#literally nothing is happening and when arthur is even just mentioned I SCREAM | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

archies-litterbox · 3 years

Text

of poison, forest floors, and terrified wizards

Summary: Out all alone on what was meant to be a simple errand, collecting herbs for Merlin, Douxie is downed when some pickpocket throws a fistful of black powder in his face - a magic surpressant and poison to wizards, he comes to find out the hard way. Unable to move or use his magic, as attempts to do both cause nothing but agony, the moppet has no choice but to rely on the slim hope of someone finding him before the poison overtakes him.

A/N: This is my first toa fic! I’ve spent the past year mostly just doing fic for witcher, so this is a nice change of pace :) I had fun with this! I thought about what would happen if there was some sort of substance in TOA that acted as a poison/magic surpressant to wizards... and ofc it turned into douxie whump (but it’s moppet!douxie which is even more painful :( ). Enjoyyy!

[CW: Hurt/Comfort, Whump, Poisoning/Sickness, Temporary Paralysis, blood mention (but no bleeding)]

---

All Douxie had been sent out to do was collect some herbs for Merlin. It wasn’t even in the uncertain ground like the Wild Wood, but a patch of forest he’d been sent to fetch ingredients from countless times. It should have been a simple enough task for the moppet, which is why he hadn’t woken Archie from his afternoon nap - which he was taking on Douxie’s bed - to have his familiar accompany him. And truly, the task itself was simple; it didn’t take Douxie very long at all to go into the woods and find a patch of the plants Merlin told him to fetch - something about a potion ingredient, the apprentice vaguely recollected.

Indeed, he found it without any trouble, but when he felt a figure speed past his back and steal away the little pouch of herbs he’d collected before speeding off into the woods, that was when the trouble started.

The rational part of him (which said exactly what he’d reckoned Archie would be telling him right now) told him just to pick more, but it was overshadowed by how downright insulting this woodland pickpocket was! Before he’d been taken in by Merlin, conning and using slight-of-hand to his advantage was one of his only means of survival, so to not only be stolen from, but in a way so lacking in cunning? The audacity!

It was the principal of the matter that sent him running after the thief, darting this way and that until he was lost in the thick of the woods, focused only on tailing the pickpocket.

“Hey! Stop!” Douxie panted, “You’re stealing from a master wizard!”

That didn’t seem to entice the thief to stop.

“Well… his apprentice, anyway!” he added for reasons unsure to even himself. Maybe honesty would help?

Well, thanks to his trusty, gangly legs, he caught up to the thief and got close enough to grab their wrist, and he thought it would be smooth sailing after that.

Yeah! Alright! I’ll just get my herbs back and deal with this thief and -

The thief turned around and threw a handful of black powder in his face.

Fuzzbuckets.

Douxie squeezed his eyes shut as soon as he felt them sting, coughing into his elbow to hack up the charcoal tasting powder that flew into his mouth and nose. That little trick stopped him in his tracks, but he wasn’t deterred. Not mentally. He still wanted to try to catch up…

...but his legs wouldn’t move.

No matter how badly he wanted - demanded his legs to obey him, they remained tense, frozen in that position of one in front of the other.

What?

One terrifying moment later, they did move. But not into the sprint he wanted to take - no, to do something worse: to buckle underneath him and send him falling onto his side against the forest floor.

And he couldn’t get up.

No matter how much he willed his body to do it, he couldn’t get up.

It was like when he’d have nightmares and he’d realize he was having a nightmare; it took forcing his body to toss and turn and shift from side to side as much as he could to rouse him back to the realm of the fully conscious.

But he couldn’t even do that. He couldn’t rouse himself from this nightmare because he couldn’t push himself up.

Wait.

No.

He couldn’t move.

Nearing complete panic, he internally begged and pleaded to find some sort of mobility, but his limbs grew numb by the second, and wherever he still had feeling, it ached - utterly, reprehensibly ached. Not only that, but it was cold. So, so cold, despite the warm atmosphere of the summer afternoon that hung around him so tauntingly.

He’d never felt more scared in his life. Not even being threatened at swordpoint by Sir Galahad and his men, knowing that he’d be killed for something like a measly alley trick, was as terrifying as this - not even that made his blood run cold (literally, it felt like, as well as figuratively) like this did.

And he was sure that was clear to the thief he’d tried to catch. They stood over him, and he couldn’t see their face from where his head lay on the ground, cheek against the grass, but with his glassy, wide eyes flickering between straining to look at his poisoner - because that’s what this was, a poison - and darting around wherever they could look without him moving his head - because he couldn’t even do that - as black strands of hair lay loose on his cheek because he couldn’t lift a hand to move them, he was sure looked every bit as terrified as he felt.

The thief laughed. Laughed.

“A master wizard’s apprentice, eh?” they spoke, their voice dripping with mock fascination that made Douxie wish that someone, anyone would come to help him, “And your great master never told you to pick your battles? He must not have, if you felt so inclined as to chase me all through the woods for a plant you could have just picked a little more of. It was right in front of you, after all.”

The realization which dawned on Douxie would have made his blood run cold if it didn’t feel like it already was. They’d pickpocketed him because they counted on him pursuing them, even to the point of ending up in the thick of the woods, far away from where Merlin or Archie expected him to be - far away from where they’d know to look for him.

Douxie finally tried to shout for help, but his throat was just as tense - as frozen as the rest of his muscles, and his jaw was too tight to open as much as he’d need to scream. All he could do was gasp and force shuddering breaths in and out of his lungs, which was still a trying ordeal - too trying for something like breathing to have been.

“Trying to scream? Really?” the poisoner-thief asked as if it was an absurd thing to do in the moppet’s position (which it wasn’t), “Next thing you know, you’ll try mustering a spell.”

Against his better judgement, for trying a spell couldn’t have been a good idea if his own assailant was suggesting it, he tried to force a little magic to his fingertips.

It burned. Oh, sweet heart of Avalon, it burned. His hand hadn’t even hurt this badly after he’d botched a lightning spell and scarred his wrist in the process.

Douxie wheezed at the sensation, and the thief laughed again.

“Oh, this is rich!” they exclaimed, “this has already paralyzed you hand and foot, and you thought some conjuring would help? What do you think this was made to diminish, Apprentice of Ambrosius?

Douxie couldn’t even think of a swear worthy of this (“fuzzbuckets” was too tame), his mind still flooded with fear and his hand still aching from his botched magic attempt. How had they already known he was Merlin’s apprentice? Sure, he’d mentioned being an apprentice to a master wizard, but he wasn’t that specific.

But he wasn’t worried about that as much as what this implied about his magic, and what this - whatever it had been - was doing to it.

“This,” His assailant bent down and held up their fingertips to his face, showing him the black powder on them. “Seeps away your magic. Or poisons it, or diminishes it, or eats away at it - I’m not a poet, and apt synonyms aren’t my strong suit.”

They stood back up all the way, and Douxie wanted to plead, but the words wouldn’t come out. They wouldn’t even form. This - he couldn’t lose his magic. Not on something as measly as an herb collection.

“All of this-”

They gestured to his paralyzed, twitching form.

“Is just a side effect. A byproduct of attacking your magic.”

Douxie tried curling his hand into a fist. Not only were his muscles so weak that he could only curl his fingers for a second in what looked more like a spasm than a conscious movement, but grabbing the wrong end of a knife would have hurt less.

The powder-tosser winced mock-sympathetically.

“Shame, really. I hoped the master wizard you served could be the one to deal with this.”

For a moment, in his agony, he wished he was. Douxie squandered the thought as quickly as it came up, hating himself for conceiving it. He couldn’t wish this on anyone, least of all the wizard who saved him, who plucked him off the streets.

But why couldn’t he save him now?

“Ah, well.” They reached down to Douxie’s face and put a strand of hair behind his ear.

Douxie wanted to cry.

“S’pose you’ll do. It’ll be a kick in the teeth for him anyway, when you don’t come back from your little errand after hours and hours, and by the time they send out a search party…”

The smugness and certainty in their tone made Douxie whimper, the first vocal noise he’d been able to make in all of this, after naught but wheezing and gasping. Where was he going to get dragged off to? The Wild Wood? Were they in league with trolls, hoping to get an edge on King Arthur? Or were they a bandit, hoping to take all his goods off of him (which weren’t much, unless they counted the black cat fur on his vest) and keep him in some rackety shack until a ransom note made its way to Merlin?

(Would he even pay it, considering Douxie’s incompetence?)

“Well, they’ll find you right here, I’m sure, but…”

Douxie could hear them mock-wince again, and their implication was worse than anything he’d assumed in the moments before. He couldn’t hear the rest of their sentence over his own panic that, combined with the poison, made his head swim.

He wasn’t going to be taken anywhere.

He was going to be left here, to - to - to -

His panic pushed him to try his magic again on impulse alone, and it felt like both his hands were on fire. His throat, as tight as it was, finally let him groan through his teeth.

“An exercise in futility, little wizard.” his attacker taunted, “In fact…”

They took his bracelet - only three fingers wide at this point in his training - right off his wrist, which made him squeak as he tried, tried, tried to shake his head, and threw it into a bush in what was both further assurance of his powerlessness and an insult to injury.

“I would say you should try to get comfortable…”

They stood up and took a few steps back, leaving the little field of vision Douxie had from where his head lay on the ground.

“...But I suppose that would be another exercise in futility.”

He heard the poisoner-thief run off, their footfalls fading as the pounding of his racing heart, which drummed against his ears in sync with their steps, drowned out the noise until they were out of earshot.

He was alone.

He couldn’t move, some poison was seeping away his magic - his very lifeforce - and tensed his body up so rigidly that he couldn’t even scream, and he was alone.

If he could’ve, he would have curled up into a ball as small as he could make himself in hopes that the dangers of the woods and the dire circumstances of his situation would pass him by.

If he could’ve, he would have screamed, even though he knew he was far away from the earshot of anyone who might have come looking for him by that patch of herbs where he said he’d go, and he knew that Archie, who could have tracked his scent here, was still sleeping because, in his arrogance, he hadn’t thought to wake him.

If he could’ve, he would have dragged himself to his gauntlet, wherever it had been thrown, because even if it wouldn’t have done anything to get him out of this, at least he wouldn’t have felt so helpless, even though helpless was exactly what he was.

But he couldn’t.

All he could do was squeeze his eyes shut and feel his tears run down the bridge of his nose as his lips contorted into a grimace, the only two things he could do with his body where the movement itself didn’t outweigh how badly he wanted - needed to do it.

All he could hope for, against hope itself, was that he’d be found here.

Before all that could be found was his body.

---

He wished he could just sleep.

The grassy ground underneath him was soft enough, and his position on his side could have been comfortable enough. Maybe it would have helped pass the time until the poison ran its course, whatever that entailed.

But whatever this was, it didn’t even grant him that luxury. Whether it was an effect of the poison or a product of his own adrenaline and terror, Douxie was wide awake.

Not only that, but after what might have been an hour or two (judging by the sunlight’s reflection off the dewey grass), his body would periodically twitch because of the poison. Sometimes his leg would kick out like a dog, or his shoulder would seize up to the point where it touched his ear, or his hand would ball into a fist.

But his poisoned body didn’t care which of his movements were voluntary or otherwise - it stung all the same. Not like the horrific burning that came with his attempts at magic, but a grating, awful ache right down to his bones. The spontaneous twitches never let him even come close to unconsciousness, and maybe that was a good thing - every breath was more or less of a laborious gasp, a conscious effort of his, and if he’d lost consciousness and stopped forcing them in and out of his lungs… he didn’t want to imagine it.

He wished his panic would quiet enough for him to get bored laying here - he would have preferred it to this, and it would have made sense, considering that he was stuck staring at the same blades of grass and patch of trees that he’d been staring at for the past hour.

And they weren’t even particularly interesting trees or blades of grass, not that they would have distracted him very well if they were.

He wondered if anyone had started looking for him by now. Maybe Merlin was growing impatient without the ingredients he asked for, and maybe Morgana had started to wonder why “Little Douxie” hadn’t come back to the castle.

He wondered if Archie had woken up from his nap and noticed Douxie’s absence yet. If anyone could insist that someone go out and search for him, it would be his familiar. He didn’t want to delude himself by thinking it would help though.

He wondered the importance of those herbs he was collecting before. Were they really that important to whatever Merlin had been working on? Were they worth chasing that thief down? Were they worth all of this?

He was pulled from his thoughts when a shadow cast over the grass he’d been staring at - the shadow of a creature flying overhead and hovering above him.

If he could’ve curled into himself, just to look as small as possible, he would have. What if it was a vulture, waiting to scavenge him? What if it was a monster, or a winged troll, here to carry him off to some trollish nest in the Wild Wood? None of the thoughts that came to mind were soothing by any means. As the creature swooped down, all Douxie could do was squeeze his eyes shut and hope he wouldn’t be harmed any further.

Even when the figure landed in front of him and stepped closer and closer, he didn’t look at it. It wasn’t until he could feel it’s breath on his face, one of the only sensations of the past few hours that didn’t hurt, that he opened his eyes.

A face of black fur greeted him.

And yellow eyes.

And a round pair of glasses.

Archie!

He couldn’t even say the word, but a sob escaped his throat - a sob of relief? A sob of terror that this might have been the start of an onslaught of hallucinations, the first of which being a sign of rescue? He wasn’t sure. Either way, all he wanted to do was reach up and pet the cat-dragon familiar, or hug him and not let go, but he couldn’t. His arm felt like it weighed half a ton, just like the rest of his limbs.

So, he sobbed. It was all he could do.

“Douxie!” Archie cried.

Merlin’s apprentice could hear the worry in his voice as he stepped back a few paces, his ears back and his wings to his side. Of course, he’d shifted into his dragon form - he must have been able to track Douxie’s scent like that. But Douxie hated the thought of his familiar being in danger because he’d flown here. He was already suspicious enough as a black cat, since they carried the notion of being bad omens. What if he’d gotten taken down? He wasn’t worth that!

Douxie was too relieved - yes, he chose relief, not terror, because that’s all he could afford - to think about all of that though.

“Douxie, I’ve been looking for you! What’s happened to you?” Archie asked, “Merlin expected you back hours ago!”

The first thing that came to mind, despite everything, was an apology for his absence - an apology he couldn’t even say. He couldn’t even say what happened to him, not like -

A spasm cut off from his speeding, scrambled thoughts - a large one in his left arm (his right was still mostly underneath him) that reached all the way from his fingertips to his shoulderblade, forcing his hand to ball into a fist, his arm to fold so tightly that his fist touched his shoulder, and his shoulder to tighten so much that his shoulder pressed to his ear.

The sound of agony ripped from his throat was the closest to a scream he’d gotten yet.

Archie looked horrified, and Douxie could only imagine what the sight of him was like - black strands loose from his bun strewn over his face, his eyes puffy and tear-ringed, his lips contorted in a pained grimace. He imagined he looked as pitiful and helpless as he felt.

(In fact, he didn’t have to imagine it. He could faintly see his reflection in the lenses of Archie’s glasses, and he was right in what he pictured, save for the addition of smudges and speckles of that powder still on his face, the black splotches of dust contrasting his color-drained skin, pale as death.)

His arm relaxed again after a few agonizing moments, letting his hand fall in front of his face and leaving a throbbing ache down to his bones, and Douxie tried to collect himself. He had to tell Archie what was wrong. He had to try. If Archie knew, he could fix it. He could get Merlin to fix it. Right? Right.

“P-” he started, trying his absolute best to form words despite the constriction in his throat and lungs that barely let him breathe at all, “puh- poi-”

His own wheezing cough cut him off.

“Poison?” Archie asked, getting it right much to the little relief that Douxie could manage. He nodded - at least, as close to the motion as he could accomplish - and tried to hum a “mhm” of affirmation, since trying to talk hadn’t exactly worked. Far from it.

Archie stepped forward and sniffed his face. He immediately recoiled, his big eyes widening, and Douxie was proven wrong for thinking he couldn’t be more terrified.

“Oh, dear.” His eyes glanced to what must have been a few more clumps and speckles of dust on the ground, “Ohhh, not good. Not good at all.”

No. Archie couldn’t be scared. If Archie was scared for him, then this was so, so much worse than he thought. How could it possibly be worse?

Douxie squeaked out a whimper in fear, and Archie’s attention snapped back to him (as if it could have been anywhere else).

“Douxie, don’t worry.” he said, “You’ll be alright.”

Archie was never a good liar, much to Douxie’s dismay. If Archie was going to hide the truth to soothe him, he at least would’ve liked it to work. His immediately telling Douxie not to worry had the opposite effect of what was intended; it showed him his worry - his terror - was entirely warranted, which was the exact thing he didn’t want to know. Even if all he said was “You’ll be alright.”, the fear that seemed to bristle through his fur was indication enough of the contrary.

Archie’s eyebrows, indicated by the grey patches in the fur above his eyes, upturned as if in dread.

“...But I need to go.”

NO!

If Douxie could have screamed the word and reached out to hold Archie, he would have done it right at that moment, but all he could do was whine like a kicked puppy, his eyebrows raising as his head shook - an unconscious movement, minute despite his desperation.

“Douxie, Douxie, listen.” Archie said, softening his voice, “I can’t carry you back to the castle. I wouldn't be able to fly carrying you anyway, but especially not with your-”

Archie got cut off by another one of Douxie’s spasms - this one made his left leg curl up so tight that his thigh touched his torso, causing the apprentice to nearly involuntarily hit Archie with his knee, which the cat-dragon barely dodged.

“-that." Archie said, "Not with that.”

Douxie saw the sense in that, despite his panic. He did, he did, he did.

But -

He sobbed again.

-But he didn’t want to be alone.

Sweet heart of Avalon, he didn’t want to be alone.

The worst of his pain and terror wasn’t from the paralysis, or the aching, or the random twitches, or the burning that came from trying to use his magic, or even the tightness in his throat and lungs that robbed him of speaking or even screaming; it came from being alone in this - from wondering if anyone would come for him, or find his body; it came from knowing that there was nothing he could do but lay there, at the mercy of nature, the poison wracking his body with every beat of his heart, and the determination (or lack thereof) of someone else to find him.

And when he opened his eyes to find Archie there, all of that went away - all of that fear that told him he’d die alone here. He didn’t want it to come back. He would’ve rather the poison take him right now.

“I just need to go back to the castle and bring Merlin here. He’ll know what to do.”

Archie put his paw in Douxie’s limp, open palm. All Douxie wanted to do was hold it, and he so desperately hoped the next twitch would be in his hand so he could.

“I won’t be long. I promise.”

But what if it was too long, even if he hurried?

What if Merlin was too late, even if he hurried?

What if it took too long to convince his master to come here? Would the fact that he’d been poisoned and needed help be enough, or would Merlin refuse because it served Douxie right for his insolence?

(No, no, he wouldn’t do that. Merlin said that mastery over magic was mastery over life, and he had to learn how to live. He couldn’t learn to live if he died here in the woods.)

What if…

What if this killed him before Archie came back?

...No.

It wasn’t the same this time. Douxie wasn’t lost here, hoping against hope that someone would find him. This was hope - someone knew where he was, and help would come. He could handle a little bit more fear for that hope, he knew.

So, fighting the grating, awful ache in his bones, Douxie closed his hand around Archie’s paw and put on as brave a face he found himself able to muster, nodding as much as he could while causing as little pain to himself as possible.

He didn’t trust much in this - not even his own body to keep fighting the poison - but he trusted Archie, and he trusted his promise.

His familiar gently pulled his paw away before slipping it under the side of Douxie’s head, lifting it a little off the ground. The little apprentice was confused for a moment, until Archie reached behind Douxie’s head with his mouth. He could hear the sounds of the woods stifle as fabric came over his ears, warding off the now-coolness of the woodsy air around his head as Archie pulled the hood of his vest over his head and gingerly laid it back down.

Ah, he got it now - it was a little comfort, a little shelter from the world.

And of course he took it, hoping his eyes conveyed his gratitude.

He kept up his brave front as Archie turned away from him, something Douxie could tell he’d done reluctantly, and flew off. It wasn’t until he couldn’t see his familiar anymore - until the sight of the cat-dragon vanished behind the treetops - that he let it fall and shatter.

He just had to keep waiting. That’s all he had to do - wait and trust Archie to come back with Merlin. He knew that.

But he could still feel new tears come down his face.

---

Douxie wished he could see the sunset from where he lay. It would have been beautiful, he knew.

The spasms subsided a little while after Archie flew back, leaving Douxie limp on the ground - still unable to move without hurting himself or try to use his magic without thrusting himself into agony - with a lingering pins-and-needles sensation in his hands and feet that felt like it was crawling up from his ankles and wrists.

(Honestly, Douxie still wasn’t sure if the spasms had truly subsided for good, or if this was just a rather long interval between them. He hoped it was the former. The spasms never hurt any less as they went on, and he was so, so tired of the pain.)

Archie still hadn’t come back with Merlin yet, obviously, and at this point, it seemed like Douxie was fighting off his doubt more than the poison. At least he knew what the poison was doing to him - he could feel it every waking moment. But Archie… Douxie didn’t know what had happened to him, and he wouldn’t unless he came back.

(No, until he came back. Douxie had to keep that certainty alive in his mind.)

But how was he supposed to know that his familiar hadn’t taken a tumble? That he hadn’t been brought down by some witch hunter’s net? What if Merlin was being stubborn about coming for him? What if he’d been busy in another row with King Arthur?

...Indeed, he would have loved to see the sunset - to at least try to let it distract him from the tornado of worst case scenarios in his mind.

But he couldn’t.

For a bit, he tried distracting himself by thinking about how Merlin might’ve reacted to him being in danger - to hearing that he’d been poisoned. He sort of liked imagining how scared he’d be, for he preferred fear to indifference. The mental image of his master dropping whatever book he’d been flipping through and rushing to follow Archie… it was a comforting one, as strange as it might sound. That fear meant he mattered.

But Douxie soon grew tired even of that. He hoped he might’ve ran into a patch frequented by fireflies. Those would at least come low enough to dip into his line of sight, and they were always so beautiful, like stars visiting earth for a night before going back to the sky…

Douxie grew cold again at some point. Not just cold, but damp. Since it hadn’t started raining, fortunately, he rightly assumed that it was sweat. Perhaps he was finally sweating this out, like a fever, but that was too good, too fortunate to figure. This was another progression of the poison, he was sure. Just like…

Douxie noticed something in his left hand that lay in front of his face, something wrong…

Oh, sweet heart of Avalon.

His veins were black.

Hoping, begging, praying to be wrong, he pushed through that dreadful ache in his arm so he could pull it closer, but it only confirmed his suspicions - his dread - his terrors.

The veins in his wrist, in the creases of his knuckles - they weren’t deep blue anymore, just barely visible underneath his skin, but as black as that powder that got blown in his face. Ink could be coursing through them right now, and he’d have been none the wiser.

In that moment, Douxie was proven wrong once again for thinking he couldn’t be more terrified.

He gasped as much as his throat and lungs let him, and he didn’t stop gasping. But then his chest -

No no NO!

-his chest started to seize up.

He fought the growing tightness in his chest with every breath, forcing each one in and out like a wheeze, but it wouldn’t go away. He couldn’t tell if it was from poison or panic, but it wouldn’t go away. He’d even started coughing, which was inevitable, but the black splotch that splattered into his hand terrified him all the more.

This was it. He was going to die here. He was going to succumb to this. He’d never come back to the castle - to Archie, to Morgana, to Merlin - from a trivial herb picking. Archie would come back here, but all he’d find was - was - was -

“HISIRDOUX!”

Douxie burst into tears.

He could recognize the voice of his master - his father - anywhere, but he was so, so scared that it was a hallucination. The fear in his voice already sounded so foreign, coming from the great and powerful Merlin Ambrosius, and if the sound of his voice and his footsteps coming near him came only from his desperate imagination, then he’d - he’d -

A hand gripped his shoulder and turned him onto his back. Finally, he could look up at the sky, aglow with sunset, but his glassy eyes only saw Merlin kneeling down at his side, and Archie flying above him.

The terror in Merlin’s eyes was the exact opposite of comforting, but Douxie didn’t get to see it for long before Merlin conjured a damp cloth and wiped off his face what had to have been the rest of that poisonous powder. He hadn’t realized how flushed he’d been until that moment, when that rag felt so cold against his cheeks.

Merlin finished wiping off Douxie’s face and made the cloth disappear. Douxie missed the coolness on his face. He wanted it back.

“Hisirdoux, say something!” he demanded. But Douxie couldn’t - didn’t Merlin think he would’ve already been screaming his lungs out if he could?

“D-” he choked, “Da-”

He hacked up another throatful of black phlegm, whimpering as the violence of his cough made his torso curl up. Merlin dodged the cough, but put an arm under Douxie’s back before he could fall back.

