you will see

We're just like you

only prettier

She knew that she hadn’t planned on actually going to see her brother, but there was some part of her that thought that she just might go and take brownies over to Lestrange Castle, and then she could… Well, she didn’t know. Wait for him? Kate didn’t want to go to the Ministry, she didn’t think that that was a good idea, but she wanted to see her brother. After going to the makeshift hospital to see Sloane, she thought that that was a good idea. With everything that was going on, she thought that there was a reason that she had done what she had done, and Kate understood it. But she didn’t like it. She was never going to like it. You couldn’t like something like that. You didn’t just think that that was going to be okay. Or that that was going to not have serious repercussions. Because words like Coma were enough to strike fear into someone that had experienced this side of one.

And she knew that it was for the best. Carlisle had tried to explain that to her again. But she still didn’t like it. There was no way that she was going to be able to breathe easy until Sloane was sitting up and talking to her again. Kate was going to worry. She was worried about Brenna. What was going to happen if her mother was stuck in that coma? What was going to happen if they never got her back, because they couldn’t wake her up? Kate had nearly lost her brother to a coma once, and it hadn’t been done by anyone’s choice. Sloane had chosen this, and that was the scary part. She had chosen to leave them all. And maybe it wasn’t leaving, maybe it would be fine. But what if it wasn’t fine? What if… What if… It was the what ifs that were going to kill her.

Kate knew that she couldn’t continue to focus on them, but they were all that she had right now. She had the what ifs that were rolling around her brain like nothing she had ever seen before. She was sure that they were going to get worse, the longer that she was out of it. The longer that Sloane was asleep, the more that she was going to worry. And she knew that they didn’t understand it. That Carlisle was worried, because that was his wife, and the mother of his youngest child. And she was in a coma. And she knew that Griff hated the word coma, and he didn’t really like hospitals, or healers being around him. But she knew that he wasn’t going to see it from her side either. Even Sloane couldn’t have seen it from her side. She hadn’t been here.

There was only one person that had been here, that was going to understand how she felt right now. There was only one person that even stood a chance at remembering how this had felt the last time. And she hadn’t really thought that she was ever going to find something in common with her sister-in-law, she and Davina were two sides of two very different coins. But she thought that about this, it was Davina that was actually going to understand her worry the best. And that was… Funny, really. More than anything else it made Kate want to laugh, and maybe she was just hysterical. Maybe that was it. But she figured that if anyone was going to get it, it would be her brother’s wife. She had watched him go through that too. She had gone to see him, Kate thought that she might be the only one that knew that, that Davina had gone to see him so much. But she did know.

She had known back then, and she knew now. When Davina hadn’t showed up when he woke up, Kate hadn’t known what to think, and she had ended up just writing the other witch off. She hadn’t given her another thought really, until Griff had announced that he was marrying her, and that was… Puzzling? Where had that come from really? But she knew that sometimes things worked out like that. Sometimes you didn’t see something coming, and then it hit you out of nowhere. She knew that that happened, but she hadn’t expected Davina McCrae to happen. It had happened though, and her brother seemed happy, so that was all that mattered in the end. Knocking on the door of Lestrange Castle, Kate didn’t know if there was actually going to be anyone around to answer the door, but she thought that it was worth a shot.

Davina Rhiannon Yaxley • 783 • catherine's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[nospaces]

[attr="class","cbg"]

[attr="class","cbgtop"]

[attr="class","cimg"]

[attr="class","clbox"]

[attr="class","ctopline"]You got your friends just like I got mine

[attr="class","cscriptspeci"]we might think a little differently

[attr="class","cline"]

[attr="class","clyrics"]But we got a lot in common you will see[break]
We're just like you, only prettier

[break][break]

