better dig two

if the ties that bind ever do come loose

Tie them in a knot like a hangman's noose

Fired. That was what her best friend had said. Her ex-husband had proceeded to call her into his office, and fire her yesterday. And maybe she was a little too emotional. Maybe she was too close to this to see things clearly. But she was mad. Furious, really. She was furious about what was going on. Fired, because she had gotten sick? Fired for something that was completely out of her control? What kind of policy was that? What kind of anything was that? Oralee was hot. And she was trying to calm herself down before she made her way into Kingsley’s office. Because if she went in there right now she was going to yell at him. And she couldn’t yell at him here. She wasn’t his wife here. She was his subordinate. Well… She was his subordinate so long as the piece of paper in her hand remained in her hand, and not on his desk. Because she was holding her resignation in her good hand.

There was only so much that this illness could possibly take from all of them, and she knew that it wasn’t that simple. She knew that in his mind he had to have some sort of reasoning. But whatever his reasoning was, she thought that there had to be something else. Anything else that they could have done, that was not telling brilliant young minds that they were going to have to change their majors for reasons that were beyond their control. Oralee was not stupid. She knew that teaching them to make wands without magic was impossible. She knew that teaching spell invention to people that couldn’t cast spells was a little ridiculous. But there were things that they could still be taught. You didn’t have to play quidditch to be an educated fan. You didn’t have to practice alchemy, or brew potions, to appreciate the art.

If muggles could take courses on Art History, they could teach potionology without potion making. It was possible. It was not ideal. But it was possible Still, she knew him. Oralee knew her ex-husband. She knew how stubborn he could be, and once his mind was made up, there was very little point in arguing with him about it. But there was something that she could do. She could resign. She wasn’t going to stand by in an institution that was going to discriminate against not only it’s employees, but it’s students, for something that was entirely beyond their control. She couldn’t, and she wouldn’t. Oralee’s sense of moral scope was broader than that. She was the type to throw herself on the sword. She always had been. This was no different. She would go down for this. She could afford to. And then, if he wanted to talk about it. She would be at home.

That was her current plan. She was going to walk in there, she was going to resign, and then she was going to walk across the hall and unenroll their son from his program. Because this was not something that she wanted to support. This was not something that she wanted to stand behind. And that was killing her a little bit. She wanted to support him. She wanted to stand by him. But she couldn’t do this. She couldn’t compromise what she believed in for this. For him. Loving him was making this a hell of a lot more difficult. Because she had said it first. She had admitted that she loved him. And now she was going to stand up to him. She was going to fight him. Which was exactly what she hadn’t done when he had said that he wanted a divorce. Oralee hadn’t been strong enough to fight back then. She was strong enough to fight back now.

Composing herself as much as she thought was humanly possible Oralee took a deep breath and headed up the last flight of stairs to Kingsley’s office. Without pausing at the secretary’s call of her name, the blonde rapped twice on his door and opened it only enough to slip through before she shut it behind her again. Without saying a word, she set the letter down on his desk and took a step back. What did you say? What did she say? He’d realize what she had laid in front of him quickly enough, he was a smart man. “Good morning.”

Kingsley Shacklebolt • 736 • oralee's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

Better Dig Two
_{It won't be whiskey}

It had been a very rough couple of days. Kingsley hated having to draw the line in the sand, but the decision had not only been his to make. He had agreed to it, but the Board of Regents had set  out the hard line whether he thought it was the right path forward or not. Kingsley hated losing good professors--and had managed to place a number of those who had lost magic were teaching in the effected departments in other roles at the university. 

He had not been able to do that for Penny, though. Of course, he had wanted to--it had been miserable having to let her go. She was a smart and knowledgeable potioneer--and someone he considered a friend. But she was not able to ensure student safety in the potionology labs any longer. She could not brew--and Merlin only knew how long before magic would be recovered by those suffering from the epidemic. 

