warrior;;

Alice was glad for the weekend; it was an opportunity for her to catch up on her reading, which had fallen behind during the last couple of weeks. She had the last couple of Daily Prophets with her, as well as the Quibbler. The last, she was excited to read, though she hoped it had less of the mystical twaffle that seemed to act as filler. 

She opened to the first page, grimacing at a sensationalist piece about merpeople. “Merlin, not this again,” Alice said, shaking her head. 

“The amount of people who have had cauldrons explode in their face is, surprisingly, a lot. I’d imagine they have a harder time trying not to make it explode,” Mary chortled lightly, having a sip of her coffee. It was not a good coffee. “Though, does make an interesting day at work.”

“Tell me about it. We had to do Ministry rounds during auror training, and cauldron repair duty was always the worst.” Alice smiled at Mary, looking the girl over. “How’s healer training treating you? Not too badly, I hope?”

Pandora watched as the person Alice was talking to walk off, muttering something in a familiar tone of irritation and superiority that she’s overheard a lot in this party. It made her wrinkle her nose a little as she took a sip of the least alcoholic drink she could find here. Alice turned towards her and Pandora gave her a sympathetic smile, noticing the small irritation in her body language. But the conversation didn’t miss a beat and Pandora was glad that she didn’t embarrass herself.  

“I hope that the ministry soon realizes that.” Than there was a pause as Alice mentioned the Quibbler. “You know about the Quibbler?” She asked, her tone surprised. Was it from Hogwarts? Or was it actually getting an audience? 

“That is a brilliant idea actually. To give a unbiased article about the Goblin Wars and how they affect modern goblins. “ She couldn’t help but smile excitedly than she realized something. “But most goblins do not trust humans, for good reason of course. It’d prove hard to find one willing to talk.” She stood there, thinking for a moment than shook her head. 

“I apologize. I got much to excited about that. Maybe because there is not much else to distract me at this party.” 

“Oh, there are some good people working in the Ministry. Sadly, there’s not a lot of political clout for the goblins because pureblood sentiment is terribly narrow-minded.” Alice shrugged, the corner of her mouth turning up in a smile. “I have subscriptions to the major papers and the independents I like. We may not wholly agree about Wrackspurts, but I think The Quibbler has a lot of potential to do real investigative work.”

“If you show your earnestness, perhaps the goblins will acquiesce. They can smell schemes a mile away. But, of course, take what I say with a grain of salt. I do have too optimist a view, sometimes.” Alice laughed at Pandora’s comment about the party. “Then what brought you here, Ms. Patil? Not, I hope, anything to do with spectrespecs?” 

Charity was pleasantly tipsy. She could make small talk without questioning herself, and awkward conversations no longer felt so uncomfortable. Logically she knew that she didn’t need another drink, but the plate of cocktails next to her looked so tempting and the alcohol had dulled her fear of embarrassing herself.  “One more drink couldn’t hurt,” she assured herself before lifting a sparkling pink beverage to her lips. The pleasant tingling sensation lingered, and compelled her to call out a slightly too loud “Thank you!” in the direction of the house elf who had provided her the drink.

She let out a delighted giggle, ignoring her social faux-paus and turned to the person next to her with a grin. “Have you tried these. They are ahh-mazing!”

It had been quite a long while since she’d been back at Hogwarts, but Charity Burbage hadn’t aged a bit. The sweet Hufflepuff girl Alice remembered from Charms still had the same smile, though today, one likely more intoxicated than it had ever been back at school. Alice’s brow furrowed as she watched Charity speak a little too loudly to the house elf. Having seen little happen of consequence around the party, she felt it would be alright for her to watch Charity for a while. It felt like the most responsible thing to do, anyway.

“They’re pretty good, yes, Charity!” Alice said, sounding more enthused than she felt. Quickly, she cast a spell on her glass her Uncle Florean used on alcohol-infused ice cream: it removed the alcohol content while leaving all the flavor. “Cheers?” She quietly switched her drink with Charity’s before lifting it for a toast.

Ted glanced down at the flute in his hand, refilling with champagne at every waiter who flicked their wrist upon noticing it was empty. “Better than ale by any means.” He murmured to himself, remembering when his father insisted on taking him out on his 18th, when he would have much rather been at home with his Andy. The Graduation party was filled to the brim with purebloods and people far fancier than Ted. “You sure you’re alright? You’re looking a bit, erm, peaky.” He spoke as he glanced the person beside him up and down.

Alice knew how rugged she looked, the bags under her eyes deep from the double-overtime they’d been asked to do at the Ministry. Small events, adding up to something Head Office couldn’t seem to accept: Death Eater attacks, malicious incidents that were swept under the radar by a well-placed galleon or a hidden threat. “Thanks for the heads-up, Tonks. You talk to your wife with that mouth?” She nudged him playfully, but her heart wasn’t in it. There wasn’t enough energy for her to engage with him; most of the last of the pepper-up potion’s effects went to watching the rest of the party go on. 

“I had asked you how you were doing, Fortescue. I can see I have an answer.” Emmeline looked at her colleague with concern.  She did not know Alice to be distracted, yet she did not often see her outside work so Emmeline suspected that was the reason. “ But for all it’s worth, I understand. I’d rather be anywhere else than here. Though the food and drink they’re serving is mostly making up for the … excess of everything else.” 

