_____forgettable_____

“Edgar is really talented,” Emmeline agreed, looking up at him. “I think that he would come up with something really amazing.” Emme glanced at the spot that he was pointing to. “I think that that’s a good spot…it would be really easy to get to if you need to.”

She looked at him for a moment, considering her next words, as she fell silent. “Did I tell you that I want him to do a tattoo for me?” She bit her lip and glanced at him. “A jasmine flower…it um, it signifies healing, and well…there’s a scar. That I want to cover.” Emmeline paused and turned, and reached up to the collar of her shirt and she pulled it down off her shoulder slightly so that he could see the scar on her shoulder. Her heart was pounding in her chest, she had never showed the scar to anyone except the healers and the others. They had seen it when it had happened. It was a round burn mark, like someone had burned her with the end of their wand. “It’s um…I want to forget,” she told him softly. 

Emme hadn’t felt this vulnerable in a long time, but it felt right being with Dirk. Opening up a little more to him. They hadn’t been together very long, but she already trusted him more then anyone. She felt safe. She let him deepen the kiss, and she responded eagerly, letting him shift so he was half on top of her, and she let the kiss go on for a little longer before she pulled away for a moment. “Dirk?” She said softly, meeting his gaze, her heart beating fast in her chest. “I’m ready.”

.

Dirk shook his head as she asked if she’d told him about the tattoo she wanted to commission from Edgar. He listened intently as she spoke about it, his eyes stuck on the frame of her face. She spoke of the dungeons, of healing and flowers and scars. She’d never really talked about her time captured like this. Little bits and pieces here and there, but never so intensely where she would speak of something so specifically.

He eyed the scar on her shoulder as she pulled it down, holding his breath without meaning to, as though even the sound of it would scare her back into that place of hiding. It hurt, but Dirk wanted to hear about this. It was part of her and he wanted to know every bit of her, even the dark ones. 

When she was done, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to the scar. “You’re so beautiful,” he said, his breath against her neck. And he meant it. In Dirk’s eyes, he’d never seen a person as Emmeline Vance was in this very moment. “And your tattoo will be beautiful, too.”

And it was like they wanted to be close, nothing between them, as they pressed their bodies together, almost as one. She kissed him back with fervor, her lips almost bruising, but Dirk stopped when she pulled back, prepared to be done for the night. Until she spoke those words. That she was ready. He looked down at her, searching her gaze, before his eyes jumped once more to her lips. His own spread into a slow, soft smile, and he rushed forward to capture her in a kiss once more.

Sometimes Marlene genuinely forgot that Dirk was in The Order. It was weird that he was and she was a little surprised and definitely offended that they held similar positions in the organisation. Maybe Dirk focused more on strategy, but he was duelist too. Supposedly. In her opinion any duelist worth their salt should have an appreciation for the loud and bombastic. Isn’t that what a duel was?

She twirled her wand in her hand when she saw it was him. With the force he’d come through the door with Marlene though she was in trouble, maybe Moody gruffly telling her to pack it in. But no, it was only Dirk. 

“I don’t know how I can make my training any quieter.” She demonstrated, flicking her wand at an old vase she’d placed at the other side of the room and turning back to him with a shrug as it exploded behind her. Yes. Very important training. 

“What is it you’re doing in Strat anyway?” She turned her back to him, continuing her target practice. It was a complete coincidence that the spells she chose this time were even louder than before. “Any progress on hunting down the maniacs who locked the four of us up in their basement? I assume that’s your job.” She said your with distinct contempt, turning to him and waggling her wand in his direction. “Otherwise, what’s the point of Strat?”

She immediately pushed back against what he was asking her to do, but Dirk wasn’t surprised. She’d never really listened to him. Then again, he’d never really tried to do anything other than keep his head down and avoid her. This was new territory for them. He was gaining traction in the Order, thrown into leadership positions in a way that felt surprising, even for him. Technically, his position in strategy meant that Dirk was in control of what Marlene could do. A complete turnaround from their time together at Hogwarts.

“Well, maybe you could put, er, a silencing charm around the room, then?” he suggested. It would be better for everyone not to have to hear the things in the training room breaking into a million pieces before she put them back together again just to do the same thing once more.

When she questioned him about Strat, he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Of course she’d be one of those wix who was all about the flashes and bangs of dueling. Who didn’t understand that missions could only happen because of people like him. “Strategizing,” he deadpanned as his answer, feeling annoyed and braver than he usual was with her standing by him.

He paled when she continued about the dungeons, though. He didn’t like the reminder that it was she who had been down there with Emmeline. “We have some ideas,” he said, almost mumbled, any of the bravery from a moment before now gone. “But even if we do figure out exactly who took each of you, that doesn’t mean we can prove it to the Ministry.”

OPEN 13th July 1984 Prewett Estate

Today was a good day. Or, at least it was the only day this week that Marlene hadn’t thought once about that dratted deal she made, so that constituted a good day. A relative peace had settled over her at work, which had turned into a bubbling excitement as soon as she’d taken off her uniform and exited the hospital’s doors. It was an old, familiar feeling, one she hadn’t had in a long time, and she welcomed it. While she seemed to spend a lot of time punishing herself these days, she decided for once she would relish this feeling. It was almost like things were back to normal. Almost. 

