Frank Longbottom

just because you are soft does not mean you are not a force

[madeyed-andmoody]

daddy's home

WHEN. june 13th, 1983

WHERE. the flaming dragon

WHO. open starter

Alastor slunk into the Dragon, the remnants of the Order's celebration from the night previous still littering parts of the space, though no one would think it. Made the place look like a stag do had blown up inside. The thought brought a slight smile to the man's face, though no one saw it with his coat collar upturned, a thick beard obscuring most of the bottom half of his face.

His facial hair and temples shot through with silver, Alastor waved a hand at the barkeep, intend on a drink or two to ease his travel-weary body. He'd just gotten off from assignment, an assignment he couldn't shirk much to his irritation.

Duty called, as it were, no matter if there were a war on, and Alastor took his hits fine, even if his body sagged tiredly into the bar top for a moment before he straightened and his eyes sought out every exit he could find.

A familiar figure coming toward him made recognition flicker across his face, but it was there for a single second. If anyone looked at him a moment later, all they would see on the older wizard's face was a bored expression while he waited for his drink.

"What'd I miss," he asked of the wix beside him, the slight uptick of an eyebrow the only indication anything at all could have been awry.

[frcnklongbcttom]

madeyed-andmoody​:

daddy’s home

WHEN. june 13th, 1983

WHERE. the flaming dragon

WHO. open starter

Alastor slunk into the Dragon, the remnants of the Order’s celebration from the night previous still littering parts of the space, though no one would think it. Made the place look like a stag do had blown up inside. The thought brought a slight smile to the man’s face, though no one saw it with his coat collar upturned, a thick beard obscuring most of the bottom half of his face.

His facial hair and temples shot through with silver, Alastor waved a hand at the barkeep, intend on a drink or two to ease his travel-weary body. He’d just gotten off from assignment, an assignment he couldn’t shirk much to his irritation.

Duty called, as it were, no matter if there were a war on, and Alastor took his hits fine, even if his body sagged tiredly into the bar top for a moment before he straightened and his eyes sought out every exit he could find.

A familiar figure coming toward him made recognition flicker across his face, but it was there for a single second. If anyone looked at him a moment later, all they would see on the older wizard’s face was a bored expression while he waited for his drink.

“What’d I miss,” he asked of the wix beside him, the slight uptick of an eyebrow the only indication anything at all could have been awry.                                                    »»————-　　————-««

Frank had kept his head to the floor as he made his way back into the flaming dragon, trying to not look at the mess surrounded them that while he didn’t entirely recall making, he knew he had to have had some part in the creation of. He knew he was a lightweight; he didn’t get out much to begin with and wasn’t much of a drinker, but after having worked so late before finally making it last night he had very little chance. 

He had made it back home, continued drinking for hours before finally falling asleep before he had finally realized he misplaced his wand somewhere along the way. His hopes of quietly sneaking in to grab it and return home with no one the wiser seemed to all go to the wayside the moment he stepped foot back inside however. 

Frank wasn’t entirely certain he knew what poker was, but he felt like the term poker face could apply to this situation. 

His apparent inability to know where he kept his belongings aside, he was still excited to have spotted Alastor and didn’t hide his grin nearly as well as the elder of the two had. He would just say hello, get his wand ( assuming it was here ) and be on his way. Easy as that. 

“Tame night clearly.” Frank shrugged, looking around at the obvious mess all around them. Maybe he would offer to help clean up as well before he went on his way. “We missed you last night.”

[frcnklongbcttom]

adarkershadeofalice​:

Home Fires

Neither one of them had shut the curtains when they’d left – and why would they have? It had been light, then. Light, but not more full of possibility and optimism than any other day these days, which was to say, hardly at all. Now moonlight streamed in through the panes, casting a dim, pallid glow across the room and the two distant lovers within. It felt strange, standing here in the moonlight with Frank, as though the pale glow were highlight all the distance between them that shadows and daylight and the bustling business of lamps and candles worked so well to hide.

