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+------- Thread: what comes next? || Rad (/showthread.php?tid=878)
what comes next? || Rad - Roisin Blackwood - 02-01-2026
2 January 1922
After dinner
After dinner
Rose was nervous, for a lot of reasons.
For one thing, Maddox’s trial was quickly approaching. Her fiancé had been found not guilty, but Evander’s father is the one who had actually cast the killing curse on Thayer. Rose didn’t think he did anything wrong, to be clear, but she didn’t know if she could trust those on the Wizengamot.
That led into the second thing. If the worst happened and he was found guilty, what would happen to Evander? Morgan? Rose wasn’t necessarily close to her son, which was sad in itself, but she wanted to fix that. The original agreement between the two had been made when she was in a very dark place.
Back then, Rose had not hesitated to let their child live with him full time. Maddox had proven to be an incredibly good father, and she trusted him completely. It had been almost three years now, though, and her world wasn’t anywhere near as dark as it once had been.
Where there had been sadness, there was now happiness and hope.
She knew that Maddox and Julia were basically inseparable – best friends. Her worry was that if he was found guilty and had to go to Azkaban, would Evander be with her or Julia? Don’t get her wrong, Rose loved Julia and considered the woman one of her best friends.
But was it time? Not for Evander to live with her full-time, but for him to spend more time with her. With Gideon. With Fiona.
But how does one broach the topic? Rose wasn’t entirely sure. She and Maddox interacted when they had to; she didn’t think he hated her, and she certainly couldn’t hate him. But he could be very hard to read.
And the one thing that made Rose the most uncomfortable was being judged. She already judged herself harder than anyone else, and often questioned her existence. Gideon had reeled that in though and now she had hope.
“Hey… you have a minute?” Rose asked as she stood outside Maddox’s door.
RE: what comes next? || Rad - Maddox Barlowe - 02-01-2026
The winter break was far too short. Maddox felt like he'd barely been home a few days before he was once again greeted by the stony castle walls and an entire house of students who always seemed to need something for one reason or another. It hadn't started yet, being only the first evening back, but already Maddox was anticipating the knocks at his door and the whines and cries of first years who still didn't understand he wasn't a magic fix-all tape every time they got into trouble.
Knock knock.
Maybe he hadn't been so lucky after all.
"Come," he called from his desk, where he pored over an incident report that had apparently gotten lost on someone's desk before the break. If only it had stayed lost. But, no. It was for the best that he reviewed it. The next day, after the last class had ended, he would call the student to the office and see if they couldn't get things sorted out. That particular fourth year would lie, but he hadn't yet been worn down by the new term and would exercise patience and restraint.
“Hey… you have a minute?”
Oh.
Maddox looked up from the parchment, his expression alluding to his surprise at finding Rose standing on the other side of the open door. Had she said she was visiting? He wanted to believe he'd remember something like that, but there'd been so much on his mind even over the break that it could've as easily slipped him.
"Of course," Maddox said, gesturing her into the room before swinging the door shut with a flick of his wand.
"Evander won't be back at the castle until the weekend," he preempted. She could sit where she liked, as she knew. Both the couches and the seats opposite his desk were free. "His grandmother's been insisting she doesn't get to see him enough with him here at the castle for most of the year. Any plans you've got for him before then will unfortunately have to wait."
It was an easy assumption to make. The pair got along well enough, but they'd never been friends. The bulk of their conversations surrounded the child they shared in some capacity. As was becoming more frequent, it was her wanting to spend an afternoon or a weekend with him. Maddox didn't mind the brief visits, on principle. She was his mother and no longer posed a serious risk to his well-being. It didn't mean he was willing to trust her in ways that might alter arrangements, but it couldn't hurt the boy to see her from time to time.
RE: what comes next? || Rad - Roisin Blackwood - 02-02-2026
The door shut behind her and Rose smiled as she sat in one of the chairs in front of his desk. She bit her lip, something she often did when she was uncomfortable and nervous.
