Dainyah Burke

“Oh, good!” Gretchen exclaimed, breathlessly plopping down on a hay bale beside Daniyah, seizing her by the elbow with a huff that was clearly supposed to play at some kind of herculean effort newly overcome. It either didn’t matter or plain didn’t bother her that Daniyah hadn’t noticed her approach. 

Very little mattered in fact, swathed in the heat and light and noise of the big red barn, shouting friends and scuffed-up floors all around them; chirping crickets inaudible for now, but hidden past the walls in the miles and miles of deserted land that stretched around their little red-painted homestead oasis, ready to sing everyone home later on.

The number of times Gretchen had previously swooped in and said oh good!—or anything to that effect—upon seeing Daniyah before tonight was: zero. 

But the number of drinks Gretchen had in her was significantly higher than zero, and when Gretchen got to roaming she couldn’t help but try to connect with the other stars in her orbit. 

It was a hot and humid night, and Gretchen felt like a magnet for hay; it tangled in her hair and stuck to the back of her thighs, poking red patches into her skin as a consequence of using bales as makeshift chairs. Her breath tasted like pink, which was to say: Vince had been making her drinks all night, sugary and deceptively strong and easier to sip away than real candy.

“We were starting to think you’d never come down here willingly,” she said, shoving her hair away from her face and flashing a bright, boozy smile even as it fell right back into the same place. “This is so much easier than bullying you into having some fun. There was talk of rope, hell! Talk of moving the party into yours and Adelaide’s little hidey-hole, even. Spatial difficulties be damned!” 

She was aware that she was speaking in paragraphs at a time but, to be fair, she was used to long silences from Daniyah, especially a Daniyah who’d just admitted to being spaced out. “What are you drinking?” 

-

Daniyah wasn’t exactly sure what was good. It couldn’t possibly be the fact that she was there, right? Not that she thought it would be bad, at least she hoped not. She wasn’t exactly trying to put down roots in England, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be actively despised. She aimed to be more of a neutral facet. Like the patterns in the wood of the floorboards or the flicker of the candlelight’s. More a part of the scenery than the plot.

But if the words Gretchen kept on saying were to be believed at all, it seemed her absence the pervious nights had been more noticed than she expected. Perhaps her presence tonight had been too. Oh good.

“I appreciate you not kidnapping me,” she said once she was given the chance to. It was meant to be something of a joke, and the drinks she had already had did their job of removing her normal stoney facade. 

But what they replaced it with was a more obvious feeling of being out of place in this setting. Her eyes kept roaming the room for something they wouldn’t find, and her feet couldn’t seem to find a position they liked. It all didn’t really help to land it.

“I figured I should come and actually check it out before passing harsh judgements.” That time, she put a little more effort into a teasing smile that briefly graced her face. “I mean, it’s all part of the experience, right?”

At the mention of her drink, she looked at the cup in her hand, thankful that the swaying liquid inside gave her something more concrete to say. “Oh, it’s nothing fancy. Just gin. Didn’t even take too close a look at the bottle, really.” 

And then, only because she knew returning questions was the polite was to have a conversation with someone, she added: “From what I saw of the making of yours, it seems like it is pretty fancy. Is it any good?”

Edgar’s smile brightened when he looked up and saw Daniyah hovering over him, his foot still pendulum-swinging in response to her football-style greeting. “Everything okay?” he asked, out of pure habit; she was smiling and waving a bottle of rum around, so he didn’t have any real reasons—other than his incurable ‘wanting to protect everybody’ disease’—to think things were any less than splendid. 

“Oh, you’re amazing,” he said, standing up at once and brushing his hands off on his jeans before joining her in a beeline for the door. “Rum al fresco. I love it! Sheer genius.” 

Part of his enthusiasm came from the normal sources: a few drinks down the hatch and the pleasantness of spending time around so many good friends. But part of it came to surface because Daniyah’s timing couldn’t have been better. No way to say for sure, but Caradoc Dearborn and Sturgis Podmore were starting to give one another increasingly annoyed, increasingly obvious glares each time one passed the other, and if they were going to fight – well, Edgar would normally want to be around to break it up, but there was plenty of competition for chief peacekeeper among the other Order members and, for once, Edgar was happy to cede control to one of them.   

