I've fallen on the inside

There were few psychologists in the wizarding world, so after Shylock's case had been sorted and shuffled through the records of St Mungos, he wasn't surprised when he ended up with an appointment with someone other than Teddy Lupin. Robert hadn't seemed all that enthusiastic about booking him in to see his nephew in the first place. Perhaps he thought Michael Corner would be better able to handle him. He would probably be right.

Shylock wasn't sure whether he ought to think of the man as a war hero, though he had fought in the war against Voldemort. What he did know was that he was far more wary about insulting him than he had been about riling Robert Lupin. Perhaps it was because he'd been out of the public eye ever since that battle whereas the entire Lupin family actively sought it.

Room 122. Shylock knocked on the door.

Right on time.

Michael was actually excited to meet Shylock Ashcroft. The boy appeared to have no medical history with St Mungos apart from the record Robert had made at his last appointment. Driven by curiosity, Michael had looked up the siblings mentioned in the transcript and as he'd suspected, their records didn't exist at all.

He opened the door and was surprised to see a quite demurely dressed young man. Robert hadn't failed to note Shylock's dress sense. Or his attempts to unnerve the other doctor.

"Come in," he said, waving the boy to a seat before taking his own.

"So, what have I done to escape your usual tricks?" he cut to the chase.

Shylock sat in the offered chair and shrugged.  He considered denial for a moment, but that would be pointless.

"You're a psychologist," he said.  "You could probably see through them."

"Besides," he added with a roll of his eyes, "all I did was hit on Lupin a tiny bit. You think he'd be calling that a trick if I was a girl, or maybe he'd be flattered by the attention?"

He narrowed his eyes at Michael.

"You know this appointment was supposed to be with Teddy?  Maybe he paired us up for a reason.  I suppose he treats you well?" he asked.

Maybe he hadn't avoided the boy's tricks after all.

He cleared his throat and shuffled the papers in Shylock's file, though he didn't really need to look at them, it was so short.

"We're both professionals," he replied, wondering why he was indulging the boy. "We treat one-another as professionals."

"And I know you're trying to side-track me, Shylock," he continued. "Robert's notes say you didn't intend to starve yourself, which is actually more dangerous than if you had. If the root cause of your eating disorder isn't body image, we need to find out what it is."

"So. How've you been feeling since he put you on those potions?"

"Fine, they're working really well," Shylock replied cheerfully, knowing full well this wasn't the answer Corner was looking for.

"Reckon I might be able to get back into the studio soon," he added, before realising how optimistic he sounded about it.  Damn.

"How's Jenna?" he asked.

He barely knew Jenna, could only just remember her as an excessively serious fifth year when he'd been about to graduate.  And he'd had bigger problems on his mind back then.  But he did know Michael was her dad, so maybe the question would distract from his little slip just now.

Michael was a little startled when the boy asked about his daughter. Sure, he was old enough to have been at school with her, but there were plenty of Corners in the healing professions and most people assumed the difference between Jenna's surname and his own meant they were only distantly related.

Maybe his case could be handled a little less formally than most.

"I'm going to just be straight with you, Shylock," he said. "So feel privileged, because my job is to get you to talk about yourself, not the other way around."

"If you're friends with Jenna you obviously know about Terry and I," he expanded, "so I understand why you dislike Lupin. I wouldn't really say he's a homophobe, but it seems to make him uncomfortable."

"On the other hand, from what he's written in his notes it seems like you were trying to provoke him. Do you really think that was a good idea?"

That was unexpected, but Shylock appreciated the other man's forthrightness. He hated when people tried to manipulate him, which is what therapy sessions always felt like.

"It's more complicated than that," he said. "Look, I know he must have written something in there about how I dress. As soon as I came in he was treating me like I was toxic. So when he asked me how this all started I couldn't exactly tell the whole truth, could I?"

"Even when I hinted about having preferences the wizarding world wouldn't approve of, he didn't get it," he complained. "He didn't even try to ask me what I was talking about."