you can pretty lie

and say it's okay

but you can't cry pretty

She had gone to pick up the kids from her mum, and she had barely made in the door before Anderson was begging her to go to the pitch. She had promised that she would take him with her one of these days now that the season was officially back on. And she had made him the promise with conditions. That it had to be a day that she came to get them directly after school, and not too close to dinner time. That it had to be warm enough that they could take Cordelia with them. And that it couldn’t be a day that he had a lot of homework to do.

He had come bounding up to her the moment that she had opened the door, raving that he had already finished his homework and that Grandmum had checked it already. And that it was pretty out. And that they could go today. Because she was early. And Olivia could admit that she had come early with every intention of taking them to the pitch, but she hadn’t thought that he was going to be just that excited. Out of their children, she didn’t know who had the most passion for the game. Anderson, or Lyla?

They were both intense about it, and she was sure that her daughter would do great things with her lofty goals. But for today, she knew that Anderson was going to be the one most excited about getting to go and watch practice. Olivia thanked her mother and tucked Cordelia against her as she flipped her hair out of the way for the diaper bag straps and held her hand out for her son. Still having her magic was nice in moments like these. She didn’t have to juggle as much. And they didn’t have an elf to pop them places. They had a maid around the Hall, but a human one, and one that Olivia paid quite handsomely to keep the place in order.


Popping into their offices at the pitch she let go of Anderson’s hand and let him run ahead of her outside and into the seats for the players’ families. She didn’t like to sit in the Top Box all alone when she came to watch practice. She liked to be down here, close enough that she could talk to Marcus when they were through, and close enough on hand that all of the players knew that she was here. Beckett may have been the name on the books, but the Tornados had been a gift for her, and she thought that nearly everyone that knew anything about quidditch knew that.

“Don’t run up those stairs, young Mister Graves!” Olivia’s voice carried through the pitch as Anderson went tearing off up the steps to the side and she shook her head with a light laugh at his response of, “Yes, Mummmm.” She knew that he would be running again the moment that he was out of her sight, but he did make it to the edge of the box before she heard his feet go tearing off again. Marcus had turned at the sound of her voice and she waved to him before she let her eyes scan over the players. She was still disappointed that her nephew wasn’t up there, but they had found someone else to keep for now.

It was Krum that she let her eyes linger on the longest. Beckett’s decision to try and hire the man out of retirement had paid off, and she was glad that he had elected to come and play for them instead of the numerous other offers that she was sure that he had gotten. She gave him a nod as he flew by, and then she turned over her own shoulder to look at the box around the opening. It was mainly empty, there were a couple of agents, and managers sitting around, but it was the young woman that caught her interest.

Shifting Cordelia in the crook of her arm, Olivia set the diaper bag on one of the seats and she pulled a little cloth elephant out of it for her daughter. Playing with the baby with her hands, she turned her eyes to the girl that she didn’t know. “Hello.” Her smile was warm and friendly, “Normally I know the players' families, but with so many new faces, I don’t think we’ve met.”

Desirae Maribel Krum • 739 • olivia's outfit +
anderson's outfit + cordelia's outfit - including blanket

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

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[attr="class","cbgtop"]

[attr="class","cimg"]

[attr="class","clbox"]

[attr="class","ctopline"]Not usually the kind to

[attr="class","cscriptshop"]show my heart to the world

[attr="class","cline"]

[attr="class","clyrics"]I'm pretty good at keeping it together[break]
I hold my composure, for worse or for better