“So,” Edgar asked, as the cover of night replaced the stuffy hayseed roofcover of the barn. “Should I feel special for being chosen for this little celebration, or am I actually helping you escape something?”

Daniyah’s proud smile made it clear that she was not going to argue with him on that matter. Not that it took much skill to secretly swipe a bottle out from under the noses of a bunch of drunk people. Even as she made her way through them, bottle swinging by her side in full view, they didn’t blink. Still, she would take the compliment, thankful for her own idea as they pushed their way out the door.

There was something about that first breathe of outdoor air after escaping the stuffy room of a party. Something that couldn’t exactly be called refreshing when the sticky summer air had settled in and there was no wind to offer any reprieve. But there was definitely something relaxing about being able to let down her guard. Shed even the little expectations she put on herself to socialize with the others, seem like she was having a good time. At least with Edgar, she didn’t have to try as hard. 

“Well, I am escaping a party I had grown tired of. And I chose you as the one to escape with me. Both of those things can be true and you should feel special.” Any smile she was shooting him now was harder to see in the moonlight. No matter. The stars were a much more compelling sight. Choosing a spot against a tree, she settled onto the ground and patted the spot next to her. 

“Sorry if I dragged you away from something you were enjoying. Hope I didn’t interrupt you staring at your ex all night or something else equally exciting.”

“Shoot!” said Edgar, already reactive to Daniyah’s preamble when she showed up and started talking. His accommodation instinct was like clockwork; he was pulling his jumper and spare folders out of the way to make more room for her to get comfortable, turning his attention away from the work he’d been so intently focused on before she’d shown up. At Daniyah’s confession, Edgar threw his head back and laughed, marinating in it before he could even dignify it with a smiling response. 

“No! Burke, no!” It was easy as anything to feign surprise when he was so not surprised. “I’d make you a cheat sheet; you know I would. If Moody wouldn’t have my head for leaving a paper trail, that is. Maybe we can try to convince him to work some ice breakers into training at the barns?” Edgar was laughing again, this time with refusal to believe something so hokey would ever fly on the old Auror’s watch. “The name game? Word association? My name is Edgar and I’m here to say / I want to fight crime in a ruthless way. You go!” 

He knew she wouldn’t take him up on the offer; he had too much self-preservation to push her on it, too. 

“Some of them, yes,” he said, teepeeing his fingers and resting them against his chin. As if this needed though; as if it hadn’t been all he’d been thinking about for days. “Where should I start? Lily Evans, for one, she’s the redhead who…you remember, that whole business in Hogsmeade. She’s phenomenal. Head Girl in her day, headstrong as anything, unfairly good at potions. The tall one, her friend, Remus Lupin with the scars? Actually helped me out with Defense Against the Dark Arts back at school, even being a year younger. Should have been Head Boy his year, if you ask me which…nobody did, but, that’s fine, whatever, not my business. They’re a good crop, from what I can tell. Some of them could do with being tested a little…a lot…more before I trust them next to me on a mission, but lots of gems in the bunch.” 

Daniayh audibly groaned. Not at Edgar’s enthusiasm, that in and of itself was fine. In fact, it was a trait she had come to know, expect, and dare she say like about him even when it was put towards coming up with school-children rhymes. But the concept of icebreakers was horrid to her and he most certainly knew that. 

“Please. I know how much you enjoy torturing me, but don’t let anyone else hear you that might actually want to run with the idea.” She reached out a hand to cover his mouth and keep him quiet, though she wasn’t trying all that hard. “Don’t ruin a trip I actually enjoy-“ A chance to focus on training and make sure she was staying in good form. “-with more of the parts of it I don’t.” The forced socializing.

She listened as he ran throw his shortlist, actually paying attention and making mental note this time. Lily Evans - that one she knew and nodded along to show as much. He spoke about her with a certain sincerity, but it did nothing to answer the question she couldn’t stop thinking: why her? Why had she been the target? Surely there was something more than her being a headstrong Head Girl. And with the next -- there was something very un-Edgar-like about the change of tone. “What, are you not a fan of that Head Boy chap? The one- the one with the hair?”

