It had been a long night. It was part of the job that Alice hated. The middle of the night wake up calls. Alice dreaded the time she was awoken with the news that it was her family that had been targeted. Both Andromeda and Sirius were huge targets. It was only time. So, Alice was just thankful that this time, it wasn’t her family. It didn’t make it any less dreadful. She knew Marlene. And so, it had been hard being at that scene. It had made her feel sick, which was horrible considering she was already experiencing morning sickness. She had been glad to leave and get back to the office.
She hadn’t lasted long there though, before she’d had to call it a day. Everything was just getting too much, and she’d needed sleep. So, she’d gone home, and slept away most of the afternoon. The woman was a little disorientated as she awoke, with darkness filling the room, apart from a few lamps that her husband had lit as he’d come into the room.
“What time is it?” She murmured, rolling onto her side to look at her husband, still a little disorientated by having only just woke up. “Have you just got home?”
If the sun had dipped under the western horizon then rose again to bring morning, Frank wouldn’t have noticed. Even though Alice was his partner—even at work—he had felt so detached after knowing what had happened to the McKinnons. With an attack like this, there was always so much work to do. On his end, he had to investigate the scene of the crime, but even that had proven difficult because of his own Order affiliations. He tried to put it in the back of his mind, but the McKinnons had been friends. He knew that family, had been friends with them—but he couldn’t just request to take himself off this case, even if he considered them close.
It was hard to look at Alice, even though she had been pulled away by other tasks. They could have been next—they could be next. How much will being part of the Sacred Twenty-Seven actually save them? Every night he puts up protective charms over their home, but even then he knows they’re not completely foolproof. He thinks about their home, the cottage by the beach, the little kitchen and the bedrooms—one of which would eventually have a crib. Then he felt nauseated at the thought.
He had a child to protect now, and maybe it was risking too much to continue being part of the Order. After an attack like this, he questioned if they were on the right side of the war. He didn’t have to be a Death Eater, but he could conveniently look the other way, if it meant protecting Alice and his child. But on the other hand, extended that privilege to them felt moot: no matter how much Frank could do to be agreeable, they could still take everything away from him.
And the way he thought, he was aware, was selfish. He didn’t become an Auror to protect himself—he was putting his life out on the line to keep his community safe. In a way, he had been told that there was glory in becoming an Auror, but it was hard to tell now in the midst of loss if that glory was worth it. There was no glory in losing the war, no glory in losing his loved ones, no glory in watching the Dark Lord grow stronger.
Frank felt helpless, but he was determined to keep fighting. His intentions were selfish, but if he hadn’t been selfish, he would have no sense of self-preservation. He had to fight for a world where his child would grow up without having to worry about any of this anymore. He was motivated by keeping everyone safe, but his focus was sharpened by the child he hadn’t even met yet.
He let himself inside, taking down the protective charms outside of their house, then meticulously putting it all back together. This would save them time, if they had to escape. Frank couldn’t help but recite the charms over and over, making sure that it kept them as secure as possible. He was a rather powerful wizard, so it felt good to put his magic to use. But damn, he was exhausted, and all he wanted to do was crawl into bed and forget.
But he wasn’t sure he was going to be blessed with sleep, though that didn’t mean he couldn’t try. It was dark enough that he needed to turn on a few lamps in their bedroom, only to be greeted by his wife in bed already. On most other days he’d be in a much happier mood to see her, but now that he had worked for—he didn’t even know how many hours at this point—he wasn’t sure he could manage even holding a conversation for very long now.
The coffee in his veins could keep him awake, in theory, but his head felt like it was swimming the longer he stayed awake. He managed to give her a small smile, taking off his robes and shuffling to their small closet to change. “Yeah. I just got home.”
His voice felt like it was faraway, like he wasn’t paying close attention to much of anything, He stripped off his shirts and changed into something more comfortable in the meantime. The mattress sank when he finally sat down from his side of the bed, facing away from Alice. The dim light illuminated the room, but at least it wasn’t as harsh as the light in the offices where he had to file all of the paperwork for this latest case.
He didn’t know what time it was, but it was late. It didn’t feel like just a long day—it felt like he hadn’t seen sunlight, with how they were surrounded by death and destruction. How long had it been since they were at the crime scene? How long had it been since he was at the office? He didn’t even remember being dismissed—did he just work until he knew he was past exhaustion? “It’s dark out,” Frank said simply. “What time did you get home?”
Maybe Alice didn’t keep track of time either, and he finally turned to her. The bags under his eyes revealed his exhaustion, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to make an effort to support them both. His concern now was on her; she needed to be the one that was rested and healthy, and Frank was willing to run himself ragged to make sure she got what she needed.
“How are you holding up?” He asked her. He hoped that she would not lie to him for his own sake, though he wondered if making his next suggestion would be more to his benefit. It hadn’t been something he considered, since it had been fine with just the two of them for a long time—but Frank was beginning to struggle with balancing his life between work and home. Maybe Alice was built different, but he couldn’t be sure.
His sentences were short and clipped, but that was all he could manage at the moment. “Should I ask my mother to come by and help us out? Or maybe we could stay with her for a few days. Since she lives closer to the offices. Just until everything calms down.”