[attr="class","cbody"]She was finally starting to feel better. Physically, at least. Her fever had broken, and she was left with mostly just a headache and fatigue at this point. Davina wanted to think that was a good thing. Symptoms fading away, starting to feel like she was actually getting better… it was a good thing. The epidemic hadn’t killed many people. She knew that it had the same way that the normal flu could, but for the most part, symptoms faded away and everyone ended up all right.
[break][break]
But with one major part of them missing and that was what Davina was still trying to work past.
[break][break]
It wasn’t that she relied on magic for every little thing, because she didn’t. The housework, cooking, taking care of Ava Blair… she didn’t need magic for any of that. But she couldn’t brew without magic and that was her job. It was what she loved to do. She didn’t like knowing that she couldn’t do that. Yes, she supposed that she and Griff could work something out where he helped her, but Merlin knew that he was busy enough without placating her with something like that. And it wasn’t like she needed to brew. It was hardly a priority when he was as busy as he was.
[break][break]
He had to be at the Ministry more often than not these days. She knew that it was hard to keep everything going when so many people were sick. It was a wonder that they were able to at all, but they had managed. Davina thought a huge part of that had to be how much Griff was working and how hard he was working to keep the aurors’ office going. If the department of magical law enforcement fell, then she thought it was only a matter of time until the rest of the ministry did too. Without aurors enforcing the law, everything could fall to chaos quickly.
[break][break]
So, she understood why he was working as much as he was, but it didn’t stop her from worrying about him. He hadn’t gotten sick, thankfully. Somehow, she knew that he would still be pulling long days at the Ministry if he had, but he had mercifully managed to avoid being infected by the illness. Davina didn’t know how exactly it spread or anything like that, but Merlin knew that he had been around enough sick people to have gotten sick himself. The fact that he hadn’t had to have something to do with him personally, because he had certainly been exposed to it.
[break][break]
It made her feel slightly better, knowing that he likely would have gotten sick already if he was going to get sick. It meant that he was fine. And that was something.
[break][break]
Davina did wonder when all of this was going to die down. She wondered how they would all recover from this and what was going to happen next. Davina had no idea what Andromeda was going to do, but she had a feeling that it wasn’t going to be an easy time to be Minister for the foreseeable future. But if anyone could figure it out, she thought that it would be her. She would somehow figure out what needed to be done, Davina was sure of it.
[break][break]
For now, they were staying at Lestrange Castle. Davina thought that they could probably go home soon but she was letting Griff make that choice. She didn’t mind being here. But she was always going to be more comfortable at home and since they were all on the mend, there wasn’t much of a reason for them to all be together. She knew that Griff had wanted to keep an eye on them but now that they weren’t as sick anymore, it would be fine.
[break][break]
Griff was at work, and she thought the rest of the house was too. If they weren’t, then she hadn’t yet come across them today. So when she heard a knock on the door, she figured that she might as well attempt to beat Andromeda’s house elves to it and see who it was. But what she hadn’t expected was to see Kate. Her sister-in-law was not her biggest fan, or at least that was how it felt. She didn’t know why that was, but she could never bring herself to actually ask her either. “Kate. Hi,” she said, trying to hide her surprise. “Griff is at work.” In her mind, it was much more likely that the woman was here to see him.
[break][break]

[attr="class","cnotes"]755 ● @ kate ● outfit no hat

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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YOU WILL SEE

we're just like you

only prettier

Talking to Griff was something that had used to be so much easier. She had wanted things to still be that easy, but she wasn’t sure that it was. Or at least it hadn’t been. Talking to her brother meant that she was often around the perfection that was her sister-in-law. Because really, she thought that Davina was probably everything that Mother had ever wanted in a daughter, and she was everything that Kate was not. She had had a baby of her own. She had managed to be accomplished, and brilliant, and beautiful, and still get around to the whole husband, and baby, thing. And that was exactly what her mother had wanted for her. Kate thought that at this point she might even accept a halfblood husband, if she would just marry and settle down, and all of that.

But she wasn’t sure that she wanted that at all. And with everything that was happening right now… Kate didn’t know how to handle what was going on at the hospital. And she had decided that it didn’t matter who answered the door at Lestrange Castle. She didn’t care if it was Davina, or Andromeda, or even Rabastan. She just wanted to talk to her brother, and they were staying there. For whatever reason that she didn’t’ think that she had ever really heard, they were staying with the Lestranges, and that was, whatever… She just wanted to see Griff.

She wanted to talk to him, because Sloane had decided that the only way to contend with this illness was by going to sleep. And not just sleep sleep. She had let them put her in a coma. And Kate was… Well, mad, she supposed. She was mad, and she knew that she didn’t have a right to be. She wasn’t the one that was sick, and had ‘earth splitting’ headaches, or whatever it was that Carlisle had said. She had only been half listening. And she thought that she hated him a little more today too. She had always thought that Sloane could have done better, but today, when he had been supportive of her cousin’s decision, she had hated him.