"Evander won't be back at the castle until the weekend. His grandmother's been insisting she doesn't get to see him enough with him here at the castle for most of the year. Any plans you've got for him before then will unfortunately have to wait."
She nodded slightly, keeping her mouth from forming a frown. As of late, she’d been missing her mother more and more and she hated that she could not give her children a grandmother.
“No… no, that’s alright. I’m happy to hear he’s having a good time,” she said, smiling.
Perhaps this was a bad idea.
Rose was silent for a moment as she mulled over the right words. “I’d like to see him a bit more,” she finally said. ”More regularly, I suppose…”
She watched the man, feeling an array of emotions. But then panicked slightly when she realized that he might think she wanted to change everything.
”I mean, I don’t want you to think that I wanna mess with the official arrangements, I don’t… he’s happy and I don’t want to disrupt his life more than necessary… I just…” she frowned slightly, looking down at her hands.
Pathetic, that’s what she was.
No… she looked back up and smiled slightly. She wasn’t going to slip down that slope again.
RE: what comes next? || Rad - Maddox Barlowe - 02-03-2026
Having a good time was an understatement. Despite Maddox's many insistences that his mother not spoil Evander, the woman was adamant she'd already raised her own three children and that she knew what she was doing. It wasn't worth the argument, and he knew he wouldn't win. His only recourse was quickly snipping the bad behaviours his son sometimes returned home with before they could properly take root. Sometimes, it felt like an uphill battle, but he couldn't very well leave the boy to run wild...er than he'd already grown.
There was certainly an argument to be made for nature versus nurture, and Maddox could acknowledge that his son naturally had a lot of energy to burn. That didn't mean it would be an excuse for him wilfully doing as he pleased. There was a balance to be struck.
Rose seemed to be looking to strike her own balance.
His quill stopped moving across the parchment, creating a small ink splotch where it rested. More regularly?
Maddox set the quill down, straightening in his seat as he appraised her. There were very good reasons Evander lived with him and not her, why many of the times he preferred to leave the boy with Julia or take him with him. They weren't in the same place now. From everything he'd seen and heard, Rose was no longer the irresponsible alcoholic prone to poor decision-making that he'd met in that bar three years ago. Evander wasn't in active danger when left in her care, and the boy genuinely seemed to enjoy the time they spent together.
But more regular?
He was about to ask her to explain when Rose set to it.
”I mean, I don’t want you to think that I wanna mess with the official arrangements, I don’t… he’s happy and I don’t want to disrupt his life more than necessary… I just…”
"Good," he said simply. If nothing else, it sounded like whatever request she'd come to make already took into account Evander's best interest and his stability. A marked improvement from where they'd begun. It was better she said it herself because he wouldn't be changing their current arrangement. Their son did have a stable home, structure, and discipline, and he preferred to be the primary influence in his life. Maddox was glad she hadn't come in with such delusions.
They could get to a real discussion then.
"You know I don't have a problem with him seeing you; you're his mother. I would, however, like to know what you mean by 'more regularly' before I start agreeing to anything."
Rose was getting her life together. She was starting a new family with Gideon, and that would require its own attention. He also had his own misgivings, but it was better to hear what she had in mind first.
RE: what comes next? || Rad - Roisin Blackwood - 02-06-2026
"You know I don't have a problem with him seeing you; you're his mother. I would, however, like to know what you mean by 'more regularly' before I start agreeing to anything."
Rose nodded and took a breath. Maddox was protective over their son, which just spoke to how great of a father he was. And this was the part that was going to be hardest; she was willing to defer to him no matter how difficult it may be.
”I really don’t mean anything drastic… no upheaval or big changes,” she said and folded her hands in her lap. ”Just something… predictable and regular. Something he can expect and maybe begin to look forward to.” She really wasn’t sure what that looked like. As much as she may want to take the boy home and keep him there, she knew that wouldn’t happen. Giving him up had been hard, but the right thing.