An apology lay at the back of his throat - one he didn’t know the reason for, even if he could’ve said it.

Merlin brought his other arm behind Douxie’s knees and lifted him like he weighed nothing (and he probably didn’t weigh much to Merlin, being the gangly moppet he was). The edges of the plating of the master wizard’s armor dug against him uncomfortably, but it was the least discomforting thing about this, overshadowed near-completely by the comfort that came just by being held. But he was still scared - if more of that powder was on him, and Merlin touched it by holding him, then -

He stifled a cough, and his leg kicked out unconsciously like a thumping rabbit’s foot. He didn’t realize how badly he’d been tremoring until it was contrasted with the steadiness of Merlin holding him.

Yes… steadiness, safety - two things he’d wanted to cling to more than anything since all this had started. And now, he had them. He had his familiar, and he had his father.

His head, still covered with the hood of his vest, lolled back uncomfortably without any support, but he felt something soft push against the back of it- it was actually Archie, though Douxie couldn’t see it - until the side of his head lay against one of the shoulderpieces of Merlin’s armor, cushioned by the cloth of his hood.

He sighed as much as his tightened chest would allow.

He was so scared.

Douxie was still so, so terrified that Merlin couldn’t save him after all; that he’d die tonight; that he’d never use his magic again; that he’d never get to become a master wizard or get his own staff to wield; that he’d never again get to go back down to the marketplace and talk to that pretty girl who frequented the shops.

(What was her name? Zelda? Zona? Zola? Zo-)

He felt something warm settle on his abdomen - Archie had turned back into a cat and curled up on his tummy, purring as he nestled where Douxie’s legs curled.

At least, despite everything else he feared, he didn’t have to be terrified of being alone anymore.

---

Douxie wasn’t sure if Merlin used a portal, or the relief of being found by his master had finally let him lull out of consciousness for the length of the time it took to be carried back, but the next thing he knew, he was in Merlin’s study. Despite the fluttering of his eyelids, he could recognize the shelves, the desk, and the stained glass window letting in the last light of day.

Home.

He was home.

No matter what happened next, he was home.

“Douxie!” He could hear Morgana’s voice shouting his name in worry, followed immediately by her fast-approaching footsteps.

“Mmh…” Douxie whimpered. It wasn’t clear whether or not the noise was just a pained whine or an attempt to try saying her name - not even to Douxie himself. He couldn’t see her very well, but he could tell when she’d come to them, stepping to the side as Merlin walked forward to his desk.

“Is he alive?” she asked.

“Somehow, yes.” Merlin answered. Douxie hated that “somehow” and the fear it brought, but it was just a little more to add to the onslaught of the past hours. He could just add it to the pile, he supposed.

In the middle of the room, Merlin’s big desk was empty, so the wizard laid him down on the surface, having him lay flat on his back with his hands at his sides, his legs straightened out, and his head facing up. Now, he could fully see Morgana, the sorceress he’d come to see as something of a big sister just as he came to see Merlin as a father, looking down at him. Her face was upside-down from where she stood over him, but he could still see her upturned brows and glistening eyes, and the way she clasped her hands close to her chest so they didn’t even touch him. He hated that look of worry on her face. Seeing Morgana - always fearless, always grasping for more from the world than what others had permitted, always steadfast in her ruthless ambition - look so scared for him…

...It was worse, if such a thing was possible, than when he saw how scared Merlin was for him, and there was so much he wanted to say, but he was still just focused on trying to breathe as deeply as he could.

Archie got off his abdomen and sat next to his head, gently headbutting his temple before putting a paw on his forehead. It was a little comforting, almost enough to distract Douxie from realizing that Merlin wasn’t at his side anymore.

Almost, though. Not enough.

Douxie tried turning his head to the side, but Archie gently kept it still with his paw.

“He’s just finding a spellbook, Douxie.” he assured, immediately knowing what the apprentice was trying to turn his head for, “He’ll be right back.”

Morgana looked down on the little scene and closed her eyes for a moment, as if to quell her tears, before opening them again.

“You shouldn’t have held him.” she warned, turning her head to wherever Merlin stood now, “You know what that can-”

“I’m well aware.” Merlin interrupted from wherever he still was, “And you know I’ve little concern for that.”

Douxie didn’t understand. There was still so little he understood about whatever was doing this to him, and he didn’t know how to ask about it - he couldn’t.

But apparently, his upturned brows and whimpers of confusion were enough to indicate - at least to Archie - how lost he was.

“Douxie, that powder - it’s called Draining Dust.” Archie explained, “It’s a magic suppressant, and… a poison, as you know by now.”

“Witch hunters would put this in shackles.” Morgana said, finally speaking to him, “To nullify wizards’ and witches’ magic on their way to the gallows. Or the stakes.”

“Trace amounts, yes.” Merlin came back into his view, an open spellbook floating near him with a signature green aura around it, “Pinches of it, cast in the metal. It would suppress the wearer’s magic as long as it was on their body, with a few side effects. Fatigue, headaches, nausea…” he started listing as he flipped through the pages.

Douxie remembered the handful of the stuff that had been thrown in his face. That was far from a few pinches. And those side effects he’d started listing - they sounded tame, menial compared to what was happening to him now.

“But direct contact with raw powder…” Archie started. Douxie knew he was hesitant to finish that sentence, and it wasn’t hard to assume why (but it was terrifying).

“It’s deadly.” Morgana said, “Few wizards have ever survived inhaling or digesting it. More sadistic witchfinders have used that to-”

“Morgana!” Merlin snapped, urging her to leave off. But she didn’t.

“He should know!” she snapped back, “It’s already in his bloodstream, old man. It’s killing him, and he deserves to-”

Douxie started crying again at Morgana’s brutal honesty, as if this all weren’t brutal enough. His eyes squeezed shut as tears streamed down his temples, but when he opened them again, it was darker, like he was looking through a veil. The sight made him want to cry even harder.

It was in his tears.

Oh, sweet heart of Avalon, the poison was in his tears.

It made sense now, why Morgana was so scared to touch him. His own body fluids - his blood, his tears, probably his sweat soon enough - were turning poisonous from this. The only reason Archie was still touching him was probably because he wasn’t a wizard, but a familiar, and this wouldn’t affect him so badly.

(It actually very well could have affected Archie for the worse, but watching Douxie endure this without any comfort would have been worse than any poison.)

“It’s not killing him.” Merlin denied as if he was trying to convince both Morgana and himself, “His death is not certain. If it were, I would have already placed a sleeping spell on him by now.”

Douxie clung to that little hope and tried to watch Merlin scan for the spell he’d been looking for. Merlin had a way to fix this, of course he did; it’s as he said - he would have already put Douxie to sleep to grant him some peace if he didn’t.

Douxie watched his master’s page flipping stall as his eyes scanned over one particular page. His face fell - a minute, near-unnoticeable change in expression, but one that made Douxie’s pounding heart sink.

“Merlin?” Archie asked, “Have you found something?”

Merlin said nothing at first, only taking his place by stepping right to the table’s edge, coming right to Douxie’s side.

“I’ve found a spell to expel the poison and it’s remnants,” he explained, still only scanning the book, “But purging it from his body when it’s progressed this far will be…”

His eyes fell on Douxie’s.

“...quite excruciating.”

But Douxie was already so, so tired.

Not physically - the combined force of the poison and his own adrenaline warded off any chance of fatigue - but in his heart. He was so tired of being scared. Of being in so much pain. He didn’t want to do it - he didn’t think he could…

...But he remembered something Merlin said to him before.

“If there is a universal truth in this world, it is that struggle is the flame which forges one’s soul into steel.”

Well, if there was something tougher than steel, that’s what his soul would become.

Because wizards were strong. Brave. Unrelenting to pain or fear. That’s how Merlin was, that’s how Morgana was, and that’s how he would be.

He put on a brave face - as brave as he could possibly muster in the face of what he’d endure - and nodded. He could do this. He had to do this.

And he would.

The green aura around the spellbook faded as Merlin set it down. Archie lifted his paw from Douxie’s head and stepped back a few paces.

“Morgana, keep him still.” Merlin said, “His thrashing may cause him to injure himself.”

Morgana nodded and brought her hands up, an unsaid apology in her eyes. Seconds later, Douxie felt warm, gentle heat around his wrists and ankles. It didn’t hurt, but it was unrelenting. He didn’t test the bonds, lacking the strength or any actual will to do so. Still under a sort of paralysis, he wasn’t scared of being pinned down, for he knew it was just a precaution; he was just scared of how bad the pain would be in order for restraining him like this to be necessary.

The precaution was far from unwarranted, he came to realize in the coming moments.

Merlin hovered one hand over Douxie’s chest and the other over his abdomen. Douxie watched him say some incantation, but he didn’t catch the words. He was too busy bracing himself for the pain as he saw the green aura of his master’s magic out of the corner of his eye, glowing above his torso.

Before Merlin even got to take a breath after the incantation, the pain started.

And no amount of bracing could have prepared Douxie enough.

The sudden agony in his torso ripped the breath from his lungs. He thought - hoped it would start small and get worse and worse, like a simmer that got hotter and hotter, but instead it was like a pot of scalding water got poured over his chest. No, even that would have hurt less. This… it started at the surface, but it bled deeper and deeper under his skin, and then -

Oh, sweet heart of Avalon.

-then it started to spread.

In moments, as if searing agony itself coursed through his veins, there was nowhere on his body that didn’t burn, not even his fingertips or the tip of his pinky toes. If he could feel it, it hurt, and it hurt unlike anything he’d ever felt before.

As the agony overrode his paralysis, he thrashed against Morgana’s magic that kept his wrists and ankles in place, arching his back one moment and curling forward the next.

It hurt to breathe. It hurt to try to open his eyes. It hurt to keep them squeezed shut. It hurt to try to hear the voices of those around him - Morgana trying to tell him to be strong, Archie trying to soothe him, Merlin repeating the incantation. It hurt even to think - the pain, blinding and deafening, flooded out all other thoughts.

For a moment, like a fire burning so hot it feels cold for a fleeting beat, he stopped feeling the searing, searing agony.

But the moment was too, too fleeting before it wracked him again.

Finally, finally, he screamed.

It was a raw, shrill, agonized thing. He felt it come up from the base of his throat, and when Douxie realized, through his hysteria, that he was actually screaming, not wheezing or whimpering or anything he’d had to settle for tonight, he couldn’t stop. He screamed for all the torture of the day, all the fear of being alone, all the panic and terror and despair that he couldn’t let out in the woods, tense and spasming and paralyzed.

All the screams that couldn’t come out before, when his throat was so tight that it barely let him breathe, came out right now, bursting at the seams of his pain-delirious mind.

He didn’t stop screaming until he finally felt Merlin’s magic let off.

Even then, his screams settled only into groans and wails until the burning across his body finally cooled; until the pain weakened from a searing sensation all over him, like the most brazen of fires, to a low ache, like the embers of a dying camp flame.

Once he fully stilled, which took a few more moments, Morgana’s magic came off his wrists and ankles.

Finally, he came back to his senses and see Merlin, Morgana, and Archie still around him. Archie looked relieved and nuzzled the side of Douxie’s head. Morgana smiled a shaky, hesitant smile - still so foreign to see from her.

And Merlin…

Well, he seemed as difficult to read as usual, but at least he no longer had the expression on his face of a man watching his apprentice die. Traces of relief lay there, and Douxie gladly took them.

So… was it over?

Douxie groaned and lifted his arm. It didn’t hurt to do anymore - well, it did, but more like a soreness left in the wake of heavy lifting, a residue of what happened than a symptom of it. He brought it up to his face so he could see his wrist.

His veins were blue again.

Sighing, he let his hand fall on his face and wiped away some tears - lifting it to see they were purely clear, like before - before letting it slide off his cheek and fall limp next to his head.

“Master…” his voice was so little, so hoarse, “‘s it gone?”

“Every bit, Hisirdoux.” Merlin said, putting his hand on Douxie’s shoulder, “It's over.”

He sounded weary. Douxie hoped that spell didn't take too much from him.

“Mm… my magic… 's it gone too?”

Merlin’s eyes said he wasn’t sure himself.

Douxie sought to answer the question on his own and willed forth his magic. He felt his fingertips thrum with the life of his sorcery. Lifting his hand again, he saw little specks of light, blue and true. It didn’t burn anymore, but it felt warm and gentle, like a heartbeat. His heartbeat. Exactly as it always felt.

He sighed. Not shaky, not fighting to keep his breathing level - a tired, relieved sigh. Despite how sore even the muscles in his face felt, he smiled a little smile.

“Thank you…” he said, “If you all hadn’t… I’d be-”

Merlin moved his hand from Douxie’s shoulder to his forehead.

“Don’t pay that scenario any mind, Hisirdoux.” Merlin urged, “You’ve survived, and although you and your magic have been weakened, both will fully recover.”

Douxie’s little smile fell.

“Wha… what about the poison? It couldn’t just be gone.”

“That it can.” Merlin assured, taking his hand off Douxie’s head, “As brutal as it is to the wizard affected, an unaffected wizard with strong magic can eradicate it from their body and return it to it’s untarnished condition.”

...Well, that was that, and Douxie wouldn’t question it. Besides, he remembered something.

“Mmmy bracelet… I lost it. That - they took it off. It’s in a bush out there.”

“I can see that. That’s alright.” Merlin said, “It can be retrieved.”

“And… and I'm sorry.” He said to Merlin’s subtle but obvious surprise, indicated by a little raise in his eyebrows.

“What for?”

“I… the herbs.” he answered, “I couldn’t bring them back. They got stolen.”

“It’s alright,” Merlin said, “They aren’t a rarity, you know.”

...Douxie sniffled.

“That… they only snatched those plants so I’d follow them deeper into the woods. So I’d get lost. So they could throw that dust in my face and - and leave me there, knowing I’d gone further into the forest than… than anyone would’ve looked, and I wouldn’t be found.”

“But you were found, Douxie.” Archie said, “They weren’t counting on you having a dragon that could track scents for a familiar.”

Douxie’s voice started to break.

“I should have left it alone - I knew I should have left it alone. There was more right there, I should’ve-”

“Hisirdoux, cease this.” Merlin said in a tone that left no room for insistence, “You must grant yourself some relief in you and your magic’s survival. I won’t have you fret over something as menial as a handful of herbs, so-”

“But Master-”

“-Don’t “But Master” me.”

Douxie sighed. That statement didn’t leave any room for argument. It never did.

Finally, a little normalcy tonight.

Morgana put her hands to the sides of Douxie’s head. After she’d been so scared to touch him this whole time, the feeling of her fingers against his temples, brushing his hair away from his face, was a final, true assurance that the poison had been well and truly purged.

“Sleep, Little Douxie.” she soothed, “I promise you’ll wake.”

He couldn’t tell if she cast a sleep spell in that moment, or if this was from his own fatigue, but he obeyed without hesitance as he was finally lulled away from the realm of the conscious and fell into slumber.

---

Merlin looked down at the boy lying asleep on his desk, the color slowly trickling back into his face as his chest rose and fell in deep, steady breaths.

“He’s a brave little moppet.” Morgana said as she kept her fingers against the sides of his head, her voice hushed despite the fact that the boy’s exhaustion had lulled him into a deep slumber, and he’d sleep like a stone until morning no matter what.

“...No, he’s not.” Merlin denied, “Not for this.”

Morgana snapped her head up.

“He’s just gone through more torment from that powder in one day than either of us have in all our lives!” Morgana she contested, “Not even you have endured effects that brutal from Draining Dust.”

“To be brave requires a choice - being faced with the ultimatum to either run and give up, or face your fight.” Merlin said, too proverbial and righteous-sounding as he stood over Douxie, “A choice was the exact thing he didn’t have in this. Perhaps if he’d been withholding something from that assailant, even with the threat of this, then it might be different. But as it is, even if he’d wanted to succumb to this before Archie had found him, his adrenaline hadn’t let him.”

“Maybe so,” Archie started, “but when I found him there in the forest, and I told him I’d have to come back with help, he was terrified of being left alone again. I could tell. But he put on as brave a face he could have. He chose that for himself, at least.”

“He did the same thing moments ago, when you told him how much that spell would hurt.” Morgana added, “He may not have had a choice in enduring this, but he did choose to steel his nerves when faced with every reason not to, and there’s bravery in that, old man.” She crossed her arms. “Even you have to admit that.”

Merlin almost found it endearing, seeing them both try to defend his apprentice’s honor when they felt it threatened, and maybe he could’ve seen the bravery they saw, if he’d been looking at anyone else.

But as he looked down at Hisirdoux… that’s all he saw. Hisirdoux. His apprentice. His son. His gangly little moppet who tended to cause more messes than he cleaned up, but smiled like the embodiment of joy itself.

If daylight decided to make itself corporeal and walk among humans for a while, Merlin wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if it took the form of Hisirdoux Casperan.

So, the sorcerer didn’t see bravery when he found Hisirdoux writhing and gasping on the ground in those woods, he didn’t feel bravery when the boy trembled in his arms, and he most certainly didn’t hear bravery when the boy wailed and screamed his lungs out as that poison was taken out of him, black tears streaming down his face until they became clear again.

No, if Douxie had been brave, pride in that laid nowhere in Merlin’s mind.

After all, when fear for his son’s life flooded his mind, and hatred for whoever did this to him flooded out that fear, where, pray tell, could pride reside?

Morgana kept looking down at Douxie as he slept.

“How could you risk that?” she asked Merlin.

“Risk what, Morgana?” he asked, “Be specific.”

She snapped her head back up.

“You know what I’m talking about!” Morgana almost shouted, stifling her volume so the sleeping moppet wouldn’t hear, ““Eradicate” my foot, old man. I know the spell you used. You didn’t use a spell of eradication, you used a spell of transference!”

Arhcie had been staring down at his own sleeping familiar, but he snapped up when he heard that word, “transference”. First he looked to Morgana, then to Merlin.

“You told him it got destroyed, but you just - all you did was soak it up like a sponge!”

“Merlin… is that true?” Archie asked, obviously afraid that after all of this, Douxie would wake up without his mentor - his father - because he’d taken the poison for him. The little apprentice left without a master would never stop blaming himself, no matter how hard Morgana and Archie tried to tell him it wasn’t his fault.

Merlin sighed, an affirmation without words or nods.

“I spent the years since it’s conception,” he started, “building an immunity to the dust and its properties. It was too big a risk, potentially having a weakness to something so daunting - something I’d seen subdue and poison countless wizards. Too high a risk - a threat to the greater good.”

“So… the poison’s not having any affect on you?” Archie asked, stepping around Douxie to approach Merlin, “It’s not… he couldn’t have gone through all of this just to lose you.”

“And he won’t.” Merlin assured in confidence, “Much more than a handful of that powder would have had to be thrown at him to have any severe affect on me. No, this won’t need more than a night of rest to fix. Besides, what’s the good in spending all that time building up an immunity to Draining Dust if not to make use of it? A waste of time and tolerance built.”

“You couldn’t have known it wouldn’t...” Morgana said, “You couldn’t have possibly known you’d survive taking all of it like that!”

“I didn’t.” Merlin snapped.

Morgana’s eyes widened, as if everything about what the boy meant to him fell into place.

Because he hadn’t worried about his survival - the matter didn’t even cross his mind, not when he could still hear Douxie whimpering in pain with each page of that spellbook he skimmed. No, he only concerned himself with the likelihood that it would save the boy, his only worry being about how badly it would hurt Douxie when he’d already had to go through so much senseless, ludicrous torture.

Merlin always prioritized the “greater good”, some vast, staggering, intangible concept that encapsulated so much - the lives of thousands, the wellbeing of millions, the good of humanity.

But when he found his son writhing, hurting, suffocating, dying, he found he couldn’t spare any more regard to the “greater good” in that moment than he would a layer of dust on one of his books. If saving Hisirdoux’s life meant casting aside the greater good, then there was no question about it - he’d let the greater good rot.

It didn’t matter to him if his magic would’ve been permanently diminished by extracting the poison, or even if it killed him. Cast the greater good aside - the greatest good was the life in Hisirdoux’s eyes, and by all the heavens, he’d protect it.

And thankfully, he did just that tonight, at the cost of neither his life, his health, or his own magic. And that was the greatest good he could have asked for.

With another sigh, relieved that Morgana chose not to pry, Merlin looked down at the boy, still sound asleep, laid out on his desk. He put one arm under Douxie’s back and the other behind his knees, picking him up just like he did when he found him in those woods.

But this time, instead of trembling in his hold, Douxie made a little noise and unconsciously put his arm over Merlin’s shoulder, snuggling closer, if it were possible, to the master wizard.

Yes. he thought. There’s no greater good than this.

Morgana put her hands over her mouth and looked at the two of them as if the sight was something adorable, and Merlin huffed. Archie took his same spot curled up on Douxie’s abdomen.

“I’m taking him to his room.” he said, hushing his voice even though he knew the moppet wouldn’t wake, “And I’ll let him sleep in tomorrow morning. He needs to rest.”

The sun had set sometime during the painstaking ordeal, but torchlight along the walls of the castle made it easy to take his sleeping apprentice back to his room even once night has fallen. After using a simple spell to swing the door open while his arms were in use carrying the boy, Merlin walked in and used another little spell. The green aura of his magic glowed around the blanket on Douxie’s bed as he folded part of it over using his magic, providing room to lay Douxie down on his bed with head nestled right in his pillow’s usual dent. Once Archie stepped out of the way, Merlin reached over and laid the blanket back over him.

Douxie stirred a little, but only to turn from his back onto his side, his back to the wall and his front facing Merlin. Once the boy settled again, Merlin tentatively reached behind his head and let his bun loose so it wouldn’t get tangled if he moved around too much in his sleep. He doubted it would, considering the exhaustion and soreness in his muscles would probably enticement enough to stay still, even unconscious, but the gesture couldn’t hurt.

Archie crawled right underneath one of Douxie’s arms and nestled against his chest, and the moppet unconsciously held the bespectacled cat a little tighter.

And that was Merlin’s unspoken cue to leave Hisirdoux to rest for the night, so that’s what he did. He needed rest too, after all - his built-up immunity may have saved his life, but the poison, like everything else in the onslaught of the evening, left him weary.

Tomorrow, a search would begin.

Tomorrow, Merlin would find out who was behind this.

Tomorrow, the greatest and most powerful wizard in Camelot would not relent until he found the monster, human or trollish, who almost killed his son.

But tonight, Hisirdoux lay curled up in his bed, sound asleep as he kept his familiar close. Tonight, his life was saved.

And tonight, that was enough.

