Friends, Lovers, or Nothing (Mari/Apollo)

[Elinor Le Coeur]

Nellie rolled over and streatched languidly. It was good. Apollo had stayed, and life seemed to be normal again. She got up and slipped on a robe, kissed him lightly on the cheek and went to make some coffee and breakfast.

She put on the coffee and started frying some bacon. She wondered when her life ever came to this, why she held back with Apollo for so long. She had always told herself it was to protect Mari, and herself. But really, it was to protect Claude's memory. But Claude has been dead 25 years, and she needed to live again.

She hoped he would stay this time, what with al lthe trouble that had happened. Adns chool was back in session now, and Nellie would feel better if he was around, is all.

She finished with the bacon, made some toast and started to go to set the table when Apollo was in her way, leaning in the door frame. It was quite unfair, becuase he was only in his shorts, and Elinor blushed. She kissed him as she went by.

"Morning, love."

[Apollo McGonagall]

Apollo and Nelllie had had a wonderful night together full of their own kind of magic. Apollo had enjoyed himself in ways he had almost forgotten about. Almost. He had woken up in the middle of the night, getting dressed and was getting ready to leave. It wasn't that he didn't like Nellie, really he did, but it was just his nature to preform the "Wam Bam. Thank ya ma'am." and leave in the middle of the night. It had happened so many times before with his other "Midnight snacks" that he hadn't really thought about there being anything wrong with doing that to Nellie. He was half way dressed when he looked down at her sleeping body and he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

Curse her for bringing him into this. Apollo wasn't one to stick around for a relationship. He had bad experiences with people his own age and he didn't want to feel bound to one place. It was why he was a traveling poet and not an English poet only. He liked to move. There was just something about Nellie that made him want to stay. Being the push over that he was way down deep inside, Apollo got back undressed and crawled back into bed with Nellie. He was woken up to a kiss on the cheek by Nellie in the morning and she left to go make breakfast.

Apollo got up about ten minutes later when he smelt coffee. He loved two things in life and that was sweets and coffee. He walked straight to the kitchen, forgetting that he only had his shorts on.

"Good morning." Apollo said, turning his head to follow Nellie and smiling. "What's cookin' good lookin'?"

[Elinor Le Coeur]

Nellie smiled when he addressed her. He had always been a bit of a lech, but surprisingly, she didn't mind. She smirked and started to lay the table. "Bacon and eggs." This was different. New and different. Nellie hadn't been in a domestic sitiuation with man since Claude. She stayed away form most of them - for Mari, she said to herself. Always for Mari. But now, MAri was a woman grown, and Elinor wanted her own piece of Happiness.

And in these times, who could say how long it would last?

When the table was set the muggle way, they sat down, and Nellie accio'd the rest of the fixings. So here they were, almost like a normal couple. Nellie was at a loss. what could she say? That she missed him, that she enjoyed it, that she was scared shitless of him leaving her again? All would be blindingly true, but all the exact wrong things to say. She wanted this to last. She wanted him to stay. She knew they were pipe dreams, really, but miracles were known to happen.

"So uh - how's Minerva?" She knew the professor had taken some bad hits i nthe battle of the ministry, and was still in the hospital. And,it was a realitively safe conversation starter, even if his realationship with her was a bit rocky.

It was at least safer than Nellie confessing her feelings, anyway.

[Apollo McGonagall]

Apollo helped set the table the muggle way, at least in part anyway. Once the majority was on the table, Nellie summoned the rest to the table so they could sit and eat. Apollo felt out of his field of comfort. He had never been one to like the "morning after" breakfast chatter that was just always so awkward and uncomfortable. He knew they were coming. The statements he knew he didn't want to hear. It was why he hated same age relationships. The younger ones never fell like that for someone like him. 'I missed you', 'I love you', 'Don't leave me', They were all statements that he knew Nellie would be feeling after the last time, but Apollo just wasn't ready for that yet. Thankfully he was saved by her asking about Minnie. At the memory of that day he nearly spit out a mouth full of coffee.

Nearly.

