trustingpotter

[trustingpotter]

James Potter: 5′10″ / 1.78 meters

Lily Evans: 5′8″ / 1.73 meters

Benjy Fenwick: 6′1″ / 1.85 meters

Regulus Black: 5′10″ / 1.78 meters

[trustingpotter]

Amuse Me (For James, obviously set in the past)

(I am totally inventing backstory here, but oh well. It was fun.)

James sighed and flopped back on the floor. From his place on the couch, Sirius made a few that James wouldn’t see before slinking down to flop on top of him. 

“Look, it’s not like she broke up with you.”

“No,” James sighed, looking off into the distance with well-practiced dramatics. “But she won’t marry me. Padfoot, she’s my forever. I can feel it. But if she won’t marry me, how do I know we’ll last?”

“Prongs,” Sirius said in his best comfort voice, which was granted a little exasperated. “We graduated a month ago. I wouldn’t even marry you if you asked right now.”

James gasped and sat up. “You take that back! We’re soulmates, and I’ll not hear this slander.”

Sirius grinned and shifted his shoulders in an imitation of Narcissa. “Oh but Mr. Potter, I am a proper lady. I need at least a two year courtship unless your daddy wants to sign a few business contracts with mine.”

Falling right into the bit, James shifted forward, half-hanging over Sirius. “Oh, but Miss Black, maybe I’m not a proper gentleman.”

“Why I never!” Sirius flung his arms out, and they ended up around James’ neck. The added weight sent them both crashing back down to the floor in a fit of giggles. Eventually Sirius looked over at James, his expression softening. “Just give her time. She loves you. Just let her make sure you know it first.”

[trustingpotter]

dearborncaradoc​:

Pleased that James didn’t ask to see the letter for himself, Caradoc brushed the moment aside while folding the letter carefully and putting away in the pocket of his robes. In the end it didn’t matter if Ainsley had hoped that James take care of Frank on his own, this once James had proven himself to not be the reckless young man Caradoc used to think he was. He was stubborn, a little hot-headed, but there was so much potential that only needed to be realised.

“I think it’s best not to leave it to another day,” he said, with a small sigh that ha dared escape him. There was always something to do, something that needed to be taken care of. For one, he knew he would have also to talk with Lily about what had been decided earlier. If they waited, who knew what else would happen. “Look for Alice, I’ll look for Frank, and we will hopefully have our answers by tonight.”

James nodded quickly in agreement. The fact that Caradoc was even trusting him with this was somewhat special - though that word seemed a bit weird to describe it. He’d see Alice - Caradoc would see Frank. Whatever they found would come up together and they’d believe James. That was progress.

He stood, smoothing down his robes. “I’ll send you word when I’m done by owl. Thanks, Dearborn.” And he did something rare when it came to Caradoc Dearborn.

James smiled.

FIN.

[trustingpotter]

dearborncaradoc‌:

“For that we will need a plan, but we can only make one when we will know all of the details,” Caradoc replied. It was always tricky to expose others when they way they gathered evidence was not wholly legal. And it was even tricky to use people’s ‘day jobs’ to direct information to those that might do something about it in the light of day. But Caradoc knew that if they set that as their goal they could find a way to do it, they would just need all the facts before acting.

All the facts was exactly the matter here, too. It was almost funny how James was asking for Frank to be questioned more, when that was exactly what Edgar was suggesting in his letter.  “That I should question Frank. It seems he might not have confessed to anything after all, so it’s best to look into it directly,” he said, without showing James the actual letter. “That’s why I need you to speak with Alice, so you can keep an eye on her while I—” It was necessary, he knew that, but that didn’t mean he liked to look into other people’s memories. ”I will see how their conversation went, make sure there isn’t anything about it that he’s hiding. Meanwhile Edgar will look into Scrimgeour and the Ministry.”

He paused, then, looking at James as if he was measuring him to see if he was going to be found wanting. “We need to coordinate this, so I won’t be interrupted. And you can use it to gather more information on Frank. Agreed?”

Caradoc told James was the letter said, but it wasn’t lost on James that he wasn’t actually shown the parchment itself. These were the secrets being held between various members of the group - this was why people didn’t trust in the Inner Circle. James grit his teeth, though, and didn’t say anything. Just nodded. They’d talk to Frank - Caradoc would do whatever he did and get to the truth. 

Hopefully.