But finally, the most crucial point. The one that had her suddenly more energized as she agreed with him. “Thank you, yes. I know many are excited and have their own favorites already. But they seem- Well, young for one. I know you went to school with them, but for some reason they seem so much younger than you. And like you said, I’ll feel better about them all once they get a real taste of what’s going on here.” Once she could know which of them were willing to do what needed to be done, and which were more interested in playing the hero.

"Ah, so this is where you are,” Daniyah said as stumbled upon Adelaide in one of the few stables that wasn’t being used for housing sleeping members. It was nestled far enough away from the pasture that the sounds of the ongoing trainings were muffled out, replaced by the wind blowing up against the wood. “I can’t believe you didn’t let me in on this secret.”

She could believe it, could practically predict it. She had been looking for a quiet space herself, since even the room she was staying in wasn’t safe from company. Not one week in and the communal aspect of the whole affair was weighing on her more than she even expected it would.

But if company was to be had, Adelaide was far from the most exhausting of options. She hoped the same could be said of herself. But if not, she had no doubt that Adelaide would tell her to shove off. She had to admit, honesty was a nice quality for a person to have. Even if it was coupled with bluntness.

“What’s up with you?” It seemed like there was something other than neutral passivity written across Adelaide’s face. Though, Daniyah couldn’t know for sure when she still hadn’t mastered her read on the woman.

@adelaide-whoisleft​

Daniyah had reached a point where she had to get out of the barn. She had only been there for a grand total of a half hour that night, but the energy of was just too much, bouncing around the old wood slates and infecting everyone with its drunken revelry.

Maybe it was because of the dueling session she had thrown herself into that day, or maybe it was the fact that she had already attended this little bonding session the night before and her socialization meter hadn’t quite replenished. Either way, she was ready to take just one person off with her to escape the party. And luckily she already had just the right something-more-than-an-acquaintance in mind.

“Hey, come with me,” she said to Edgar. She found him sitting on a barrel and lightly kicked his foot in an attempt at a friendly gesture. Daniyah wasn’t much of a touchy-feely person to begin with, but the longer she spent in England the more her limited social skills seemed to deplete.

“I might have snagged this-” A half-full bottle of rum dangled from between her fingers as she tried to shield it from the view of others who probably didn’t care anyway. “-and would love to enjoy it out in the fresh air. Join me. Please?”

@skinxxandxxbones​

Daniyah was not precious about room assignments at the Barns. If anything, she was just thankful to not be in the communal bunks, trying to sleep while a bunch of new recruits snuck into each other’s beds. Any small room that could barely fit the two out-of-place cots shoved into it was better than that. She wouldn’t be making complaints about a little bit of dust or an awkward amount of maneuvering.

Still, though, a lack of complaints didn’t mean a lack of questions. She found herself with plenty of those as she sat on her bed, ready to go to sleep but too captivated by her roommate’s actions. All she had brought along with her was a small bag of just enough clothes for the two weeks. Which apparently couldn’t compare to the assortment of bits and bops Safiya was currently pulling out of her bag.

“I hate to be the one to tell you this-” Daniyah started in a tone that made it clear there was no hesitation to what she was going to say. She was braiding her hair at a glacial speed, the one excuse she had for staying awake and watching the other woman with a concerning amount of attention.

“I think you’re getting scammed. There’s no way each of those products does a different thing.”

@safiyeece​

Daniyah had been in England for some handful of years now. She couldn’t remember exactly how long, mostly because she didn’t think about it too hard. But what she could remember was never having a sense of “FOMO.” Others could have their parties as they liked and she was unbothered. She felt fulfilled with the letters she exchanged with friends back East and the occasional night out at a bar.

It turned out that only worked as long as she had some level of physical distance to pair with her emotional one. But she was still human. And for a human, there was just something sad about laying in a dark room too small for one person let alone two, trying to sleep when she knew of unsanctioned activities happening on the premises. Even more so when she heard the tell-tale sounds of drunk stumbling and suppressed whispers as others made their way to their rooms without waking Moody.

It took her two nights of it before she gave in.

The old barn at night was actually really charming. The moonlight that filtered through the gaps in the roof combined with the flickering candlelight from lanterns others had set up to create a dreamy atmosphere. Daniyah found herself lost in the haze of it, taking a chance to relax her sore body after days of intense training, and drinking more than she had in awhile. Which wasn’t to say she was messy. But even somewhere past tipsy was lower than she had wanted to let her guard slip.

