Long Time Coming ((Finn))

[Merrick Marr]

Was the green shirt a better choice? Or was the blue? Merrick picked up the green shirt off the bed once more and pulled it up in front of him in the mirror. It was right then that he paused and really looked at himself, what the heck was he doing? He was choosing his outfit? What was wrong with a normal outfit, something that didn’t matter? Merrick didn’t want to admit to himself that he was intending to make an impression…not that he hadn’t before, but now he suddenly felt like he had to. Why did he feel he had to? He threw the shirt back onto the bed as he ran a hand over his face. This was getting ridiculous. It was just a stupid Quidditch Awards Ceremony. It meant nothing to him, not after what had happened to him earlier, but then again that wasn’t why he was doing this…he only agreed to go because of…well yes, because of Finn really. It was their first ‘planned’ meeting. Both of their fathers were planning on attending and dragging them along, it would be the perfect place for them to meet up and hang out for a while to try to get away.

Merrick sighed again as he just grabbed the blue button up shirt and pulled it on, not even bothering to look at the green one again. There was little time for him to think about things as he picked up his wand and headed down the stairs to his father. Merrick was more than happy to be old enough to Apparate on his own. Side-along Apparation wasn’t his favorite thing in the world, so it was good to be able to do it on his own. As that familiar feeling began to pull at him, sucking him through a wind tunnel he shut his eyes, his destination clear. When his eyes opened he was staring up at the building that would house the ceremonies. His father was already headed up the stairs as Merrick sat down on one of the steps, waiting for Finn. He wasn’t in the mood to go in yet and he definitely wasn’t in the mood to deal with his father for 10 minutes or so until he arrived. So he sat on the step by himself.

That’s probably when the thoughts began to really take hold of him. The last few times he’d met with Finn things seemed to get out of control…emotionally speaking of course. Merrick was getting attached; Finn had become his friend…one of his better, if not his best friend. That was something Merrick wasn’t familiar with. There had never been a time in his life when he could rely on anyone, but yet Finn had randomly stepped into his life and shown him that he could rely on someone, that he could have a friend that understood him. That was something Merrick desperately needed. His thoughts were interrupted as someone took a seat near him, the familiar voice making Merrick look over. “Took ya long enough,” Merrick grinned.

[Finn Miles H7]

The word 'Quidditch' was practically a religion in the Miles' household, and so when there was any sort of Quidditch gathering, you could almost guarantee that the entire family would be there. This evening would be no different. Finn and his siblings, along with their parents, would be traveling together to watch Wyatt be recognized at the annual Quidditch awards ceremony. Supposedly, he was the most improved Chaser of the year, almost doubling his numbers in the area of goals scored and steals made. Though the Wanderes had lost in the semi-finals, they had still made a good run.

Buttoning up his shirt, Finn finished getting ready. He was running a little bit late, considering he had to wait a good fifteen minutes just to get into the shower. That was the price you paid for having two sisters. Just minutes before the family was about to leave, Finn threw on his navy blue jacket and joined everyone in the kitchen. Soon, the family apparated (via Finn's father), arriving in front of the building where the awards were held annually. Now he just needed to find Merrick.

"Meet you inside," he said to his parents, separating himself from the group. Despite a glaring look from his father, Finn went on his own way, searching for Merrick's familiar face. The crowd was growing though, so it wasn't an easy task. Eventually, he spotted him, sitting alone on the steps which lead to the door. It was the first time Finn had seen Merrick outside of his normal clothes. He assumed it wasn't often that Merrick dressed so neatly.

"Maybe if you wouldn't be sulking on the stairs, I could have found you earlier," Finn said, taking a seat beside his friend. "You come alone?" he asked, not seeing Merrick's family around. Then again, Finn had never met Merrick's family, so he wouldn't have known what they looked like. He was almost certain though that Merrick's father wouldn't miss this event for anything. After all, he had been a famous Beater in his days. "I feel like I have been coming to these awards as long as I can remember." He laughed. "Though I wouldn't be surprised if that were true. I wouldn't put it past my dad to have brought me, even as a baby."