She didn’t often venture into the Prewett Estate without good reason these days. It was one of those places that reminded her too starkly of her betrayal. But today, it felt like the old days, and she wanted to do what old Marlene liked doing. 

Marlene had commandeered one of the old, most run-down bedroom a long time ago for her ‘target practice’. It was really just an excuse to blow things up, but she claimed it was to keep her duelling skills sharp. Today, she whistled as she lined up things she had found in the trash across one wall, on various shelves and furniture - bottles, cans, empty jars.

The first bottle shattered in burst of fire, rainbows sprinkling through the destruction in the air. This was fun.

She hadn’t realised quite how loud she was being in blasting them with her wand until the door behind her swung open. She hadn’t really been expecting, or wanting company. She didn’t really want anyone to know that the old Marlene had made an appearance.

“Oh. Hi.” She lowered her wand, holding it behind her back guiltily. “I didn’t realise anyone else was here.”

.

Dirk was working, as he typically was, at the Prewett Estate. Most of his life these days revolved around some type of job. Whether it was for the Order or his actual job, he was nearly always using his brain. Maybe that was why his night’s spent with Emmeline were so good. He was able to just be with her and not worry about too much else. Not worry about things pulling them apart, even if they were in a world that would balk at the idea of them being together.

He had his head to the maps that he and Reggie had been working on for weeks now, adding another touch to the most recent mission to the Ministry to gain access and understanding to the magical innerworkings of the wards. But he kept getting distracted because someone was, quite literally, blowing things up a few rooms down.

After what seemed like forever and hoping they would just stop, he finally stood and left the Strategy Room to go to whatever was being blasted around. He opened the door with a bit more aggression that he’d meant - a bit bolder than he usually was - and even thought he might have the courage to just tell the person to stop when he halted at the sight of who it was.

Emmeline liked the way that his face lit up when she called him brilliant. She liked that she was the one that put that smile on his face, and that she could make him so happy. His mood seemed to be getting better since they had come back to his flat, and she was glad for that. When he reached over and started to touch her waist, she smiled and leaned over and kissed him for a few moments. It was nice, being able to do this whenever she wanted, whenever they wanted. Emme wanted to be as close to him as she could be, she had never felt this way about anyone before, and it made her nervous but excited. She thought that he felt the same way.

She nodded her head. “I’m thinking something on the small side, maybe a phoenix feather? Something that won’t be really obvious to other people,” she mused. “Maybe a phoenix egg hatching with light could be cool too. I think that I want it on my arm or maybe on my leg. I haven’t thought about placement too much yet.” She glanced at him. “What about you? Do you have any idea what you want?” 

I was thinking of you when I came up with the idea. Emme felt her heart start to beat a little faster, but not in the usual anxiety way, but in a different way that was totally foreign to her. He didn’t want to to happen to her again. They hadn’t talked about it very much, what those months were like for her and the others. What they had gone through. And yet…he wanted to find a way to make sure that it never happened to them again. He thought about her, about…keeping her safe. If they had had a way to tell them that something was wrong, maybe they would have been rescued. Maybe they would have come sooner. Emmeline leaned over and kissed him again. “That’s the sweetest thing that anyone’s ever said to me,” she whispered against his lips. 

She told him about her ideas for the tattoo - maybe a feather, maybe an egg - and he could tell she’d thought about it, even if she hadn’t gotten the idea pegged down completely yet. He grinned at that. It meant that she truly did believe in his ideas. That she wanted this for herself and knew it was coming from a good place, even if others were angry about the idea. “To be honest, I can’t picture what I want at all,” Dirk said to her. “I’ll probably just let Edgar design something for me. Big enough it won’t be hard to find, but small enough not to attract a ton of attention if it were seen.”

Practical. It was really all he’d thought about. “I think I want it here - “ He tapped his upper arm, under his shoulder, with his palm. “I figure this would be pretty easy to grab if I needed to use it, but also I can hide it when I need to.”

When he told her just why he’d come up with the idea, however, Emmeline face lit up in a shy smile and Dirk kissed her back as she pressed her lips to his. She spoke against them, calling him sweet, and Dirk grinned into the kiss. “Just the truth,” he murmured before pressing forward again, deepening the kiss and shifting his body so he was half on top of her, propping himself up with his elbow.

ofemmevance​:

Emmeline didn’t care that they had gone to the Three Broomsticks for their first real date, as long as she was with Dirk then she was happy. Usually it made her feel anxious and overwhelmed being in public, and she constantly looked over her shoulder, looking for a Death Eater in a mask. Emme had no idea when she would really feel safe in such a public place. But Hogsmeade was quieter, with less people around, which she thought helped. But she felt…okay.  She knew that it was because she was at Dirk’s side, and she trusted him to make sure that nothing happened to her. Dirk had a way of keeping her mind off of the darkness and fear that consumed her. Maybe it was that she was just happy and she had nearly forgotten what that really felt like. 

