#empoweredevans

LOCATION: Ministry of Magic DATE: May 2, 1982 @empoweredevans​

Ainsley Abbott had never been as adept at lying to herself as her current situation might indicate. Deceiving herself, yes -- but outright, deliberate denial of facts? That still wasn’t her forte, even after two and a half months surrounded by duplicitous Death Eaters. So as she stumbled away from Amelia, it was hard to pretend that her eyes were watering because of the dust kicked-up by shattered marble and transfigured furniture. She knew why they were watering, and it wasn’t environmental.

There was nothing she could do about that, though. She pulled her spectacles off and scrubbed at the stinging salty pools with the sleeve of her awful black robe, her mind focused more on distance than defense--

And turned a corner with a combination of speed and distraction that rammed her directly into another person. Ainsley staggered, stepped backwards on the hem of her robes, and went down hard enough to jar her glasses loose from her grip. She managed at least to keep her other hand tight around her wand but of course, she’d been trained to hang onto that in a fight; who would have ever suspected that she’d be carrying her glasses in her hand in the middle of a battle?

Ainsley scrabbled across the floor for the wayward lenses (thankful, when her hand closed over the smooth intact glass that the Unbreakable Charm she’d put on them had held) and crammed them back onto her nose as she turned, still seated, to face the person with whom she had collided. “Sorry, I wasn’t--”

And the instinctive, small-talk style apology (out of place for a Death Eater, yes, but old habits died hard and pointless pleasantries perhaps hardest of all) expired on her lips as she recognized, with dawning horror, the face of the woman looking back at her. Lily Evans.

Ainsley felt as though the ground had opened up beneath her; like the floor had melted into a pit, gaping, cold, and bottomless. But she wasn’t that lucky: the floor was solid. There was no escape -- not even the wand in her hand. She could have raised it, could have fought back...but could she have? After everything she’d cost Lily Evans...maybe the least she owed her was an unimpeded first shot.

LOCATION: Ministry of Magic DATE: May 2, 1982 @empoweredevans​

Marlene had been in worse fights in her life -- or perhaps more accurately, Marlene had been in fights where she had come off worse than she was doing so far. (There was no Cursed iron fence here trying to tear her flesh from her bones, anyway.) But even with as many years as she had fought for the Order of the Phoenix, as many times as she had put her life on the line, as dire as the straights had been in which she had found herself time and time again -- all that, and she didn’t think she had ever fought tor stakes this high before.

That put a certain weight on this fight for which no mere wounds could account.

But weight and wounds or not, the only thing to do was keep going. Stopping to assess the import of the situation would help no one -- and there were plenty of people in need of help. Marlene hardly knew where to turn. At least her family wasn’t here--

But her friends were. Or sort-of former friends...allies? Whatever she and Lily Evans were to each other now, Marlene certainly didn’t want the other witch hurt. So when she limped around a corner and turned to see a Death Eater peering around a smashed door to take aim on Lily, she didn’t hesitate before shouting “Duck!” and throwing a hasty Stunning Spell at the back of that black-robed head.