we could be radio stars // cara

[Brigid Finnigan]

Brigid Finnigan, force of nature as she was, had decided that today was the perfect day to both eat ice cream and kidnap Cara and force her at wand point to tell Brigid about her life. Or bribe her with ice cream. Or ask her. Whatever. They were all equally valid options in Brigid's mind, though she was reasonably sure that she ought to have enough faith in herself that she wouldn't actually accost her sister at wand point; she'd never done anything quite so criminal to date, and today was far too nice a day to start a descent into a criminal career, especially when one was as promising and accomplished a Quidditch player as Brigid.

After informing Jaime of her plans—to which he seconded the hope for no wands threatening, as he was rather fond of Cara—she informed him that he was on cat-duty, deposited Vodka in his arms despite all his protests of having a life, and promptly departed her apartment. It was only once she was outside in the corridor that it occurred to her that she ought to actually invite Cara, but luckily, Kieran was home and graciously allowed her to use his parchment, quill, ink and owl to write Cara a letter and hope she received it before her lunch break.

As it was, Brigid had spent the morning browsing Flourish & Blotts for a new book for Meghan, positively salivating over a gorgeous pair of dragonhide Quidditch boots and matching gloves in the Quidditch Supplies store and even, at one point, peering into Madam Malkin's in the hope of finding some cute little baby robe for Mo. Her 'peering' had not lasted long and she had high-tailed it out of there the second she recognised one of Tommy's regular groupies.

Now felt like an appropriate time to approach Fortescue's and wait for Cara, so she entered the parlour and took a seat by the window, where she could be seen by Cara—and theoretically, see her, though Brigid's mind was more on ice cream by this point—as well as observe all the people surrounding her, in case of someone interesting. She decided to order once her sister showed up, assuming that Cara did indeed receive her letter in time and actually want to come meet her. Brigid hoped so; she hadn't seen her sister for a few days, and the last time they'd had proper one-on-one time had been a fair bit before that, and Brigid was not someone who dealt well with distance from people she loved as much as her siblings.

[Cara Finnigan]

Cara'd been in the back room of Slug & Jigger's all morning, struggling over a particularly finicky cosmetic potion which covered blemishes; unsurprisingly, it had sold out shortly after the Hogwarts year had finished as an inrush of teenagers stocked up for the rest of the year. While Celeste, the manager, had ordered in a new batch, the shipment had gotten held up at a Portkey somewhere, so Cara had offered to make up a batch to tide them over.

Of course, after spending several hours slaving over a steaming cauldron and tending to a potion that was practically as demanding as a spoiled teenager itself, Cara was sweaty, irritated, and had decided that she would never, ever offer to do a good deed at work again.

It was in this foul (for Cara, at least) mood that she decided to take a little break while the potion simmered. She walked outside the shop, hoping to at least get a little air... when, of course, an owl came soaring over the roof and clocked her in the head.

"Oh, you big, stupid - featherbrain!" Cara sputtered, flapping at the owl and spitting a few feathers out of her mouth. It was only when she noticed that the owl was still hovering over her head that she realized the letter was for her. "What sort of idiot- " she began, reaching for the letter, and then sighed.

"Brigid. Of course." Despite her up till then awful day, just the sight of her sister's handwriting was enough to cheer her up, and she chuckled a few times as she read Brigid's cheerfully rambling letter. She stuck her head back inside the shop to grab some parchment, and then scribbled a quick reply to Brigid.

Yes, see you for lunch! And I'm glad you decided not to kidnap me (??) since I was in an awful mood and would have hexed you or something.

It wasn't until a few hours later, once the potion was done and stored properly, that she set out for Fortescue's - a typically ridiculous, Brigid-y place to meet for lunch - and really allowed herself to feel excited about seeing Brigid. It felt as though it had been ages since she'd see Brig, though for good reason, considering how busy Brigid had been getting Moira and Rory settled in. The thought of her sister and nephew sent the same complicated mix of feelings swirling in Cara's chest - disbelief that Moira could possibly have a baby, pride in the way her sister had handled it, anger at the boy who'd carelessly caused this mess, and pure adoration of her little nephew. She shoved the tangle of feelings to the side when she saw Brigid seated at a table, though.