And she knew that it wasn’t his fault. That it hadn’t been his choice. But she was angry, and she needed someone to be angry at that wasn’t Sloane. And so, her anger had landed on Carlisle. But now she needed her brother to tell her that she was being ridiculous. And she knew that it was the middle of the afternoon. And that he was probably at work. But she would… She didn’t know, wait? She supposed that she would wait. Or really, she supposed it would depend on who was going to answer the door. She would stay if it was Davina, or even maybe Andromeda. But if it was one of the Lords Lestrange, she thought that she would just drop off the brownies and break down and go to the Ministry.

But she didn’t want to. She had left the Ministry, and everything about it, behind her when she had walked out last spring. Going back in there now was some sort of defeat. Or it felt like it to her. Even if she was only going to see her brother. Still, she thought that she would have much rather seen him here.

When the door opened in front of her she looked up from what she was holding, and she raised her eyebrows just a little bit at the fact that it was Davina that had opened the door after all. She hadn’t really expected her to. In fact, she thought that she might have been hoping for one of Andromeda’s elves. But that hadn’t worked out either. “Oh, um, yeah…” It was the middle of the day after all. “That’s okay. I, um, I brought you guys some brownies.” She lifted the plate in her hand towards her sister-in-law. “They have chocolate chips in them.” Normally, she was so much more eloquent, but her trip to the hospital had shaken her, and now that she was standing here, she didn’t really know what to do, or say.

@ sister-in-law • 696 • catherine's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[nospaces]

[attr="class","cbg"]

[attr="class","cbgtop"]

[attr="class","cimg"]

[attr="class","clbox"]

[attr="class","ctopline"]YOU GOT YOUR FRIENDS JUST LIKE I GOT MINE

[attr="class","cscriptspeci"]we might think a little differently

[attr="class","cline"]

[attr="class","clyrics"]BUT WE GOT A LOT IN COMMON YOU WILL SEE[break]
WE'RE JUST LIKE YOU, ONLY PRETTIER

[break][break]

[attr="class","cbody"]Out of all of them, the only person who hadn’t gotten sick was Griff. She had, Andi had, both Lestranges, Carlisle and Sloane… all of them. So, that meant that she was going to listen when Griff said that he wanted them to all stay at Lestrange Castle for a little while. She didn’t quite know why he had insisted on it—either he had wanted her to keep an eye on Andromeda, or vice versa, or… well, she figured it was one of those two things, really. Maybe a bit of both.
[break][break]
But she wasn’t going to complain. She could understand not wanting her alone at Mayberry all day while he was at work, especially with how long his shifts had been lately. With as many people sick as there were, she knew that it was a wonder that the Ministry was still standing, and that meant that everybody that could work needed to be there as often as they possibly could. That was just the way that it needed to be, to keep everything from just falling into chaos.
[break][break]
She was worried about him, though. It was hard not to be.
[break][break]
It wasn’t just that he was working so much, though she was concerned that he wasn’t getting enough sleep. She would have worried that he wasn’t eating enough but she knew better than that, at least. He still usually ended up cleaning his plate and then finishing whatever of hers that she didn’t want when he was home for dinner. And she made him lunch. Or she had been, anyway. That had been nonnegotiable. She had no idea if he actually ate the lunch that she packed for him or if it just sat forgotten on his desk, but she made it for him anyway.
[break][break]
It just helped her feel like she wasn’t doing absolutely nothing, which was silly really. He was keeping the government running, and running the aurors, and she felt good about herself for making a sandwich or pasta salad, but it at least made her feel like she was doing something. And it made her just slightly less worried about him, knowing that he at least had something for lunch. If he didn’t have that, she’d certainly worry that he’d just completely lose track of time and would come home at night realizing he hadn’t eaten since breakfast.
[break][break]
Because she made breakfast too, obviously. She was doing all that she could to make sure that he was eating enough, even if she couldn’t do much about the sleeping enough thing. He was just pulling impossibly long days, in her opinion, and she wished that she could do something to help with that. But she couldn’t, not really. She just had to hope that he was going to be all right and that he wasn’t going to work himself too hard. That he would take a break if he really needed.
[break][break]
When she heard a knock at the door, she knew that one of Andromeda’s elves would easily be able to get it, but she had been close enough that she figured she might as well get it on her own. No reason to make them do all of the work. Even they were working far harder than she was to keep this house running. And they had been nearly exclusively been taking care of the kids while they were sick, since they didn’t want them getting sick too. She hated not being able to be around Ava Blair as much, but she didn’t want to put her at risk.
[break][break]
So, the least she could do was open a door, even if they hadn’t been expecting anyone. At least, she didn’t think they had, anyway. She had no idea if Rabastan or Rodolphus had someone coming over, but she knew that she wasn’t expecting anyone, at least. And she really hadn’t expected Kate. “Oh,” for a moment, she didn’t know what else to say. It was just strange for her to come over when she had to figure Griff was at work. “Thank you. I love chocolate chips in brownies,” Davina added, taking the plate from her with a small smile. Kate couldn’t have known that about her, not unless Griff had randomly told her that, but she really did. “Do you want to come in?” She offered, before taking a step back so the woman could come inside.
[break][break]