“Agreed. Do you have a date in mind? Otherwise, we can keep each other in contact. Alice and I talk frequently - it won’t be hard.”

[trustingpotter]

withering-lilyevans‌:

Lily laughed, the mere concept of someone like Lucius Malfoy being her type too ludicrous to play along. “Only you are my type, James Potter. There’s no one else for me.” It was said in jest, but there wasn’t a part of her that didn’t mean it. James was everything Lily never knew that she needed, and she was glad that she had figured that out in time to make him hers. 

“I know you’re ready,” she responded, giving him a small smile. She knew how seriously James took his roles in each of the missions, and she knew that he was determined to always come back to her. Besides, he was right. All he had to do was pretend to be Lucius Malfoy and keep an eye out for Vanessa Abbott. Not exactly a dangerous mission. In only a couple of hours, it would all be over and he’d be back safely in her arms. “I don’t know if I’d call pretending to be Lucius Malfoy and keeping Mary in character as Narcissa boring. You know this is going to be her worst nightmare, I’m sure that’ll be plenty fun for you.” 

James gave her a grin at the words - recognizing the truth behind her joke. It was crazy to think about how far they’d come in just a few months. It felt like the early days again - when war was only slightly on their minds and things were fresh. 

He snorted at the mention of Mary. “I know she’s been doing her research, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it all went out the window once she sees all the wankers in the room. Can you believe I have to act like one of them? I’m not looking forward to the hair, either.”

[trustingpotter]

mckinnxn‌:

Marlene, amused at James’ bewilderment at the ranch’s highlights of the day, continued to work on her tea - levitating the right ingredients into the floating tea kettle, still intently focusing on it until its completion. She asked, “Have you ever met a porlock before?” She wasn’t sure if that’s what he meant when he said he didn’t know what she was talking about, but went ahead and explained any way. Either way, Marlene was sure it was best to tell him the story of what happened today, in case it were to get him another way and be completely misconstrued. “Porlocks are magical beasts that instinctually act as guards for horses. Ours is named Persephone. She’s really loyal to the winged horses, but very paranoid of any witches or wizards that she doesn’t recognize. Hell, I think it took a couple years more for her to even get used to my older brother than the rest of my family at first.”

The tea was just about ready. Marlene chuckled at the memory, and poured the tea from the kettle into her mug, just before continuing to explain. “It’s common - most of the refugees get here and think ‘Oh, I would love to explore the place!’ and they’re absolutely welcome to. The rule is just to give me a heads up so I can distract Persephone a bit. It looks like as the wix got excited and went off on their own, and as they were approaching the stables, Persephone started panicking and as instinct, to protect her friends, she started trudging towards what she thought was a stranger trying to steal a winged horse. Gave quite the scare to the newcomer. Luckily, Persephone is quite the pacifist. She won’t get really fussy until she gets the first attack. The quick plow was more of an intimidation factor than anything.”

Finally, once she had her cup of tea, with one last flick of her wand, Marlene let the kettle float to land back at its place on her stove counter. She finished the story with the final update, “Everything is good now. I checked on Persephone, she’s calm again like it never happened, and I helped the refugee find some comfort again. They were very confused, so I explained the situation. I think they’ll be okay and feel confident enough to feel at home at the ranch again, at least hang out around the porlock-free zones.”

Marlene took a sip of her tea and suddenly, the tour inquiry clicked in her mind. “You haven’t had a tour of the place yet? Oy, well of course I would love to!” Marlene’s favorite place in the world was the ranch. It didn’t matter who it was, if someone wanted to enjoy her home as much as she did, she would take the opportunity to show it off. “Why wait? Touring the ranch is just as good, if not better with a fresh cup of tea in hand. Any preference of where’d you like to start?”

James shook his head. Despite being friends with a werewolf, he didn’t actually pay attention much to magical creatures. Having lived in this world his entire life, he knew what a porlock was, but not really many details about it. As Marlene brewed her tea by magic, she explained to him about Persephone and porlocks and horses. It was actually pretty cool, even if farms weren’t really his thing.

When she told him about the wix going off on their own, he hummed in understanding at what must’ve happened. He could understand it - most of the refugees here were muggleborns or people with less-magical upbringings. If they didn’t grow up in the Wizarding World, it made sense they’d want to explore it. It was like when Lily took James to into her hometown - some of the things he saw there were so fascinating. Even if he had to deal with her stupid brother-in-law for a while to see all the things.

