rest easy, loyal confidant;

“It’s not bad Alison! I just wanted to talk to you and invite you to something.” Margot smiled and raised an eyebrow as the girl continued to talk. “Oh, are you trying to point to something? All I can see is a freckle.” She joked. “Your skin is flawless and you need to stop stressing and calm.”

“Invite me to something?” Alison asked, Margot peaking her interest. “I’m not stressing. No new year stress, remember?”

“I think you know why I called you in here, Ali. Unless you don’t want to talk about it yet, which I understand,” he said, gently. “We don’t have to right now if you’re not ready to. I just thought it’d be easier to talk to me than my Dad.”

Alison bit her lip. “No, no, it’s fine. I just. It happened really fast. Ophelia and I were walking around and then they were there. I didn’t know where to look or here to go, it was really choatic. I saw James and the one death eater attacked him, and then her was on the ground in a second. It seemed intentional. Ophelia and I tried getting to him, tried to find the death eater who did it, but everyone was trying to get out. We lost sight of him.” She ran a hand through her hair. “I really tried to get to him, to help him, but it was too chaotic. Is he? Is your brother okay?”

“Merlin, please no. I’m a terrible drunk.”

“Then stop being mopey,” Alison said, nudging Nik a bit. “Come on, Nik, what’s up?”

“If you keep talking like that, I’m going to think you have something to hide.”

“I have nothing to hide. After last week I want to do this no stress thing for New Years and you bringing up the whole death eater attack, isn’t helping that,” she replied. She then sighed. “What do you need though?”

Scorpius shook his head, “Don’t. It’s not your fault some asshole Death Eater attacked him,” he said. “And the streets are crazy right now, that’s not your fault either. At least someone knows. Hopefully, he’s okay.”

“I really hope so,” she replied. “You say it’s not my fault but I don’t think I’ll be able to forgive myself if something happens to him.”

Albus nodded, running his hand through his hair. “Yeah, I got it right here.” Unable to really focus on it, he just fished it out of his pocket and handed it over to her. “I put a charm on the front. I’m hoping it holds for a while. But maybe move people to the back so they’re away from the windows.”

Alison sent a quick text to Leo, telling him she was okay and to just text Albus back that he was okay. She handed Albus back his phone. She nodded at his instruction. “Yeah, that works.” Alison looked to Cassie. “You should get back to your girlfriend,” she said, knowing it was Cassie’s job to comfort Albus. “I’m really sorry Al.”

He heard what she was saying, but he couldn’t believe it. Not yet. Not until he saw it with his own eyes would he believe that another member of his family had gotten hurt. “Y-yeah. M’fine,” Albus replied, although he wasn’t sure what he felt other than numb. “We should… we should just make sure everyone here stays safe for now.”

Alison stepped forward to comfort him, but immediately took a step back, remembering she was supposed to be practicing the whole space thing, even though she felt incredibly guilty she didn’t do more for James, or have any more information about it for him. She crossed her arms around her. “Yeah, uh, right. Do you have your phone? Can you try to get a hold of my brother?” She looked at the door. “We can probably stand guard at the door, get people in safely, make sure no one leaves.”

Scorpius blinked, “He..what? Is he okay?” he asked, frantic. “He didn’t…do you think someone found him?” He ran a hand through his hair, trying not to think of what happened to James. “I’m fine. I just got shoved a lot. And I don’t know. We should have been on our guard after America.”

“I don’t know, I don’t know,” she really, starting a paced a bit. “Ophelia and I told an auror, but that’s the last I heard. I should’ve tried harder but it was so chaotic.” She looked to the floor for a minute. “What if something bad happened?” Her anxiety always made her mind instantly go to the worst possible thing. “Oh god, I should’ve done more.”

“He…” Albus’ mind stopped at that, unable to process the words, let alone the idea of his brother getting attacked. “Are you sure it was him? I mean, maybe– maybe it was someone who just looked like James.”

“Albus, would I be telling you it was James if I didn’t know it was James? Why would I freak you out if I wasn’t sure?” Alison answered him. “I would’ve texted you or something to try to get a hold of Teddy but I can’t find my phone. Are you okay?”

“And you keep talking in a way that suggests I know what you’re talking about when I’ve made pretty fucking clear that I don’t.”

God, how could she be so stupid? He’s probably be reacting in a different way if he knew, but Alison was a bit out of sorts at the moment. “James was attacked by death eaters. Ophelia and I saw. We tried getting to him but it was to chaotic, I don’t know where he is now. We told an auror everything we knew.”

His jaw fell at her statement, rolling his eyes as he let out a scoff. “I swear to god, if this is about whatever the hell happened between you and Cass I will be. There’s way more important things going on right now, like the pitch black alley?”

Alison looked at him shocked. Then out of impulse, she gave him a hard shove, her hands slightly shaking. Her anxiety was at it’s peak. “No, this isn’t about me and Cass you fucking dick! Do you really think I’m thinking about your girlfriend during a time like this?” She rolled her eyes. “I’m talking about your brother?” She looked at him. “James?”

Ophelia reached out to steady Alison, making sure the girl didn’t fall over. Although, she would’ve been right with her if she did. “You can’t fight right now, and I’m not going to be held accountable if you get killed.” She spat. “The best we can do right now is find an Auror, or someone who can help and tell them what happened.” 

“Right, right, you’re right,” Alison replied. She looked in her pocket for her phone to text Albus or Lily to tell get ahold of Teddy or their dad, but she was found that she didn’t have her phone. “God damn, I don’t have my fuckin’ phone!” “Come on, let’s go find someone, then.”

Al’s brow furrowed as he made a face at Alison. He and Cassie had just barely sought shelter in the building when she was on him about whatever was going on. “Uh… good for you?”

Alison gave him a weird look, a face similar to his. “Good for me? Uh no, it’s not. I figured you’d be angry with me,” she replied. 

“No, I can’t” Ophelia sighed. Part of her wasn’t really searching, knowing that it’d be best if she didn’t. But James wasn’t some terrible person that she’d been made out to believe he was. So she’d wanted to help, but couldn’t. “Maybe we should just go inside.” 

Alison stood on her tip toes. “No, no, no, we can’t,” she stuttered out. She then stumbled a bit, being pushed by some of the crowd. She wasn’t at all sober enough to deal with the crowd, let alone if Ophelia and her encountered a death eater.