Student safety had to come first. 

Bangor might have been able to run two curriculums, but Lufkin was not Bangor. They existed for different purposes. Bangor was a place for academics. Lufkin was more practical--it produced workers. He sought to ensure his university yielded professionals ready to work in their fields of study. A potioneer with no magic was no potioneer at all. The same for an alchemist or spell inventor. These fields required magic. That was the long and short of it. He wasn't looking to take tuition fees from students, promising them a future career when there was no way for them to actually make a living in that career field. 

He would not do that. Period. 

Still, it was horrible to have tell people he knew and respected that they were no longer permitted to teach in Lufkin's classrooms. He had promised Penny a recommendation letter and was drafting it up himself. Most letters he left to his assistant to write--with him providing comments and signatures after, but this was different. Penny was different. She had not been someone he wanted to lose from Lufkin. Her absence would be sorely felt--he put that sincerity into the words he was inscribing to parchment, trying to find a proper balance of professionalism and praise.

The dean was not expecting anyone to come by at this hour, but a sharp knock on his door interrupted his writing.  He had not even put down the quill or given whoever it was leave to enter before his ex-wife was busting into the office. She did not look particularly happy. He figured she had talked to Penny and readied himself for a verbal lashing. A flick of his wand closed the door to avoid having an audience for that unpleasantness. 

Oralee put a piece of parchment down on top of the letter he was writing--his eyes were stuck on her though. She greeted him, and he repeated the words back to her, his carrying the inflection of a question: "Good morning?" A tense moment later he dropped his eyes from the blonde to the parchment in front of him. He made quick work of reading what she had written. 

"Lee--" he said, a heavy sigh coming from his chest as he drawled her name. He sounded weary and rather beaten down. The last few days had been very hard for him. He hated what he had had to do. "Don't do this," he asked her. His voice sounding much more like that of a husband to a wife than a supervisor to an employee. 

oralee | OUTFIT | 600

better dig two

IF THE TIES THAT BIND EVER DO COME LOOSE

tie them in a knot like a hangman's noose

This could have been easier. This could have been her walking in here, and resigning, and not thinking twice about it. But it wasn’t. Because if it would have been anyone else on the other side of the desk, maybe that would have been the case. But this wasn’t just anyone. This was Him. Kingsley was the one that she had to face to do this, and Oralee had to hope that her resolve was strong enough to get through this. Because she didn’t want it. Not really. She wanted to resign. She wanted to quit, for Penny. Because of what had happened to her. Oralee didn’t think that she was going to have any trouble getting on teaching History elsewhere, given who she was. Given her professional, and personal, reputation. But still. She didn’t want to do this to him.

That was the hardest part. That it was him. That it was Kingsley that she was going to have to try and resign to. She was going to have to try and get through his, and she was going to have to look him in the eye, and she didn’t know if that was going to be more or less difficult because she was angry…

More, she thought. It would be harder. Because he knew her. Because divorce couldn’t take away what decades of marriage had taught them about one another. Because he was going to see it in her eyes. That she was angry. That she was doing this for her best friend. Because Penny didn’t deserve to be fired over something that she couldn’t help. Oralee didn’t think that that was fair. She didn’t like it. And she understood the concept behind it. She did. But she thought that there had to be something else here that the University that she could have done. There had to be something that she could have done. Something that wouldn’t have been him firing her. At least… Well…

Well, she didn’t know. Something. At least something. That’s what sabbaticals were for. He could have put her on sabbatical, and not fired her completely. People took sabbaticals all of the time. It wouldn’t have been decent long-term. But it would have been something. It would have been better than firing her after they had just lost a child. After everything that they had been through. After everything that all of them had been through. He could have waited. At least with Penny.

