We know what we know
But we accept the fact that we don't know
We look at this world we got much to explore
Come grab my hand there's a place we can go

@ted - outfit

Life was... different now. Things were very different because he was living with Lord Parkinson -no matter how many times he said it, Jason still couldn't call him Fer, but he would when he got his mind around it- and not in the Ministry. Everything that came with that was just insane, to him. He could visit his family whenever he wanted. He had to sleep at El Aleph but otherwise he could come and go as he pleased. Even his family could come to visit, if he wanted. He wasn't allowed to go to Hogwarts or Pyxis but Lord Parkinson had arranged for private tutors for him. Even with his lycanthropy he'd gotten Jason someone to teach him. It was another werewolf, Cassian, and he was just so so kind? Sometimes he brought another along, Niles, who was also very nice. Jason knew that Cassian was somehow involved with Lord Parkinson but- well, they were both just so kind to him. He didn't know if it was appropriate to be so thankful, considering what other Death Eaters had done to him and other muggleborns but... well, Lord Parkinson was kind to him. Tried to look after him. Even got him a new broom and made sure he was all right at all times. He'd been trying to get him out of incarceration for months before it was finally allowed. Maybe Jason was too trusting, but he very much did trust Lord Parkinson. He wasn't like the others and no matter how many warnings he'd gotten from Dea, Jason felt safe around him.

So many people would say he was dumb, that he had no reason to trust anyone with that mark on their arm. Jason, though, he wanted to stop being angry if only for a little while. What better person to accept than the man who looked after him as if he were his own? Now he was living with Lord Parkinson and his cousin Amparo -who was slightly intimidating but not unkind- and Juan also came around so often that he might as well live there, like Cassian. Whenever he didn't have classes he was allowed to go anywhere he wanted, fly around on the grounds or go into the greenhouses or -if he told Lord Parkinson beforehand- he could take his allowance and come into the city. He could spend as much time as he wanted here, having ice cream, looking at everything. He was very bored, mostly. He went to the bakery Juan worked at or some bookstores or to visit Cassie and his other siblings, but most of his school friends were either at Pyxis or Hogwarts and they still had a lot of weeks to go before he would be able to see them. He wondered if Dea had told the other Gryffindors that he was alive. They must all have thought he was dead after he disappeared, and he'd been friends with a lot of them. Dev at least, who had been in his house year. Dorm mates. Maybe he'd be relieved, maybe he'd just have too much on his plate to care.

It had been a lonely day, today. It was true that he had people to spend it with, but he was a bit too tired to go help with the kids at home. Was that selfish? Lord Parkinson was with Juan and Cassian somewhere in the greenhouses and he could have joined them. Instead he went for some ice cream. The crowded streets only made everything worse and he was stuck in a corner for a while, holding the two new books he'd bought and thinking about what to do. He could just go to the Leakey Cauldron and floo back. He could. But... well, he didn't want to go back just yet. The answer as to where he should go then presented itself to him as his eyes landed on the sign of WWWs. Teddy worked there. Now, Jason hadn't seen Teddy much since the other boy graduated, or at all, but maybe Teddy remembered him. Jason had always found it hard to get many words out in front of the older student, since he found them to be... well, overwhelmingly pretty and smart. Yes, he had a huge crush. This would normally mean that he tried his very best to avoid interaction since it always got him tangle up and shy. With an uncharacteristic surge of... daring? Confidence? Recklessness? He just went into the shop to see if he spotted them, half of him hoping he would and the other half very much hoping he wouldn't.

So everyone gather round
We can come together
It's a revolution

outfit

There was. . .something, Teddy didn't really know what, going on. Not like something was really being kept from him. . .Teddy did hope, at least. They hadn't been the best at spotting the signs the last time, or the time before that. But that was different, wasn't it? With one certain person, only one person who Teddy would believe. Drink Bloodrot and accept it was Calming Potion, if she told him it was so, because Teddy wanted, wanted so dearly--

No. Had. Had wanted. Not present tense; it couldn't be present tense.

What had changed things further were the changes she put in, because it destroyed the last desperate and impossible hopes she was bespelled. A child's hope, Teddy had known, but it was the only thing that made sense in this senseless time, when compared to how they'd grown. The changes, while likely easing things, were chipping away at their block of supporters. Emma's mother passed along what she heard in the Leaky Cauldron, and it was a mixed bag. There were those who were upset at the leniency shown, scum who disliked not having full control of their slaves at every moment, who disliked Muggle-borns being treated like fourth-class citizens because of the barest bit of humanity suddenly recognized in them. There were those whose discussions stabbed Ted in the back, people who assumed that just because Muggle-borns could go home, everything was alright. Like that erased the many who died. And it was far more than dozens, Ted knew. People who brushed everything off, because the kids could be taken from their parents and locked in schools, and adults could live at their homes again-- if said homes still existed, or were still available. Claimed they'd give a stipend for new places, if first-generation mages kept showing up for the assigned jobs that injured them, as if that made it better.