[Merrick Marr]

“Sulking?” Merrick said in feigned insult. “I never sulk…I slouch.” Merrick smirked wide at his apparent lack of creative joke as he nudged Finn a bit with his arm. He couldn’t help but laugh at Finn’s question. “Alone? You do remember my father right?” Head jerked back toward the door. “He’s already inside, no doubt saving me a seat in the very front. I think he’s still not convinced by what the healers said. So he’s trying to find some sort of spell or something that’ll fix my head for me. I keep telling him it’s useless, but he doesn’t seem to actually listen to me. Keeps muttering something about my dreams and his…” Merrick’s tone had started off in amusement, but it ended in a far more angry tone than before. No matter how hard he tried to accept his fate, it was still hard to know that the one thing you always wanted to do was no longer a viable option for you. No team would take him because of the injury…he’d already asked. None of them seemed to want to take responsibility for one 17 year old’s reckless urge to get himself killed while playing Quidditch. Of course Merrick saw things a different way. He didn’t seem himself getting hit by another bludger…at least not in the head.

Merrick’s father didn’t seem to want to accept that at all though. He had such high hopes for his son and maybe he was living a bit vicariously through him…the point was that Merrick’s father was going to fight for the life he had always wanted his son to have, even if Merrick had already resigned to his fate. It was much harder for Merrick to accept it now, because his father was so determined not to. There was no one in his life that had the good influence he needed and so he was quickly becoming bitter when it came to Quidditch and even bitterer toward his father’s ever-increasing lecture on how he shouldn’t give up. Truth was he already had and he wasn’t going to start hoping anymore.

“Ugh I’m sure we were both brought here as babies…I would have loved it then, now I just want to disappear. Speaking of, we should get out of here. Go do something a little more exciting. Though I’m not sure what we can do that would be considered exciting around her,” Merrick said as he got to his feet looking around the street as the last few people began to trickle into the building behind them. The streets seemed to die almost immediately as he heard the booming voice of the host or whatever he was inside. “Well…seems to me like there isn’t anything exciting…might as well stay here,” Merrick sighed as he dropped back down beside Finn. “Got any ideas for something fun to do?”

[Finn Miles H7]

Even when Merrick seemed to insist that losing Quidditch was something he could accept, Finn had his doubts. Maybe Merrick was just forcing himself to accept it, even if it really tore him up inside. Finn wasn't sure how he'd ever accept losing Quidditch, and he wasn't even that obsessed when you considered people like both his and Merrick's fathers. "I guess Quidditch really isn't everything," he reasoned with a shrug. Ironically enough, the majority of the people entering the building behind them probably thought so.

"You really think we should skip out?" Finn questioned. He wasn't surprised that Merrick didn't want to be there. Why would he? For Finn though, the mix of not wanting to anger his father and also wanting to support Wyatt made him hesitant to avoid going inside for the ceremony. He didn't move though, sitting still beside Merrick as the crowd around them had finally disappeared. "I guess we can hear it from here anyways," he said, listening to the loud announcer's voice. "Can avoid the crowd from here." Finn knew that his justification for skipping out would not sit well with his father.

"Maybe we can just find an empty room inside?" He figured that if he at least was in the building, he could tell his father he had watched the ceremony from another location. "I'm sure there are plenty of other places aside from the main hall from which we could watch or at least listen." Granted, they could listen from outside, but Finn knew that's the first place his father would look if he came searching for him.

"Come on," he said, getting to his feet. "I'm sure we can avoid our fathers and still get a good view from somewhere." He held out his hand to help Merrick to his feet, and together they entered the building, searching for a place to hideout for the next hour or so.