”I’d be okay with whatever you think is appropriate. I… I know why things are the way they are. And I’m not here to pretend they shouldn’t be like this. You have given him a great, stable home when I couldn’t. He’s happy, and that’s because of you,” she added and smiled slightly. She should have been that for Evander. But she hadn’t been.
A brief flicker of regret crossed her eyes, but she didn’t dwell on it. There was no reason to dwell on it.
”Thankfully, though… I’m not in that place anymore. I want to be consistent and more… reliable.” She shifted slightly, smiling a bit bigger as she thought about Evander. ”He’s growing so quickly, and I don’t want to miss more of him than I already have.”
A pause. She bit her lip and met his eyes. ”If you don’t think it’s a good time for something like this, then I’ll respect that. I just thought we should talk about it.”
RE: what comes next? || Rad - Maddox Barlowe - 02-06-2026
'Predictable' was an interesting word, whether Rose realised it or not. Predictability was the driving force behind many of the decisions he made for his son. Maddox strove to give Evander a life full of structure and safety. Within such a life, there was certainly room for wonder and spontaneity, but he wasn't looking to introduce variables that might destabilise the boy.
A second home with a second set of authority figures would certainly set that in motion. Suffice it to say that as his son grew, he wasn't in the mood to have him bring up things his mother and her husband let him do.
”I’d be okay with whatever you think is appropriate. I… I know why things are the way they are. And I’m not here to pretend they shouldn’t be like this. You have given him a great, stable home when I couldn’t. He’s happy, and that’s because of you.”
Again, he was glad that they were on the same page. The past was, as the name suggested, in the past. Maddox wasn't looking to hold it over her head or throw it back in her face. It wouldn't serve either of them and bore no weight in the conversations of the present when the woman had done everything she could to pick her life up. That, however, didn't erase the past. Rose was right; there was a reason Evander lived with him, a very good reason. That circumstances had changed didn't change the firmness of his conviction in retaining full custody of his son.
Maddox meant her neither harm nor disrespect, but the issue of addiction was never linear. One didn't set out on a journey then magically become healed as if they'd never had a problem. That wasn't how it worked – it wasn't how anyone worked. He wished her well with her recovery but didn't intend to have his son put in a position to be harmed by any surprises.
Surprises, after all, never gave warnings before cropping up.
"Why don't we start simple?" he suggested, not unkindly but out of practicality.
"You'll have a lot going on in the next few months with the wedding planning and even after while you settle into the rhythm of your new family. That will already bring its own stresses," no matter how sweet the honeymoon she and Gideon may already have been having, "and Evander can be, a lot. It's not a bad thing, but it's not a thing to be ignored either." This wasn't something that wishful thinking would see them through.
The little boy sometimes had problems using his 'listening ears' and required firmness, consistency, and structure as much as he did affection and space to be a holy terror.
"A weekend here and there. I'm also willing to consider up to," but no more than, "two weeks during the summer. Christmas remains non-negotiable for the time being, I'm afraid and of course, if you'd just like to have him for an afternoon, that's never an issue. But."
Because there was a 'but', and it was a very firm one. His expression grew serious. "He only has one father. I'd like this to be respected. He's my son to raise, not Gideon's."
RE: what comes next? || Rad - Roisin Blackwood - 02-07-2026
"Why don't we start simple?"
That is precisely what Rose wanted, and why she wanted Maddox’s help with coming up with some sort of arrangement. Evander was too young to really have a say, but his father was the one who was raising the boy and had seen Rose at her lowest. She’d come a long way, but she could understand his hesitance.
She still felt nervous though as he began speaking, mentioning that she’d be busy planning her wedding. She bit her lip gently, trying to dispel some of her urge to contradict his words. He had a point, of course, but she didn’t think it’d be hard. He was probably right though.
Still – Rose wasn’t going to argue. The best way to make things work was to respect Maddox’s wishes.
She hadn’t gotten to spend Christmas with her son since he was born, so that was something she was looking forward to. It seemed, however, that she’d have to keep waiting.
She watched as his face grew stern.
"He only has one father. I'd like this to be respected. He's my son to raise, not Gideon's."