“Sounds like you’ve got it under control then,” James said easily. He was about to excuse himself - maybe leave and come back another time, if Lily truly wasn’t here - when Marlene grabbed up her tea in hand and said she’d give him a tour while sipping it.

“Yeah?” James asked perking up a bit excitedly. “That’d be great!” He shrugged. “I dunno - where’s the best place to start. This is your home, Marlene - not mine. You tell me where to go and I’ll follow.”

benchmark // marlene+james

[trustingpotter]

ainsleyabbott‌:

Vanessa wasn’t moving. Ainsley barely saw the Malfoys – no, they were friends who were just wearing the faces of the Malfoys and she knew that…but no, that wasn’t right either, was it? Not with Nessie crumpled at their feet, motionless. (Dead?) Their faces were not their own, no, but the faces they were wearing now might be more true than the ones waiting inside beneath their pallid skin and the uncanny reshaping powers of polyjuice – because if they had hurt (killed!?) Nessie, then they weren’t Ainsley’s friends.

She looked past the ash-pale hair and storm-pales eyes of the Malfoys and knew that she was looking at her familiar friends beneath those pretty blonde masks, but beneath those masks she saw the deeper truth: these people were her enemies now. Not just because of the Death Eaters and their threats; that was part of it, yes, but the rest was all Nessie. Or Vanessa Rosier, as she would be known soon enough – which meant she was someone whom the Order would consider a target…an acceptable loss.

Ainsley looked at the motionless form of her little sister, long limbs akimbo and golden locks splayed from their intricate braiding across the floor, and saw the cold white body of Leina Nott instead. James’s girlfriend had killed Leina and no one had cared – because she was their enemy too, if only by the crime of marrying the wrong man. Vanessa was their enemy…and Ainsley wouldn’t, couldn’t, let them do to her what they had done to Nott.

James was shouting at her with Lucius’s mouth but Ainsley heard the words only distantly, their definition turned strange and meaningless in the face of her fears. Stop? she thought. Explain? No, there was no explaining this away, no stopping – because they had hurt Nessie, and they would hurt her again if Ainsley let them. Something like ice but colder, more sour, spread through her limbs like an anchor, dragging her down below still dark waters. It was always going to come to this. She should have known from the start – but instead she’d wasted years with the Order of the Phoenix, years pretending that she could fix the world with a few good intentions and some fools she’d called friends. But the world wasn’t an ancient Curse or a confusing puzzle of runes; the world was the world, and it couldn’t be fixed. There was, had always been, only ever one way this was going to go.

The Rosiers weren’t about to walk away from their Dark Lord, and Nessie was walking into their arms. That meant there was only one way to keep her sister safe – a calculation that on one hand took barely a heartbeat to finalize, and in others had taken her ten years. Both came down to the same answer now, though: the only way to keep her sister safe was to stop her friends. Ainsley’s arm moved as though someone else were pulling it up by a string, but the hand curled around the wand it held was all hers – and so was the Curse that came off her lips. An old Curse, one that these days was more often found in the arsenal of Healers than hexers, its modern form adapted to cure instead of harm – but still applicable in its root form for those who knew its origins: “Adfrangossium!” she shouted, and flung the Bone Bashing Curse down the hallway.

She aimed high, well above where Nessie lay insensate (was she dead!?) on the ground; it was not a Curse that one cast with pinpoint finesse, which was one reason why it had fallen out of favor for so long until rediscovered by the Healer Tavashi Ahuja in the early 1800s and refined into its modern medical use. But Ainsley wasn’t seeking pinpoint precision today; she just needed James and Mary out of her way. And the Bone Bashing Curse was a spell that hit like a miniature hurricane – or the aftereffects of a reducto, all packed-up together in an explosion of kinetic force and cracking that bypassed the buffers of skin and shields and went straight for the bone.