"Minerva is no longer at the hospital." Apollo said, a mischievous smile on his face. "You could say she broke out of prison early and is now in the capable hands of Madame Pomfrey at Hogwarts. St. Mungols was never a place to keep a McGonagall down for long. They fail epically every time. Though, the way I hear it, Minnie got that bastard Rodolphus with a few good hits herself before she was taken in. According to the records, Minnie got him better then he got her. But just barely."

A look of despair crossed his face before he could hide it. He loved his suck up, better then thou sister no matter what he said and he would gladly die for any of his remaining family. It was just hard to let the past go sometimes was all.

[Elinor Le Coeur]

Nellie didn't know that Minerva had transferred. Knowing her, however, Nellie was sure it was less of a transfer and more of an escape. She loved Minerva, and admired her. She knew Lestrange probably wasn't dea, but she hoped.

"Good. I'm glad she got him. I hope all those bastards burn in a very special hell."

She hated them - the pure blood maniacs. Mostly because they dragged chilren into their madness, and killed only for the sake of it. She especially hoped Dolohov was a rotting corpse by now. She had never forgiven him for tearing apart her family. And now, instead of being in the thick of battle, she knew her place was here, to be a safe house for the Order, and a scout for Hogwarts. It was nice, but she really wanted to be the one to finish Dolohov. But, dead is dead. And she hoped he was.

She smirked as she caught him talk about his sister with an almost tender way. He was a man of walls, she knew. She smirked silently at his momentray slippage into cuteness over his family. She wasn't going to mention it though, not if she wanted to keep him.

[Apollo McGonagall]

Apollo caught himself thinking about his family and brought his attention back toward Nellie. He found her deep in her own thoughts. What ever those thoughts were, they seemed dark by the fire burning in her eyes. Toward the end, reconciliation passed by her facial features and so he didn't bother to delve into them. IF she wanted to talk about it, she would let him know.

"I have to agree with you though." Apollo said. "Those death eaters have a special place all picked out for them in hell. May they burn with the hottest fires."

Apollo reached over and grabbed some bacon and summoned a piece of cheese to put on his toast. He made him a wonderful bacon and cheese sandwich and ate it with gusto. After that and another cup of coffee, Apollo looked back up at Nellie.

"Thank you for the breakfast." Apollo said smiling. "It was wonderful."

[Mari LeCoeur]

Mari was exhausted. She'd spent the last four days meeting deadlines and fending off the obnoxious guy at work that refused to stop hitting on her. She'd woken up at 5 this morning, the hour she'd been keeping since all hell broke loose in the ministry a month ago. So much news, so little time to report it. Unable to get back to sleep, Mari organized her flat, washed the dishes, jotted down a few ideas for short stories to give Emerson, took an hour long shower, and drank two pots of coffee. By 9 am she was so hyped up on caffeine that she couldn't concentrate on her book. Instead she decided that she would go and visit her mother. Besides, a delicious croissant would be better than the sugary Owl O's she was going to eat for breakfast.

A short broom ride and aparation later she let herself into the secret stairwell leading to her mothers living area above the pie shop. "Mum," she called as she ascended the stairs. Her mooter always kept early hours, surely she was up by now. "Have you ever heard of a witch named Constance? Some batty old lady came into the Prophet this week claiming she was Minerva's sister of all things. I told her I knew very well who Minerva's relatives were and... Oh." Mari blanked when she realized it was not simply herself and her mother in the dining room. She recognized Apollo right away, despite only having met him twice. She looked from him to her mother and felt her temper rising. How long had Nellie been seeing him without telling her? And why in bloody hell was he in his shorts in her seat at the dining room table? He'd already broken her mothers heart once, wasn't that enough? Scowling, she marched into the kitchen to find a large cup of coffee. She was going o need much more caffeine to deal with this.

[Elinor Le Coeur]

Elinor heard her daughter before sh saw her. There was no way to get Apollo out of the way, so Nellie had to face the music. Her daughter had a fire temper, and was probably not going to be pleased to see Apollo in his shorts, either.

Nellie was right. MAri stopped mid sentence and stormed into the kitchen. Nellie got up and gave Apollo a quick peck on the cheek. "I'll be right back." She followed her daughter into the kitchen. T present, Mri was leaning on the counter, almost shotgunning the coffee. Elinor poured her own before addressing her daughter.

