dressed like the devil

i can't think straight

guess I've been down here way too long

Trying to process what was going on in her life was difficult. If it hadn’t been for that silly invitation… But she had gotten one. And she knew what it was for. It was for Saturday. It was for the fact that she hadn’t done anything fun in weeks, and she had figured out her little puzzle, and they were going to go. Strange as that whole concept was. But she had agreed to go before things had gotten… Difficult. And it wasn’t that they were difficult per se. It was just that they were far from normal. And Emmaline didn’t know how she was going to explain far from normal to G… Or Rhodes… Or her kids… Or just about anyone.

She couldn’t give this line of thought any more of her time though. If she did, she was going to get caught up in it. She was going to find herself all lost in thoughts of what was going to happen, and if she was going to really be ready for those changes… There was a lot to wrap her head around. A lot that she was going to have to try and work through. But she would get there. For them. For her family… That was a thought that was going to take some getting used to as well.

Emmaline didn’t think that family was a term that she would have thought about using before, but that stupid piece of paper… Had it been the piece of paper? Clearly there had been discussion about this beforehand. No one just accepted this without at least talking about it… Merlin and Morgana she had to get out of her own head. Having all of this on her mind wasn’t doing anyone any good. She was going to get sucked in, and then where would she be? Not getting anything done, that was for sure.

Heading down the hall towards her laboratory she spotted a semi-familiar face. Davina Yaxley was someone that she knew more from pictures, and Andromeda’s stories than she actually knew the woman. She had briefly worked at the hospital, but Emmaline didn’t think that she had had more than a couple of casual conversations with her. The pharmacy was somewhere that she had only gone when she had had to, and she had never really gotten to know the newest addition before the woman had been gone again.

“Lady Yaxley?” Emmaline knew that Andromeda had mentioned that she had offered her a job, but she hadn’t been aware that the woman had actually accepted it. Unless she hadn’t accepted it, and Andromeda had chosen not to listen. Because that seemed like something that the other woman would do. Honestly, she wasn’t surprised by a whole lot anymore. It wasn’t worth it to really get worked up about things. Though if she had hired her, Emmaline was a little curious as to what position, and why she hadn’t bothered to actually tell her. That was sneaky…

She would have to ask Rabastan if he had known that Davina would be joining them. But now was not the time to ask. She could be welcoming, and cordial to the younger witch, until she figured out what her role here was. If she had access to the labs, or if she was here in a secretarial capacity. That, more than anything else, Emmaline thought that they could probably use. There were enough binders of research floating around here that someone to organize all of the research wouldn’t really hurt.

Though she thought that Andromeda had probably thought less about what they needed, and more about the fact that she had a soft spot for Davina, and an entire building of offices that she could assign her to. “I didn’t know that you were going to be here today, are you looking for Andi?” Last she had talked to her she thought that the older witch was still at the Ministry, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t planning on stopping in at some point. She had been here for a little while yesterday afternoon, between meetings in the Ministry. Emmaline didn’t think that it took a genius to see that she wanted to be here, and not there. But that wasn’t her place, not if she didn’t want things turned right around on her again.

Davina Rhiannon Yaxley • 726 • emmaline's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

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[attr="class","cbody"]She had been playing with the idea of getting a job. Not for any particular reason. Just because she was at home most of the day, and she figured that she might as well do something useful. Andromeda had brought up her doing some work for the foundation and she had pretty much said that she would think about it. But it was not a bad idea. It was work that she could partially do at home, which was good. She liked being able to be home for Ava Blair. She didn’t think that she wanted a fulltime job that took her away from her all of the time. But she did not mind some days at the foundation, and some work that she could bring home with her. It did not seem like a bad idea to her.
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Davina had still thought on it for a couple of months before she had fully committed to the idea, though. Talking to Griff before she made any decisions had been important too. His opinion mattered too. Not that she thought that he would tell her that she couldn’t get a job or anything like that. Yes, he had been the one that had told her that she was leaving Hogwarts. But he had also known that she had not liked being there anymore. She had not felt safe there under the instability of Aurora, and she had not felt safe there with a Death Eater like Sebastian Flint in charge. That was a completely different situation. That had not been him telling her that he didn’t want her to have a job. It was removing her from a job that neither of them thought that she was safe in anymore.
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But the foundation was safe. It was not a job that would have her away from home all of the time, and it would give her something to do. It would make her feel useful. Davina was certain that if a cure was found, it would be found in this building. She trusted the minds that worked here. Most of them, anyway. Davina knew how brilliant they were and she knew how hard that they were working here. If there was anything that she could do to help, then she wanted to try. She had to try. She didn’t know how much good she was going to do, but trying to do something would be better than doing absolutely nothing. That was the hope anyway.
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Even after talking to Griff, she couldn’t say for sure that she had entirely decided. She was definitely leaning toward taking Andromeda up on the position, but there were still factors that she had wanted to consider. There were still reasons not to take the job. As much as she wanted something to do, being away from Ava Blair would be strange. She had made the decision to stay home with her a long time ago. And there were people here that she wasn’t sure how she would work with. As silly as it was, she had never been fully comfortable around either Lestrange brother. That had eased in time a little bit, of course. It was impossible for it not to. But it was still something to factor in. There was just a lot to consider.
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But she had made the mistake of telling Andromeda that she was thinking about it. That she had talked to Griff and that he supported the idea. Once she had told her that, there was really no turning back. She had pushed for a while before finally telling her that she had signed the papers and had made it official, and that if she didn’t come in today, she would be skipping her first day of work. And what an impression that would leave. No part of her was surprised by the woman forcing her hand. She knew how good she was at dragging her feet when she wasn’t sure if she wanted to do something. There was a good chance that she would have stalled taking the job for months, but now that just wasn’t a possibility.
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So, here she was. Not entirely sure what to do or where to go, but she was here nonetheless. And it was why she had been walking down the hall that she passed an… at least slightly familiar face. “Lady Avery—I… no, I’m not. She sort of hired me against my will,” she answered, jokingly. Or at least, partially joking.
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[attr="class","cnotes"]750 ● @ emmaline ● outfit

