And I know you're feeling low

Feel like you've lost control
But the darkness that you know
It's not your home and you're not alone

It was strange to think that by this time next week he'd be boarding the train to leave Hogwarts and the next time he'd be on it he would be coming back as a seventh year. How it had went so fast and so miserably slow all at the same time was beyond him. This year had seemed like it had went even faster than the rest. Aside from this last month. This last month had felt like it was the longest of his life for many reasons. Reasons he really wasn't trying to think about. Not right now. Not at the Ministry.

It was his last day interning. There weren't many expectations, which was nice. It felt...nice. Easy going. Dima knew they'd give him some piddily work to do and send him on him on his way but when they had sent him down to the lower floors he was a bit confused. His first day at the Ministry they had shown him around. A brief showing, of course, but from what he could remember of it the lower levels were for more law oriented divisions. It was where the Aurors were, where the Obliviators were. He had been to that department once or twice when he was much younger. His father had worked there for years, and yet when he came off the lift he felt turned around. Both in place and in understanding. Why was he down here again?

Dima found himself being passed around. Oh, this person would know who sent for you. This person would know who was on that case. This person might have been on the case. What case were they even talking about? Finally he found himself at the desk of someone else, hopefully the last someone else he would have to talk to. "Hi. I.. I'm looking for someone.. I don't know who, they sent me to you." Dima said thumbing over his shoulder to a cluster of desks. " I was interning upstairs and they sent me here about a case? My name's Dima Remnikov?" Why was his name a question? He knew full well what his bloody name was. Everything felt like a question when he had no idea what was going on. 

@zachattack | Outfit | Notes:

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0

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[attr="class","redqueen"]I'm Sorry To Say

[attr="class","tweedles"]Zach actually kind of liked working as an Obliviator, not the least because it was in that morally grey area where it was acceptable as a protection measure for wizardkind and other magical beings, but reprehensible as a human rights issue. They were, essentially, completely rearranging the minds of those they wiped which was...kind of unkind, but ultimately for the best interest of most of humanity. Some people just can't handle the truth of the universe, and while Zach knew there were good eggs among the muggle community, humanity as a whole has a tendency to do harm to people or things they consider a threat. Zach didn't like those facts, but it was a fact that gave him a legitimate job, a job that was even more secure after the rise of the Epidemic with so few people with magic left. Which meant that unless he was a complete and utter slacking arse, it'd be his job at least until a cure was found or he retired--whichever came first. Considering Zach had a good amount of money stashed away from his other job, he'd be able to retire comfortably whenever he wanted. The problem was that it wasn't all in one bank. There were different accounts under different names scattered across Europe, and while he had means to access them from wherever he happened to be should an emergency arise that prevented him from traveling, it was easier to make withdrawals in person. He had deliberately set up the accounts that way, and even then, there were several other security measures to prevent conartists from accessing them. It would look suspicious if he suddenly consolidated them all into one account at the same time, which was why he had to plan his retirement and devise a timeline to move the money without arousing suspicion. Retirement was a ways off, however, so Zach had plenty of time to work things out there. His untimely death was an event already planned for, in that most of his money would be going to various orphanages throughout Europe--the largest portion to the one that raised him, of course.

Zach was only just coming in for some paperwork and to meet up with the son of the Training Instructor to pass along some...unfortunate news. Alexi had been Zach's own instructor some six years ago, though Zach didn't know the man that well on a personal level. He'd known Alexi had four sons, a few of which in Hogwarts at the time, and at least one of them still was at this point. He'd run into the kid around the Ministry from time to time, though they hadn't exchanged more than passing pleasantries. It was sad, and Zach almost wished he could adopt the kid, but his other job wasn't conducive to raising a kid, even one so close to adulthood as this one. After rehearsing what to say for days, Zach still didn't know how to break the news in a way to hurt any less, the whole thing was just sad and so much a reminder of the toll working in a job like theirs could take on someone with a conscience. "Probably looking for me, kid. Don't know why they wanted me to break the news, honestly, probably thought I'd be more sympathetic because...well, you don't need to know that." He rubbed a nervous hand over the back of his neck, Merlin why was this so hard? "Look, I don't know how to say this very gently, but...your father is..." he sighed harshly, "your father is dead. Your mum too. Looks like a murder suicide with a muggle gun, I don't know much more than that honestly." Another pause so he could scrub a hand over his face. God this was not what he signed up for when he joined the program. Telling kids their parents were dead never got easier. "I'm so sorry kid."

[attr="class","rabbit"]669 - @dima - Outfit

♕fai

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AND I KNOW YOU'RE FEELING LOW

FEEL LIKE YOU'VE LOST CONTROL
BUT THE DARKNESS THAT YOU KNOW
IT'S NOT YOUR HOME AND YOU'RE NOT ALONE

It had been months since Dima had seen his father. Nearly a whole year, if one where to count. For the longest time he hadn't known where his father had gone. Business. That seemed to be the general consensus for quite some time. Mum never seemed to worried, which had struck him as odd, especially when Obliviator business took him overseas? The Ravenclaw had passed a million different theories through his head trying to solve this as his own personal case. There was a chance his father had lied about business. There was a chance he had decided to run off completely to not face their troubles. This was entirely plausible considering what the rumor was.