[attr="class","cnotes"]735 ● @ kate ● outfit no hat

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

[googlefont=Dancing Script]
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[newclass=.cred a]color:rgb(132, 132, 132);font-size:6pt;letter-spacing:1px;font-family:verdana;[/newclass]

YOU WILL SEE

we're just like you

only prettier

Everything had changed, and Kate thought that that was okay. It was okay that things were different. It was okay that they weren’t all the same people that they had always been. But going to that makeshift hospital and finding that her cousin was in a coma… that was something that Kate hadn’t been prepared for, and she had been half tempted to go to her brother right then and there. She had been half tempted to go right to the Ministry, and she knew that she couldn’t. She knew that he had enough to worry about without her falling apart on him. But she didn’t know what else to do. She wanted Griffith. She wanted him to tell her that it was going to be okay.

See, Katie. I’m right here. I’m fine. That was what she wanted to hear.

She wanted to hear that Sloane was going to be fine too. Because she was. She was going to be just fine, and she didn’t think that anyone was doubting that. But she was. Kate was. Kate was doubting everything, because Sloane hadn’t been here. She didn’t know what it was like. And she didn’t tell anyone! Kate thought that that was the worst part. She had been going to that hospital to see her cousin, and instead she had found her flat on her back, in a coma. And all of a sudden, her world was crashing down around her ears.

All of a sudden, she was fifteen years old again. And her brother had been crushed under debris and rubble. She was fifteen years old, and she was hearing them say that they didn’t know if he was ever going to wake up again. She had so much to say. She had had so much to say then, and she had so much to say now. There was too much left. There was too much to live for. And Brenna… Merlin, Salazar, and Morgana. Brenna…

Her niece was not even one yet, and what if she lost her mother to this? This was horrible. This was the worst thing that could have happened, and Kate thought that she was probably verging on hysterical. That it probably wasn’t as bad as she thought. That things were going to be fine. But she didn’t think that there was any reason to believe that that wasn’t the case. No one had said that she wasn’t going to be like that forever. Carlisle hadn’t even known what was wrong with her. Just that she had given him his brownies. Sloane’s brownies. And she had run.

Kate had run. Because she couldn’t be there. She couldn’t hardly go and see the rest of her friends. She couldn’t check on Thea Mountbatten, and the rest of her co-workers. She had had to get out of there. She had had to run. And it was hard. It was hard to think about what was going to happen. But she also couldn’t get it out of her head. It was all that Kate could think about, in some ways. It was all that she wanted to forget. She just wanted to forget.

And she wanted a drink. And really, more than anything else, that was the last thing that she needed right now. Because she was good. She was so good, about being careful. About knowing when to stop. About not letting herself go too far. But if she took a drink, she was going to go looking for something else. She was going to try and make it all disappear, and she couldn’t do that. She couldn’t fall apart like that. She had been so good, all of these years.

“I…” She wanted to. And she didn’t want to. “I… Yes. Please…” She didn’t know what to do, how to explain. Stepping through the door she stopped in the hall of the castle, and focused on the other with, “Davina…” Kate wasn’t close to her sister-in-law, she didn’t know how to be. She didn’t know how to accept her, when she was everything that Mother wanted, and Kate herself was not. But right now, that didn’t matter, because while Griffith could understand what she was about to tell her, she thought that Davina might feel the weight of it. “Did you know Sloane is in a coma?”