Ainsley ran forward on the heels of her spell, ignoring the way the fine hem of her delicate skirts ripped under her toes, pushing past both ersatz-Malfoys – both friends, both enemies. She didn’t look, didn’t brace for an answering hex; if her Curse wasn’t enough to stop them, she would know soon enough and she didn’t dare wait to check whether the damage she had done would be enough. Already she could hear the sounds of curious guests mounting the stairs in her wake and Ainsley didn’t know if they were friends or foes – didn’t know if she would be able to tell the one from the other, anymore. All that mattered was getting to Nessie (was she still breathing!?) and getting her out of there, getting her safe…

Ainsley grabbed her sister by the arm, dragged her up, dangling limp from one shoulder, long legs trailing in their pale skirts like some cruel parody of a bridal train, and stagger-ran for the end of the hall. Behind her there were shouts, threats, cries to stop – from Mary? From James? From Jayesh? From Amelia, from Edgar? From the Death Eaters? Ainsley didn’t know; Ainsley didn’t know if it mattered anymore. “Protego!” she shouted, flinging a shield behind her and barging through the nearest door. She sealed it behind her and went for the window, Nessie bobbing insensate alongside her; if they could get to the gardens, Ainsley could Apparate them away, Apparate them home. She blasted the glass and wood out of her way with a snarled Reducto and tugged Nessie after her into the frigid hole of black air, bracing herself to slow their fall with a Levitation Charm so they could get out before anyone else could chase after. When Ainsley felt her sister’s hot breath brush her ear on their clumsy way down, she sobbed in bitter relief.

Vanessa was alive; that was all that mattered.

Ainsley looked at him oddly - such an expression of pure hatred across her features. And perhaps it was his face that was doing it. She couldn’t trust him because it wasn’t really his face. The lips of Lucius Malfoy promising safety of her sister might not have sit well with her, but James knew that she knew who he was. She was smart - she would calm down and see him through Lucius’ icy eyes. The expression on James’ face wasn’t one of a Malfoy.

Trust me! he wanted to yell at her and almost died. But she wasn’t listening and there wasn’t time as the spell came rushing towards him. His wand was in his hand, yes, but he might as well have been defenseless, as it was raised in the air hopelessly. There wasn’t any time for even a thought to pass his mind as he felt the curse hit him square in the chest, heard the bones break. Then heard nothing as -

FIN.

@mary-mxdonxld​

[trustingpotter]

mary-mxdonxld‌:

ainsleyabbott‌:

Ainsley’s hurried excuses to Amelia were still hot on her lips as she hastened up the stairs in the wake of her sister’s guards. What were James and Mary playing at? They were supposed to keep Nessie safe and out of trouble; that was their whole job. Granted, only Ainsley knew how much danger her sister was truly poised on the brink of tonight, but she had still thought she could rely on the two of them to protect her…why had they let her leave? As the Malfoys, they should have been perfectly positioned to waylay any such attempt with innocent-seeming conversation from which Nessie would have been far too polite to extricate herself…so what were they playing at?

(Why had she let herself be distracted by Amelia? Why had she relied on them? She should have been watching Nessie; she was her sister. This was her fault..)

Ainsley crested the top stair and looked down the hallway, her nervous hand already resting unconsciously on the shaft of her wand. For a moment her mind refused to make sense of what she saw: three tall blonde figures in fine robes, the farthest and tallest half-obscured by the other two – farthest, tallest, most familiar, and falling.

Her wand was in her hand before she even realized she was moving, the spell lashing down the hallway like violet lightning before Nessie’s crumpled form even hit the ground. The words of the Curse burned across her brain like a brand but the only thing that left her lips was a desperate scream: “NESSIE!”

Mary jumped back in surprise as James stunned Vanessa and was about to ask him in an annoyed tone if that was really necessary (what were they going to do now that the engaged woman was out of commission at her own engagement party) when a scream sounded from behind her. Whirling around, Mary raised her wand and blocked the jet of light that was shooting straight towards James without even thinking.

“Christ, Ainsley, calm down!” Mary yelled in a whisper, worried that the other woman’s scream would attract unwanted attention. It was her fault they were in this situation in the first place. Why the hell hadn’t she been there to distract her sister from noticing that anything was amiss? “James only stunned her – she was onto us.” 

But Ainsley didn’t seem to hear her, and Mary had to throw herself to the ground as another curse came soaring, this time at her. Her wand flew out of her hand at the impact and clattered to the ground a few feet away. Moving quickly, Mary pulled herself towards her wand and turned back around to see what was happening, still on the ground. 

James didn’t notice the spell that was thrown towards his back, but heard as Mary’s shield charm blocked whoever had been trying to hurt him. James whipped around quickly as Mary whispered Christ, Ainsley! Ainsley? What the hell? It couldn’t be! 

Sure enough, when he turned, his friend - a person he’d grown to trust immensely over the years - was standing there with her wand arm outstretched. She casted another curse before James could even stop to think and, while Mary ducked the spell, James stood his guard. This was Ainsley. She was just scared - confused about what was going on with her sister.

