once upon another time...

“You don’t think this is exactly what Mia wanted?” He marveled at her a moment, wondering how she could still be blind to so much. “Mia will follow. You don’t need to worry about her. You understand I can’t guarantee when next I’d be able to call you to me. I’m not coming back the way you want me to, but I can give you every part of the life you want. You just need to decide what it’s going to be”

Delphina furrowed her eyebrows. “Jonathan, none of that made sense at all. I’m Mia’s flatmate and her best friend. She’s not involved in this. She’s not.” And yet... Mia had been missing for a lot of the battle and a lot of people were wearing masks... No. That couldn’t be true. “And I don’t know what you mean about me deciding anything. I just want to be with you and that’s what I promised anyway, so I’ll wait as long as you need me to and all of this dangerous business can be over. That was the plan, I thought.”

You’re creating sad scenarios in your mind that are surely out of question. Don’t think about it, Del. Not to mention that you can’t help her. You can help each other out of trouble, but… at this point, not her. She can handle this and so can you, your own way. Come on now.

But... Colin, I can’t just leave her here! She would be all alone.

Skylar started standing up again, not putting any weight on one of his legs. He had to get out of this area, there were people still fighting and as much as he wanted to, he didn’t think he would be much use like this. He had to get the bone fixed. “Why are you with them?” He asked the redhead, wand gripped tightly in his hand, but down at his side. 

Delphina set her jaw. With them? She hardly knew what that meant except that Skylar certainly wasn’t with her, and wasn’t with people who cared about her. So that was the way things were going to be. It was easier. Easier to have a reason for jinxing Skylar rather than a knee-jerk reaction. “Don’t raise your wand to me,” Delphina snapped. “And don’t raise your wand to my friends, or there will be trouble. I don’t abandon the people who stood by me.”

Back this way. You’ll be able to see it. I can, I can help if you want?

Why didn’t you go there right away if it’s so safe?

He sighed, a weary, sulking, immature sound that brought him back down to seeming more half-boy half-man. “I don’t know precisely where Mia is but she will find you and you can go with her if that is what you want.” He slid his hands down her sides to rest on her hips, pressed her back against the pillar and kissed her, putting all the passion he struggled to translate in such ways into it, a base and surely ineffective manipulation that wasn’t even manipulation persay half as much as the follow through on the same type of twitch of impulse that came before he fired a spell. He’d looked at her and wanted to do it even though it diverted his attention and left him open in that moment to an attack. “Don’t wait too long to come back to me. Next time I ask. Come with me.”

There was a brief moment Delphina could pretend this was like her dream, the pillar holding up the porch instead of a crumbling ballroom and Jonathan coming home after a long day rather than a long six months. But then her shoulder ached again, someone shouted a spell from a point not far from her ear, and a crash send dust into the air throughout that section of the ballroom. It would be a long time before that dream was real. For now, there was only waiting. 

It occurred to Delphina that with so many aurors around, the kiss in the midst of a battle might have seemed suspicious, like some kind of celebration, but it became very clear that they were occupied in much more attention-consuming problems. Oddly, it was like having privacy.

“You don’t have to tell me to do that. I’ve been waiting for you to come back, and frankly, if you knew all I’ve been through for us, you would never doubt me. I haven’t done all of that for nothing. But I am not leaving without Mia. Maybe you wanted all of this, but she didn’t, and she deserves some peace and quiet tonight. She’s been through enough,” Delphina said after a pause.

Flabbergasted about describes his reaction when Delphina takes the plate he’d been about to disintegrate to her shoulder.  He pulled her behind him and silently fired a streak of purple flame at the wix who had launched the plate, satisfied when they crumbled to the ground. He grabbed her by the upper arm, the injured side and not gently though he grabbed below the scrape to the shoulder and pulled her behind a pillar, releasing her and turning to face her, crowding in close so she was completely covered from all sides in the hiding place.  “Don’t. Ever. Do something like that again! I would have handled it. If you want to throw yourself in fire for me, save it for when it matters. ” 

His outrage cooled and the gentleness and concern he should have displayed from the beginning took over. He raised a hand and softly trailed his fingers over the scrape. “Does it hurt? Do you want me to heal it or do you want to do it yourself?” He leaned in even closer to gauge reaction or to breathe her in  , “I miss you terribly. Are you coming with me tonight?”

She cried out in pain again when Jonathan grabbed her arm, but went with him behind the pillar. “ I’ll take care of it, I’m sure it’s nothing,” she said breathlessly, shaking from the extremity of the sequence of events in the past minute or so. She still hadn’t processed any of it, between the plate and the cut and Jonathan’s outrage and then his switch. “I, er...” Delphina had absolutely no idea what she wanted to do, where she wanted to go, or how she even felt about Jonathan. “I have to find Mia. I have to make sure she’s okay. Where is she?” That was the only thing Delphina knew for certain, so she was sticking to it.

I haven’t. But Delphina she’d want you to get safe

Which way is it?

Skylar’s eyes widened when he saw the light flying from his friend’s wand and he gasped. “Prote–” but before he could even get the spell out, hers hit him, and he was shot backwards, slamming him against the wall. Due to the angle, though, as soon as he tried to stand up, he suddenly found himself on the ground again, his ankle not having been able to take his weight.

Delphina clasped her hand over her mouth and gasped. Skylar? Had she just... no, but Skylar had raised his wand; he was probably about to do something first. Not that he had any reason to, of course, but none of this was going by normal rules, Delphina reasoned. “I warned you to stand back!” she cried.

“Please do not hold it against me, but I… um, think Mia is busy. She’ll be fine though. She’s a strong girl. Maybe too strong. Seriously, I wouldn’t worry about her. She’d probably be grateful if you’re going somewhere safe.”

Well, of course, but everyone else here is really strong, too, and a lot of people are getting hurt! Mia can’t get hurt. She loves to dance. Do you know what that would be like if she had to stop dancing? She deserves to have that at least, but nobody here is being fair no matter how much I try and tell them to be!

Some of them, yeah. And other ministry officials.

I can’t go anywhere, I have to find Mia. Have you seen her? Is she okay?

Against me? You think there is ever a time you would need to? I want you to come with me.

I am no genius, but I’d say you can rest assured, because they were implemented by the people fighting the people who started this attack. Come on, Del. You don’t have to get hurt. Come with me. You’ll keep me company and distract me from this… suffocating fear I am feeling.

I have to find Mia. I can’t leave without her. Have you seen her?

“If you want to make it easier for them to kill you, do whatever you want.”

They can’t kill me just because I didn’t sink to their level. There is some justice in the world.

Skylar was surprised when he heard a voice behind him and he spun around, wand in hand, but he felt himself relax when he saw Delphina. “Oh, good.” He said softly. 

When the figure spun around with his wand raised, Delphina reacted without looking to see who it was first and yelled “Flipendo!”

Frankly I couldn’t say. You look somewhat unsettled, which I understand, but… why? Breathe. Don’t attack anybody. It’s not where we stand. Would you let me escort you to the… they’ve made a safe zone.

I’m not going to attack anyone, but I won’t let anyone attack me. I’m allowed to defend myself. How do we know it’s really a safe zone and not a trap?

Delphina. I’m not going to hurt you. Ok. I swear. See, keeping my distance just… come with me. They’re trying to set up some barriers

Where? Who is? The aurors?

“Look around! They aren’t playing fair! This isn’t a game, you can’t ‘warn them before’ to be nice.”

So just because everyone else is acting like animals I have to, too?