She had been laughing at something that Dirk had just said when she happened to catch a familiar figure out of the corner of her eye. Marlene. A smile formed on her lips when she met her gaze from across the room, and she felt that usual pull to go and check on her, even though she was on a date with Dirk. She knew that Dirk would understand if she excused herself for a moment to check, Marlene looked…off, but Emme couldn’t deny that all of them looked off. Maybe other people wouldn’t notice it, but after everything that they had gone through…Emme could tell. 

Before Emme could decide to do something, though, Marlene was headed straight towards them, and she only had a moment to glance at Dirk before Marlene was there. “Hey,” she greeted, rolling her eyes at Marlene calling them losers. It was just Marlene, just like it had just been Mar at James’ place after the mission when she had teased her over her crush on Dirk. 

It was times like this that Emme didn’t quite know how to react to Marlene. James was so good at it, but Emme had no idea how to handle it when she said things like that. About death. Because she worried that Marlene was hiding the pain that she had to be feeling with comments like that about her job. “I’m sorry that you had a rough day at work,” Emmeline finally decided on, glancing up at Marlene as she sat down and ordered a drink. She was clearly staying.

Glancing at Dirk, she felt her cheeks burn red as Marlene brought up the kiss, and what she had said about it at James’ that day. “Mar,” she warned. Dirk was acting…different all of a sudden, and she wasn’t quite sure why or what had happened. She glanced between the two of them, unsure of what to do or say. She wished that she was sitting on the same side of the booth as Dirk all of a sudden, wishing she could take his hand, but not wanting to do it in front of Marlene for some reason. “Well…yeah, I guess I did say that. But that’s kind of…private, Marlene. Um…we can talk about something else,” she tried, glancing at Dirk. 

@marls-mckins​

Dirk was quiet and weird and sulky, as per usual. He had never been able to take a joke. It wasn’t that Marlene disliked him, she barely knew him, but he had so little back bone that he took her shit lying down. Even now he had nothing to say in response. He didn’t even try to tell her to stop the way Emme did. It made Marlene feel powerful. That wasn’t a trait Marlene particularly liked about herself, or she wouldn’t if she thought about it at all. There was a kind of purposeful blind spot that Marlene had to the way she made others feel at times - one she was far away from being able to reckon with.

Emmeline was the complete opposite of Marlene. If they hadn’t ended up trapped in those dark rooms together, they would never have become friends. That was just a fact to Marlene, and it was only solidified in her mind when she heard her name said as a warning. Her eyes trained on Emme and then Dirk for a long moment as she thought about pushing on despite Emmeline’s plea, but then they dropped down into her drink. A rare surrender. 

“I didn’t realise it was so private.” It was Marlene’s turn to be sulky, taking a swig from her glass before returning her gaze to the pair. 

She did as she was told though, and changed to subject. “So, how did you two even meet?”

Marlene had a strange fascination with the pair’s relationship. With everything they had gone through she didn’t understand how Emmeline was even able to open herself up to another person like that. How was it that this innocent, seemingly weak girl was so much stronger than Marlene in so many ways? Emme was moving on, living her life in a way that Marlene preached but was never able to do herself. 

She wondered what Dirk made of the whole thing, how much he knew about Emmeline’s time captured. An icy fear seeped through her body when she realised that Emme might’ve told him things about Marlene’s experience and she had to suppress the urge to ask him how much he knew.

@dirkcresswcll​

Emmeline’s tone was a warning and Dirk glanced up at her for a moment, almost surprised. She didn’t speak up like that very often, but he knew she was so much stronger than she looked. Even so, he didn’t expect Marlene to take it. How many times back in school had Dirk asked her to just leave him alone? Sure, usually he mumbled it, eyes downcast, more a plea than an order - but Marlene McKinnon never did anything she didn’t want to do, at least in Dirk’s mind.

But she listened to Emmeline after ignoring him, dropping the subject of kissing and taking a drink from her glass. Still, Dirk felt like he couldn’t breathe easy. He knew that whatever had happened to them in those dungeons linked them together in a way he would never truly understand, so maybe Marlene would be on her best behavior if Emmeline was around, but he just couldn’t trust it.

She asked them how they met and it could’ve been an innocent question from anyone else, but the way she said - and the fact that it was her saying it - put Dirk on edge anyway. That was practically his default around Marlene since he was eleven years old. “Um,” he started lamely, feeling stupid and wishing he could talk with conviction like he’d just been doing with Emme. “The, uh, organization?” He said it like a question, though it wasn’t. He didn’t say Order out here in the open, but she would get it.

“Then we just started to, uh, see one another around... around the, um, estate.” Merlin, he sounded so stupid. He glanced up at Emmeline and then quickly away again, not wanting to see the look in her eyes when he assumed she wouldn’t get why he was being like this.

As Potter? As James and Sirius and their friends? There were a lot of things racing through his brain over that, but the biggest was wondering how she’d never been to a good party if she was their age. That was easier to cling to than to do that math right now. If he needed an excuse later, he’d pretend he was too drunk to that counting as he watched her run past to the cup. 

“No, no, it’s not,” Edgar agreed, eyes still tracking over Emma as she headed back toward Emmeline. They’d have to talk about this probably, but that was okay. They had time.

