The Other Side of the Coin

[Cassandra Trelawney]

19th March, 1887

As any worldly witch or wizard knew there were as many secret gardens cloaked by spells in the city of London as there were dark alleys where ruffians and harlots roamed. Cassie tried not to think about the latter but the former came in very useful during her days off when she desired to spend the day being left alone with her son rather than having people staring at her as they whispered to their friends about who she was. If they didn’t know about her gift then they almost certainly knew about her mother so she never seemed to escape from it.

London offered an escape and on the first properly sunny day of the year she was perfectly content to sit on the fresh spring grass with her son on her lap, helping him to throw little scraps of stale bread towards the in the pond. Theo wasn’t the best aim but in his defence she was fairly sure he was more accurate without her aid than he was with!

“You’re getting very good at this you know,” she said conversationally, blinking in the sun and nearly lobbing a crust of bread straight at a passing woman when she saw a face that made her jump out of her skin. Oh Merlin, not again! Not so soon after last time surely?!

“Micajah?” Perhaps he was following her?!

@'Ezra Vablatsky'
@'Odira Potter'

  

[Ezra Vablatsky]

She had looked like Dora. Ezra would not have thought that that would be enough to shake him, but evidently it had been, as the healer had promptly left the hospital—with little notice, and in the midst of his shift—and now was seeking the fresh air of the park to clear his head. With one of two sisters already a permanent inpatient at St Mungo’s, the thought of another joining her had been too jarring for the wizard to handle with dignity.

There was a surprising amount of solitude t be found in spite of the fine weather, for which Ezra was glad. He wandered for the better part of half an hour before seeing another soul, and had made it almost an hour before he—or rather, his brother was addressed. Stiffening, the healer stopped in his tracks.

“No,” he responded, rather more emphatically than the question merited, “Mr. Ezra Vablatsky.”

  

[Cassandra Trelawney]

With the variety of calamities that had befallen Cassie since she had left school it had utterly slipped her mind that Micajah had a twin and she blushed a deep crimson as she realised her error. The similarity between them was quite startling in her defence and the other man had been in a different house and hadn’t been sat opposite her every morning at breakfast.

Still, she couldn’t help but feel she had offended him and from her spot on the ground she felt like a child who had been scolded. Merlin, she didn’t have much luck with this family!

“My apologies Mr Vablatsky,” he hardly needed telling that he looked like his identical twin so Cassie wisely held her tongue on that matter. “I was friends with your brother at Hogwarts-” Without truly noticing what she was doing Cassie pulled her son more fully into her lap and wrapped a protective arm around him. “Trelawney. Cassandra Trelawney. I’m not sure whether you’d remember me.”

  

[Ezra Vablatsky]

Though the face was scarcely more than familiar, as so many were, the name caused a catch in his breath.

The Vablatsky family was known for their Sight, and with such a surname, one was assumed to be gifted until proven otherwise. It did not help that Dora’s own ‘abilities’ were touted as a marketable commodity by their father, of course, but the lineage alone brought some weight with it. Still, Ezra was a Vablatsky, scarcely more notable beyond that. Cassandra Trelawney was a horse of a different colour, a ‘brand’ in her own right.

Of course he remembered that she had been acquainted with Micajah, though given the twins did not exactly get along, Ezra had not registered just how friendly the pair might have been. Surely if they had been friends, as she said, Father would have tried to arrange a match (a breeding was perhaps more accurate a term), or even Micajah himself, in a bid to please the man they both had oft disappointed.

“I confess that I do not recall you, Miss Trelawney,” he offered politely after the initial surprise had worn off, “though you’ll no doubt predict that I know of you nonetheless. I shall try not to hold your friendship with my brother against you,” Ezra added with a chuckle, to anyone who didn’t know better plainly joking.

@'Cassandra Trelawney'/@'Helena Macmillan'

  

[Cassandra Trelawney]

Cassie’s recollection of Micajah’s relationship with his brother was hazy enough that she laughed along gamely, though it did not escape her notice that her name had certainly struck a chord with the other Mr Vablatsky. It wasn’t unexpected. Introducing herself tended to cause her a measure on anxiety as she waited to see whether their face would remain impassive, or their eyes fill with a mixture of furtive curiosity and apprehension, and he was in the trade, for want of a better term. His father had made it abundantly clear that her name was not unheard of in their household.

“I often say the same thing about my sisters,” she muttered though it was a lie. She knew plenty about being embarrassed by family members but Cassie had never seen it as a productive thing to dwell on. If she did then there was every possibility she might go mad!

“Though Micajah is not quite so bad is he?” She asked, her own interest in his brother hopefully concealed enough. He had the eye – she was sure she recalled Micajah complaining about being the failure compared to his twin – but he surely would not guess why she was especially concerned with his brother’s characteristics.

(OOC: such a fail sorrrrrrry)

  

[Ezra Vablatsky]

“My brother and I are different men in many respects, Miss Trelawney,” Ezra offered diplomatically in return. “That is not to say either is bad, nor better than the other—we are simply very different indeed.”

Ezra was sensible, Micajah a brat. Ezra honourable, Micajah a twat. Ezra leery of his gift, Micajah jealous. Polar opposites, to be sure.

“Besides, we have little call to see one another, given how busy we both are with our careers!”

  

[Cassandra Trelawney]

Yes, they certainly were different in many ways despite their obvious similarities. Even without knowing this twin overly well Cassie had heard enough about him from his brother, and obviously knew of their family, to know that he was quite a different kettle of fish. A Darcy to Micajah’s Bingley as it were. Not bad, just different.

“I understand you’re a healer? Perhaps you’ve come across my sister in your line of work – Miss Miriam Trelawney?”

  

[Ezra Vablatsky]

“I haven’t, I’m afraid,” he replied. “With the exceptions of those of my own status, as pompous as that sounds, I know little of the healers who do not work at St Mungo’s, though I’ll confess the name at least sounds familiar.”

Probably because it was bloody Trelawney.

  

[Cassandra Trelawney]

It certainly did sound pompous but Cassie’s fixed smile, honed from a lifetime of smiling at customers regardless of their behaviour, never wavered. She had very little doubt that this Mr Vablatsky was a perfectly good man but despite their physical similarities he was not his brother, even if, like Micajah, he had the same eyes as her son.

“I suppose it would be foolish to assume everybody in a particular profession knows each other,” she commented, quite aware that he was aware of her and she of him in their very particular way. It might not be a profession for either of them – Micajah had more interest in the sight than she had ever possessed despite their respective gifts – but they had both been lumbered with something that many would never understand.

“And she’s certainly not of your status Mr Vablatsky,” she added seriously.

  

[Ezra Vablatsky]

“Not foolish,” he reassured the witch, “though not guaranteed, either. Unfortunately for all the magic within our society, London and Hogsmeade are still quite far apart—especially when one such as myself resides in neither.”

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