A Light in The Darkness

Andie shifted uncomfortably, eyes darting from the grass to the lake and the sky and then back to her hands. She couldn’t very well come out and say that associating with anyone of less than acceptable bloodlines and loyalties would have very unpleasant consequences. Not only for her - though Bellatrix hadn’t threatened Alice, Andie somehow doubted that Alice would be spared Bella’s wrath if word got out that they were spending time together. There was no way to word it appropriately though so Andie didn’t even try. 

“Thank you.” The offer was both surprising and a little frightening. For all her reasoning that she needed more friends, actually making new friends seemed intimidating. Even something as simple as studying in the library made her nervous. And of course, the Bellatrix problem loomed over everything else. “Do you have plans for after school?” A change in subject might be the best course of action now, so she didn’t have to offer any real answer to the invitation.

Alice was well aware that even though they were both purebloods, they were different kinds of purebloods. That wasn’t to say she would make any assumptions about Andromeda, but it did make her think the other girls hesitation and obvious restlessness was because of that fact. At least she thought that was what the other girl was feeling due to her being unable to look her in the eyes and constant shifting. She didn’t blame her though, knowing from Frank how strict sacred 28 families could be. Perhaps that was why she was so grateful that she didn’t count as one. She had less to worry about, such as arranged marriages and who she should or shouldn’t talk too. Though out of everybody, she supposed in Andromeda’s eyes there were worse people she could talk to. Maybe that was why she hadn’t left yet. 

Nodding, Alice just shrugged it off. “It’s no problem.” She told her quietly and quickly. No point dwelling on a rejected invitation. She was surprised at the change in subject, wondering how interested Andromeda was to actually knowing the answer. “I want to reopen my families ice cream shop in Hogsmeade, though I don’t know how I’m actually going to do that.” She laughed a little bashfully. No matter how many times she talked about it, she still felt like doing so was some sort of childish fantasy that wasn’t going to come true. Though it was probably just her slight pessimism showing through. 

Who: Lily Evans and anyone When: March 16, 1978. After classes. Where: Hogwarts grounds

The letter had come with the morning owls at breakfast. A small envelope, addressed to ‘Miss Lily J Evans’ from St. Mungo’s. Her entire future would be determined by what it said, and breakfast was a bit too early in the day to be dealing with all of that.

The redhead had gone about her day as usual, trying to ignore the pit forming her stomach through her classes, the envelope seeming to add ten pounds to her school bag. It was a nice enough day out, so Lily had retreated outside, under one of the trees, to get some studying done while it was still light. She was placing her books back into her bag when the envelope fell back into her lap.

“I suppose I can’t avoid it for much longer,” she mused, unaware that another had joined her.

Alice was glad to be spending some more time outside. Not only was getting fresh air good for her but she seemed to actually be talking to more people too. Not that there was anything wrong with who she usually talked to, most were just in her house. It was good to branch out. “Mind if I sit here?” She asked, though she was already moving to sit down. She would always move if Lily was actually opposed to her sitting there. That most likely wouldn’t be the case though, or at least she hoped it wouldn’t be. “What have you been avoiding exactly? If you don’t mind me asking?” The girl was curious, but didn’t want to pry to much. Or rather she did want to pry and just wanted to make it seem like she didn’t. 

Andie nodded, not entirely sure if she wanted to admit that it had started out as remedial lessons. Her marks had dropped so dramatically in January but thankfully they were at an acceptable level again. She wanted to do better, although her hopes of actually studying at St. Mungo’s dwindled steadily. “I do. I enjoy it.” She smoothed her fingers over her uniform skirt, hoping that answer would suffice and she wouldn’t need to either explain the truth or come up with a way to cover for herself.

The invitation was more than she had expected, and she had a moment where it was an immense temptation. She didn’t doubt that the Hufflepuff common room would be a cozy place to spend some time, and there was the added benefit of Ted being there. But she knew it would be beyond foolish to even attempt it. “Thank you,” she said, sincerely. “I wish - I don’t think it would be very wise though. I’ve been spending as much time in the library as possible, and that’s helped some.”

