TWs: Violence, implied/referenced past sexual abuse, use of knives, implied/referenced alcoholism, character injury, descriptions of scars. Please let me know if you need me to add anything else.
****
It’s a game.
He knows this, and they know it too. He’s read something about this once, something about emotional labor, about selling something that you wouldn’t think money could buy. He’s seen documentaries about it too, about cabaret girls and host clubs and performances that begin when you step inside and end only when you leave.
What he does is different, but it is also the same. His role is easy: be sweet, attentive, docile, but never submit. Spin beautiful lies for them, make them feel good about themselves, and let them think that they have the upper-hand. He would cross one smooth leg over the other, flutter his eyelashes, and pull his lips into a jejune pout or a coquettish smile. They all like it when he plays hard-to-get too, pushing and pulling just enough to ensnare them in the game for however long he needs them to.
People always want what they can’t have.
And Neil is – well, he isn’t something that’s attainable. He’s fought his whole life to make sure that he doesn’t belong to anybody, shackled and tied down. Besides, there’s nothing worth attaining about him in the first place.
There are a few ground rules to this game, of course.
Nobody can touch him unless he allows it. The last person to touch him without his consent left the club with a broken wrist. It leaves the message unequivocally clear.
They can’t ask him personal questions. Things like his favorite food or favorite color can be made up on the spot, so this type of enquiries is fine. Things like his phone number or the stories behind his scars are shot down before they get a chance to form shapes and meaning in the air.
One of the most important rules is that those who come here for the entertainment should come here for the entertainment, and those who come here for business should come here for business. If they want both, then they have to come on different nights. This type is rare, though; a frosty information broker with a notorious past apparently leaves a longer impression than a kitschy show boy with fascinating scars and shapely legs.
This rule keeps everything in order, keeps things separate and easy to understand, the key ring that holds together different keys to different locks. This is important, because the rules for the other game are different.
In the second type of game, his role is much easier: be detached, professional, but never appear as a threat. Some easy rules apply to the customer: no weapons are allowed, and only a certain amount of time is allotted for each transaction, with only a certain number of people allowed to meet him face to face. He sells them whatever information they come to buy and they pay him whatever price he puts up, and both parties walk out the door satisfied. They don’t speak about anything business-related if they ever meet outside of business hours.
The rules that apply to both games are as such: never compromise, never play favorites, always be a neutral force.
Well, what are Hufflepuff’s values? Justice, loyalty and patience. Andrew has all three of them.
I think Andrew’s most prominent characteristic is his loyalty. Loyalty to his brother, that led him to kill their mother to protect him. Loyalty to his cousin, when he almost up those guys that hurt Nicky. Loyalty to his family, to Kevin, to Wymack and eventually to Neil. Every thing Andrew does, from when he stopped Neil from running away from Wymack to when he broken Riko’s arm after the last game, he does out of loyalty (on the first case, loyalty to Kevin and on the second to Neil.) Once Andrew decides to keep something or someone, there’s nothing he won’t do to protect it. You could argue that that’s a Gryffindor thing to do, but Gryffindors protect because they’re brave. Andrew protects because he’s loyal.
Andrew also holds justice as something really important. It’s his own sense of justice, of course, but after what he’s been through I don’t blame him for not have a “classic” idea of what is fair. Either way, it’s that sense of justice that guides his actions. He swore to protect his brother, so killing their abusive mother is fair. Neil is obviously a suspicious person, so it’s the right thing to push him to his limits until he finds the truth. Renee killed some people? They obviously deserved it, it’s fair. So yeah, Andrew Minyard lives first to be loyal, second to be just.
And finally, patience. I think Andrew is really patient. It takes a very extreme situations to make him act without thinking (like Neil getting kidnapped, which led him to choke Kevin) and, while that’s a bit Slytherin of him, I’m pretty sure Andrew isn’t ambitious enough to be classified as such. His patience is an acquired trait – he needs it to survive – and he only tosses it aside when the people he’s loyal to are involved.
Also I think it’s hysterical to imagine the following:
Professor: Aw, look at that tiny blond Hufflepuff going! Whatcha got there?
So it was 45C the other day and I was lying in my hammock and I started to sweat just from the heat and then I just had a thought about Andrew in his stupid turtle neck and all black ensemble and you know how cats do that thing in the sun where they start to bake and they look like they might be dying but it’s all good they’re just in a heat coma and loving life? I mean Andrew probably doesn’t go that far but I feel like it would be a good bonding experience
Nothing but My Aching Soul 