#tales of arcadia #toa #mine #toa fanfic #whump #hurt/comfort #hisirdoux casperan #douxie #moppet!douxie #archie toa #toa merlin #toa morgana #toa wizards #fic: of poison forest floors and terrified wizards #draining dust

179 notes · View notes

justiceleaque · 4 years

Note

Hey Leaque! I know you watched the new Justice League movie and I was around when you were doing the very first DC movie reviews back in the day. I would absolutely love a review of this one if you have the time :)

i've been a fan of Snyder's universe from day 1 so i understand this might be considered an off-balance review already, but i want to note that i didn't come in wanting the film to be good or willing to see it as good despite actual impressions. i wanted to watch it as the Justice League movie i was supposed to get back in 2017, the same one i was willing to not watch for years if it meant Zack Snyder got to finish his vision even later down the line

i was actually as neutral as i could possibly get because at this point i don't have any real emotional involvement in whether this version of the DCEU continues or not. WB execs have done some fucked up things with the treatment of the cast/ray fisher, so i take this as Snyder's DC trilogy and nothing more (which makes it bittersweet for me but that's a different topic)

heavy spoilers follow

it's incredibly comic book-like. i remember typing the exact same words back in the Dawn of Justice days: it doesn't read as a superhero film a la Marvel but as a comic book film. each frame could be a realistically painted comic book frame; the dialogues would fit freakishly well if they had to fit speech bubbles. the damn scene overlaps and changes are heavily reminiscent of a comic book. better yet: of a Justice League comic book. if you’re familiar with comic book events where big things happen and it affects everyone, this is how this reads

it’s a heavy film but it’s not hopeless. i’ve been seeing reviews pop-up already: “ZS’s Justice League film is twice as longe and twice as hopeless” is the maybe verbatim title of most articles. the one thing i kept thinking throughout these four hours is how much hope this is filled with. we’re dealing with a post-superman world that was shaken by the loss of a beloved superhero and you see batman, the #1 comic book superhero known for brooding and darkness and all things sad and bad, be the loudest, most hopeful person in the film, trying to get a team together to save the world, and later on being two steps from literally screaming that bringing back superman is what should happen no matter the cost because of his faith and hope in winning. did we watch the same film?

in the same vein, the 4 hours seem like a stretch until you realize each part has an actual purpose that introduces or ties in important aspects related to the film’s one purpose: take down Steppenwolf and Darkseid. i don’t believe any scene was wasted on useless information. it can get tiring in the way watching a shot tv series gets tiring: it does NOT get boring at any point

such wonderful character arcs. seeing each of the team’s personalities and quirks, the way they clash with each other, the way it makes it all work so goddamn beautifully. the way they click because they just keep interacting so much? Whedon’s cut didn’t give me a team, it gave me five different people in costume that were forced to sort of work in the same vicinity as each other. Snyder’s cut gave me a version of the Justice League that worked so flawlessly together by the end of the film it felt like a dance. felt like comic book page spreads

right before the epilogue they all pose together in the rising dawn, clark included, having won. super reminiscent of the JL cartoon intro. i cried a bit

J’ONN J’ONZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO YOU KNOW THE AMOUNT OF SPECULATION ABOUT GENERAL SWANWICK BEING THE MARTIAN MANHUNTER BACK WHEN MAN OF STEEL WAS RELEASED???? VINDICATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

listen to me. i need to make this clear. listen. j’onn. j’onny boy. the way he’s designed and cgi’d..........the adorable frown............the kind smile......................his obvious need to make others feel better and to simply help......................i love him

his interaction with bruce only comes in the end and it’s super brief but seeing those two still not know how the hell each other works even in film format is hilarious. bruce having accepted aliens and magic and shit is the new norm after like 20 years of only having to deal with the joker attempting to rob neon green hair dyes or some shit is so much bigger of a character development than i ever expected, especially coming from BvS where he’s just a stupid fat-bat-carrying onion

i wasn’t a big fan of Suicide Squad’s joker portrayal but we get to see him at the end of the film while we’re seeing a possible future where lois lane has died and superman is best friends with darkseid playing tic-tac-antilife equation. Snyder somehow managed to turn jared leto into a disgustingly legit comic-faithful joker. dont’ ask me how

in the same scene they mention jason and his death

: - (

we see a few bits of some green lanterns in some scenes, one from the past and one from a possible ultra dark and edgy darkseid future. still convinced bruce simply willingly did not go looking for hal, which, fair

they cut out the fish joke bruce tells arthur when they first meet which immediately turns the whole film into a 1/10 for me

ben affleck’s bruce wayne and batman continue being my favorite on-screen batman iteration to date. we finally move from the usual dark lone soldier version Hollywood is relentlessly giving us into one that belongs with the Justice League. incredibly heartwarming to see

there’s a scene when the JL are first assaulting Steppenwolf’s base and they’re all fighting parademons and shit and there’s a moment where you see batman fighting the Space SWAT From Hell alone and the way he moves? the way he flows from one position to another and another like i’m watching a damn comic book animation????????? sir????????????????????

barry allen saved them

like, literally, barry allen saved them. superman was back and everyone was ready to dance one final time and they were all going ‘steppenwolf fucking SUCKS’ and steppenwolf was crying to darkseid and then the motherboxes did their thing and they all were obliterated into star dust and then barry allen was like ‘bitch i told you i need FRIENDS’ and turned back time and now they’re all okay again :o)

darkseid @ batman through his magic spacetime portal: i’m gonna get your ass one day soon and take you back in time and you’re gonna eventually bring about the end of the world by having every dark twisted batman invade your universe because you inspired them

batman:

batman: i haven’t read Rebirth bro

i know i’m forgetting stuff but that’s the gist. hands down one of the best comic book film experiences i’ve ever had. with an aside to barry allen being more of a mix of barry and wally, everyone feels incredibly faithful to the source material. also batman definitely killed like, at least 400 parademons in one night, but pest control doesn’t count

(like. he straight up obliterates them)

(pulls out a batbazuka on them)

(amazing)

#Anonymous #asks #zack snyder's justice league #zack snyder's justice league spoilers #JL spoilers #justice league spoilers #/ long post

266 notes · View notes

zodiyack · 4 years

Text

Oh Bother, My Brothers

Requested by peakysputain: Hi could you do an angsty Shelby sister please?

Pairing: Shelby & Gray family + Shelby!fem!reader (No romance)

Warnings: Swearing, angst, kidnapping, mention of murder, violence

Note: I decided to use one of my prompts for this! I know it’s not quite what you asked for but hope you like it! Also quick addition, I have no idea what the title so yes, I know it doesn’t make much sense or relate to the story oopsies

Prompt: (42 from this prompt list) “This is the third time I’ve been kidnapped this WEEK. It’s getting old.”

Taglist: @matth1w @redspaceace @simonsbluee

Masterlist | Peaky Blinders Masterlist

She was just minding her own business. Sitting on the bench, minding her own business. However, her peaceful state somehow led to her having a black bag forced onto her head and some mystery people dragging her away. She thrashed around, trying to get out of their hold, but today was not Y/n’s lucky day.

They tied her hands and tossed her into what she assumed to be one of the carts that carried hay, and shut the doors. Why were they taking her? Who were they? What did they want with her? So many questions raced through her mind. But Y/n was wise.

Aunt Pol taught her many things, including ways to break free from imprisonment back when the boys thought it as funny to lock her in her room on her date nights. She adjusted her leg a little, reaching down and grabbing for the knife that was hidden in her shoe.

The binds on her hands prevented her from being able to grab it if it were to slide from her grip, so she focused as hard as she could. She felt it. The handle. Just as she was about to grab the knife, a chuckle came from the other side of her.

“Whatcha doin’ there, love? Got something in your shoe, do you?”

She rolled her eyes. “No, my foot itches. Wanna help out?” Y/n giggled to herself as the voice made sound of disgust. “Then piss off, eh?”

“You’ve got a mouth, don’t you?”

“Yeah, all humans do, in case you haven’t noticed.”

The person scoffed, then chuckled. “Whatever, smartass. Do you know where you’re going, Miss Shelby?”

“Not really, I can’t see with a bag on my head, but I guess you don’t have enough brains to have known that either.” Under the bag, she was smirking. If she learned anything from her brothers, it was how to get one someone’s nerves. How to rile them up, show them she wasn’t scared.

“Watch it.”

“Or what? You gonna pull a gun on me?” She laughed mockingly, “I’m a fucking Shelby. Death doesn’t scare me one bloody bit.”

“Sure. That’s what you all say, until you really face death. That’s when you’re frozen in fear, regretting every wrong you’ve ever made in your life.”

Their attempt of “exposing” her and getting into her head was pathetic. She let them know that, laughing until they yelled at her to shut up.

“You’re a fucking idiot! You really think you know everything about me and my family, don’t you?” She didn’t give them time to answer. “I will never regret anything at all in my life, I will never look death in the eye with a even an ounce of fear, and finally, I will never allow you, and your crimes against my family, to get away with this.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. What? Are you deaf or something? I’d sign it to you, but my hands are tied... literally.”

They grunted. A few seconds went by and finally, the world became light again. The bag was torn off her head, she blinked a couple times and squinted as her eyes slowly got used to the new brightness. A male sat in front of her, one she’d never seen before. Nonetheless, he was most likely someone who had beef with one of her brothers.

“So... what’d my brothers do this time?”

“Nothing, actually,” he grinned, “we just know that you’re one of the younger Shelbys, and a girl-”

“Correction. Woman. Please, continue!”

The man gave a huff of annoyance, “as I was saying, it’d mean you’re of a higher worth to your family. We kidnap you, your family pays us, you go free.”

“So what if my family doesn’t pay you?”

“Then you’ll die.” He shrugged. She’d been through this many different times the same month, even year. The third time in a week ought to teach her how to react to certain threats and keep her mouth shut.

“Again, I’m not scared of death, you dumb bastard.” But she obviously spent way too much time with John and Arthur.

Her kidnapper was red in the face, a few veins in his forehead becoming visible as they bulged. “Give me one fucking reason I shouldn’t put a bullet in your head right now!”

“Oh! This one’s easy! Hmm... Well for starters, my brothers wouldn’t be able to pay you, and even better, they’d kill you in the worst possible way.”

He clenched his jaw and looked to the side, he knew she was right. Too pissed off and annoyed, the man lazily put the bag over Y/n’s head and began moving back into a comfortable position. His adjusting, however, was cut short with a scream of pain. His own scream.

Y/n pulled her knife from his thigh and waited for the perfect moment. She leaned against the wooden part of the cart and rolled sideways, falling out of it and landing on the empty road. Her escape was unknown, as the man was still grasping at his wound and trying to stop the bleeding.

Fortunately, the idiot didn’t put a whole lot of effort into putting the bag back on her head, and it easily came off. She slid the knife skillfully between the ropes binding her wrists and cut her hands free. With the knife back in her shoe, her hands rubbing her red wrists, and her eyes now filled with the world around her, she started home.

With a temper, and a mighty one at that.

The doors slammed open, her footsteps stomped throughout the home. “Boys! Ada! Pol! Get your asses in here! All of yous!”

They did just as she commanded, Polly squinting her eyes at Y/n and reaching to rub some of the blood off her hand. “What happened?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” She drawled.

“John, get her some whiskey. Y/n, sit-”

“No! Don’t even tell me what to fucking do right now!-”

Arthur stepped up, concerned and confused. “Y/n, what’s got you so... angry?” He chuckled nervously, uncomfortable with the tension.

“What’s got me angry? What’s got me fucking angry? This is the third time I’ve been kidnapped this WEEK! It’s getting old!” Her family widened their eyes as the realization hit them. Ada and Finn looked down with sympathy while the others held stern faces.

A silent but agitated tension filled the room, accompanied by silence.

Pol walked over to Y/n and grabbed her face, inspecting her up and down, checking for wounds, bruises, and more. After her search was over, her hands lifted back to Y/n’s cheeks, forcing her to look her aunt in the eyes. “Did you kill them?”

“N-no, but I did stab one with the knife you gave me. Got him good, he didn’t even notice my escape.”

Polly let a proud smile find it’s way onto her face. “Atta girl.” She turned to the boys. “You know what to do. Make them regret it or I’ll do it myself. Now,” Pol turned back to Y/n, smile returning to her face, “you, Ada, and I are going to go have some fun to celebrate your escape while the boys deal with the rats who were dumb enough to think they could kidnap Y/n fucking Shelby.”

1K notes · View notes

futurebicon · 4 years

Note

I am happy to give you ideas! Please supply me with your brilliant writing! I need a bedtime story! Maybe Sirius getting pretty badly injured at a game? Re's reaction and then him helping with recovery?🥰

Okay this ones a little unrealistic probably but I was looking up injuries in hockey and this came up multiple times so yeah. (Also I got so carried away with this one. I literally lagged my phone with how long this ended up being. There’s defiantly going to be multiple parts because I wrote too much and Tumblr won’t let me write more

Warning : Injury, panic attack?, heart problems, mentions of child abuse

“You okay?” James asked Sirius.

“Yeah, I just feel-off. I guess.”

James nodded, still concerned about the pained look on his face.

He stood up to go tell Remus when Sirius collapsed.

Remus jumped over beach to get to him. The other players on the bench crowding around him.

“What happened?” James screamed.

They could hear the announcer talking about the commotion on the bench. Everyone on the ice skating over and shouting questions. The stadium filled with quiet whispers.

Remus’s mind went blank. He went into the medic routine, not thinking about the fact that it was the love of his life on the ground.

“He’s in cardiac arrest” Moody told them.

“He’s 24” Logan exclaimed.

“DAMN IT GET A MEDIC NOW” Dumo shouted. All of them screamed for a medic as Moody cut off his jersey and gear and Remus began CPR

“WHERE THE HELL IS THE MEDIC HES DYING” Kasey screamed. This sent a shock through the crowd.

The medics appeared and pushed everyone out of the way, only Moody was allowed on the bench with him.

“NO. HE’S DYING AND YOURE NOT HELPING HIM” James tried to fight them.

“Stops, Stop” Remus put a shaking hand on his chest. “Let them work. Let them help him. Please James, I’m begging you to let them help him” his voice shook.

James nodded, backing away from the bench.

Dumo went over to stand near Remus. “What are you thinking right now?” He asked him, knowing that it was pointless to ask if he was okay.

“That I don’t want to lose him. I don’t want to lose him” Remus told him honestly. “My biggest fear is him getting hurt or leaving me and now he’s hurt and could be leaving me forever”

Dumo wrapped his arms around Remus, who’s breathing picked up as he thought about Sirius dying.

“Breathe, breathe Loops” He waved over Leo to help calm him down.

“Hey, hey. I know you’re fucking terrified right now. I can’t even imagine what I would do if it was one of my boys but you need to try and breathe Remus. You’re no help to Sirius if you’re panicking. Respirer, Remus”

He nodded, taking deep breathes.

“Good, good.” Leo nodded.

“If he d-”

“No, we’re not thinking about that right now” Dumo cut him off.

“His heart stopped” Remus began to remember bits and pieces of the last few minutes. Remembered checking for a pulse and telling Moody there wasn’t one. “His heart wasn’t beating. He was dead”

The rest of the players were standing around in terror.

They all went quiet as they tried to process what he said, they could hear the medics counting off numbers for the defibrillator.

Alice and Frank were quieting the stadium while trying to figure out what was happening.

The other team, the Hufflepuff Badgers skated over.

“What happened?” one of the players asked.

“Apparently cardiac arrest.” Adam Fox told him.

“He’s young though, isn’t he?”

“Yeah. Yeah he is” Finn said sadly.

A stretcher ran past them, loading Sirius onto it.

His skin was the color of snow. His black hair a stark contrast where it fell into his closed eyes. Remus wanted nothing more than to tuck it behind his ear like he’s done hundreds of times. His jersey and gear had been completly removed. A medic was on the stretcher, preforming CPR as they rushed him off the ice and into the waiting ambulance.

Remus shook his head and covered his mouth, tears streaming down his face. James turned him around and hugged him. The entire team gathered around them in a huge hug.

The Hufflepuffs made a circle around them, all of them with their hands on their neighbors shoulder and head down.

They stayed that way for a while before refs told them that the game was over. Their coaches wanted them in their locker rooms. They nodded and pulled away.

The Hufflepuff players patted all their backs and told them they would pray for Sirius.

It was silent as they walked into the locker room.

Remus walked over and sat in Sirius’s stall. He jolted as he realized that they wind of had to cut his necklace off.

But his eyes drifted to the wall of his stall. A small nail in the back corner had the ‘12’ necklace hanging from it. With a post it beside it that read “Re, promise I still love it. Just can’t stand the thought of it getting broken. I love you.”

He smiled sadly, reaching over and took the necklace off the makeshift hook. He couldn’t hold back his sobs any longer.

“He’s going to be okay. He has to be okay.” James cried beside him.

Coach Weasley walked in a few minutes later. “They’re trying to stabilize him and get him on a ventilator. They’re thinking about surgery to put in an ICD”

“ICD? What the hell is that?”

“It’s a device that will monitor his heart rate and shock it if it beats irregularly” Remus explained.

“Like a pacemaker?”

“No pacemakers force your heart to beat. ICDs just monitor it and help if something goes wrong”

“Can he still play?”

“He will be able to if he chooses to but he’s out for the rest of the season. The league can’t risk it.” Coach told them.

“He’s 24 years old. How can you go into cardiac arrest at 24 years old?” Olli asked.

They all looked to Remus for the answer.

“He’s an athlete and works out religiously. Too much exercise can sometimes cause the left heart valve to overwork. He told me that when he was younger his parents wouldn’t let him or Regulus sleep. Making them practice on their rink until morning or they collapsed.”

“Jesus Christ they need to be in jail.” Logan gasped.

“Or hell” James requested.

“The second options much better” Kasey said. “I volunteer to help send them there”

“All of you get dressed to go to the hospital.” Arthur told them, not even commenting on their murder plans.

The team had never changed so quickly.

“Remus, you’re driving over with me.” Dumo told him, Remus just nodded.

“What if he’s not okay?” Remus broke the silence in the car. “I know everyone’s saying he will be but what if he’s not? Realalistic he’s not going to be okay”

“Then we deal with it if that happens. No one knows what’s going to happen. None of us know how to prepare for a teammate to die. So all we can do is wait”

“I can’t lose him Pascal. I don’t think I can live without him.”

Dumo didn’t respond, just reached over and placed a hand on the back of his neck, squeezing slightly. Partly because he wanted to comfort him and partly because he knew it was true.

***

The hospital was quiet as they all waited for news. Some of them sitting on the uncomfortable chairs, a few of them pacing.

“Can all of you stop” Sergio told them, getting annoyed with the footsteps.

“No we’re stressed out so we’re not going to sit” Finn rolled his eyes at him.

“It’s annoying” Kasey told them.

“Too bad. Deal with it” James rolled his eyes.

They argued for a few minutes before Remus snapped.

“KNOCK IT OFF” he barked. “My boyfriend is in there dying or already dead and you’re fighting because footsteps are annoying you.”

They all quieted and sat down.

Lily and Natalie walked into the waiting room a few minutes, tears on their faces.

James and Kasey stood up to hug them.

“What’s going on? What happened? No one knows anything.” Natalie asked.

“What did you see?” Dumo asked as Celeste walked in.

Lily pulled away from the hug she was in with Remus. “Me and Nat were watching the game. And then they panned over to the bench where you were crowded around someone on the ground, one of you tipped over the bench so there was more room and the arena got quiet. Then Dumo was shouting for a medic and Kasey shouted that someone was dying. And the crowd started screaming. Then medics ran over and made all of you clear out and James was screaming something at them. Then Dumo went over to Remus and they said that they think it’s Sirius but they don’t know what happened and then he was wheeled out on a stretcher with someone doing CPR. The the game was over. And the announcers just talked for the rest of the time trying to figure out what happened and replaying everything. They talked to Hufflepuff players but they said it wasn’t their place to explain.” She told them.

“Sirius went into cardiac arrest” James told them.

“Oh god” Celeste gasped.

“Remus I’m so sorry” Lily breathed, pulling him in for another hug.

Nat had more tears falling down her face. “Did they say how he was?”

Dumo shook his head.

They sat down. Lily sitting between James and Remus. Remus’s head on her shoulder as she held James’s hand.

No one knew how long they sat there for before a doctor walked over to them. They all stood up.

“How is he?” Remus asked, terror coursing through his body at the sober look on the doctors face.

“He’s stable.” Remus breathed for the first time in hours.

“His heart did stop multiple times so we ended up having to insert the ICD you were told about. He’s still not awake due to the medication. He’s allowed one visitor for now.”

They all nodded at Remus.

“You were lucky. If you hadn’t reacted like you did we wouldn’t of been able to save him.”

The doctor gave him Sirius’s room number and the overview of directions to get there before leaving.

Lily kissed his cheek and squeezed his hand. “Go see him.”

Remus just nodded and walked down the hospital hallway. He took a shaky breath as he walked into Sirius’s room. But none of it prepared him for it.

A bandage was around his chest and over his shoulder, protecting the stitches underneath. Too many wires were starched to him. Remus walked over to the chair and pulled it up beside him.

“Hi baby” he said as he grabbed his hand gently. Kissing his knuckles.

“I know you can’t hear me but I need you to wake up. I need to hear your voice and see your pretty eyes, okay. I need to know that you’re here and I’m not going to lose you. Please baby.” He begged. Reaching up with the hand not holding Sirius’s to brush the hair out of his face.

“I love you. I love you” he repeated, kissing his forehead. “Please wake up”

Time was water, Remus was drowning in it. Knowing he couldn’t do anything except wait.

Finally, Sirius’s hand twitched in his.

Remus stood up. Watching Sirius blink his eyes open, squinting at the bright hospital light.

“Hey, hey baby” Remus smiled at him, his eyes filled with hears as he looked into Sirius’s grey ones.

Sirius came to his sense and jolted, his eyes going wide and making a machine beep once.

“Shh, shh, shh. You’re okay. You’re okay” he ran a hand through his hair.

A nurse quickly entered the room, the beeping of the machine probably alerting them.

“Oh, you’re awake” she smiled. “I’m just going to check your vitals real quick.”

“What happened?” He asked.

“You, uh, you went into cardiac arrest during the game” Remus told him.

“Can I still play?”

Remus laughed “You just almost died and literally died multiple times and that’s what you ask. And yes you still can once you’re healed but you’ll be out for the rest of the season to recover and give you’re heart time to rest”

“Wait so I had a heart attack?”

“No. You’re heart stopped.”

“Why?” Sirius’s asked. Sticking his arm out for the nurse to pull out an IV that wasn’t needed anymore.

“You exercise too much love” Remus smiled at him.

“That can cause my heart to stop?” He asked the nurse.

“Yes. You overwork it when it beats too fast while you work out. Eventually it gives out.” She explained.

“Oh, can it happen to the other guys?” He asked, concerned.

“It’s rare.” The nurse shook her head. “And from the looks of it, the excessive exercise goes back to your childhood”

“Baise mes parents”

“Fuck your parents is correct. I’m pretty sure the guys are plotting a murder plan in the waiting room” he joked.

“Good”

“I’ll leave you two to plot a murder alone” the nurse smiled before leaving the room.

“I like her, she seems nice” Sirius told him, still a tiny bit loopy from the meds.

“Yeah she does seem nice” Remus smiled.

“Are you okay?” Sirius squeezed his hand.

“Don’t worry about me”

“Too bad I’m going too anyway.”

Remus smiled sadly. “You terrified me baby. I thought I was going to lose you.”

“I’m right here, mon amour”

“I know you are. I just... realized I can’t live without you.”

“And you won’t have too. Now lean down so I can kiss you”

Remus giggled and leaned down, letting Sirius kiss him. He kissed back. It wasn’t a deep kiss but Remus poured everything into it. I love you. You scared me. I need you here with me. I love you more than anything. I can’t live without you.

“I love you” Sirius said when they pulled away.

“I love you too”

Remus sat back down as the doctor knocked on the door.

“You’re teams driving me insane.” He smiled.

“Yeah they do that a lot” Sirius told him.

“Alright, don’t let them hug you and mess up your stitches, I already told them that but I don’t think they’ll listen.”

Sirius nodded. “Am I allowed to sit the bed up. My backs hurting from laying down”

“Yes you can. Just not too far.” He told him before leaving to go get some of the team.

Remus helped him move the bed up. Kissing his forehead when he was sitting up.

“I love you” he muttered against it.

“Love you too” Sirius responded.

Remus knew he had told him that a lot today but if that was all he could said for the rest of his life he would mind.

A few minutes James, The Cubs, Dumo, Celeste, Natalie, and Lily burst into the room.

“Oh merci putain tu es en vie” James gasped.

“I am alive” Sirius laughed.

“If you die again I’ll kill you”

“That’s not at all how it works” Remus told him.

“I’ll make it work”

“We’re glad you’re okay. You scared us for a while there” Dumo told him.

“One could say you have us a heart attack” James smirked.

“Oh my god that was the worse joke I have ever heard in my life” Sirius groaned with a laugh.

“I think it was a pretty good one, si je le dis moi-même”

The girls all kissed his cheek and then scattered across the room to find a place to sit.

“So, what exactly happened?” Sirius asked them.

“You just looked...bad. Like you were pale and kept wincing and rubbing your chest. So I went to tell Remus to check to make sure you were okay and you completely collapsed.” James told him.

“Everyone was around you, Moody and Remus were trying to figure out what happened and the medics were taking forever. We screamed for them but they still took too long. Moody said you were in cardiac arrest and started CPR” Leo picked up.

“They made us go onto the ice so they could work on you. Moody and Coach were the only one allowed on the bench. Remus was freaking out and so was everyone else. The Hufflepuff team came over and we told them what happened. And then they wheeled you out on a stretcher” Logan continued.

“What does everyone know?”

“Just that it was you that it happened too. They were doing CPR on you when you were rushed out. They asked the other team what happened but they said it wasn’t their place to tell. Coach said they’ll have to release a statement in a few. He’ll come back and talk to you about it in a little.” Dumo told him.

“What treatment did I get?”

“You were on a ventilator for a litttle while they were trying to stabilize you.” Remus explained. “Once you were stable for a while they did a surgery to place an ICD in your chest. It’s a small device that will monitor your heartrate and heart beat. If something happens it will send a shock through your heart. I don’t know much else about it so the doctor will have to explain it.”

“But I can still play with it in?”

“Yes. You can still play.” Remus smiled.

“Good” he said with a nod.

“Why is your biggest concern hockey after you just died?” Dumo asked.

“Because it is”

“You’re impossible, you know that?” Remus laughed, kissing his temple.

“When can I leave the hospital?”

The others shared looks.

“What? How long?”

“Cardiac arrest is really serious baby” Remus told him.

