better ;

grant // 47 the rebels // on the run " think I lost my mind, but don't worry about me. happens all the t i m e. in the morning i'll be better. in the morning i'll be better. sing it again. sing it a g a i n. "

[benjyinbits]

♦ — “ This is the first time in months my hair’s actually been clean. Besides, we’re ( sort of ) safe here, right? ” Tired, Benjy leaned against the wall of the base, thinking if they could find it, the new Order could, too.

[geckolloyd-blog]

⎯  ✴︎ “ Yeah, I remember my first shower... I found two leaves. I’ve been guessing it was because of Doe though. But who knows when she did it. ” She could’ve done it day fifteen for all he knew. “But yeah, we’re safe. I mean at least in the sense that we don’t have to keep looking over our shoulder every ten seconds. My neck really needs the rest. And we do have steady meals now. I’m having a touch time sleeping because it’s so quiet now without my stomach growling all the time. ”

[geckolloyd-blog]

alicelongbottomrebel

“That sounds rather terrifying. But don’t you think they’d just throw some sort of curse at it and destroy it?”

⎯  ✴︎ “ I mean probably. But by that time I’ve already scared them like I wanted to do in the first place so I’d consider it a success. Bonus points if they shit their pants. ”

[geckolloyd-blog]

rebelmeadowes & heraknox

▵ — Hera had never known what it was like to really be a part of something like this. She was an Auror, she was part of MACUSA, all of that was true - but not like this. This felt like a group. Like all of them were in this together, and there was no place she’d rather be. And to make it all better, Grant was at her side. After the Month of Terror, there was something, but none of it made sense. At least not to her, but that wasn’t surprising. Matters of the heart had been a foreign concept to her and apparently to her entire family, so she had done nothing. And that was okay for a while  - at least, as okay as it could be - but then it wasn’t okay, and Grant disappeared right back into the clutches of the same sort of people who had put them through hell.

       She had been so afraid, for so long, that he was dead, and she hadn’t even realized that it was a very real fear until she found out he wasn’t. Hera had somehow convinced herself that it was impossible for Grant Lloyd to die and for her not to know about it, and when it was true, everything flipped on its head and her focus was entirely on getting to him. Telling MACUSA and getting to him, because together, they were capable of anything. She felt sure of that. If they could survive the Month of Terror together, they could make it through this.

      And she was grateful that his hand was almost always in hers. It was constant reassurance that he was there, and she was there, and they weren’t going anywhere. Hera didn’t do a lot of talking, lately, because there was nothing much more that she could say. She said it all when they had come back together, and now she just enjoyed being there, being present. She hadn’t been present in a long time.

      “ Who won the bet depends on what’s on the line, ” Hera said, leaning her head on Grant’s shoulder and smirking. 

      Dorcas had probably had about sixty-one mugs of tea over the last twenty-four hours, and she was sure that wouldn’t be the end of it. Emme had warned her that it would make it hard for her to sleep, and Doe had shrugged it off with a sort of laugh as if to say she’d cross that bridge when she got there, but the truth was, she didn’t really want to sleep. It had been so long since so many of them had been together, and she wanted to enjoy every single second of it while she could. She felt like she could have made a point when Sirius and Georgie had gone off and their disappearance was palpable, but she kept it to herself.

      Instead, Doe sat next to Rege with her legs crossed, her knee almost resting entirely on Rege’s leg. It was a simple gesture, and one that probably didn’t mean much in actuality, but it made her smile for no particular reason at all.

      It had crossed her mind that any normal person would have taken the opportunity to think about what this meant for the future - but Doe couldn’t bring herself to. She was so focused on the present, so focused on the chance that they all might die tomorrow, that she could only think about today. And today, Rege was there, and all those years had accumulated to the two of them, and when she looked at him, she couldn’t help but smile.