[Merrick Marr]

It was very hard for Merrick to come to terms with losing the one thing he’d always thought he’d have…Quidditch had been such an important thing to him…now it seemed a distant, painful memory. Just like these stupid awards were. They were the last place he wanted to be. So that was probably part of the reason why he was still sitting outside with Finn…the other…well he’d come to that bridge of understanding when he had to. At the moment all he wanted to do was take off…get away from the awards and spend some time with Finn…in a place that didn’t remind him of a future he’d never have. A smirk pulled at Merrick’s lips at Finn’s question. “Yeah I think we should skip out. You’ve been to these things as much as I have…they’re boring. No one cares…at least no one cool. Besides it’s always a dead give away who wins what. Nothing surprising and definitely nothing interesting will go down. Just come on…let’s go to the bar or something…drink with some real Muggles,” Merrick grinned mischievously.

Merrick raised his hands at Finn’s suggestion about going in and finding an empty room. Somehow Merrick thought this was probably as good as he was going to get. Finn wasn’t the type to bail on anything he had committed to go to, or so it seemed to Merrick. It was probably a good quality; Merrick just wasn’t the type to act like that. He was more the type to bail whenever possible, just to change things up. He always liked it when he left people guessing. Unpredictability was his middle name…well he wished it had been, mainly because that would have been most entertaining.

Merrick sighed as he watched Finn get to his feet first. The kid had no sense of adventure, but he took his hand freely as he helped him to his feet. “You know I think the point was to ditch the ceremony, not only our father’s…” Merrick muttered in amusement as he followed Finn into the building and together they began searching for a random room, which would come upon them just off the main hall way that lead to the ceremony. It was definitely more like a storage room than anything. Jumping up onto a few stacked boxes Merrick took a seat. “Look…you can still hear what’s going on…like I’m sure you could across the street at the booze barn. Don’t happen to have a bottle of anything on you?” he asked as he started patting his own pockets almost surprised he hadn’t slipped his flask into his coat before he left the house. “Guess we’ll just have to settle on our natural wits to keep us entertained.”

[Finn Miles H7]

"I'm not the alcoholic here," Finn said quickly, jokingly narrowing his brow after Merrick asked if he had brought any sort of alcoholic drink. The bellowing voice of the evening's award announcer was nicely muffled by the secluded location of the room that the boys had found. The stacks upon stacks of cardboard boxes provided the perfect amount of sound-proofing and temporary seating that was comfortable enough. "I don't know about you, but my natural wits aren't exactly the sharpest. It is summer holiday after all..." Finn shed his jacket, realizing that the small room was lacking any sort of ventilation, making it at least ten degrees warmer than the outside areas. Habitually, he unbuttoned his sleeves, rolling them up to his elbows like he tended to do when wearing formal attire. "A drink would be nice though," he admitted, finding a cardboard box near Merrick to take a seat.

The first award of the night was presented, followed by an extended round of applause as the crowd showed their approval. Finn wasn't in the majority opinion though. "Barrows? Seriously? Just because he had the most saves of the season doesn't mean jack. The chasers on his team are rubbish - that's the only reason he had so many saves. He had the most shots taken against him. If you look at his save percentage, it's not even two-thirds that of Davis." Finn couldn't help but chime in with his opinion. In the Mile's household, if you didn't have an opinion, you were often ridiculed. Finn had learned to care over the years, almost to the point where it was just second nature to follow Quidditch like it was his daily routine. His father had even gone as far as paying for each of the Miles children to get a copy of the Daily Prophet, just so that they could keep up with all that was happening in the Quidditch world.

A few more awards were given, and, for the most part, Finn was in favor of the winners. At least the majority of the accolades were presented to the players who most deserved them in his mind. Finally, he heard the announcement for the chaser MVP of the season. His brother Wyatt was one of the nominees, but Finn was almost certain he wouldn't win. There were five other chasers that Wyatt would have to beat out, and at least three of them were notably superior if you looked at their overall statistics. Sure enough, the winner was announced, and it wasn't Wyatt. Finn would've liked to have seen his father's face in that moment. Even if Wyatt wasn't the best pick, his father would have a million reasons why he was. Of course, it was always nice having someone like that on your side. Too bad that Finn didn't get as much respect from his father as Wyatt did when it came to the sport. He'd learned to accept the fact though, and he knew it meant more to Wyatt anyways.

