#spellbxnd

It was very possible that Beryl had officially lost his mind.

He’d taken a new way home from the store, having picked up all of Peter’s favorites (including his incorrect Jello) in Muggle London. Different scenery felt like one of the few things left in his life he could control. Only now, now…

Someone who bore a shocking resemblance to his dead favorite brother stood at the counter of a shop Beryl didn’t know.

He stared at the man in open shock. Was he shaking? It felt like suspiciously like he’d begun to shake.

It wasn’t Albion in that shop. They had buried Albion in a nondescript grave when he was 12. Beryl had cried silent tears for months. Only… it really did look like his brother.

“Albie?” He asked, like the man could hear him through the glass. “Is that really you?”

Simon didn’t often go out drinking. Normally they preferred nights in with Peonie and Su, but tonight they had decided for a bit of change. Now that Eclipse had new management it had gotten like, loads more fun. 

“Susan,” They were loudly telling one of the patrons at the bar up front, a proud and goofy smile plastered across their face, “is the absolute best baby in all of Britain and I can prove it! She’s babbling already and she’s not even 9 months! And she can sit up! The very best baby! Do you want to see pictures? I have pictures!”

If she just... pretended like everything was totally normal, then it would be totally normal. Sure she and Aeros had totally had sex and she knew what he looked like naked now, but they were still friends. Just friends, who had happened to have sex. People did this all the time. It was totally normal. 

“Hey, Ro.” she said, dropping herself in one of the chairs in his office. Just keep it normal they were cool. “How’s business? The new girl giving you any trouble?”

Every single one of his coworkers kind of gave Ajax the creeps. Becoming an official Unspeakable had been really cool, an awesome experience all around, but it meant working with them even more closely. Jax was relatively sure that most of them could and would kill him without blinking an eye. Victoria was on the top of that list.

Now they were literally stuck together in the death chamber, rubble blocking the way out, and Ajax almost wanted to cry. He chewed on his bottom lip, perched at top of the colosseum room and trying not to pay too much attention to her. “Do you think we’ll get out of here soon?”

A vein in Walden’s jaw kept twitching. Not the best sign for how this would unfold. But Bas had been arrested, and for once he hadn’t really done anything to deserve it. Walden had full confidence in Alecto’s ability to behave herself in custody and there wasn’t anything she’d done they could prove. They’d get Al out sooner rather than later. But Bas... was not always on the best terms with leadership and Walden didn’t want him in there longer than necessary.

“We’re getting him out, right?” He asked Paris but it was less of a question and more of a statement. “For once he hasn’t done jackshit and we’re getting him out.”

Apparently, the wedding had been beautiful. She’d heard all about it from Cooper and Araminta when they’d caught up together. Not that Maisie had been surprised by that fact, it was Rita Skeeter’s wedding after all. Despite her usual disdain for the happy couple she had given them a little shout out and well-wishes on her show, good karma and all that. But all the talk had made her...not sad but...If she was being completely honest it made her miss Enzo. It had been so long since she’d seen him, since they’d even spoken. 

She found herself curled on her chair in her little broadcasting room, gazing down at one of his original cassette recordings. “Thanks for tuning in tonight, everybody,” she said into the mic, her voice ringing out over the airways, “to wrap up the show and kick-start the nightly playlist we’ll be starting off with an original one from a...an old friend of mine...” She clicked the cassette tape into the player, pressing play and taking off her headphones. The soft sound of his voice filled her apartment as she began to tidy up a bit. She’d just started stacking up some of her records when she heard the knock at the door. “Coming!” she called, pushing her hair out of her face. She wasn’t expecting anyone, so she glanced through the peephole. An excited gasp left her lips when she saw who it was and she quickly pulled the door open, beaming up at him, “Enzo! What are you doing here?!”

The funeral was so much rougher than he thought it would be. The collective grief of everyone there was suffocating. Not to mention the guilt. He could see it in the eyes of the each and every other Auror there. The knowledge that they had failed, that Dumbledore was dead because of their failure. He could feel tears prickling in his eyes as he stood on the edge of the crowd, his eyes passing over the tops of their heads, avoiding looking at the marble table at the front. He couldn’t, not yet. He was brought to pause when he spotted familiar dark hair. He hadn’t thought she was coming. His feet were moving before he could really think about it, taking him towards her. A soft breath shuddered out of him as he slid his hand into hers, squeezing gently. “I didn’t think you were coming,” he murmured softly in her ear.

This wasn’t usually the sort of place Mara would find herself. The pounding music and crowds of people in barely-there outfits usually made her uncomfortable. But Luca had insisted, and Tilden had even helped her put an outfit together. The grey feathered wings on her back were enchanted to move with her, staying tucked close to her back as she stepped into the club, the sections of her long, sectioned skirt barely brushing across the ground, the beads on her bodice catching the light. It hadn’t been that long since she and Luca had had their...conversation in the forest, and it was the first time they were actually...meeting in a public place. She remained by the door, close to the wall as her eyes scanned the crowd for Luca’s tall form, feeling the anxiety build in her chest when she couldn’t see him. But then she felt a hand slip into hers and she turned, a relieved smile settling on her face when she saw who it was, “there you are, for a moment I was worried you’d stood me up.”