“How long?” He repeated firmly.

“A month”

“What? But I’m perfectly fine” he exclaimed.

“I know you are but that’s just for right now.” Remus told him. “But 40% of people die within a year after cardiac arrest”

Sirius threw his head back against the pillow.

“I’m sorry, baby”

“Fuck my parents”

“We have the murder planned” Kasey told him.

“You’re the one to kill them” Natalie added.

“Good”

“No one is killing anyone. But if it’s okay with you, we can tell people about it and the reason your heart stopped.” Remus told him.

“I’ll have to call Reg about it. Ask him about it or I can say that he was the favorite child so they didn’t do anything to him.”

Remus nodded. “You’re parents have to pay for what they did” he said as he moved the piece of hair that won’t stay out of his face.

“Yeah” The coversation was cut off as the nurse from before walked in.

“How are you feeling?” She asked.

“I’m okay, my chest is a little sore but it doesn’t like, hurt-hurt” he told her.

Everyone tensed before she responded with a nod.

“With the surgery and multiple rounds of CPR, you probably will be for a while. If it gets more than sore tell us right away” she said as she checked his blood pressure.

Sirius nodded and squeezed Remus’s hand, it was still tensed up. He tugged on it lightly. Remus stood up and kissed the corner of his mouth. Relaxing immediately.

“Alright, vitals are good. Dr. Hudson will be in soon to talk about further treatment.” She told him, closing the door as she left.

Sirius reaches for his necklace subconsciously, jolting forward when he couldn’t feel it.

“I have it. You took it off so it would break on the ice. Remember?” Remus pulled it out of his pocket.

Sirius nodded, sitting up to let Remus clasp it around his neck.

“Good thing you took it off. They would of had to cut it off it you hadn’t.”

Sirius nodded, relaxing as he fidgeted with it.

Dr. Hudson walked in a few moments later.

The team stood up, promising to be back later.

“Alright” he pulled up a chair. “So you’re going to be staying here for a month. Just so that we can monitor you and make sure that your ICD works like it should. If you go into cardiac arrest or have any other heart issues we’ll have to keep you hear longer. 40% of people discharged from the hospital after cardiac arrest die within a year.” He told them.

“So what do I do about hockey?” Sirius asked.

“That’s literally all you’re concerned about” Remus shook his head with a smile.

Dr. Hudson chuckled. “You’ll be able to play next year.”

“Next year” he exclaimed.

“Sorry but we have to make sure you won’t die again” he smiled at how upset he was.

“After you’re discharged from the hospital and you rest for 2 weeks you’ll be able to sit on the bench during practices and games.”

“Good I still get to yell at them” he smirked.

Remus and the doctor both laughed.

“Your Coach is going to be here in a few minutes. So I’ll leave you all to discuss what ever you need to discuss.”

They thanked him as he stood and left the room.

As sad, Coach Weasly entered a few minutes later with a guy in a suit. “This is Mr. Tela. He’s from the league and is going to make the formal statement” he told them.

Mr. Tela shook Remus’s hand before going to shake Sirius’s.

Sirius winced and sharply inhaled in pain when he at up and extended his arm. “Sorry, forgot I had stitches”

“Perfectly fine” Mr. Tela smiled.

“So what’s the statement going to be?” Sirius asked.

“We need to be careful to not not scare your fans. There’s already mass panic at the fact that Winters screamed that he was dying. And the fact that you where taken away with someone doing frantic CPRhas obviously made fans assume the worst.”

“When are you making the statement? Do I have to say anything or is the league going too?”

“The league will announce it. It’s been over 12 hours since it happened so we’ll have to announce it soon.”

Remus blinked. 12 hours. It felt like just minutes ago but at the same time it felt like years.

“What’s the statement going to say?” Remus asked.

“This is what we have for now. You two can add anything or ask for it to be removed.” He took out two pieces of paper that had the statement printed on it.

Gryffindor Lion Captain, 24 year old, Sirius Black collapsed during the Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff game last night. The reason for the collapse was cardiac arrest. Black was quickly rushed to the hospital where they were able to revive him. He will be hospital for the next few months. Sadly, he will be unable to play until next year to make sure his heart will be able to stay stable. The reason for the cardiac arrest is unknown as of now.

“Wait why aren’t we telling them the reason for it?” Sirius asked.

“We weren’t sure if you would want it to be known yet.” Mr. Tela said. “If you would like the reason to be included we can add it.”

“I’ll have to talk to my brother about it. See if he wants everyone to know how shitty out parents are.”

Mr. Tesla nodded. “We’ll give you sometime to do that. Just call or text your coach when you’ve made a decision and we’ll come back in and talk about what exactly to say.”

“Thank you” Sirius thanked him.

They stood and left the room.

“Merde, I don’t have my phone”

“Here” Remus pulled it out of his pocket. “Grabbed it from your bag.”

“I love you” Sirius smiled, leaning over and kissing him.

“I love you too. Now call your brother.”

@lumosinlove

#lumosinlove #sweater weather #oknutzy #ask #why did i write so much?#i have so mch more #coops #sweater weather lumosinlove #this is so long im sorry #i wish i had a stupid break line

223 notes · View notes

ijustwant2write · 4 years

Text

Sweet Boy-Bonnie Gold x Reader x Finn Shelby (Part 5/?)

(GIF credit to @discgirl)

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

Masterlist

Prompts List

Tags: @stressedandbandobessed7771 @bethany-taylo @lovelynerdytraveler @savvy7392 @kingarthurscat @smallheathgangsters @soleil-dor @alyse45 @bloodorangemoonlight @amirahiddleston @captivatedbycillianmurphy @jenepleurepasbaby @haphazardhufflepuff @ravenoussss @ophelias-flower-bed @peakascum @mzcrazy2

Summary: Although the boys thought that they were out of the woods and away from danger, they find that they have made matters much worse, and (Y/N) is in the midst of it all.

Characters: Bonnie Gold x Reader, Finn Shelby x Reader, Thomas Shelby x Reader (platonic)

Meanings: (Y/N)=Your name

Warnings: Swearing, mentions of sex, guns, violence, slight fluff, angst

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

(Y/N)’s P.O.V

Bonnie let himself in, nonchalantly taking off his peaky cap as he walked through. I quickly locked the door, rushing after him before something broke out between the boys (it was bound to happen). Standing in between them, I glanced at them both, hating how tense their shoulders were, the anger in their eyes towards each other.

“Bonnie, I’m so glad you’re alright.” I said, resisting the urge to hug him.“Has something happened?”

“No, just wanted to make sure you were OK over here.” his eyes never moved away from Finn’s face.

“I’m fine, it’s just Finn and I.”

“That’s why he’s come here.” Finn spat.“Thinks I’m gonna try something.”

“I’m safe, don’t worry Bonnie. But you might as well stay, you shouldn’t have come all the way here at this time of night. Especially after what happened to you both.”

“Thank you (Y/N).”

“Where’s he going to sleep?” Finn protested.

“Well, the only other space is in my bed.”

I enjoyed the scowl on Finn’s face, it almost made me smirk. After our break up, Finn brought many whores into his home and office, parading them in front of me. I would never resort to fucking random men to make him jealous, or to spite him; but this was too good of an opportunity to miss. And he had no reason or excuse to argue back.

“That’s fine with me.” Bonnie smiled.

“Good, because it’s late, and I need to sleep this whole thing off. Good night Finn.”

We left his shocked expression as we left for my bedroom, and I tried to keep calm as my heartbeat increased. I knew Bonnie would be respectful and he wouldn’t expect anything to happen. However, I hadn’t had someone sleep beside me in a long time. As he closed the door, I pulled him closer, hugging him tight against me. Letting out a relieved sigh, I squeezed him slightly, scared that he might be hurt.

“I was so worried.” I breathed out.

“I’m here, I’m safe.” he whispered, one arm wrapped around my lower back as his other hand was gently placed on the back of my head.

I pulled away, both of us keeping our arms on each other.“Have you seen your family?”

He nodded.“They know I’m alive.”

“I’m afraid I don’t have any spare clothes for you or Finn. I’m not sure how comfortable you’ll be.”

“Well, I sleep best in the nude but-”

I rolled my eyes at his cheeky grin.“If you want to sleep in a comfy bed, you’ll keep your clothes on.”

We fell into silence as we rounded each side of the bed, slowly slipping under the sheets. Of course I was a little nervous, but Bonnie was also hesitant. Perhaps he didn’t want to over step the boundaries that we had already crossed. Both of us were laying on our backs, looking up at the ceiling. A minute or so passed before Bonnie broke the silence.

“How come you didn’t let Finn in your bed?” he softly asked.

I sighed.“The trust I used to have for him just isn’t there anymore, not under these circumstances.”

“What do you mean?”

“For instance, if I was in some sort of danger, or a man started harassing me on a night out, then I wouldn’t doubt him stepping in. But he really hurt me. And how he acted after the breakup only rubbed salt into a fresh wound.”

I hear him move against the sheets, making my head lull to the side and seeing him facing me on his side.

“Isaiah told me about that. Said that Finn had women going home with him almost every night.”

I scoffed.“I was willing to be civil with him, to make work a little easier, you know? Especially since the Shelby’s have been so good to me, and we live so close to each other.”

“I suppose it’s hard to get rid of that label.”

“Of being Finn Shelby’s ex-girlfriend? Yeah, no one seems to take an interest anymore.”

“I did.”

Finn’s P.O.V

My hands clenched up into tight fists, hating how easily she was opening up to him...but also hating how much truth there was behind everything (Y/N) said. Sat beside the door (so they wouldn’t see my shadow under the door frame), I listened to everything as soon as it shut. It made my skin crawl to think that he was lying beside her, in the same spot as I was in; (Y/N) was particular to which side she slept on, it stayed the same for the whole time we were together, she had her side, I had mine, until we cuddled up to one another.

It suddenly went quiet, and after straining to hear anything, I figured that they finally went to sleep. Silently moving from my spot, I saw what I had ended up sleeping on, groaning as I collapsed onto it, knowing I would never get comfortable on it.

I was woken with something hitting my face, yelping as I bolted upright. Bonnie chucked the cushion he hit me with, though I caught it this time. My eyes were squinting from the natural light coming from the windows, and I could only just make out his silhouette as he walked away.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I moaned as I rubbed my neck, it was aching after my awkward position.

“Waking you up before (Y/N).” Bonnie simply stated.

“Why?”

He leaned against the kitchen counter.“So you can leave.”

I huffed.“Shut up mate.”

He scoffed.“I’m your mate again?”

I didn’t reply.

“You’ve hurt her enough. I don’t know why I agreed to let you come here in the first place.”

Before I could snap back, there was loud shouts and screams echoing through the block. Both of us rushed to the window, faces up against the glass to try and see what was happening. Being blinders, we were on high alert, however, I hoped it was just a fight between a group of people; that hope disappeared when gunshots went off.

“Get (Y/N)!” I ordered Bonnie, who sprinted towards her room.

“What the fuck have you got me in now Finn?!” (Y/N) exclaimed as she was pulled from her room.

“We need to get out of here.” I said slipping on my jacket, checking how many rounds were in my gun.“Bonnie, you got your gun?”

He nodded as he opened a side of his jacket, revealing his weapon.

(Y/N) was shoving on her shoes, grabbing a random coat before racing back to her bedroom. Before we could question her, she had emerged with her own gun, the gun I had given her for emergencies only.

“You remember how to use it?” I checked.

“Yes, though I don’t want to use it.”

“You won’t have to.” Bonnie tried to reassure her.

This wasn’t a time to make witty remarks. Cautiously opening the front door, I stepped out, looking left and right to check the coast was clear. Gesturing for them to follow me, Bonnie and (Y/N) stayed behind as I went ahead, peeking around every corner for anyone who looked dangerous. We had made it out of the building, but it was too suspicious to me that there hadn’t been anymore noise.

“Right, we need to head to the shop, it’s our safest bet.” I stated as we made it to the streets.

I hadn’t even taken another step when someone shouted,“There’s the peaky bastards!”

Immediately sprinting, (Y/N) screamed out as gunshots went off. Ducking behind a car, I quickly shot back at them, Bonnie joining me as (Y/N) stayed hidden away. I recognised them, they were the ones that were ordered to beat us up after the meeting. It didn’t make sense why they were back, they had got their punches in already, literally.

“What the fuck do we do now?!” (Y/N) cried.

There was no way for us to run out in the open again. There were four men our age, all with guns, and even if (Y/N) had a good aim, it would still be hard to gain the upper hand. I couldn’t think of a way to get out of this, not all three of us anyway. As the firing ceased for a moment, I called out to them.

“Let these two go, I’m the Shelby here!”

“Finn, what are you doing?” (Y/N) hissed at me.

“Finn, you can’t risk it!” Bonnie also said.

“They won’t say anything, just let them past safely.”

“Oi!” another voice called out.

Shit.

Bonnie’s P.O.V

Tommy had shown up, waltzing around the corner of a house with Arthur, Isaiah and four other peaky blinders. Finn’s eyes widened with panic, and I too felt his fear; we were going to be in deep shit.

“Thought you made things even last night lads.” Tommy tutted.

“Your boys disrespected my father! They were lucky they got away alive!” one of the shooters spat back.

“Right, well, this problem, is between me and your father, alright? And I would hate to be the bearer of bad news.”

“What bad news?”

Tommy said nothing more, except pulling his coat back to show his gun, as did the other blinders. There was more of us, they were outnumbered. Glancing around the car, I saw any colour on the boy’s faces drain away, some of them already taking slow steps back. The power Tommy held was admirable, though also something to be very scared of.

“Fine, but my father will not be mocked again. This isn’t the last time you’ll see us!” the son shouted at the top of his voice, echoing down the street.

“You three.” Tommy raised a finger at us and gestured us to go to him.

Finn sighed, putting his gun away as he stood. I copied, holding my hands out to (Y/N). She didn’t look at me, shakily pushing herself off the ground, crossing her coat tighter around her. Her head was hung low as we approached Tommy, awaiting a telling off like small children.

“It’s alright!” Tommy suddenly shouted, making us flinch.“Just boys being boys!”

He looked up and around at the houses, and we realised how many people were watching. People were timidly looking through their curtains, scared that they would be hurt, even if they weren’t part of the situation.

“You got your keys (Y/N)?” Tommy asked, a lot quieter now.

She nodded, reaching into her pocket and fishing them out. They rattled against each other as her hand was still shaking. Tommy gently took them from her, handing them to Arthur.

“Brother, take three of these men and check (Y/N)’s building, then her flat. Make sure it’s safe for her.” he instructed.

“Alright.” Arthur mumbled, already walking away.

“Isaiah, help the poor girl to walk.”

Isaiah was hesitant to hold her, or even offer his arm, knowing that Finn and I would rather be doing that. But I held my tongue. She wasn’t happy with us, we had put her in danger, something she had avoided since splitting up with Finn. And it wasn’t just his fault this time, it was mine too. I was the one who said I would never want to put her in that kind of situation, yet here we stood, almost with bullet holes in our bodies.

“We’re all going to have a chat, and you’re going to explain everything.”

(Y/N)’s P.O.V

Isaiah let me loop my arm through his, and I unintentionally grasped at it. I could feel myself crying, but I remained silent, still shocked from what had happened. It had all been so fast. Polly always told me that I had to be ready for this lifestyle, and I had been, the most danger I had been in was a threat from a club owner, who’s business had been taken over by the gang. Although he was rough, he never got to me, and we were always one step ahead. Of course there had been the insults thrown my way, and the name calling; however, that never hurt me, not when I was with Finn.

It was still too early for the shop to be open, making it a perfect place for Tommy to yell at us. I was sat in the seat opposite to Tommy at his desk, whilst he instructed the boys to stand either side of me. I couldn’t bring myself to look at Tommy, embarrassed that he had to come and save our arses.

“Look at her.” Tommy grumbled.“Look at the state she is in. You two did that.”

Finn tried to speak.“Tom-”

“You both owe an apology to (Y/N).”

“I’m sorry (Y/N),” Finn started,“I truly am. I never meant for any of that to happen. You took me into your home and looked after me, this isn’t how you should be repaid.”

“(Y/N), you know I would never want you hurt. And I feel ashamed that I wasn’t able to protect you better. I’m sorry, and I’m sorry that I broke my promise.” Bonnie said.

I hadn’t looked at either of them, still fuming inside, tempted to scream at them. When I remained silent, Tommy cleared his throat.

“Right you two, fuck off.”

Wait, why was I staying? If this was some bullshit about how I should have turned them away after fixing them up, I wasn’t going to stand for it. After the boys slowly exited the office, and as soon as the door was shut, Tommy lit a cigarette.

“Are you alright?”

That shocked me.

“Um, yes, I am now.” I mumbled, finally looking him in the eye.

“I know what’s going on here. Love triangles are dangerous.”

I rolled my eyes.“It’s not like that.”

“You should be flattered, having two boys pine after you.”

I didn’t know how to reply.

“I think you need to stay with Pol for now. Just to make sure you’re safe.”

“You don’t seriously think I’ve been dragged into this, do you?”

“I’m afraid so. You know the drill. They’ve seen you with two blinders, it doesn’t matter what you mean to them, it still sends a message.”

I sighed, suddenly feeling a wave of tears come on.“I thought this had all been thrown away after Finn forgot about me.”

“He never forgot about you.”

“Were we looking at the same person?”

“We were. And you know that deep down. But you need to make a decision about all of this.”

“Yes, I’ll stay with Polly.”

“Not that decision. There’s going to be a lot more people effected by this if you don’t sort this all out now. And (Y/N)?”

“Hm?”

“Choose the right one.”

#bonnie gold #bonnie gold imagine #bonnie gold imagines #bonnie gold x reader #bonnie gold one shot #finn shelby #finn shelby imagine #finn shelby imagines #finn shelby x reader #finn shelby one shot #peaky blinders #peaky blinders bbc #bbc peaky blinders #peaky blinders imagine #peaky blinders imagines #peaky blinders x reader #peaky blinders one shot

268 notes · View notes

whateverafterhigh · 4 years

Text

Worldbuilding Succession Systems: Goodfallow

Most of what we see or hear when it comes to the succession systems in the universe that Ever After High is set in relates to fairytales and the inheritance of specific character roles. Many of the fairytale royalty are born into their royal bloodlines or otherwise marry in. But there are some kingdoms where things aren’t as easy as that. One such kingdom is the Good King’s Kingdom – which I named Goodfallow in another post.

The Good King is a fairytale character, but his role in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is small. In fact, depending on the adaption of the story you read he might have already died by the time the story has officially begun. He’s not quite dead yet in the series, seeing as he’s still raising Raven Queen, but it is never acknowledged that Raven is in line for the throne. Not even as a “Hey, maybe Raven has her dad’s destiny…” kind of way, which you would expect given Raven is constantly fighting for any destiny other than her mother’s. Going that route might seem like too easy a fix to acknowledge in the series, especially early on, no matter how powerful a red herring that would be for the readers. It could have even been used to make Grimm start to worry on whether or not he actually guessed right when it comes to writing the fake book. Grimm doubting himself would have been great, even more so if it’s a big thing to have forgotten that the Good King needs an heir too.

The potential for drama aside, there must have been something else that made everyone think they were right so conclusively (and I’m not speaking of the gendered characters, there are too many female characters who have their father’s destinies for that to be the reason).

Then I had an idea.

The Goodfallow Crown

I wanted to create a succession system for Goodfallow that would be able to stand up to the Storybook of Legends on something akin to even ground. Obviously, I didn’t want it to have such a grand scale. But I knew I wanted something magical, and I knew I wanted it to be possible that the Storybook of Legends (the original) could guess wrong. (I mean what even is the point of having an antagonist as powerful and insufferable as Headmaster Grimm if he wasn’t able to grasp at some straws to save face and avoid even the harshest of punishments?). Still I wanted Grimm to be arrogant enough that he wouldn’t have worried about Raven’s position as the Evil Queen until she was throwing the book in his face on Legacy Day.

This meant I needed something with so many possibilities that something like the Storybook of Legends would have a hard time even coming up with the most likely outcome for the Next Good King. Something that could be affected up until the moment that the Good King has been crowned. And something that had the magical power to break the magical contract to the Storybook of Legends that signing it would create without extensive repercussions – something that would cause a page to fall out on its own if need be.

Also it needed to be something that played into what a Good King should be, it is what is choosing the reigning monarch after all.

In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Evil Queen is defined by her attitude and treatment of the kingdom’s people, so it only makes sense that the Good King be defined in the same way. So I played with the idea of the Good King being an elected position that passed down the bloodline out of convenience and all the things that real life kings and queens have to do to make sure that the people don’t start up a revolution. Something like the Sword in the Stone from King Arthur’s legends could do that, the same could be said for Thor’s Hammer (though I wasn’t actually thinking of Mjolnir when spider-mapping ideas).

I couldn’t see it being an actual sword, as cool as it would be for the Good King to actually have the kingdom’s blessing of sorts to raise his sword at those who wronged him. And after reading the fairytale Prince Darling, where there is a ring that pricks the young Prince on the finger every time he does something wrong in hopes that it will make him into a good person, I thought of using a crown.

The Goodfallow Crown, named such because it is the physical manifestation of the collective will of all the citizens of Goodfallow ticks a lot of the boxes for what I wanted.

It’s magic, powerful enough to break the bindings created by the Storybook of Legends because I’m the author and I say so. A lot of citizens in Goodfallow mean a lot of different possibilities for whether or not they think a candidate is the best for the Good King. It can still be meddled with before the inheritance ceremony, popularity and propaganda are going to be important – the same goes for whether or not a candidate knows what they’re doing. In turn this could be what makes Grimm so arrogant in his assertions that Raven will have her mother’s destiny.

The students at Ever After High are shown to be scared of Raven to the point they scream and run away from her. At the start of the books she assumes that this is just a side effect from her destiny as her mother had mentioned that something of the sort would happen when she reached a certain age. But it could be argued that this has more to do with how bullying of Raven (or any supposedly-evil-aligned character) was encouraged by Grimm or other members of the faculty, high tensions from how close Legacy Day is for her etc. Because Raven does get more popular as the books go on, and because the characters act a similar way in the beginning of the show’s canon it could be argued that she get’s popular enough to win Thronecoming.

But it’s not just Raven’s lack of popularity. Grimm makes all the final class decisions when it comes to what subject’s students can take, so he can ensure that Raven never takes classes that would prepare her for being the Good King (Kingdom Management, Throne Economics, etc…) and then there’s the low possibility that the people of Goodfallow would accept someone who willingly signs up to potentially marry the king of a neighbouring country, abuse their power, and even get arrested or die before having kids as their Ruler. This is one case where the Storybook of Legends doesn’t need to be real for the damage to be done. And Grimm has no reason to not be arrogant about his guesses until Legacy Day where Raven declares she wants to write her own destiny on the in-verse equivalent of international television he’s not going to worry too much.

The tangent into Grimm’s motives and assumptions show that having Goodfallow’s succession system be like this will only add another layer to some of the things going on in the series, and this can even be applied to other characters too. Raven would have grown up in a kingdom where your actions mean more then what you say, so even agreeing to sign the Storybook of Legends and live her own life after would have not been in the cards for her (not to mention it would cheapen Apple’s own story if she asked that of Raven), and Queen White would have also grown up in Goodfallow given the Good King is her father as well, and that could add a really interesting layer to her own character and her obsession with popularity. Especially in the context of the Class of Classics comic which shows that Snow was once a studious student like Apple was but has now seemingly forgone that in favour of focusing on popularity (which is the same in the books as well as Dragon Games). It certainly speaks of there being more to her character then what we’ve gotten.

Now it’s just a matter of figuring out how the Good Fallow Crown works.

It seems a bit much to have someone attempt to wear the crown for the first time on their coronation, and I’m also understanding of the fact that it’s technically headwear and therefore can’t get heavier if the kingdom seems to disagree with an idea or something else – also Goodfallow isn’t a hivemind? So there would need to be some kind of inheritance test. Perhaps for officially declaring a Crown Prince or Princess.

Historically, Crown Princes or Princesses seem to given the title when they are ready for it. With the announcement happening sometime between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, unless their parents were dead, and they were ruling through a Regent. Raven is fifteen when Legacy Day takes place so sixteen seems like a more reasonable time for the ceremony to happen. Though obviously some of the kingdoms would name their children the Crown Prince or Princess earlier (I’m thinking Briar and Hopper might have been given their titles when their Magic Touch developed, given its significance to their stories).

So the sixteen year old heir would try the crown on. It would be impractical for the circle of people who can hold or lift the crown to be small a la Thor’s Hammer, especially when it’s the literal Will of the People. So, magical girl transformation?