@ sister-in-law • 723 • catherine's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[nospaces]

[attr="class","cbg"]

[attr="class","cbgtop"]

[attr="class","cimg"]

[attr="class","clbox"]

[attr="class","ctopline"]YOU GOT YOUR FRIENDS JUST LIKE I GOT MINE

[attr="class","cscriptspeci"]we might think a little differently

[attr="class","cline"]

[attr="class","clyrics"]BUT WE GOT A LOT IN COMMON YOU WILL SEE[break]
WE'RE JUST LIKE YOU, ONLY PRETTIER

[break][break]

[attr="class","cbody"]She had come a long way, in the past couple of years—she knew that.
[break][break]
It was hard to believe how much had changed, if she was being perfectly honest with herself. It was something that just came to mind sometimes. Only a few years before, she had been working at Hogwarts. She’d been teaching potions, she’d been in charge of Hufflepuff House, and she had been very single, mostly on purpose. In her mind, there had been little point in bothering with relationships. Her last one had ended horribly, and she didn’t want any more blood on her hands. And she didn’t know what she wanted, not really.
[break][break]
Going into the Muggle world, hiding from her family the way that she had, it had seemed like the right plan. When she had gotten the attention of a Muggle, dating him had just seemed… right. She had already betrayed her family and her old life in every was possible. What better way to get as far from them as possible, than to date a Muggle.
[break][break]
The engagement, getting pregnant, none of that had been a part of the plan. She hadn’t really thought that it would get that far. Honestly, she wasn’t sure what she had been thinking at all. She had just sort of let it all happen, figuring that it was for the best. That she was doing what she was meant to be doing.
[break][break]
So, once that had all gone south, and she had come back to the magical world and had started working at Hogwarts, dating hadn’t really been on her mind. Her family had proven what they would do if she dated someone that they didn’t approve of, and she didn’t want that blood on her hands. She couldn’t. Yet, she couldn’t imagine dating anyone that they did approve of. She wasn’t that person. Right?
[break][break]
Somewhere along the way, she realized that she didn’t know who she was. Not really. Her entire life had been spent trying to get as far away from her family as she possibly could. From the moment she was old enough to be a disappointment, her parents had inflicted whatever torture on her that they could imagine. From the time she was old enough to be useful, her father had come into her room at night. But no McCraes had ever bore Roderick a son. All she had ever wanted to do was get away from her family. Griff had been the light at the end of the tunnel at one point and when he was in that coma, she hadn’t had any other options. She’d had to take care of herself.
[break][break]
But they had found their way back to each other, somehow. She didn’t care if it sounded corny, or mushy… it was true. It had been Andromeda that had done it, but they hadn’t known what kind of relationship they were actually going to have. A part of her had known that she had never stopped loving him, but she’d also been very aware that he might not feel the same way—and that she might have to accept that. That was the point of an arranged marriage, after all. Sometimes, all you could hope for was just fondness or tolerance. Love was not always guaranteed. Not on both sides, and sometimes not at all.
[break][break]
Though, honestly, loving him and him not loving her would have been harder than both of them just expecting fondness or tolerance. She had known that. But they did love each other. They had a child—and would hopefully have at least one more… maybe two. She was hoping for two more. But they had time. That was the best part of this, knowing that they had time. But the epidemic had… worried her. Had changed things, sort of. She was a little wary of getting pregnant without magic and what that might mean. Not that she would love a Squib any less, but still. She had to wonder.
[break][break]
But they didn’t have to worry about that just yet. She knew that Griff thought having a couple of years between kids was the best move and she could agree with that. Ava Blair wasn’t even a year old yet, after all. Pushing those thoughts from her mind, she let Kate into the house, realizing maybe a few seconds too late that there was something wrong. Davina didn’t really know the witch enough to have realized that right off of the bat, but there was clearly something on her mind. She just couldn’t have guessed what the woman was actually going to say—and even when she’d heard it, she was sure she’d misheard her. “I’m—she’s what?”
[break][break]

[attr="class","cnotes"]784 ● @ kate ● outfit no hat

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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YOU WILL SEE

WE'RE JUST LIKE YOU

ONLY PRETTIER

Bursting into the Ministry in a panic wouldn’t have done any good, and it would have just worried Griff about something that he didn’t need to worry about while he was working. Part of her had even wanted to go to her mother. Kate hardly ever longed for her mother, but in that moment, she had nearly gone running to Vitalia. And she didn’t think that that was going to do her any good either. Maybe people knew. Maybe her mother already knew, and she could have given her some answers. But Dorset was closer to London than the Highlands, and Kate thought that getting to someone else first was necessary.