Emmeline was a tiny bit disappointed that her first real date had been crashed by Marlene. She loved Mar, but there was a time and a place for her showing up announced, not that Emme would ever say anything. She knew better then anyone that sometimes it was just too hard to be with your own thoughts, alone. She just wished that she would have had more time alone with Dirk before she had shown up. They hadn’t talked about Marlene’s intrusion, but she had noticed a change in Dirk the moment that Mar showed up, but she didn’t push. She figured that Dirk was just as disappointed as she was that someone had crashed their first date. 

She wasn’t used to being happy like this, but she was happy. She had been spending a lot of her free time with Dirk, whenever they could find a moment to be together. Her favorite thing was just laying in bed with him, kissing, and talking, and then kissing some more. Emme was sure that everyone could see how happy she had been lately, and she hoped that Dirk knew that he was the cause. He made her feel happy and safe, and that was the really important thing for her. 

Talking to Dirk was easy. They had spent hours talking in the library before they had started dating, and she valued his opinions. But the kissing had certainly been a nice change for her. They hadn’t had sex yet, but Emmeline was certainly thinking about it. She felt safe with Dirk and she trusted him more then any other guy she had kissed before, not that there had been many. She had been waiting for the right person, and well…Dirk felt like the right person. Emme just thought that it would happen when it happened. Whenever that may be. 

She had been so distracted lately that she hadn’t brought up his idea for the tattoos. “I think it’s brilliant, Dirk,” she told him. She knew some people disagreed, but Emme would gladly be one of the first to get it done. If they had had tattoos before they got taken…maybe it would have changed things. She had to think that way, after everything that she had gone through. “I mean it’s not like anyone’s going to make them get one if they don’t want to,” she pointed out. “I will happily be first in line when the time comes.”

Emmeline called him brilliant and his heart soared. He grinned, glad that it was just the two of them again considering Marlene hadn’t followed them home (thankfully), and reached out to touch her waist, rubbing the exposed skin there gently. He’d gotten braver in the last week or so of them hanging out and kissing. Before, in the library, they would never touch like this. But after he’d finally been able to clear the air about him and Nicky to her at the party, it was like they couldn’t stop.

“Yeah?” he asked with a hint of excitement in his voice. “Do you have any idea what you might want to get?” He’d been thinking of his own, too. While he knew some people were going for style over anything else, Dirk’s would be practical. He wanted something semi-small, but large enough it would be hard to miss in an emergency situation. The placement would have to be easy to reach if his hands were bound.

“I mean I can poke about next time, but generally that’s the kind of thing they don’t like questions asked about.” Frankly Reggie wasn’t even entirely sure who “they” were. There was a group, sure, but the members seemed to change and none of them seemed to actually be in charge. The secrecy was part of the point, along with not making waves. Generally he tried to follow that. His livelihood depended on it.

Reggie paused, not quite sure how to explain his work that wasn’t a customer pitch or a self-deprecating joke. “I do a lot of restoration,” he said. “I take old magic items to rejuvenate them, make them work again. My goal is usually to try and recreate whatever original enchantments still linger because sometimes when you try to do something similar but slightly different, the two spells don’t interact well. The stronger magic, the deeper magic usually prevails, but not always in the way it was charmed to do if the other affects it.” He shrugged. “Layers are a good plan. We just have to be aware of how they layer.”

And it felt stupid to say it, to give Dirk a reminder when he’d already done this once on another map that had boggled Reggie to even imagine. He tapped his fingers against the list. “Did you use all of these on the first one, or is this more a list of possibilities?” He considered them for a moment, then added a note next to one that he’d used one or twice about its longevity challenges. Then he shifted down to the bottom and started noting down what he could think of as potentially helpful. “I just did a clock that located individuals,” he admitted. “It was one family, and everyone was specifically tied to one hand of the clock, but maybe some of that connecting location magic might be helpful here.” He added descriptions behind each of the spells, so Dirk wouldn’t need to look them up later. “I don’t know if it is as helpful without a binder, but maybe we can figure out something to act as it?”

.

Dirk didn’t look at Reggie as he spoke because he was too busy flipping through the pages of the book, but he was listening. Reggie would poke around, but the mysterious ‘they’ didn’t like questions. “So don’t ask questions,” Dirk suggested. Reggie was smart - it was why he was working on these maps with Dirk in the first place, after all - so he could probably figure it out on his own without asking.

At the explanation of his job, however, Dirk did look up at him, his eyebrows raised. That was... surprising. Truthfully, he hadn’t thought a ton about Reginald Cattermole - not in school, not after school in the Order - because they just weren’t often in the same realm as one another. But their careers complimented one another, even if Reggie’s wasn’t exactly legal.

“That’s pretty brilliant,” he said earnest with a small smile. He hadn’t realized that Reggie’s work required so much academia. Reggie, too, seemed impressed by Dirk - like a mutual respect they were just figuring out with one another. “The other map was much more simple. They were Muggle areas, we were focused just on our own people. This will need to be more complex because the Ministry is bound to have difficult-to-crack wards and we’re looking to add in those with Dark Marks as well. It’s going to be tricky.”

Marlene, @ofemmevance​ and @dirkcresswcll​ 7th July 1984 The Three Broomsticks

Marlene needed a drink, and she could not do it alone.  

