Everything still felt strange for Zacharias. Not having magic for even a little while left him anxious and jittery. It hadn't even been that bad. He'd caught up with Daphne over ridiculously fantastic food with a house elf willing to magic anything up that they may have needed. In comparison to what he was hearing, bits and pieces here and there, a
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Not only was there an incredible amount to still be done, McGonagall was calling a staff meeting at the end of the week - this one not about holidays or exams - but about the centaur attack on the werewolves Saturday night. The castle had become so eerily quiet without magic that even when things got back to normal, everyone could hear the yells and screams coming from the forest.
Professors told their students it was nothing to be concerned with- just more mysteries from the Forbidden Forest.
She was grateful to have the week off, though, not quite ready to answer all the question she knew were coming from the kids here.
But she was even more grateful to see Zacharias in her office when she came through the Floo.
"Now, this is something I could get used to," she said, a weary laugh emitting from her lips.
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He grinned at her from where he was sitting on the edge of her desk. It was both ironic and hilarious if he thought about what had happened there the last time he'd been here.
"I figured I'd save you a trip this time." He tilted his head back and forth a couple times before he stopped to grin at her. "And see if the castle collapsed on top of you when the magic went out. I'm glad to see it didn't."
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She stepped gingerly around her coffee table, shedding her jacket and laying it on the couch before kicking off her heels. She raked her fingers through her curls, closing the space between them as she reached the desk. She couldn't help but wrap her arms around his shoulders, just glad to feel the weight of him against her.
"You wouldn't believe what's been happening here," she said, knowing it was a vast understatement. "Or where I've just been-"
She groaned, pulling back even as she wrapped her arms around his waist.
"I'm really glad you're here."
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That sounds basically as ominous as it probably was. Ominous was, in Zacharias' experience, never actually a good thing.
"Me too, since apparently you have some sort of insanity to tell me about." His eyes widened a little as he gave her a questioning look. Mostly, the expression was confused, but that was close enough to the same thing.
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They had all teased and joked when they were in the hospital with her father, all putting on happy faces as they took in the sight of all his bumps and bruises, of the black eye and the sling. All of it had utterly freaked her out. Her father had always been the one to take control, to take care of them-
She couldn't imagine what it was like for him to be in that boat.
She offered him a slight smile.
"Yeah-" she said, shaking her head. "Can we crawl into my bed first? I'm beat-"
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He cupped his hands around her shoulders to nudge her back enough for him to slide off the desk.
"You look exhausted, love. And I mean that in the best possible way."
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In more ways than one.
She gripped at his hands, leading him toward the door that led to her private bedroom. There was a small set of stairs that led down to the room, the space neat and tidy. She turned back to look at him sheepishly, shrugging her shoulders.
"Don't judge too harshly," she said, before dropping his hand to pull out an old worn tee shirt from the top shelf of her dresser.
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It was funny, actually. He'd never given much thought to where professors lived or what lives they had until Marlow. Now it was mostly all he thought about.
Leaning against the doorway, fingertips tucked into his pockets, Zacharias' eyes found her again. "What exactly am I meant to be judging? I mean, there's no kayak on the wall, but allowances must be made for taste."
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She had loved the Clock Tower and had been amazed when she and Riley found it after finishing up at Painswick. It had been perfect for them. She was still sometimes a little confused as to how she ended up being the one to move out but it held so many memories, she didn't think she could really step foot back inside of it if she tried.
She turned her back toward him, glancing at him over her shoulder.
"Can you unzip me?" she asked, her fingers curling into the fabric of the old, two-sizes too big Gryffindor quidditch practice shirt she had plucked from the top drawer.
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When it was Marlow's, though, he had no preference except that she was in the space with him.
"Sure." He closed the space between them, hands going immediately to the back of her dress. Brushing some of her hair aside, he easily undid the zipper, pulling it down slowly and pressing his lips to the back of her neck where the fabric separated. It wasn't even a prelude to anything, just a connection because he always wanted to be touching her, no matter how innocent it might be.
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"I'm so glad you're here-" she said, though she knew it wasn't the first time she'd said that since she stepped through the fireplace- but then it might not be the last time, either. Somehow, she didn't think she'd ever be able to say it enough.
