c a d a v e r

The certainty that he could find her in the midst of a vacuum void had always been there. Their unique connection to each other like nothing he had ever witnessed any where else. With anyone else. Alecto had always been the one true source of weakness and strength in his life. He fed her as she fed him. Their intermingling chaos so set apart from the rest of the Death Eaters that he was certain that was why they had been chosen. Pureblood families that had joined the ranks of the Dark Lord often offered up their children for the slaughter but they had almost willingly volunteered- and often anything they did was not discussed in so many words but a glance. A glance was often all it took to know that they were and would almost always be on the same page. Their disgrace from their lineage only added fuel to their combined inferno. He knew, before he grasped her arm, that she would want to savor it. And he would wish that as well if they weren’t on such a restrained schedule.

His gaze only faltered away from her for a moment as the wonder filled her face and he sought to hide it from those who might be looking for that reaction. Any who might suspect that the evil in the room was not just standing on the stage in the flourish of screaming. That the Auror’s might come and take them simply for this one action. Was it so wrong for an unspeakable to be fascniated with death when it was gifted to them in the form of such drama? It didn’t matter. As she curled to his chest he took her wrist, thumb on her pulse point and had to tear himself away from her eyes because he could fall into that feeling she emanated. It was dangerous to be this close to her- in the wake of destruction. “Yes,” he breathed, guiding her more than pulling through the chaotic crowd as Voldemort disappeared in his haze of smoke. Once they reached the doors and the cold night air hit him, he shifted back into shadows. “We don’t have time for masks. Are you ready?”

Are you ready? They’d always been ready --- born and bred to be barely a stain upon the soldiers that they’d actually become. It was almost a mockery to consider the idea that they weren’t in a place where they no longer had a choice when truthfully, this had always been their choice. Aly knew what he was asking though, without masks they were completely vulnerable. Not in a sense that they couldn’t very well take care of themselves, but they’d hidden behind masks for so long, come to trust that despite rumors, their identity paired with the dark lord had always been more hearsay than anything else. “As long as you’re with me, Amy.” She spoke softly, the very corner of her mouth lifting as the shadows cast an eerie glint in her eye. It was nothing short of daring, and she’d certainly never shied away from danger in any sense, least of all beside her brother. “It’s about time we put these rumors to rest and give these people something to really talk about.” To etch their name as permanently beside Voldemort’s beyond their family name. To have something that belonged to them and not the man who tainted their image in the first place. 

“Yeah, you,” he muttered, standing a little straighter than he had been previously. The bouncing tree above him must have assumed he was trying to get at it, not that it would do the tree much good with his new height. He’d already been tall- ninety percent legs, really- but adding on the extra three inches had made him unmistakable in a crowd. Might’ve been labelled a half giant had anyone not known better. “Mocking’s rude in case no one told ya yet,” not that he minded. At least her mocking wasn’t entirely set in disdain for him. Or he hoped it wasn’t- no, right, he didn’t care what she thought. Or what anyone thought. “Well I can’t bloody walk in these can I? Well I could until I got down here and now I’m ready to throw them away. Want them?” He straightened out the wing of his outfit, a bit displeased when he’d noticed he’d lost some of the gems on it. “Ah for fucks sake. I wasn’t going to ask for help but would you mind? I really don’t know what I was thinking.”

“Oh, plenty of people have told me.” Yet Alecto had never truly caved to the normal perceptions that came with manners, and nor did she ever truly intend to curb the clipped sense of arrogance that clung to her. She and Amycus may have been tainted with all that they’d lost with their family name, but she certainly didn’t believe it should cost her the backbone she’d grown with. “You just make it so easy, Evan.” She cooed the saccharine tone, not unlike her usual, and always baring the weight of something a little sharper beneath it. “Throw them away? That’s such a waste and you honestly deserve to stay there if you intend to do that, but..-- considering I’m far too kind for my own good,” Another mock drift within her tone intended to remain between them as Aly pulled out her wand, rose pink sparks shooting to harden the ground beneath him to stone. “Handy little trick, you should learn it sometime. --- Beauty is pain, darling. The pain is worth it to make it eternal, you’re on the right track. Now.. about those shoes.” 

Patience was something that didn’t quite solidify itself within her bones. Not that there hadn’t ever been some attempt to build it from scratch, but she’d never truly been the type to ever really enjoy waiting around for something they didn’t even know was going to happen. It was a far different brand of patience to the one she held onto. Toying with people, manipulation.. and end goal always in mind, that she could string out for months on end without ever flinching beneath the weight of heavy complaint for time wasted. Stakeouts ---- she absolutely hated, with every fibre of her very being, as much likely obvious by the lowly roll of her eyes as she leant back against the ageing brick wall that kept them somewhat hidden, inconspicuous even in the glowing lights of the bar nearby.  “This is awful,” she groaned, tipping her head back, strands of her hair catching on the harsh brick and creating a mess. “He could have sent literally anyone else to do this.” Anyone but her -- or him perhaps. For years, Alecto had proven herself one of those more... creative minds among them. Creative and entirely willing to carve masterpiece after masterpiece out of any given victim, but this felt like a punishment all it’s own. The only upside that she’d been given such a menial task with her best friend. “--- We could just take them. Fifteen seconds tops. He could get all the information he could ever want out of them then, what’s the point of this?” Irritation certainly wasn’t all that becoming of her, but even she’d admit that.

