#postwar!gracie

“I graduated from Hogwarts just the same as you, I know how to read,” Gracie snapped, not sure what was more irritating -- the fact that Louis had of course noticed a detail that she’d neglected to find, or the fact that she didn’t hate the way it sounded rolling off his tongue. A couple -- they were a couple of people, right, what was the harm in that? But as averse to love as she may have always been, even Gracie knew the connotations, and the idea of being stuck with Louis and mostly Louis forever? It really wasn’t terrible. She thought about the way they were now, her always popping into his flat whenever she felt like it, the bickering, the knowing glances they got from the rest of the Wotters -- the same ones she and Hugo had gotten, nearly a decade ago now. They’d even posed as a couple before, kissing for show, and maybe once or twice when it wasn’t entirely necessary, but just because he was surprisingly good at it and it got him to shut up and stop being such a smarty pants for a minute or two. Maybe someday they’d put a label on it, or even talk about it -- but when she was being mocked wasn’t the best time for it, and her face flushed, whether from anger or embarrassment she wasn’t sure. “Fine, I’ll just get Hugo or James to pretend to be my other half, see if I don’t,” she grumbled, grabbing her broom in an attempt to fly away just as quickly as she’d arrived. 

[text]: Really, smarty pants? The best you can do is ask me to just pretend it didn’t exist? I’d have thought by now you’d have time-traveled back and made sure it never happened, or secretly Obliviated me or something. [text]: It’s okay, I’m not too mature or boring to believe in opposite day. I’ll just chalk it up to that and not even demand a house elf as payment or anything.[text]: Although I do get at least one I TOLD YOU I MAKE YOUR LIFE BETTER! HA!

“It’s whatever,” Gracie protested, folding her arms over her chest and wondering if Louis would just disappear if she ignored him. But he wasn’t the first person to pop in uninvited since the World Cup roster had gone up and her name wasn’t on it, and Gracie had a feeling he wouldn’t be the last, either. Sighing, she stopped ignoring him and turned to face him, her eyes still downcast. “Look, I don’t want you to find me. But if you want to do something to cheer me up? Sit here and hex everyone that tries to come and give me their pity. I don’t want people feeling sorry for me, I just want a day to not think about it and then tomorrow to start working harder than ever. You think you can handle that, Lou?”

Gracie looked over at... whatever the thing was that Louis had invented, that was sitting on display in the Ministry’s lobby. He’d explained it to her several times, and she still had no idea what it was, but he seemed proud of it, so that was cool, she guessed. But she offered him her best smile, trying to think about how she felt the first time she looked at the stands during a game and hadn’t seen her mom, or her dad, or Hugo there cheering for her.

“Um... I don’t know, Lou, if I were you I’d tape it and force them to watch it over and over again on video as payback for missing it,” she told him, her gaze going back to his invention thingy again. “But uh, that thing really doesn’t move, so I guess you don’t even need a video, just a picture to make them stare at for like eight hours of hell.”