#emmaofvanity

This felt silly, but Edgar was here anyway. He didn’t even remember everything he and Emma had talked about, but he was pretty sure he had all the important bits. They’d made an almost plan for Tuesday, and Edgar was pretty sure it had been his idea. Maybe. At least he’d agreed to it. It wouldn’t do to not show up, even if he couldn’t say one way or another if Emma would do the same.

Determined to have an easier night than last Tuesday, Edgar headed to the bar after work. He didn’t see Emma when he walked in, but he was trying not to set expectations. If Emma didn’t show, he wouldn’t hold it against her. Instead he ordered a butterbeer and figured he’d just have one. If Emma wasn’t here by the time he finished, that would be his sign.

As the door chimed for someone else coming in, Edgar looked toward it automatically. He grinned when he realized it was Emma and waved toward her. “Hey! I wasn’t sure if I’d see you tonight. How are you?”

Location: The Flaming Dragon Date: Tuesday June 12, 1984 @emmaofvanity​

It was odd, Alice thought, being in familiar places arranged in unfamiliar ways. Not that there had been much rearranging of Caradoc’s pub -- at least not that Alice could tell at a glance -- but with the doors locked and the public banished, it felt different. Or maybe that was just the mood of the gathering.

Alice knew these people well, but she was used to seeing her fellow members of the Order of the Phoenix in combat-orientated situations -- before combat, during combat, after combat, planning combat, strategizing for future combat... Not like this. Not at a party.

She smiled her thanks to Caradoc as she lifted a drink to her lips and sipped at it, but he was already ensconced in conversation with Evan and Alice had said her greetings to both wizards already. Instead of interrupting, she leaned back against the lip of the bar and turned to survey the room. One face caught her eye immediately: Emma Vanity.

The younger witch had only been one of them for a few months (maybe half-a-year or a little more even; time felt more fluid than it used to these days, one fight blurring into another into another until sometimes a whole week would somehow slip through Alice’s fingers before she realized that she and Frank hadn’t had so much as a single dinner together, paths in the office crossing more than they did at home) but Alice always tried to keep something of an eye on the new kids who had come out of the same dungeon dormitories she had. Not that there was any sort of anti-Slytherin prejudice in the Order, really; that was a childish sort of thing that belonged on the Quidditch pitch, not something to be countenanced by adults.

But sometimes Alice thought she caught eyes slanting her way uncertainly when she made a reference to her schooldays down in those cozy underwater rooms, when she said something about the social gatherings of her youth; sometimes she caught those same glances directed at her fellow onetime snakes. She couldn’t deny that the ratio of Slytherin alumni leaned harder in the Death Eaters’ direction, but that was only natural: Voldemort had made friends with his housemates, just as Dumbledore and McGonagall had made friends with theirs. People gathered the people they knew first.

Alice didn’t know Emma well -- five years had been a large gap in school, and Alice had paid more attention to her N.E.W.T.s than to the little kids sorted her way during her final Hogwarts years -- but she still counted her as one of her people. And now Emma was sitting alone, a look on her face that Alice could only read as pensive. And while Alice didn’t  have what one might describe as motherly impulses (at least if one was Frank or Augusta) she had been trained by Alastor Moody, and he’d taught his people to look after their rookies.

So Alice scooped a second glance off the bar without stopping to identity the pale violet liquid sloshing behind the beads of condensation that rolled down her fingers and walked forward, distractedly returning three passing greetings before coming to a stop in front of Emma’s table. Alice set the other glass down on the table and pushed it in Emma’s general direction -- depositing it close enough to the other witch’s arms to be an invitation, but not so close as to be intrusive -- before sliding herself into an open chair.

When Dirk suggested that they play Quodcup with Edgar and Emma, it had surprised her how readily she had agreed to it. Maybe it was because of Dirk or because she actually felt comfortable. A week ago, it would have seemed unimaginable. But today felt different. Being with Dirk felt different. And well, it was Edgar that she was playing against, and she thought that they were friends now? Or at least she hoped. And Emma was nice, too. And she was a little surprised that Emma and Edgar seemed to be dating, she had come with him, after all. And she had had a drink and she was happy that she had come.

Was this what moving forward felt like? 

“So um, I kind of know the basics, I think, but...I’ve never actually played,” Emme told Emma, almost sheepishly. She was sure that she wasn’t going to be particularly great at the game, and the boys were definitely going to win, but...as long as Emma didn’t get upset Emmeline was willing to try. “Are you...have you played a lot before?” Emma was a little older then her, so maybe she had experience? Emme smiled at Dirk from across the table as they set up the game.

Elliot had been so excited to have his sister finally home—and not just briefly home, for a holiday break that was so short it was almost worst than not even happening at all. No, she was home-home, for the next three months anyway, and the next three months were all that mattered because the month after that Elliot would be joining her at Hogwarts and they would not just be together again, but be together at Hogwarts.