Very basic, plain clothes are to be worn with no jewellery – because you might lose it otherwise. If the people agree with the Prince or Princess being a good candidate for the throne then they’ll get decked out in finery when the magic is a match. If not then there’s no change. (Not that that prevents rumours from spreading to the contrary).

“Rumour has it the Evil Queen tried to wear the crown once and it set her on fire.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, that’s why her hair is like that now.”

Of course, the changes don’t stop at the Inheritance Ceremony. Just because the Goodfallow Crown doesn’t get infinitely heavier when the Good King does something the people don’t agree with that doesn’t mean that nothing happens. Raven’s dad is described as being bald in the books, and I like to think that the reason for that is the people of Goodfallow not agreeing with him marrying the Evil Queen, while still understanding why he did it. But there would likely be other affects as well. Such as increased stress, anxiety, paranoia, etc. Maybe a lack of motivation in his day to day life? I don’t know, but the Goodfallow Crown does take the phrase “Heavy is the head that wears the crown” to a whole new meaning.

I love the whole thought of this, as evidenced by the fact it takes up almost three whole pages in a Word Document. Definitely one of my favourite pieces of worldbuilding I’ve done for any fandom ever.

#eah #ever after high #raven queen #the good king #queen kingdom #goodfallow #headmaster grimm #milton grimm #worldbuilding

28 notes · View notes

cartooness · 4 years

Text

Mystery March Day 10: Mistake (Her Name?)

Alright my dudes: I know. Tis I, Cartooness, posting a ficlet of sorts. Which I never do lmao.

BUT!

I had ideas OWOWOWOWOWOW

Warning this portrays Mystery in a negative light so if that’s not ya jam, go ahead and skip.

**I START HERE, I’M USING THE READ MORE FOR A DIFFERENT TIME >:3**

SO @nemesis-is-my-middle-name and I were chatting and this is what came out of it XD

In my AU (that’s where my Lavender Grey character comes from lol), since I first made it I thought “omg what if Mystery was like. ‘Afraid’ or just weary of her because of how powerful she is” but now that The Future is out, I’m all “holy fucking shit what if Mystery is almost *jealous* of her because the gang doesn’t want him around her”. They say it’s for her sake (but it’s also for their sake) because they don’t want her to be scared.

He’s both [weary and jealous of Lavender], he’s all “okay. This girl comes LITERALLY out of nowhere and I’m glad they’re giving her a place to stay, she is a child. But this is a very powerful child, one that overwhelmingly outranks me in that field. Why aren’t they afraid of her? Why is it ME that they’re keeping her away from?”

I guess he knows what he’s done in the past was shitty, but he doesn’t know why this random ass kid owns their heart now when he’s the one who was there first. Ya know, like an asshole.

I wanna say that he makes her cry because he just lets all the negativity loose and he’s caught mid rant by ARTHUR.

So. Mystery has basically been fending for himself for a little while, no big deal. Except he can't stop thinking about that damned girl. What has she done for them? How has she won them all over so easily? Only Lewis was the type to be soft for children, but Arthur? VIVI? Being parental figures? The world has gone mad.

He saw them time to time in that mansion of Lewis's, and they all looked so happy without him. Vivi hadn't seemed to be going on missions anymore, which was beyond shocking. Why not, that child is so powerful any threats would back off if they had a single brain cell.

Not to mention Shiromori was now on the girl's side; he spotted her occasionally checking up on her and putting small blooms in her hair, typically while she slept. It made the child look more innocent than she actually was in his eyes. He remembered when he was the one getting flower gifts and such when Shiromori was on his side. And with a protector like her, the child was practically untouchable.

Mystery flirted with the idea of that girl getting hurt and them coming back to him for help. But he didn't let himself ponder too long, that would be cruel. But he couldn't help but think about it.

What *would* happen if harm came her way?

Would they mourn her if such a fate could happen?

Would they come crying back to him?

Or would they blame him for a tragedy he didn't cause. They just *loved* to blame him.

...

He couldn't stop himself anymore. He trotted his way to that stupid little happy home and sniffed out what room belonged to the girl, the unmistakable scent of raw power and flowers filling the air. He peered into her window, in his dog form, and lo and behold she was there. He yanked the window open and sat on her bed, not caring about getting that sickeningly "cute" comforter dirty with his mud covered paws.

"Oh! It's you, Mystery. Can... I help you?" She was a bit puzzled as to what he needed her for, she thought he was fine being on his own.

Actually my dear, you can.

"Oh?-"

Get out of their lives. You don't deserve anything they've given you.

Her pupils shrunk, taken aback from his remark. "Did I do something wrong? I don't-"

Don't play stupid with me, girl. You are the reason I'm not allowed to be with them anymore, that I've been scorned to never return. You just barged your way into their lives, into MY life and took everything I've worked so hard for away. They're so worried about their 'little princess' that they don’t realize how damn DANGEROUS you are!

Don't they feel that power you possess? Aren't they afraid of you?

She looked like he ripped her gut out, her eyes welling with tears, irises ever so slightly tinting blue with sadness.

Don't you DARE cry, he growled, you won't get a drop of pity out of me.

"Mystery”, she started, sniffling as she tried to speak, “please tell me-"

I'M ALREADY TELLING YOU, YOU IDIOT! HOW STUPID CAN YOU BE? YOU RUINED EVERYTHING FOR ME AND YOU’RE ACTING LIKE YOU DESERVE THIS LOVING LITTLE FAMILY? WELL YOU DON'T. *I'M* THE ONE WHO PROTECTED THEM, *I'M* THE ONE WHO KEPT THEM OUT OF HARM'S WAY, THEN YOU SHOW UP AND RIP IT ALL AWAY!!

WHAT ARE YOUR INTENTIONS? WHY DO YOU ACT LIKE YOU'RE HARMLESS? NOBODY WITH POWERS LIKE YOURS STAY IDLE. WHERE DID YOU EVEN COME FROM?! I KNOW YOU'RE NOT HUMAN, SO DON'T TRY AND LIE TO ME. YOU THINK YOU'RE *SO* SPECIAL DON'T YOU?

She was sobbing now, eyes visibly baby blue and tears running down her face.

FOR GOD'S SAKE, SHUT UP WITH ALL THAT CRYING AND-

"Mystery if you don't leave right now I SWEAR I will chop every God forsaken tail of yours off."

Shit.

A-Arthur I-

"Why the fuck are you here? What made you think you were welcome?" His fatherly instinct had kicked in as soon he heard noise from his child’s room and ran over in an instant.

"Lav, baby, go to the bathroom” he started with a kiss to her nose, “so you can go wash your face. I have some business to finish", directing his gaze towards the intruder.

I'm here to open your eyes, Arthur. What has she accomplished while I was gone? What’s been going on with you... five? It seems her army grows every day.

"That is PATHETIC, Mystery."

What is? I'm just stating-

"I don't give a shit about your opinion, you broke into a child's room and you're YELLING AT HER because what, you're fucking....”

He pondered why Mystery was here spreading grief. They did tell him to piss off so that Lav wouldn’t be in danger, and honestly they didn’t need to be so stressed with him in the house all the time either. It’s not a good idea to welcome back a recently possessed kitsune into their home when they were all recovering from the trauma he inflicted. Old and new...

New... is he...

“Are you,,, jealous of her?" he asked, tone on the verge of shock.

Good lord, this boy.

Arthur, I am here because I care and I worry about you, Lewis, and Vivi. And it concerns me that you've thrown all my help away for some MUTT that doesn't belong-

"GET THE FUCK OUT!" Arthur shouted, trembling and trying not to scream so he wouldn’t scare Lav a few doors down.

I will NOT, I'm not done yet-

"YES YOU FUCKING ARE.”

The look of pain and anger was so clear on his face, and Mystery shut his mouth instantly.

"YOU *ARE* DONE BECAUSE YOU JUST RUINED THE VERY MINISCULE CHANCE WE WERE GOING TO GIVE YOU TO PROPERLY MEET HER. YOU’VE MADE ONE TOO MANY MISTAKES."

His voice was cracking, he wasn’t the type to do all... this. Just how much had this girl influenced them?

Arthur, please-

As if on cue, Lavender returned from the bathroom. "Mr. Arthur, am I in trouble?” She asked, big brown eyes looking up at him. “Mystery kept telling me that I did something wrong by being here and it didn't make sense to me."

"What exactly did he tell you, love?" he asked, eyebrows slightly softening just for her.

Oh FUCK. ((A/N: YEAH U DONE FUCKED UP YOU ASS))

She looked almost scared to answer; she was aware the kitsune could be merciless, and didn’t want to be attacked in the mansion Lewis had worked so hard on. Mystery was so angry at her and she didn’t understand why.

"Well... he told me that I ruined his life because I guess I took his place or something. He said I'm dangerous because I'm more powerful than him, and.. he said mean things about me in general.”

Arthur’s metal hand flew up, ready to attack.

“Mr. Arthur! W-what are you doing?-"

And Arthur hit Mystery as hard as he could.

There was an excruciating scream of pain, one that caused Lewis and Vivi to abandon the groceries they were bringing in to see all the commotion.

ARTHUR, YOU BASTARD! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT FOR?!

"YOU MADE MY CHILD CRY BECAUSE YOU HAD YOUR PETTY FEELINGS HURT? FOR SOMETHING SHE NEVER DID? YOU HAD THE GOD DAMN *BALLS* TO BREAK IN, YELL INSULTS AT A KID, MAKE HER CRY, AND THINK THAT YOU WERE IN THE RIGHT?"

Lewis rushed over, trying to calm his boyfriend down. "Arthur, mi amor, what- MYSTERY?! How did HE get here?!”

S h i t.

Vivi felt her heart drop to her feet at the mention of her ‘dog’s’ name. "WHAT IS HE DOING HERE? I THOUGHT WE KICKED HIM OUT!" she exclaimed, her stomach filling with dread.

Lewis, Vivi, if you just let me EXPLAIN-

Arthur almost made a hole in the wall with the pound of his fist. "So this little FUCKER broke into Lav's room to yell at her because she lives with us and he wasn't invited. I come over to see who's in her room yelling at her, and she's crying uncontrollably while he keeps going at her, spewing a bunch of BULLSHIT, and he thinks he can explain himself and why he's in the right."

"....what?" said Lewis and Vivi, shocked by Mystery's audacity.

Lav started to cry again, thinking she would be punished for this, and Lewis quickly pulled her into his embrace. "Mi florecita preciosa, you did nothing wrong-"

REALLY LEWIS? Mystery growled, feeling patronized, especially as Lewis tightened his grip. SHE'S NOT A BABY-

"Shut your snout right now", snapped Vivi. "Get the fuck out of our house and you BETTER not come back. You have ONE chance to apologize to her and that's it."

Can I come back if I do?

"YOU DON'T DESERVE TO COME BACK" growled Arthur, his flesh hand placed gently on Lav's head and his metal one pointing at Mystery, Lewis glaring so hard it could kill.

Nobody was on his side, and the look on the girl’s face almost made him feel bad.

Almost.

Very well then. I'll be on my way and hope that your ignorance won’t become your downfall.

"Hey Mystery, one more thing", Lewis started. "If you ever come back with bad intentions, we will kill you ourselves. I swear on anything and everything that you will not come here with a DROP of malice towards her. Do I make myself clear? And don’t you dare try and act smart, we are giving you a LOT of mercy when you don't deserve it."

...then I bid farewell. What is her name?

"My name is Lavender Grey."

Thank you. Goodbye, Miss Lavender Grey.

#mystery skulls #mystery skulls animated #cartooness writes sometimes #I HOPE Y'ALL ENJOY OWOWOW #IF U HAVE QUESTIONS MY ASKBOX IS ALWAYS OPEN!!!!!!!!!#mystery #lavender grey #arthur kingsmen #vivi yukino #lewis pepper #shiromori is in here for like 5 seconds

14 notes · View notes

cxplqnce · 4 years

Text

Behrad Tarazi - Naked

Based off Naked by James Arthur

Word Count: 1597

Hey, you there

Can we take it to the next level, baby, do you dare?

Don't be scared

'Cause if you can say the words, I don't know why I should care

Your relationship with Behrad was interesting, complex and difficult to explain. You had been a close friend of the Legends for years before joining them after your trip to Earth-X. You had met Behrad a few times but hadn’t really interacted with him about anything outside of superhero stuff.

One of the reasons you had joined the Legends was because you had been through a pretty bad break-up and Star City just wasn’t a good place for you anymore. You had hundreds of bad memories, of your family’s deaths and almost dying yourself so you thought it was best to leave. You were going to leave the superhero life all together, travel somewhere and work through your problems but when you were offered a place on the Waverider as the team’s newest scientist, you couldn’t refuse.

That’s when you started getting closer to Behrad. You became friends with him and didn’t even consider him as anything more until Nate mentioned how much you and Behrad acted like a couple on one of his trips over from the Time Bureau. You had chickened out of telling him about your feelings for weeks, until Heyworld. Nate almost died and so did Ray, you knew that it could be you or Behrad in that position at any time with your line of work so you told him after you got back on the ship.

Your confession ended with the two of you in bed together, but that’s all it became. The next morning, Behrad was acting like it never happened and when you asked him about it, he told you that it was a mistake and never should’ve happened so you agreed to forget it.

Unfortunately, it was easier said than done. It was obvious Behrad didn’t share your feelings and you weren’t going to push him but it hurt. You had completely fallen for him and after your last relationship; it had taken you a long time to trust yourself enough to want a relationship with someone else.

Hey, get out

I've got nothin' left to give for you give me nothin' now

Read my mouth

If you ever want me back, then your walls need breakin' down

After you guys had taken down Bugsy Siegel, you were headed to the lab to retrieve the blanket you had left in there when you heard Nate and Behrad talking. You were going to interrupt but stopped when you heard Behrad mention your name.

“What the hell am I supposed to do here, Nate? I was a complete dick to Y/N and I’m pretty sure she hates me now.” Behrad huffed, plopping down on the couch with his head in his hands.

Nate sat next to him, “Just tell her how you feel. Be honest with her.”

“What if she just wanted our night to be just that?” Behrad asked with a saddened look on his face.

“Well, you won’t know until you talk to her, like I’ve been telling you to do for the longest time.” Nate said, before getting up to leave the lab.

You immediately moved and hid around the corner from the door and once Nate had left you decided now was the time to talk to Behrad about everything. Unfortunately, the team was called by Gideon to deal with the next Encore.

'Cause here I am, I'm givin' all I can

But all you ever do is mess it up

Yeah, I'm right here, I'm tryin' to make it clear

That getting half of you just ain't enough

Gideon had informed the team that the next Encore was a guy named Freddy Meyers, a serial killer from 2004. Most of the team had gone down to try and find Freddy at his class’ high school reunion. You were coming out of the kitchen when you bumped into Behrad, who was heading in there. “Hey,” You said simply.

“Hi, Y/N. You didn’t go with the team?” He asked.

You sighed, awkwardly, “No, I am QB-ing today. With you, apparently.”

“Cool. Well, I’m gonna grab a burger.” Behrad said, moving past you. You turned to leave as well but quickly changed your mind.

“I heard you.” You started, Behrad turned back around to face you, “I heard you and Nate talking in the lab earlier when you mentioned my name. What did Nate mean when he told you to tell me how you feel?”

Behrad’s face lost all colour. What was he supposed to do now? You clearly didn’t feel the same way as he did and he was scared that if he told you, your friendship would be ruined forever. “It was nothing, just I didn’t want that night to ruin our friendship that’s all.” Behrad lied, well, it was more of a half-truth. He didn’t want it to ruin you friendship but he wanted way more than friendship to begin with.

“Oh.” You started, your heart breaking at his words, “Well, don’t worry, we’re all good, B.” You smiled, stuffing your feelings inside of a locked box and burying them six feet under.

I wanna give you everything

You cried that night, so much that you began to get a splitting head-ache so at around one in the morning you left the safety of your room to go to the med bay, stopping off at the galley to grab a glass of water on your way.

Once you got to the med bay you notified Gideon of your situation and she prescribed some painkillers that you took with your glass of water. Since you knew you wouldn’t sleep now you decided to go to the lab and play some video games.

However, a certain someone had had the same idea.

I'm not going to wait until you're done

'Cause you pretended you don't need anyone

'Cause you see that I'm naked (naked, naked)

Oh, you see that I'm naked (naked, naked)

I'm not going to try 'til you decide

You're ready to swallow all your pride

I'm standing here naked (naked, naked)

I'm standing here naked

Behrad saw you before you could scurry away and you knew he could tell that you’d been crying by the concerned look that washed over his features. He stood up from his place on the couch and came over to you, “Have you been crying?” He asked, placing a comforting hand on your shoulder.

“Yeah, b-but it doesn’t matter. I’m fine.” You lied.

“It doesn’t look like your fine. And whatever it is you were crying about had to matter because it made you cry, what’s wrong?” He asked, pulling you in for a hug. You couldn’t stop the tears from falling again as you stood wrapped up in his arms. You desperately wanted to yell and scream at him that you were crying over him – over the feelings you had for him but you couldn’t form the words. “Whatever it is, I can help but only if you talk to me.”

“I can’t.” You snapped, a little too loudly, pulling away from Behrad. “It’s the one thing that I can’t talk about with you.”

Behrad’s face held a look of utter confusion, he didn’t understand what had gotten you so upset and so riled up, “What? Why can’t you talk to me about whatever it is?” He argued.

“Because it’s about you!” You cried, instantly regretting the words that came out of your brain. It was like the filter that was between your brain and your mouth just broke for a few seconds.

“You were crying… because of me?” He asked, his voice was soft and quiet like he felt guilty and was wondering what he’s done to make you so upset. “What did I do?”

“It’s not what you did, it’s how I feel.” You admitted, you’d already sprouted the seed so now you had to continue, “I like you, B. And after we slept together – you called it a mistake and it hurt so bad… and earlier, you said you were worried about our friendship. I was literally friend-zoned by you… So, I’m standing here, in all my stupidity, telling you that I like you and I want to have a relationship with you because you make me feel so happy and so safe and I like you.”

Behrad stared at you intently, you didn’t know exactly what he was feeling since his facial expressions were a bit ambiguous and hard to understand until he smiled, standing closer to you, “I said those things cause I thought you only wanted to be friends and I didn’t want to lose you by admitting how I really felt about you. I like you too, and that relationship thing… sounds real good.”

“Perfect.”

#behrad tarazi #behrad tarazi x reader #behrad tarazi imagine #legends of tomorrow #legends of tomorrow imagine #legends of tomorrow x reader

61 notes · View notes

halothenthehorns · 3 years

Text

THE DARK MARK

"Here you go Padfoot," James finally handed over his prize, the widest most stupid smirk still happily planted on his face.

Sirius eyed it, before stretching leisurely and saying, "nah, I'm good, I think I like being skipped. It's technically Harry's turn, have at it pup."

Harry didn't argue the point as he flipped to his chapter, ignoring that stupid little bubble that was trying to burst his good mood and inform him that nothing would be pleasant for much longer now that the Cup had ended.

Mr. Weasley was cautioning the twins not to go telling their mother they'd been gambling as they headed back to the stairwell.

"Oh that's nice," Lily muttered, "encourage them to lie to their mother."

"It's not lying," Remus said at once.

Even not having heard what Lily had said, Sirius agreed with him at once, "it's just keeping information from those who don't need it, a rather kind endeavor really, you should be thanking us."

"I'm sure that was your motto at school," she snorted at him.

"No," James smirked, "it was 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.'"

Harry burst out laughing, even Lily couldn't stop a little smile as she shook her head at the lot of these boys.

Fred promised that wouldn't be a problem, as they both had big plans for this gold and didn't want it being confiscated. Mr. Weasley hesitated for a moment, like he wanted to ask for details, but seemed to decide against it.

"I want to know," Sirius pouted, still happily bouncing in place in hopes they were going full throttle with that joke shop idea.

They were soon back in the crowds, heading back to the tents through the lantern path once again, leprechauns commonly cruising by above still happily laughing.

"That's going to be happening the rest of the night," James snickered.

They reached their tent and as no one was ready to settle down, they all got some cocoa ready, and were happily still arguing about the game.

"What kind of arguments were these?" Sirius demanded at once.

Harry opened his mouth to start saying the many spiraling conversations that had been going on, but Lily quickly elbowed her way in saying, "not now boys. How many times do I have to tell you, we are not spending hours just sitting around talking about Quidditch, I want to hear this."

"But, Quidditch," James turned pleading eyes on his wife.

"And the World Cup at that," Sirius nodded fervently.

Lily didn't budge though, so Harry turned back to his chapter.

It wasn't until Ginny fell asleep at the table did Arthur cut in it was time for them to get some sleep.

"Well that's not fair," Remus smiled lightly, "making all of them go to bed just because one fell asleep."

"They might have to get up early again," Lily offered.

As Hermione roused Ginny and they went to their own tent, they heard a small bang from the Irish side of the campsite, and Mr. Weasley happily said how he was pleased not to be on duty tonight, he didn't envy those who had the task of telling the Irish to settle down.

"I can only picture the bravest of souls taking up the challenge," James said solemnly.

"And the beautiful responses said Ministry employees will receive," Sirius cackled.

Harry lay in his bunk, watching the tent ceiling which occasionally still had a flash of color flying overhead. He was fantasizing about flying his own Firebolt when he got back to the Burrow, wanting to try out that Wronski Feint.

Lily groaned, placing her face in her hands and cursing his Quidditch father, broom giving godfather, and whatever else felt the need to encourage her son to continue with that insane sport.

Remus gave her a light pat on the shoulder in comfort, trying his hardest not to burst out laughing at the boys on the couch who were all laughing lightly at what they felt was an overreaction from her.

Harry was surprised Wood have never told him of this technique.

"Well it is rather advanced," Sirius nodded sagely. "I can understand if he hadn't even shown it to you yet."

"With the broom and experience you've got though," James hadn't thought it was possible for his mood to keep soaring, but speaking of this was doing so! "I wouldn't be surprised if you pulled it off first try."

"You are literally encouraging our son to ram himself into the ground as hard as he can until he pulls that off," Lily got out, her face still buried in her fingers.

"Ah, it won't cause any permanent damage," Remus snickered, "James seems mostly intact after his many attempts."

"Mostly?" James demanded with a challenging brow but, still snickering lightly, Harry decided to keep going himself now.

His daydream continued to morph, so that he was now performing that move in front of the stadium they'd just left, with Ludo Bagman calling out the name Potter to the cheering crowd.

"So now you actually want the attention?" Remus laughed.

"It's for Quidditch," Sirius said like it was obvious. "If Harry goes on to remember he joined the professionals, I wouldn't be surprised one little bit. That's the kind of fame I'd never be worried about him getting."

"You're all fired from giving him advice," Lily said stoutly, finally pulling her face out of her hands so they could see her rolling her eyes.

Harry wasn't sure if his mind's eye changed to actual dreams,

Harry was trying very hard now to force himself to relax. He'd gone to sleep after all, surely whatever was trying to creep up and ruin his mood wasn't going to happen...

but the next thing he heard was Arthur shouting at the lot of them to get up, this was an emergency!

The four who weren't reading felt terrible little twists inside of them, but at once tried to convince themselves they were being paranoid. They'd had an excellent run thus far, there was no way something to bad could be happening...

Harry sat upright and was lucky not to hit something harder than canvas above him as he muttered what was going on? He could still hear in the background some banging noises, but somehow they felt different, and he could hear people screaming now.

Lily began gnawing on her lip again at once, picturing all sorts of terrible things like a fire breaking out. In that kind of crowd it could cause a stampede and get someone hurt. Or worse the rival team and someone had started a riot, one drunk thing had gone too far, or...her mind kept offering up one worst thing after the other, and judging by the boy's faces, she wasn't the only one.

Harry slipped out of his bed and began trying to find a change of clothes, but at Arthur's insistence there was no time, he simply bolted out of the tent after Ron, and ran into a nightmare.

There were several camp fires still burning, now lighting his surroundings with ghostly shadows, and loud noises like gunshots coming closer.

"What on earth?" Remus muttered, his mind spinning to try and understand what Harry's half-awake mind couldn't process yet.

Harry couldn't answer, even if he wanted to. There was a hard knot of dread forming up inside of him, making it hard for him to concentrate on the words and keep going.

There seemed to be a large ring of people, all looking up and laughing at something, then there was another flash of light, and Harry could see that there was something hovering in the air above the crowd...people. Directly below them was a condensed group all wearing masks.

"Oh, oh no. Oh no, no, no, no," Lily was shaking her head so furiously to insist upon her brain she hadn't just heard the worst implication, that her hair was flying into her face and she didn't care.

"It doesn't necessarily mean," Sirius tried, but even his voice failed him and he couldn't keep it going.