"Brigid!" she called out excitedly, waving as she hurried towards the table. "I feel like I haven't see you in ages," she muttered, leaning down for a quick hug.

[Brigid Finnigan]

Brigid's mulling over which ice cream flavours would make the perfect combination on a day like today were cut short by the familiar sound of her sister's voice. Looking up, already beaming, she caught sight of Cara and waved back - somewhat redundantly, as Cara had already seen her and was making her way over - before slipping her arms around her younger sister when she leaned in for a hug.

"Godric, I know, right?" Brigid responded emphatically. "It feels like it's been yonks! Which probably means I saw you a week ago," she admitted with a rueful smirk, "but it must've been much longer since we had a good ol' chat." Waiting for her sister to sit down - despite it making much more sense for Cara to stay standing so she didn't have to keep transitioning in order to select her ice cream, Brigid was still internally deliberating over the pros and cons of pistachio with fizzing whizzbees when compared with the classic white chcolate and raspberry, and had no intention of making her sister dither around while she settled this important issue - Brigid gestured at the seat opposite her, saying, "oh, and Jaime and Kieran send their regards."

"Well," she amended, "Jaime says he hopes you're well and that I don't threaten you at wandpoint - honestly, does the boy have no faith?" she interrupted herself, rolling her eyes, before continuing, "and Kieran was nattering on about some particular curse that was recently unearthed in Egypt that they're studying right now that he thinks is fascinating and has some strange history in potions, so obviously he thinks that you should visit the boys' flat sometime soon so he can regale you with tales of that - and knowing how gaga he got over Skye, tales of her too - and probably cook you some dinner. He's been in quite the good mood lately," Brigid concluded thoughtfully, barely pausing for breath in her entirely too elaborate explanation of 'regards'.

"Anyway," she started up again, "how are you? What flavour do you want - I'm thinking peanut butter scoop and white chocolate and raspberry; doesn't it sound glorious? How's work? Want a few box-seat tickets to the Harpies' game this weekend? I'm not playing, just attending, but we scored a few free tickets from the Department of Magical Games and... whatever the res of its name is." Brigid regularly bombarded people with questions and thoughts - somewhat like a freight train, or a hurricane - but she honestly cared about their responses, so even as one of the most impatient people she knew - if not the most impatient - she sat there expectantly, ready to listen attentively.

Now that she'd brought up Jaime and Kieran, though, she wanted to ask Cara what she thought should happen with the flat - Brigid had a very large flat for one person; in fact, it matched the boys' one from across the hall, and was a three bedroom flat with an office. Seeing as Jaime - who pretty much argued with her all Hogwarts and thus took up enough of her time that she wasn't tempted to commit any felonies or damage too many noses and as such, was her best friend - had nowhere to live when they'd left school without feeling like he was abusing his uncle's and aunt's kindness, she'd allowed him to move into the apartment she'd chosen, which had been far too massive for herself and Vodka. Now, unfortunately, she had a single eighteen year old mother and a fifteen month old baby living with her too. While space was not an issue - the third bedroom, which had been acting as the storage room for the past four or so years, had been cleaned out and turned back into a bedroom for Moira, and the office had never been used as an office anyway, so Brigid had cleared it out and set it up with stuff as a nursery for Rory, though she wouldn't be surprised if Moira kept Rory sleeping in her room for a while (it was why Brig had put her in the room with the office adjoined) - Brigid wasn't entirely sure how comfortable everyone would be with Moira living in the same flat as a twenty-two year old man. Admittedly, he was on the complete other side of the flat from her - Brigid's room, the kitchen, lounge and main living area all separated them - and Brigid trusted him fiercely as her best friend and had been living with him fairly regularly for the last four and a half years; however, it was one thing for Brigid to live completely platonically with her male best friend that was her age, and it was something entirely different for Moira and her baby to do so.