Others, well, Oralee wasn’t particularly concerned with everyone else right now. She thought that there were plenty of people that were going to lose their jobs over this. People that would step aside on their own. People that would understand. But Penny? He could have done something. He could have made a different choice. Penny was her best friend. She was their friend. There were other options. There were other ways to handle the situation. In this one case. All she was asking was for one. All he had to do, was spare one. And then what? Just the one? Where did the line stop? Oralee didn’t know. And she really didn’t care.

She didn’t care what happened to Lucinda Bulstrode. She didn’t care what happened to half of the professors in this school that had names like that. Names that had been responsible for killing her brother. For killing Mad-Eye. Minerva. For nearly killing Audrey. For cursing her. Oralee knew that they weren’t all like that. That they weren’t all bad. And she had never had a problem with Professor Bulstrode. But she hadn’t gone out of her way to become her friend either. Oralee didn’t care if Kingsley fired her. She cared about Penny.

She cared about what came now. What came after. About what happened next. Oralee was trying her best not to start off mad. She knew that she was. She knew that he could tell that she was. But she was trying. Good morning had seemed polite. It had seemed simple enough. And she thought that she could use a little simple. “Don’t do what, King?” Because she knew exactly what he meant. She knew what he was thinking. But she also heard him. She heard his voice. And that wasn’t Dean Shacklebolt sitting on the other side of the desk. That was her husband. And Oralee knew in that instant, that this had just gotten that much harder.

@ husband • 735 • oralee's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

Better Dig Two
_{It won't be whiskey}

A heavy long sigh came rising up from his chest, pushing past full lips as dark eyes looked up at the woman who had once been his wife. Disappointment was clearly visible in his expression--but it was joined by a great number of other emotions. Worry lined his forehead. Loneliness etched itself into the corners of his eyes. Protectiveness fought to mask it all away, but tiredness brought cracks to any disguise. 

Kingsley was beyond making some flowery speech. He just could not do it. So, he just let himself say what he felt. "Don't leave." The simple request was practically begged from his lips. The wizard was not weak in the moment, though; these confessions took more strength than silence ever could.

"Don't leave me. Don't leave the school. Here I can protect you. I can be present without having to put you in more danger. So, just don't go. Please." He looked up at her--seeing the woman that had stood beside him through so much--the woman he loved more than anything in the world...the woman that he had put in danger by loving. Longing for her company, for the warmth of her embrace, for the comfort of her presence at his side stabbed at his heart. This felt too much like losing her again--like the pain and anguish he had known when he had demanded they divorce. 

He hated it.

Kingsley knew that just saying he was being the protector was not going to win him many points. But it was more than that--so, he did not stop talking. He just let the words keep going, hoping that the sincerity of them could reach the woman standing across from him. He understood her anger. He knew how she loved Penny, but for him to keep her here, he had to make this not be about anyone else but the two of them inside this room. "And it's not just me protecting you--I need you, Lee. I always have. The world is upside down. I am worried about you. I'm worried about what is going to happen to us all. Don't put more distance between us--Don't do this. Don't quit. Don't quit on me."

He was giving it all he had to keep her there--to keep her with him. Surely, she understood the logical behind why the magicless could not study potionology, wandmaking, spell invention or alchemy. This was not a new Lufkin policy. Squibs had long been allowed to attend the university. The non-magical taught at the university, too. But not in those departments. This was not just a place of academic pursuit. They focused on producing career ready graduates. That was this school's niche. That was their duty. He was not going to set students up for failure, for poverty, for careers in field they could never find employment within. To do those things, he believed was wrong. He wouldn't be party to leading young people towards failure. He just wouldn't. 

oralee | OUTFIT | 500

BETTER DIG TWO

IF THE TIES THAT BIND EVER DO COME LOOSE

TIE THEM IN A KNOT LIKE A HANGMAN'S NOOSE

This would have been easier if it wasn’t him. If it wasn’t Kingsley on the other side of the table, Oralee thought that she could have walked in, and resigned, and that would have been then end of it. But it was Kingsley. And she knew how hard that was going to be. She knew that she was going to have to try and get through this without giving in to him. And she wasn’t very good at that. Standing up to the man she loved had never come all that naturally to her. She could push him, she could play on just the right strings when she wanted to, but standing in stark opposition? She had never.