"What, what's going on?" Harry demanded, as clearly they understood something.

"It, they-" James tried furiously to get the words out, but he'd switched from cloud nine to the worst form of agitated fear so quickly, he was having trouble processing anything.

"They're called Death Eater's,"* Remus was the first to get out, new worry lines appearing around his suddenly dark eyes. "They're what Voldemort calls his followers. Horrid people who do whatever their master commands-"

"Often while enjoying doing it," Sirius added on.

Harry was looking between all of them, now wishing more than anything they could just go back to talking of Quidditch. He'd sadly worked this out for himself, this wasn't the first time they'd mentioned Death Eaters, but only in passing. He'd long guessed for himself what they must be referring to, but now he was getting a firsthand account of their work, and he did not appreciate it.

When the silence dragged on though, Harry knew he may as well keep going, to get through this chapter and this terrible event and just hope nothing like it came up again. They may even be wrong after all, then again, how many groups of people wore masks and would be doing a thing like this?

High above them, floating along in midair, four struggling figures were being contorted into grotesque shapes.

Lily gasped, her hand coming up to cover her mouth to muffle a scream at who those people must be. Muggles, or Muggle-born, being put on display, and- she realized she was shaking then, but not in fear as Remus throwing her a concerned look suggested, but in rage. In her last few years at school it had been made more clear than ever that her parentage made her stand out, and while there were those who couldn't care less, there were those who only cared about that. Those second groups were most likely the current Death Eaters, in her own time and in Harry's. She'd stepped in many a time to stop terrible fights breaking out, now she was having to listen to her son witness such a thing happening!

The other boys looked just as outraged at hearing this, and Lily was almost sad to see Harry was as well, because she'd have rather seen him confused. She wanted to shield him from that terrible knowledge that people would act this way towards each other, but then she realized she was feeling all the more proud for the reaction she was seeing. If she couldn't protect him from this, at least she was warmed that he knew how terrible this was, how much worse her son could have turned out if he'd been under the influence of someone like the Malfoy's.

Harry did not want to keep going one little bit, but as always he knew he may as well get the experience over with and just hope they turned out okay.

It seemed the masked people below were holding their limbs in invisible magic, and two of the four were very small.

"They've, got, children, up, there," Remus said slowly and dangerously, his hands curling into such tight fists the tendons were showing.

Harry wanted more than anything just to deny that one thing, but the words failed in his throat as he turned morosely back to the book.

More wizards were joining the marching group, laughing and pointing up at the floating bodies.

"How is that funny?" James seethed. "I, just, you don't-" his temper kept tampering off his words, leaving him a spluttering mess, while his face slowly grew more and more red from outrage.

Tents were being smashed to pieces as the group grew closer, either blasted out of the way or being trampled by the ever growing cheering crowd. The ones that did remain standing were caught on fire, and the screaming kept growing louder.

While Sirius deeply regretted forcing Harry to read this, and was fighting back the impulse to wrench the book away from him to prevent it continuing, he recognized he may not have been able to get these words out himself as his throat kept vibrating with repulsion, forever unable to kick away the mental image of his little brother, and now someone he'd once called a brother, joining in on this group.

The people above were suddenly illuminated as they passed over a burning tent and Harry recognized one of them, Mr. Roberts.

There were many times in the past where Harry actually regretted understanding why he'd felt a missing memory and did not appreciate having it returned, and this was definitely one of them. His feelings went beyond just pity for poor Mr. Roberts and his family, who had done nothing to deserve this treatment, but a righteous fury was quickly coming in as well, making him want to draw his wand, his body acting without his conscious mind telling him to go and help those people, you had the experience. He forced himself to shake that off though, blinking until the words below him came back into focus, and recognized that however he felt now, he could only deal with the then.

The others were most likely his wife and two children, all were receiving the same vile treatment. Mrs. Roberts was suddenly hung upside down, unable to stop her dress falling with her, leaving her flashing the crowd below.

Harry wasn't entirely sure he'd gotten through all of that and been completely understood, but he was sure they all got the gist of it by the murderous looks on their faces somehow increasing.

Ron managed to spit out how sick that was as his eyes followed one of the children being spun on his head like a top.

"Please be asleep, please let that poor thing be asleep," Lily murmured to herself, her nails digging into her own palm she was wringing her hands so hard.

Hermione and Ginny came out of their tents then, and Mr. Weasley then instructed all of the underage kids to get into the forest, while Percy, Bill, and Charlie were already running towards the mass with their wands out.

Each of them felt torn in half at that news. Of course they wanted Harry to get out of there, but they wanted Mr. Weasley to stay with him incase things somehow got worse, which seemed impossible at this point but as they'd all thought that before and it still somehow happened they weren't putting it past anymore. Then the other side, which was grateful relief that Arthur and his boys would blow those bloody Death Eater's sky high for what they were doing and make sure Mr. Robert's family was fine.

Harry reluctantly turned away as Fred and George each took one of Ginny's hands, and Ron and his two friends quickly followed them into the path where most of the other bystanders were running. Harry took one last glance behind and saw several ministry people were trying to muscle their way through the crowd to get to the masked people,clearly not wanting to curse anyone in fear it would make the Roberts family fall.

"Understandable that, can't apparate to their side either without risking getting blasted to smithereens, have to be a group effort," Remus was muttering under his breath, tapping away an insane rhythm on his knee in pure agitation he couldn't be helping.

The lanterns from before had been put out, the people shoving into one another along the dark path was causing just as much mayhem inside the trees, children could still be heard crying and still more anxious people were screaming into the night.

James and Sirius remembered their earlier joke about how they'd wanted to start a riot between the two rival Quidditch teams, and how that had somehow been turned on its head into this catastrophe, and now they just wanted to hear that everyone made it out of this night alive!

Harry felt himself being pushed hither and thither by people whose faces he could not see. Then he heard Ron yell with pain.

Lily yelped so painfully, she sounded like she'd been sat on, but she couldn't even pretend to be okay when they all gave her anxious looks. She was picturing those Death Eater's catching up to her son, gagging and dragging him back to that decrepit Voldemort, or any other number of terrible things all because Ron had somehow gotten hurt!

Harry wanted to reassure her, he may feel dread for this night but he wanted to calm them all down that nothing too bad was going to happen to him, but that felt like he was dismissing what had happened to Mr. Robert's family, and he wasn't even sure if he was completely right, so he decided to keep going instead.

Hermione cried out for him, and when he didn't immediately respond she lit her wand to find Ron just a bit off the path lying in the dirt.

"He's going to get trampled like that," Sirius muttered, still jittering in a wholly different way than he had been in just the previous chapter.

He grumbled that he'd just tripped as he got back to his feet.

That was such a mundane thing compared to what they'd been afraid of, it almost caused them to laugh in surprise. Almost. They still felt wound up and wretched, but at least it was a breath of fresh air reminding that everything must turn out okay.

Someone began laughing at this misfortune, and Harry didn't have to look hard to find Draco Malfoy,

"Of course," James spat, his hazel eyes lighting furiously. "Why am I not surprised, it was probably his parents idea to do all of that!"

"Won't find anyone in here disagreeing," Harry muttered with such a vicious flip of the page he nearly tore it out.

leaning against a tree in the most casual of manners, clearly watching the show back on the campsite.

"Oh he's being real subtle," Remus sneered. "May as well go out and wave a sign around."

"Please have Hermione punch him again, please," Lily growled.

Ron told Malfoy to do something that Harry knew he would never have dared say in front of Mrs. Weasley.

"I don't know," Sirius rubbed his jaw thoughtfully, though his tone wasn't up to its normal teasing levels even in appreciation of that statement. "I think she might just turn a deaf ear in light of what's going on."

Malfoy hardly reacted, saying they'd better keep running before Hermione was seen.

Harry felt himself stiffen up in even further disgust, the thought of Hermione up there with Mr. Robert's family making him want to retch, but he drew on every last drop of confidence he could muster that wasn't going to happen to his sister.

At that moment the loudest bang of all went off, green light flooding their surroundings.

Lily shuddered in renewed horror, the color green taking on a whole new light with what could be going on back there.

Hermione snapped back she demanded to know what he was on about, and Malfoy just laughed that those people out there were after Muggles. So unless she wanted to show off her knickers next, which would be pretty funny.

"You can't spot a Muggle just by looking at them!" James ground out through gritted teeth.

"Though I wouldn't put it past Malfoy, either of them, to shout it out," Remus seethed.

Harry snarled back that Hermione was a witch! Malfoy's smirk just widened, saying that if they wanted to test how well someone could spot a Mudblood, they should stick around.

Harry felt an acrid taste burning his tongue as he said that for the first time in his life, now knowing how his father felt. Even when you didn't mean it, it would always feel wrong to say.

Ron shouted at him to watch his own language!

"Do the slug curse again," Sirius suggested viciously, "you've got a proper wand now!"

"That's being kind, but a nice start," Remus nodded.

Hermione didn't seem to care too much, as she grabbed the back of Ron's shirt and began pulling him away.

"Or just punch him," James smirked, "I'll take either."

There was another bang, getting closer every time, and even more people screaming. Malfoy just continued to laugh.

It did not surprise them this was his reaction, not after everything he'd said and done previously, it was just all the more loathsome to continually hear about it.

He mocked the people around him for scarring so easily, then demanded of Ron if his dad was one of the idiots trying to save those Muggles? Ron shot back that Malfoy's dad was probably one of those keeping the Muggles up in the air.

"So proud of you, that's exactly what I was going to say," James sighed.

Malfoy's smug expression didn't even twitch as he said if his dad was out there, he wouldn't be telling them.

"Just put a big ol' sign up to say he was right why don't you, it would be much subtler," Remus hissed.

Hermione was really trying to get the two boys to walk away now, saying they'd gotten too far away from Ron's siblings. Malfoy laughed as she convinced them to start leaving, mockingly tossing back to keep her head down.

"Can't believe Hermione actually did manage to pull you both out of the way after all of that," Lily sighed in honest disappointment. Harry couldn't be out there helping Arthur, but he could at least get his own payback on this pompous child.

"We really did want to get Hermione out of there after that though," Harry muttered darkly.

Ron was still muttering about how he was sure Lucius was one under those hoods.

"Am not taking that bet," Sirius agreed.

Hermione was trying to sooth that the Ministry would most likely catch them, while still looking around desperately for the other three, who'd vanished.

"Of course you got separated from them," James groaned, rubbing furiously at the ridge of his nose and nearly knocking his glasses off he was already so upset by this set up. Nothing good had ever came of these three getting separated!

They kept pushing through though, running into a few random people along the way. One girl caught sight of them and ran up, asking them something in pure French, only the name Madame Maxime coming through.

Harry successfully butchered that so well, it took Remus a moment to ask, "was that French?"

"Err, yes," Harry muttered with a slight blush.

Whether he'd done it on purpose or not, probably not, that actually managed to cause genuine smiles back on all of them for at least this small and funny little distraction.

When they responded back in English, the girl muttered an apology and walked back to her group, muttering something about 'Ogwarts. Hermione said Beauxbatons as they kept walking,

After the last chapter he'd heard about involving several of the foreign schools, Harry didn't need much to put together that must be the French equivalent of Hogwarts.

explaining for the boys that was the French Academy of Magic. She'd read about it in An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe.

"Of course she did," Remus gave a soft snort of delight, remembering how both he and Harry had thought earlier that's how Hermione would come across that information.

Harry agreed with disinterest, while Ron lit his own wand and rose it above his head to look for his siblings. Harry went digging for his own to help, when he realized he couldn't find it.

"It what!" James squaked in alarm.

Harry was gaping down at the book like a fish out of water, patting his own pocket now and feeling comforted his wand was at least there now!

"You, you left it in the tent, or," Sirius began stammering, eyeing Harry like he'd instead said he'd left his glasses behind. Even that would have made more sense.

"I, no I don't think so, the last time I remember having it-" he struggled, his mind floundering because he never used it on his summer holiday, but he always kept it in his pocket, so it was an unconscious feeling. He hadn't used it his whole time while at the Burrow, but he'd brought it along to the Cup. He hadn't used it there either, but it had always been in his pocket. There was an alarm bell going off in the base of his skull, something painful telling him he should know quite well where it had gone, but that was missing like any other important thing he tried to remember!

His frustration was clearly growing on his face, so James quickly jumped in by placing a calming hand on his shoulder and soothing, "relax Harry, I know you find it, and I also know you didn't just leave it lying around." He struggled for a moment, trying to understand what could have happened to it, as a wizard's wand was akin to an extra finger, you were never without it. He couldn't fathom what could be going on, but still persisted, "so let's get to that part where everything gets better again."

Harry nodded without any enthusiasm, but at least appreciated they weren't all badgering him about losing it.

The only thing on him was his Omnioculars. Harry exclaimed in fear it wasn't there, and Ron and Hermione froze as they looked on the ground for it now. Harry kept patting himself down, but it was nowhere around.

"Be a little worried if it was just randomly lying around," Remus muttered, as wands weren't know for just randomly falling out of pockets. If it had been him who'd tripped over a root, that would have been one thing, but no, he was sure something else besides dropping it was going on, that Chamber must have taught Harry about throwing his wand any old place.

Ron suggested it had been left in the tent, while Hermione offered he may have dropped it while they'd been running.

They shifted uncomfortably, finding these fair enough answers, but still as unusual as it could get, and just as unlikely coming from those two as themselves.

Harry absently agreed, suddenly feeling naked. He never went anywhere without his wand, and now felt ten times more vulnerable.

"Glad you agree," Lily murmured, those horrible visions from before still twisting away behind her mind's eye, now more terrible than ever that her son couldn't magically defend himself.

There was a rustling noise to their left, and then Winky came stumbling out. She was moving odd, like she was trying to run forward but something was pulling her backwards.

Harry choked as he got that out, going incredibly wide eyed all over again, but whatever he felt for that description was gone in a flash and his mind was back to gnawing on what had happened to his wand, something that was causing him an equal amount of pain in his head, no need to add more. Then why was something trying to warn him these two things were connected...

She was muttering to herself about how bad wizards were around, people being lifted in the air, and how she wanted to get out of there! She managed to struggle into another clump of bushes and vanish again. Ron asked why she'd been acting like that, and Harry offered it was probably because she'd been doing something without permission.

Even as Harry said that...(again...this time travel thing made that annoying,) he could feel something wasn't right, this was the wrong answer, and still he couldn't grasp hold of it for any reason and instead forced himself to concentrate on the print, much less painful.

His mind was on Dobby, who often acted the same way when he disobeyed a Malfoy order. Hermione was frowning after the little thing indignantly as she said how bad house-elves had it.

Harry nearly sobbed in relief at finally something much lighter for his conclusions to settle on, though he did wonder what about Hermione speaking of house-elves would lead to. He greedily latched onto it though, as he'd nearly developed a second pulse behind his eyes he'd been thinking so much about things he should know better of by now.

Speaking of how that was slavery. Mr. Crouch had forced her to go up to the stadium even though she'd been terrified to do so,

"Did he even show up?" Lily muttered randomly, that never having been noted at all. It was quite rude of him to force his house-elf to go up there and never even bother to show. Surely nothing so important could be going on during the actual cup.

and now she couldn't even run when all the tents were being trampled.

"She's not bewitched," Sirius snorted. "She didn't get permission, and was probably told not to leave the tent for some reason. That's just part of how they are."

"So you're okay with Winky getting hurt, just because Crouch didn't release her from that command before he ran off?" Lily demanded of him in blistering tones.

Sirius threw his hands in defeat at once, saying, "hey, I'm just saying he didn't do it on purpose."

Lily still had her eyes narrowed at him, and while Harry would have been more than happy at this rate watching them bicker about this, he also noticed Remus quickly trying to wave him on before the argument could escalate as well, so he sighed and kept at it.

Demanding of nobody why hadn't this been stopped long before now. Ron just shrugged that the elves were happy the way they were, but Hermione turned on him at once that it was people like him who were too lazy-

"Lazy?" James raised a brow in surprise. "He's just saying it like it's always been for thousands of years. I really don't see what Hermione's so strung up about either."

Lily ground her teeth together, but shook her head in furious silence. She understood completely where Hermione was coming from, after watching poor Dobby for a whole year and now this, she was really regretting her own life that she hadn't looked into this more. All she'd ever known were the house-elves at Hogwarts, treated perfectly well and never a care, and she'd naively believed that all were treated the same. She now realized how ignorant that was, and quite agreed with where she was positive Hermione was heading, there should be a standard for their living as much as anybody's.

There was another bang from behind them cutting off the rest of her words, and Ron suggested they keep moving with a worried look at Hermione. Harry couldn't help but agree, maybe there had been some truth to what Malfoy had said and Hermione was in more danger than them.

Sadly, that really was true. Honestly all three made wonderful targets for any Death Eater. The son of a blood traitor, who readily stood by his father and family. The Muggleborn, though not obvious Malfoy at least could point out. And the Boy Who Lived, which went without saying, and wandless! All three of them really needed to keep their heads down.

They set off again, Harry still searching his pockets, even though he knew his wand wasn't there.

Sadly that pain popped right back into Harry's temple the moment he was reminded of that, somehow doubling since it had gone away in its persistence he should be remembering something.

They continued down the dark winding path still keeping an eye out for more Weasley's, but all they passed were some goblins laughing over a sack of gold,

In his current mindset, he didn't even notice the light flutter he felt that this detail may have been important later.

and then a large group of veela,

"Guess they're not worried about anything," Lily rolled her eyes.

surrounded by a gaggle of young wizards, all of whom were talking very loudly.

"Well that'll make you forget what's going on behind you," Sirius snorted with derision. Even he had to admit this was a terrible time to be flirting.

They were all shouting nonsense at the veela, one saying how he made a hundred Galleons a year!

"Congratulations," James rolled his eyes, "you should be richer than the richest by next month."

Another was yelling how he was a dragon killer!

"Not everyone appreciates that kind of boasting," Lily sniffed, finding that far more sad that this was a needed job then brave or whatever that numbskull was going for. She wasn't even the biggest fan of dragons and she wasn't fond of the idea of killing them.

A boy right beside him called him out on that lie, shouting that he was a dishwasher at the Leaky Cauldron, but then boasted his own that he was a vampire hunter!

"Right, and you happen to be friends with a dishwasher. Good of you to keep the company," Remus muttered.

One who stuck out to Harry who had pimples all over his face shouted next that he was slated to be the youngest ever Minister of Magic.

"I'm sure he'll do a better job than the current one," Sirius snorted, while Harry randomly thought he should find that funny, giving a slight snort as he recognized this young man, and finding irony that he in fact would do better.

Harry snorted with laughter as he recognized him, Stan Shunpike, a conductor on the Knight Bus.

"Oh that's brilliant," Lily snickered. She understood it was the magic of the Veela forcing them to want to impress making them act like fools, but she still found it sad that the way they went about it was lying. At least James never resorted to that in his mad attempts to gain her favor. Not that she was dumb enough to believe half of this bullocks, so it was a moot point.

Harry meant to tell Ron this, but then Ron chose that moment to begin shouting that he'd just invented a broom that could make it all the way to Jupiter.

"Now that I'd like to see," James laughed. "What's the brand you're calling it then, the Zeus model?"

"I'll let you know if he does," Harry promised with an easy smile, thanking once again this lighthearted switch for the reprieve he was getting, no matter how short.

Hermione sniffed as she and Harry grabbed hold of Ron's arms and dragged him away.

"I noticed you weren't affected that time," Remus pointed out.

Harry just shrugged, muttering, "wasn't really paying attention till I heard Stan speak up, then I was too busy laughing."

By the time all of that yelling had faded away, they were now mostly alone in the dark forest, things seemed to have gotten quieter.

Lily felt like goosebumps were smothering her as she said, "well, then perhaps you should go back and laugh at the Veela's admirers a bit more. It's not good for you to be so far out by yourself. Plus, you never caught up to Ron's siblings, I'm sure they're worried about you."

Harry wanted to agree, to voice that he had gone back into the more populated areas of the forest, but the words wouldn't come, something he knew he'd regret.

Harry was looking around as he said they should just wait where they were, they could hear anyone coming.

The four of them sighed in disappointment. Why did Harry have to be the one to suggest that? Was he trying to make their life more miserable by seeming to go out of his way in his younger self to cause these situations?!

He'd hardly got done saying that when Bagman burst from the trees, looking quite disheveled.

Sirius was frowning in concern for someone he'd almost call an idol, wondering what on earth could have happened to him. He hadn't been mugged had he, he'd been carrying around an awful lot of gold for his betting. Had he perhaps run into a not happy customer about a big loss? He really hoped he was okay, or had Bludgeoned whoever it was, causing that other person to look far more than strained.

He caught sight of them and asked what they were doing out here? Ron pointed back towards the campsite and said they were hiding from the riot. Bagman blinked in shock before demanding 'what?'

"So, he didn't know?" Lily raised a brow in surprise.

"What's he been doing this whole time, it's hardly been subtle," Remus agreed.

"Maybe he found an old friend and brought her along for some privacy," James smirked, thinking there were plenty of reasons he could be looking tossed around.

They began to explain, but once they were done Bagman swore in surprise,

"A very appropriate reaction honestly," Sirius huffed.

said 'damn them',

"Them?" They all asked in surprise, Sirius now thinking he may have been closer than he thought, but hopefully Bagman would file a report of it later and get back whatever he deserved.

and then Disapparated away. Hermione was frowning where he'd just been, saying how he wasn't on top of things much.

"You can't blame him for not being on high alert twenty four seven," Sirius muttered, grains of pity still lingering for him.

Ron just shrugged and said that he'd been a great Beater,

"Because that just made everything better," Lily snorted.

his old team the Wimbourne Wasps won the league three times when he'd been playing for them.

Sirius was more than happy to make a triumphant noise in delight at this news, hoping Harry and Ron would whittle away the boring hours until Arthur found them with Quidditch talk.

He took his figurine of Krum out of his pocket, set it down on the ground, and watched it walk around.

Giving all of them a nice laugh as well. They were still tense and uneasy, they couldn't help it until Harry was back out of that forest and safely back at the Burrow, but it was nice that he had Ron and Hermione there in the meantime to keep up distractions like this from the worst of their thoughts.

Ron sat down in the leaves to watch it pace around, and silence lingered for a few more moments before Hermione again voiced that she hoped the others were okay. Ron assured they were all fine, and Harry voiced that he hoped Arthur caught Lucius in the act.

"This whole ordeal will be worth it if that's true," Sirius nodded.

Ron agreed that would make his life, while Hermione whispered how bad those poor Muggles had it, wondering if they would get down okay?

"They will," Remus said at once at the uneasy look on Harry's face. "Then they'll make sure they're okay, before most likely giving them a powerful memory charm to erase this terrible instance from their mind."

"A kindness honestly," Lily sighed, "otherwise they may have gone mad from this."

Ron once again assured her everything would be fine. Hermione then changed to pointing out how mad those masked people were to have pulled this with so many Ministry people around.

"While true-" Lily sighed.

"They don't care," James finished for her with an ugly look in place. "It's all about making a statement with that lot, so long as there were more of them then the Ministry who would help, with a nice loud distraction which I'm sure they easily got, they'd keep at it till they had no other choice."

Harry was frowning sadly out the window, now wondering just how often events like this occurred in their time.

Neither boy got a chance to respond as they heard someone in the nearby blackness stumbling around.

They all went ramrod straight, their hands going instinctively towards their wands, a stupid but involuntary reaction as they heard some stranger was around Harry at this time.

Then the footsteps stopped, and Harry called out if anyone was there? **

James looked like he was visibly restraining himself from snapping as he said, "Harry, did you really just ask that! You're supposed to be quiet and stay out of sight at this time, not go yelling 'hey I'm over here!"

Harry was frowning at him, half feeling chastised that it probably had been a bad idea in retrospect, but also wanting to defend himself that at the time he hadn't seen himself in that much danger. He suppressed it though, they were tense enough and he really didn't want to pick at this.

Another long beat of silence, then a voice shouted out the spell 'Morsmordre.'

"Don't recognize that," Sirius muttered to himself, not that this made anyone feel any better. There were plenty of terrible curses out there these people had never heard of because they wouldn't go out looking for them.

Something vast, green,

Lily felt a scream rearing up in her throat at the thought of any green spell being set off around her baby, again!

and glittering erupted from the patch of darkness Harry's eyes had been struggling to penetrate; it flew up over the treetops and into the sky.

Then she felt foolish and embarrassed when he finished, sounding more puzzled than anything. She was being jumpy and paranoid, he was sitting there reading it, of course he hadn't had the killing curse set on him. It still wasn't helping her nerves one bit though. Maybe she'd made more a noise then she'd intended to, maybe Sirius was just getting to fidgety with all of this built up angst and he knew he was upsetting his charge, but the next thing Lily knew she had her baby in her lap which quickly calmed her down far better than anything else could.

