to tell him no, she did not want his advice, but he kept going before she could stop him so she just scowled and focused on her lights. Immediately opening her mouth to protest when he was done speaking – she did not like him like that, and dating very possibly might kill them both – but Max kept going again and his words only frustrated her further. She opened her mouth to retort and abruptly closed it again when she realized she had none. MJ frowned and snapped her candy cane in half. “Maybe I will,” she answered, frustration clear in her voice and she doubted Max was buying her answer any more than she was. She was quiet for a long moment, fiddling with her string of lights. “…It’s not just my decision, Max,” she said softly. Though she quickly rallied and added, “But I’m not – I don’t wanna do mushy shit with Black, okay? I don’t wanna do that with anyone. Why does everyone think that’s so weird?” MJ didn’t think it was so wrong to care a little bit about the bloke she wanted to snog without wanting to hold hands and go on stupid mushy dates and snuggle. No, thank you. Though she did sort of like the way Black smelled of cigarettes and leather and whiskey, so maybe being close to him for a bit wouldn’t be the worst thing. Fuck! Everything was stupid.

MJ wasn’t the only one feeling like things were changing pretty quickly. Max felt it to. It was just easier on him, probably because he’d had a year out of Hogwarts while MJ hadn’t. None of them had expected things to change so early but life didn’t slow down. No matter how much MJ might try and dig her heels in and stop it. Because that’s kind of what it felt like she was doing with her vocal anti-dating stance. Her soft words made him regret stirring up the pot a bit. Though she was back to making him have to stifle a laugh close enough after that he didn’t dwell on that regret long. “No one is saying it’s weird. I just think you’re taking it too far. Dating doesn’t have to mean mushy shit. And some of that mushy stuff isn’t so bad. But you act like I’m telling you to start baby talking some bloke and calling him some dumb arse nickname.” Max wrinkled his nose in disgust. There were too many birds that did that mess. “It just sounds like you and maybe even him are getting a little freaked out when you shouldn’t. Dating doesn’t mean you are stuck for life. Hell you don’t even have to be boyfriend and girlfriend. You could be dating other people and each other.” Though Max had a pretty good idea that MJ hadn’t been seeing other people. He wasn’t sure about Black. From what MJ had said it sounded as if he was freaking out cause he actually cared about her. Again, so much like each other it was sort of scary. Max wasn’t sure those two being together was a good thing. “Maybe some bloke at the New Year’s party will catch your attention. There should be plenty there.” Gave her plenty of time to quit mooning over Black. Mike and Matt didn’t have to know that Max was encouraging her to snog some bloke at the party. It was weird disagreeing with them on anything but trying to keep blokes away from MJ was just dumb. Not that he wouldn’t have minded giving Black a dirty look right now and potentially more if he ever really upset MJ. That was completely different though.

“We’ll chuck the candy canes at them and then send them back out for food,” MJ chimed in with a laugh. “No wait – we’ll go out for food and let them finish this mess.” She let out another laugh at the next thing Max said, nodding her enthusiastic agreement. “Yeah! Merry Christmas, you git,” MJ laughed. If they were guaranteed enough time to get it done without getting caught she might actually mean it, but there was an unspoken rule in the McKinnon-Prewett house that the untangling had to be finished before the rest of the fun could begin. And so long as she had good company, MJ didn’t mind that. It was nice hanging out with Max. It made it feel like maybe things weren’t changing so much, even if that feeling was only going to last the night while they went all-out putting up decorations. Some things wouldn’t change, and MJ would take what she could get. Though she was suddenly doubting just how good of company her brother was, bugging her about things she didn’t want to be talking about. “No,” she answered immediately, a knee-jerk response to that line of questioning. For a few long moments she left it at that, her focus determinedly on untangling a knot with perhaps a bit too much force. But now Max had her stewing over things she’d been trying very hard not to stew over, and she was blurting out more before she could stop herself. “He’s just – ..” She let out a sigh in frustration, because she wasn’t sure there was a word for what Black was. Stupid, annoying, selfish, stubborn; good, loyal, bold, daring, uninhibited. Fuck, not where she wanted her mind to go. Instead she went to the most frustrating thing. “He thought I was gonna decide I want to start dating him. Has he met me? I don’t want a bloody boyfriend! But no, I’m a girl, so obviously just because we start talking about shit means I’m going to start fawning all over him and trying to hold his hand.” MJ pulled a face. “He’s just scared to actually care about someone, so he says shit he knows will piss me off so then I’ll shut him out and he doesn’t have to do it himself. So fine, fuck him. Whatever.” She let out another frustrated huff and punctuated her words by violently breaking off another piece of ancient candy cane and sticking it in her mouth. Fuck, that was a lot more than she wanted to say, especially to her brother. Apparently she’d been holding a lot in. Stupid Black. Maybe she should just go punch him in the face and be done with it.