"Love- I can explain." She really couldn't, but she had to press on. "I want you to know- this isn't just a one night stand." At least Nellie hoped it wouldn't be. She sipped her coffee and tried to stay calm. Apollo was probably padding to the bedroom, dressing and getting the hell out. But knowing Mari, the girl would probably drag his arse in from the street and hex him into oblivion.

[Mari LeCoeur]

Mari struggled briefly to control her temper. He's more than a one night stand? That was worse. That meant that this wasn't the first time they'd slept together, that her mother was going around seeing men behind her back. How many had there been? How many that Mari didn't know about? "Mum! What are you thinking! You know what he did to you last time, and yet you're still going around sleeping with him?" she shuddered at the thought of ehr mother sleeping with anyone and continued. "I can't believe you're doing this! You're just asking for pain, and you know it!"

She drank the last of her coffee and stomped to the other side of the room, refilling her mug and neglecting the sugar she usually put in it. This wasn't a sugary sort of morning. She grabbed a scone from the pastry dish by the oven and nearly crushed it in her grasp, a few small crumbs falling to the floor. "I can't believe you didn't tell me... I thought we told each other everything, that we trusted one another." she fixed her scone with a determined look, her voice betraying her emotions. She wasn't just angry, she was hurt too, but she hated to let on that she was. She pulled a chunk off the scone and dipped it in her coffee. She jammed the bit of pastry into her mouth before she said anything else to give away her true feelings.

[Elinor Le Coeur]

Nellie liked to think that everything she did, she did for Mari. Joining the Order, making the shop a safe house, hiding Apollo - all for her daughter. Then how in Merlin's name did she come to make such a grand mess of things?

Elinor always had to be strong - always. When Claude died ,when Mari was growing up, when the Order needed a motherly figure to support- she could never show weakness, or pain. But she did, she did to MAri when Apollo left the first time. She wasn't planning on letting him go again either.

She poured herself another cup of coffee. "Love- maybe - maybe I need some pain in my life. And honey, I do trust and love you, more than anything on this earth. But - maybe it's time I figure it out, yeah?"

Nellie could tell her daughter was at the brink of hysterics. A mother just knows. She set down her coffee and took Mari into a hug. Elinor stroked her daughter's hair, like she used to when MAri was little. "It'll work out in the end."

It was said more for Nellie's sake than Mari's. Becuase as far as Elinor was concerned, it had to work. It just had to.

[Mari LeCoeur]

Mari sighed and leaned into her mothers hand. She was right. Mari was overreacting. "fine," she conceded "but if he hurts you again, I get to kick his are up and down Hogsmeade." she gave Nellie a small hug. "I just want you to be safe... " clearing her throat of the emotion building there, she pushed away and went to empty what was left of her coffee into the sink.

Hearing movement in the dining room, Mari pushed into the room and right up to the now clothed Apollo. She got in his personal bubble and eyed him. "You behave yourself or Im coming after you myself and you'll wish you'd never even heard of my mother, got?" she said glaring the wizard down. Hearing the door between the dining room and kitchen creak open, she stepped back and held out her hand. "I'm Mari, Nellie's daughter. We met years ago." she smiled pleasantly and pretended she hadn't just threatened him for her mothers sake.[/quote]

[Apollo McGonagall]

Apollo did the only thing he could think to do now that another person was in the house. He scurried up to the room and got dressed. It had been an annoyingly cold week so far and so he had to start dressing for the weather and not just for looks. He charmed his hair to fit back nicely as always and started walking back downstairs. He ran into the woman who had barged in earlier. Before he could get a bloody word in edge wise, she was threatening him. A dark gleam could be seen in Apollo's eye as he said, "You don't have to worry about me hurting her. Family will do that enough when they don't trust her."

He stood back when he saw Nellie walk into the room. He looked down at the girl and said, "Yes I remember you. A fire ball then too you were. The name's Apollo. Apollo McGonagall and to answer your previous question, there is no sister named Constance. Only Minnie and Artemis . Sorry to disappoint. We do have a crazy third aunt named Constance but I'm sure you'd rather not want to meet her. She has a tendency to hate red heads. Blasted the last red head she met's hair clean off."