Well, Brigid didn't really think it was that much different, but she imagined someone probably would. She didn't really want to ask Jaime to move out, especially seeing as he was in the flat even less regularly than Brigid, due to his occupation, but if it would be that horrific for Mo, she would. She wanted to ask Cara her thoughts first, and then Moira - she would ask Tommy too, but he was liable to be ridiculous all the time, and more to the point, she hadn't seen him for about three weeks and was somewhat put out with him because of this. Really, she decided, the decision as to whether she'd approach Jaime with it would come down to Moira, but still, Cara's input was the other one she dearly wanted. She resolved to ask the second that either Moira came up or there was a slight lull in conversation.

((ooc: sorry! for lateness, but also for how only half of that ramble of hers was actually interactive with car and the rest was internal sighhhhh))

[Cara Finnigan]

(OOC: no i'm sorry! my response isn't going to be half this length, i don't think!)

“It’s definitely been more than a week!” Cara said, giving her sister another emphatic squeeze before stepping back. “But it really has been much too long since we’ve… really talked.” Cara thought guiltily back to the days off she’d spent painting, or visiting other people. Her mind jumped to one particular “visit” she’d made to Fran’s, and she struggled not to blush. “At least we’re seeing one another now, right?” she asked, mentally resolving to make more time to meet all her siblings.


Cara hid a grin at Brigid’s imperious gesture, but sat down without mentioning it. Sitting down for a few minutes was much better than trying to get Brigid to make a decision before she was ready – when they were kids, Brigid had often changed her order almost immediately after making it, and held up everyone else, besides. She nodded, acknowledging the greetings from Jaime and Kieran.

“Same to them, of course,” she said, managing another smile, “Though, I don’t think Jaime’s concerns were totally ridiculous, since you actually mentioned trying to kidnap me from work in your letter,” she mused, then added excitedly, “Oh, I was going to owl Kieran about that! It’s the curse that was at the entrance to that tomb, right? I’m sure that they must have had a Potion involved in some way, you just can’t get that kind of long-term protection from a spell alone! And… I’ll mention that when I come by your flat,” she said, feeling guilty again. “Has Skye really been by again? She must be getting so big! I don’t think I’ve visited since Moira and Rory were getting settled in, I really ought to come soon.” She added.


Cara waited a few extra seconds after Brigid finished talking in order to make sure she was done – it wasn’t always clear with Brigid. “Magical Games and Sports, I think,” Cara said, starting with the last thing Brigid had asked. “And the Harpies tickets sound great! I’ll go if you promise we’re going to be away from the loudest parts of the stands,” Cara cautioned. She didn’t bring up her discomfort with large crowds to everyone, but Brigid had known her long enough that she didn’t mind. And, of course, she knew that Brigid would pay attention if she said something; her sister might come across as flighty, but when it came to people that mattered to her, Brigid was very discerning.


“Work’s occasionally boring, but still really interesting,” Cara said, “Did I tell you I spent all morning making this awful cosmetic potion? I was in the worst mood until I got your owl, or more accurately, until your owl came and flew into my face – though, was it yours? It looked more like Kieran’s,” Cara muttered, unable to keep up her mock outrage over the owl for very long.

She gave a resigned sigh. “That ice cream order sounds perfect – for you. I think I’ll just stick with my usual, Brigid,” she shot a look at her sister, and asked “How’re you? Work and the boys’ flat and all? And, Moira, of course – how’s she settling in with Rory and everything?”

It wasn’t that Cara couldn’t have just asked Moira herself, but Brigid’s perceptiveness with her siblings mean that she often picked up on things they hadn’t entirely noticed themselves, and Cara trusted her judgment completely – not to mention that Moira was less likely to mention any struggles she was having if she thought she could handle them herself. It wasn’t a particularly attractive trait, but all of the Finnigans had a streak of stubbornness that kept them from getting assistance from other people if they didn’t think they needed it.