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Perhaps it had always been this way and Evelyn had just never paid attention. Pretending to be a muggle for the past half-year had left her rather out of touch with the wizarding world. Sure, she went to work each day and had dinner at her parent's pub on nights that Rose wasn’t coming over, but ever since they’d come out to one another Evelyn was beginning to see her girlfriend, well, everywhere.
It had started small, noticing her at the footnotes of interviews from her mother or the blurbs of books. But today it had reached a new level of strange. News of Rose’s pending divorce had finally broken and, coupled with the announcement that Grant had signed on with England’s Reserve Team for the World Cup, Rose had been thrust very suddenly into the spotlight.
Evelyn thumbed through Witch Weekly, not taking any of it in. Rose looked so…different…young. In the wedding photos her red hair was long and unnaturally pin-straight, her dress ill-fitting and, Evelyn knew, off of a sales rack.
Perhaps, she thought, the should go and seek Rose out. Make sure that she was alright. It seemed like the perfectly normal response of someone who you’d been dating for half a year, looking in on them when dramatic headlines made the front page of nearly every tabloid.
Meet for lunch?
Evelyn scribbled hastily on a spare piece of parchment. The quill hesitated on the paper as she went to sign her name. Normally she’d draw hearts, give her love, but the innocent decoration of affection felt suspect in light of what was going on. She wrote her name and folded it, putting it in the tray for the hourly, non-urgent communications between St. Mungo’s and the ministry.
She didn’t have to wait long for a response. In no time at all, another interdepartmental memo was zooming back towards her.
Yes! Noon. Usual place.
Rose was already sitting at their favorite cafe when Evelyn arrived, two cappuccinos waiting for them on the table. She brightened when Evelyn walked in and stood to embrace her.
“Hey!” she said brightly, hand lingering on Evelyn’s arm as they let go. “I’m so glad you asked me out. We've spent all morning auditing old case files which means that every time my father’s name comes up everyone starts begging me for a story. They’re never even the good stories anyway. Who cares about the time he organized a raid on the Magical Menagerie? They do know he flew a car to school, don’t they?”
She didn’t want to bring it up. Perhaps this was merely Rose’s way of coping, a nice lunch completely free of the gossip.
“Is everything alright?” Rose asked when she didn’t reply. “You look a bit—odd.”
“Yeah,” Evelyn said, trying and failing to think of a way around it. “Did you see the papers?”
“The papers?” Rose asked, her brow furrowing. “What was—oh, that! Ginny gave us a heads up last night. There was nothing we could do to stop it, of course, always knew it would break eventually.”
It was a severe under reaction in Evelyn’s opinion. And if she’d known why hadn’t Rose bothered to fill her in? “Oh, well, I just thought you might be upset.”
Rose shrugged, taking a sip of her drink. “Look, I know this might be a bit strange, but I grew up around all this. Nan’s got a whole bloody bookshelf dedicated to books about my parents and what they did. Compared to that a few tabloids is a bit tame all things considered.”
“But—the things that they were saying.”
“I mean, I didn’t read them all, but it wasn’t too bad. I mean, we are getting a divorce, aren’t we?”
Evelyn couldn’t think of a proper response. When they’d come out as magical they’d agreed to keep their relationship in the muggle world, at least for now, and Rose had warned her that once they became public that everyone would know. But she hadn’t really thought it possible that the way everyone would find out was through the tabloids.
Concern was finally showing on Rose’s face and she reached over to lay her hand onto of Evelyn’s. She lowered her voice and said in a nearly smug, joking tone, “I did tell you that one day you’d be seeing my face everywhere.”
“Yes, but I thought that would be because you had a high profile case or because your mother is the Minister for Magic, not due to relationship gossip.”
It came out harsh and when Rose pulled her hand back Evelyn was too late in reaching for it.
“I never asked for this,” Rose said quietly.
“I’m not trying to imply that!” she insisted. “I just…it was a bit shocking to go in this morning and see my girlfriend’s face from everyone’s desk.”
“This is my life, alright? I’m not an idiot I know who my parents are, what my family has done. And part of being their daughter means that everything I do is under scrutiny.” Rose said, she let out a sigh and pushed back her hair from her shoulder. “When I was younger I rebelled against that, I hated them for it, but I’m not a child anymore. At some point I had to accept that part of being who I am means that there’s always the potential for my face to be on the front of every paper.”
“I know,” Evelyn said, reaching for her hand again. “I’m sorry, I’m not trying to imply it’s your fault or anything. I guess I just never expected this.”
Rose allowed Evelyn’s fingers to tangle with hers and the pair of them sat quietly for a moment.
“I love you, Evelyn, I love being with you and I don’t want this to end but I think it’s only fair that you get the opportunity to ask yourself if you’re sure about this.”
“Of course I’m sure!” Evelyn exclaimed. “I know all the rubbish they’re saying isn’t true, I know who you are.”
Rose let out a little laugh. “Not about us, about all of this. Are you sure that you want to keep seeing me knowing that one day you could go to work and see your face smiling back at you from everyone’s desk?”
And she couldn’t think of an answer to that. She’d fallen in love with Rose not knowing who she was and even once she’d discovered Evelyn hadn’t really thought about what it might mean. It was enough to know that her parents were the heroes of the wizarding world, but to think that it made her a household name too…
“I guess I never thought of it that way,” Evelyn admitted.
“Even if I wanted to, I can’t change who I am or who my family is, but you, you have a choice.” Rose went on. She sounded hurt and he tears that Evelyn had been expecting to arrive to were finally in Rose’s eyes. “Because this has happened before, and when people learn that I’m going out with you…”
“Yeah,” Evelyn couldn’t help but agreeing.
“Take some time,” Rose said, gently, pulling away. And Evelyn, too numb with the sudden realization that it could one day be her too, let her go. “So you can give me a real answer, alright?”
“I love you, Rose.”
“And I love you too much to put you through all this if you’re not completely sure.”
They both stared at one another hopelessly. The last thing she’d been expecting in coming to the cafe had been being broken up with. “Rose, I’m-“
But she was already standing, pulling on the leather jacket Rose had once confessed buying just to impress her. “I’m serious Evelyn, give it some thought. If you stay with me then this’ll happen again, happen to you. You have to ask yourself, are you sure?”