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[attr="class","cbody"]Viktor coming out of retirement was not something that Desirae had ever even thought about. There had been no reason for her to. As long as she’d known him, he had been coaching and out of the air professionally. He had never said anything about wanting to go back, so it was just not something that she’d ever even had a passing thought about. Their life was good the way that it was. She hadn’t thought that anything major would happen to change that.
[break][break]
But recently, that seemed to be all there was. Just… change. Everything had seemed settled and now nothing was. Narcissa had left the hotel—first just to move back home, but then she had officially turned in her resignation and she had left. She had tried to come by the house to talk to her and to explain, but Desirae just hadn’t even wanted to hear it. It had been days after her birthday, days after she had realized that there was definitely something going on between her and Viktor. They had barely been on speaking terms on her birthday and somehow, she had known. So she had been doing her best to avoid Narcissa just so that she didn’t have to hear her say it. But that hadn’t lasted.
[break][break]
Desirae just hadn’t even wanted to hear her explanations. She had let her say that she was leaving, and that was all there was to it. She had walked out of the greenhouse with only a passing comment about sending her a change of address card. Another change, another person walking out of her life. She already was not all that close to her mother—she loved her, of course, but their relationship had been strained since her parents’ divorce and more so after the separation that Vince had insisted on. Narcissa had been like her family for as long as she had known her. And now she was just leaving her, and she just didn’t even care. She refused to be hurt by her anymore, so she had decided that she just wasn’t going to contact her at all. Somehow, she very much doubted that the woman would be contacting her either. Clearly, she did not matter as much to her as she’d once thought she had.
[break][break]
She had told Viktor that she could still see the kids if she wanted to, only because he had all but insisted on it. Really, Desirae just thought it would be easier on them to not get attached to a woman that was just going to leave, but she wasn’t going to argue with him about it. If he wanted them to meet up so she could see Vzá and Jack, fine. She just knew that she wasn’t going to have any part in it.
[break][break]
That had been the one major change in their lives as of late, but the other came from Viktor coming out of retirement, and that was the one that she was dealing with today. She was being supportive. All that she wanted was for him to be happy, even if she felt like she couldn’t keep up with all of the changes taking place recently. The fact that she didn’t love the idea of him playing again had far more to do with her own insecurities than it did with him. Desirae just figured that she’d continue to keep them to herself and eventually, she’d feel better about it. It would be okay. Eventually.
[break][break]
Today, she had reluctantly agreed to go watch a practice. Vzá had insisted upon going, of course, which was fine. If she still had Narcissa around, she probably would have thought it was better to leave Jack behind. A Quidditch pitch wasn’t exactly the place for a baby, but it was just a practice. It wasn’t like she was taking him to a match without roaring audiences and thousands of people. He would be fine at a practice.
[break][break]
Vzá was exploring—within reason. She wanted to get a good look around the pitch, but Desirae had just reminded her not to get out of yelling distance. If she wanted her to come back, she wanted her to be able to hear her. If she couldn’t, then she’d gone too far. With Jack in her arms—because staying in his stroller was out of the question apparently, she kept her eyes on Viktor as he flew. She had never really seen him play before, until the pre-season. Now she knew that she didn’t really have to worry about him falling or getting hurt. So, she tried not to. Easier said than done, apparently. Her gaze broke away from the sky when she heard a voice, and she looked over to see a woman a little way’s away from her with a baby in her arms as well. “Um… probably not,” she said, finally, a small smile forming on her lips. “Desirae Krum. It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Graves.” It wasn’t hard to assume that a woman that said she knew everyone’s families was likely the owner of the team.
[break][break]

[attr="class","cnotes"]850 ● @ mrs. graves ● outfit, no shades + jack's outfit + vzá's outfit

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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you can pretty lie

and say it's okay

but you can't cry pretty

Olivia loved quidditch, she always had. Playing had never been her forte, but she was an avid spectator, and she knew that anyone that followed the Tornados well enough to know about the owners, and the coaches, and all of those that played behind the scenes, knew that Olivia Graves was the one that loved them. They had been her gift, after all. Beckett had bought them for her as a present, after they had had the older two kids. Some men bought their wives jewels after they had babies, Beckett had bought her a quidditch team. And while she loved every bracelet that he bought her, and Merlin knew there were a lot of bracelets, she thought that the quidditch team would always be one of her favorite gifts.

Between the team, and the house in the Maldives Olivia knew that she would never beat Beckett when it came to giving presents. He would out do her at every turn, and while she would always complain about never knowing what to get the man that had everything, she did enjoy the fact that he always seemed to know exactly what to get for her. She loved that. And she loved him. This family that they had built was something that she had never really thought of for herself. Not in the beginning. Not when she had been so driven to get exactly where she was now. Not when she had been the mistress, and there had been a whole wife’s worth of space in between them.

That was not a problem anymore. Beckett had chosen her over twenty-one years ago now, and she had never had a reason to doubt him. Olivia had more faith in her husband than she did in just about anything. Even when things had been tense, even when she was sure that he hated her, she had never doubted that he was faithful to her. And she hoped he knew that he never had to doubt her either. She had been his since that night in that bloody coat closet. There hadn’t been anyone else in her life from that moment on, and she had hated him for that once upon a time.

She had hated that she had been so completely in love with him. But these days she thought that it was worth it. For everything that they had. For the life that they had built. The family that they had, and were still, raising. This was the life that she had never known that she had wanted, and he had given it to her. He had given her everything. And she spent her life trying to figure out how to make that up to him. How to even the score. Because he had risked everything, for her. He gave her the world. And she didn’t think that she would ever quite be that amazing.

Bringing the children with her to the pitch, especially Cordelia, was something that she did more when he wasn’t here than when he was. She knew that there would be some comment about bringing an infant to the pitch, and how she was too little to even understand what was going on. But Olivia liked to think that she was responsible for the indoctrination of the love of quidditch into their children’s veins. There were far worse places that she could take a baby. She wasn’t taking her into the courtroom with her. She wasn’t going to prosecute a trial, carrying their four-month-old. But she would bring her here. She would make sure that she was exposed to as much quidditch as she thought was appropriate. And practice was not a match. There was not near the noise there would have been on her little ears at a match.

When Olivia’s eyes had landed on the young woman that she didn’t know, she was curious. They had plenty of new players on the team. And practices were open to families, she knew that there had been some tension over that rule in the past, but if their players had little children, she wanted them here. She wanted them to see that this was something that they could do, if they worked hard enough. And she would not bring her children somewhere that she wasn’t allowing their children to be. That was unfair. Still, she didn’t know the woman, and she was pleased when she introduced herself. Krum.