She took the jumper her handed her automatically, absently, her hands moving without thinking to brush the soot gently from the soft knit. Warm and soft, like Frank; somehow after everything he was still warm, still soft, while Alice felt sometimes like tempered glass, getting harder and harder with every fire she walked through alive, the fluid heat of her youth locked down into increasingly immovable form and function. She’d never felt trapped by her job and yet…and yet…

Alice shook the thought off and stepped away from Frank to hang the jumped on a hook by the door then bent to unbutton her own boots, knocking the soot off them as she did. Traveling by Floo was convenient, yes, especially when one was perhaps just slightly tipsy, but it did get a bit messy. Especially when one was using public fireplaces like that at Caradoc’s bar, which had seen so many of their fellow Order members home that it had already built-up quite the coat of ashes by the time the Longbottoms has stepped over its threshold. Especially when your own fireplace didn’t get swept out as often as it ought to, perhaps, because little details like that were so easy to overlook when there was so much else that mattered more. (Was that what was happening to their marriage too?) She made a mental note to tell Noolly to see to the hearth tomorrow, knowing even as she did so that she would forget long before she saw the House Elf.

“I know how it is,” Alice said, dismissing his apology. “Don’t worry about it. I’m just glad you made it.” And she did know how it was. There was also something else to do, some other battle to fight – metaphorical or otherwise – and so often they were fighting them apart these days, how were they supposed to keep one another appraised of the situation when there was so much space between them now and even they often didn’t know the exact details of their duties? It was impossible, so Alice had just stopped trying. She couldn’t blame Frank for doing the same. What else were they supposed to do?

She stepped out of her shoes and looked up at him, really looked at him, when he spoke again. Saw the hand reaching for her and moved forward to take it automatically, without thinking, like she had taken the jumper. It felt so normal, so natural, and yet her hand felt clumsy somehow as it closed around his, like time was getting the way and tangling their fingers up in all the distance that stood between them. Alice squeezed the fingers she grasped, as though to spite that distance. As though to spite herself.

A smile, so slow as to feel almost unfamiliar, crawled across her face. Frank couldn’t finish what he was saying any more than she’d been able to earlier, but she knew how that was too. She knew what he was saying – and what he wasn’t saying. “I’d love to stay up and hate myself tomorrow with you, too,” she said. The words were flippant but the quiet joy in her tone was anything but. “That sounds like a wonderful plan.”

And she meant it – but as soon as the words left her lips Alice was overtaken by a sudden flash of awkwardness. It was like being young again, flirting with Frank for the first time, only worse because that had been a heady and exciting new journey while this once-familiar closeness felt like the memory of a dream that would shatter around her the moment she opened her eyes. “I’ll, uh, I’ll get the glasses,” she said, and flashed a smile and pulled her hand free and turned away on the excuse of practicality because it was easier not to acknowledge the distance between them when she wasn’t standing so close.

                                     »»————-　♡　————-««

Traveling by floo was quite far down on Frank’s list of preferred transportation. He hated the way he always came out covered in soot, how the smell lingered the next day and he always somehow managed to have ash remaining on his cheek the next day no matter how long he had scrubbed at it in the shower. Of course some times it was necessary, he had been forced to learn entirely too young that apparating could be dangerous when you weren’t in the right frame of mind. That didn’t stop the sour look on his face when he watched Alice take his sweater, pouting at the scorch marks littering the fragile knit of what had once been his favorite article of clothing.

The concept of the two of them together, kicking off their outerwear at the door felt so familiar yet far away. Like a reoccurring dream from their youth. He had worn that sweater on their first date and had to take it off halfway through because he had been so nervous it was making him hot. Now the sleeves were frayed and the once vibrant blue had been washed out. It felt like everything Frank held closest to him was unravelling these days. But he could fix it. He would fix it. 

“That doesn’t make it right, I-” What really hurt more than anything was just how hard it was to talk to Alice these days. Frank had never been the most outgoing. Sure, he had always had friends and he wouldn’t have ever considered himself shy, but he also hadn’t been the life of the party either. But Alice had been different, always. He could talk to her for hours about anything and listen to her talk even longer. And he never once got tired of it. He couldn’t remember when he had stopped feeling like that. Or when he started having to second guess himself with her. “You should be my priority. Not work, or even the Order. I should never be too busy to let my wife know I won’t be home on time.” Was that their issue? That all Alice was these days was his wife. 

The action of taking her hand felt so normal. Easy, like riding a broom after months of not flying. It was the emotions that came with lacing their fingers together and the gentle squeeze where he was out of practice. 