“We’re not gonna hurt her!” he said to Ainsley, his own wand still in his hand, but not in an offensive position. While his heart pumped from the miniature battle that had broken out, he wasn’t worried about another member of the Order. Ainsley, who had come to him about Frank. Ainsley, who trusted him and who he trusted back. Ainsley had been working on their side for years. 

“Just stop!” he said, raising his hands in surrender. “I can explain!”

@ainsleyabbott​

[trustingpotter]

withering-lilyevans‌:

Lily tried not to laugh as James struggled, settling for a smirk. “To be honest, I think I prefer you in your own simple dress robes.” No doubt James dressed fashionably (thanks to the closet full of clothes picked out by Lily or his mother), but with a simplicity that only someone as confident as he could pull it off and make it look as well as it did. 

Actually laughing this time, Lily leaned forward to give him a kiss of reassurance. “Don’t worry, the only people I ever find dashing are you and Padfoot. Remus and Peter are adorable, and everyone else pales in comparison to you lot.” She smiled up at him before taking a step back to assess his whole look. “Do you feel ready?” There was a slight amount of anxiety in her tone, but they were both used to that. It was never easy to send the person you loved off into a mission.

“No kidding,” he said with even more cheek, a bit of sarcasm coming through. “You don’t like these baby blue robes that make me take longer to get ready than a witch? Wow, I’m so surprised! And here I was, thinking Lucius Malfoy was your type!” 

He loved joking with her - even before a mission. Perhaps this was why others didn’t always take him seriously... because it looked like he wasn’t taking things seriously. But he cared less when Lily was laughing and things were good.

She was still worrying though. That much was obvious, by the anxiety mixing in her tone. This would be the first time in a long that James would be going out on a mission without her. He hoped that, by the end of this, the inner circle would re-evaluate her place in all of this. “Yeah, I’m ready,” he said confidently. “Seriously, Lily, I’ve got the easiest and most boring job of the lot. Nothing to worry about!”

[trustingpotter]

withering-lilyevans‌:

Lily melted into his embrace as he leaned forward to kiss her, surprised as she always was at how easy it was to love James. For all the years that she had hated him (and hated him she did, with a passion that had long since left Lily Evans), it was still crazy to think that hatred had cooled to indifference and indifference had grown to amusement and amusement had turned into friendship and friendship had sloped its’ way down to love. It had been natural, easy, right to love James, just as once it had been all those things not to love James. But without Severus whispering in her ear, without loyalty to her best friend clouding her opinions, she had been able to see James for what he really was – a bit immature and arrogant sometimes, but a man with a big heart, and a good one.

She laughed openly as his grin turned cheeky, reveling in the implication of his words. Before she could answer, his face turned serious again, and hers changed to match it. At his words, her gaze softened, a wide smile spreading across her lips, her green eyes twinkling the sentiment she felt in return. She didn’t say anything for a moment, content just to gaze at him, her home. “I know,” she murmured softly, leaning in to kiss him once more. 

“You know, I do think there’s a free bedroom just down the hall…” Lily trailed off, raising her eyebrows at him, her eyes sparkling with the same cheekiness he had shown earlier. Laughing, she grabbed his hand and led him down the hall, leaving behind her work. There were more important things than that right now. 

She pulled him close and kissed him and he was so glad he got to be like this with her again. Soft and real and funny and in love. He felt like they were seventeen again - falling for the first time with fingers touching hands on patrols or watching her laugh at his jokes. While the world turned darker around them outside the walls of Hogwarts, they’d found one another. While he wished they wouldn’t have needed Leina Nott’s death to bring them back to that place, he was grateful it had. Maybe that made him cruel.

But, as Lily tugged on his hand and pulled him down the hallway, James didn’t care. 

FIN.

[trustingpotter]

mary-mxdonxld‌:

Mary could see that James didn’t agree with her sentiment, but she didn’t push it. Now was not the time to get into one of their classic arguments – the Malfoys weren’t known for bickering like the Lestranges were, and it would certainly draw the dimwitted Abbott’s attention if they were noticed doing so. 

Unfortunately, Vanessa didn’t seem to be as dimwitted as Mary had first assumed (she supposed it was stupid to think that anyone related to Ainsley wouldn’t have brains, and Vanessa seemed to have social skills where her sister did not as well). Her attention was drawn to the Order members trying to sneak upstairs and she prepared to follow them. 