“Just Olivia, is fine.” She brushed off the use of her last name, there was no need for formalities. That was silly when they were standing in a quidditch pitch of all places. She shifted Cordelia in her arm again, and stretched her free hand to the younger woman, “It’s lovely to meet you. I’m glad that you guys came.” She liked families being here, and she liked getting to know them all. Her eyes fell on the child in the woman’s arms and she smiled at him, “You’re awfully cute. What’s your name?” Without knowing how old the child was, she didn’t know if he could answer her or not, but she didn’t want to be a stranger to him either if she could help it.

@ krums • 867 • olivia's outfit
anderson's outfit + cordelia's outfit - including blanket

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

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[attr="class","cbg"]

[attr="class","cbgtop"]

[attr="class","cimg"]

[attr="class","clbox"]

[attr="class","ctopline"]NOT USUALLY THE KIND TO

[attr="class","cscriptshop"]show my heart to the world

[attr="class","cline"]

[attr="class","clyrics"]I'M PRETTY GOOD AT KEEPING IT TOGETHER[break]
I HOLD MY COMPOSURE, FOR WORSE OR FOR BETTER

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[attr="class","cbody"]She was being supportive. That was what mattered right now. It didn’t matter what she thought about it. It didn’t matter how much it worried her, or how much she hated change. Desirae was not going to be the reason that Viktor did not go back to playing Quidditch professionally. If she did that, if she became that person, she knew that he would eventually resent her for it. He would wonder why he married a woman that fretted and startled easily and jumped at her own shadow. He would wonder why he didn’t marry one of the hundreds of other women that she was sure he would meet now, that was normal and knew about Quidditch and wasn’t chock full of baggage. He would hate her if she talked him out of it.
[break][break]
But she wasn’t sure how much better it was going to be that she hadn’t. She was still just as sure that he would find someone much better than she was. Someone that was normal, someone that was supermodel gorgeous, that could go to his afterparties and cheer in the stands—in the normal part of the stands, not in the Top Box that had far less people. She could talk about strategy and break down the other team’s defense. Desirae had all but imagined this imaginary woman, someone that she was sure would come along any day now. And she just wouldn’t be able to compete with that.
[break][break]
Desirae had already wondered what Viktor could possibly see in her. The years since Vince had not built her confidence back up to where it had been prior to him. She still couldn’t riddle it out why he would want to be with her when he had so many more options. Better options. Smarter, prettier, more Quidditch savvy options. Even when he had been in retirement, she had thought that. But now that he was playing again, he would be in the spotlight and those women would come flocking more than they already did. How was she going to stand a chance against any of that? She couldn’t even go to the afterparties and the events. She still hated crowds, she still was jumpy in crowds, especially in London. She couldn’t even be there to compete.
[break][break]
Maybe she was being silly. Everyone had told her that she was—even Narcissa, who she had told all about it prior to… everything. Everyone said how in love with her he was, how he would never even want anybody else or look at anybody else, and she knew that he loved her. It wasn’t like she had doubted that. He proved it each and every day, and she knew that. She just also knew that the ‘something better’ hadn’t come along yet. When it did, there was a chance that everything was going to change. He wouldn’t do it to hurt her or spite her. He would likely feel bad about it. But in the end, that ‘something better’ would win, wouldn’t it? Or was she just being ridiculous?
[break][break]
Even if she was, she knew that she had to be supportive. She wanted to be. If that meant coming to watch a practice when he asked, that was what she was going to do. Vzá had been jumping off the walls with excitement, so she knew that she couldn’t say no even if she wanted to. She would just have to get through it. Watching him on a broom brought about different emotions. Worry and fear, of course—he was not as young as he once was, and professional Quidditch was dangerous. But she also knew how happy he was up in the air. Somehow that was obvious to her, even from meters away. He loved it. It was why she had to support it. It was why she had to be okay with this, no matter what happened, because he was doing something that he loved and she was not going to be the one to take that away from him.
[break][break]
The stands weren’t too busy, obviously. Only some family had come to watch the practice, and they weren’t talking too much amongst themselves, which put her at ease. Dealing with the swirl of emotions that being here brought out of her and also trying to converse with strangers would have been a lot for her to deal with.
[break][break]
But as if the thought had brought it about, someone spoke, and it was obvious to her. A look in her direction made it clear to Desirae that it was the owner’s wife. Or just the owner, depending on who you asked. She shook the woman’s hand in response, a smile still on her lips. “Yes, well—once Vzá learned that she could come to practices, there’s been no stopping her.” She gestured at the girl that had somehow managed to make it up onto the next tier of seating a bit higher up. Not too high still, of course, but a better view to watch her papa flying. “Jack.” Desirae answered, her gaze moving away from her stepdaughter and back down to her son. He wasn’t fussing either—it seemed like the pitch suited everyone but her. “And who’s this?” She asked, gesturing at the baby in the other woman’s arms. She was glad she wasn’t the only one that had brought a baby to a Quidditch pitch, at least.
[break][break]

[attr="class","cnotes"]901 ● @ olivia ● outfit, no shades + jack's outfit + vzá's outfit

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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