      “ Well, you all know how much I like winning, ” Doe teased, holding up her mug of tea in a sort of pseudo-cheer. Truthfully, she didn’t even remember what the bet was - only that it was fun, and ( mostly ) innocent, and it made all of them smile.

      And then the wards went off and Doe was on her feet within seconds, dropping taking her wand out of its holster faster than the wards even managed to stop themselves. The lot of them walked to the edge of the wards, and they stared until Rege finally spoke. “ The Prophet, ” Doe said in skepitcal disbelief, keeping her wand out as she knelt down and slowly and carefully reached for the paper. She snatched it from the ground and brought it back to the inside of their enclosure. She put her wand between her teeth and flipped the paper open, and the headline, for the first time, left her in silence, and she stared.

⎯   ✴︎ When Hera leaned her head on Grant’s shoulder, he leaned his head on top of hers. A smile crossed his lips before he rocked them back and forth a couple times playfully as the others speculated around them over this bet. Whatever the bet was, it seemed to have fallen apart on them. Not that any of them really had much to bet on around camp anyways. There was no money and it was too cruel to bet food or sleep. So really he was just as curious as Hera about what the stakes were.

         “And do we get a cut? If not our bodies our pure,” he added, looking like he was completely serious. And he was on the cut part, but it was going to be very hard to believe they were pure.

           Emme rolled her eyes and couldn’t stop herself for snorting out a laugh. If they were pure then she was the queen. But really they could only go off what they said about having sex or not. Honestly, she hadn’t joined in on it so she didn’t care... at least not as much as she would have if she was betting on something. She really wanted to know who won out of the two because she was nosy.

          Then, disrupting the peace, there was the arrival of the prophet. At first she thought to make a comment about how it could have been something much worse, but then upon reading the headline over Doe’s shoulder, she took multiple steps back from the group that had formed around the paper. She shifted her weight from foot to foot in the place she’d taken, not being able to stop herself from moving. “They can’t... they stooped... we have to find Georgie and Sirius... and we have to get out of here... we have to...”

            Everyone had gone to check out the prophet at the same time and though it itself was something so innocent, what it had on was about something not quite so innocent. At first Rege couldn’t believe it, he reached forward and took the edge of it to angle it closer to him, but there it was plain as day. He let out a laugh because he couldn’t stop himself. It was out of pure hysterics and he had to take a couple steps away like Emme before he just shook his head and the laughing was gone.

          “They’re after rebels, but they’ll get anyone else in the way I’m sure,” he said finally. “Emme’s right, we have to get out of here. They’ll get to us easily here.” He was sure they were already taking to forests and it was only a matter of time before they got to this one and found them. For all he knew, they could probably sense through the wards regardless of how many they had up.

[geckolloyd-blog]

emiliexvanity

“No, you obviously don’t.” Emma agreed. She didn’t even know why she was having such an argument with him- in a place where anyone could spot them, even if she was relatively safe. She had no idea why she was teasing him, messing with him- it was almost too cruel of her. “But, you know what? The majority of the people around think exactly like I do. That it’s fine, because their relatives or those they care about are not affected. Because it’s acceptable, and everything’s been done to numb their acceptable senses down. Whine and be sarcastic all you want, but you know that until it’s not changed, you will be met with this attitude on a daily basis.” 

She smirked, then, almost as if snapping back to her sassy self. “Unless you want to raise suspicious, I suggest you don’t use the words you grew up in America with.”

⎯   ✴︎ His jaw stiffened and if his teeth were any closer, they’d break. He didn’t quite care anymore if she was messing with him. This kind of talking felt all too familiar. It happened any time there was a mass attack on a group of people and the others around them lived with a “well at least it’s not me” policy. That was what made the difference between the good, the bad, and the not so bad people. The not so bad people that would get out of it fine whether or not their neighbor died next to them. “Good for them. Good for you. Because in the end it’ll work out for you. You won’t be touched by these people because you’re compliant, but you also won’t be hurt in the end because you didn’t actually do anything. I just hope for your sake that no one decides to divide the wizarding community up here into the east and west because I’ve heard that’s really hard to live with.”