Another laugh greeted MJ’s additions to his statement. “Yeah, I like that much better. We go, they stay. Let’s hope they don’t bring food.” More laughter followed as he thought about that Christmas greeting for Matt. Maybe they’d get done in time. Though by the looks of things maybe not. There was a lot of untangling to be done. At least the company was good. And interesting now that she was going off about Black. This was weird, talking to his little sister about a bloke. Especially knowing that bloke was Black. Max still wasn’t sure what he thought of that but it wasn’t really his business to have thoughts on that. Black was in the Order so whatever reservations he might have because of the other bloke’s personality didn’t really matter. He was decent were it counted. Plus if he was being entirely honest seeing his sister worked up over a bloke was kind of funny. Or maybe that was just because it felt like a little justice after putting up with her acting like he was just about to get married even before he started seeing anyone. Her rant about Black made it difficult not to laugh. Bloody hell, he sounded a lot like someone else Max knew. MJ. “Do you want my advice?” Max looked over at her, the tangle in his lap momentarily forgotten. “Actually never mind, I’m gonna give it anyway. You obviously like him and from the sound of it he likes you. Why are you two being dumb, just date already. It’s not gonna kill ya.” Seemed dumb to Max that with everything both of them knew was happening, all the risks, that they’d be avoiding each other if they liked each other. Clearly MJ did at least. Even if she was trying to pretend otherwise. Which was why he couldn’t resist stirring the pot a little. “That or just fuck ‘em and find someone else. I mean he seems kind of like a drama queen. You sure he’s worth the hassle? If you don’t wanna date him what’s the hang up? Find someone else.”

MJ’s only response to Max telling her to shut up was to stick her tongue out at him. “Maybe, but only ‘cause they probably saw the box and now they’re all gonna take their sweet time getting here,” she answered his question wryly. She had nothing but love for the blokes she lived with, but MJ knew they could be sneaky when they wanted to be – they were who’d she’d learned it from, after all. “Let’s just hang ‘em all in Matt’s room like this, see how he likes dealing with ‘em all,” she suggested with a teasing grin, though she did’t quit untangling. As annoying as the job was the lights were her favorite decoration once they were up, and she didn’t mind the excuse to sit and hang out with her brother. It was something that didn’t happen quite as often as it used to, and as much as she didn’t like to think about it there was a part of her that was all too aware another one of them might be moved out by next Christmas. Not a thought she liked to linger on. If MJ had her way, she and her brothers and the Prewetts would all live in the same house forever and the only friends they’d ever need would be each other. Or maybe she’d need a couple extra friends for when her brothers decided to start sticking their noses places she really wished they wouldn’t. “What? I – we weren’t –…” She spluttered, wanting very much to deny there was any making up to do, but Max had been there for their argument so there wasn’t much she could do there. “No,” she answered with a glower, pulling a bit too hard on the string of lights she was working on and pulling a large hunk from the box. Whatever. “Or – yes, I guess,” she amended with a huff, “But – he’s a stupid git,” she finally settled on, because they may have sort of made up on one front but they still weren’t really talking to each other. Whatever. 