It was a coincidence that the place in the hospital she’d ended up working reminded her so much of the place they were held captive. It was cleaner of course, but the cold dungeon morgue had a certain eeriness that reminded her of that place. She’d never admit, even to herself, that it was the reason she’d been drawn down there - a combination of wanting to prove she wasn’t scared of the place, and feeling like she deserved to be re-living the experience. And there were days when she did re-live the experience. Not physically, but being surrounded by reminders often put her mind back there. Today had been one of those days. 

She didn’t care that they were on a date, because obviously they were on a date. Emmeline and Dirk were tucked in the corner, talking over a couple of drinks, and good Godric, they looked happy. Seeing Emmeline happy was wonderful of course, but the more she stared at the couple the more Marlene’s guilt engulfed her. 

When her eyes finally connected with Emme’s, Marlene gave a strained smile. She should leave it at that. She should definitely not interrupt their date. But there was a nagging thought that drew her closer - if Emmeline only knew what she’d done she wouldn’t still be smiling across the bar at her. 

“Hello, losers.” She’d grabbed a seat from a neighbouring table, slotting herself into their table. “You would not believe the day I had. No one dies for hours and then suddenly all at once… well, lets not talk about morbid things. I’m done with morbid.”

She gestured over a waiter to order a drink. So, she was here to stay. Why was she committing herself to ruining this date? It was just one of those days, she supposed. It was better than going home and smashing her things while she sobbed into the void. 

“So… Dirk.” What a stupid name. “I heard about that kiss.” She glanced over at Emmeline, lips curving slightly. “Mind-blowing by all accounts.”

Dirk was happy for finally getting to take Emmeline out on a real date. While they’d been hanging out a lot since they officially got together about a week before, he hadn’t yet had the opportunity to properly court her like she deserved. So, here he was, taking her out to The Three Broomsticks. Admittedly, it wasn’t the fanciest of locations, but it was what Dirk could afford and it was different than just somewhere in Diagon Alley. Emmeline, for her part, seemed to not care he wasn’t out taking her to some place like La Licorne because she’d been grinning this whole time as they talked and ate, holding hands over the table between.

Things were going so well, in fact, that he didn’t even notice Emmeline’s gaze connecting with someone else until Marlene was already coming towards them. Without thinking, he pulled back his hand from Emmeline to sit up straighter, on edge, looking up at the old classmate who had tormented him for years. Why was she coming over here? Maybe just to say hi? It would only take a second, right? She would just come over, tell Emmeline hello, and then leave to allow them to enjoy the rest of their evening.

Please don’t sit down, please don’t sit down, Dirk thought to himself, closing his eyes briefly for a minute before opening them to see Marlene grabbing a chair from another table. Not only that, but she flagged someone down to take her drink order. Okay, so not just a casual chat. Shit. 

He tensed as she spoke, bringing up his and Emmeline’s first kiss in a way that could’ve been an insult or a compliment. He hated that about her. It wasn’t as though he hadn’t talked to Marlene McKinnon since school - they were both in the Order, after all - but he tried to avoid it as much as possible because this is what it did to him. It made him feel like he was fourteen again, trying to hide behind a book in class just so she wouldn’t see him and get any ideas. She was the reason he started changing the covers on his Muggle fantasy novels, whether she knew that or not.

“Er... yeah,” was all he could manage and he felt like such an idiot. A moment ago, he was talking to Emmeline like normal - laughing with her. Hell, he was making her laugh! How had one sentence by McKinnon unraveled him so easily? He ducked his head to take a drink of his butterbeer to try and hide the flush that crept up his neck.

“Thanks, man.” Edgar grinned and ran a hand over his hair. With his focus on the Order lately, Edgar hadn’t necessarily been looking for someone, but that probably made this even better. Emma wasn’t a plan. She was life basically dropping some good into his lap as things around him got more tense, as the Order as a whole seemed to be feeling rather pessimistic about everything. But this party showed that there was plenty of life in it, plenty of energy. Maybe someone just needed to start trusting their age bracket to act. Surely things could only go up from here.

He nodded as Dirk talked about school, his brain catching on what Dirk clearly took to be an insignificant detail. “A couple years ahead?” he repeated, letting his eyes skate across the table to where the women were having a conversation of their own. For the first time, Edgar actually paused to consider how old Emma was. He’d assumed she was just couple years above him, someone who just hadn’t been on his radar since their social circles didn’t overlap. The way everyone treated her like she was insignificant or didn’t have anything of value to add… It had made since if she hadn’t been around much longer than Edgar. But had she? When had Dirk graduated? If she was a couple years above Dirk… 

It didn’t matter. Right this moment, it didn’t matter. And clearly age was just a number. They were at a party. They were having fun. Edgar was not going to let his own insecurities about whether Emma realized how young he was get in the way. 

Instead he tried to smile at Dirk as he tried to explain where he was with Emmeline. As pleased as he was for them both, he wasn’t sure it quite reached his eyes. “New isn’t bad,” he promised, expression loosening up as he watched Emmeline laugh at something. Dirk seemed good for her. “I hope you guys have things keep going well. New means time to explore, right? Figure it out? I wish you luck, man.”