          He rolled his eyes before he shook his head. “Okay because using muggle instead of no-maj will fix the rest of the accent, cover up my wanted posters, erase the fact that the New Order knows I’m with MACUSA, and slip in two magic parents in my family tree instead of my actual parents. I didn’t know it worked like that. Might’ve made my childhood more fun.”

[geckolloyd-blog]

alicelongbottomrebel

“How is it going to be too much for them? How does it work?”

⎯  ✴︎ “ Well, first it sort of just screams. Like really loud, not quite high-pitched, but loud as hell. And then it starts itself on fire. It’ll freak them out because it has absolutely nothing magic to do with it. ”

[geckolloyd-blog]

emiliexvanity

Emma stayed silent as the man began to laugh. It was amusing to her, really, how easily her taunting made him snap. Keeping her arms crossed, she tilted her head, her eyes narrowing the slightest as he ranted on.

“Feels good, doesn’t it? Letting it all out. Getting angry for something so obscure, unnecessary.” She finally spoke; her tone was still angry, even if it was maybe a bit more taunting this time. “To rant like that. Though, I agree, a shower would probably be equally as good of an idea.” 

“Haven’t you been here long enough to tell the difference?”

⎯   ✴︎ Grant shook his head and crossed his arms. There was a little voice in his head telling him she was just trying to get a rise out of him, but the voice wasn’t his own so he didn’t really take any notice to it. Honestly the big part of this whole thing was how little and simple she made this situation sound like she knew. “I guess I don’t think talking about this mess like it’s as simple as accepting people are going to die, friends of mine at that, as something obscure or unecessary to be upset about,” he said, shaking his head again. “But maybe I’m taking this a little too personal.”

          “Oh I can tell the difference. I’ve just gotten used to saying it the other way because I grew up in America not here.”

[geckolloyd-blog]

alicelongbottomrebel

“May or may not be? Do you not know what you’re making either?”

⎯  ✴︎ “ Yeah I know what I’m making. I just don’t know if they’ll shit their pants. Probably though. This is too much for them. ”

[geckolloyd-blog]

lilypottehr

▵ — “ No one knows, hm? Not even Hera knows? I bet she does. I bet all she had to do was look at you to figure out that you were the reason the Head of the Auror department blew up. I bet she laughed also. Probably secretly. Now be honest with me - is she the type who likes to give you the benefit, or the one who will pretend not to be amused or agree with you at all, just because? I feel like it’s the second one. You seem like the type of guy who probably takes things just a little too far. I probably wouldn’t want to let you know I agreed with you. ”

“ You cried when he was talking about his motorcycle? No wonder I’m getting deja vu. You two are the same person. ”

⎯  ✴︎ “ He didn’t blow up, his watch did. Murder’s a little frowned upon in America. But maybe Hera knows. You’ll have to ask her. I trained a long time ago, but maybe it ended up on my record too. I played it off as an accident, but no one really believed that. I still got away with it though. Something about lack of evidence. Something about everyone else thinking he was a dillweed too. But to answer you question, I like to think it’s the second one, but it’s really different per person and I’m definitely a special case because I take things too far. ”

         “ We probably are. That makes more sense than anything I’ve come up with about us being connected. And makes me less freaked out oddly enough. ”

[geckolloyd-blog]

emiliexvanity

Emma narrowed her eyes as she heard the man’s sarcastic tone. Surely, she wasn’t the nicest person around; but he wasn’t proving himself to be any different. Instead, as she listened to him rant, she crossed her arms, tilting her head. “Excuse you, your royal highness. I was only suggesting. I’m sorry if something like that struck a nerve within your fragile soul.” She retorted, almost angrily. She had no right to say any of that to him; but neither did her. And her pride was getting the best of her.