But then her hand was gone and Frank wanted it back immediately, even if she had only gone to grab the glasses on his suggestion. It was a confusing sort of limbo in between a budding romance and someone he has loved since he was practically a boy. It was confusing and overwhelming and the only relief was that it was Alice that he still wanted to turn to for comfort with the largeness of his feelings. He just needed to learn how again. 

‘I’d love to stay up...’ Frank replayed her words in his mind as he fumbled around looking for the wine bottle. Maybe he was reaching, but the words were so close to an I love you that he allowed himself to pretend that was what she was telling him. That he could recall the last time he had said it to her. 

He popped the cork after finally walking back to her side, pouring glasses a bit heavier than he would have if he weren’t so nervous and not quite ready to do this without the buzz he had been feeling when he first stepped through the floo. “It’s a red, I hope that’s alright.”  

[frcnklongbcttom]

Location: Outside the Leaky Cauldron

Date: June 18th - Early Evening

Status: Open

There was something about early summer that had always made Frank more optimistic than any other time of year. Perhaps it was the lengthened hours of sun- the serotonin that came with there still being daylight even long after he got out of work. Or it could have been the residual excitement of summer break left over from all those years ago when he had still been only a boy still in school. Even at twenty-nine he felt the nostalgia of the end of term and lazy days in the sun. He missed those days.

Whatever it was, it had finally hit him full force, sweeping away the feelings of doubt he had in the Order and everything they were fighting for. Frank didn’t know how long these feelings would last; it seemed a bit less every year, but he was going to take advantage of it while he could. His steps were lighter, reflexes sharper; overall Frank felt he had contributed more to the Order in the past several days than he had in the past six months prior.

The crowds bustling around Diagon Alley seemed to be at a happier place as well, people stopping at every corner to chat and catch up. But Frank had been here with a purpose. He had told himself he was going to leave hours ago, but here he stood. The group he had been searching for were young, freshly out of school and likely wanting very little to do with the streets that reminded most so strongly of shopping for school supplies and text books and the like. He probably should have trusted his gut and given up already, but at least he could say he put in a solid effort.

Plus the hustle of it all meant he had run into a few friendly faces, some he hadn’t seen in years and others that he talked to daily. Still it was nice to be somewhere other than his office in the Ministry or in one of their safe houses for a meeting. It was one last familiar face in the corner that made the decision for him that it was finally time to give up and call it a day, try again one last time tomorrow before work before deciding it was time to give it up and come back to recruiting in August.

Shoving his wand in his pocket, Frank crossed the road, grinning slightly as he caught pace with the person in front of him. “I’m using you walking by right now as my sign to be done for today. I’m spent.”

[adarkershadeofalice]

Home Fires

LOCATION: The Flaming Dragon/The Longbottom Flat DATE: June 13 1984 (wee hours) @frcnklongbcttom

Alice bumped her elbow against Frank’s companionably as they stepped to the floo, giving him a somewhat tipsy half-smile before she stepped into the green flames and out of Caradoc’s bar. She was still dusting herself off as he stepped out of the hearth behind her, but she stretched her hand down immediately to help lever him upright. It was only as his fingers closed around hers that it occurred to Alice to wonder how long ago it had been that they had floo’ed home from anywhere together.

Was this what their life was now? Passing glances in the halls and tea breaks on overlapping shifts? Something much like a crucio, but smaller and colder, seized her chest and twisted.

“I’m glad you made it to the party,” she said softly, mustering a soft smile against the sudden chill. The magical flames were dying behind them, but it wasn’t the lack of hearthfire that had gooseflesh prickling across Alice’s skin. It was June, after all, and stuffy in their little flat with all the windows closed. Even magical airflow charms could only do so much with no moving air to work with. “I…I wasn’t sure you were going to.”

She swallowed. What else could she say? You never seem to have time for me anymore? She had no more for him than he did for her; she couldn’t pretend she was innocent and lay a shared sin at his feet alone. It wasn’t even their sin, but that of the war. Neither of them had a choice, not with the Death Eaters out there. Not with Voldemort. And yet…

Alice missed him. She’d put off thinking about how much – had put off even acknowledging that there was anything missing to miss – for a long time. She still couldn’t say the words now, as though mentioning it aloud would be to give the absence a shape and somehow make it stronger. Make it real. Maybe inescapable.