Edgar seemed surprised by Emma’s age, but the question was innocent enough and Dirk was too drunk to notice any potential discomfort that the younger wix was trying to hide. “Yeah?” He said it like a question because he wasn’t exactly sure. Hogwarts was some place he liked to forget. He watched the girls as they decided who would go first, Emma taking the quod for the throw. “One or two, maybe. I think she might’ve been in the same year as Potter and his lot, but I’m not sure about that. I was two below them, so she might be between us. You’d have to ask her.” It’s a simple suggestion, not realizing that he might be digging this into a wound he’d accidentally created.

Dirk couldn’t help the smile even as Emma raced over to their side of the table, forcing him to take a step back to get out of her way of the cup. He watched her, happy at the sweet interaction of her and Edgar, and then glanced up at Emmeline again as she was mentioned. 

The date they’d gone on earlier in the day had been awkward to say the least, with Marlene showing up and Dirk making a damn fool of himself trying to both impress Emmeline, while avoiding Marlene at the same time. He didn’t know what to say about it, though, so he just decided not to talk about it at all. It was rather unfortunate, given it was their first actual date - because he didn’t really think a party at his flat where she began thinking he was in a relationship really counted, even if they ended up as a couple that night.

It was nice now, though. Now that they were back at his place, laying in his bed, talking and kissing and just being together. He liked it best this way - just the two of them, no one to try and mess with things between them. Since his party, he’d seen Emmeline a couple of times, either at his place or her new house with James. The older bloke was a bit intimidating in Dirk’s opinion, but Potter had turned out nicer to him than Dirk would’ve assumed.

He would’ve thought James Potter was like Marlene McKinnon, after all the stories he’d heard. After seeing him in school a few years ahead of him.

They were talking about the most recent, which they hadn’t had that much time to discuss between all the, erhm, other activities they’d been doing since getting together. They haven’t had sex yet, not that Dirk really cared, but there had been plenty of kissing and things to occupy them. Still, it was nice to be able to just talk to her like they used to before kissing got in the way and he was laying on his back with an arm under his head, tilting his head to look at her laying next to him. 

Emmeline felt deliriously happy, which was a feeling that she wasn’t quite used to these days. She hadn’t imagined that things could turn out so well for her, not after everything that she had gone through. But she was determined to enjoy this for as long as she could. And well, she could happily kiss Dirk for a long while. 

“Me too,” she told him, her cheeks pink, as she looked up at him. It was so strange, Dirk was her boyfriend. Her boyfriend. She couldn’t wait to tell James. 

She barely noticed what was happening around her, she was so caught up with flirting with Dirk and being with Dirk on the outskirts of the party. Emme didn’t care who saw them together. He was her boyfriend, after all, and she could sit with him for as long as she wanted, as far as she was concerned. When Emmeline finally realized that most of the crowd had left, she was surprised that she had lost track of time so spectacularly. She looked up at him when he interlocked his fingers with hers, and she smiled up at him. 

Do you want to stay? Emme felt her heart start to race a little bit more, as she looked up at him. When he quickly continued and said nothing funny, she smiled. “I would love to sleep over,” she told him, for once not thinking about nightmares, and how sleep was her enemy. “I just…do you um, have an owl I can borrow?” Emmeline asked him, her cheeks turning pink in embarrassment. “I um, I should let my parents know that I’m um, staying over. So they don’t…” she trailed off. “So they know where I am,” she said hurriedly. Emme was sure that if she didn’t come home tonight her parents would immediately go to the worst thing that could happen, and she didn’t want to put them through that. 

She looked surprised at first, maybe a bit nervous, and Dirk started to wonder if he’d overstepped. But then she smiled and he relaxed, smiling with her. “Yeah, of course!” he said, almost too eagerly, grabbing her hand to lead her down the hall. Nicky and him had put their owl in his room earlier for the party, keeping the window open so they could fly in and out as they pleased. 

Dirk looked at her a bit shyly as she saw his room, but they quickly sent the letter together and got ready for bed, where he kissed her goodnight - and then kissed her again and again. Nothing funny, sure... but that didn’t mean they couldn’t have a bit of fun.

Gwenog watched him mix together the drink, leaning against the counter top with a knowing smile. There were people who liked the burn of whiskey, and there were people who needed something to cut the fire that chased down their throats. “That’s what I said at first, but the burn’s grown on me a bit. Makes me feel toasty.” 

She knew by the look on his face that the new concoction was much more to his taste- or at least, it probably didn’t make Dirk feel like a dragon with the hiccups anymore… “I thought you might like that more…” She was pretty sure that this was not what Professor Slughorn meant in all his lectures on balance in potions. If the man had thought Gwenog would have applied his logic to drinks rather than draughts, she doubted he would have been very impressed with her. But there wasn’t much of a difference between the two, save the magical component. 

“I’m sure…” There was a pause before she leaned towards him, a rare mischievous look flickered in her eyes as she whispered. “Don’t tell anyone, but I pretend that drinking it like this’ll make me breathe fire.” A joke from long ago- Gwenog the Welsh Green Dragon. From teammates who saw her as a force to be reckoned with, and who lovingly teased her for her taste for the fiery stuff. She missed being Gwenog the Dragon. But dragons could fly. She couldn’t… 

“I might have one of those later- but for now, I’m good with this.”