And yet, she found herself not even aware of someone taking the seat next to her until words were being spoken within close proximity. “Sorry. What was that? I swear I wasn’t purposefully ignoring you this time, I just didn’t realize you were talking to me and I missed the start of it.”

Lily waited patiently for the other woman to pull her words together, but her eyebrows crept upwards as the seconds stretched on. She was just beginning to wonder if the woman hadn’t heard her, or maybe didn’t speak English. But surely, she spoke English, the whole meeting had been in English. Did she maybe not realize Lily had been kidding about the whole killing thing? Lily was strategizing a polite exit when, finally, the other woman spoke. 

“I am.” Lily nodded in response to the woman’s observation, even though it hadn’t really been a question. She held out her hand to shake. “I’m Lily Evans.”

Lily smiled politely, taking in the other woman’s accent. She clearly wasn’t from anywhere in the UK, and didn’t sound French. She sounded a little closer to the deep, back of the throat sounds of her mother and grandfather’s accent, but that wasn’t quite right. Lily examined her appearance, hoping that might point her in the right direction. She had dark hair and golden skin like James, but her accent was nowhere near Eufemia’s. 

Lily looked around the group around them, trying and failing to do some quick mental math. “I know some. Most of the other new recruits are, or were, my classmates, and some of the younger members, too.” Her eyes landed on Edgar for the briefest second before she looked away. “I don’t really know most of the adults. What about you? You don’t sound like you’re from around here.”

-

Daniyah reached out a hand to meet Lily’s, and only after she started shaking did she remember to give her own name: “Daniyah.” And then another beat before she added: “Burke.” She was a bit out of practice was all. The influx of teenagers at this meeting was the most she had to introduce herself to people in months. Partially because of the active effort she put into making her presence in England unknown. And partially because she was content to keep her social circle small anyway.

“You’re the one they almost took,” she said, straight to the point that most intrigued her. It was an opportunity to put a face to the name that she actually appreciated. There had been plenty of theories thrown around about why this girl had been the target. And, frankly, she hadn’t been able to put up a fight in the competition, knowing nothing about her.

“I’m from Bulgaria.” It wasn’t entirely true. She spent the first many years of her life in a small town in Spain, and the few immediate family members she had now were concentrated in the UK. But Bulgaria was the place she had left to move there. Bulgaria was the place she longed to return to. “So most everyone I know here, I know through the Order. So, you know, that list just got a little longer.”

truly, deeply loathing you // bellatrix & daniyah

Daniyah’s motion was the definition of harmless, but Bellatrix still found her hand flexing, wanting her wand in turn. She had to push down what could be called paranoia; remind herself that Daniyah was the furthest thing from a threat. This should be called what it was: dismissive and patronizing enough to knock her down a peg further. It was amazing how low she managed to sink.

“Amazingly, that would still keep you at the top of my list,” Bellatrix said, not bothering to conceal it with a mutter. Such a thing would imply that she did not want her coworker to hear, and she much preferred their openly hostile rapport. She did not have time for passive aggression, and most tended to be too stupid to pick up on it. “I will ask you again: where are they?”

What she believed, at this point, was far less important than drifting through the archives and setting her further on edge. Perhaps, she would let something slip about the work she needed to get back to or give Bellatrix the lead she needed. In truth, she had prepared for this. She left files on the desk that mattered but not enough that anyone could glean something from them if they took too close a look at her desk in her absence. They were significant, but not so important that putting them away would ruin her. It couldn’t look staged, but anything she truly needed had been hidden in increasingly obscure places for her return.

She was beginning to understand how the Archive organization system wound up like this.

“A broken nose will never be enough to deter me.” Yet her hand still drifted up to touch the side of it, and she forced it away with a cross look that was amazingly not directed at Daniyah. She did not have habits, groundless ones in particular. “I know you are too big to admit you missed me, but I appreciate your kind words all the same." 

-

As she closed a drawer and straightened up from her crouched position, she put on a thoughtful look as though she were trying to remember where she might have put some hypothetical files. Before turning her cold gaze back to Bellatrix. “Is this a fun game for you? Gonna go for a record here, see how many times you can ask? Or will you take your non-existent proof of my non-existent crime to someone who actually cares to listen to you endlessly complain about how hard your life is at the part-time job you most certainly do not need?”

