Thicker than Water (Marauders Era)

1 September, 1991 - Platform

"Can I interest you in another brownie?"

"You've asked that exact question three times already."

"And?"

"And shut up and give me another brownie."

Ethan snorted and smiled in triumph as he handed Lavinia yet another baked good and plopped down on the threadbare couch next to her in a rather unceremonious fashion. For a moment they sat in silence, eating their food, neither making any move to start the movie they were watching. Which was odd, Lavinia realized. She knew why she wasn't picking up the remote and it was simply because she was distracted and didn't much care what was on in the background. But Ethan... well. Usually he wouldn't have tolerated more than a few minute interruption.

The reason for his delay, however, became clear only moments after Lavinia realized that it was odd to begin with.

"You do know you're stress eating, right?" Ethan asked, glancing sideways at his friend with an almost concerned expression.

Lavinia wrinkled her nose at him. "And you're enabling me. What's your point?"

Ethan rolled his eyes. "Of course I'm enabling you, silly," he countered, like this was the most obvious thing in the world. "You tend to stress starve and I'm having none of that. Besides, I make a mean brownie." To emphasize this last point, he brandished the last bit of his own chocolate dessert at her before popping it into his mouth with an exaggerated noise of delight.

Lavinia chucked and shook her head, pushing away the vaguely fluttering feeling of mixed gratitude and shame she got from knowing that he had realized one of her less desirable habits and was fighting it in his own, rather indirect way. "That you do," she agreed easily, holding up her own food as though to toast him. "That you do."

Ethan shot her wink, which made her laugh again, before his expression settled into more serious lines. "So," he prompted. "Why are you stress eating? Or are my brownies actually as good as I think they are?"

Lavinia rolled her eyes, but sighed, knowing it was probably better to say this out loud sooner rather than later. She'd have to tell Remus later, anyway and that was half the reason she was here in the first place. "I went with Heather to send Jasmine off to school," she explained, pausing to take a bite of what was admittedly a very tasty brownie. "And I saw my godson there."

Ethan blinked at her in apparent shock. "You have a godson?" he asked blankly.

Lavinia winced, renewed guilt washing over her at the realization that for all that she'd known Ethan for quite some time now and dated him for nearly two years... She'd never mentioned Harry. It wasn't that she hadn't thought of him but... But Ethan had always been her escape, the place she could go where no one was concerned and no one asked questions about a past she sometimes still needed to run from. If only for a little while. And ever since she had met him, Ethan had been exactly where she had run.

So Lavinia sighed again and nodded, her hands dropping into her lap, one still holding her brownie. "Yeah," she admitted after a moment. Then, realizing that he would probably want some sort of explanation, she added, "Remember James and Lily? I've told you about them before."

"The friends you lost?" he asked, a spark of realization in his face that turned into something quiet and almost sad.

Lavinia nodded, nibbling more of the brownie. Really, she though absently, she didn't know why she'd spent so long being so ridiculous about food. Chocolate really did seem to make things better. Ethan certainly thought so anyway, and Lavinia had been fairly easily converted to his line of thinking.

"I was named his guardian when he was born," she admitted, staring at the frozen image on the television screen from the movie they had paused to grab snacks. And apparently now to have this conversation. "It was me and... and my ex fiance."