#alecto002

It had been so chaotic during those first days after the attack, things such as assigned wards rather flew out of the window - at least for non-essential staff like herself. Lily had gone where she was needed. But now the calm after the storm had come again and Lily was returning to Healer Carrow’s lab.

Determined as she was not to be nervous, Lily felt the unpleasant churning of her stomach in spite of herself. She felt a hundred times more exhausted than she’d been at their first meeting - and even then, Carrow had managed to set her off guard. Now, there was the aftermath of the attack weighing her down. Trying to help Severus, who was in such anguish. 

All of it left her feeling quite defenceless - not the state she wanted to present to Alecto Carrow. But of course it wasn’t optional. She could hardly disobey a Senior Healer without losing her job. So Lily attempted to find the underlying courage she forced herself into in situations like these.  

There was still, underneath it all, also the lure of working with potions again. As horrible as it had been, seeing her antidote fail, she had to admit the process had been exciting, in a horrible sort of way. Testing herself again. The injuries of the Death Eater attack aside, her usual jobs of fixing accidental magic or basic spell damage, was generally quite boring and unchallenging. Alecto Carrow was anything but boring and unchallenging. Lily entered the room with a curious mixture of dread and interest. 

Irina scanned the room from her place at the bar, eyeing the room of elaborately dressed students making fools of themselves already. She liked parties, people were so uninhibited and often made terrible decisions which was fun to watch and exploit later. It was even better that she had Alecto for company. 

She ordered drinks for the two of them and handed one to her friend with a grin. Irina was careful with alcohol, always one to keep her wits about her, but Alecto was so much fun when she was drunk and Irina figured Firewhiskey would do the trick. She tipped back the drink and relished in the burning effect the drink had on her throat. She glanced back at her friend and felt as if a hippogriff had kicked her straight in the chest. 

Irina didn’t do emotions, and it had been quite a long time since she had felt something of this sort bubbling up in that hole where she supposed her heart was buried. Normally, she would have tried to ignore such feelings but she was consumed with- what was it? Affection? And though she tried to deny it, it felt good. Irina reached a hand out, running it down Alecto’s arm, her eyes fixed on the other girl’s face. “Alecto, I-” She stopped, at an utter loss for words. Threats and lies rolled off of her tongue so easily, but this? She didn’t know what to say.