Rose nodded, sitting up a bit straighter. ”I want to be clear about something,” she said calmly. ”I would never ask Gideon to replace you, or even parent Evander. He does only have one father, and Gideon understands that. We both respect you and your role here,” she said and then relaxed a little bit.
”I just… want space to be his mother in a way that’s consistent and healthy, and within the boundaries you’re setting. And I’m willing to work to earn your trust. I won’t demand it.”
She smiled slightly. ”I can certainly work with simple. I won’t argue with that.”
It crossed her mind that while Maddox was firm about Evander having one father, she could not demand the same as his mother. Julia had been more constant in the child’s life than she had been – a reality that she didn’t shy away from.
It was a truth she accepted. And acceptance, she reminded herself, didn’t mean she had to give up; it meant she had to start where she was, and continue moving forward.
RE: what comes next? || Rad - Maddox Barlowe - 02-09-2026
It was a reasonable reply, one that satisfied the criteria he laid out.
There were few things the man took as seriously as his children. Both Morgan and Evander made up his world. There was room for other things and other people – this went without saying – but both resided at the very centre, bound tightly by an understanding that they were his responsibility and it was his duty to give them the best and safest life he possibly could.
Without his role as care of magical creatures professor, under the poor judgement of the board, Maddox could have returned to his job in dragonology. The pay was easily double what he made as a professor in a subject he held no particular passion for and would feed things inside him that rudimentary charms would not. But Maddox understood that the role allowed him to see his daughter daily, something most wizarding parents couldn't say once their children were off to Hogwarts. It gave him a bigger hand in her education and put him in a prime position to be there for her in worst-case scenarios. It was a choice he made every day for his daughter.
In the same way, there were choices he made for his son. When Rose hadn't been capable of providing care, he hadn't hesitated. He never flinched; he never shied away from what he knew needed to be done. The decisions he made were for Evander's benefit, including not having another man in a position to father him. He wouldn't share the values his son learned with Gideon and wasn't willing to create a space for the man to shape his character. Those were things he took very seriously, and on many things, he already knew that he and the man did not align.
"I'm glad we can remain on the same page then." It didn't sound like a fight she was trying to have, and Maddox could appreciate that both she and Gideon understood. His son had neither been orphaned nor abandoned and wasn't in need of new parents.
"As I've said, I don't have an issue with him seeing his mother. That's not a role I'm currently inclined to take from you. We'll start here with what I've suggested and, with time, see if there needs to be any re-evaluation." There was none he could foresee, but life had a funny way of offering up surprises.
"Was there anything else?"
RE: what comes next? || Rad - Roisin Blackwood - 02-15-2026
Rose had regrets; a lot of them. But all of those bad decisions she had made led to two really incredible children. So while she may regret that she hadn’t been stable enough to mother Evander at the beginning, she did not regret his existence.
She nodded. ”That sounds fair, and… no, that was the only thing,” she responded. Then she fell silent momentarily, pausing as she considered things.
”You know, I’m not trying to undo anything you’ve built. He has a great life because of what you’ve given him. I just want to be someone that he can rely on too,” she added.
Not showing emotion was, to be honest, difficult. Especially where her children were concerned. It was hard when she heard Evander call Julia ‘mama’ (of course he was at the phase of calling everyone ‘mama’), but she didn’t fault the child for it.
Rose stood and smoothed out her skirt. She’d done well, she thought.
”Thank you for hearing me out,” she said and smiled slightly. ”I won’t disappoint him.”
That was something she refused to do. She loved their son, and appreciated every moment that she got to spend with him.
She turned and made her way to the door. But she paused, her fingers wrapping around the door knob. She turned back to Maddox, her blue eyes meeting his when she spoke again. ”I know the next few weeks are heavy, but you don’t have to carry it alone.”
Did he need her reassurance? Most likely not. But Rose would be lying if she said she wasn’t worried about his impending trial. That said, she firmly believed he was safe.
After another moment she opened the door, and made her way back to her office.