Mary wasn’t sure where Ainsley was (wasn’t she supposed to be helping them keep her younger sister out of trouble?), but she nodded almost imperceptibly to James and allowed him to move her in the direction of the staircase, where they would follow Vanessa.

They waited until she had ascended before following, not wanting to spook her, but they caught up with her on the landing. Mary nudged James forward, allowing him to lead the way. 

James followed Mary through to the landing, inconspicuously making it up the stairway without anyone noticing something was out of the ordinary. Vanessa was eyeing the last room curiously as a hand closed to the door behind them - what looked like the hand of Rabastan Lestrange.

Mary nudged him and James stepped forward, just as Vanessa Abbott turned around, her mouth open as though to call out to someone - surely she wouldn’t do that at an event such as this! - and she gasped when she saw them. “Wha - Lucius! You startled me!” She put her hand to her heart to prove it before pointing at the door where James knew the Order members had just gone. “There’s something odd going on. Have you ever known Amos Diggory to be chatting it up with Rabastan Les - “

Without thinking, James cut her off, pulling his wand from the cane that Lucius was notorious for carrying (transfigured from a simple twig, the subject had always been James’ best!). “Stupefy!” He’d meant for a non-verbal spell, but his heart was pumping so quickly that it came out a whisper, murmured between Lucius’ lips quietly. Vanessa body fell with a thump! and James winced. “I hope the party’s loud enough that no one heard that!” he said to Mary.

[trustingpotter]

James Potter’s messy hair turns long and silky as he morphs into none other than Lucius Malfoy. Equipped with fashionable robes with about twenty clasps and a cane, no one suspects this man isn’t who he claims to be.

[trustingpotter]

withering-lilyevans‌:

location: potter manor date: 14 feb 1981 status: closed for @trustingpotter

Lily was grateful for the fact that if she wasn’t allowed to go on the mission, at least James was in a position where he wouldn’t be in much danger. He wouldn’t be one of the ones looking for the Orb, just making sure that Vanessa Abbott was none the wiser about the true identity of some of her party guests, and she trusted that between him and Mary and Ainsley, he would be just fine. Still, sending him out on a mission without her made her feel a little bereft. It was like watching part of her heart waltz away into danger while she stayed behind. 

As she helped him finish buttoning up the robes that looked just like something Lucius Malfoy would wear, Lily chose not to voice any of these thoughts. He didn’t need her distracting him from the task at hand, and she didn’t want him to be distracted thinking about how she was doing back at the Manor while he was at the party. Stepping back, she smiled. “You look quite dashing.” 

James was struggling with these robes. So many buttons and latches - it just seemed like a never-ending problem. He was grateful for Lily, who had always had a better fashion sense than him, to be able to navigate how to make them work. While no stranger to dress robes himself, these were another level. Lucius Malfoy’s level.

She looked at him and smiled - more like a smirk - and James grinned cheekily. “Dashing, eh?” he said, striking a pose and pretending to brush back the long hair he would soon have. “You better think that only now. Because if you say it until after I drink the potion, I may just throw it all up and ruin this entire operation!”

[trustingpotter]

mary-mxdonxld‌:

Mary followed James’ gaze to Ainsley’s younger sister Vanessa, trying not to let a scowl mar the face of Narcissa Malfoy. The fact that her job in this mission was to protect a woman who was willing to marry into a Death Eater family just made her absolutely furious, but there was nothing she could do about that. She had her orders, now was the time to follow through.

Mary couldn’t resist one barb, though. “Not very bright, if you ask me. Her party has been infiltrated by a dozen Order members and she hasn’t begun to notice.” Her voice sounded at the same level as his, careful to make sure that no one else could hear that comment – it would spell disaster if they were overheard.

Mary bit down on her tongue to stop herself from snapping at him as he touched her lower back. It wasn’t her lower back, she had to remind herself. She was supposed to be Narcissa Malfoy, and Narcissa was well known to love her husband’s touch. Still, she felt a little jittery at the intimacy of the touch – Evans sure wouldn’t like that. 

Mary doubted Vanessa, which was slightly annoying. While she was a bit stupid to fall in love with a man from a family of presumed Death Eaters, there was no evidence pointing to Jayesh himself as one - and didn’t James, too, love someone from a not-so-stellar family? Sirius couldn’t be judged for his last name. 

