( cis male | he / him | casey deidrick ) —— isn’t that ALEXEY DOLOHOV ? yeah that is them , outside the three broomsticks ! they used to be in DURMSTRANG but apparently they now work as a FREELANCE CURSEBREAKER . sybill once said that they reminded her of hot cocoa with a peppermint stick and the crackling of fire , knowing the world’s problems are not your own and still choosing to shoulder them , a forest of frozen trees reaching for the stars and unyielding to the wind , and the smell of cigarettes and faint cologne lingering in the air , which seems about right . anyway i’ve heard they’re still a bit IMPULSIVE , HONEST , and WILLFUL , they’re TWENTY-SEVEN now but some things never change ! i wonder how being a QUARTER VEELA is affecting them after school , especially now they’re a AGENT with THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX ? i guess only time will tell …
the dark lord had sent her on a mission, the specifics? she didn’t know nor ask about it, she just did as she was told, which was unlike her, but she knew that when it came to matters like this it was best not to ask many questions. it was late and dark by the time she made it to knockturn alley heading to borgin & burkes. arden had been accustomed to people around her, and there was no one out here aside from her and the obvious person who was currently tailing her. she had her hands on her wand in her robe pocket, hood up, she had stopped halfway there, not turning back before she said, “so, are you going to make your presence known or am i going to have to do that for you?” she says, her voice a monotone.
any other night and he likely would’ve thought better of simply remaining out in the open. he’d received the message half-way through the job he’d been working, nothing more specific than ‘this woman has been hurting people, keep an eye on her. report on if she’s a problem.’ which hardly sounded complicated. had he taken a bit more time to consider the assignment he might’ve chosen to be a bit more discreet, unassuming. instead he stops half-a-step after she does, watching and waiting to see what her next move would be. “i doubt that’s necessary, i would hardly say i’m doing much to conceal myself in the first place.”
( cis man | he/him | casey deidrick ) —— isn’t that ALEXEY DOLOHOV? yeah that is them, outside the three broomsticks! they used to be in DUMSTRANG but apparently they now work as a FREELANCE CURSEBREAKER. sybill once said that they reminded her of hot cocoa with a peppermint stick and the crackling of fire, knowing the world’s problems are not your own and still choosing to shoulder them, a forest of frozen trees reaching for the stars and unyielding to the wind, the smell of cigarettes and faint cologne lingering in the air, which seems about right. anyway i’ve heard they’re still a bit IMPULSIVE, HONEST and WILLFUL, they’re TWENTY-SEVEN now but some things never change! i wonder how being a QUARTER VEELA is affecting them after school, especially now they’re a AGENT with THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX? i guess only time will tell…
Send ϟ and my muse will tell yours about one of their scars!
he never shies away as little fingers point to old and new scars, telling them countless stories that were all - at least mostly - the truth. today’s story came before he’d even made it out of bed, tiny hands and big eyes asking all sorts of questions about the silvery line running between his third and fourth ribs. “i was working,” it starts the same as it almost always does, most of them come about the same way. “there was a cursed chest a client needed to get into. unfortunately the room it was in came with its own set of difficulties, such as a sword that popped out of a wall once the first of the curses was broken. at least i got to keep the sword.”
she could see him thinking it through and even before he takes her hand she knows what his answer was going to be , and she didn’t take the moments consideration as a slight at all . from what little she’d gathered about him from their previous meeting she knew there were little ones at home to worry about and to the best of her knowledge , just him as their parent . presumably he was assessing just how late the babysitter could stay .
❝ maybe if you drink enough that that happens , i’d have drunk enough to pick up some russian ? stranger things must’ve happened ❞ she laughed , giving alexey’s hand a squeeze as she lead him from the bar . ❝ you’d be a fool if you had ❞ liz answered as they reached the street . ❝ how are you with side-along apparition ? i’d try and describe where we’re going but i worry you’d get lost ❞
“if you can lead the way, i should be able to hold my own.” it’s been a while since he’d last had to blindly follow someone’s lead, and yet with his hand in hers he felt more confident in trusting this near-stranger than he had many of the people he’d worked with over the years. “and if you can pick up russian that easily i’m certain we’ll make it through just fine.”
“you should never ask anyone to smile, it’s rude. you don’t… nevermind. teasing it not frowned upon as long as you can actually, you know, make it sound like teasing. did you need something?”
“have you considered that maybe you’re simply not used to what people sound like when they’re teasing you? but no, i didn’t really need anything.”
her eyes found his as they both laughed and liz couldn’t help the blush that came to her face then , a tinge of pink that caught the tips of her ears too that she hoped would just be blamed on alcohol . ❝ we’ll get some tennents in you , then a wee dram . you’ll be fitting in here in no time ❞ and with that she raised her glass to her lips and drained it . ❝ i can promise you one better ? take my hand and we can have an adventure you’ll never forget … if you can remember it in the morning ❞ another laugh as she stood up , offering her hand .
he catches the blush, watching her perhaps just a bit closer than he really should be. an alarm bell is sounding in the back of his mind, urging him to thank her but decline - and yet here he was convincing himself a night making a friend was never a bad decision.