“No-maj-what?” She frowned, a little, unsure if she heard him right. “What on earth is that?”

⎯   ✴︎ Fragile soul? Grant couldn’t help but let out a laugh. He didn’t think he’d be spending his trip out for supplies getting tied up in this conversation. He really didn’t have anything to prove to her. He knew he’d been through shit because of the New Order she lived with around her. He'd been injured more times than he could count on his fingers and toes. He knew too many people that were now dead since this whole thing began. And quite frankly, he could care less if he struck a nerve in her after she’d talked down to him like he didn’t know better. Maybe in the beginning he made a choice, but he couldn’t see himself anywhere else.

          “My royal highness? Well if you really think so maybe I could move back into civilization. Get a shower, get a decent meal, new clothes, not be sleeping in a tent, not have to worry about someone cursing me in the side. Have a nice meeting with the queen since we’re equal status now. Maybe take care of my fragile soul so it stops offending you.”

           He took in a breath through his nose and let it out before he sighed. He looked away before looking back at her when she asked for clarification. “Sorry. I forget it’s muggleborn here all the time.”

[geckolloyd-blog]

siriusrunning

▵ — Sirius laughed lightly as Grant commented on accomplishing anything, and shrugged. “ Honestly, it’ll make me sound like less of a wanker if you take half the credit because then I didn’t go thieving all by my lonesome. Not that they care much, outwardly, but still. Better two thieves than one, right? I don’t think that’s a saying. Yet. ” When he mentioned riding on his back, he let out a much louder and more genuine laugh. “ We’ll save riding on my back for when we’re really fucked in the arse. At least it’ll give someone a laugh. And by someone, I obviously mean me. ”

      When Grant finally climbed into the bag, and he nodded. “ I don’t plan on dying today, ” he said, not even bothering to point out that ‘generally no one actually plans to die’, like he was sure Lily and James would have. He took a deep breath and glanced down at his wound one more time, somewhere between angry, annoyed, and worried all at once. ( Don’t you fucking do this today. )

      Sirius transformed and a large, shaggy black dog stood where just a moment before a far less intimidating man stood. The wound was still there and he could still feel it, but this way was faster, and he was starting to believe that they would make it. He picked up the handles of the bag in his jaw and took off at full speed, all of his focus at getting to his destination as quickly as possible, keeping an eye out for the landmarks Grant had spoken of. He came to the creek rather quickly and didn’t think twice before he took it at a bounding leap, choosing to take his chances rather than waste time wondering if he’d make it.

      With no grace and a lot of luck, Sirius’ paws landed on the earth on the other side of the creek and he let out a sharp breath of relief through his nose - but pain shot through his body at the jolt of his landing, and for a few steps, he stumbled, slowing him down. ( Don’t! )

      Sirius pushed on, bleeding, almost inaudible sounds of pain whining in his throat when he landed in just the wrong way, and he knew he was running out of time. Panic had almost set in when he suddenly saw what he was looking for - a boulder that really was somehow shaped like the Death Star. He skidded to a hault, dropping the bag and wishing that he had done so more carefully the minute it hit the floor. He turned back into his human self and all but keeled over, leaning against the Death Star and breathing heavily, looking like he was going to collapse at any second. 

      “ You alive ? ”

⎯   ✴︎ The bag wasn’t completely dark. There was some light that came from the weaving when they were still in town. But once they were moving and out of the town, he couldn’t see much in front of him. It was just as well considering the natural jostling was hard enough to handle as it was. He wasn’t sure geckos could throw up. He’d never through up in all his years being able to become one so maybe not. Really the most of his worries were whether or not they’d both make it to camp not whether or not he’d throw up.

         When Sirius dropped the bag, Grant felt a little jolt of pain, but nothing compared to what he was sure he was feeling and honestly, the muffin helped cushion a lot of it. He slowly climbed his way out of the bag, weaving blindly through the fabric to the cool air. There had been one time he’d totally not thought about it and transformed in the bag. To this day he was just grateful the bag had been paper. When Sirius asked if he was okay, he let out a squeak and then he was out in the night air before he knew it. He transformed before he dropped back to a crawl and rolled onto his back.