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

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dressed like the devil

i can't think straight

guess I've been down here way too long

The Foundation had been a saving grace when she had needed one. When Andromeda had told her what she was doing, Emmaline had been one of the first to sign her name on the dotted line. Rabastan might have beaten her to the punch, but she was sure that she hadn’t been too far behind. This was something that they needed. They needed the space. They needed the research funding. And if the Blacks were willing to fund it, because while Emmaline knew what name was above the door, she also knew what vaults her paycheck came from. This was Andromeda’s baby. Not Rodolphus’s. Not Rabastan’s. It was Andromeda’s, and as much as Andromeda still carried the Lestrange name, she was a Black.

That had been proven over and over again. That she was a snake, and that she would shed whatever skin didn’t fit her anymore. It was the most Slytherin thing that she had ever seen. And yet, Emmaline had seen her do it enough times that she wasn’t particularly worried about it. She had seen her be everything that she needed to be to survive. Healer. Politician. Wife. Mother. She could be all of it, and there wasn’t anything that she didn’t think that she couldn’t transform herself into. Just for a little while.

Emmaline would have given anything for that type of power. But she didn’t have it. She was always just her. She was as real as she would always be. But she knew that they knew that. That she didn’t hide things. She wasn’t good at keeping secrets, not like her brother was. G had been an Unspeakable for years. And while Emmaline knew the value of keeping a secret, and she would if she had to, there were plenty of reasons why she had always kept herself a little straighter. A little greyer. And she knew exactly how that sounded. Those were Andromeda’s words. But they were the truth.

Making sure that she was right down the straight and narrow was the way to keep herself from being implicated in anything. She had been an Avery, working in the hospital, and she had had a halfblood husband. A halfblood family. It was something that she had used to protect herself. The same way that Andromeda had used Tonks for so long. It was a name that gave her protection. Tonks had protected Andromeda when she needed it. Then Black had. And then Lestrange. But Emmaline had always known Andromeda Black.

The witch that she had met when she had been an intern at the hospital was the same one that she knew had an office upstairs, and one in London. Their roles in each other’s lives had changed, and she didn’t think that there was any going back from this. But she didn’t want to go backwards. They were moving forwards. All of them. And that meant that they were going to face the world that was all around them, together. They were going to be fine.

She hadn’t expected to see Davina Yaxley in the halls this morning, but she knew that Andromeda had been talking about hiring her on. While Emmaline didn’t know exactly how good of an idea that was, she knew that Andromeda cared about the younger witch. And that meant that she was going to have to try. For her sake, if for nothing else, Emmaline was going to have to try and be welcoming to the girl. Leaving the past behind was something that was not easily done in any of their cases, and she knew that Andromeda giving up her connection to Davina was probably never going to happen.

The other witch had cared far too deeply for Davina’s sister. The award that this Foundation offered was named in Blair’s honor, after all. Andromeda had the witch’s son as her own. There were things that were always going to connect the other two witches, and Emmaline wasn’t sure what emotion it was that she harbored towards the younger woman, but it verged on distrust… Which was ridiculous, because she didn’t know her hardly at all. Certainly not enough to form such harsh opinions. But she also knew that she didn’t trust anyone these days. Her children. Her lovers. And that was perhaps it.

Her own family would have been called under her microscope if she suspected that they were the ones that were responsible for what had been done to the nation. But she didn’t think that Andromeda shared her paranoia. Clearly not, since she had hired Davina without even telling Emmaline. And the dark-haired witch knew that Andromeda did not answer to her here, she didn’t really answer to her anywhere, if they were getting into hierarchy, and specifics. But that was neither here nor there. Perhaps Rabastan had known about the new hire. He was higher on this particular food chain than she was. And he was someone that Andromeda answered to, at least somewhere.

She chuckled lightly when the witch answered her inquiry. “She does seem to do that.” Andromeda had a way of simply doing what she pleased, and everyone else had to comply, or get out of her way. And there were times when it was simply so much easier to comply. “I would say a Welcome to the Lestrange Foundation is in order. Did she tell you what exactly she was hiring you to do?” If she was wandering around on her own, she had likely already been to HR. But that didn’t necessarily ring true. She could have been looking for just about anything.

@ lady yaxley • 935 • emmaline's outfit

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