“I have to.” It was the only answer that she could give. It was the only answer that was true. “I can’t stay. Not like this. Not after this.” She knew that he didn’t have a choice. She knew that he was doing what was right, or at least what he thought was right. But she could save him the trouble of firing her too. She would save him the trouble. Oralee had learned her lesson. She wasn’t going to let him throw her out again.

“You gave up the right to protect me when you divorced me.” She hated that word. Oralee didn’t think that there was a word that she hated more than divorce. But that was what they had done. They had divorced, and now they were here. “You can’t be unbiased towards me, and we both know it. I have to leave, so you don’t have to fire me.” Whether or not he actually thought that he needed to fire her was up for debate, and she knew that she had just put words in his mouth, but he had done the leaving once. It was her turn. “I’m going to Gràinneog. Bryan’s there. He needs someone around too.”

Of course, without her magic, and with a disability that was even more prevalent now that she didn’t have the magical assist, she wasn’t going to be of much help to their son in the event that someone horrible happened. But she could jump in front of a curse for him, at the very least. She had done that before. Jumped between a curse and her children. Jumped between a curse and the man before her now. For the people that she loved, Oralee would do anything.

But she couldn’t stay. Not if he truly felt that he needed to protect her. That made her a liability. “You know why I can’t stay…” This was about Penny, or at least it had started about Penny, but the longer that she stood here, and the more that he said, she knew that it was about more than that too. He had hired her on. He had been the Dean when she had been given her position here, and as his ex-wife, that had looked respectable, or something. But after what she had said in the elevator… Even if he hadn’t said it back. Even if no one but them knew… She couldn’t stay his subordinate. Not unless they wanted another situation like they had had at the Ministry. She didn’t have that kind of resolve.

@ husband • 545 • oralee's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

BETTER DIG TWO

IF THE TIES THAT BIND EVER DO COME LOOSE

TIE THEM IN A KNOT LIKE A HANGMAN'S NOOSE

This week was shaping up to be really miserable. It had hurt him more than he could say to have had to fire so many professors. But he understood why he had to do it. He had not come to the decision all on his own. Merlin's beard, it had been a long few days. He and the Board of Directors had come to an agreement on how to proceed for the students and faculty afflicted by Epidemic X. The guidance coming from the Board was not very surprising. It fell in line with the school's long-standing policies for squib or other non-wixen students and faculty. Squibs had never been allowed to study alchemy or potions or wandmaking or spell invention.

It made no sense to allow them in those programs...and for the time being, it made no sense to allow those who had suffered this mysterious illness to teach or study in those programs. Lufkin was not a school that existed simply for learning's sake. While teaching and growing the knowledge of students was obviously important and a central goal for the institution, Lufkin was the wizarding school in the country that produced doers. Bangor was there for the academics of the world. People came to Lufkin to get their hands dirty and feet wet. The schools existed for different purposes and so their administrations had reacted in ways that aligned with those purposes.

Oralee had to be able to see that--to know it. She did not have to take this stance just because he had fired Penny. Not that he believed it was only that. He knew what had happened at Pyxis. He still wasn't just going to give in. He was going to protest just as much as she was.

“No, you don't have to.” He shook his head, meeting her words with matching ones of his own. “You can stay. This policy makes sense. You have to see the logic in it. You can say. Your department isn't impacted. Don't do this.” He was pleading again. The wizard did not want to accept her resignation letter. He did not want to let her sever this tie that still tethered them. He needed the connection. 