Dirk gave her a look, a little wiry smile on his face, as she said she liked the burn. To each their own, he guessed, though he doubted he’d ever enjoy it himself. He wasn’t much of a drinker in general - not really having a ton of vices like that. 

“Yeah, this isn’t bad,” he agreed. It would suffice for now, maybe the rest of the night. Since it was his flat, he wouldn’t have to worry as much about trying to get home drunk, either by Apparition (always unsafe when under the influence) or floo (safer, but more likely to miss the target with a slurred word), he would be able to drink more than he normally would at a party.

It felt good to not worry about what other people would think about her. She had Dirk by her side, and that was the important thing. He made her happy, and she trusted him, which made it all so much easier. She knew he wouldn’t let anything happen to her. “Okay, that sounds good,” she told him. Emme laughed. “Some drinks are just awful, James gave me this awful drink at the last party,” she scrunched her nose up at the memory. She took the cup from him and took a sip, nodding her head. “It’s good, thank you,” she told him.

Even though they were surrounded by other people, Emme only had eyes for Dirk. She knew that it was a party, and she should be mingling with other people, but she was content to just hang out with Dirk. When Emme had brought up another party that day in the library, she didn’t really believe that it would really happen. But here they were, hanging out at a party. It was almost too much to believe.

Emmeline was quite happy with her first attempt at quodcup. She hadn’t done nearly as terribly as she had thought going into it. And she had played and had fun which was really the most important part of it all. Emme had never allowed herself to have fun at a party like this even before she had been taken. But maybe James was right, she had a second chance at life, so she needed to take it. 

She didn’t care that she had brew on her shirt, and she probably smelled like the alcohol that had exploded from the cup. And Dirk didn’t seem to care, either, as she looked up at him. She was definitely on the tipsy side, a little bit drunk, but she didn’t mind the feeling. She felt looser and happier then she had before. Emme had lost track of Emma and Edgar, but she didn’t particularly care as Dirk was telling her that she was pretty, and then he was kissing her. She kissed him back, not caring about who might see. Why shouldn’t she be able to kiss him? Emme liked kissing Dirk, it felt nice. He was nice. “You’re amazing,” she whispered against his lips.

Will you be my girlfriend? Emme felt her heart start beating faster as she looked up at him. He looked so sincere, and sweet, and this was all that Emme had wanted since she realized her feelings for him. “Yes. Of course, I want to be your girlfriend,” Emme told him, not able to wipe the smile off of her lips. She laughed. “You’re my boyfriend,” she told him.

She called him amazing and Dirk flushed. He’d never been called that before - and especially not while kissing someone. It made him grin softly before going in for another kiss, the smile against her lips. When they pulled apart and he asked the question, he couldn’t help the way his heart pounded his chest, the nervous fluttering in his stomach.

But it all went away - okay, mostly away, the same feeling just changed - when she looked at him. And he knew. He knew what she was going to say. “Good,” he said, his face lighting up in a smile. “I like the sound of that.”

They hung out for a while longer, flirting and tucked in the corner of the room together. Wallflowers in romance. Something he hadn’t expected when he’d said they could stick by the wall together weeks ago. Eventually, though, the party began to die down as people started to leave. When there were only a few left, the die-hard partiers, the ones that probably wouldn’t leave for a couple more hours after drinking themselves silly (including Nicky, though at least she wouldn’t have to leave), Dirk interlocked his fingers with Emmeline’s.

She felt a sob in her throat, but she couldn’t let it out. Not when Dirk needed a rock. She would push it all to the side. All the shock, all the grief- she’d make it wait. It could wait because Dirk needed her. Nicky swallowed the sob down, and burried her face against his shoulder as she clung to him, trying to focus on the fact that by some miracle he had made it back home. But focusing on that just brough the though of Benjy back into mind, and she had to stifle another sob.

“No,” She said, more for her own benefit than his. “no, no- Dirk, you did all you could.” It was more a maternal action than a sisterly one, but they were all they had. So she pressed a kiss to the top of his head, like a mother comforting a child who was afraid of the monsters in the closet. Except the monsters were all too real, and had done more lasting damage than a nightmare ever could.

“You need to rest,” Nicky nodded, looking it his face. It was red and blotchy, and so full of guilt that her heart broke for quite possibly the hundredth time since he had walked through the door. “Of course. I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me Cresswell. The annoying little sister you never wanted but got anyway.” She tried desperately to make him smile- at least a little bit. Because knowing what he had been through that night, knowing just how much blame he put on himself, how much guilt he was carrying… She was going to help him through this. She was going to help him get through this, and if anyone in the Order had anything to say to Dirk, they would answer to Nicky.

She wrapped her arms around him and he buried his head into her in a similar way she did to him. It made it harder to talk, but easier to breathe, and Dirk listened as she comforted him, felt the way she kissed the top of his head. He tried to smile at her words. “I’m glad I got you,” he said honestly and his voice was almost hoarse from crying and the events of the night.