It was definitely a step further than Daniyah would go around most. But that was the one thing she could appreciate about talking to her co-worker. Even if she had a rare talent to push her right to the brink in a matter of moments, she also made no attempts herself to keep up the pretense of politeness. It felt relaxing, in a way, to let off some steam with someone in this country.

“I don’t understand why you are so paranoid about someone trying to interfere with your work, let alone why you are so sure it’s me. And here I thought we had such a trusting relationship.” In reality -- and as much as she would never admit it now --  Daniyah could not say with confidence if she had left the files alone for the entirety of her time out. She had no specific memories, but if someone had asked for a file that could only be found on her desk, she wouldn’t have hesitated to grab it. Whatever. What would Bellatrix do about it?

just another day //

“Alright, then,” Geraldine said, unsure whether or not to believe her. “As long as you can give me a hand.” She’d spent enough hours in libraries over the years to give directions; she didn’t particularly care what the truth of it was. The woman was curious, though, and she had always had a soft spot for that.

“Are they? Wow,” she said sarcastically. “I never would’ve thought to start in the stacks.” They were a bit overwhelming, but she deserved a bit more credit. She could spend hours without finding what she was looking for. She could spend days following a thread that may or may not be related but was interesting all the same. It was a dangerous spot, and she absolutely loved it. Another time, she might be willing to entirely wing it.

If she had to guess, she would say that this person didn’t work here. That increasingly likely possibility still wasn’t enough to deter her.

“Anything from the Ollivanders or on wandmaking in general,” Geraldine offered immediately. “I’m Geraldine, by the way. Of the same Ollivanders, and while I like to think the notes would just call to me, I’d really appreciate a hand since more likely, it’d just be me, wandering through aimlessly for the next several hours.”

-

“Well, that’s why they pay me the big money,” Daniyah replied with her own easy sarcasm. Which was to say, enough to match what had been thrown at her but not enough to try to scare her away yet. Instead, she decided to turn her attention from her work to the woman who didn’t seem to be going anywhere.

She was not what Daniyah expected. Daniyah spent so much of her day around Ministry types, all dressed up for whatever job they were trying to reach on their endless climb up the ladder. Ones who didn’t always appreciate her haphazard research look that usually settled in an hour into a run as she made herself comfortable.

But the woman in front of her looked far from stuffy. Her own comfortable attire, slightly disheveled in a way that Daniyah appreciated as too busy being focused on other things, was enough to intrigue her. The tattoos peaking out of her cuffed sleeves was enough for win her over.

Too bad she lost a few points with the reveal of her name. One she actually knew before coming back to the UK, but become much more acquainted with through a certain fellow Order member.

She didn’t hate Gretchen. Definitely not. But Gretchen’s company was not the most welcome during her work day. She hoped her -- sister? cousin? close-in-age and nearly-a-lookalike aunt? -- was not cut from the same cloth.

“Ah. Wands,” Daniyah said pointing towards Geraldine as though she was assigning the word to her. “Well, to put it simply, we have a lot. Could easily take the next several hours even with a guide. Wandmaking as a skill might be all in one place, but wandmaking ingredients might be spread out into our creatures and flora sections, and history of wandmaking could be somewhere else. Which is probably a different spot than history of the Ollivander family which, trust me I agree doesn’t make sense, but unfortunately I am not in charge of the whole system. So I guess what I’m saying is--” She trailed off for a moment as she scanned the stacks with her eyes, already mentally cataloguing the best places to look first, not taking in the fact that it was easily the most words she had said to someone all day.

“Where would you like me to start?”

“Alright, I have to admit-” Daniyah announced as she unceremoniously plopped down in the seat next to Edgar. She had to make her way into headquarters to pass along some intel she had recently gathered, but she decided to hang around for a social call when she spotted him hanging around. It was a much safer place to discuss Order-related business than the few times she ran into him at the Ministry. She wasn’t much of a fan for talking in code.