           He scooted a little using his back and legs before he reached his arm up and whipped it around in the area of the wards to trigger the noises so someone would wake up. He was sure Emme wasn’t going to be happy, maybe even Doe too. But at least they’d both stop bleeding out in a few minutes. “I’m really liking that two thieves are better than one saying. I was thinking about it. But I think maybe you shouldn’t say it in front of Emme because that could bite us in the ass.”

            As expected, the second she could be heard, the words out of Emme’s mouth were stern and a complete byproduct of her worrying. “So I wake up not to the sound of the spells being triggered, no to a nightmare that I couldn’t find you or Doe and it turns out the nightmare was true.”

           Against what his body said, Grant sat up and then got onto his knees. From that position he knee’d his way inside the wards before he sat back down to hopefully stop the dizzy spell getting to him. “You didn’t find my note?” He looked behind his shoulder at her and watched as she closed the spell up after Sirius came in. “There’s been an update. I traded Doe for Sirius.” Saying that was really a disguise over being worried about where Doe actually was.

           Emme bent down to get a better angle at Sirius’ injury. She unwrapped it carefully and then started to seal up the contusion. Once it was no longer bleeding she went over to Grant and pushed him to the side a little so she could get at his. At the moment her only goal was to get them to stop bleeding and then she would do something for pain. “Do I get to know what happened?”

          “That depends. Does it really matter to you like as a not going to kill us until you find out sort of thing? Or are you just asking to ask?” Grant knew he deserved it when she pushed him over the rest of the way and she turned her attention back to Sirius now that he was no longer losing blood.

           “Are you going to tell me what happened or will I have to get a local newspaper that will hopefully cover the incident?”

[geckolloyd-blog]

lilypottehr

▵ — “ So you admit it. You’ve blown things up before. You - you blew up a pocket watch? ” 

“ Weirdly, I think Sirius would be rather smitten with that. It’s weird how personally he takes the nicknames. I once called both him and James scruffy-looking nerf herders, and a couple days later Sirius came up to me and asked if I really thought he would be worthy of a woman like Leia. ”

⎯  ✴︎ “ Yes I have. I wasn’t keeping that from you. I just said this won’t blow up. The pocket watch was the head of the auror department when I was training’s. He was a fucking dillweed. No one knows it was me except for the current head of the auror department. I think that day was the last known time anyone has seen him laugh. He’s probably killed everyone else who’s seen him since then. He’s got this look that would probably not work on you if you’ve seen him laugh. I mean it doesn’t work on me because I’ve seen him laugh. I think he just keeps me around to balance him out. ”

          “ The first time I met him he asked me that. Well not the first time. The first time he was talking about his motorcycle and I almost cried. That’s why I think the second time we talked he thought my opinion was good enough to answer that. Either that or I have a look. ”

[geckolloyd-blog]

alicelongbottomrebel

“… What? I-I don’t really remember what I was saying… I don’t think it was that important.”

“What are you working on?”

 ⎯  ✴︎ “ It may or may not be something that makes a couple Death Eaters shit their pants. ”

[geckolloyd-blog]

lilypottehr

▵ — “ Funnily enough, the ‘nothing that’ll blow up’ is kind of difficult to believe. You sound sure enough of yourself, but - has anyone ever told you that you sound just like Sirius? Grant, my son just went to bed after crying for two hours, if you so much as cause an explosion that’s as quiet as a sparrow’s fart, I will personally end your life. ”

“ Don’t ever call him James Jr in front of Sirius, d’you understand? I’m not joking, Grant. If you say that in front of him he’s going to throw a hissy fit about him not being called Sirius Jr and then to make it all worse he’s going to call Harry James Jr for the rest of his life. You know what happened with the gerbil we named after Millicent Bagnold. ”