Alice let out a silent ‘oh’, failing to hid her disappointment as her invitation was rejected. It was a bit to be expected though since they weren’t exactly friends. She would like to be friends with the other girl though. Or at least friendlier then they were now. Not to say they were hostile with each other or anything but they didn’t exactly seem comfortable. Then again they’d never really talked before, never really having a reason or an opportunity too. That didn’t mean she shouldn’t try. Even though they both would be graduating soon, the Hufflepuff thought it to be all the more reason why she should try. Leaving Hogwarts would change a lot of things, hell so many things were changing while they were in school, so why not try and make more friends while she could? 

“Well even if it’s not my common room, if you need a study partner in the library let me know.” She smiled, figuring it would be best not to push. Though she could definitely be pushy, she figured that wasn’t a very good thing to do in the situation. Alice could be stubborn when she wanted to be. She would save it for her parents though, the two adults equally as stubborn as she was. It was no wonder where she got the quality from. “I could definitely use some extra studying before the end of the year officially comes around.” 

WHO: Amos Diggory and Alice Fortescue WHEN: Saturday, March 18th, 1978. WHERE: The Room of Requirement

It was not at all like Amos to approach anyone of his own accord but Alice stood there at the very edge of the room looking so very alone and so very, very gorgeous. He just had to talk to her. He had to. Amos grinned shyly as he made his way through the crowd and towards her, looking to his feet when he finally made it to her, “Um….A - A pretty girl shouldn’t have to be alone. Do you maybe…would you like to dance?”

@puffpuff-alice

Alice wasn’t planning on drinking too much that night, especially not as early in the night as she had. But after seeing Frank go up to Gwen, she figured she should let loose a bit. After all, they’d simply gotten a little caught up in the moment the night before. As soon as she’d taken a sip of her drink she forgot all about him. Instead she could only focus on Amos. It was odd, they’d been going to school together for so long and yet had never noticed how attractive he was. The girl smiled bashfully when he came up to her, nodding her head. “Yeah, I-I’d really like that.” She was never one to be forward with, well anyone, but she still found herself reaching for his hand as she pushed herself off the wall. Although she couldn’t actually bring herself to grab it. 

It took him a moment, but he did recognize the ring. Truth be told he hadn’t expected much. Alice knew him well enough to know he had no desire for anything too over the top. What he really hadn’t expected was something with so much sentiment attached. Her father’s ring. She had said that it was nothing special but to him it meant so much. The Fortescue family truly was putting their trust in him to care for her once her father was gone - when she would need him more than ever. Frank couldn’t even begin to imagine how Alice must have felt even asking for this particular piece of jewelry. “Thank you” he said, reaching out for her hand, “I have something for you too”

She felt like she could breath a sigh of relief when he didn’t automatically try and return it. “What?” She said, truly confused about what he could possibly be giving her. What more he could possibly be giving her? He was already her best friend, agreed to marry her even though she knew that he’d never been interested in arrange marriages. He’d been the reason why she never actually dated anyone, because no one had ever treated her like he had. He’d done so much more for her than he probably even knew. “You didn’t have to get me anything Frank.” Alice said, staring down at their hands. 

For nearly a month now his mind had been buzzing. It seemed that life moved incredibly quickly. With everything going on in the world around them they all still had so much to fear. The castle around them was gloomy and the moods of many of his classmates was far from lifted, and yet Frank was happy. Since their engagement nothing more had happened between them which more or less might have something to do with the fact that they hadn’t actually managed to find some time alone. Frank knew now that something for sure had changed between them but he hadn’t wanted to push his boundaries so he had done nothing to pursue it. There had been one thing that he had needed to do though. After all, tradition would only stand for the finest. 

