Greg wasn't sure how this meeting would go. He just wanted things back to how they used to be. Maeve and Val, facing the world together. But, he was seeing more and more things about Maeve that he didn't know were there. Insufferable bully...why can't you be more like Blaise? Her voice was ringing in his head. It was a constant loop. At the 'pop' that signalled Apparition, he turned to face her.

Tracey saw the look on his face and knew he wasn't happy. With himself. No... more likely he wasn't happy with her. She wasn't surprised. She'd felt the icy wall put up between them the afternoon he'd given her the sparklies. She had just been so tired of it all. By the forced smile on his face that afternoon she could tell that things were no where near back to the way they have been when they were children. Back to when she could go to him with anything and know he'd love her regardless.

"Hello, Greg," she said quietly with a smile yet holding her feelings in and protecting herself from possible hurt by being more distant than normal.

His brows rose at her obvious distance, her words and body language saying more than anything about how much they had lost. He wanted to reach out and comfort her. He couldn't. He wouldn't. Not after her accusations. If she didn't want him to be protective, then that was what he would do. "Do you want to sit down?"

She nodded. "Thanks." She sat down on the sofa and looked around the room. It was decorated very comfortably. The piano made her smile. They had taken lessons together. "Do you still play, Greg?" she asked as she nodded toward the instrument.

He shrugged and shoved his hands in his pocket, rocking back on his heels. There was no way he could sit as long as the two of them were so awkward. It looked like icy civility would be the order of the day. Yee-flippin'-ha. "Not lately, though I do remember my lessons. You, Maeve? Do you take time out of your day to play? I remember how much you used to enjoy it."

Tracey smiled sadly. "I try. I'm not as good as I once was either. I haven't had my duet partner around for a long time. Maybe one day we can play again like we used to, Val." She patted the seat on the couch next to her telling him in no uncertain words that he was expected to come sit beside her.

Greg bit back a sigh as he sat cautiously next to her. "You'd want to?"

Tracey looked up at him with hurt flickering in her eyes and whispered, "Of course I would, Val. You're my big brother, no matter messy things get between us. We're always going to be Val and Maeve. Remember?"

I do. But, he couldn't just slip back into their old ways. At least not yet. "I do remember. I want us like that again, Maeve. I just don't know that I know you any more."

Tracey stiffened. The tiny bit of softness she had released around her edges had turned to ice and she felt near tears. All this over Theo Nott? or had he heard something he shouldn't have? "I guess I changed. If I'm not a person you can love any more then why did you ask me to come here?" This hurt almost as much as knowing she was never going to be like Pansy. Her voice betrayed the amount of feeling welling up in her chest and she tried to stand but Greg held her arm.

"I didn't say anything of the sort." He gently pulled her down and into his arms. "I just don't know where my Maeve went is all. Sending me Howlers for defending you and Pans, calling Little Miss Sunshine a..." he trailed off, clearing his throat. He would never ever say that word again. "I just don't understand."

Little Miss Sunshine? Ahhh.... Draco and his big mouth. Instead of letting her heart break she allowed her temper to flare a bit and shook her arm free. "I didn't say anything that I haven't heard out of yours, and Draco's mouth a million times before. Where the hell did you think I learnt it? I have been corrected and I have tried hard not to think of her that way or to say it again for Draco's sake. I actually liked the girl! That you can sit there and think I'm anything different than what I've always been-"

"Stop," he snarled. "I never once told you that it was anything more than a means to an end. Mainly," he drawled scathingly, "saving your arse and mine from an interrogation!" He whirled away from her, pacing the length of the room. "I will not take the blame for this. If I ever felt that way would I have involved myself with Raven and Alexi? Would I have endured hours and hours under a tattoo needle in order to be a part of Raven's family if I thought any less of him that I do someone like Draco? Tell me, Maeve, did you ever truly think like I did or did you keep your pure-blood supremacist thoughts to yourself?"

"Sweet Salazar, do you hear yourself? I never once asked you to protect me. Who was going to recruit me? I'm a pretty face with a pocket full of money. I'm the one the 'Death Eaters' were supposed to wed and bed and sire an heir with but never share their politics with. I'm just a air-headed princess, don't you know? No one ever asked me what I believe and you never once said you were doing it for me. That it was all an act. None of you ever said that. You followed Draco and his father and all your fathers blindly for years. It was what we all did. I know now you and Draco have become 'enlightened'. You've both changed. Not all of us have had the luxury of finding that enlightenment."

She hated that she was letting another argument start but she just couldn't stop herself. "And don't you lecture me on supremacy. I know Muggles and Muggleborns and I know all the same rhetoric that you do. I can choose for myself which is true and which isn't and I don't need you to be my father. I was always supportive of your relationship with Raven. Just as I am being supportive of Blaise's with Abbott. It's not my place to tell you who to care about. I'm just here to support, regardless of whether I agree or not. Especially when I don't. I know it's a hard concept for you, but when you love someone you let make their own choices regardless of how distasteful they may be." Her brow was furrowed. With all his talk of not knowing who she was, from where she was standing, it wasn't her that had changed. She was still the same Tracey. Still the girl who loved her friends. They were her family. Families didn't always agree, but they stood together. They didn't just throw a sister away when they disagreed with her and that was what it seemed everyone was ready to do with her. Blaise, Draco, and now Greg.

