#beckselwyn

[sabrinaavery]

where: avery manor who: @beckselwyn

Dinner had been every bit as uncomfortable as Sabrina had expected. Her mother's efforts hadn't been subtle in the slightest, orchestrating another evening where coincidence had little to do with Beck Selwyn finding himself seated across from her. It was exhausting, really, watching everyone else pretend they weren't trying to stitch together something that had long since unraveled.

She waited until the drawing room had emptied, until her parents had retired with promises of tea they had no intention of drinking, leaving the two of them with little more than the crackling fireplace and the silence neither seemed particularly eager to break. "You know," the witch began at last, smoothing an invisible crease from her sleeve before lifting her gaze to him, "I spent a good portion of the Burke Gala wondering whether you'd been murdered." A beat. "Then I saw you'd simply left with Evelyn Fawley." Her expression remained perfectly even, offering no satisfaction to anyone hoping to find jealousy there.

She let the words settle before continuing, her voice as measured as ever. "I'm not asking for explanations, Beck. We forfeited that privilege some time ago." A faint tilt of her head. "But if you're going to ask me to stand beside you in public —whether that's because my parents insist or because it happens to suit you that evening— I would appreciate knowing whether I should expect to leave with the person I arrived with. And before you mistake this for wounded pride..." Her eyes held his steadily. "It isn't. I'm simply trying to determine whether I should waste any more energy entertaining whatever it is we're doing."

The corner of her mouth curved ever so slightly, though there was little warmth in it. "Besides..." she added, almost thoughtfully, "we never did discuss those letters we all got. I find myself considerably more interested in the person sending them than in whatever spectacle the Gala became." Sabrina studied him for a moment, weighing every flicker of expression with practiced ease. "So, which conversation would you rather have?"

[sabrinaavery]

who: @beckselwyn where: avery manor

She should have known better than to mention Beck to her mother. A brief comment over breakfast about an unfortunate encounter at St. Mungo’s had somehow spiraled into an invitation to dinner less than a week later. According to her mother, it was simply a chance to catch up. According to Sabrina, it was an ambush. A very polite, well-catered ambush.

The entire evening had been spent enduring increasingly transparent attempts to remind them of their shared history. Stories from Hogwarts, questions about work and travel, questions that somehow always seemed to end with her mother smiling into her wine glass as though she’d orchestrated something terribly clever.

By the time coffee appeared, the brunette had escaped. The balcony doors slid shut behind her, muting the sounds of conversation from inside. Cool evening air greeted her immediately, carrying the scent of the gardens below. She rested her hands against the stone railing and tilted her face toward the darkness, grateful for the silence after hours of being observed, or perhaps displayed.

The peace lasted all of thirty seconds as the sound of the door opening behind her drew a quiet sigh from her lips. “Please tell me you’ve come to inform me dinner is over.” The witch didn’t turn around immediately, a smile already threatening at the corners of her mouth. “Or that my mother has finally exhausted her supply of increasingly obvious questions about our personal lives.” Only then did she glance over her shoulder. “If not, I hope you’ve at least escaped with a fresh glass of wine. We deserve compensation for whatever that was.”