“provided i don’t forget my english i think that sounds like a great idea.” he hesitates for only a moment as she stands, glancing from her face to her hand and back again. “who am i to turn down a promise like that?” he should turn her down and he knows it, knows that as soon as his hand is in hers it’ll be too late to turn back, but in that moment... maybe he doesn’t want to turn back.
location : department of mysteries
tag : @alexeydolohov
what was it alexey had said ? that his door would always be open ? well wasn’t that a lie . even alohomora wouldn’t budge it but at least kseniya had been able to pick the lock and get in , not waking up a single person in the house till she stuck her head around the doors of her little cousins’ rooms . the light creeping in enough to wake the little ones . she was really just here to ask if alexey would take on a job for her father , the one she’d offended rabastan too much for him to take ; hoping to play on her cousins guilt to make it seem like her asking a favour was her doing him one , but now with the little ones in tow she found herself in the kitchen . sorting breakfast for them in the flat she’d just broken in to , regaling galina and ilya with the kind of stories that had them clinging to her every word but that liliya hated to have kseniya tell .
perhaps it was luck then that it was alexey who woke up first , walking in on the little scene of kseniya sat on his sofa , his kids curled up next to her . ❝ the kettles not long boiled if you’re wanting something , and i made these two breakfast ❞
the voice in the back of his mind that should be attempting to convince alexey that there was a potential threat in his home was oddly silent as he checked the empty beds of his children. perhaps it was the smell of food from downstairs, or the fact that he hadn’t heard any fuss from either, but all in all there was no worry in his gut as he made his way down to find the two. he did have to admit the sight he was met with surprised him - of all the people he could’ve imagined to find in his living room his cousin was fairly far down the list.
“you could’ve knocked, ksyusha.” there’s no real complaint behind the words, more of a smile as he moved to ruffle the kids’ hair. “i imagine they weren’t too much trouble?” he disappears into the kitchen as he asks, setting about making himself coffee and toast.
who: @alexeydolohov
where: random office building?
“He never asked if you speak English?” Seph asked in Russian, careful to keep her tone of voice neutral to avoid alerting the English-speakers in the room of anything that might be amiss. “Who did he think was answering his owls? The owl itself?”
“not once, no.” he’d be lying if he said the situation didn’t amuse him, as irritating as it may have been. he managed to keep his tone just as level as hers, nodding a bit where it seemed fitting. “i’d assume so, or perhaps he thought i had a secretary that could translate.”
“Do the kids know how to swim?” Dmitry asked absently, somewhat reluctantly looking up from his papers to catch the answer. “I know Galenka’s on time out from fencing, but there’s still time left in sailing season.”
“they do, yes.” he signs as he speaks, absentmindedly falling into old habits simply to make it easier for his friend. “but the second you take your eyes off her galya will be long gone. takes to water like a fish. ilya’s good company, though.”
❝ then why are you acting like one ? better yet , why do you treat me like one ? i see the world how it is , i know what people think of me — of our kind . you’re so naive lyoshenka , i’m not asking you to be him , i’m calling you on trying to be some poor imitation of him now . of acting like there was ever something here that could be salvaged . you were young but i was a child , a fucking child lyoshenka . i was eleven and aleksandra decided i was too much for her too be bothered with , and how you treated me ? made me ashamed of that . ashamed that i wasn’t enough , that no one wanted me enough to stay there for me . and then you made me feel like i shouldn’t even be there . i’ve got better now , do you know why ? it’s because you weren’t there . and antonin was . and now you’ve gone and shown up . keep your apology , i don’t want it . i don’t need you . i don’t want you in my life ❞
“you see what these people see us as - what these ‘purity’ obsessed fools see when they look at anyone that doesn’t fall into line with their beliefs on what should be. forgive me if i choose to see them as the problem and not those of us simply trying to live as we are. and perhaps you’re right, maybe i am a niave fool for holding to the hope that i could find some way to make up for the way i treated you before. and if you would prefer it i’ll stay out of your way - but i’m not going to leave, and whether you want it or not my door will always be open to you.”
❝ i mean it’s a bit of a shit way to look at the world if you don’t , isn’t it ? pardon my french ❞ more laughter as she swore . ❝ i know more than one or two places . places that serve actual beer and whisky where the fire’s just implied . i trust this is you taking me up on my offer ? ❞ turning his words back on him as she raised an eyebrow .
“i suppose it is, yes.” if he didn’t know any better he’d swear her laughter was infectious, his own barely being kept back as he watches her. “actual beer? it’s been a while, and i can’t say i’ve had muggle whisky before. if you can promise not to get me lost and just leave me stranded i think i’ll take you up on that.”
❝ better is always good , and uninjured even better than good ❞ a tipsy little laugh falling from her at how many times the word better had just been said . ❝ hmm , maybe . we’d need to fix that for you quick but , and you’re out already tonight … ❞
“i certainly like to think so.” he can’t help but grin a bit as the laugh leaves her, raising an eyebrow and glancing around them. “i am, and i do have some free time on my hands. i trust you know of a good place or two, since you’re offering?”
location : the three broomsticks
tag : @alexeydolohov
❝ fancy running into you here ! hows the doing things you haven’t before coming a long ? tell me have you made it out to an actual pub , a muggle one , yet ? ❞
“better than last i saw you - no major or minor injuries to speak of. promise not to think any less of me if i say i haven’t had the chance yet? i’m lucky to make it here half the time, let alone try my hand at finding my way around a muggle city.”