"I never wanted to be your father!" His voice rose now. He couldn't stop it. "Never wanted me to protect you? Do you know what I endured...No! You don't because I never wanted you to know. You want to keep throwing it in my face that it's such a fucking hard concept for me? Who taught you that loving someone meant letting them be who they were and making their own fucking mistakes?" He turned to face her, angrier than he could remember being in years. "As for 'not doing it for you'...I could have run, that summer after that bastard came back. Yes, fourth year! My mum wanted me to. She begged me to. I stayed to be with you! With those I thought were my family. You first and foremost. Fuck all! Who knew I could have left then and been out of your hair? I didn't know I was such a burden-"

Tracey pulled out her wand and silenced him. She was shaking with rage. "I will NOT allow you to speak to me that way. I love you. More than Theo. More than myself. More than anyone. You're my brother. That's so much more than just being my friend. You will NOT talk to me of things you should have done differently. I won't let you tear me down that way, make me feel like it is my fault that evil things happened to you. I never asked you to take care of me, but I never said that you were a burden. I wish you'd left, if only to save yourself from the pain you suffered by staying. Especially since I'm so obviously unworthy of the sacrifice. I said I wanted you to treat me with respect. To believe that I'm a person worth more than just taking care of. I know you show you love me by wanting to be that for me, but can't you just love me for me, Val? It's all I've ever wanted from you."

She looked down sadly at the hard black finish of the piano. Things weren't going to be as they were before, that much was certain. With a sigh, she flicked her wand and gave him his voice back before Aparating out of his flat. It was a brief moment before she found herself in the back garden at the Park and she fully allowed herself to sit on the bench and cry.

Greg was only a split second behind her and that was due to him having to Accio his wand. The sight before him crushed him. He didn't want to fight with Maeve. Truly, all he wanted was for her to understand that he would kill for her. Fuck all, he'd die for her and had come close at his father's hand. For as long as he could remember it was him that she had come to in order to soothe away her pain. Nightmares- she Flooed to him or had a house elf bring her when they were really young. Her mother- him again. Nott- check. Anything at all...him. He had been her rock for so long and to have her not need him...it was killing him slowly. He slid his wand into his boot and slowly crossed the garden toward her.

"Poppet, I never said you were at fault. I wanted, needed to protect you. Not because I didn't respect you, but because I have the utmost respect for you. I've always loved you for you." He dropped to his knees next to her. "I would have let them kill me if it meant you were safe. I don't ever want to hear you say that you are unworthy of anything. I mean it, anything. I do love you."

Tracey wrapped her arms around his neck and cried into his shoulder. He smelled the same. Safe. Why couldn't they go back to how things were when before. He was her Val. She was his Maeve. They didn't have to worry about things swirling around them in chaos. And then it hit her. He had always been worried about those things and she had never needed to be because he'd been there to keep the ugly of the world away from her. She'd been very very wrong about a lot of things, but not about the things that stood before them.

"I'm so sorry, Val," she whispered as the pulled back. She knew he hated to see her cry so she tried to wipe her tears quickly. "I didn't know you stayed because of me. I'm sorry you did. You know that, right? I never wanted you to do that for me. Your safety meant more to me than that."

Greg laid his hand on her cheek. "I did because you needed me. You did, even if you didn't admit it. I wanted to keep you safe more than I wanted to keep myself safe. You are my sister. If I can't be here to protect you...what am I good for?"

He felt the tears gathering in his eyes and mentally cussed. There was no way he was going to be a pansy arse and cry. He bit the inside of his cheek and pulled Maeve close again, her head resting on his shoulder. "Shhh."

She controlled her tears and just allowed him to hold her. "I'm sorry I'm not what you think I ought to be, Val," she said quietly at the floor after they had sat in silence for a long time. She couldn't see his face, but she knew she was a huge disappointment to him. She hated to think what was going through his head. First with her weakness with Theo and now with her beliefs. She hadn't really thought they would matter. Not to him, not to anyone.

Greg didn't know what to say to that. He tipped her face up so he could look her in the eyes as he felt a single tear fall. "You are exactly who you should be."

"I really have tried not to call her that, you know. I know you and Draco have changed... maybe neither of you really were what you acted like in school, but I was. I didn't have a father drowning me in propaganda. I had you and Vinny, and Draco and Blaise. I didn't leave and form grand new ideas on how I'm supposed to feel about Muggleborns. I'm just the same girl I was, still influenced by what I knew then."

"I never meant for you to think that way. I never felt that way and thought you were the same as me. I know me leaving mucked everything up. I didn't have a choice. If I had, you would have gone with me."

Tracey nodded sombrely. "I want things the way they used to be. Can we ever be that way again?"

He smiled slowly. "We can try." And he meant it this time.



(Summary: Tracey answers Greg's summons and another argument ensues, but maybe this time they can make up for good.)