A few days after he had received the letter his mother had obtained permission to take her son off campus and to the family vault at Gringotts. His three times great grandmother had been a collector of fine jewelry and it had become a tradition within the family to select one of her pieces to pass on to one’s wife. Frank had perused the vault slowly. Whatever he chose had to be perfect. Frank had been certain that his mother was going to chime in on what she thought would be best, but she merely stood at the door to the vault beaming at him with joy and pride. Almost as if, and he more than suspected this was truth, she knew that he truly loved his future bride. After some time he found it. A smaller gold ring tucked in among some truly large stones. He could only hope that Alice found the slender diamond and opal studded band as charming as he did and that the teardrop diamond was neither too much or too little. 

For days now he had carried it around with him. They hadn’t been able to catch a moment together so of course he hadn’t given it to her. Sure, he easily could have had one of the ladies in her dorm room give it to her or perhaps even arrange something elaborate with his housemates but he thought she would appreciate a more intimate moment. Today was no different. The little box was situated in the pocket of his robes just in case the chance arose. He had been chattering with Ted when Alice had called out to him. Quickly he strode over to her watching as the common room slowly emptied. “You got me something?” he questioned, accepting the box that she offered, “Is this a ring box?”

Alice could only nod her head as she watched him, desperate to see his reaction. Would he hate it? Would he recognize it as her fathers and tell her to give it back? In the past she always knew how he would react but now everything felt so different. They were still the same people of course, their relationship had just changed. Significantly.  They were still best friends of course but now they were engaged. A word that still made her head spin. Even though they’d talked about the engagement, more than talked about it really, she still expected him to end it any day. To tell her that he didn’t actually want to marry her, or even worse, that he was in love with someone else already. She wouldn’t be able to hold him to the engagement then, not if she still wanted to be his best friend. She also knew that Frank would have told her already if that were the case. “It’s nothing too special or anything but I wanted you to have it.” She explained nervously. 

As Phillip swished his wand to summon his little supply of sugar and cream to them he nodded along with the girl’s words. He believed that he did need to have a certain level of transparency with those who came to see him. They needed to be able to trust him. “At the recommendation of the board of magical education the ministry thought it wise to place me here on a temporary basis in case anyone wanted to talk or perhaps just wanted some tea and company. Thank you for coming to welcome me” 

Alice nodded, it making sense that the board would suggest this sort of thing. It made sense that someone suggested that the school receive some extra support. Merlin knew they all needed it. “Oh it’s no problem! I’m sure some of my friends and housemates will be by to see you. Most people here are pretty friendly.” She said, shakily grabbing the cup of tea and taking a sip from it. “One of my friends actually recommended that I should talk to somebody like you, which is why I’m here.” When she got nervous, she tended to ramble. And it didn’t help that the girl was still wondering if he could read her mind or not. “At first I was going to talk to Professor Sprout, but I figured since you’re here, why not give it a shot?” 

Remus nodded, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. Defense Against the Dark Arts and dark creatures were subjects of fascination for him, though for far more personal reasons than he let on. Not only had he grown up learning of all sorts of dark creatures through his own father’s research and passion for the subject, but because Remus had long since belonged to the classification himself. He was a dark creature, through a tragic turn of events of course, but a dark creature nonetheless. “I think so.” He mused with a small smile. “There’s an air of mystery around them, I think. I’m not saying they are misunderstood per say, but I don’t think we understand them as much as we should.”

The juxtaposition of their future careers might have been amusing to Remus if he was any bit surprised. “I remember your shop.” He said, his smile widening. “I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t wish it back.” Remus couldn’t recall many good childhood memories, though he had a few early ones from before the attack. He remembered trips to Alice’s family’s ice cream shop with his parents long ago. They’d stopped going after the attack, afraid to bring Remus out in public where he might pose a danger to others, or them to him. “I’m sure you’ll think of something, Alice. You’re a bright witch, you could do whatever you wanted to do.” Remus assured her.

From the way Remus was talking, there was not a doubt in her mind that he would be able to accomplish something. It was hard to say what he would be able to accomplish considering she didn’t know what he actually wanted to do. Was it to create more understanding? Learn more about them? Get people to stop being so afraid and judgmental of everything that was different from them? “Well I’m sure whatever you end up doing will be great.” All of the questions nearly made her want to study them as well. But she wasn’t just going to steal his thunder like that. Remus was smart and more than capable of changing the wizarding world all on his own if he wanted too. 