She let him off the hook with the promise of rest and Dirk nodded, rubbing away the last of the tears as he suddenly felt numb, dried out. There was still that ache in his chest, though, and he wondered if it would ever go away. Or if there would just be this glaring hole in his heart where Benjy used to be, knowing that Dirk himself was the one who put it there.

“I’m gonna go take a shower,” he mumbled to her as he stood to leave. He’d already taken one, of course, but it hadn’t felt like enough. He didn’t feel clean. And despite the spells he’d done to his clothes, Benjy’s blood still littered the fabric with pink, present spots that he knew would never fade. He’d have to throw them out. He wanted to throw them out.

He scrubbed again in the shower - quick, hard scrubs on his hands and fingernails, feeling the blood that wasn’t there - and it took him entirely too long to be done. He wondered, too, if this would last. He’d changed his life tonight by watching someone else’s end and he didn’t know if there was anyone in the world who could truly understand that feeling.

But still... there was Nicky.

She was waiting up for him despite the hour, despite all the pain... despite his deadly mistake. She waited for him and smiled at him and told him it would be okay as she followed him to his bedroom and they laid together, side-by-side, their fingers clasped in something that wasn’t at all romantic and yet intimate all the same.

He’d changed her life tonight, too. She’d chosen him over anyone else, knowing the consequences of what people might’ve said. They laid like that a long time until their eyes, eventually, fluttered shut. And just before he fell asleep he whispered, “Thank you,” into the night and hoped she was still awake to hear it.

Reggie had expected Dirk to jump right in, but he hadn’t realized just how much research would already be done. “Oh, um, yeah, great.” He leaned over the table, taking in some of the information in a quick, scattered scan. He’d need to read it closer in a moment, but since Dirk was still talking to him, he didn’t want to tune the other out quite yet. 

“Yeah, I can take a look,” he agreed. “I don’t know how the magic of Nightscar works if that’s what you’re looking for, but I’ve picked up a few tricks related to my work there. I’ll see what I can do.” He thought about the family clock he’d just finished for Arthur Weasley. Maybe some of the spells he’d needed to renew for that might have potential application. It all depending on how the location and individual needed to interact for Dirk’s map. Reggie suspected that system was too rudimentary for this, but it gave him some ideas of where to start.

He turned toward the map. Nothing too exciting yet, but it was good to know they’d have a blank canvas. “Probably a good idea. You can add new layers to something, but in my experience, if you don’t fully know how they’ll interact with the layers underneath, it’s best to tread lightly.” That was something he’d learned early in his restoration projects. He could add an enchantment to do something to what the item had already done, but if it wasn’t the same spell, it was better to figure out what had been there first than to risk a collision of effects between them. 

Figuring that was all Dirk needed to show him right this moment, Reggie sat at the table and pulled the parchment over. “Yeah, I think that works. Figure out all our possibilities first, so we know where to go when we have more defined parameters.”

.

Reggie didn’t understand the Nightscar magic, which was a bummer. Dirk would’ve liked to know - thought it could be helpful for the use of the map. But that was alright. They’d work around it - and it wasn’t as if Reggie had been chosen for this task because of his Nightscar information. In fact, Dirk wasn’t quite sure just why Reggie had been chosen, but he seemed to be catching on rather easily, so Moody must’ve had his reasons.

Dirk’s head popped up at the discussion of the layers. It had been something he’d been considering himself, of course - hence the reason it was already so bare in the first place - but Reggie seemed confident in his words, like he might know something Dirk didn’t. “What sort of experience do you mean?” he asked curiously, almost encouragingly. It could be helpful, after all.

Reggie pulled the parchment of the protection charms and Dirk sat back down to grab one of the books he’d stacked, looking for more ideas. Most of them were things that would’ve been in the Hogwarts Restricted Section. He wished they would have a few more darker texts - not that Dirk was really into the Dark Arts, but if the Death Eaters were high-ranking employees of the Ministry, some of the wards would perhaps be things not in the Prewett Library. But, alas, they were working with what they had for now.

“Uh….” Daisy really did not know what to say. She really did not want him to feel like he had to drink something she made. Even more, she didn’t want him to down a drink. Whilst she knew that drinking was one of the main purposes of a party, she didn’t want him to feel like he had to accept a drink from her. “I suppose that is true….” She mused with a little laugh. She didn’t know Nicky that well, but she couldn’t imagine her not getting at least a little drunk at her own party. They were supposed to be letting down their hair after all.

“I suppose that is true….” She murmured with a little smile. He’d downed that drink, and well, that meant he would need another one. That meant she could make him a cocktail. And well she liked that idea. “To the kitchen!” She mused, the smile still on her lips. Oh. she was happy.  

.

She seemed to consider it a moment before, upon realizing that he had, in fact, downed that drink, she agreed. Dirk let out a soft breath of relief, not wanting to hurt her feelings, and gave her a smile as he headed with her to the kitchens. Truth be told, he now wished he had just taken the out earlier. Surely, Daisy would eventually ask him something about one of Nicky’s Muggle things laying around and it would turn into some interview he was uninterested in. But leaving when he’d just said he would have a drink would be definitely rude, so he stopped next to her in the kitchen in front of the counter where all the alcohol was laid out.

“Alright,” he said, looking down at her. “What’ll it be?”