He was so excited to see the castle, to be sorted into Slytherin House with Emma, to get his own wand (he had been pestering mum for weeks and she’d promised that they could finally go to Diagon Alley next week and get it, even though she’d originally intended to wait until their letters came with their list of books for their classes), to start learning magic, to start learning all the things Emma had talked about in her letters home.

And he was excited, still. He was. He was just...a little unsure.

Emma seemed so different. And obviously going to Hogwarts, becoming a real wix, was a big deal! He knew it was a big deal. Obviously that was going to make a person different. Obviously. He wasn’t stupid. He just hadn’t realized it would also make them...small. Or maybe it just seemed that way because Emma had learned so much at Hogwarts that now being at home—being with him again—made her feel like everything else was small. Maybe she was just adjusting. Maybe she was just growing up.

Well, Elliot was going to catch-up with her soon. And in the meantime...well, in the meantime, she could at least tell him all about the amazing stuff he was going to see next year. And maybe in the process, she’d remember that even though being at home wasn’t as much fun as being at Hogwarts, he was at home, and they could still have fun together. Right?

LOCATION: Prewett House DATE: June 21, 1984 @emmaofvanity & @dogstxrsirius & @mfletcher

Alice turned the knob and pushed the door open one-handed because the fingers of her other hand were currently locked around the ear of one Mister Mundungus Fletcher, pulling him down the hallway in her wake like an errant child. Alice flashed a perky smile at the sight of the room’s current occupants turning to face her and her reluctant cargo.

“You’re here already, splendid! Sorry I’m a bit late. Someone was a little bit reluctant about showing-up for the team-meeting. Thought it would be fun to play silly buggers for a bit,” she explained to Sirius and Emma, pulling Fletcher forward and releasing him towards the middle of the room like she was making a longshot with a Quaffle. “Now that I think we all understand the direness of the situation, though, I’m sure we’ll all be quite keen to shape-up and do our best, won’t we?” Alice raised her eyebrows at Fletcher, a silent order to cooperate now.

Alice walked briskly to the table by the window -- the largest object in the small study, although the empty spot on the wall where an enormous portrait had once hung struggled to seem larger by the weight of its absence -- and let her satchel drop onto the scuffed old wood with a weighty thump. She pulled out sheafs of parchment and even a few garishly-colored Muggle map-pamphlets (why they folded their maps like that instead of rolling them like sensible people Alice would never understand, although admittedly it did make it easier to carry them around since one could just chuck them in a bag without taking the time to put them in scroll-cases to keep them from being crushed), tossing them onto the table as she talked.

LOCATION: Prewett Estate DATE: June 24th 1984 @emmaofvanity​

Alice had to focus on the mission now -- she’d done all she could for Gideon; whether he took her words to heed or not was on his head and, Merlin help them all, that of his team and the kid in his charge -- but there was one bit of personal business she had to take care of first before she could.

Her hand darted out to catch Emma’s arm and pull the other witch out of the flow of the hallway. “Emma...I have a favor to ask you,” Alice said, keeping her voice low. No one was looking their way to listen in; nothing she was saying was anything wrong even if they were. But Alice still kept her voice down, her shoulders turned to shield her hands from the sight of anyone who might pass by. “Don’t take it as a reflection on my confidence in your skills, please,” she said, “because I wouldn’t have pushed to have you assigned to a field team if I didn’t have full confidence in you. I do. Believe that.”

She fixed her eyes on Emma’s face, her own gaze steady and clear, hoping that Emma would be able to see the sincerity and conviction that Alice felt and believe her. “But I would not have picked a mission like this for anyone’s first time in the field if I’d had the luxury of choosing,” she continued. “I should be watching out for you out there today, making sure that you’re all right. Getting your feet under yourself on the battlefield. That’s my job as team lead and my responsibility as your friend. But I have to be -- we all have to be -- focused on this kid instead today. So please. For my sake more than yours, to ease my conscious -- take this.”

LOCATION: Prewett House DATE: June 14, 1984 @emmaofvanity​

Alice was delighted -- not with the realities of the upcoming mission, of course; she was as disgusted with the idea of the Death Eaters going after children (and worse, children who had no real protection against them, not even wands of their own yet!) as anyone. But she was delighted that Hestia had taken Alice’s words about Emma Vanity to heart -- and not only that, but had assigned the younger witch to Alice’s team to boot!

It was perfect, and Alice tried to catch Hestia’s eye to signal her happiness and gratitude, but James Potter had already darted forward and grab Hestia’s attention -- pleased that he was in his friend Pettigrew’s group, probably, or maybe wanting to reassure Hestia that he would look after Gwendolyn and keep her safe; Alice didn’t linger to listen.

Emma:

(I was going to find something more specific but discovered I've sent it to you twice in our dms, so there you go.)

Nicky: