alamoody:
The return of Emmeline had brought back a relative calm to the Order, most of the members busy with reunions. The Death Eaters probably were in the scramble that they’d had been in just days ago, but he took pleasure in that. Serves them right for what they’d do to innocents and the torture they deemed appropriate to use on Emmeline. Alastor didn’t exactly know those details yet, but he’d seen the state of her when they’d “rescued” her, and he had it on good authority she’d been given a few healing potions. If she looked like that even after help, he can only imagine the extent they went to with her. He and Alice would know shortly the exact details, and he knew he’d end up feeling some sort of way about it all. Emmeline was practically his daughter, debriefing was always hard, but with the added personal connection he knew it’d be harder. He was grateful Alice was willing to join him on it.
“You’re fully aware of how these go, but I must tell you I think it might be one of the worst cases we’ve dealt with. It may take a lot of time, and I can probably safely say we might have to break with it.” He stated to Alice before they’d go in, it was better to get some things out before starting. They’d probably tell Emmeline the same, but they would need to be on the same page before we enter. He knew they both had a special close connection to Emmeline, it wouldn’t be like at work or with members not directly working with them that’d been caught up in it all. “ Now, do you have anything you want to say before we let Mary know we’ve come for it?”
@alicelxngbottom
...
Alice was far enough along in her pregnancy that she didn’t join Moody for many of these debriefings anymore. In the time they were living in, pretty much any debriefing was exhausting and heartbreaking, no matter what the situation. But this one would be even worse. It wasn’t just one of their Aurors (though Merlin knew they both cared about all of their Aurors), this was someone who was like family, especially to Moody. Alice had known him for a long time now, and he knew that he didn’t easily let people in as closely as he had with Emmeline. So when he asked Alice to join him for the debriefing, Alice knew that she had to say yes, no matter how close she was to popping. This wasn’t something he could do on his own, nor would she want him to have to.
As Moody spoke, Alice nodded. Of course she already knew everything he was telling her, but she knew that he needed to say it. Alastor Moody was the kind of man who was used to being in control, and this situation had been so far out of his control that it had to have shaken him up quite a bit. As he finished, Alice gave him a soft smile and reached out to put her hand on his arm. “I know this will be hard for all of us, but we can take it as slowly as Emmeline needs. What matters is that she’s safe now, and we’ll do everything we can to keep it that way.” Giving him a serious look, she nodded, motioning for him to lead the way.
@alamoody / @vancexemme
(✿ ♥‿♥)
mxrymacs:
…
She constantly felt just a breath from completely falling apart. From crumbling to the ground without a clear understanding of how to rebuild herself. But if she did that she would take on someone’s attention – whether it was Greta’s or Marlene’s or Lily’s or any other assortment of friend who passed through her home. They would look at her and feel badly for her, and all that would do was distract from the fact that Emmeline was still gone. Three days had passed and she was still gone, and Mary had no idea if she was even still alive. But she was. She had to still be alive – she’d know, right? If Emmeline was gone – if she was gone in a way that was far more permanent than this… she would know. She had to believe that she would feel it if she lost her like that. So she held on, not because she was anywhere near okay, not because she didn’t care, but because she refused to take on any more attention than was absolutely necessary. As broken as she felt – it wasn’t about her. As long as Emmeline came home she would be okay in the end.
She nodded, heading into the kitchen to put on the kettle before leaning against the bar to look out at the assortment of things that she brought. “Thank you,” she said softly, trying for another smile. “I’ll grab some plates.” She reached for two of the plastic sort. The glass ones were dirty, but on her mission to deep clean the house she hadn’t yet reached the kitchen. She also grabbed some napkins and forks. Taking them out into the living room and handing them to Alice, she returned to the kitchen to for the tea, splashing in the sugar and milk to the way she knew Alice took it. “Thank you,” she said again, settling onto the couch next to her. “You didn’t have to do all of this.”
...
Alice waited as Mary made her way back and forth from the kitchen to the living room, getting everything settled. She knew that this was exactly what Mary needed, to keep her hands busy, to serve others, so Alice tamped down on her instinct to want to do it all herself. When Mary was finally seated next to her, Alice gave her a soft smile; not one that was pitying, but rather sympathetic. Mary wouldn’t want her pity, or even her focus; she just needed company and for someone else to tell her that Emmeline would be okay. And though Alice knew she couldn’t completely promise it, she also knew that neither she nor Moody would rest until they figured out a way to get Emmeline out of that hell. “I know I don’t,” she replied softly, taking a sip of her tea. “But I wanted to. I know what if feels like to sit around the house waiting for the love of your life to come home.”
Alice reached over and touched Mary’s arm gently before reaching forward to grab one of the pastries and put it on a plate. In her and Frank’s time as an Auror, there had been multiple occasions where he had been on a dangerous mission and Alice had been filled with the anxiety that came with not knowing if he would make it back safely. In those times, she hadn’t wanted to be alone even more than she hadn’t wanted to talk about it. Alice knew that Mary was a lot like her, and figured she would be feeling similarly. “It’s a pretty shit question to ask how you’re doing, but how are you?”
mrlenexmc:
tagging: @alicelxngbottom
For all the years that they’d known each other, Marlene would have been able to spot Alice Longbottom from a mile away. Alice may have been a few years older than Marlene, but she’d always looked up to her, and, embarrassingly enough, when she was younger had followed Alice around whenever their families were brought together. She was both happy and nervous to see that she’d shown up to the party. The night had so much potential to turn ugly, and while she knew that pregnant women were hardly delicate little china dolls, she held a lot of worry for both Alice and Lily. Alice surely would have been on the guest list though, so at least she had that going for her. Besides, because she’d known Alice for a long time, she knew that it wouldn’t have done much good to try to talk her into staying home, no matter what the danger was. Frank seemed nowhere to be found, and after a while of debating whether or not to approach Alice, Marlene finally decided to, sidling up to her in a way that was meant to be casual but probably came across as anything but. Surely nobody was paying them any attention, and it wouldn’t hurt to check in with her for a few minutes.
“Howdy, stranger, fancy seeing you here”, apparently Moody was rubbing off on them all. “Are you having fun? Should we get you some sparkling apple juice, or something? Give people a heart attack when they think you’re drinking champagne, that could be fun.”
...
As soon as Marlene spoke, Alice recognized the figure that had sidled up to her. Though she was a few years older than Marlene and James and their friends, she had know many of them for all of their lives. Her father, being the most level-headed Rosier, tended to have stronger relationships with the types of families that her aunt and uncle would consider blood traitors, and the Potters and McKinnons fell pretty squarely in that category, along with the Weasleys and the Prewetts and a few others. So it would take much more than a simple disguise for Alice not to recognize the young woman who had always been like a little sister to her. Of course, it helped that she knew Marlene would be around here somewhere. Laughing softly at the greeting, Alice shook her head. “It seems you’ve been spending a little too much time with my mentor over there,” she replied with a slight incline of her head in Moody’s direction.
With another laugh, Alice met Marlene’s gaze. “That sounds like a splendid idea,” she said with a mischievous smile. “I’m a little tired of everyone shoving water on me, and I’d love to see the look on my aunt’s face if she thinks I’m drinking a glass of champagne at this point in my pregnancy.” Of course, Alice’s parents were probably around here somewhere too, but they were far less likely to make any sort of stink, thinking rightly that their daughter was a grown woman who could make decisions for herself. At the thought of her parents, Alice’s face turned a little more serious. “My mum and dad are around here somewhere, try not to run into them. They’d recognize you for cert, and of course they don’t know about the Order.” Beyond the fact that they had been proclaimed a terrorist organization, that was. “They would probably be smart enough not to blow your cover, but just in case.”
@frxnkislong
THE BROKEN HEARTS GALLERY (2020)
BEFORE SUNRISE (1995) dir. RICHARD LINKLATER
FATE: THE WINX SAGA | 1.03, “Heavy Mortal Hopes”