“I’m alright, Ems,” Alice said, facing the other Auror with a sigh. “There are just a couple of things on my mind.” Alice was on edge being around so many of the purebloods who’d looked down on her parents for choosing to live with little glitz and glamour, away from the lavish mansions of the others. “Yes. The only consolation is that Shafiq seems to treat his house elves well, at least by pureblood standards. I’ve seen little else; how about you?” 

frank had been wishing it would be a firm NO he would return to the shafiq’s invitation to join their party. he’d attended his fair share of pureblood parties in his youth and he had no great wish to return. the longbottom family had been disowned from the sacred twenty-eight for exactly ten years now, and quite frankly, frank was happy to be rid of them – that just wasn’t where he belonged. however, when he got the message from his supervisor that he would be required to attend the party as a safety presence, his no was begrudgingly changed to a yes.

on the day of the party, he found himself wandering in hours late, hoping silently that he wouldn’t be required to stay for too long. remembering the manor from his days as a kid, he navigated his way to the living room where he found a glass of champagne to snag off a waiter. as he stood in the middle of the room, he looked around at the people surrounding him. “quite the mix,” he mused to no one in particular, taking a small sip from his drink. “not your regular pureblood party, then.”

Trust Longbottom to blend in with the rest of the pureblood snobs; Alice huffed at the babysitting duty she’d been put on. She had to admit that Frank wasn’t as bad as some of the others at the Auror headquarters, but she’d bristled at having to attend the event in the first place. It was clear to Alice that Frank had shared the same sentiments, but they were both here anyway, keeping an eye out for anything untoward. 

Would these snooty purebloods really cause trouble for one of their own? She didn’t put it past them. “Really, Frankie,” she said sweetly, her tone even. “Do tell me more, since you seem to be an expert.” Her head was beginning to hurt, and just in front of them, some drunken fool was trying to chip away at the ice leopard. Typical. 

 " Dunno why you’d ever THINK i need help with that. “ Doe joked a soft laugh slipped from her lips before she shook her head. “ I did compliment someone you know? I mean granted I knocked their glass of whatever the hell they are serving here over but I was incredibly polite after that. you would have been IMPRESSED. “ Sarcasm was definitely not the most appropriate way to deal with whatever emotion she was currently feeling but it shouldn’t exactly come as a surprise it was her default setting after all. A sheepish grin did mange to make it’s way onto the young witch’s lips. “ S’what we do right? It’s going to help in the long run? B’sides it’s like you said keeping at least one person safe means we’ve done our job. “

“Indeed,” Alice said, smirking. “Not everyone appreciates your particular brand of praise, I think. I think I saw some ears turn red at our last meeting.” Had she been an Auror trainee, Alice would have chastised her a little; there were many things she’d had to do throughout her career that she didn’t agree with. But this was a longer game, and Alice too was just a pawn. It was nearly enough to drive a girl to drink, it was. She took a demure sip from her glass, raising an eyebrow at Doe. “Why, young lady, is that an earnest statement I hear?” She turned to face the crowd. “Now, let’s play, which of these families have likely pledged to You-Know-Who?”

Pandora had been going through the ballroom, mingling with much more grace than she thought she was capable of. Eventually she found herself near Alice Fortescue. As she was talking to someone else, Pandora was not going to bother her. Instead she was taking a pause in between mingling to gather her thoughts, take some mental notes but she happened to overhear the conversation near her. She glanced over and saw the person Alice was talking to giving strange looks towards her and she decided to speak up, to prevent an awkward silence. 

“I agree. The conditions that caused the Goblin Rebellions are still prevalent today, with no change in sight. Those who do not heed the past and doomed to repeat it.” There was a pause. “I apologize. I just overheard and thought I’d speak up. The Goblin Rebellions was one of the only reasons why I was awake at all during Magic of History.” 

Alice watched as the person she’d been talking to walked away, muttering to themselves about how distracted the youth were nowadays. Alice bristled a little at the typical older pureblood attitude. She turned to Pandora, whom she’d vaguely remembered from her days at Hogwarts. “It’s lovely to talk to you again, Pandora. And I definitely agree. History of Magic wasn’t the most exciting subject to study, but the Goblin Rebellions were an important part of our history that we need to rectify.” 

“Hmm,” Alice said thoughtfully, “have you considered publishing something about it at the Quibbler? Might be a good platform for goblins to talk about their situation in the modern world.” 

“ Not in the slightest. Are the consequences of old age setting in early, Fortescue? “ Doe replied with a scrunch of her nose, the defensive tone in her voice obviously just another sign of how uncomfortable she felt. Being pushed to attend a ‘ pure-blood ‘ gathering was not her idea of productive. “ You pulled me aside remember? i was about to tell that hag, where she could shove her glass of champagne. And BEFORE you say it i know, i know. shut up, doe. “

“Hey, we’re helping each other out. I stop you from needing to be dragged off the premises, and you save me from having to make actual conversation.” Sensing something in Dorcas’s tone, Alice placed her hand on Doe’s shoulder. “Thank you for coming today. Having you here means there’s one more wand keeping people safe.” 

“During my Auror training days, they made us do a couple of things I wouldn’t have done otherwise. I’m unconvinced that Willoughby’s ‘clear out my desk’ was strictly under the Chief Auror’s orders, but there you go.” She rolled her eyes. “I would have gladly helped him out otherwise, but he never asked.”