Max laughed at her assessment of their brothers. Sounded like them. Him too but he’d been gone before they were dragged out. “They better bring food if they take too long. If not we can chuck the rest of the candy canes at them. These things are lethal.” Like sucking on a peppermint flavored rock. He snickered at her words. “Bring a little Christmas cheer to his bedroom. How could he possibly get upset at that. We could take the ones we’ve already untangled and spell out git.” Empty threats but they made the task of untangling the lights a little easier. They were all so busy now that just sitting around hanging out was becoming rarer and rarer. While he hated the task he was glad for the company. Once the other blokes got home they’d spend the evening hanging up decorations and lights. Pick a day to go hunt for a tree. Which would mean another day of just family because picking out the tree took forever. But it’d be fun, was every year. Max liked that his life was full. Work, Order, his family, friends, Cat, there was always something to do. He couldn’t imagine it any other way. With all of their lives so full it did make family time a little harder. Except he couldn’t deny he saw more of his brothers, well all except Mike, then he did of MJ. Seeing a bird that lived with Matt’s girlfriend and worked with Fabian’s made seeing them easier. Gid’s girl living with Fabian’s got him in. But that did leave MJ out. Something he wished he could fix. At least he’d take advantage of today. His eyebrow raised at her amendment and he tried not to laugh. “Yeah, definitely sounds like you’ve made up. You wanna talk about it?” The answer was probably gonna be no but it was a start.

Studying was something MJ was supposed to be done with after Hogwarts. Sure, she’d expected Auror training to be hard work. She just hadn’t realized exactly how much studying it it was going to take. Things hadn’t been so bad up until this point, but soon they would be six months into training and that meant their first exams. Something MJ was not looking forward to at all. Between actually going to classes and then doing work for the Order, when was she supposed to find time to sleep, study, and actually have fun? Though her fun had been limited lately, with her brothers spending more time with girls or friends from work and her choice distraction being someone she didn’t want to want to spend time with – and that feeling was mutual, she was certain. But today she knew for a fact that at least Max was home, and here she was stuck in her room staring at a textbook. 

It was the quality not the potential to get ill that had Max looking at the candy canes with suspicion. But when MJ told him her assessment of them he shrugged and grabbed one for himself. At least it would be something to snack on while untangling this mess. “Shut up,” he told her with a grin of his own. “You reckon we’ll get this box untangled before the rest of them show up?” Max figured Matt would be coming home tonight since he was the one that brought the boxes out. The Prewetts too since they likely saw the boxes. Mike was the only one he wasn’t sure about since this was their first Christmas with him moved out. Be weird but he was happy that’s what mattered. Max sat for a few minutes sucking on his too hard candy cane and untangling lights. “This is insane,” he finally groaned. Of all the jobs light untangling was his least favorite. “Maybe we should plug ‘em in first to see if they even work. Or hang ‘em up like this. It’ll be creative or some shit.” Lazy is what it’d be but Godric he hated untangling lights. But he kept at it because it had to be done. Lights for the outside and lights for the inside. Every year their Christmas decorations got bigger and better. When they brought a tree home they’d probably bring home some more decorations as well. Lights to get tangled up in this mess. Maybe a new light up snowman to replace the one they killed last year. Definitely learned not to try and use magic to make ‘em brighter. At least the snow on the ground put the fire out. Course it wouldn’t be a McKinnon-Prewett Christmas without something catching on fire. Like their first year in the house when the entire tree went up. That was bloody cool. Pretty quickly he was tired of thinking of Christmases past and of the still massive amounts of lights to be untangled. “You and Black made up?” Now seemed like the perfect time to bring it up. They were alone and the rule was once you touched the lights you were stuck till they were done.

“What?” For a few seconds Remus just stared at McKinnon, certain he’d misheard. When he realized he hadn’t, it was several more seconds before it dawned on him what McKinnon was getting at. Remus couldn’t help it; a harsh, bitter laugh fell past his lips as the realization sunk in that McKinnon was actually accusing him of being the traitor. As if his life wasn’t a big enough fucking mess as it was, McKinnon had seen him in Knockturn with the werewolf and now he thought Remus had done it of his own volition. And why wouldn’t he? Rumors spread quickly, Remus knew that all too well, and McKinnon had probably been ready to throw him under the bus the second he found out about his condition. Bitter amusement gave way quickly to frustration, to burning disappointment, and he shook his head. “McKinnon, I’m not…” He wasn’t a spy, but he also wasn’t supposed to talk about it. Because there was a traitor, that Remus very much hoped wasn’t Padfoot. And it very likely wasn’t a McKinnon either, not after what happened to Nicholson. But orders were orders. He let out a sigh and ran a hand over his hair, tired and frustrated and feeling more defeated than ever. “If you’ve got a problem just take it up with Moody, okay? I don’t think the middle of a shop is a great place to have this sort of conversation.”