Alice nodded, happy to hear that she wasn’t the only one who wanted her families ice cream store back. The ice cream store was where she’d met lots of her friends, where she’d met Frank, it met a lot to her. “Well now you sound like my dad,” She laughed. “My dad thinks that I should leave the shop alone and do something else with my life. I told him that I’ll think about it after I buy the shop back. Or maybe I’ll just have a temporary career to help earn the money to get it.” There was a lot she was unsure about, but she didn’t stress about it nearly as much as one might think she would. 

A kind smile lit up his face as she took the seat that he offered. “You can call me Phillip if you would like. Mr. McCormack is also fine” he said as he poured them both a steaming cup of tea, “Cream and sugar?” he offered, settling a tea tray between them. One of the most difficult things to do was to reach out and ask for help and despite everything that had happened to these poor kids this year it was still amazing that one of them had come so soon. Phillip didn’t expect that she would tell him very much during this visit, but at the very least he could try to make her feel as welcome as possible. 

Alice nodded, she would most likely stick to calling him Mr. McCormack for now. She wasn’t planning on getting that close to him. She wasn’t even planning on coming back to his office again. Though that may change depending how this went. “Both please.” She told him. The girl liked everything sweet, probably too sweet. It was a wonder how her teeth didn’t fall out with how much sugar she ate every day. “I’m guessing Professor Dumbledore had you come due to uh- recent events?” She asked, genuinely curious. That wasn’t to say she wasn’t at least a little thankful that he was there now. She just thought that it would have been helpful if he’d been there from the start of the school year. 

This would be much easier if Ted were around; he always made Andie better in general, and she felt like she hardly knew how to carry on a conversation with anyone besides him really. Keeping to her sisters as company had been easy when she was younger but it meant that she felt very unprepared for socializing with other people now. Or maybe it was only people who were more genuine than the other purebloods she’d grown up with. She could carry on a meaningless conversation without any difficulties still, but this was different.

Still, she had to try so she smiled and nodded, shuffling her things around absently. “Being inside has been very difficult. I’m lucky I’ve been working with Professor Sprout so I get out on a regular basis but it’s not the same really. Sometimes I feel like I can breathe at night. The dungeons have been very … claustrophobic lately.”

She couldn’t help but raise her eyebrow, the mention of Professor Sprout catching her interest. She’d been meaning to speak to her Head of House but was unable to find the time. Or rather, unable to find the courage. She knew that she should talk to the woman though.  It wasn’t like Pomona was mean, if anything she was one of the nicest people around. Which was saying something since Alice liked to think that most of the people she knew and was friends with were pretty nice. Most Hufflepuffs really relied on the woman though, in a way that almost intimidated the girl. If she tried to do the same, would she be told that her issues were so much less trivial than she made them out to be? 

“You do? That’s so cool!” She simply grinned. No point in bringing all her worried into the conversation. Not when Alice couldn’t help but feel a little bad by her last statement. She’d never been particularly close to any Slytherins, so she didn’t know how most felt about living in the dungeons. For the most part she thought that they didn’t mind it, maybe she was wrong though. Perhaps it was only Andromeda who felt that way though. “Well, I can’t speak for everyone now, but there have been lots of guests in the common room lately. I’m sure nobody would mind one more, no matter how late it is. Just for a change of pace.” 

“Hey!” Irma called out to the student leaving her desk, her frustration levels rising. “You only needed to return the book, not the love note inside.”

Alice’s face went extremely red, “E-Excuse me?” Her eyes where wide, unsure what note exactly she was talking about. If she had actually read the note or not. 