⎯  ✴︎ “ I mean I’ve only ever had one thing blow up on me and technically that was on purpose. Okay there was that other time not so much on purpose, but also a happy accident. And maybe the one time with the pocket watch, but that asshole had it coming and he only got a bruise. For the most part, when something blows up I’m very much in control. But sparrow fart. Got it. ”

“ Okay this is the last time I’ll ever say James Jr. I could call him Luke Skywalker and see what happens there though. I kinda like this weird power with nicknames. ”

[geckolloyd-blog]

lilypottehr

▵ — “ It was - well, I was - are you sure that thing was supposed to be punched off like that? ”

 ⎯  ✴︎ “ It’s fine. I mean no, it’s not made to be punched off otherwise it’ve said something like ‘punch here’, but... it’s fine. Nothing that’ll blow up... ”

“ How’s James and James Jr with your eyes? And the cat? You had one, right? ”

[geckolloyd-blog]

gwcnog

— “ alright. just let me know when you guys are coming over with it all ! ” gwen grinned. she shook her head, “ well yeah, it’s sirius. but if you guys were to act it out for me, then it’d be more fun if you got to play the character you wanted to, right ? ” 

gwen shook her head, “ you haven’t even tried it yet. you could hate it, for all you know. ” she laughed, “ i trust you not to destroy my containers, ” she glanced around, nodding. “ sounds good. 7 new park road, holyhead, anglesey. i’m putting up wards so just, remember the address so that you can find me. “ 

⎯   ✴︎ “Okay, fair. But I just figured I’d warn you. He has a collection, though, and I’m very impressed with it.”

          “I sincerely doubt I’ll hate it. For one, I’m not picky. For two, this is the first thing that looks amazing that I’ve seen in months. I’ll love it.” He smiled then when she gave him the address. “Seven. New Park. Holyhead. Anglesey. I’ll remember. I’m not like an elephant, but I know all the words to every Elvis song.”

           He picked up the containers then turned to leave before looking back one more time. “Thank you, really. This helps out a lot and you really put yourself at risk.”

[geckolloyd-blog]

  ⎯  ✴︎ “ One sec... ”

“ you were saying something about dumbledore doing what now? or was it mcgongall? or... black? ”

[geckolloyd-blog]

emiliexvanity

 “There are ways, you know.” Emma retorted, as if she was talking to a little child. She couldn’t help it; it almost came a little too naturally for her. “But- you’re risking your life. For people, who, most likely, will be dead by the end of the year. I’m not trying to be pessimistic, I just-” I know the people you’re against, and the horrors they’re capable of. But she wasn’t willing to finish that sentence, not like that. She shook her head, instead moving onto another topic. “I doubt it. I’ll just scream bloody murder and pretend it’s on you. They don’t really go after purebloods.”

⎯   ✴︎ Breathing in and through his nose sharply, Grant looked away and shook his head before he looked back at her. He was nearly twice her age if not already there and here he was being talked to like a child like he didn’t know what was going on. “I don’t really think I can get past him or his assholes, but maybe I should try harder,” he said with a sarcastic shrug. And then what was next was what really struck a cord. He wasn’t quite that angry at her because she clearly had no idea what any of them were going through or what they’d continue to go through. She also had no idea how resilient they were because they had to be. “Yeah, well I’ve had the same thing said about me in the past and I think that’s all the more reason to stay when people are thinking like that. ‘Don’t worry about them, they’ll be dead by November.’ Guess I’ll be dying with them, then, huh? Better than leaving them to fend for themselves. If that makes me stupid I guess I’m a fucking idiot then and proud of it.”

         He nodded. He should’ve figured something like that. All she’d probably have to worry about is some family background check unless they knew her from somewhere. They probably all knew each other somehow. “Well with that covered then I only have to worry about getting my no-maj-born ass out of here.”