“Why would she be worried about the club?” James asked in Lucius’ low voice. “She doesn’t know her sister is part of us - this is just a normal party for her. Aside from the Nott’s death, there’s nothing to really worry her, is there?”

But then, just as he said it, Vanessa did notice something. Her eyes moved to the staircase, where Artem and Amos had just moved up. “Rabastan Lestrange” was following them - a surprise if anything. She seemed confused by it and James watched as she tilted her head and leaned over to say something to Jayesh. James cleared his throat to catch Mary’s attention and nodded over to Vanessa as she moved towards the stairs.

“That’s us,” he said and gently pushed on Mary’s lower back so they could move together, following Vanessa, though not too closely. 

[trustingpotter]

alicealongbottom‌:

Alice sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Of course I think it’s different James. And of course he’s still committed.” At least, it seemed to Alice that some days he was more committed to the cause than she was. She just wanted them to be safe and for all of this to be over. 

“What are you asking me James? Do you not trust him? Is this about Daisy?” Alice had been focused on so many things as of late. The Order, the Death Eaters, work, keeping them all out of the direct gaze of the Ministry- she’d barely been paying attention. 

“Don’t lie to me.”

Do you not trust him? The answer was one she wouldn’t want to hear - and he knew that. James didn’t trust her husband - that much was the truth. But he also knew enough about how other people have been reacting to him that he didn’t have much proof on why. A gut feeling wouldn’t really work on Frank’s wife.

He decided to skip the first two questions in favor of the last. “No, it’s not about Daisy,” James replied truthfully. “We get why he did what he did with her - it was a good call. He’s just seemed... different is all lately. And, being his wife, I thought you’d know what might be going on better than anyone.”

[trustingpotter]

mary-mxdonxld‌:

Mary sighed. James was so touchy sometimes, honestly. This conversation turned out to be a total waste of time, especially since he clearly had no real reason to suspect that Frank was anything other than what they had all known him to be up until this point. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes but crossed her arms instead. “I’ll keep an eye out, but I still would like a real reason as to why I need to.” 

She began to steer them back towards the Potter estate, wanting to put an end to this conversation so that she could return to what she had been working on before James had insisted on dragging her out here with a half-baked idea. 

James sighed lightly, but nodded at Mary. It was all he could really ask for, after all. They had no proof on Frank Longbottom - but if James knew that people were looking out, he at least felt better about it all. He followed her back to his home, mostly in silence, as they both wondered about how to create action.

FIN.

three steps behind // james & mary

[trustingpotter]

mary-mxdonxld‌:

Mary felt ridiculous, and it took everything in her not to scowl at the fact that she was pretending to be Narcissa Malfoy. A scowl would look unnatural on the delicate face of a Black sister, though, so stored it up for later, when she was returned to her own appearance. She would not let James get off that easily for suggesting that she accompany him on this particular mission, and she felt amusement in the thought of how long she would scowl at him once this was all over. It would be a matter of weeks, surely.

She bit back the sharp Mary MacDonald retort she wanted to throw at him as he hissed instructions at her underneath his breath, instead smiling up at the man who looked like Lucius Malfoy, hoping the foreign-feeling look on her face appeared to be a lovesick expression. Honestly, it was ridiculous how much the Malfoys seemed to love each other. 

Adjusting her grip on the glass of champagne in her hand, Mary took a deep breath and nodded her understanding to James, looking away from him and out onto the party. Their mission was to keep Vanessa Abbott from discovering the various other Order members who were scattered around the party pretending to be other people, and Mary knew that they had assured Ainsley that her younger sister would be kept safe. Playing babysitter was almost as annoying as playing Narcissa Malfoy, but there was no way out, so Mary would try to play both roles faithfully. 

James half-expected Mary to gripe at him - but they’d talked about this prior. He would be correcting her, when he saw something she shouldn’t be meant to do. And she’d just have to listen. Not having grown up in the world of magic, Mary was not the expert here - despite her wanting to be.

He nodded softly when she loosened her grip though and eyed Vanessa from across the room, taking a sip of his own glass. “She looks pretty tonight,” he commented casually. “I don’t think she’s noticed anything yet. I don’t think we’ll have too much of a problem with that though, honestly. It’s not like she knows that her sister is part of the club.”

All his words were said in a whisper, just for Mary’s ears. He placed Lucius’ hand on the lower back of Narcissa’s body. It was a good thing Malfoys never liked to leave one another’s side. The only thing they thought prettier than their spouse was likely their own reflection.