Where: Hufflepuff Common Room

When: Friday, March 17th before afternoon classes

It had taken weeks to get her mother to finally send her the gift she wanted to give to Frank. Alice felt like she had to give him something considering they were engaged now. Instead of writing to her mother, she’d personally written to her father for the gift she had in mind since he was the one who owned the item. It was something he’d been given when he’d gotten engaged to her mother, and although it wasn’t much of a family heirloom like she’d have preferred, it had a lot of meaning to her. Just about everything important to her parents meant a lot to the girl and was the reason why she wanted to share it with Frank. Though she would’ve preferred for their engagement to have been under different circumstances, that didn’t mean she wasn’t happy about it nonetheless. 

“Frank!” She called out to him to catch his attention. Everybody currently in the common room were leaving to go to their classes so she figured now would be a good time to get some privacy. Rather than sneaking off into an empty classroom, this was much more comfortable for her. Though it wasn’t as if Alice expected him to kiss her again, as that had happened purely because they’d been so caught up in what was going on. Still, giving him the ring felt private. “I have something for you.” She smiled, holding out the small box once the last of their housemates had finally left. 

If she had the breath to spare Amara would have sighed. Instead, she darted a glance at Alice from where she lay on the ground. Of course she already knew that otherwise they wouldn’t even be having this conversation. There was no way Alice thought that that was what she meant or that a simple ‘I like him a lot’ was going to be enough. “Alice…” she said with a shake of her head, her hand falling to her chest as she realized how much it hurt to speak but trying not to show it “have you even admitted it to yourself yet?” 

She was confused about the other girls question. What was that even supposed to mean? She just admitted that she liked the boy, hadn’t she? “Wha- Of course. Of course I have.” Her words were defensive, a little to herself. “I’ve just never told anyone before now, but things are changing with Frank and I. They’re so much more complicated now and if I ruin it somehow by telling him when he doesn’t even like me back.” Alice shook her head, stopping herself from going further as she began to overwhelm herself. She’d already risked enough by kissing the boy once during a moment that they had both gotten caught up in. “I can’t risk destroying the future planned out for us. What I feel doesn’t really matter.”

“Hello Alice, I’m Phillip McCormack. It’s really lovely to meet you. Would you perhaps like to have a cup of tea wth me?” Phillip offered, gesturing towards the comfortable chair he had set up in an office he was still working on rearranging. There was a desk but he didn’t want to use it if he didn’t have to. It was his desire to understand people and what troubled them and he didn’t think the best way to do that was by putting a large slab of wood between them. She seemed to be nervous. Many people were when it came time to seek help and he wanted to make them as comfortable as he could. He’d never force them to do more than they were ready for so a cup of tea and offer of simple conversation seemed a good place to start. 

She nodded, hesitantly taking a seat in the chair that he gestured to. Alice realized that it was silly for her to be so nervous. It wasn’t as if he could read her mind and know what she was considering discussing with him. Unless he could read her mind, something like that was surely possible. It would certainly be easier if he could just read her mind, though she did think the idea was to silly to actually test out. “Tea would be nice Profes- sorry. Mr. McCormack? You’re not really a Professor, so would you rather be called Mr. McCormack, sir?” Alice was quite sure that she was coming across rather stupid in this moment, but she didn’t want to be disrespectful towards him and refer to him as something she shouldn’t. 

edgxrbxnxs‌:

Edgar waved at Alice, making a mental note to talk to her soon. For now, though, he had more important matters to attend to. Edgar glanced around, taking care to make sure that he and Frank hadn’t just missed Ted in the crowd. When he was sufficiently sure that Ted wasn’t there, he looked back to Frank. 

“Yeah, I suppose that’s a good place to start.” 

Edgar furrowed his eyebrows, wondering what might have kept Ted at the Pitch when all of his teammates had shown up to the party. As far as he could remember, Ted hadn’t suffered any injuries on the Pitch, so he likely wouldn’t be in the Hospital Wing.

“Want to go look now?” Edgar asked, gesturing to the door. “Before the party goes on too long?”

@frank-ezra-longbottom·

Frank’s eyes scanned the room around them again. Ted’s was definitely a silhouette that was difficult to miss but he wanted to be doubly sure that he hadn’t just been mixed up in the tumble of people. When he still didn’t find him Frank offered Edgar a nod, “Yeah. It’s not like him to not say something” he said, genuinely hoping that they had nothing to worry about. Especially with the way that things had been going around here lately. One could never really be too sure anymore. 