The dissatisfaction could probably be fixed by some, but the chipping away at their supporters. . .

Well, it showed how little people cared, how much they could be brought by smiles and whatnot.

And it was May Fucking First. Teddy had returned from isolating, from their vigil at their parents' graves, and only after the bone-breaking hug with Cass that was far too needed because they hadn't been near living people in forty-eight hours. (and when did it become a real Home? When did little by little Teddy start picturing Cass's place instead of where Ted had grown up?), and maybe some optimist like Bee or Emma or Octi (was that short for Octopus, October, or Octavianius? To be somewhat fair, Teddy had somehow thought Ted was short for Theodore despite knowing their first name was Edward, so maybe Octi was a nickname for something else, but that was complete sidetracking) might say it was out of some sort of honor, or something like that. Right. Like Teddy's parents would be okay with what had happened.

But no, WWW wasn't quite as neutral a ground as the Leaky. People who came in? They usually didn't mind buying from Weasleys, being seen with them. More likely to fall into the category that disappointed Teddy so, but overall, generally weren't out-and-out purists. And speaking of--

The bell rang and Teddy quickly pulled themself off the stack of boxes they'd been reclining on, dusting off magenta shirt and trousers. "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, how can I-- oh, hang on, I know you!" It was a few years, but those shoulders. Those large, soulfull eyes. Taller, older, but very much still the same sweet kid Teddy had loved so. "Jason, tell me you're not taller than me." Bounding over to the kid and enfolding him in a tight hug. It had been ages. Years. Teddy was ridiculously relieved they'd remembered his name.

. . . Or was it Jackson? Jaxon? He was American, and they tended to have more modern names. Teddy really did hope it was Jason.

Things were really different and Jason didn't exactly know how to handle any of it. On the one hand, he was a werewolf. Cassian had explained how he himself had handled it. He'd cut away his own family, but that was just a mother that he hadn't interacted much with in the first place. Discarding his humanity was easy when there was nothing tying him to it. Jason wished he could do that to. Not considering himself human was something he could do, something he had done, but cutting himself off from human arguments? Cassian hadn't even managed it, not yet. He had a Death Eater boyfriend but he didn't approve of their handling of muggleborns. Niles hadn't managed it almost at all, he still visited his human parents sometimes and he definitely had an opinion on Lord Parkinson. Even if, for Cassian's sake, he never verbalised it and was open to their relationship. That was different for Jason. He couldn't not have an opinion, he was muggleborn. His sister was muggleborn and once more working for that friend of Lord Parkinson's. In that way, he definitely couldn't support Death Eaters. Couldn't accept them even a little bit. He remembered Kolna, he remembered the curses and the look and the pure hatred and disgust in his eyes. He could never forget that, he could never be neutral.

On the other hand, he could never hate Lord Parkinson. Despite being a Death Eater, he had helped Jason. Looked after him, provided for him, tried to get him out of the Ministry. True, it had been only after he was bitten. It was after he was a werewolf. In Fer's eyes, it canceled out his blood status, even if none of the other purists saw it like that. Jason- Jason understood how Cassian explained it. He said that Lord Parkinson didn't hate muggleborns, he'd been raised to see them as less but he didn't support violence or abuse. He would fight against it, but his eyes were set on the werewolf fight first. Mostly. Priorities. Because his mother had fought for werewolf rights too, and now Lord Parkinson did. He couldn't fight both and he had been raised a (non-violent) purist and being a Death Eater opened a lot of doors to further his pro-lycanthrope agenda. It was politics and sometimes to navigate that, people had to set aside their total moral scheme and choose what to support first. To Jason, it had sounded much like something Cassian had used to convince himself as well. It had worked, apparently. Jason, who had been personally touched by all of this, didn't necessarily... well, he understood. That was all. He accepted it and he was grateful for the help he had gotten. The guidance he was being given was more than enough. He was safe and learning and stable. It didn't make up for what had happened, but it made the future much less frightening than it had been mere months ago. 

"You-" Teddy remembered his name? How, when all Jason could ever do in front of him was stutter and try to find words to express himself? Express ideas that were miles away from Teddy's own loud, cheerful, intelligent rambling. His mind only screeched to a halt when Teddy's arms closed around him in a hug and he might have forgotten how to breathe. The body against his was much more slender than his -had that always been the case, or had Jason just gotten wider- and shorter and lighter and- well, warm. He trembled slightly, trying to swallow through the knot in his throat. Oh, and don't forget the burning face. Thankfully, his skin tone might hide that. Might. "I- I think I am?" His voice came out strangled, but it came out and he wasn't making a fool of himself. Yet. Small victories. "Uhm, Cass told me where to find you?"