"There's always next year," he said, half talking to himself, half talking to Merrick. "I heard that at least eight of the top ten chasers are considering retirement. That means we'll see a new wave of next generation stars hopefully." Gradually, Finn let the noise from the awards fade away, considering he wasn't as interested in who won the rest. They were into the team awards, and Finn was more interested in the individual awards.

"So, ready for another seventh year at Hogwarts?" He hoped he wasn't sounding too rude by rubbing in the fact that this would be Merrick's second go around at his las year.

[Merrick Marr]

“Good point there Miles,” Merrick smirked at Finn’s pointed remark about not being the alcoholic. It was true. Merrick was quite the lush, not that it was really his fault. Well he never really thought it was his fault. He liked to drink. There was nothing wrong with that. It wasn’t like he let it control his life; he just felt life was far more enjoyable while intoxicated, especially as of late. It had been almost a constant thing that summer, ever since he’d gone into that coma and was told he wasn’t able to play Quidditch anymore. It had really been hard on him, not that he was going to outright admit that. He wanted nothing more than to pick up the beater’s bat or grab a Quaffle out of the air. Heck he’d even go for the Snitch if it just meant he could play again. The healers were working on other options for him; trying to find a way to make sure he wasn’t going to become seriously impaired if he started playing again. Merrick kept making cracks on the fact that he could play just as long as another Bludger never hit him…at least in the head. It sounded like a good plan, besides it wasn’t like he intentionally planned on getting hit by another one. Unfortunately that wasn’t convincing anyone.

Merrick laughed and nodded. “Very true…but you need to remember that your natural wits aren’t the sharpest at any time of the year,” Merrick joked as he leaned back against a set of boxes, his arms crossing over his chest. It always amused Merrick when Miles stepped out of his normal character. He was never sure if it was Miles trying to seem cool or if he was just trying to impress Merrick. Either way it made talking with him enjoyable and made Merrick forget about how down he’d been all summer. It was refreshing, being able to talk with someone and not feel pressured to be on his game one hundred percent of the time. Finn always seemed to do that to Merrick and it was more than needed.

As the award ceremony began Merrick quieted down to listen a bit, as Finn seemed to do so as well, because as the first award was given out Merrick was about to make a remark only to find that Finn had beat him to it. Merrick chuckled and nodded. “Well maybe they just felt pity for him,” he responded in amusement as he continued to listen a bit. Even though he hadn’t really wanted to be there, he couldn’t help being entertained. He’d tried to stay away from Quidditch since he’d gotten hurt, but somehow his father always made him get involved, always took him to the games whether he really wanted to go or not. Anymore it was not, but he always enjoyed being there even if he tried not to.

“Maybe your brother will win by default since all the really good players are leaving?” Merrick smiled. He knew what it must have been like for Finn, having his brother playing pro and a father that seemed just as intense as Merrick’s. It must have made things hard on Finn who always seemed to live in his brother’s shadow when it came to Quidditch. As the individual awards ended and the team awards began Merrick lost interest. The team awards were always so predictable. Not to mention Finn had asked him about the next year and he couldn’t stop the laugh that came from his lips. “Another year at Hogwarts…honestly I wasn’t really ready to leave last year…and then oddly enough a Bludger to the head and a month and some later there I am being told I’d be going back to finish my seventh year. So a part of me wonders if I subconsciously hit myself with that Bludger…or if it was just fate, if fate does exist,” Merrick said with a shrug. “Bottom line…I hadn’t really cared about staying, I almost didn’t return for my sixth year…and then when seventh came I just found being drunk most of the time kept me entertained. Then…” Merrick trailed off for a minute before shrugging and smirking. “Well you know…I grew up a little.”