Ron gaped in shock as it continued to rise above the treetops, looking much like the leprechaun formations from before. It transformed itself into a skull, with a serpent coming out of the mouth.

Harry was blinking in puzzlement as he finished the description, just knowing he should know what this was called, but when he looked up expectantly in hopes someone would tell him, he instead found all of them with sickly pale skin and gaping at him like he'd just turned into a corpse.

"Y-You're within shouting distance of a Death Eater!?" Sirius' throat couldn't seem to decide if it was going to fail him or release a rumbling growl as he got that out.

"That's what you got out of that?" Harry asked in surprise. "From some snake in the sky?"

"Th-that's, the Da-Dark Mark. Voldemort's symbol!" James managed to stutter out, wondering far too often for his liking how his son had survived to his current age. "Only a Death Eater knows how to produce it, so yes. That is understandably the first thing he, and the rest of us, grasped on."

"Oh," Harry simply muttered, unable to think of anything else to add to that. None of this explained what his ever growing agitation was, something building in the back of his mind that was quite insistently saying he should know this particular Death Eater, but that must be ridiculous. Hopefully he never got any closer to one of Voldemort's henchmen then he was in that moment, otherwise his family really might have a stress heart-attack.

Deciding to keep reading rather than watching them gasp for air, Harry forged on.

It seemed to grow brighter, like a new constellation forming, and then the screaming began again, louder than ever. Harry had no idea why, though he linked it to the glowing image in the sky. His eyes went back down to where it had been cast, and he again called out for who was out there.

"Harry James Potter, you stop that before you give me a heart attack!" Lily half screeched, only able to strangle off the full volume because even that scolding of her elder son made his younger counterpart begin crying in protest.

Harry was watching her with severe worry, remembering the last time she'd told him off for something he'd done in the past. At least then the other boys had helped her to laugh it off, as it had already happened long enough ago her snapping wouldn't do any good. Looking around now though, he saw they were quite in agreement with her exclamation, which wasn't making him feel any better. Desperately hoping now he had stopped shouting out or he'd probably regret it in this time, Harry tried to keep going in as calm a voice as possible to remind them all he was perfectly fine.

Hermione was trying to get them to move again, tugging on his shirt and begging him to run.

"Least one of you lot has some bleeding sense," Remus hissed, now wishing more than anything Harry hadn't been split off from Arthur, or Sirius had come, or if he'd bothered to keep in contact, anything then this constant mess that was Harry's life seeming to find the most danger when he was at his most vulnerable.

Harry asked what her problem was, as she'd gone white faced with fear.

"Does she know what that is?" Sirius asked in surprise, at least that distracted him from picturing that thing being cast right over his little pup's body while he was on the opposite side of the world.

"I guess I can see how," James muttered through almost chattering teeth as he was picturing much the same thing. "Wouldn't surprise me if the marks shown up in a book or two about Voldemort's reign."

Hermione told that it was the Dark Mark, You-Know-Who's sign!

"Right in one Prongs," Remus muttered, shifting his weight with continuing agitation, no matter how much it aggravated his injuries, that flare of pain was a constant reminder he was in the hear in now, listening to Harry read this rather than picturing it go a more gruesome way.

Harry tried to ask for more, but Hermione just begged them to start walking. Ron paused to pick up his Krum,

"Priorities," Lily mumbled, bouncing her infant in her arms to keep them both calm.

but the three of them only made it a few steps before there were about twenty pops of wizard's apparating into their space, surrounding the three.

Harry hadn't believed they could be more upset than they had in just the last book, but when he read that and their first thought was to jump to the fact that Harry was now surrounded on all sides by Death Eaters like that had been a calling, he was pretty sure his dad having vomited back during the Chamber would be a kind look back.

Harry recognized all wands were pointing at them,

Harry was quite glad he was the one reading, as when he glanced up all he saw was a mask of shocked faces on convulsing throats like they were all fighting back the urge to scream some more, most likely their own voices would have failed them at this point. All Harry remembered feeling at the time was shock, and the urge to hit the deck.

and he reacted first by seizing his friends necks and pulling them to the ground, screaming 'Duck!'

"Anaticula!" Sirius suddenly yelped at his side.

Harry looked at him with great concern, like he thought his godfather had finally lost his bleeding mind, but it had the desired effect of causing James and Remus to snap out of their comas and burst out laughing.

Lily looked just as confused as he felt, but Harry still had more sense about him as he demanded, "what's that mean?"

Sirius had to shake his head a couple of times to make sure his head was on straight and clear, before putting on a farce of his carefree nature and explaining, "it's a curse that makes your wand only able to produce ducks for the next few spells. Great laugh while you're running away." He managed to say all of that with only a few minor spasms of shock still wearing off from picturing all of this being directed at Harry.

"Remus used it on us once," James added on when it seemed Lily was finally calming back down as well, and hoping to keep them all breathing on this subject for as long as possible he turned mock angry eyes on Remus and finished in a 'huffy' tone, "in the middle of dinner. McGonagall wouldn't believe we hadn't done it on purpose, gave us detention that night, forcing me to reschedule one of my Quidditch practices."

"You two deserved it," Remus shot back, an old satisfied smirk in place his friends hadn't seen in awhile. "It was one of you lots fault I got strung up by my foot and missed my Care of Magical Creatures class that day, and since neither of you would tell me who did it, you both deserved it."

Lily was watching between the three with an actual smile in place now, unable to believe she could hold the expression in light of what was happening to her son, but had actually quite enjoyed during school watching the Marauders pick on each other much more than watching them go after their prank victims, so hearing retellings like this were always a treat.

The distraction had worked, they were all much more grounded and feeling at least less likely to have heart failure as Harry continued.

They slammed into the ground,

"Thank Merlin for those Quidditch reflexes," James murmured.

just as all the voices shouted as one 'Stupefy!'

At least that made them all feel better at the situation Harry was in. Certainly not content, but it was nicer to hear he only would have been stunned then something far worse.

Beams of red light went whizzing above their head, ricocheting off of trees and going every which way, and only ceasing when one voice called out above the rest for them to stop, that was his son!

"Arthur," Lily nearly sobbed in relief, knowing that couldn't refer to anyone else.

"So it was the Ministry who went there," James agreed, still looking fairly faint but at least some color returned to his face as he realized that.

Mr. Weasley came stumbling towards them, looking more terrified than Harry had ever seen him as he asked if they were alright?

"I can imagine," Remus nodded, knowing Arthur would have felt the same way they just had of finding his son under that mark.

Someone snapped at Arthur to move,

"Bite me!" James snapped at once, riling up at anyone trying to get in Arthur's way as he checked on those kids.

which turned out to be Mr. Crouch.

"I'll second that," Sirius agreed with a nasty look still in place, wanting to crack all twenty of those ministry fools over the head for shooting at his pup.

He and the other Ministry people were coming in closer as Harry got to his feet, facing Mr. Crouch who had his face drawn with fury. His wand was pointing at all three intermittently as he demanded which of them had done it.

"He actually just looked you in the face and demanded that?" Lily growled, her eyes narrowing furiously. "You? The bleeding Boy Who Lived."

"Plus a Weasley and a Muggleborn, the only ones they caught sight of, oh yeah it's hard to tell who has more motive in that group," Remus snarked.

"I'm just hoping they did manage to stun, incompetently but still, the one who did do it," James grumbled, hoping at least some good came of their heart attack moment.

Harry frowned in confusion as he said they hadn't done that while gesturing up above. Ron agreed they hadn't done a thing while looking indignantly at his father.

"He's the one defending you," Sirius snorted. "What's he glaring at him for?"

"Mr. Weasley looked just as shocked as anyone else," Harry shrugged, "maybe to Ron it looked more acquisitory."

While demanding to know why they'd been attacked.

Crouch snapped at Ron not to lie, while adding on a sir.

"At some point you can drop the manners," Remus muttered with an eye roll.

His wand now pointed right in Ron's face, his eyes popping with fury.

All of them scowled heavily at that, finding it completely uncalled for to be pointing a wand in Ron's face, when he hadn't even drawn his own to defend himself!

A witch in the back reminded Crouch that these were just kids, they couldn't have done that. Arthur turned on his charges and asked them where had the Mark come from?

"At least there are some sensible adults around," Lily sniffed.

Hermione pointed to the space, saying an incantation had been shouted. Crouch turned on her now, shouting about how she seemed well aware of how to make the Mark appear.

"Oh goodness me, you use an incantation to summon a magical image in the sky, who would have thunk it!" Remus snapped, not being able to press any more sarcasm into that if he'd tried.

No one else paid Hermione a second glance though, instead all wands turned to where the kids had pointed.

"Great, good to know it's only one out of twenty we should be really worried about," Sirius grumbled.

The same witch from before sighed it was no good, that person would have Disapparated by now.

"Probably at the exact same time they appeared, so you wouldn't have even heard it," James sighed, mostly in relief whoever that was, wasn't around his son anymore.

Then another spoke up saying he didn't think so, and Harry recognized Amos Diggory,

"Oh great, now I get two people in one clearing to piss me off," Sirius mock cheered, making Harry already long for the carefree chapter they'd just had and see them really happy again.

saying how they may have got a lucky shot with their stunners, they had gone through those trees. He walked off to go check himself, with several people behind him calling out warnings to be careful.

"Or, you know, at least a few of you could go with him!" Lily snapped, taking every last bit of her self-restraint not to facepalm in exasperation. They outnumbered that one lone person who was back there, and even if there were more, it was still more safe than just sending one person.

Mr. Diggory shouted back a few moments later that they'd caught someone,

"Finally, some good news," Remus sighed, actually sagging back in relief, thinking that was one less problem they had to worry about.

Harry though, was wondering why his first reaction was to think Mr. Diggory was wrong, they hadn't gotten anyone that night... but the thought flew away almost at once and he simply agreed with Remus instead.

but then he trailed off in surprise as he seemed to recognize whoever it was.

"That didn't seem like a good reaction though," Sirius frowned in concern.

Crouch did not sound convinced as he demanded who,

"He really still thinks it's those three kids?!" James snapped in disbelief, wanting more than anything to smack Crouch a good one.

as Diggory walked back in, with Winky in his arms.

"What?" All five of them yelped at once.

"There's no way that little elf did that," Sirius snorted in disbelief.

"The voice didn't even match," Harry agreed, still frowning deeply as he gently tried to understand why his earlier feeling was clearly right now.

"What was Winky even doing in that area though?" Lily's frown kept deepening the longer she thought about this. "We heard a Death Eater's voice in that direction, it's impossible Winky would be following them around as she belongs to Crouch."

Harry opened his mouth to reply, then thought better of it and quickly shut it before he vomited instead from the stress of repressing his response. The truth was, none of them had any idea what was going on, and absolutely none of them wanted to find out. They didn't care about this mystery, didn't want to sit on the idea any longer then they had to, because they didn't want it to have anything to do with Harry. They kept hoping any second now Arthur would jump in and say that these kids were no longer needed and take them away back to the Burrow for some actual peace!

Crouch froze as Diggory placed Winky at his feet. Crouch muttered this must be some mistake as he walked off to that same area, going out of sight but could still be heard searching the bushes for another culprit. Diggory called back that he'd checked, Winky was the only one there.

Harry had to blink hard a few times to keep some bright spots out of his eyes, but then kept on after a moment, now working harder than ever to ignore whatever feeling that gave him for whatever reason.

Diggory was shaking his head sadly as he muttered what a surprise this was, for Crouch's elf to have done this.

"They can't really think she did it?" James raised an even more disbelieving brow, somehow managing to find this more ridiculous than them thinking it was Harry. "She's a house-elf!"

While Lily agreed with him it was every kind of ludicrous, she didn't much like his tone of saying it.

Mr. Weasley scolded this was ridiculous, he couldn't really be serious in saying it was an elf to have done this.

"Now why would he think it was me helping the elf?" Sirius quickly inserted, ignoring all accompanied groans. "I like to think mine's gone off and died by this point."

Harry gave him a smile, still not having grown tired of that joke yet, but didn't linger on it either.

Reminding you had to have a wand to summon the Dark Mark, and Diggory agreed she'd had one.

"Had a what now?" Lily demanded, sure she'd heard that wrong.

They all turned surprised eyes at that, as Diggory said she'd had one in her hand, in direct violation to a code stating that non-human creatures weren't allowed to carry such a thing. Ludo Bagman Apparated onto the scene just then, gasping about the Dark Mark!

"Thank you, I hadn't noticed," Lily rolled her eyes.

"Where's he been this whole time?" Sirius asked in confusion, some of the misty eyed awe of a Quidditch star starting to wear off. "I thought the last time he Disapparated away was to go help with the riot. He should have seen it at the same time as the rest of these twenty people and come then."

"Search us," Remus sighed, thinking they'd had more questions from this chapter alone already building up, and it was clearly driving Harry mad as he once again went cross eyed in pain at being unable to answer them. He, along with everyone else, really wanted this chapter to be done with already.

His eyes flickered to Barty, who was coming back into sight, but then he added on another question of why he hadn't been at the match?

"So he never did show up," James murmured.

"That's incredibly odd for him," Lily explained to Harry, who was watching all of the boys holding a puzzled expression. "He was a big hand in putting this event together, he was expected to show up for it. Crouch does not miss that type of thing, it wouldn't look good," she finished with a sniff of distaste.

Harry felt like he was getting a little tick at the base of his skull, a muscle that just kept spasming every other sentence now as more and more of what he was hearing he was sure would come to bite him in the arse later, but for now he thanked his mum and kept going.

Reminding that his elf had been saving him a seat, but then Bagman caught sight of Winky and yelped in surprise what had happened to her? Crouch explained that she'd been stunned, and it took a moment for Bagman's eyes to flicker to her, then up to the Mark, before understanding took him and he gasped in surprise she couldn't have done that! She'd need a wand! Diggory repeated she'd had one, then asked Crouch if it was okay they unstun her to get some answers.

All four of them mumbled something about how it was bleeding obvious from the start she hadn't a thing to do with this and they should be out looking for who really did, but none of it was articulate enough Harry stopped.

When the spell 'Enervate' was used on her and she sat up, Winky burst into tears instantly. Diggory snapped at her to look at him, reminding of his position as a member of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

"Is he trying to scare her?" Remus' scowl deepened at this, finding this more than uncalled for of the clearly innocent creature.

"He's certainly not going out of his way to pretend otherwise," Lily nodded in agreement.

Then he demanded an explanation of what she'd been doing. Winky sobbed she hadn't done anything, while Diggory flashed the wand for all to see and snapped at her to explain where she'd found this. Harry caught sight of it properly for the first time, and exclaimed that was his!

"What?" They all yelped, finding that all too common an occurrence recently!

"How in Merlin's underpants did your wand end up in the same clearing as Winky, and a Death Eater!?" James gasped out first.

"That sounds like the bad start to a joke," Sirius moaned, rubbing furiously at his forehead to stave away a growing sense of doom.

"I-but-you-when-" Lily could not get out more than one word before her voice failed her and she just kept looking at her gobsmacked son, but he shook off the shock quicker than she did and continued in a hurry now.

Everyone turned startled eyes back to him.

"Guess that wasn't the best time to go shouting that when they all think it's you," Remus muttered.

"There really isn't a good time to say that in this circumstance," Sirius reminded.

Harry repeated that was his wand, that he'd dropped it. Diggory repeated that back in absolute disbelief. Demanding of Harry if that was a confession, that he'd thrown it aside after he'd conjured the Mark?

"Yeah, that's what he said," Remus snorted, his eyes darkening more and more every second the longer he heard about Diggory. His jumping to conclusions attitude along with his no good character was making Remus edgier the longer this carried on.

Arthur jumped in angrily then, demanding Amos think about what he'd just said to Harry Potter. Diggory agreed he'd gotten carried away.

"Damn right you did," James snapped, happy at least Arthur was keeping that man in check.

Harry then explained he hadn't dropped it anywhere around there, he'd only noticed it was missing when he came into the woods.

"But," Lily finally managed to collect herself to get out a real question, "does that mean Winky did take it from you in the Top Box? She's the only other person outside of your group who had the means to do it. I just cannot for the life of me imagine why."

"If not, then it's a really big fat coincidence," James sighed, running his hand through his hair in agitation. Of all the people who could be suspected of taking Harry's wand, as the more they heard of this the more they believed Harry hadn't simply dropped it, and it simply wound up in the grip of a Death Eater to use in the conjuration of the Dark Mark, this was beyond words unbelievable.

Diggory instead turned back on Winky, demanding of the elf that she'd found it and decided to have some fun.

"No one's going to question that she just, found it!" Sirius scowled, knowing the elf probably didn't have a better answer than that, but he wanted one anyways.

Winky wailed that she hadn't done anything!

Lily began wriggling around in displeasure now, feeling bad she'd thrown out a question regarding Winky herself now, and she wasn't even there. The elf clearly had no more to do with this then Harry, couldn't they lay off her?

She'd just picked it up!

Hermione jumped in then, going pink in shock when all eyes turned to her, yet still insisting it wasn't Winky.

"Can't say I'm surprised," Remus gave a small smile, "she's shown time and again she'll do and say what she thinks is right."

"In this case, I'm grateful for it," Lily nodded in agreement.

Explaining that Winky's voice was high pitched and squeaky, and the person they'd heard summon the Mark was definitely male. Diggory did not look impressed as he said there was a way to check and see what the last spell was used on a wand, directing this at the elf.

"That doesn't prove anything," James snorted. "She just said she found it, and she's got witnesses proving it wasn't her who used it last. It's been established Harry's wand was the one to use that spell, showing that off doesn't mean a thing."

Diggory then placed his wand tip to Harry's and used the spell 'Prior Incantato.'

Harry's heart gave a very hard twist when he read that, for some reason leaning just slightly closer to his dad and glancing up at his mother for a moment, but only had a moment to wonder why before he kept going.

Both parents were still so wound up over the situation at hand, neither noticed Harry's second of hesitation.

Sprouting from Harry's wand came a smaller resemblance of the glowing mark in the sky, which Diggory seemed to think proved his point as he shouted in triumph Winky had been caught in the act!

"I am going to punch him." Sirius scowled, beginning to tense up on the spot the longer he kept going. "I don't even like elves and I don't talk to them like that. Use some brains man, she's obviously not got a thing to do with this."

"Thinking he doesn't need to be working with Magical Creatures much," James agreed with a serious nod. "He clearly looks down on them too much."

"He's much too quick to blame as well," Lily added on in the same tones as them.

Remus couldn't help but give them a light smile they hopefully didn't see, he knew for a fact they could get overly touchy about this without even realizing it.

Arthur cut in then though, reminding how few wizards knew how to summon such a spell, where on earth could Winky have learned to do so? Crouch snapped that Diggory was implying he'd taught his elf this?

"Ooh, snappy," Sirius raised an imperious brow, feeling his point had been made quite well, and he didn't even like the man who'd done it.

Diggory went horrified with shock, stammering out of course that wasn't it to Crouch.

"Little late for backtracking you hobnocker," James huffed.

Crouch pressed in though, telling off Diggory for now having accused the two people in this clearing least likely to have done this, Harry Potter and himself! Surely Diggory knew of who Harry Potter was? Diggory agreed in uncomfortable tones everyone knew that.

"Glad someone put him down," Lily gave a soft laugh, not having thought she'd be rooting for Crouch any time soon, but at least she found he was useful for something.

Then Crouch also reminded he'd shown time and again the lengths he'd gone to prove how against Dark Magic he was!

Harry felt a stirring in him again, like earlier when he'd felt something was off about Crouch speaking of his perfect unbreakable vows about rules. There was something there that Harry knew he should have a puzzle piece to, but it faded through his conscious like his brain was filled with cracks.

Diggory tried to protest, saying he'd never meant to accuse Crouch.

"You suggested his elf did," Remus smirked, "and that's as good as."

Crouch shouted back that to accuse his elf was to accuse him!

Diggory tried to say she could have picked it up somewhere else,

"Oh yes, I'm sure Death Eaters pop by all the time selling cookies and just give a friendly tutoring session of how to do that in the meantime," Sirius snorted.

but then Arthur agreed Diggory had spoken true on that one. He turned his own attention on Winky, the first person to call her by name and kindly meet her eyes, but Winky still flinched away from him like all the rest,

Lily couldn't help cooing again, wanting to do something to help the poor dear relax, as she knew there was no way she would be getting in trouble for anything, or at least she shouldn't be.

as Arthur asked where she'd found the wand? Winky's voice still came out watery as she said she'd just found it lying there in the leaves. Arthur stood back up to face Diggory, saying clearly what had happened was that the person who'd cast the Dark Mark had simply used Harry's own wand then Disapparated away. It was actually clever not to have used their own wand. It was just Winky's misfortune to come across it moments later.

"While I don't think he's wrong," James's frown just got deeper as Arthur drew the same conclusions they'd been forced to come to.

"That hardly explains anything," Sirius grumbled.

"It actually just raises more questions," Remus sighed.

Diggory gasped that this must mean that Winky had seen the person who had done all of this!

"That," Lily struggled for a moment before grudgingly admitting, "is a really good point."

"Wish she'd started with that," Sirius huffed, "this could have been going a lot better."

Then he turned on Winky and demanded of the elf if she'd seen anyone!

Winky's eyes flickered to her masters as she whispered she hadn't seen anyone.

Harry had a mad desire to laugh, like he knew Winky was telling the truth in that moment...but leaving something off...

Crouch seemed to decide that was enough, as he addressed Diggory by telling him that he was aware the normal course of events would be Diggory to take her into his department, but if he'd allow him to take his elf home? Amos clearly didn't want to agree, but clearly Crouch was such an important person he wasn't going to argue.

"I'm truly shocked at how pleased I am," Remus frowned in pity for the poor thing, finding just a grain of irony that the very thing she'd feared would happen to Dobby was in fact being hung over her head this very same night, but at least her own master would be a better option.

Crouch added on though that she would be punished for this night.

"Ouch," Lily winced. After hearing about what the Malfoys had done to Dobby, she was actually quite afraid for Winky and what might become of her now.

Winky began sobbing in shock, begging her master to reconsider, but Crouch's face was like stone as he snapped at her that he'd commanded she stay in the tent, and she'd disobeyed! This meant clothes!

"Wow," James blinked spastically like Crouch had just started swearing in Mermish. "That was harsh."

"Yeah," Sirius had his head cocked to the side, his eyes narrowed like he was trying to study Crouch in person. "She did disobey, but it's hardly so grievous she should be sacked like that."

Remus and Lily exchanged a surprised look, considering their usual attitude towards elf's they would have honestly expected those two to agree with Crouch, but for all their laughing at the creatures, they clearly weren't as hard on them as they would lead.

Harry may have input his opinion on them, but he was too busy fighting back word vomit. There it was again, something involving Crouch and Winky that made him want to spew out something like a huge silent chunk of conversation had been taken place right in front of him, but he had nothing to offer except to read what was in front of him.

Winky wailed, crawling to Crouch's feet and begging for anything but that! Crouch shook her off in disgust, but then Hermione jumped in by trying to defend the elf! Saying she'd been frightened, and shouldn't be blamed for running!

Lily looked very much like she would get up and hug Hermione now, as well as shield her, for standing up to Crouch like that in front of everyone.

Crouch did not remove his disgusted eyes from the elf as he told Hermione off to, saying he had no use for a servant who didn't listen, who ruined his reputation!

"Oh I get it," Remus gave an ugly sneer now as his eyes flashed. "He's not getting rid of her because she didn't listen to him, she's getting the boot because she got caught and dragged Crouch into this."

"This is terrible," Lily scowled. "I don't even understand why he's reacting like this, no one's going to look twice at him now that everything's out in the open. Everyone there knows he's nothing to do with the dark arts, he shouldn't be taking all of this out on his elf like this!"

"While we agree," James sighed, feeling like they were hearing about a Dobby all over again, how often were these other house-elves treated like this? "It's no good shouting about it now dear."

She shot him the stank eye, but didn't pursue the point.

Hermione may have kept going, but Arthur put himself back in then, saying Harry should have his wand back, which Diggory did, and then began escorting the kids away. He had to call twice before Hermione would follow, and the moment they were out of sight she began rampaging about the lot of them and how they'd been treating Winky! Everyone just referring to her as 'elf!'

Sirius and James shared a surprised look, they hadn't even noticed that part.

How dare Crouch do that to her, treating her like she wasn't even human! Ron did point out that technically she wasn't.