She couldn’t be alone. That was really all that she wanted, and while she knew that Davina wasn’t the best option, she was better than nothing. And she had made her brownies too. She might as well have come here. She might as well have been somewhere where she knew that she wasn’t going to do anything stupid. Where nothing could get to her or tempt her. Alone there was no one to hold her accountable. And Brenna was here. Andromeda had Brenna. She wanted to see her. She wanted to hold her.

Some part of Sloane that was awake, and happy. Kate wanted to see that. She wanted to prove to herself that everything was actually going to be okay. That nothing bad was going to happen. She was going to wake up. Griff had woken up, after all. And everything had been, well, not great, but he had woken up. And waking up was all that really mattered. She didn’t know what she had been thinking. She didn’t know what it was that had been so terrible that she thought that that was the only answer. Was it really that bad? Was her Sight so bad that she had had to resort to this?

Kate knew that Sloane hadn’t been here before. That she had already been shipped off to Norway when Griff had gotten hurt, when things had been hell. But she didn’t think that that changed anything. She didn’t think that that changed the fact that they had been through this before. That that fear… that that word was enough to send people in this family reeling. And she had chosen this… Carlisle had said that this was her choice. She had elected to be put into a coma. Kate hadn’t thought that anyone willingly chose to suspend their life in such a way.

That was crazy. And yet, she must have had some reason. Some justification for what she had done. If she woke up, she had a hell of a lot of explaining to do. When. When she woke up. Not if. She wasn’t going to die. Kate couldn’t let herself think that she was going to die, because if she did, she was going to slip off of that cliff, and then where was she going to land? She could hit the rocks at the bottom and lose everything that she had worked so hard to get ahold of over the years.

Building herself back up from where she had been after Hogwarts had been an uphill battle nearly every day, and she didn’t want to lose that battle today. She hadn’t figured out how to bond with the witch in front of her now. She didn’t know what it was that they had in common other than her brother, and yet she thought that this she might understand. This she might feel the weight of, the same as Kate did. The red head hadn’t quite made it to the living room when she had spoken, but she nodded, stopping in the doorway to the room, in a castle that belonged to neither of them. “I just came from the hospital… She’s in a coma…”

@ davina • 643 • catherine's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

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[attr="class","ctopline"]YOU GOT YOUR FRIENDS JUST LIKE I GOT MINE

[attr="class","cscriptspeci"]we might think a little differently

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[attr="class","clyrics"]BUT WE GOT A LOT IN COMMON YOU WILL SEE[break]
WE'RE JUST LIKE YOU, ONLY PRETTIER

