— interview room, ministry of magic, with lily potter. @boggart
“ i don’t know shit, man! this is such a waste of fuckin’ time–” and other such protests have been the exclusive sound coming from this fairfax’s lips since auror’s made themselves known in the—albiet shady—bar archie and other known offenders frequent. but those protests fall uncharacteristically short once the auror stuck with questioning him opens the door. he only needs a second for his brain to link the red hair ( and eyes that have killed him countless times in nightmares ) and the awful dread that fills his rib cage to the right name: lily potter. archie’s bravado fizzles out and without giving his mouth permission, “ fucking terrific.” he mutters into his palm, dragging a hand down his face and taking a tired breath. eye contact is now a thing of the past. he can’t stomach it. as she moves closer to the table he’s tethered to, archie pulls down the sleeves of his shirt. her presence reminds him of a lot of emotions he’s spent years numbing with the very substance the auror’s are trying to pin his twin for selling.
among the other tattoos that cover the entirety of his left arm, his fully formed dark mark blends in a little too well. and while he might be the stupid fairfax, he’s not brainless. if anyone is going to be looking for that mark on his inner forearm, it would be the daughter of the war hero they just killed. hands frantically fidget with the cuffs of his sleeves, pointless little repetitions to soothe himself as he pulls his hands as close to his lap as he can with the restraints. “ ‘course you’re an auror.” his tone is strangely neutral, a result of not quite knowing how to react. he’s not even sure himself if that was meant as a compliment or an insult. “ gonna say the same thing to you that i told them. they got no proof. you can’t keep me here. long.”
“ -- i’m not sure how i’m meant to take that, but i’ll pretend it was intended as a compliment. yes, i’m an auror. finally finished my training a few months ago. just before the world went to complete and utter shit. ” there’s a burning question on the tip of her tongue that almost slips out against her better judgment. did your brother not tell you that? she wants to ask him. leon knows she’s an auror. she knows that he must know. there’s no doubt in her mind that he’s kept tabs on her, just as there’s no doubt in her mind that he will find out about this later, but she tries to push those thoughts away -- for now. she doesn’t want to talk about leon right now. she doesn’t want to even THINK about him right now. unfortunately, that is exactly what her superior has ordered her to do -- to question archie fairfax about the one person she never wants to see ever again. the truth of the matter is that she doesn’t want to be doing this. ( interrogating archie in this case. if she’s being completely honest, there’s a lot of things she doesn’t want to be doing right now. fighting this war for instance. but that’s another thought she can’t afford to have right now. ) but there’s no getting out of it, not unless she wants to tell her boss about the conflict of interest, about how she knows archie -- and more importantly -- his identical twin brother. how leon had dug a knife into her back and archie had twisted it. that’s not a conversation she’s willing to have with anyone, much less with someone she desperately wants to impress. so just as archie’s stuck right now, she’s also stuck.
“ and yes, you’re absolutely right. we can’t keep you here long. ” lily admits plainly. and thank god for that is a thought that she keeps all to herself. archie is far from subtle, so she’s very aware of how uncomfortable he is right now, and it only heightens her own discomfort. she doesn’t like watching him squirm in front of her. there’s no satisfaction in this, knowing that she’s the sole cause of his distress right now and being forced to sit here and watch it. more than that, she’s just tired. bone-tired. it’s been a long day -- just as it has been for her every single day -- and she wants nothing more right now than to go home, to the comfort and privacy of her flat, where she can try to forget this ever happened. unless the ministry forces her to work overtime again, her shift is almost over, and then she has a rare day off tomorrow. maybe there’s a way out of this for the both of them, if she can just think.
absent-mindedly, she glances down at the papers in her hands and pretends to be reading them intently in an attempt to buy herself some time, her brows furrowing as she mulls over the best way to handle this. after about a minute of agonizing silence, she looks back up at him. tries to lock eyes with him, but of course, he’s not really letting her. “ look, fairfax -- ” she starts. even she isn’t completely sure where she’s going with this, how exactly she should word this. “ -- i know it’s been...a while since we’ve last seen each other -- ” despite her best efforts, there’s just the slightest edge in her voice when she says this, a bitterness that this is the first time they’ve properly spoken in years, that if he had it his way he truly would have never spoken to her again after kissing theodore burke. never explained. never apologized. ( or maybe it’s not bitterness she’s feeling but something more like sadness. heartache. not that she’ll call it for what it is. much like leon, she’s more than capable of feeding lies to people, especially herself. )
“ -- but you look like PURE SHIT. you seem really sick actually. ” she continues after a beat, her voice frank. “ you’re covered in sweat. your pupils are dilated. you’re trembling. your breathing seems a little irregular. you look you’re about to throw up. i don’t even have to do a diagnostic spell to know that you must be high right now. do you need...medical attention? ” there’s an intentional emphasis on those last two words, and she gives him an incredibly pointed look that she isn’t even sure he catches due to his determination not to look at her. in fact, she doesn’t even know if he’s listening to her at all right now. lily intakes a sharp breath and fights the overwhelming urge to bury her face in her hands and scream. how much clearer can she make this? “ you’re showing signs that could point to a potential drug overdose. let me know if that might be the case. ” she continues, hoping that will push him in the right direction. she knows full well it’s not a drug overdose, but the ministry of magic will be much more likely to release him into the care of the healers for that over a panic attack.
but he seems as though he’s somewhere else, faraway from here, from her. he’s the closest to her that he’s been in years -- so close she could reach out and touch him if she wanted to, not that she would ever dare -- but somehow, he feels further away than ever. it’s heart-wrenching to watch, to see him break down and know that it’s entirely her fault. “ ...archie...can you hear me? ” she murmurs after several seconds, calling him by his first name, something she hasn’t done in years. it’s completely unintentional. a slip-up. just as he’s cracking in front of her, she’s cracking in front of him, simply in a different way. she feels the steel in her voice slipping away, her tone softening, an instinctual reaction. she can’t help it. even now, as much as she loathes him -- and there is definitely loathing there, stirring somewhere in the pit of her stomach, only now it’s being overpowered by something else, a residual love that she can’t seem to shake -- as much as she hates him, she still doesn’t enjoy seeing him in pain, not really. is this really what the mere sight of her does to him? as trapped in this room as he is, she’s forced to sit with the thought -- to watch him unravel in front of her -- and there’s a lump in her throat. archie hasn’t been able to look her in the eye since their sixth year, and some of those reasons are his own fault, but he also has PLENTY of valid reasons to fear her, she knows. what does it say about her, that the simple presence of her terrifies someone else this much? she feels like there must be something heinous within her -- something monstruous -- if archie is this panicky right now about what she might say to him. might do to him. leon creeps into her mind again, a nagging voice that’s always goading her, telling her that she’s just as awful as him, and she shuts her eyes for just a moment, trying to will him out of her head. she really can’t be thinking about him right now. but that’s a difficult feet to accomplish when his mirror is right in front of her, reflecting nothing but genuine emotion, a complete contrast to the boy who haunted her still.