“Sorry I didn’t wait for you,” she settled for saying instead, trying to keep her tone light and cheery. “I wasn’t sure what time you’d be finished, or if you were even going to be able to come, and I didn’t want for both of us to not show-up, and…” Her words trailed away into a shrug. It felt like they did that a lot these days when they talked. Or more often when they didn’t talk.

[frcnklongbcttom]

“I’m glad I made it too.” Frank hadn’t bothered to wipe the soot off his clothing just yet- his hands had been so focused on trailing the spot where Alice’s elbow knocked into his own, such a familiar gesture that for that fraction of a second he felt like they were them again. For just the slightest fraction of a moment before he remembered just why it was so thrilling to feel the fleeting comfort of familiarity with his own wife.

Frank’s fingers moved from the place they were ghosting over Alice’s touch. If she really zeroed in on his movements she may be able to decipher the exact moment he considered reaching for her hand again before deciding against it and letting both arms hang loosely at his sides. He was fidgety; the tips of his fingers feeling almost a phantom memory of the sparks that would shoot down them when he had been a very young boy still prone to fits of accidental magic. Stillness was a thing he never thought about much before becoming an Auror. Now with every little twitch he thought more about how much he was radiating obvious discomfort, all that training failed him in that regard. He slid his arms out of the sleeves of the sweater he had hastily thrown on before running out the door when he had seen her shutter and handed it out to her, using the opportunity to inch himself closer.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you how late I was going to be I just...” He sighed as his voiced trailed off. He just what? Had grown so used to doing things solo he hadn’t thought to clue her in until they had locked eyes at the bar. Once upon a time Frank thought they could communicate without even needing words they were so in sync. Now once again he didn’t have the words but it was because they didn’t know how to talk to each other at all anymore.

“Hear me out.” Perhaps Frank wouldn’t be doing this if he were entirely sober, or perhaps that part of him that felt so head over heels for this woman in front of him was still a large enough part of him he would anyway in a fight to win her heart back. He raised his hand towards hers again, letting it hover as he debated whether or not to intertwine their fingers in that way that used to be second nature. “I uh… I bought a bottle of wine for while we got ready but I got sidetracked with work and- Well we’re already up late enough we’ll hate ourselves when it’s time to wake up regardless.” Frank finally let himself look her in the eyes. “What if we stayed up. I feel like it’s been so long since we’ve had the chance to just talk. Just the two of us. I-” I miss you.

[frcnklongbcttom]

Location: The Flaming Dragon. Time: Early to Mid Evening. 

Frank wasn’t the person who could hold his liquor. Sure, he had been able to tolerate a bit more when he was younger- when the hangover hadn’t lasted well into the evening and he managed to get out a lot more than he did these days. Or perhaps it was simply the fact that looking at a glass of wine resulted in Moody’s voice going off in his mind about Constant Vigilance and Lowering your Inhibition. He really didn’t mind being the one to get everyone home at the end of the night, or to make sure they didn’t do anything too stupid that would get them all in trouble. It had been his job for a long time now and it hadn’t changed all that much with age.

That did mean however, that nights like tonight when he did let loose, it took very little to get him a good buzz. He hadn’t even been here all that long, came late after getting stuck at work hours after he should have left. Frank had tried to catch up to the rest before heading over; the two drinks he had while changing from his work robes to something more appropriate and then the shot he had taken right as he had gotten in. And here he was giggling over nothing like some bloody 15 year old after their first real drink at a house party. Merlin Longbottom, pull yourself together.  

He was going to regret it in the morning, there was little doubt about that. But that was a tomorrow Frank’s problem. Tonight they were letting go and worrying about being with the people around him. If someone had to push back his hair for once… so be it.

He reached over the bar when no one had been around, grabbing some tequila bottle he remembered little about other than drinking it in the Gryffindor Common Room a lifetime ago. He had gotten absolutely smashed then too. He poured the contents into two shot glasses, passing one over to a presence next to him and grinned.

“If Doc asks, it wasn’t me who spilt this all over the bar.”

[recreancyrpg]

Welcome to Recreancy, Ashlie!

You have been accepted for the role of FRANK LONGBOTTOM!

But Frank wasn’t sure he was willing to go as far as he had signed up for anymore. He had hidden his participation from Alice for years before she had caught on and joined herself, and while he was willing to put his life on the line for all the same reasons he had been when he first joined, he wasn’t willing to put his life on the line.

Please take a look at the new member checklist and send in your account within 24 hours!

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