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[attr="class","cbody"]When she had befriended Andromeda, she had never expected how much would change because of it. There was really no reason for her to think that anything would. She had just needed a friend in the castle. It hadn’t felt like she’d had many back then. It had been different when Minerva had been headmistress. Davina might not have been fully herself back then—she might have been being the version of herself that she thought she was supposed to be, but she had always felt safe. She had never felt like she was in danger while at work. The only time that she’d really felt like she’d been in any danger at all had been when she was occasionally pulled into the Ministry for questioning. That had been the height of her problems when Durant had been Minister and when Minerva had been headmistress of Hogwarts.
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But everything had changed when the Ministry had been taken over and suddenly, she had felt like Hogwarts was a far more dangerous place. It hadn’t happened all at once, but it had happened nonetheless. Carlisle Rosier had been around and while sometimes she managed to forget that he was a Death Eater, other times she was very aware of that. Aurora had seemed like her friend at the time, but time had shown the women’s true colors and how good she was at putting on a mask. It hadn’t been safe there.
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There had been a point in time when she hadn’t even been sure of her relationship with Andromeda. A time when she had seemed more on the side of Aurora and Carlisle than anyone else. Davina wasn’t even sure what had changed that, back then. She had just known that something had changed, and it had ended with her trusting the woman more than anyone else in the world. And that had ended with Andromeda orchestrating the dinner with Griff. If it weren’t for her, she wouldn’t be where she was now. She wouldn’t have Griff, she wouldn’t have Ava Blair… and she never could have expected a friendship with a colleague at work would end up like this.
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And now that friend was more like family to her, and also now Minister herself. Yes, there had been a lot of changes in the past couple of years, none of which she could have ever expected. There was always something new to worry about. That part was unfortunate but true. Davina had worried enough about Griff and Andromeda before. It had just felt like the Ministry wasn’t the safest place in the world. Everyone knew that if anyone wanted to hurt Andromeda, they’d have to get through Griff and the aurors’ office first, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t try. She had worried about that—probably more often than she should have, honestly.
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But the epidemic had changed that further. There was so much more to worry about now. She tried not to put too much thought into it, but that was difficult to do. Everyone was sick—she was sick, Andromeda, Carlisle and Sloane, Rabastan and Rodolphus… the only one that wasn’t was Griff. As relieved as that made her, as glad as she was that he was okay, it didn’t ease her worries too much. Especially with Kate at the door. It was hard not to think that the woman wouldn’t come to see her unless something was wrong. It was no secret that her sister-in-law was not her number one fan. But she never could have expected the words that had actually left her lips. “What? How?” Her voice was sharper now, worry filling it. If there was one word in the English language that she thought she truly hated, it was ‘coma.’ It was too hard not to think about how much time Griff had spent in one, and how often she’d worried and prayed that he would wake up.
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[attr="class","cnotes"]654 ● @ kate ● outfit no hat

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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YOU WILL SEE

WE'RE JUST LIKE YOU

ONLY PRETTIER

Kate had never properly figured out how to bond with Davina. She hadn’t wanted a sister. She still didn’t really want a sister. She had had Sloane. And that had been enough. She had brothers. Two of them. Even if her relationship with Fitz had always been… Complicated. And she had Draco. Which was about as close to a third brother as she could get sometimes. He was her best friend. But she didn’t need her brothers right now. She didn’t need Draco to talk to. Ironically, as ironically as anything else that she had ever dealt with, Kate had realized that the best person to talk to, was Davina.

And she didn’t know how to broach that canyon that she had been responsible for creating between them. Because she knew that it was of her own making. She had always held her sister-in-law so far from herself. She had put her on a pedestal and let her stay there. Let her mother worship her, and praise her, and Kate had kept herself so far from that. But even Vitalia wasn’t going to understand the weight of that word in the same way that Davina did. For her it had been her son in that coma. And now it was her niece. But to Kate this was the same thing. This was her brother, and the closest thing that she had ever had to a sister.

This was the same. And she knew that even Davina wasn’t going to understand it on the same level that she did. But she was going to feel it. She was going to feel the weight of that word. How much Kate hated that word… And she had hated it when Carlisle had said it. She had hated it when she had looked at Sloane and realized that it was true. And she hated it right now. She hated it so much. And there was absolutely nothing that they could do about it. It was done. What was done was done, and she wouldn’t be waking up until they woke her. Hopefully…

A disturbing little voice in the back of Kate’s mind added in that ‘hopefully’ in a way that she simply hated. She didn’t want to hear that ever again. She didn’t think that there was any need for such things. She didn’t think that there was a good enough reason to ever say something like that. She didn’t want to think that she was ‘hopefully’ going to wake up. She was going to wake up. That’s all there was to it. The baby… Gods, Brenna needed her mother to wake up. And she was here. She was with Andromeda, and Davina. And for that Kate was grateful. They could look after her.

The change in her sister-in-law was evident when she said that word, and Kate saw it. She saw that shift, and she recognized it. It was the same one that had come over her earlier. She had heard that word, and she had tensed. She had frozen, just for a moment, and then her head and her heart had started to race, and she wasn’t sure that she knew what to do with all of that. She wasn’t sure that she knew how to process what it was that was going on. She thought that it was going to be so much more complicated. But Carlisle had explained it so simply. And still she didn’t understand.