Loc: Honeyduke’s Candy Maze

Who: Open

Three inch heels. Who in the hell had approved this? If he hadn’t gotten himself into so much shit with Dorcas, he might have called her before stepping out of the house in gold boots up to his thighs with three inch heels. The candy maze was percarious on its own. Honeydukes did one every year in their basement. Expanded by magic, of course, but this year for some awful reason they’d decided the ground needed to be dirt instead of solid like it normally was and now he was nursing a twisted ankle after some, what he presumed to be, child had broken off bits of lollipops and scattered them all over the ground. “Lavvy headed numpties-” he exclaimed, clinging to a tree that looked straight out of Willy Wonka. Not that he would have known what that was. But it was whimsical with curled branches dripping grumdrops that bounced away if you tried to reach for them. “What’re you eyeballin?” He exclaimed, ready to level his injured ankle with the person’s face if necessary.

“Me?” Amusement thick, Alecto pressed beyond the corner she’d momentarily popped out from to eye the literal mess Evan looked clinging to the tree a little closer. The heels of her own boots barely shifting in the softened ground beneath, partially in thanks to the charm she’d long since adhered to all of her shoes, merely to solidify the ground beneath her wherever she went. “I’m not quite sure what I’m eyeballin’,” The mock sense of her tone not nearly malicious enough to hinge anything beyond the tipping bloom of her smile, “You look a right mess, Rosier. Nice boots though.” Tongue in cheek, she planted her shoulder in against a tree next to the one now labelled Evan’s current savior. 

Loc: Hogwarts Great Hall (after Minister Death)

Who: @unspeakcblealy​

The sudden plunge into darkness drew his attention away from crowd watching, and the chill that settled over the air like the breath of death down his neck. There was only one Wizard who had the prowess and the ability to make him feel like all of the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. It felt like time slowed to a bitter halt, the drink in his hand falling forgotten to the floor as the scene unfolded in what felt like a millenia but only seconds had passed. The dangling body above them, the boom of Voldemort’s voice over the crowd as he revealed himself to them- and suddenly, one thing mattered. The only thing that ever mattered in moments as profound as this. Alecto. Where she had gone, he didn’t know, but he wasted no time in looking for her and when he found her, his hand closed over her upper arm. “We need to go. Now.”

To be able to revel in the chaos would be nice but the words the Dark Lord had said were a message, plain and simple. A call, though he had not warned them of one, to arms. It was time to take down the Ministry and he knew that if they did not show- they would regret it. “Hurry.”

Unlike some, the darkness didn’t find Alecto in harrowed spirits. No matter how unexpected it was, it struck the cage of her chest with something more akin to adrenaline and euphoria than the splitting silence that carried the weight of every unanswered scream that sat frozen in the throats of all those suffering confusion. Turning slowly on her heels, the dark offered her nothing in the way of answers, the first of which entailed the whereabouts of her brother. All of which faded further as the lights returned, even with the warmed hand curling around her arm. “Wait--” She paused, tugging back on his hold as she took a singular step towards the hanging, twitching, form of the minister as if it might have held her gaze transfixed far more than the man who’d played puppeteer this night. It pulled slightly in the corner of her mouth in the uproar of the crowd, and still Alecto pressed a little closer, beyond the pushing form of those doing much the opposite.  Perhaps it was no secret that Alecto’s loyalty to Tom hinged purely on his relentless ability to deal the Carrow twins consecutive hands of cards that only further played into their, rather twisted sense of approval; and while shock and awe of their leaders workings found the hearts of many; either turning said heart to ash or flame, the hanging form did far more for her than the spectacle itself. What followed? Tore relentlessly at her insides for the laughter she couldn’t allow to pierce saccharine tone as she turned into her brother, fingertips curling into the fabric of his shirt as such feeling instead, bloomed in the depth of hues. “You think that’s our cue?” The obvious state of it all permeating sarcasm with a sharpened edge, as her tongue toyed against porcelain white teeth, “Let’s go.”

The muggle bar a few blocks from their apartment and the drink that sat untouched between lithe fingers did nothing to appease Alecto, not after the wretched fight she’d had with the sticky lock on their front door hours before hand. Her wand -- much to her dismay, sitting atop the kitchen counter remained the only reason she hadn’t blown the cheap wood right off of it’s hinges in the momentary flicker of rage that this was what they’d been deduced to. Barely a word left her lips, even when Amycus had thought to join her, the simmering irritation that settled beneath supple flesh far more deadly than anyone beyond her brother might have guessed. “Amy,” the stool she perched on swiveled, her leg settling between his own with a slight nudge to the inside of his thigh in the direction of a small group of men in the corner who’d spent far too much time watching them, eyes burning into the back of her skull. “Guess we’ve got no real reason to go home, do we?” The glint in her eyes unmistakable to the man that knew her most, the anger she knew burnt within them both only asked for one thing in return; blood.