I have so many moments to be proud of with Evelyn, but I always come back to the two nights with the wards. Both were incredibly complicated. In the first, I did something I never thought I'd do - killed someone - and that in the middle of a patched together ritual that I'll admit now, we had no idea if it would work. And then when we shifted the wards from the 83 wards to the Octoboros, I'd more or less wrestled them into submission by sheer force of will, and was not really myself for a bit.
(I should give credit to Tosha there: I don't think I'd ever have dared - I'm a badger, and I had neither native bravery or native ambition to carry me through, just stubborness - but for some of the conversations he and I had. Informal mentoring, it is a thing with a lot of ripple effects.)
Anyway, through both, I absolutely knew Evelyn would be right there, giving her all, whatever I asked or needed - calculations, measurements, monitoring a dozen different effects, flasks of tea, cleaning charms, a dozen other things. I couldn't have made either of those nights work without knowing I could utterly rely on her for anything she could offer. She's done a lot of other wonderful things before and since, but those two nights shine much brighter than the rest.
When you ask about least proud, I think about the things I'm least proud of, not least proud of her for. We had more than a couple of rough spots, once we started school again - trying to find a new rhythm, figure out how to make sure she got the training and education she needed to back up the Mastery, dealing with some of the more difficult members of our Guild. And it was a rough year in a lot of ways, personally. Rough set of years. But that was much more my doing than hers, and we sorted it out in the end.
On the topic of informal mentoring, I do want to say I'm also very proud of Cedric and Linus, for different reasons, and still rather in awe that they trusted me enough for a couple of very difficult conversations each that I think made a great difference to them both in the end. My least proud there was not being able to do more to help Cedric in the battle for Hogwarts (for all analysis after the fact made it clear to me I just didn't have the skills to do more), and for having a day where I didn't help Linus as much as he deserved.
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Date: 2015-09-05 02:38 am (UTC)(I should give credit to Tosha there: I don't think I'd ever have dared - I'm a badger, and I had neither native bravery or native ambition to carry me through, just stubborness - but for some of the conversations he and I had. Informal mentoring, it is a thing with a lot of ripple effects.)
Anyway, through both, I absolutely knew Evelyn would be right there, giving her all, whatever I asked or needed - calculations, measurements, monitoring a dozen different effects, flasks of tea, cleaning charms, a dozen other things. I couldn't have made either of those nights work without knowing I could utterly rely on her for anything she could offer. She's done a lot of other wonderful things before and since, but those two nights shine much brighter than the rest.
When you ask about least proud, I think about the things I'm least proud of, not least proud of her for. We had more than a couple of rough spots, once we started school again - trying to find a new rhythm, figure out how to make sure she got the training and education she needed to back up the Mastery, dealing with some of the more difficult members of our Guild. And it was a rough year in a lot of ways, personally. Rough set of years. But that was much more my doing than hers, and we sorted it out in the end.
On the topic of informal mentoring, I do want to say I'm also very proud of Cedric and Linus, for different reasons, and still rather in awe that they trusted me enough for a couple of very difficult conversations each that I think made a great difference to them both in the end. My least proud there was not being able to do more to help Cedric in the battle for Hogwarts (for all analysis after the fact made it clear to me I just didn't have the skills to do more), and for having a day where I didn't help Linus as much as he deserved.