She didn’t know how something could be so bad. And Sloane could choose that route. She knew that she was a seer. She knew that her head had to have been impossible to deal with. But this? Was this really the only option? Shaking her head, Kate backed into the Lestrange’s living room, and towards the first piece of furniture that she could find. She really just needed to sit down. If she was going to tell Davina everything that she knew, she was going to need to be sitting down to do it. “I’m not sure exactly… Carlisle tried to explain.” The redheaded witch sank down onto the arm of the chair closest to the door, and her eyes never left her sister-in-law. “You know she’s a seer, right?” She assumed that she did by now, but it wasn’t well known outside of the family…

@ davina • 722 • catherine's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[nospaces]

[attr="class","cbg"]

[attr="class","cbgtop"]

[attr="class","cimg"]

[attr="class","clbox"]

[attr="class","ctopline"]YOU GOT YOUR FRIENDS JUST LIKE I GOT MINE

[attr="class","cscriptspeci"]we might think a little differently

[attr="class","cline"]

[attr="class","clyrics"]BUT WE GOT A LOT IN COMMON YOU WILL SEE[break]
WE'RE JUST LIKE YOU, ONLY PRETTIER

[break][break]

[attr="class","cbody"]The epidemic had been a hard thing to come to terms with. They had all realized what was going to happen, and that hadn’t made it any easier. Of course, it hadn’t. She had already been sick when the news had broken what would come next, and there had been nothing that she could do to stop it. It had just been the inevitable end to this illness, and she’d had to creep toward it slowly. It had come, and now her magic was gone. Physically, she mostly felt better. There were lingering symptoms that she was still trying to shake but, generally speaking, she was feeling physically okay.
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But being without her magic was something that was near impossible to adjust to. It was something that had been a part of her for the entirety of her life. It was something that she never should have had to be without. During her time in the Muggle world after she had graduated Hogwarts, she had lived mostly as a Muggle. She had not used magic except to brew when she was at home, but that wasn’t the same thing. Choosing not to use her magic and losing it all together… those were two entirely different matters, and it wasn’t something that she was used to. It felt like a whole part of her was gone. Brewing was always something that had brought her a bit of peace. When her mind was at work on a potion—the precise measurements, the exact instructions for stirring, and temperature… everything about it required her focus, and it got her mind off of everything else. It had always managed to calm her down when nothing else could.
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That being gone was difficult on her. She didn’t know if it was something that she would grow used to over time, until a cure was found, or it was something that was always going to be this hard. She didn’t know—and she didn’t know what answer she preferred. On one hand, Davina kind of hoped that it would get easier. She kind of hoped that it wouldn’t hurt like this forever, that it wouldn’t feel like a gaping hole in her. Just something that was missing that she was unable to get back. It would help if it didn’t hurt as much, maybe. She wanted to think that it would.
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But the other part of her… another part of her didn’t know what it meant for her to get used to something like that. For so long to go by without a cure that it did get easier. What would that mean? Being used to not having magic was a sadder thing to consider, when looking at the bigger picture. It wasn’t something that she wanted to have to get used to. Even thinking about that, even considering the possibility of her growing used to something like that… it hurt her. It hurt to even consider.
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Davina knew that the best thing to do was to go one day at a time. They would figure this out. There would be a cure, or there wouldn’t be a cure. They would figure it out as time continued to go by. It wasn’t something that would to her any good if she continued to think about it before she had to. It was better to focus on Ava Blair, to focus on what she could do—to go about her daily life as best as possible. That was what she had been trying to do, anyway.
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The presence of her sister-in-law at her door had not been a good sign, though, not when she realized that she wasn’t here to see Griff. Kate didn’t… well, they didn’t have the type of relationship where she would come all the way out here to talk to her. They didn’t hate each other or have any particular problems when around each other. It had just always been apparent to her that Kate was, at least, not her biggest fan. She would not have come here for no reason, though she never could have predicted just what that reason would be.
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Davina watched as Kate sat down—or nearly dropped down onto the first available surface, and she wasted no time in sitting down onto the armchair opposite of her, clasping her hands together as she waited for her sister-in-law to give her more information. “Yes,” she answered, with a nod. She hadn’t at first, but when Andromeda had decided they needed to have a family meeting about her wanting to oust the Minister, that information had come out. “Is that… I mean, is it causing more problems for her?” She had no idea if that was possible. She supposed it very well could be.
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[attr="class","cnotes"]794 ● @ kate ● outfit no hat

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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