She took a step forward, letting the fabric fall from her shoulders, exposing her briefly before she tugged the tee shirt over her head.
"That's so much better-" she told him, before tugging at his hand and leading him to her bed. "I was just at St. Mungo's- there's such a distinct feeling I get when I'm in the hospital, I feel like it clings to my clothing-"
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She was adorable in an oversized t-shirt, and it was probably all over his face with his fond expression. They could get away with looks like that now, so he didn't actually mind.
"St. Mungo's has that effect on people." Luckily, Zacharias hadn't had much reason to be there very often. The times for himself were very few and far between, and luckily, so were the times he'd needed to visit other people. The last time he'd been there was to visit Daphne before she'd woken up. It had been terrible, and he hadn't been able to tolerate staying very long.
He pulled the blankets down, lettign go of her hand to slide onto the bed and hold his arm up for her in invitation.
"And just that sentence means you need to start over and give me a run down of what you've had going on."
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She briefly let herself become distracted by what was actually happening, her eyes lingering on his form as he climbed into her bed and under the covers. She had yelled at him for not staying the night that first time, about how big her bed had felt when she and Riley separated, how alone she felt in this tower. And now, here he was with that incredibly adorable look on his face, his arm open for her to curl up next to him.
Which was exactly what she did, climbing into the bed beside him, tucking herself under the blanket and resting her head against his chest.
She liked the steady sound of his heartbeat.
"My dad was attacked-" she said, sucking in a breath. It had happened before- an Auror was never out of danger, but this just seemed too close for her liking. If magic never came back-
Well, she didn't want to think about that.
"He was interrogating Lucius Malfoy during the solar flare-" she paused, brow furrowing. "I'll explain that in a second-"
She glanced up at him wearily. There was a lot to talk about, wasn't there?
"Anyway, I guess when everyone realized all the wards had fallen at the prison, things went crazy. Malfoy and someone else, my dad didn't really give us all the details- well they knocked him out and kidnapped him? Riah, they were in the middle of a bloody ocean for hours. When they found my dad, both him and Malfoy were unconscious-"
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His hand settled on her arm, fingers squeezing briefly when she started talking about what had happened to her father.
It's not that he didn't know her father was an auror. It was hard to miss that kind of information when he'd known her since they were kids, but he never gave it too much thought, honestly. Now he was stuck on just how dangerous that was. Especially with Azkaban and Malfoy involved.
Zacharias knew the Malfoys the way most purebloods did. It was hard not to at least know them when they were all essentially in the same circles. Luckily, his mother had felt like the Malfoys were the worst kind of influences and limited Zacharias and Elijah's exposure to the Malfoy parents. What he knew though, was enough to point out how terrible he was.
No wonder Marlow felt so tense.
"Fucking hell," Zacharias breathed. He ran his hand slowly over her arm, fingers tracing a indistinct pattern. "That's insane. Is he okay?"
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It was mostly what pushed her so heavily into potions, always having a proper healing drought on hand for when he had a particularly nasty bump or bruise.
"Yeah-" she said, nodding her head against his chest. "Yeah, he's going to be fine- Malfoy got the worst of it- my dad like took of his arm or something-"
She felt oddly proud.
"He got lucky," she told him. "He lost one of his men on Saturday and there's still dozens of guards missing- same with some prisoners. I don't think anyone actually got off the island though-"
At least she hoped.
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It was also the least horrifying part of what she was saying.
"That's properly terrifying." Prisoners escaping from Azkaban, guards missing. All because magic had gone down.
Zacharias felt a brief pang of guilt that he'd spent the entire time magic had been gone having dinner with Daphne. It was the most anticlimactic story imaginable and probably a perfect metaphor for his life, honestly. Everyone did all the important things while he sat back somewhere and had drinks.
Maybe he could see why Seamus Finnigan punched him in the face.
"How are they dealing with that?" Hell, how was anyone dealing with any of this insane clean up? Azkaban just seemed worse. Maybe they needed to look into incorporating some Muggle things just in case.
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