“I don’t remember all the recruits’ names. I swear I tried.” That was as true as it could be. She hadn’t actually put that much effort into mingling with them all at their first Order meeting. Not because she was icing them out, but because it just wasn’t in her nature. But she still knew that he would be spending a lot of time doing important work with these people. She genuinely wanted to know more about them for the sake of the Order. 

“You want to school with them, right? Like not that long ago? Do you have any top facts I should know about them?” 

Daniyah still held fast to the fact that she was not putting down any serious roots in England. That was the promise she had made herself to make sure nothing would hold her back from returning to Bulgaria as soon as she was able. And sometimes her stubborn conviction to such promises got in the way of things like “making friends.” 

But, she had to admit she appreciated Edgar. From everything she had seen so far, he was smart and dedicated both to his job and the work of the Order. She would be willing to admit that she respected his opinion on the matter. Something that held weight in her mind only.

@skinxxandxxbones​

There was a lot Daniyah actually liked about her job. It was temporary, as was all of her life in England, and that was an important fact that she reminded herself of no less than twice a week. But, while she was here, she enjoyed having the access to a whole new stock of information they didn’t have back East. And for the most part, she was able to submerse herself in her work. There wasn’t much need to get to know the others around her, and that was the way she liked it. 

But she was still observant. So when the same girl suddenly showing up in the archives again and again, she noticed. At first she wondered if the department just got a new employee, since she rarely saw visitors have that kind of focus and determination when digging through stacks of old documents. But when no one knew her, well, she had to admit she was curious. 

Normally Daniyah let anyone else deal with requests before it trickled down to her helping out. But if only to get some answers that probably didn’t matter anyway, she approached the mystery visitor first. 

“Is there a particular project you’re working on?” Daniyah asked immediately on approach, forgoing the Hello, How are you, How can I help you customer service nonsense she was technically supposed to use. 

“Let me know if you’ve been struggling to find what you’re looking for. I don’t know what my colleagues have shown you already, but perhaps I can help with something they haven’t been able to.”

@brilliantbones​

The First Meeting (order members only)

Lily was not one to get overwhelmed easily, but she was overwhelmed now. It was in the best way, she was positively buzzing with excitement, but she was still overwhelmed by her first meeting with the Order of the Phoenix. She was full of too many feelings to sort out, she’d have to make a list of them once she got back to her flat. She was definitely honored to be there, to even have been invited and passed the rigorous entrance interview, but she also felt like a little bit of an imposter, sitting at a table with Minerva McGonagall like they were equals. Lily did not like feeling like an imposter. 

She’d been mingling hesitantly since the official part of the meeting ended, sticking close to James and letting him do the lion share of the socializing for her. It was incredibly convenient to have an obnoxiously extroverted boyfriend. But then he’d gotten distracted, and she’d gotten distracted, and somewhere along the way they’d gotten separated. She didn’t want to feel like some desperate school girl looking for her boyfriend, so instead of asking around for James, she turned to the person next to her. “So, how long have you been in the Order?” She winced, realizing how dull a question that was. She was quite off her game. “Is that something we’re allowed to ask, or would you have to kill me?” She turned it into joke with a small laugh.

Daniyah answered Lily’s question -- both of them, really -- with too long of a silent stare. Not because she was overly bothered by it, but only because she was trying to do some mental math to figure out the answer. It felt like just yesterday she had been back home in Bulgaria, still fixing up the house Pavlina had left to her. But on the other hand, it felt like her time in England had already stretched on forever with no end currently in sight. The truth must land somewhere in between.

When she did finally say something, it was a thoughtful but certain, “I don’t know.” With no indication of which question she was answering. Luckily, she followed up after another moment. “Somewhere around a year now.”

Her eyes then took a once-over. Just a quick one before settling her gaze squarely back into place. “You’re one of the new recruits,” she said. There was no need to make it a question since all the faces she didn’t recognize starkly stood out against the people she has been working beside for awhile now. It was more of an acknowledgment of the fact they both knew. 

Daniyah had plenty of her own thoughts on the new batch of recruits they had brought in, some she had voiced out loud but most she kept to herself. But regardless of her concerns regarding their ages and motives for throwing themselves on the front lines of the war, they were problems for higher up the food chain. Not to be taken out on them. 

“Do you know many of the others here?” she asked, her own attempt at friendly banter.