blood red lipstick

"say what you like about my owl, but she's quite the messenger." rita quips back in teasing, the corners of her mouth upping just slightly in jest. "i wouldn't lie to you, alecto." she would, but she isn't right now. and she's sure alecto knows that; creating such big falsehoods could result in quite the bad path for somebody like rita. even she knows better. bigger, better. rita's not sure; but if she ends up alive, then alecto may be on the right path. best to follow. "does it make you nervous?" rita asks after a beat, "...the future of it all." if there was a fight, rita's unsure how she would fare.

"Oh, all owls are excellent messengers dear, its their job. I trust yours to be something special if you can brag about her so, though." Alecto paused for a moment as an image came her head of Rita and her owl hooting back and forth with the other as Rita wrote for the Howl, translating little owl noises into gossip. Fighting down the laugh that rose as a result of that image, Alecto couldn't stop the twitching of her mouth as it fought to turn into a smile.

Dahlia stood alongside the crowd, watching people coming and going. It was not her style to be seen at such an event but she felt obligated. The least she could do was stand there, hands folded in front of her non-costumed midsection with a bored look on her face. A joyful presence she was.

"Merlin, you look more miserable than a wet puffskein caught in a spring storm," Alecto drawled from her seat at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall across from Dahlia. "Surely our housemates aren't that terrible of company?" Leaning across the table, she lowered her voice into something that could almost be describe as conspiratorial, "I know some of them are in fact that terrible, but we mustn't go about advertising that knowledge of ours, hm?"

Pushing himself off the floor with a grunt, his hands moving to the front of his clothes to brush himself down. The lens of his charmed camera scattered across the room in tiny bits. He had only gotten it in the summer, how had he already managed to damage it? Slightly flustered from the fall, Peter nodded. "Aye I suppose I do." He recognised with a chuckle.

Alecto rolled her eyes. "Honestly," she muttered, "how anyone manages to forget they possess magic is beyond me." She had never been overly impressed with Peter Pettigrew. He and his friends certainly annoyed her to a remarkable level that seemed almost impossible to explain to someone that didn't have to handle that group. She rolled her eyes again as he cast reparo.

What had started off as nothing, had certainly become a more than treasured friendship. There were no regrets with the witch as far as Alecto was concerned and Bellatrix was very much determined to keep it that way. "It's something rather simple." She chuckled, moving a few more things about. "Simple but fun." Bellatrix couldn't have seen herself getting anything other than things that would compliment her friend and add to her fun. "I was considering a rather nice set of the more interesting types of potions for you. Can't have you going about without the appropriate drop to compliment the day, hm?" A seemingly perfect gift and yet not something Bellatrix would have dared bring to Hogwarts. Not yet anyway.

There were a few people in the world that would considered the idea of trusting Bellatrix Black with anything to be a textbook case of foolishness. Alecto found such people to ones not worthy of her time, attention, or general regard. Bellatrix Black was a singular witch, capable of some truly incredible things, and Alecto did treasure her. Of course, she also treasured the trinkets and items the other witch might occasionally have seen fit to bestow upon her especially since she also loved giving Bella things. Small items were such a lovely way of conveying friendships, as they'd sit as permanent reminders of the bond whenever someone looked at them.

rita can't exactly tell her how she knows - doing so would reveal that she was an animagus - but it was how she got most of her information. it was almost all too easy to have gotten into dumbledore's office and overheard him speaking about it with some of his staff. it was the talk of the wizarding world as of late, after all. "i've got ears in the most difficult to reach places, for sure." is all she says, swallowing. "things are starting to heat up," people would be fools to not see that there was something coming. "i have a feeling this will be the lightest of it."

Alecto knew, in some distant corner of her mind, that a good reporter never reveals her secrets or her sources but she couldn't stop her face from pulling down into a frown at the obfuscation Rita presented her with. Alecto wasn't as diabolically curious as the Ravenclaws were, but she did appreciate knowing where her information was coming from. "You better not be speaking to the owls for your information, Rita," Alecto sighed. "That's hardly a way to run a paper." At the rest of Rita's remarks, Alecto grinned. "Oh," she practically purred, "I'd be amazed if this entire incident wasn't eventually forgotten for bigger and better things down the line."

Bellatrix had been observing the chaos around her, the streets filled with those celebrating. The sheer amount of people unable to hold their liquor, or seemingly not caring about it, it was simply too amusing. No words could have described how much joy was added to the mix when her ears picked up on Alecto's voice out of all those near her. "Indeed, such a pity. Then again, you'd be surprised what gets people to react. Perhaps this was just what everyone needed to open their eyes to what is around them." Not to say that people were blind but Bellatrix very much doubted anyone had paid mind to things until now.

Settling herself more comfortably against the wall she'd chosen for this discussion, the back of her mind taking great pleasure in the feel of the stone. It was a concrete reminder that no one would be sneaking up on her, not if she could help it, and that anyone wishing to approach her and her friend would have to make such a thing obvious. It was reassuring and that turned her fairly small smile into a grin she directed towards Bellatrix at her comment. "People, paying attention to the world? Bella, perish the thought! You know full well it's only girls like us that are capable of such a thing. Not even Gringotts is enough for people to start caring about things that matter, I fancy."

On the whole, Lucian was quite a big fan of Halloween. As a child he enjoyed it as a form of escapism, a chance to dress up long after it was acceptable to delve into you imagination. Now, as a grown man, he cared less about dressing up and more about using it as an excuse to get hammered with his friends. There was something about Halloween that made people looser, a comfort in the masks and disguises that let them be their true selves without an inhibitions.

Lucian Flint was the kind of athlete, the kind of jock that would usually have driven Alecto to insanity. But perhaps the idea of of forced proximity had a merit or two to it and she only rolled her eyes at the offense the man adopted over her misinterpretation of his costume. "Well, you look like a watermelon with those stripes," she reiterated. "Though I suppose I ought to be grateful it isn't another strange fruit or vegetable costume like that blasted olive." At least a Quidditch costume was respectable, proper magic and a cultural cornerstone. Not that Alecto had any clue who this Dai Llewellyn was, of course. All of her Quidditch knowledge had come from Bella, entirely second hand, since Alecto herself found playing the sport absolutely miserable.

As the night grew darker, the festival really began to come alive. The beautiful dancing flames behind the jack-o-lanterns gave a variety of fun shapes that light up the fair grounds. It was divine. The cool temperatures as the sun set continued to enhance the mood.

It was a prevailing and completely incorrect assumption that out of the three Black sister, Andromeda was the one with the least-sharp tongue and the easiest attitude. The other woman was still a Black, after all, and the dry response Alecto received when she had asked about the other woman's costume was so delightful to her that she smiled at the other, canines wide and obvious in her costume. What a delight it was to Alecto to talk to those that had the decency to bite back and not cower about like that silly Borgin girl.