It wasn't much of a rumor. His brother Phief was quite out with the knowledge that the children Bailey had sired where by no means his. Somehow Dima questioned that the least. While the two of them were absolutely disgusting together, he had no doubt that his brother wouldn't have allowed for such things. Too set in his ways. Too purist at heart to let her have his sons, or at least too malicious to let her carry them as far as she had. Dima didn't doubt that Phief would do something like that, but he had every doubt as to why and how his father had become the father to those children.

His whole life seemed like a lie after Spring Break and honestly he didn't know what to believe anymore. Phief had told him the things their father had hid from them. The painful truths his brothers had went to great lengths to protect he and Rurik from. He didn't want to believe it as true. That their father was in Russia, that Bailey was too, and that he had finally seen the error of his ways. Coming out of Phief's mouth at the time that it had seemed less believable. The kind of unbelievable like the stories parents tell their children to turn fairy-tales into life lessons. Dima got it, he understood that he and Zoe were not supposed to be together. Having Alfred screaming threats into his face made that perfectly clear-- but concocting stories like that? It sat wrong. It sat so wrong that it almost....felt like it could be the truth.

And to find out that his father had allegedly left them and the Ministry nearly a year ago. The fact that he hadn't gotten a single reply back. The fact that no one seemed to be batting an eyelash at his absence, that his older brothers were so blase' about the whole ordeal. It made sense. Even when he didn't want it to, he could see how it did. All Dima ever tried to do in this world was try and make sense of things. The reason he was in this different department hunting down some sort of case information-- that didn't make any sense. And it was making less sense by the second.

Break the news? More sympathetic? Dima's brows furrowed in his confusion as he watched the elder wizard seemingly struggling with whatever words he was trying to get out. "Okkkk" he dragged out in a sort of question. He wasn't sure what the man meant or why he was going to need his extra sympathies. According to the man he didn't need to know that at all which only drove his confusion even deeper. He could feel his mind snatching for any sort of reasoning to put behind this strange event. Break the news that...what? Was he being asked not to return next year? Did he manage to screw up his internship that bad? Merlin's great beard, how?! He had done well enough, he had done what they asked of him! His head fell into a swarm of thoughts and just as rapidly as it had formed it stopped again as the man spoke.

The world seemed to lurch. The way a building might lurch just moments before falling down. A sense of impending doom fell over him and he fought it tooth and nail. "No," the words came out sternly, almost matter of fact-- if, of course, he had known it to be fact at all. His thoughts argued that it had to be fact. Had to be. "No, my father is  in Russia right now. I don't even think we own any guns?" Lurch. Like watching a bookshelf on the verge of toppling over. The spines sliding ever closer to the edge. The creak of old wood threatening to send it all tumbling to the ground. "I think you might have the wrong person." It sounded sure, but almost like a plea. He didn't think he had ever wished death on someone, really, but right now he was wishing it on someone, anyone else. This couldn't be right. His parents couldn't be... 

@zachattack | Outfit | Words: 810

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0

Sorry to Say

Zach hated this. Hated that they made him do this. Just because he was an orphan himself, didn't mean he'd know what to say to a freshly orphaned teenager. Zach himself had never had someone break this kind of news to him, not even when Martha died, so how in the world was he supposed to know what to say? There was no easy way to break the news that his parents had died--had possibly been murdered, though it looked too much like a murder suicide--no easy way to say that he was more or less alone now. Poor kid. Zach sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face, felt the five day scruff left from a tough case and nights spent debating over how to tell the kid the news. He'd gone longer without shaving anyway, months even, so five days was hardly anything, but he knew he looked a mess. He always looked a mess, these days.

Denial. The first stage, and a very understandable reaction given what the kid believed about his parents. "You have no idea how much I wish I had the wrong person, trust me," he muttered on another sigh. "But it was definitely Alexi Remnikov and Irene Fellbottom found dead with a muggle gun in Alexi's hand. I recognized him myself from training. God," he sighed yet again, "I'm real sorry kid. I think they thought...I don't know what they thought when they nominated me to be the bearer of bad news. Probably thought I'd know how it feels?" Except he didn't. Because he's been an orphan all his life. He never knew what it was like to have actual parents to mourn. He'd never been orphaned; he was always an orphan. There's a difference.

"Look, I might not really know what you're going through, but I probably understand what it's like to feel alone after all this. So...I know you're not interning in this department, but if you ever need someone to talk to," he shrugged, "I'd be all ears. And, you know, I could look into it a bit because honestly? I'm a bit suspicious." Oh sure, Alexi had been on a leave of absence for mental health--that's what the official documents say, anyway--but he'd never seemed the type to kill himself. Not that Zach thought himself a very good judge of that sort of thing, but well...it just seemed wrong, somehow, for Alexi to just off himself and his wife like that.

---

Words: 414 Notes: this is a mess I'm sorry