Sirius closed his mouth sheepishly, he'd actually been about to say the same thing, but was now happy he hadn't gotten it out at the flashing look Lily gave the book for Ron's comment.

Hermione turned on him and began shouting he wasn't acting any better than those- but Arthur cut her off by saying she could go on about elf rights later. Then he asked where the rest of his kids were? Ron said they'd gotten separated, then asked what that skull thing had been?

"I'm actually a little more surprised Ron didn't know," James quirked a brow. "Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful he's never seen it, but still. You'd think his parents would have mentioned it."

"Not necessarily," Remus shrugged. "In the same concept as Ron not saying Voldemort's name, Ron and the kids of his generation would have been told as little as possible of what would have been a common occurrence to their parents, err us, whatever. The next generation of kids would have been shielded and told as little as possible of the horrors of this war."

James pondered that for a moment, not really in agreement as he didn't think this should just be glossed over, but couldn't argue the point much either. They were only fourteen, James wasn't even happy Harry was so involved with this at that age, so he let the matter slide.

Mr. Weasley didn't relax one little bit as they made it back out of the forest, but were bombarded almost at once by a group of people demanding questions of Arthur, asking if anyone had been caught, who'd done that Mark, and was it Him? Arthur snapped back of course it wasn't You-Know-Who, and the perpetrator had Disapparated away, then he escorted himself and his kids off to bed.

"Snappy," Sirius gave a small smirk.

"Probably still worried about the rest of his kids," Lily added, thinking that as soon as Ron was back at the tent Arthur would probably go looking for the twins and Ginny, most likely as his eldest three were now doing.

Arthur escorted the three to the tent, but upon their approach Charlie poked his head back and called out to his dad that the other three had gotten back, but he didn't know where the others were.

They all released a sigh of relief. They hadn't exactly been worried for their safety, but it was good nothing had happened none the less.

Arthur sighed in relief as he entered the tent, and Harry spotted all three of the eldest Weasley's sporting bloody injuries.

Harry's tone was already pitching in surprise, but he read out;

Bill had a sheet to his arm where it was quickly turning red, Charlie had a large tear in his shirt, and Percy was trying to stop a bloody nose.

before he asked, "what could have happened to them?"

"Probably some of the Death Eaters shot some spells back," Remus sighed. "Either that or the riot got a little more hands on then wands."

The twins and Ginny weren't harmed, but looked white with shock. Bill asked if his Dad had caught whoever had done the Mark?

"Well Bill at least knows what it is," James muttered to himself, thankful that it clearly wasn't going to be erased from history what was going on now. He'd be satisfied if only the older type of kids knew about it then.

Arthur said they hadn't, but instead explained that they'd found Crouch's elf holding Harry's wand, which had been used to make the Dark Mark. They still had no idea who'd done it.

"That about summed it all up, yeah," Lily sighed, running a hand through her hair in agitation.

"Was a lot more bloody traumatizing to hear about it," James grumbled.

All of them yelped in surprise, Fred repeating the part about Harry's wand, while Percy in response to Crouch's elf.

"I can't decide who more deserved what was caught on," Remus snorted.

"Fred," Sirius said instantly, knowing he'd happily side with the twins then their immediate older brother any day.

The four who were present explained more fully the entire situation, and when they were done, Percy swelled with indignation.

"I'll agree with you now," Remus rolled his eyes.

Saying Crouch had been perfectly correct in his actions! Hermione snapped at him at once, causing Percy to take a step back in surprise. She and Percy usually got along pretty well, better than with his own brothers most days.

"Well that's just sad," Lily frowned slightly, always having suspected Percy didn't get along with his brothers very well, but for an outsider of the family like Hermione to so obviously be doing a better job, really got to her in that moment.

He pulled himself together quickly though and said that Crouch couldn't be seen going easy on an elf running amok with a wand.

"Run amok?" Sirius repeated in disbelief. "I'm still confounded what Crouch did, blowing that out of proportion. Though I guess I'm not that surprised Percy's agreeing with his boyfriend," he finished with a rude little curl of his nose.

Hermione shouted back that Winky hadn't done anything, but Ron butted in saying that he still wanted that Mark explained. Hermione turned on him and said that was You-Know-Who's symbol, something she'd read about in a book.

"Of course she did," Lily snorted, that felt like Hermione's answer to everything.

Arthur quietly added on it hadn't been seen in over thirteen years, it made perfect sense why people had panicked, it felt like seeing You-Know-Who back. Ron was still frowning though, saying it was just a symbol. Arthur tried again, telling that this mark was left over people who You-Know-Who had killed.

Causing the four around Harry to shiver, leading him to wonder and smother the question all at once who they'd found this mark hovering over. He decided he didn't want to know.

Trying to explain how much fear it instilled in people, coming home to your house and seeing that, knowing the very worst was inside...

Lily paled to the color of new snow, cuddling her baby all the closer to her.

Remus and James winced like they'd just been socked in the gut, but Sirius had the worst reaction. He'd lived that nightmare vividly in his dreams the previous night, coming over to find James and Lily...the only reason that mark had been absent was because no one was left alive to cast it...coupled together with the one responsible for it. He made a keening noise, shaking his head violently to get rid of that. He kept seeing it every time he closed his eyes, no need to dwell on it when he could give an unconvincing smirk to them now that he was just fine and could play this off as long as he dared.

it was everyone's worst fear.

"Okay, I'm appeased, Ron and Harry get it now," James murmured, deciding he'd never complain again about something Harry didn't know involving this type of thing.

There was a thick silence in the tent before Bill finally spoke up again, saying that whoever had cast it tonight had done them at least one favor. It scared the Death Eaters away, they all Disapparated the moment they saw it, and they'd only just caught the Roberts in time.

Giving them all a sigh of relief again. They had not forgotten what had started this whole mess, and it was a very good thing that Bill hadn't mentioned they'd been injured.

Explaining they were having their memories fixed now.

"Best thing that can happen to them," Remus gave a sad shake to his head, wanting to strangle every last one of those Death Eaters all over again at the thought of those poor Muggles suffering through that.

Harry repeated back the term Death Eaters in surprise, and Bill said that's what You-Know-Who's followers had called themselves. The ones they'd seen tonight were those who'd wriggled themselves out of Azkaban. Arthur tried to say there wasn't any proof it was them,

"Who else would it be?" Sirius asked, wishing to mock, but the tone wouldn't come as he would have been glad for an alternate answer.

but then relented it probably was. Ron perked up then, telling everyone what Malfoy had said to them about his Dad being out there. Harry then asked what was the point of doing that to those Muggles.

'Please stay that naive forever' Lily mentally sighed, brushing her baby's hair from his forehead for just a moment, as a reminder that scar wasn't there yet. While she never wanted it to, it was clear how much fiction that dream was since Harry hadn't even asked this now. He hadn't questioned this terrible act, even at his regrowing pace of learning he was already so much more aware of the crueler side of the world then Lily would ever wish her child to know.

Arthur looked sadly at Harry as he said the point had been for fun. What those Death Eaters had done tonight was their idea of entertainment. Ron then asked if those were You-Know-Who's supporters, why would they run at the sight of You-Know-Who's symbol? Shouldn't they have been happy? Bill told Ron to use his head,

"I thought it was a fair question," Harry said with a shrug, as he'd been wanting to ask it as well, but wondering if Ron would for him since he'd had a similar face to what Harry was feeling at the time.

explaining those Death Eaters were the ones who'd gone out of their way to denounce and say You-Know-Who had forced them to do all of that. They'd be as afraid as anyone if You-Know-Who came back, they'd have some retribution to pay.

Sirius gave a twisted little smirk that honestly scared the others, they didn't really want to know what his mind had jumped to, but it wasn't hard to picture either. One Death Eater in particular stuck out to all of them now, picturing that pathetic little rat and his hatred of being returned to his master. Those other loose Death Eaters would probably get much the same treatment if they ever found out any remnant of Voldemort existed. Not that they hoped this at all, the less people out helping Voldemort, willingly or not, the better.

Hermione then asked of the person who had shown the Dark Mark tonight, had they done it in support, or to scare off those Death Eaters?

"My guess is a combination of the two," Lily offered with a small frown, still hating to linger on this subject, but that was a good question. "They'd be showing off that they were winning, but warning it was time to go as well."

"I'm still trying to shake the feeling it wasn't left over a dead body," Remus shuddered, "and that individual wasn't doing some old time celebrating of his own."

"Thank you Sunshine," James groaned.

"That one was terrible," Sirius snorted in true amusement again. "I never understood why you tried to pitch an opposite of our nicknames that day."

"Thought it added an extra layer of mystery," James shrugged, managing to return the smile.

Arthur sighed her guess was as good as anyone's. Then he ushered they should all try to get some shuteye before they went out soon to grab a Portkey. Harry crawled back into his bed, but this time no Quidditch fantasies came to mind to help him relax. He instead let his mind spin back, to three days ago when his scar had awoken him with a burning pain. Now tonight, Voldemort's mark had appeared again. What did it all mean?

Lily's teeth started chattering as she huddled into herself, keeping her baby wrapped protectively in her arms and never wanting to let go. None of them had put those two things together until just now, but Harry was right, and they couldn't have felt worse about it.

'Nothing good' was the one thought that ran through all of their minds for his thought, and yet none of them could bear to say it in hopes they were wrong.

He thought of the letter he had written to Sirius, would he have gotten it yet?

For the first time since this had started, James felt no spike of jealousy in hearing Harry's first thought of help flit to Sirius. He'd happily take the idea Sirius was out there worrying about Harry like this.

James decided right then he wanted more than anything for Harry to work out with Dumbledore and the Weasleys that he'd in fact gotten a new dog and it would be with him at all times now! He'd take every minor annoyance in the world from his brother if he could have some more reassurances Harry would just be that little more safe.

Harry hoped he'd get a reply soon, and was left wondering on these things the rest of the night.

Harry gave one last deep sigh of discontent, already longing for that happy mood of the last chapter as he gave the book to Remus.

HPHPHPHPHP

*I recognized Harry should have questioned this long before now, it has been mentioned many times before, but even I forget sometimes Harry shouldn't have some knowledge that seems obvious. Can't go back and fix it now, just put all previous mentions of them not being questioned by Harry down to the fact that he worked it out himself considering the light they were being discussed in.

**No, really though, did anyone else besides me read this moment and think 'Horror movie alert' Harry is officially the dumb blonde of the series.

#Harry Potter #reading the books #fanfiction #GoF #marauders #james Potter #Remus lupin #Sirius black #lily Potter

3 notes · View notes

jacks-jester · 4 years

Text

My Love.

[Phoenix! Joker x Reader] angsty but ends with fluff

Words: 3,193

Warnings: Angsty, abandonment trauma, sexual harassment, mentions of murder, mentions of attempted sexual assault/rape. (This is a pretty heavy piece, nothing super explicit though)

Summary: After three years, you run into the man you had abandoned all those years ago. He was never the Joker to you though, to you he was always Arthur- your love, your one and only. What happens when he reunites with you for the first time post killing Murray? What happens when it seems the person you left has disappeared.

A/N~ This took me literally all day to type up, I kept revising it and fixing it up. I think I portrayed Arthur a bit better but still would like to work on him more, I feel I can do better in the future. Once again, Requests are open for fics/drabbles/hcs. Any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

It had been three years since you had last spoken to Arthur, three years since you two had slept together, three years since you had left him. It was no secret that the two of you had your fair share of mental issues, but maybe that's what had balanced you two out so well. You both understood each other, truly saw one another, when either one of you had an episode or a fit, the other would know the perfect way to calm the situation down. However, there were downsides to Arthur and your relationship. The main issue though, was both of your shared insecurities. The two of you both thought you weren’t worthy of one another, though you would both combat each others thought constantly.

It was painful leaving him, but you had done it and the second it was done, you couldn’t find the guts to go back. You and Arthur had been neighbors for years, the two of you always sharing light conversations in the elevator, eventually the light conversation grew into a friendship, and soon after a relationship. You are Arthur had always been a match made in heaven, always being there for each other and ensuring the other was supported at all times. He was the only person you felt who truly saw you, and likewise to him - some things are just too good to last you always told yourself.

You had left shortly after your 2 year anniversary, after a night spent in each others arms, the two of you staying up until you were exhausted, relishing in the feeling of each others bodies. Arthur always had a habit of falling asleep after making love, always seeming most at ease in the moments afterwards. You figured it was due to the fact he felt content, secure, and cared for in those moments - his deepest insecurities buried away temporarily. It was that night as you stayed awake, fingers gently combing through his brown hair that you truly took him in. He was perfection in every sense of the words - his hair soft and fluffy to the touch, his cheeks hollowed out which only made his jaw and cheekbones that much more chiseled, he was skinny - to a point some might be scared of his form, but to you he was absolute artwork, every nook and cranny etched in your mind, his emerald eyes were always full of love and admiration when he looked at you no matter how difficult the day had been. Your favorite thing about him though was his carefree laugh, his real ones, not the kind the racked his body, his throat closing as the cackles were forced out due to discomfort.

In that moment your insecurities rang in your head on repeat, unable to tear your gaze from the man you loved so deeply. He was everything someone could ask for, and you had no doubt he was the only person out there for you, the only person who would ever understand you, the only person in the entirety of this wretched world that would love you unconditionally. He always had such a big heart, and you knew from the moment you had first seen him that he was the one for you. Deep in your subconscious though, your monsters whispered venom into your mind.

‘He’s too good for you. You could never give him what he deserve. He’s only settled for you, and now you’re holding him back from what he deserves. He could find someone so much better than you, you’re suffocating him from that opportunity. You’re not his one, even if you wish you could be.’

Your illness had won that night, tearing you away from your home, from happiness, from him. You didn’t spare a second glance as you packed a few of your personal belongings in one of his work duffel bags, pushing a decent amount of cash into the bag, left your key on the counter, and left with not so much as a note. You had taken the first bus out of town, trying your best to settle a life outside of Gotham, as far from him as possible. You never dated anyone else, unable to find attraction or comfort in anyone but him - always comparing the people you met to him. You found yourself worse off than when you left, but hoped he would find someone better for him. There were several times you had to force yourself to not run back - too ashamed of what he might think, even more scared you’d find him with a new life, despite the fact that it was what you had wanted in the first place.

Three years had passed, scrounging for money, trying to find work, attempting to find some remnants of the happiness you had felt before you’d left. By a sick twist of fate, you had found yourself back in Gotham - Gotham being the only place you could find decent work. A week. That's all it took for you to regret taking the job. You were working as a bank teller, your boss was an absolute pompous snob, your coworkers were perverted, and the customers were absolutely horrific. You bared with it though, knowing this was one of your last real opportunities for a steady job. The entirety of Gotham drained your energy completely when you lived here; so in an attempt to maintain some of your sanity and positivity, you avoided the news at all cost. In Gotham, the news brought nothing but negative things to dampen anyone's day.

*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ

It was another lousy day at work, dealing with customers who were idiots, dealing with groping and harassment from your coworkers, your boss seeming to constantly look for an excuse to fire you. You were nearing the end of your shift when it happened, protestors had moved up the city after being confronted with police aggression downtown. These weren’t the peaceful type though, these were the kind hell bent on causing as much chaos and damage as possible. A good part of you sided with them, understanding their outrage at the unfair treatment towards the less unfortunate of Gotham, towards the kind of people you and Arthur were. Even now, you had to forge documents to get your job, knowing any sign of mental illness would immediately erase any chance you had at securing a job.

You watched as people in clown masks flooded the streets as night began to fall, the glass doors of the bank allowing you a full view of the riots. Cars were set aflame, a few more confrontational protestors smashing the glass of the bank doors and windows, the city was screaming. The anguish and anger radiated off the mob like wildfire, their shouting echoing through the streets outside the bank. You knew it was only a matter of time until they would begin robbing the bank, hoarding the money they could secure. You opted to leave the second you shift ended, wanting to keep as far away from the damage as possible, just go home and sleep.

You secured a few of your belongings, tossing your bag over your shoulder as you headed out the backdoor, sparing a last glance at the building crowd. You let out a sigh as you began walking away from large white building, knowing it was fastest to take the back alleys to get to the buses. The alleys were smothered in fog and smoke, the moldy air clinging to your lungs with each breath your took in, you hated it here. You had nearly reached the end of the alleys when you were harshly grabbed by the arm, thrown against a wall soon afterwards. Your head buzzed as you tried to ground yourself, your eyes clenched shut as your pulse frenzied, anxiety quickly beginning to overtake you.

Upon opening your eyes, you were met with the figures of three men in clown masks, their statures towering over you. You knew this wasn’t going to end well for you, that was one thing Arthur had always worried about - there were too many stories of girls being found dead in alleyways after a mishap walking home. You watched them closely, the middle one of the three holding a knife out towards you, the blade less than a foot from your face. You could hear their deranged laughter, giddy at the sight of you so helpless as your eyes flicked around wildly, like a animal cornered by predators, aware of the fact you were prey. They were like hyenas, stalking the meat they so desperately craved, knowing nobody would bat an eye if you were to turn up dead the next morning, knowing they could easily get away with it with no repercussions in sight.

You let out a muffled scream as one of them clapped a hand over your mouth, the other two making their way towards you, hands already reaching out to strip you of your clothes. You pinched your eyes shut, preparing for what you knew was coming, knowing nobody was around to help, knowing you had nobody who would mourn you. While your eyes were clenched shut you couldn’t help but try to ground yourself from the onslaught of panic, trying to think of happy things - though only one thing came to mind. Arthur. Not a day had gone by that you didn’t miss his company, longed to hear his laugh and feel his arms around you, wished for the way he’d look at you, actually seeing you with unprecedented love and admiration. Artie.

While your cries were muffled and salty tears poured down your face, you and your attackers had failed to notice a presence approaching the four of you. You jolted as three gunshots rang out, the bangs resonating off the narrow alley walls. Your ears rang due to the close proximity of the gunfire, the touch you had been dreading never coming, instead you could hear bodies falling to the ground with sickening thuds, the hand over your mouth immediately releasing as another thud sounded from beside you. You didn’t dare open your eyes as tears continued to pour down your cheeks, streamlines running down your paled face.

You jumped lightly as the new intruder gently kicked your foot in order to get you to look at them, upon opening your eyes you were greeted with a white handkerchief. You had yet to look at your protector, grabbing the handkerchief with a choked out thank you. While drying your tears, you were greeted with the familiar scent of cigarette smoke, coming from the person directly in front of you. He wasn’t what you’d pictured he’d look like. He had emerald green hair, a crimson suit which comfortably hugged his body, a green nearly teal button up, and a mustard vest. He stood comfortably, one hand tucked in his pants pocket while the other held a cigarette between his lips, the pale alley light casting an ethereal glow around him.

After a moment of looking away, he turned to face you, a hand going out to help you up. He didn’t say anything in that moment, simply beckoning for you to stand. Due to the dim lighting and the fact your were shrouded in darkness, you were surprised he had hit his targets and not accidentally hit you. You doubted he could see who you were in the darkness, you hand shakily grabbed his as you made your way to stand in front of him. You released his hand the moment you were up, tucking loose strands of hair behind your ear as you tried to compose yourself. “Thank you.” You were frozen the moment you looked up to thank him, your eyes meeting his own.

There's no way this could be real, you could feel rushed panic closing up your throat, your airways denying you air as the realization of who was standing in front of you hit you. You could see the glimmer of recognition cross his eyes, though his face as a whole remained unphased. You always could read him, even if he remained stoic. “A-Arthur?” You could see his eyes shift slightly as if he had something to say but swallowed it, “Go catch your bus.” He murmured it loud enough for you to hear before turning on his heel to leave you behind in the alleyway, the same way you did to him all those years ago - without a second glance.

You couldn’t stop yourself as you rushed forward to grab his wrist, “W-wait! Please. I just... I need...” He stopped walking, not turning to face you as his body tensed under your touch. You let out a small hum, your mind reeling as you attempted to find the words you so desperately wanted to say. You needed to know that he was happy, that's all you needed to move on with your life. “I-... Please just tell me you’re alright. That you’re happy, that you’ve found someone deserving of you.” A dry laugh escaped his lips at your words. “Everything is absolutely peachy. Haven’t you seen it? The cities burning and I’m a high class criminal.” His sarcasm rang through the air, your eyes bubbling with tears at the familiar feeling of his skin on yours. You lowered your head downwards as emotions and anxiety coursed through your veins, overtaking your mind. “I’m so, so sorry Artie.”

You could feel him tense at the use of the nickname, his tendons bulging in his wrist, his fist subconsciously clenching in response. You could feel the sick feeling of bile rising in your stomach as an onslaught of words poured out of your mouth all at once. “I didn’t want to hurt you, you deserve everything this world has to offer and I couldn’t and can’t offer you that. You need someone who isn't a wreck, someone with a solid job, a nice place, someone who is deserving of your love. That person isn’t me, even if I’d like it to be. I thought it would be best if I just disappeared, gave you the freedom to find the happiness and life you deserve.”

You were surprised when he whipped around his own chin shaking with emotion, although your weren’t sure if it was sadness, anger, resentment, maybe a combination of the three. His voice came out low at first, gradually raising in volume as his emotions climbed. “You don’t get to be sorry. I’d be happy if it weren’t for what you did, none of this would have happened.” Deep inside him, Arthur knew it wasn’t true but he couldn’t help it as confusing rage bubbled inside him. Never in the 2 years of being with Arthur, did you ever see him angry, he never raised his voice, and even when he was upset he put on a happy face for your sake, never wanting to worry you or hurt you unintentionally.

You could feel yourself breaking down at his words, the tone of his voice successfully slicing through you like the stroke of a hot knife on butter. “I thought I was helping you by cutting you off. I’m not worth your time or affections, I never have been. You deserve so much more than what I can give you Arthur. Believe me when I say I love you more than life itself Arthur but I couldn’t be the one who held you back from finding someone who deserves you.” You looked up to him, his eyes catching yours as you both remained silent, the tension between you two thick enough to cut through. You couldn’t say you were surprised when his hand gently shook you off, retreating to his side. You watched closely as his green eyes met yours, and for the first time you couldn’t tell what he was thinking, several emotions flicking across his gaze faster than you could register.

You watched as he raised his hand slowly towards you, his hand hesitating before landing on your cheek. It was strange, you’d seen the photos of this man standing before you, heard small talk of the “Joker”, he had a terrifying reputation among the elite you were surrounded by at the bank. Yet still, this was your Arthur. Sure his appearance changed, he was more bold, but just the way his eyes shone showed that he was in fact the same man you remembered. He still held the soft gaze you were so familiar with, even in his upset state. You didn’t blame him, you could only imagine what your reaction would be if the roles were reversed. You’d be heartbroken, unsure what to do with your life - though you supposed you were heartbroken when you left and didn’t know what you were doing with your life even in the present.

His touch was enough to calm the onslaught of tears that rushed down your face, relaxing as you thought about the care he maintained as his thumb gently brushed away the spare tears. “Is that really why you left?” His eyes bore into you, searching desperately for an answer as his uncertainty came through in his tone. You furrowed your eyebrows as his eyes stayed in contact with yours, confusion flashing through your eyes. “Of course it is, why else would I leave? You were the only positive thing I had going for me, I wouldn’t mindlessly throw something so precious to me to the side.” You watched as the ghost of a smile quirked at the edges of his lips, forming the small smile you’d seen so many times while watching Murray with him late at night.

Without another word his face came down to meet yours, his hand gripping your jaw tightly as his lips melded against yours. Instinctually your eyes closed, your hands coming to rest against his lean chest as he pulled you closer to him. His scent flooded your senses, the smell of cigarettes, cheap cologne, clothing detergent, and a new foreign smell, the faintest scent of gunpowder lingered on his clothing. His lips were perfectly suited to yours as the kissed deepened, this new Arthur being bolder than the one you’d left behind, his tonguing sipping into your mouth as he spread his red greasepaint across you lips.

You pulled away only to catch your breath, your hands not leaving his chest as he opened his eyes slowly, the green of his eyes gleaming in the dim alley lighting. “ Artie I can’t, you have to under-” He cut you off, pressing his finger to your lips. “That's is for me to decide doll, I need you beside me, not anyone else. You are my one and only, if you want me to be happy, then come home.” You looked up at him with confliction in your eyes but you knew your mind was made up the moment you caught a glimpse of Arthur and his adoration for you within his emerald pools. So you spoke 3 simple words, your heart swelling as you took in the beautiful man before you, the man you’d missed for three years, your love and happiness.

“Okay my love.”

#arthur fleck x you #arthur fleck x female reader #arthur fleck x reader #arthur fleck #the joker x reader #joker x reader #joaquin phoenix #phoenix!joker #Phoenix! joker x reader #phoenix joker #phoenix joker x reader #joker 2019

105 notes · View notes