He waved to catch Alice’s eye so that he could pantomime to her that the two of them were leaving before falling into step beside Edgar as the two of them headed back down towards the pitch. 

@puffpuff-alice​

The Quidditch match had gone great, fantastic for Alice and the entire team. While she couldn’t help but feel a little bad for Gryffindor, Andrei in particular seeing how he’d been rather off during the second half of the game, it didn’t stop her from feeling happy. Immediately after the game had ended she’d met up with Frank, only parting from him for a moment to get changed before making her way back to the common room. From there a large party seemed to ensue, and for once she didn’t mind being in the center of attention for it. Of course she had to give credit to her other team members, for she only blocked the shots from the other team and didn’t make any herself. 

When Frank left her side she didn’t mind, figuring he would come back soon enough. She had made sure to wave towards Edgar, hoping to get a chance to speak to him before the night was over. Now that Frank had walked away, she focused her attention elsewhere. Xenophilius Lovegood, someone who Alice genuinely enjoyed talking to usually. Though tonight she couldn’t help but feel a little bad, seeing how her mind was distracted. She was already on her second drink, her eyes wondering over towards Frank every few seconds. Once he gestured to her that he was actually going somewhere else, she simply sent him a thumbs up before turning her attention back to the person it should have been on. 

Xeno was nice, and while they were quite boisterous, she truly didn’t mind. If anything, she found them to be rather interesting. They always had so many thoughts and opinions on things, it was almost hard to keep up. She tried her best though. Her previous distraction currently made her feel like she had missed an important piece to what they were talking about though. Either that or it was whatever was in her cup that made everything so hard to follow along. “Sorry, I think I got a little distracted before. Could you just repeat that one more time?”

It wasn’t uncommon for students to be unsure of what it was that they wanted to do when they finished their schooling which was why Dom took recommendations in the first place. “I wanted to discuss with you the possibility of joining the Auror department after you’ve graduated from Hogwarts. You’ve got great marks and I really think you could be an asset if you wanted to be. Not that I am trying to push you one way or the other. I’m happy to discuss options with you as well” he told her before leaning forward ever so slightly towards her, “My nephews have also mentioned you quite a bit”

She nodded as he spoke, a look of disbelief on her face. Sure she had good marks, but it was only because she tried so hard. It wasn’t something she minded of course, she enjoyed what she learned. But for her to become an Auror? She was sure that would give both of her parents a heart attack, and her right along with them. “Me?” Her voice was filled with disbelief. “Are you sure? I mean, Frank- you know Frank right? I can’t believe I forgot that for a moment. It’s always been his dream to be an Auror, not mine. It’s a wonderful offer, really it is! But I can’t imagine myself becoming an Auror.” Her eyes were a little wide, mostly just rambling to herself at this point. “I mean, isn’t it dangerous? What would I- what could I even do? The last time I tried to do anything dangerous to help someone, it all went so wrong.”

puffpuff-alice‌:

“Probably not,” She laughed, grabbing onto his hand as she stood up. Alice could help but linger a bit, wondering if continuing to hold his hand in that moment would be to much. But they had just kissed each other, albeit very quickly, so holding hands felt much more mild. Even still, she hesitantly let go. Her mind was still spinning, though she felt as though the moment they had just been sharing had already passed. Already knowing that when the two of them walking in late together, someone would have something smart and embarrassing to say about it. Slowly she began the walk to leave the empty room they had stowed away in. “You know her, as long as we don’t entirely skip and don’t fall behind we should be alright.” 

For a moment he had thought that she wasn’t going to let go. Truly, he had hoped that she wouldn’t. It felt as if the two of them were finally getting somewhere. With the fall of her hand back to her side he could feel the tiny bit of progress they had made fading away with it. Even still he was in an incredibly bright mood as they began the trek towards the greenhouses. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m sure she’ll understand too. It’s not really every day that you get engaged, you know?”