She struck out at him with the d-word. It hurt. He could not help objecting. “Don't say that,” Kingsley urged softly, interjecting his words between hers. She kept going though and he could not deny what she said. He had never been impartial towards her. “I don't have fire you. It doesn't have to happen.” He made a face when she spoke about Gràinneog. His head reeled at the idea that not only had she decided to resign that she was already employed elsewhere. He was beginning to really doubt that he could talk her down from the decision. “I'm pretty sure he went to the Institute because we weren't there..”

Her next words cut to the truth of it all. It wasn't Penny. It wasn't Bryan. It was them. What existed between him and her--that was why she could not be here anymore. “I can't just let you go…I should have said it back in that bloody elevator, because I still love you, Oralee.” He was on his feet then, resignation letter drifting down through the air until it rested on his desk. The wizard was moving around to be able to stand face to face with the woman he loved. When he was there, his hand sought hers--the one that could feel him holding it. He squeezed gently and said again: “I still love you.”

@ wife • 595 • outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

BETTER DIG TWO

IF THE TIES THAT BIND EVER DO COME LOOSE

TIE THEM IN A KNOT LIKE A HANGMAN'S NOOSE

She could have walked out of here without this argument at all, if it was anyone other than Kingsley on the other side of that desk. But it was him. It was him, and it had been him all along. He had been the one that had hired her. He had been the one that had taken her on. Yes, she had the credentials, yes, she was a published author, yes, she had all of the necessary education to further the education of others. But she was also his ex-wife. For as much as she hated that ‘ex’ in front of that word, it was the truth. She was his ex-wife. And she was trying to save him the trouble of firing her too.

Discrimination could get them in trouble, even if it was logical. It was logical to only let the people that’s curriculum was affected go. She understood. She was too smart not to understand. But she knew that keeping people that had been affected by the Epidemic, but that hadn’t had their classes disrupted was still risky. And she wasn’t going to put him in that position. She wasn’t going to make him fire her. She couldn’t face it if he had to fire her. And she understood that it didn’t have to happen. On some level she did understand, but she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t stay.

“It’s not that I don’t see…” She did see. She did. “But you can’t tell me that being that particular about departments is all that it’s going to take to cover your ass if someone wants to fight this. You’re a lawyer, Kingsley. Discrimination based on the Epidemic is still discrimination. You don’t get to pick and choose. I can’t be a part of it. I can’t get you in trouble…” Oralee knew that she shouldn’t have said that. She shouldn’t have admitted that it was as much about trying to protect him as it was him trying to protect her right now. They were miserable at pretending that they didn’t care.

“Don’t say what?” Her eyebrow arched up at his words. “Divorced? Why? Does it hurt?” There was more venom in her words than she had meant there to be, but she couldn’t help it. She could say divorced if she wanted to. She might have hated the word, but she knew that he hated it even more. He had been the one that had left. He had divorced her. She got to say the word. Brushing off his comment about not having to fire her she shook her head. “Probably, but if anyone needs protecting, it’s our children.” They were still their children. There had never been a distinction there. No matter what they had done, Oralee had made sure that the kids didn’t blame their father, and she thought that he had done the same for her.

When he moved, Oralee almost took a step back. Because she knew what was going to happen. She knew that he was going to touch her, and if he touched her, she was going to have a harder time arguing with him. Because he was going to ground her. He was going to pull her back to this shared reality, and she had almost made it out of that. “Kingsley…” He took her hand and Oralee’s eyes drifted down to look at it before she looked back up at him. “You didn’t though. You didn’t say it back. And you don’t just get to say it now so that I’ll stay. It doesn’t work like that.”

Her voice was filling with emotion, and she didn’t like it. She didn’t want to be emotional, at least not that type of emotional. Anger had worked. Venom she could throw at him, and she could get through that. But her heart? He didn’t get to tug on her heart. That wasn’t fair. And yet, she hadn’t moved. She hadn’t tried to pull her hand away from him, or step back. “You don’t just get to say it, and expect me to stay… That’s not how love works.”

@ husband • 685 • oralee's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0