The bloke was laughing? Even though it was clearly a bitter laugh it still confused Max and he narrowed his eyes at the other bloke. He started to deny it but stopped. Another thing that didn’t make sense to him. Either Lupin was the traitor and was just fucking with him or…. The idea came to him slowly but once it had it was hard to shake. Maybe Lupin wasn’t the traitor, maybe he knew who was. Max shrugged off his words. “Sure. I’ll do that,” he said as if he hadn’t already done just that. But he wasn’t ready to end this conversation yet. There was a nagging feeling that Lupin knew something in Max’s gut. He leaned in closer and dropped his voice. “If I find out you had anything to do with what happened or even knew who was responsible Moody’s not gonna be able to help you.” Max had always been the calmer McKinnon but it didn’t mean he wasn’t capable of being just as dangerous as the twins could be. It was just a side of him that he never felt the need to bring out till now. The devastation on Mike and Penny’s faces wasn’t something he’d forget and it made him angrier then anything ever had. Though this particular threat wasn’t something he thought he’d be handling himself. As much as he hated what had happened to Mike and Penny it had hurt both of them and Matt more. But they weren’t here and Max was so he wanted to make sure Lupin knew that this wasn’t going to be forgotten. 

In the span of a day, Remus felt like his whole world had fallen apart. He’d barely had time to process exactly what Padfoot was up to before he’d agreed to what Moody wanted and instantly been thrown into an assignment. Like the old man had known he would show up with his head between his legs and agree to something that made him feel dirty, because it was all he had to offer and even Padfoot seemed to think so. So he’d found himself in the middle of bloody Knockturn Alley with a bloke who used their disease to instill fear, to perpetuate the very stigma Remus had spent his whole life running from. In the middle of the damn day to boot, because the bloke was that confident in himself. And they hadn’t been caught, and Remus had proven he didn’t care, either, by being there with him. So now he got to meet with more of them tomorrow, and he didn’t even have a home to go back to to wash the feeling of filth off himself before then. He didn’t know where he was going to go, really, and that was why his feet led him into a familiar second-hand shop. It was where he’d gotten most of his schoolbooks, and the selection was a good one despite the shabbiness. He could kill a little time here, at least. Then maybe he would go to Wormtail’s. The thought of facing Prongs with what he knew was still one he was afraid to think of. He and Wormtail could do it together, maybe. Still very much on edge with everything that was going on, he jumped at the sound of a voice. When he turned and saw Max McKinnon he was flooded with relief, but it was short lived given the look on the older bloke’s face. Fuck. Did he know about Padfoot? “I…” he began with wide-eyes, very much afraid of where this was going. He wasn’t ready to turn Padfoot in, not until he’d spoken to Prongs. Maybe Padfoot hadn’t done anything yet. Maybe it wasn’t too late. “Okay. What’s up?” 

Lupin was clearly on edge but then again everyone was so that wasn’t really a clear sign of being guilty. Though the look he had when Max said they needed to talk was a look of someone who had something to hide. “I saw you earlier. Why were you with a wanted criminal in Knockturn?” Max wasn’t one to beat around the bush, especially when it was something important. He purposefully chose not to mention the werewolf part because it wasn’t that the bloke was a werewolf that made it suspicious. It was the wanted criminal part. The hanging around in Knockturn with a wanted criminal. Max didn’t care what the bloke was wanted for. Didn’t even care what Lupin was. All he wanted to know was if this was for the Order or if Lupin was the traitor. The bloke could lie, Max actually expected that, at least if he was the traitor. But he thought he might be able to tell if it was a lie. Given how he was already acting like someone with something to hide it seemed like that would be a sure thing. Maybe the attack had been his first time turning on them. If so Max hoped it was eating at him, turning on all the people who trusted him. He wanted whoever the traitor was to be suffering, and he wanted to make sure they suffered even more for it but that was getting ahead of himself.